ADS Z39.50 Server Configuration Guidelines

This document provides detailed technical information for Z39.50 client developers and implementors that is necessary in order to access and interwork with the ADS Z39.50 Server. This document assumes a general familiarity with Z39.50.

The ADS Z39.50 Server conforms to Z39.50-1992 (Version 2) of the standard. A subset of attributes from the bib-1 attribute set are supported, and codes from the bib-1 diagnostic set are utilized.


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Z39.50 Services Supported

The ADS server supports the following services:

Initialization
Search
Present

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Internet Addresses and Hours of Availability

Production Server
Domain name: z3950.adsabs.harvard.edu (131.142.185.23)
Port: 210
Availability: 24 hours, 7 days

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Initialization Service

Protocol Version
Z39.50-1992 (Version 2)
Options Supported
Search
Present
Preferred Message Size
There is no restriction on message size. However, the ADS will only return a maximum of 500 records at a time.
Maximum Record Size
n/a
ID Authentication
User-id and password are not required by ADS Servers at this time.

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Search Service

Result Set Name
No named result sets are supported.
Database Names (case sensitive)
(ADS Server supports searching one database at a time)
Element Set Names
ADS will return either brief, full, or tagged records. Database specific Element Set Names are not supported.
Query
Type-1 only is supported.
Attribute Set ID
Bib-1 only is supported.
Operators Supported:
AND
OR
AND-NOT

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Database Names Supported:

Value        Description
------       ----------------------------------------------------------
   AST       Astronomy Database.  Contains references from
             Astronomy relates articles.

   PHY       Physics Database.  Contains references from
             Physics relates articles.

   PRE       Preprint Database.  Contains references from
             the Los Alamos preprint server related to Astronomy

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Use Attributes Supported:

Value     Description            Databases Supporting
-----     ---------------------- --------------------
    1     Personal name          All
 1003     Author                 All
          (These search the same field)
    4     Title                  All
    5     Title series           All
          (This limits the searches to the journal speficied in
	  the ADS journal abbreviation)
   62     Abstract               All
   31     Publication Date       All
 1011     Entry Date in Database All
   12     Local Number           All
              This use attribute accepts our bibliographic codes and returns the abstract for that code.

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Relation Attributes Supported

Value    Description           Databases    Fields Supporting
-----    --------------------- ----------   -----------------
    3    Equal                 All          All except Entry Date
    2    Less than or Equal    All          Publication Date, Entry Date
    4    Greater than or Equal All          Publication Date, Entry Date
  102    Relevance             All          Title, Abstract, Author

         Relation Equal searches for exact words, relation Relevance
	   searches for words and their synonyms.

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Position Attributes Supported

Value   Description        Databases   Fields Supporting
-----   ---------------    ---------   -----------------
    3   Any                   All         All

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Structure Attributes Supported

Value   Description        Databases   Fields Supporting
-----   ---------------    ---------   -----------------
    1   quoted phrase      All         Title, Abstract
    2   word               All         Title, Abstract, Author, Series
    6   word list          All         Title, Abstract, Author, Series
    5   date               All         Publication Date, Entry Date

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Truncation Attributes Supported

Value   Description        Databases   Fields Supporting
-----   ---------------    ---------   -----------------
  100   Do not truncate    All         All
  

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Completeness Attributes Supported

Value  Description            Databases   Fields Supporting
-----  ------------------     ---------   -----------------
    1  Incomplete subfield    All         All
  

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Record Syntax Supported

Value                        Description         Databases
--------------------------   ---------------     ---------
1.2.840.10003.5.101          SUTRS Records       All
1.2.840.10003.5.109.3        HTML Records        All
1.2.840.10003.5.109.10       XML Records         All
1.2.840.10003.5.1000.147.1   ADS Tagged Records  All

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Record Format Supported

Value  Description                               Databases
-----  ----------------------------------------  ---------
    B  Brief Records (Title, Authors)            All
    F  Full Records  (all available information) All

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Required and Default Attributes

      Requirements and Defaults:   The Use attribute is REQUIRED.

      For the other attributes, if an attribute type and value are
      not supplied by the client, the following defaults are
      applied at ADS:

            RELATION:     --  Equal (value=3) for Publication Date and
                                              Series fields
                              Relevance (value=102) for Title, Author
                                              and Abstract fields
            POSITION:     --  Any   (value=3)
            STRUCTURE     --  Date (value=5) for Publication Date field
                              Word list (value=6) for all other
            TRUNCATION:   --  Do not truncate  (value=100)
            COMPLETENESS: --  Incomplete subfield (value=1)

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Search Term Processing in ADS System

    Phrase searches (title, abstract):
        Phrase search terms can appear anywhere in the field.

    Wild Card:
       ADS supports wthe wildcard character '*' at the beginning and
	   the end of a word, but not within a word.

    Helpful Hints:
       1. Within a field, words are OR'd by default.  This can be
	   changed by pre-fixing a word with a '+' to require that word in
	   the result, or by pre-fixing it with a '-' to select only
	   references that do not contain this word.  Enclosing several
	   words in double quotes searches for the sequence of the words
	   in quotes.


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