RefWorks API - Reference Guide

class

Set to retrieve

method

Set to openurl

retrieve

pgnum

Indicates which page of references to return. First page is 1.

pgsize

Indicates how many references are on a page. Passing a value of 0 results in no references being returned.

sort

(Optional; Not used in Z39.50 class methods) Indicates how to sort the references returned. Defaults differ depending on method called. Supported values are:

Value	Field
`0`	Authors, Primary
`1`	Pub Year, descending
`2`	Pub Year, ascending
`3`	Ref ID
`4`	Ref Type
`5`	Title, Primary
`6`	Periodical, Full
`7`	Periodical, Abbreviated
`8`	Creation Date Time, descending
`9`	Last Modified Date Time, descending
`10`	(Used only for a Retrieve::quick method) Relevancy
`11`	(Used only for a Retrieve::dup method) Duplicate
`12`	Last Modified Date Time, ascending

style

(Optional) Indicates the output style used to format the references. Default is 0 which is the RefWorks XML format (unformatted). NOTE: There can be more than one style parameter passed to allow for getting multiple styles.

Value	Description
<Output style ID>	ID of desired output style. See the OutputStyle class for IDs.
`0`	RefWorks XML format (unformatted).
`-1`	Reference IDs in XML format.
`-2`	RefWorks XML format with a modified `<lv>` element. This modified `<lv>` element contains `<item>` elements with the vendor information. For example, `<lv> <item vendor="PUBMED" id="PMID" value="16249332" /> <item vendor="PUBMED" id="PMCID" value="PMC1276082" /> </lv>`

language

(Optional and only used if the "style" parameter passed is an output style ID) Default is en for English. Set to the first value in the HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE return by the browser or set to a value from Properties::languages method.

format

(Optional) Indicates the file type to format the references. Default is html.

Value	Description
`html`	HTML
`text`	UTF-8 text

biblist

(Optional; Used only if an output style ID is specified in the style parameter) If true, all references are returned as a bibliography list in the output style specified. If false, each reference is separated into its own <reference> element in the output style specified. Default is false.

Below is an example of the xml sent in the put. Note that in the OpenUrl elements only send the parameter portion don't include a the domain and virtual directory portion.


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<RWRequest category="retrieve" type="openurl">
  <openurl>..openurl here</openurl>
  <openurl>..openurl here</openurl>
.............
</RWRequest>

The response will contain the openURLs that were sent in the form show below. Note that for openURLS that were found in the RefWorks Account an attribute will be added that contains the refID number. Below this OpenURLResult element will be the references in XML Format or some other format depending on the paramters sent. refID in the openurl elements can be used to match with the returned references, or to make other calls back to refworks via the api


<OpenURLResult> 
  <openurl refID="7">openurl here</openurl>  
  <openurl > open url here </openurl>   
  <openurl refID="16"> </openurl>  
</OpenURLResult>

HTTP Verbs

POST: Performs the search and returns results

HTTP Return Status Codes

Status Code	Description
200	OK
404	no refs found
400	Bad request
401	Unauthorized request

Methods

Tue Jul 13 2010		Added "language" parameter.
Tue Sep 22 2009		Added "biblist" parameter and allow multiple "style" parameters.