The Ingram ONIX files are modified versions of the industry-standard full ONIX® file. We use EDItEUR’s mnemonic “PR” (product record) as a reference system for categorizing and grouping elements, which enables you to easily look up the extended documentation in the ONIX manual, if necessary, by checking EDItEUR’s website (www.EDItEUR.org). The ONIX Code Lists are also available on their website.
Ingram's ONIX files are currently available in the ONIX 2.1 format. We will be announcing the availability of Ingram's ONIX 3.0 files soon.
About ONIX files:
- ONIX is the international standard to electronically represent/communicate book industry product information.
- Developed by and maintained by EDItEUR jointly with Book Industry Communication (UK) and the Book Industry Study Group (US), and with user groups in many countries around the world.
- ONIX (ONline Information eXchange) for books defines a list of elements and how to send that data in an ONIX Product Information message.
- More than 200 elements have a standard definition, thus making it possible for everyone in the book supply chain to refer to the same information. (Elements such as ISBN and title are required, while many other elements are optional. The elements you receive with an ONIX subscription through Ingram Data Services are also dependent upon your subscription.)
- The product record is the fundamental unit within an ONIX Product Information message.
- An ONIX product record consists of the entire group of data elements that is enclosed between two XML labels (beginning with <Product> and ending with </Product>).
Tags in ONIX files
Ingram uses short tags in our wholesale ONIX files for file-size efficiency.
Advantages of using ONIX files:
- Metadata is consistent across multiple vendors; thus, development work will be reusable.
- XML-extensible format easily accommodates new elements without having to make significant development changes.
- XML schema is supported, which makes the processing of the documents easier.
- Supports updates to existing records; once you have loaded all the data you need initially, you can download updates only, instead of full files.
- Contains most of the metadata in one record versus joining multiple tables; thus, it supports database efficiency.
Challenges related to using ONIX files:
- ONIX is a standard designed to convey book industry data only; therefore, Music (CDs) and select Gift titles are not available in the ONIX format. For these items, you will need to ingest the flat files.
- The nature of XML means that these files are not as compact as the Ingram flat files, which may not matter if processing very large files is not a concern.
- If you choose to go with ONIX, you should work with a developer who is familiar with processing complex XML documents.