viaf_snippet_1.py

from urllib2 import urlopen, quote
# if you're running python 3, replace the above with the following:
# from urllib.request import urlopen
# from urllib.parse import quote

def retrieve_viaf_search_results(search_index, search_term, auth_source):
    # url search template formatted to allow easy variable insertion
    search_url_template = 'http://viaf.org/viaf/search/viaf?query=local.{0}+all+{1}+and+local.sources+any+{2}&sortKeys=holdingscount&httpAccept=application/xml'
    
    # since we'll be inserting the three passed variables into the 
    # html search template, we need to make sure to "escape" any
    # special characters. VIAF also requires that they be enclosed in
    # quotes, which themselves have to be escaped. We can use urllib2's 
    # "quote" function for this:
    auth_source = quote('"{}"'.format(auth_source))
    search_term = quote('"{}"'.format(search_term))
    
    # build the full search url
    search_url = search_url_template.format(search_index, search_term, auth_source)
    
    # query the url with urlopen and store the returned xml
    response = urlopen(search_url).read()