Skip to page content.

IIIF API Support in CONTENTdm

The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) is a community effort among the world’s leading research libraries and image repositories to collaboratively produce an interoperable technology and community framework for image delivery.

OCLC and CONTENTdm are part of this community effort and are adding support for the APIs defined by IIIF. CONTENTdm repositories running an up-to-date version now have full support for the IIIF Image and Presentation APIs for all image-based records.

Working with the IIIF Image API

Here is an example CONTENTdm image record that utilizes the IIIF Image API for the image display:

https://sandbox.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/coll16/id/357

To verify that a CONTENTdm image is supported by the IIIF Image API, a request can be made to return a JSON document providing image information, including width, height, and scaling information.

This CONTENTdm image information URL pattern follows the IIIF Image API specification:

{base CONTENTdm URL}/digital/iiif/{CONTENTdm collection alias}/{Record identifier}/info.json

For the example record noted above, the "info.json" URL is

https://sandbox.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/iiif/coll16/357/info.json

The IIIF Image API is a powerful and flexible service for interaction with digital images. For example, here's a request to generate a JPEG of the entire image at 25% zoom:

https://sandbox.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/iiif/coll16/357/full/pct:25/0/default.jpg

And here's another request, showing a selected detail from the full image:

https://sandbox.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/iiif/coll16/357/1500,1000,1200,1400/pct:25/0/default.jpg

And one more example, showing the image resized for use as a thumbnail image:

https://sandbox.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/iiif/coll16/357/full/150,/0/default.jpg

For more information on these and other methods for calling the CONTENTdm IIIF Image API service, please consult the IIIF Image API specification.

Working with the IIIF Presentation API

Here is an example CONTENTdm image record that supports a IIIF Presentation API request:

https://sandbox.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/coll16/id/357

And here is the IIIF Presentation API call that returns a JSON response:

https://sandbox.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/iiif-info/coll16/357

CONTENTdm's Presentation API request URL follows the pattern described in the IIIF Presentation API specification:

{base CONTENTdm URL}/digital/iiif-info/{CONTENTdm collection alias}/{Record identifier}

For more information on these and other methods for calling the CONTENTdm IIIF Presentation API service, please consult the IIIF Presentation API specification.

A note about HTTPS

CONTENTdm's IIIF API functionality supports HTTPS requests. As long as the URL being requested is at *.oclc.org, both the Image and Presentation API requests will automatically redirect to HTTPS. This allows you to include IIIF calls directly in your other content pages that are served over HTTPS.