Technical Question: film access rights on the website vs. catalog info json

StefOsi

Hello!

A short while ago I discovered an inconsistency with the catalog info json data.

Example:

https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/130405?availability=Family%20History%20Library

This here is the url to the catalog for Baccum/Germany. If logged in as a normal familysearch user, one can see the magnifying glass + the camera symbol without a key, so the film is

a) indexed

b) accessable from home.

So far, so good.

Now if I check this catalog with the catalog info json, under:

https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/info/130405

I get the json data and for the film in question the following:

digital_film_rights: "LDS"

Usually all films that are accessable from home have the "UNREST" film right. Normally "LDS" means, that the film is only accessable inside the FHC or by LDS members. So if I only check this json data, I get the impression, that this film is not accessable from home, which seems wrong information. This, in my view, inconsistency, affects many films apparently. Am I missing something here? Usually the json info was rather accurate in the past years, but starting a few months ago films made public still appear under the "LDS" access flag, rather the "UNREST" one.

Maybe someone from the tech crew can help my out here. Did something change or is there some sort of misunderstanding here on my part?

Thank you!

Steffen

P.S.

Background for my question: I automatically check a few films I'm interested in with a selfwritten program once a week and send me an email if a film becomes available. For this I use the json check - this worked fine for a few years, but now apparently the status for the access rights are stuck at "lds", even though they are "unrest", so I missed the online availability for quite a few films that way.

genthusiast

No technical response for me - but you will find that the Catalog has been locked and is in the process of 'upgrading technology'. I would guess that would mean some films will become unavailable as they are moved to the new technology.

I would recommend trying Search> Images: DGS: 7992501

https://www.familysearch.org/records/images/search-results?page=1&place=9341759

It looks like - if they are available to you - they should be here.

I hope this helps.

StefOsi

Thanks for your input.

Maybe I can utilize this record-search to do the job from now on. As I said, I try to detect changes in avability automatically, without manually searching for place X or single film Y (a bit tedious if you want to check, lets say 15 places). Anyway, maybe I can find a way to do this without the catalog, but the newer record search.

StefOsi

Yes, I dived a bit into the new(er) record-search system and I think I see a way to use it for my needs. It's not as versatile as my old way, but I think it could be enough to make it work. So thanks again for your suggestion, I will try to dig a bit deeper into the technical possibilities with this method, I'm somewhat optimistic I can make it work one way or the other.

Have a nice weekend!