Frequently Asked Questions about ONIXEDIT softwares

Frequently Asked Questions

Does ONIXEDIT work on the Macintosh Platform?

With VMware (http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion) and Parallels Desktop (http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/), ONIXEDIT will work perfectly well on the Macintosh platform. However, if you want to manage your ONIX metadata from everywhere without having to make any installation on your computer, please check our new service ONIXEDIT Cloud

Is ONIXEDIT compliant with ONIX 3.0 standard?

Absolutely. With ONIXEDIT, you can manage ONIX 2.1 and ONIX 3.0 files as well. You can even convert your ONIX 2.1 files into ONIX 3.0 using our unique ONIX 2.1 to ONIX 3.0 converter.

Do I need to buy a new version of ONIXEDIT every year?

No. You only pay for your Media Space, technical support and upgrade renewal. When you buy ONIXEDIT, these services are included for the first year of use. See our Renewal Policy for more details.

What is ONIX?

ONIX is an acronym for ONline Information EXchange. ONIX International refers to a standard format that publishers can use to distribute electronic information about their books to wholesale, e-tail and retail booksellers, other publishers, and anyone else involved in the sale of books. ONIX enables book information to be communicated between different organizations even if they have different technical infrastructures and business needs. It`s not a database, but it provides a standard XML template for organizing data storage.

ONIX was developed as a solution to two modern problems:

  • the need for richer book data online; and
  • the widely varying format requirements used by the major book wholesalers and retailers in order to receive this data.

With the advent of the Internet and the explosion of online book sales, the book industry found itself in the following quandary: how to meet the needs of booksellers who wish to provide information to book buyers about the books they wish to purchase. In the brick and mortar world, the jacket cover of a book contains much of the promotional information about that book: cover design, synopsis, reviews, author biography and more. This information (i.e., the book metadata) draws the potential reader into a book and promotes the sales.

Online, the actual book has been replaced with a Web page that can be designed to carry all the rich information of the jacket cover, plus audio and video files pertaining to the book. Research has proven that the more information customers have about a book, the more likely they are to buy it. ONIX provides a way to transmit this information in a clean and seamless way across multiple trading partner relationships.

Can I work with metadata that is not in ONIX files?

Using our powerful Flat Files Import/Export tool, you can import metadata from CSV, tabulated and fixed length files as well as from Excel files. You can also export ONIX metadata to flat files and Excel files.

Who uses ONIX?

ONIX is used everywhere in the world, particularly in Europe -- UK, France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Spain -- Canada, the United States, Norway, Australia and Korea.

ONIXEDIT is a Canadian software, presently available in English and French. As a first step, we make every effort to comply with requirements established by those groups:

  • BTLF (French books, Canada)
  • Booknet (English books, Canada)
  • BISG (United States)
  • BIC (UK)
  • APA (Australia)

With ONIX Editor, you can exchange ONIX files with the following companies which now comply with the ONIX 2.1 standard:

BTLF format
BTLF

Booknet format
Indigo
Amazon.ca
BookManager
Bowker
United Library Service
Library Service Center

BISG format
Amazon.com
American Booksellers Association (ABA)
American BookSense Website
Association of American Publishers (AAP)
Association of American University Presses (AAUP)
American Wholesale Booksellers Association
Baker & Taylor
Barnes & Noble
Bowker
Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA)
Follet
Google
Hachette Book Group
Harcourt Trade Publishing
HarperCollins Publishers
Houghton Mifflin
Ingram Book Company
John Wiley & Sons
Library of Congress
Login Brothers
McGraw-Hill Companies
MUZE, Inc.
National Book Network
Nielsen BookScan
NetRead
Paladin Press
Pearson
Princeton University Press
Random House, Inc.
Reiter’s
Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group
Simon and Schuster
Time Warner Publishing
Yale University Press

BIC format
Nielsen BookData

APA format
Abbey's Bookshop
ACBA Booksellers
Alliance Distribution Services
Angus & Robertson
Bookwise International
Brumby Books
Collins Booksellers
Dymocks Booksellers
Gary Allen
Gleebooks
Harper Entertainment Distribution Services
James Bennett
Leading Edge Books
Macmillan Distribution Services
Mary Martin Bookshops
Nielsen Bookdata
Random House Distribution Services
Thorpe Bowker
Tower Books
UNIREPS
United Book Distributors
Woodslane

How can I send my ONIX files to my partners?

You should first communicate with your partners and ask for an FTP account as a destination for your ONIX files. Also, check with them which format is required, choosing among BTLF, Booknet, BISG, BIC or APA. Once you get this information, you will be able to configure your data using the ONIXEDIT Transmit to Partners function. Or, if one of your partners does not have an FTP server for data transmission, you can export your ONIX files to the desired format and send the resulting files by email.

Why does ONIXEDIT transform short tags into long tags?

ONIXEDIT uses ONIX long tags internally and when saving ONIX files. All short tag files will be automatically converted into long tags when you work with ONIXEDIT. However, you can always save a file with short tags using the Export function.

ONIXEDIT does not support attributes. Information contained in an ONIX file as attributes will be lost if you edit it with ONIXEDIT.

Does ONIXEDIT support images, audios and videos?

Yes, ONIXEDIT allows you to join many kind of files to an ONIX title record. Files such as MP3, MPEG, GIF, JPEG, TIF, PNG, PDF, RealAudio, HTML, XHTML, ePUB, Word and others are supported.

Can I define many prices in different currencies for a single book?

Yes, ONIXEDIT supports all currencies.You can define as many prices as you want for a single book using as many currencies as you wish. Moreover, you can specify restrictions and exclusivities for specific countries and regions. ONIXEDIT even allows you to define different taxes for each country.

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