► Overview

► Advantages and Disadvantages

► Authentication

► Search Queries and Result Count

► Result Displays

► Releasing the Session

Overview

In this method, the gateway performs the authentication, search, display, and logout all using HTTP URLs.

Advantages and Disadvantages

It is not possible on WilsonWeb, using URLs alone, to perform a search and receive only the hit count as a response. Only the Z39.50 method is capable of providing a result set count in a structured way. In order to get the result set size from an HTTP query, the gateway would need to isolate the hit count in the result page returned.

It is not possible, using URLs alone, to change the result set size, or record format (brief/full) using the WilsonWeb URL search syntax. Nor is it possible to jump to any page other than the topmost page (records 1-10) of the result set. Again only the Z39.50 method is capable of these controls.

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Authentication

In the HTTP method, authentication and search are performed in a single step. The ‘jumpstart.jhtml’ page can log the user in using TCP/IP address checking, but this method applies only when the search is being conducted from a machine within the customer’s IP address space. Alternatively, the un= and pw= parameters must be specified to authenticate the user.

In response to the search query, WilsonWeb will return an HTTP ‘Set Cookie’ header with a HWWilsonid. It is important for the gateway to accept this cookie and use it in URL links described below. Otherwise subsequent attempts to view records will generate new sessions and inflate the simultaneous user slots allocated (perhaps to the point where no additional users will be allowed to view results.)

Search Queries and Result Count

The details of the URL query syntax are located here: http://www.hwwilson.com/Documentation/WilsonWeb/targetURL.htm.

Using the advanced syntax, the gateway can perform any type of query. By default, the subscriber's results set in relevance rank order starting from the first will be returned. In order to provide a link to the destination result set, see the next section.

As stated above, the result count is shown as text within the results page. The page (http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/hww/results/results_common.jhtml) will have HTML text looking like this:

<b>6534</b>Records found for

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Result Displays

To return a results set, the gateway must either:

1. Provide a link to the jumpstart.jhtml URL which re-does the query, or

2. Parse the HTML returned to provide jumpstart.jhtml links that return the user to one of the returned records.

An important step in either method is to insert the hwwilsonid returned in the initial Set Cookie header into the URL that re-does the query. This will ensure that the same session used to perform the query will be used to view the results, thus not occupying additional user sessions. The hwwilsonid goes on the URL just before the first query parameter like this:

http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/hww/
jumpstart.jhtml;
hwwilsonid=BMORP1XGEOMNFQA3DILCFFQ?prod=OMNIFT&query=%3Cin%3E+KW

Number 1: For instructions on creating search queries refer to the document located at:
http://www.hwwilson.com/Documentation/WilsonWeb/targetURL.htm.

Number 2 means isolating the Accession Number of a returned record so that a jumpstart.jhtml link can be built to re-display the desired record in WilsonWeb. Such a link would look like this:

http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/hww/
jumpstart.jhtml;hwwilsonid=BMORP1XGEOMNFQA3DILCFFQ?
sid=HWW:OMNIFT&pid=%3Can%3E200100104527017%3C/an%3E

How to obtain the record accession number from the HTML display: the checkboxes used for marking records contain the record’s accession number as a value. If you parse the HTML response looking for the checkbox next to each record, it will look like this:

<input type="checkbox" name="checkbox" value="200100104527017"
onClick="javascript:doCheckbox( this );" />1

Find and extract the record’s accession number from the value attribute of the checkbox.

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Releasing the Session

The following URL will release the session. Again, the hwwilsonid will need to be included in order for WilsonWeb to identify the correct session.

http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/hww/logout.jhtml;hwwilsonid=BMORP1XGEOMNFQA3DILCFFQ

We recommend making a logout option available.