Federated Bookshelves January 2022 Update

Ton Ziljstra is doing some more work on federated bookshelves (additional post here and Github stuff here). Chris Aldrich is also organizing a IndieWeb pop-up session on this topic. I reviewed my federated bookshelves Github repo today, I came up with requirements and use cases for an app called Booklist Browser. I think my next step is to work on class diagrams…

Use cases for Booklist Browser app

I have completed the initial use cases for the Booklist Browser app, available on Github for review.

Booklist Browser app update

This weekend, I moved my cut at Booklist Browser app requirements from the Github issue to its own page. Next, I took a cut at defining the possible domains for the Booklist Browser app, using concepts as described in “How to Engineer Software” by Steve Tockey (https://www.construx.com/books/how-to-engineer-software/). My next step will be to define use cases based on the domain definition and requirements.

Another OPML viewer for Federated Bookshelves

I am playing with a new toolkit from Dave Winer for working with OPML (https://github.com/scripting/opmlPackage), and modified the client example to read my booklist file – nice!

A reader wanted instructions on how I did this, so here they are:

Download the zip file from the Github repo
Edit code.js in the client folder to provide a URL for an OPML file that is available on the web
Upload the files to some web hosting
Go to index.html to view the OPML file

Tool update for Federated Bookshelves/Library JSON project

Ravern Koh has a new instance of his Bookshelves web app to display files in Library JSON format. To use it, enter a URL to a Library JSON file, then click the “View Shelf” button. I tested it with Tom Critchlow’s Library JSON file, and it worked! I have added this tool to the Federated Bookshelves Github repo.

My take on requirements for Booklist Browser app

I have created a set of requirements for an app called Booklist Browser, and for Booklists to be read by Booklist Browser. The draft requirements can be viewed on this Github issue. This is my contribution to the conversation I tried to start in this blog post on Federated Bookshelves. Input from others would be welcome!

Requirement brainstorm and some tools for Federated Bookshelves

I summarized requirement-type information from a number of posts on the Federated Bookshelves/Library JSON idea, see the Github repo for details. If anyone is interested in participating in a conversation on this topic, I have created a Github issue to capture comments.

Also, I found two tools today to more easily view OPML and JSON files:

OPML Viewer – Can open an OPML file (local or online) and show original text and XML tree view
JSON Viewer – Can open a JSON file (local or online) and show original text and object view

I added these to the tools section on the main Federated Bookshelves repo file.

Library JSON test viewer now available

I have created a test viewer for the Library JSON format as defined by Tom Critchlow. It reads a JSON file following the format and displays the elements in the JSON file. I have a working one on my website reading Tom Critchlow’s test file. I have added the HTML file for the viewer to the Federated Bookshelves Github repo.

Now that we have a simple way to view both OPML and Library JSON files, I am going to put some thoughts together on Github about the next items to work on….