Welcome to the Computing Reviews Application Programming Interface (API) Beta Test Site

Thank you for agreeing to help us test and provide feedback about our API. Once we release the API, you will be using our regular website at www.reviews.com.

The Computing Reviews API provides RESTful access to data about each of the reviews contained with Computing Reviews.

As access to Computing Reviews is based on a paid subscription, this free API only provides partial review text. Further developments may allow subscribing institutions access to complete review text via the API.

Feedback: Please send all feedback to Mary-Lynn Bragg.

Access to our API is free and does not require pre-authorization, but does require registration.
You also agree to provide a link back to and attribution to Computing Reviews as specified at the bottom of this screen.

To register and obtain your API key simply fill out and submit the following form.

Each review in Computing Reviews is available via our API using a set of simple RESTful web service calls.

The basic structure of each HTTP request is:

http://www.betaread.com/review/{your api id}/{key type you want to find reviews by}/{key value}

And each response will be a collection of matching reviews and the data contained within (or, in the event no results are found, an empty collection).

review_id - Used to locate a review by a specific Computing Reviews review_id.

• This is an internal and unique ID associated to a review and is only applicable within the Computing Reviews system. This form of request should always return at most one matching review.
• Example request: http://www.betaread.com/review/0/review_id/136733
• You can find the review_id in the review webpage URL and it's also the same number that appears as the Review #: CR136733 at the bottom of each review page.
• Website URL: http://www.reviews.com/review/review_review.cfm?review_id=136733

media_id - Used to locate reviews by a specific Computing Reviews media_id.

• This is an internal and unique ID associated to a media item and is only applicable within the Computing Reviews system. This form of request may return multiple reviews (if, for example, a specific book has been reviewed by more than one person).
• Example Request: http://www.betaread.com/review/0/media_id/2089014
• You can find a media id from the website when you click on a FullText button. Since a media ID can have more than one review ID attached to it, the contruction of the URL usually specifies both ID numbers to bring up a specific review page.
• Website URL:http://www.reviews.com/review/fulltext_link.cfm?media_id=2089014&review_id=136733

reviewer_id - Used to locate reviews by a specific Computing Reviews reviewer_id.

• This is an internal and unique ID associated to reviewers and is only applicable within the Computing Reviews system. This form of request may return multiple reviews (if, for example, a reviewer has reviewed more than one thing - up to 20 per request).
• Example Request: http://www.betaread.com/review/0/reviewer_id/115178
• Website URL:http://www.reviews.com/browse/browse_reviewers.cfm?reviewer_id=115178

isbn - Used to locate reviews by a specific ISBN (you can learn more about ISBN at http://isbn.org).

• The ISBN is a unique external ID associated with media items (such as a book) by publishers. This form of request may return multiple reviews (if, for example, a specific book has been reviewed by more than one person - up to 20 per request).
• Example Request: http://www.betaread.com/review/0/isbn/3540795383

issn - Used to locate reviews by a specific ISSN (you can learn more about ISSN at http://www.issn.org).

• The ISBN is a unique external ID associated with serial media items (such as journals) by publishers. This form of request may return multiple reviews (if, for example, a specific journal has had more than one article from it reviewed in Computing Reviews - up to 20 per request).
• Example Request: http://www.betaread.com/review/0/issn/08857458

search - Used to locate reviews by a simple search.

• This form of request may return multiple reviews (up to 20 per request).
• The search is case insensitive.
• Example Request (single keyword): http://www.betaread.com/review/0/search/Java
• Example Request (mutiple keywords using "and"): http://www.betaread.com/review/0/search/computational+linguistics - note: this searches the full review text which is not displayed in the XML output
• Example Request (phrase searching): http://www.betaread.com/review/0/search/"computational%20linguistics - note: this searches the full review text which is not displayed in the XML output

ccs_term, ccs_code, and ccs_id - Used to locate reviews by their subject.

• This form of request may return multiple reviews (up to 20 per request).
• Each review is given at least one, and usually multiple, subject classifications under the ACM's Computing Classification System (CCS). Each class has a number (code) and a term attached to it. If you know the CCS, you can pull reviews out by their subject(s).
• Example Request (by term): http://www.betaread.com/review/0/ccs_term/Data+Communications
• Example Request (by code): http://www.betaread.com/review/0/ccs_code/C.0.2
• Example Request (by ccs_id): http://www.betaread.com/review/0/ccs_id/329

XML Output Notes:

Much of what you will see in the XML output should be clearly tagged, but some explanations are below for the less obvious sections.

CCS Terms

CCS Terms are assigned to all reviewed items. They indicate the topics or areas of study the item is about and serve as a categorical framework for Computing Reviews. The ACM creates and managed the classification scheme. Each review must have at least one term and almost all of them have more than one, reflecting a variety of topics in the work.

Reviewer Information

This section contains information about the reviewer. There may be more than one reviewer (though very rarely) and if so, the display order indicates which reviewer should be listed first, etc.

The <reviewer_name> is the name in the format the reviewer wishes to be published under and how it appears attached to the review. We also display their institutional affiliation, their location (usually the location of their institution - the city and country) and a URL of their chosing, which often goes to their professional CV or website. The <review_count> number tells you how many reviews that particular reviewer has had published in Computing Reviews.

Other Tag Notes

There may be more than one author for any item. The order of authors is given in the <displayorder> tag.

The <published> tag contains the date the review was published online.

Additional fields: <review_dateofpub> and <computingreviews_number> could also be populated to indicate that the review has also been published in the print edition of CR. Reviews are first published online and later in print. The <computingreviews_number> is a unique number assigned to each review that is published in a print edition.

The <fulltext> tag contains the link that Computing Reviews uses for the fulltext button, allowing the reader to get access (via subscription or purchase) to the item being reviewed. Institutional subscribers may set up this button to work with their link resolver and in those cases, their custom link would override this default value.

Please let us know if you have any additional questions about our tagging structure or values.

Attribution and Linking

Please link each review back to the Computing Reviews website using the <review_url> tag contents. You may choose to link from the article title or at the end of each partial review text create a link to "more" of the review (e.g. ...more. or similar wording) or both.

Please also include the content in the <copyright> tag - either along with each entry or on the same page as the entry.

Example:

Business demands in the last decade were to produce scalable information technology (IT) solutions, with efforts ultimately resulting in a flexible service-oriented architecture (SOA) architectural paradigm. Realization of inter-organizational workflow and applications based on SOA remains a complex task, especially where security issues are concerned. This extremely valuable book ... more. Review by: M. Ivanovic