Webform update: Data handling just got snazzier

BookNet Canada is excited to share that BNC Webform has a new updated user interface with lots of new functionalities including the ability to create a “full” ONIX file. Before we dive into the brand new updates lets get familiar with what webform is; who it's for; and how it can help publishers, presses, and self published authors.

What is Webform?

Webform is an easy-to-use online tool that allows you to create and manage book metadata and export it in the standard ONIX file format that many companies in the book industry require. 

Who is Webform for?

Webform is for small presses, publishers, museums, universities, self-published authors, and more. It's for anyone who wants to provide clean, accurate metadata about their books to the supply chain through BiblioShare, our quality-controlled data aggregation and distribution system.

Some of Webform’s existing functionalities allow our users to add/edit title metadata, validate Schema, export ONIX XML, export spreadsheets of your data, transmit your data directly to BiblioShare, and add a cover file to your record.

What are the new updates?

The user interface has been updated to make your browsing, data entry, and transfer experience easier. Our catalogue manager now has added search, export, view, and indexing functionalities.

The addition of Advanced Form in the Title Detail page allows our users to create a ‘full’ ONIX file. Meaning users can now add multiple contributors, subject codes, audience ranges, languages, series/sets, media files, sales rights types, imprints, and all necessary data fields to their ONIX records.

Webform users can now import media files in batches, metadata from an excel spreadsheet, and ONIX files to their catalogue. They can also send data and assets of their titles directly to BiblioShare or any trading partner via FTP/SFTP making data transfers much easier and reducing the need for using external FTP programs.

How Webform works with BiblioShare and CataList

Webform users are still able to upload data from BiblioShare by simply entering the ISBN in the Title Detail page. Though if you don't have titles in BiblioShare or a BiblioShare account you can still open a Webform account.

Additionally, CataList, BookNet’s online catalogue service and order management tool, receives data from BiblioShare on a daily schedule and webform users sending data to BiblioShare can upload their title data easily to CataList. Check out our visual Webform to CataList guide to see how the information from Webform populates the categories you want displayed in CataList.

With the new and much anticipated updates, our users are now able to create, maintain, and provide rich ONIX data to all of their trading partners through one single interface.