Alma

A client for Web Services provided by the Ex Libris's Alma Library System.

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'alma'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install alma

Usage

Configuration

You'll need to configure the Alma gem to ensure you query the appropriate data. To do so in a rails app, create config/initializers/alma.rb with :

Alma.configure do |config|
  # You have to set te apikey 
  config.apikey     = 'EXAMPLE_EL_DEV_NETWORK_APPLICATION_KEY'
  # Alma gem defaults to querying Ex Libris's North American  Api servers. You can override that here.
  config.region   = "https://api-eu.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com
end

Now you can access those configuration attributes with Alma.configuration.apikey

Making Requests

Get a Single user

 user = Alma::User.find(123456789)

 user.first_name
 > Chad

 user.email
 > chad.nelson@fictional.edu

 user.keys
 >{first_name: "Chad",
 ...}

Get details on a users fines

 fines = user.fines
 fines.sum
 > "20.0"

 fines.total_record_count
 > "2"

 fines
 > [#<Alma::AlmaRecord:0x000000038b7b50
    ...>,
    #<Alma::AlmaRecord:0x000000038b7b28
     ...>]

 fines.first.title
 > "Practical Object Oriented Design with Ruby"

Each fine object reflects the available fields in the returned JSON,as documented on the Ex Libris Api docs

Get details on a users loans

loans = user.loans

loans.total_record_count
> "2"

loans
> [#<Alma::Loan:0x000000038c6b79
  ...>,
  #<Alma::Loan:0x000000038c6b34
   ...>]

loans.first.title
 > "Javascript: The Good Parts"

loans.first.due_date
"2016-12-26z

Each loan object reflects the available fields in the returned XML,as documented on the Ex Libris Api docs

Get details on a users requests - WIP

requests = user.requests

requests.total_record_count
> "1"

requests.list
> [#<Alma::AlmaRecord:0x000000038c6b79...>]

requests.list.first.title
> "Food in history / Reay Tannahill."

requests.list.first.pickup_location
> "Main Library"

requests.list.first.request_status
> "In Process"

Each request object reflects the available fields in the returned XML,as documented on the Ex Libris Api docs

Loans, fines and Requests can also be accessed statically

Alma::User.get_fines({:user_id => 123456789})

Alma::User.get_loans({:user_id => 123456789})

Alma::User.get_requests({:user_id => 123456789})

Development

After checking out the repo, run bin/setup to install dependencies. Then, run rake spec to run the tests. You can also run bin/console for an interactive prompt that will allow you to experiment.

To install this gem onto your local machine, run bundle exec rake install. To release a new version, update the version number in version.rb, and then run bundle exec rake release, which will create a git tag for the version, push git commits and tags, and push the .gem file to rubygems.org.

Contributing

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/tulibraries/alma_rb. This project is intended to be a safe, welcoming space for collaboration, and contributors are expected to adhere to the Contributor Covenant code of conduct.

License

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.