From cb9cb7f42d838e4a47dff1ca5645d40ac9ea1714 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Mouse Reeve Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2020 12:58:32 -0800 Subject: [PATCH] some thoughts on what books are --- README.md | 12 ++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 12 insertions(+) diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index 4125e5b52..8bd9a640d 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -44,3 +44,15 @@ Connection to openlibrary.org to get book data is handled in `fedireads/openlibr The UI is all django templates because I tried to install jinja2 and couldn't get it working so I gave up. It'd be nice to have jinja2 for macros, so maybe I'll try again some day. You can replace it with a complex javascript framework over my ~dead body~ mild objections. + + +## Thoughts and considerations + +### What even are books +The most complex part of this is knowing what books are which and who authors are. Right now I'm only using openlibrary.org as a +single, canonical source of truth for books, works, and authors. But it may be that user should be able to import books that aren't +in openlibrary, which, that's hard. So there's room to wonder if the openlibrary work key is indeed how a work should be identified. + +The key needs to be universal (or at least universally comprehensible) across all fedireads servers, which is why I'm using an external +identifier controlled by someone else. +