The Open Publication Distribution System catalog format is a syndication format for electronic publications based on Atom and HTTP. OPDS catalogs enable the aggregation, distribution, discovery, and acquisition of electronic publications. OPDS catalogs use existing or emergent open standards and conventions, with a priority on simplicity. The Open Publication Distribution System specification is prepared by an informal grouping of partners, combining Internet Archive, O'Reilly Media, Feedbooks, OLPC, and others.
Many e-readers or e-book reading applications support importing books from an OPDS catalog. E-book management applications such as Calibre also often include OPDS server software to make an e-book collection available through an OPDS catalog.
Example of OPDS 1.1 content
An example of an acquisition feed in OPDS: xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:opds="http://opds-spec.org/2010/catalog"> urn:uuid:433a5d6a-0b8c-4933-af65-4ca4f02763eb href="/opds-catalogs/vampire.farming.xml" type="application/atom+xml;profile=opds-catalog;kind=acquisition"/> href="/opds-catalogs/unpopular.xml" type="application/atom+xml;profile=opds-catalog;kind=acquisition"/> href="/opds-catalogs/root.xml" type="application/atom+xml;profile=opds-catalog;kind=navigation"/> href="/opds-catalogs/root.xml" type="application/atom+xml;profile=opds-catalog;kind=navigation"/> <a href="/wiki/Unpopular">Unpopular</a> <a href="/wiki/Publications">Publications</a> 2010-01-10T10:01:11Z Spec Writer http://opds-spec.org
Bob, Son of Bob urn:uuid:6409a00b-7bf2-405e-826c-3fdff0fd0734 2010-01-10T10:01:11Z Bob the Recursive http://opds-spec.org/authors/1285
en 1917 term="FIC020000" label="FICTION / Men's Adventure"/> The story of the son of the Bob and the gallant part he played in the lives of a man and a woman. href="/covers/4561.lrg.png" type="image/png"/> href="/covers/4561.thmb.gif" type="image/gif"/> href="/opds-catalogs/entries/4571.complete.xml" type="application/atom+xml;type=entry;profile=opds-catalog" title="Complete Catalog Entry for Bob, Son of Bob"/> href="/content/free/4561.epub" type="application/epub+zip"/> href="/content/free/4561.mobi" type="application/x-mobipocket-ebook"/>
Modern <a href="/wiki/Online">Online</a> <a href="/wiki/Philately">Philately</a> urn:uuid:7b595b0c-e15c-4755-bf9a-b7019f5c1dab Stampy McGee http://opds-spec.org/authors/21285
Alice McGee http://opds-spec.org/authors/21284
Harold McGee http://opds-spec.org/authors/21283
2010-01-10T10:01:10Z Copyright 2009, Stampy McGee urn:isbn:978029536341X StampMeOnline, Inc. en 2009-10-01 The definitive reference for the web-curious philatelist. href="/covers/11241.lrg.jpg" type="image/jpeg"/> href="/content/buy/11241.epub" type="application/epub+zip"> 18.99 11.99
OPDS catalogs
Dozens of OPDS catalogs are available online, and in many different languages. Many users of OPDS also create their own OPDS catalog, as a way to access their ebooks from any device. Developers implementing an OPDS catalog usually use the Feedbooks catalog as an example of a fully featured catalog. An OPDS validator is also available to test OPDS feeds.
