Trouble Shooting Issues with ONIX Feeds

Apart from the first full data send to your aggregators when you begin to use the Stison system, the system is set up automatically to only send further ONIX messages only when data is updated or changed in some way. You can of course set it so that it sends full feeds every time. 

With this in mind, it is important to remember that if a title hasn't gone out in a feed, it's probably because none of the data has changed since it was first sent out.

Once you have set up your regularly scheduled ONIX feeds, you may want to look through the history stamp in cases of errors or feed rejections from your recipients. This is very easy to do in Stison's Title Management system. 

Checking the Destinations First:

Navigate to: ONIX - Destinations in the left-hand main menu of your system. Please note that your login must be set to have access to this part of the system, otherwise you will not see it. To have access, email [e-mail].

Once there, you will see a screen that lists all of the files being sent out in their schedules. In our example screenshot, we only have 1 feed set up; it is likely that your company will have many more.

Click on the relevant file and you will be taken to the following screen: 

When you click the Show recent button, circled above in red, you will be taken to a new screen that will list every single feed that's gone out to that destination along with the dates.

If there has been an error with a destination, for instance a title was not received but should have been, the first port of call is to tick on the Clear Last Timestamp option and hitting Update, which you will find towards the bottom of your screen.

Doing this will tell the system to send a full feed rather than just a file with the titles that have had data changes made to them.The system will then automatically un-tick this item after clearing the last sent timestamp on save. We suggest also hitting the 'Once then Weekly' option so that you don't have to go back into the system to make it go weekly again.  

Another way of nudging the system to send out another feed is to simply press 'Update' on any tab with a title's record in Title Management (without having changed any data) in order to update the time stamp. The system will understand that it needs to send a new feed with that title included.

Finally, select 'modify connection' and' 'modify default port or mode', and check that passive mode is selected. This is a common cause of send failures, and selecting Passive mode, and then 'Run Now' may allow the feed to send.

Checking Against a Particular Title:

You can also check the ONIX feeds for particular titles.

The first thing to check is whether the "Included in onix' traffic light from the main Book List has been ticked, which we have circled below. If it is green, then you will need to look further in your system.

If it is not green, then you must tick it. The system will automatically run an ONIX preflight report on the title. It will come up onto your screen like this:

If the data within the record hits all of the mandatory fields, then the traffic light will turn green. If not, then you will need to fix the data first and then go back in to tick it. Further information is available regarding the ONIX Preflight Report.

You can also ensure that a title is included in ONIX by navigating to the ISBN tab within the title record, as shown here:

Just like the traffic light within the main Book List, ticking the general box under 'Onix Distribution' will generate an ONIX preflight report. If the data is all in place, then you shouldn't have any issues. If there are missing items, the system will give you a chance to add that data before you can then tick this item.

Once you've established whether the title has been allocated to go in ONIX, then you can search further within the title record, navigating over to: Channels - ONIX. Here, your Stison system will record every time the title has been included an onix feed.

You can see what we mean in the following screenshot, bearing in mind that as this is a demonstration image, there aren't any feeds here. Your system will most certainly have data to review.

The Channels - Cover sub tab (right beside the ONIX one circled above) will enable you to check the feeds sent through for cover jpgs as well. Please note, however, that the cover sender only sends a cover if there is a change or a new cover. If the cover has been sent before and there have been no updates, then it won't be resent and no further lines will appear on your screen. This is relevant if your recipient, for instance, does not update their system with the cover image that went through in your feed. The error will be with the recipient, but the system will not resend the cover unless there is a physical change to the file.

To override this, we've added a feature to the system - a red Remove button. This will enable you to remove the relevant cover destination log record. That removal takes away the row which prevents the cover from re-sending, so once you remove the covers log record, it should resend the cover to the destination. Please note that you will lose the record of the original cover feed.