[OAI-implementers] Is this a valid OAI-PMH response?

[Stuart Lewis]

Hi,

We have a vendor provided system with an OAI-PMH interface. When issuing
a ListRecords command, it returns (edited for brevity):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>

<OAI-PMH xmlns="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/
http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/OAI-PMH.xsd">
   
   <responseDate>2009-07-20T21:05:43Z</responseDate>

   <request verb="ListRecords" metadataPrefix="oai_dc" set="SET1">
       http://www.example.com/oai
   </request>
   
   <ListRecords>

      <record>
         <header>
            <identifier>oai:record:1</identifier>
            <datestamp>2009-06-30T11:29:18Z</datestamp>
            <setSpec>SET1</setSpec>
         </header>

         <metadata>
            <record
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:dcterms="http://purl.org/dc/terms/"
xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
               <dc:title>Title</dc:title>
               <dc:creator>Creator</dc:creator>
               <dc:description>Description </dc:description>
               ...
            </record>
         </metadata>

      </ListRecords>

   </record>

</OAI-PMH>

To me this looks invalid - the <record> element within the metadata is
not expected to be there (a <record> is defined as being the top level
of a record, and thus contains a header and metadata). Most OAI-PMH
interfaces I have seen put an <oai_dc:dc> wrapper around the metadata.

The http://www.validome.org/ validator backs this up, and reports that:

Invalid content found starting with element 'record'. One of
'{WC[##other:"http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/"]}' is expected

However our vendor is sure that this valid output, and when we checked
it, the site passed the OAI-PMH registration validation system OK.

Any advice appreciated! :)

Thanks,


Stuart Lewis
IT Innovations Analyst and Developer
Te Tumu Herenga The University of Auckland Library
Auckland Mail Centre, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand
Ph: 64 9 373-7599 x81928
http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/