As a well-known publisher and information provider specializing in the library- and education branch, NBD Biblion is a leader in the field of media management. Developed by BSL, their custom content management system for managing thousands of literary texts (MoM) provides many clients with detailed information about books and their authors, as well as other media titles (DVDs etc.). These clients use the More over Media web service (created by a third party). BSL was invited to take a look.
NBD Biblion‘s More over Media web services are used by many Dutch subscribers, including most public libraries in the Netherlands/Belgium, and many schools. These web services make use of a unique and complex content management system (MoM) developed by BSL, publishing detailed content related to book and multimedia titles, including:
- Book covers
- Short title descriptions (purchase information)
- Reviews
- Extracts
- Author Details
- Text extracts from the cover flaps
Although BSL developed and has continued to support the MoM content management system over many years, we have – until now – not been responsible for their More over Media web service. Asked to help resolve problems related to these services, we were quickly able to produce a series of recommendations for improvements…
Click here to learn more about our recommendations…
- Introduce efficient, 64-bit code, replacing the old ISAPI DLL used by the existing service.
- Improve the data-flow, reducing the number of DTDs. The web-services currently use their own DTD, and this made it very difficult for NBD to maintain.
Our solution for More over Media
We proposed replacing the old code with efficient Java/JSP web services, and found a way to re-use of the existing MoM database DTDs/XSDs! A modern, high performance solution that is both faster and easier to maintain – the type of development that pays for itself within just a few months, and can run on almost any modern OS, using Apache Tomcat. The result: BSL was given the task to completely re-engineer the More over Media web services, designed to provide a solid basis for implementing user interface updates, and further end-user product improvements…
Experience that counts
As developer of the Oracle-based MoM content management system used within NBD, BSL is ideally suited to this redevelopment. We know everything there is to know about the MoM database, and our highly-qualified developers have created many (complex) web services on behalf of national and international clients. We are able to draw on years of experience in the creation of REST, XML-RPC, SOAP web service solutions. We expect to complete the development within just four weeks, delivering state-of-the-art services – inherently reliable, inherently fast. What’s more, the new Media-service will be linked to a new ASIMBA authentication system to be introduced shortly within NBD Biblion. Before the end of 2015 web site users at hundreds of libraries throughout the Netherlands and Belgium will be able to use the new service.
Re-use of existing code
The Media-service contents will be retrieved from NBD Biblion’s Oracle MoM database using an existing API developed by BSL – another reason we can complete the development so quickly. A perfect example of a proven SOA approach that will greatly enhance the reliability of the new services, and will protect the valuable MoM contents from any possible outside attack. We hope this will establish a new blueprint within NBD Biblion for the development of other innovative services during 2016, as well as the foundation for exciting new Media-service front-end developments.
Let us design and build your web services
Do you need new web services? Or perhaps a new SOA approach to content distribution? Then why not get in touch and let us show what BSL can mean for you! And if you’re interested in finding out more about BSL’s customized solutions, take a look at our portfolio. You can browse through our brochures too, and find out more about our projects and developments. And if you are wondering about the Elephant picture? Well, this media-service has been referred to as ‘Olifant’ (the Dutch word for Elephant) within BSL for so long, what else could we use!!!