TitlePage File Naming Conventions

The file naming conventions for the TitlePage publisher FTP uploads are based on the EDItEUR FTP Filenaming Standard as defined jointly with the Book Industry Study Group (US) and Book Industry Communication (UK). Essentially the standard requires the use of a unique filename, followed by a 3 character extension representing the status, format and transaction type.  

For TitlePage, the format and transaction type characters (2nd and 3rd) are as follows:

• Format will be the letter ‘O’ – ONIX XML (International)
• Transaction type will be ‘ T’ – Title Status/Product Catalog, ONIX Product Information

The upload process step will define the status character. While the file is being transferred, the file extension should be .XOT.  The X status indicates transfer in progress.  

Once the file transfer is complete, the sender (publisher) renames the file via FTP to either .COT (Add/Update), .CUT (Partial Update), .CDT (Delete) or .ZOT (Add/Update), .ZUT (Partial Update), .ZDT (Delete) depending on if the file is unzipped (C) or zipped (Z). 

We recommend zipping files because ONIX XML formatted files generally compress to approximately 20% of their original file size. 

Files contained within zipped uploads
When uploading a zipped ONIX file using the .ZOT, .ZUT or .ZDT extension, the ONIX file contained inside the archive must also use a valid TitlePage ONIX extension. The unzipped file must be named with one of the following extensions - .COT, .CUT, or .CDT

For example:

1. The sender (publisher) FTPs the file to the server (ftp.titlepage.com) using the TitlePage web interface login and password. Each publisher will have a separate FTP folder on the server. The filename at this point must be unique and have an extension of .XOT (transfer in progress).
2. Once the file transfer is complete, the sender must rename the file extension to either .COT or .ZOT depending on if the file is unzipped (C) or zipped (Z).
3. Once the database import process has been completed the processed file will be compressed and renamed to .AOT, indicating that the file has been processed.
4. An additional new file will be created with the file extension .JSON and this file contains the results of processing and identifies a maximum of 1,000 coding issues found in the original file. It is from this JSON file that the information in the ‘Batch Load Report’ emails and the TitlePage Publisher Account “History Logs” are sourced.
5. Processed files are removed from the FTP server after 6 months.

IMPORTANT: All uploaded files should be given unique filenames and ideally have a timestamp incorporating the date, hours and minutes. This ensures that when a publisher is using an automatic upload process a file with the same name does not overwrite a previously uploaded file that has not yet been processed. 

This step is generally automated, either by the ONIX software being used to generate the ONIX, the FTP transfer software, or via a simple script. However, it can be renamed manually, which may be relevant especially for loading test files to the UAT, or for less frequent updates. This quick video describes the rename process on Windows.