Z39.50 Diagnostic Messages
Introduction
All error messages sent by the Copac target are Diagnostic Set Bib-1 diagnostics as detailed in Appendix 4 of the standard.
All Bib-1 diagnostics are numbered. Each number (usually) relating to a specific problem or error. When a target sends a diagnostic to the origin, it sends the number and an optional message known as AddInfo. This additional information is meant to throw more light on the nature of the problem.
I've split the diagnostics into two lists. The first list of common diagnostics contains those you are most likely to come across. The second list of obscure diagnostics details those you are unlikely to see and comprises the bulk of this page. With each diagnostic I've given the official Z39.50 meaning and a description of what it means in relation to the Copac target.
Common Copac Diagnostics
These are the ones you have a chance of doing something about. Usually it will be a Bib-1 attribute in your search that we don't support.
- 114 - Unsupported Use attribute
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You asked to search on a Use attribute (otherwise known as access point or field) that Copac doesn't support. You can see a full list of supported attributes on the 'z39.50 page, Use attributes section.
- 117 - Unsupported Relation attribute
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The Relation attributes are usually used (in Copac anyway) for date range searching. Those supported are Less Than (1), Less Than or Equal (2), Greater or Equal (4), Greater than (5), and Equal (3). You must have specified one of the others.
The Equal Relation attribute can be used with any Use attribute whereas the others are only valid when used with the Date (30) Use attribute. - 118 - Unsupported Structure attribute
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Copac only supports the following Structure attributes: Phrase (1), Word (2), Key (3) and Word List (6).
If you are trying date range searching, use either no structure attribute at all, or Word.
For more information on which structure attribute can be used with the various Use attributes see the z39.50 page, Structure attributes section. - 119 - Unsupported Position attribute
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Only the Any Position in Field (3) Position attribute is supported. You don't have to specify a Position attribute at all.
- 120 - Unsupported Truncation attribute
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You can ask for Right Truncation (1) of your search terms or Do Not Truncate (100). No truncation is the default.
Asking for right truncation of search terms of 5 characters or less is asking for trouble. - 122 - Unsupported Completeness attribute
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Only Incomplete Subfield (1) is supported by Copac and is in fact the default (so there's no need to specify a Completeness attribute at all.)
- 123 - Unsupported attribute combination
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You used a Relation operator such as Less Than with a Use attribute that wasn't Date (30).
- 207 - Cannot sort according to sequence
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Valid Sort keywords are COPAC1 and COPAC2. These sort on: title then descending date, and, title then author respectively. You must have specified some other keyword.
- 215 - Illegal case value
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Only case insensitive sorts are allowed.
- 235 - Database does not exist
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You should set the database name in your origin to COPAC. (A database name of DEFAULT will not work (though XXDEFAULT will.))
- 238 - Record not available in requested syntax
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You must have asked for a Copac record in a MARC format. Copac doesn't supply MARC records.
Obscure Copac Diagnostics
You are unlikely to ever see one of these (I hope). I've listed them for completeness.
- 2 - temporary system error
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Something really nasty happened in the internals of the target and it is probably about to die. The best thing to do is end the session and try again.
You shouldn't get one of these, if you do please let me know. - 3 - unsupported search
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For the Copac target this means it didn't receive a database name in the Search Request. Probably means there's something wrong with your origin.
- 4 - Terms only exclusion (stop) words
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Your search terms consisted entirely of what we consider stop words (ie words we don't bother searching for even if you insist on putting them in the query.) I don't think we've ever delivered one of these diagnostics.
- 13 - Present request out-of-range
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If your result set had 11 records in it and you asked for number 12, then you'll get one of these.
- 14 - System error in presenting records
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Another (probably) fatal error in the target. End your session and try again.
- 25 - Specified element set name not valid for specified database
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The element set name is a fancy way of saying you want your records in either brief (B) or full (F) format. Copac understands other ESNs such as REF and F-HTML. You must have specified an ESN it didn't understand.
- 26 - Only generic form of element set name supported
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It is possible (according to the Standard) for an origin to specify a database name with the element set name (see above.) The Copac target can't cope with this. This is something that will be hard-wired into your origin. Don't worry about it, you aren't likely to ever see this one. (I'd forgotten it even existed until I came to compile this list.)
- 27 - Result set no longer exists - unilaterally deleted by target
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You'll get this if you tried to refer back to one of your previous searches and the target has (for some reason) deleted the result set. This is unlikely to happen.
- 30 - Specified result set does not exist
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Similar to number 27 above. This time the target has no knowledge of the result set you are referring to. Probably an error in your origin caused this one.
- 100 - (unspecified) error
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Not a helpful message this one. It usually means something fatal happened to the target and there's no other Bib-1 diagnostic that comes close to explaining what happened.
- 102 - Challenge required, could not be issued - operation terminated
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You asked to do something that needs a user name and password and they couldn't be obtained from your origin.
- 103 - Challenge required, could not be issued - record not included
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You need to supply a user name and password before the record you asked for can be delivered.
- 104 - Challenge failed - record not included
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The Copac target asked for and received from your origin a user name and password. It turned out they were invalid.
- 107 - Query type not supported
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There are various ways in Z39.50 in transporting your query between origin and target. The one commonly used is called Type-1 or RPN. This is the only one supported by Copac and your origin tried using another.
- 108 - Malformed query
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The target's search engine didn't like your query. You'll get this if the query is just a date range search.
- 109 - Database unavailable
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Serious error. The target couldn't access the database. End your session and try again. If it still doesn't work then please tell me.
- 110 - Operator unsupported
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You'll only get this if you are searching the Explain database (where only boolean AND is allowed.)
- 111 - Too many databases specified
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In the Search Request you can specify a list of databases which the target is supposed to apply your query to. In Copac only one database can be specified and that has to be Copac.
- 115 - Unsupported term value for Use attribute
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You'll only get this if you are trying to search the Explain database. You probably asked for an Explain Category that Copac doesn't support (yet.)
- 116 - Use attribute required but not supplied
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Another diagnostic when searching the Explain database. A Use attribute is always required for Explain -- not so when searching Coapc.
- 121 - Unsupported attribute set
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There are other attribute sets apart from the horrendous Bib-1. The only other attribute set supported by Copac is Exp-1 for searching the Explain database.
- 124 - Unsupported coded value for term
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All your search terms must arrive as type ``general''. Not something the average origin lets a user specify.
- 208 - No result set name supplied on Sort
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The origin didn't say which result set it wanted sorting.
- 213 - Unsupported missing data action
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This relates to Sort. Suppose you ask for the target to sort a result set by ISBN. Not all the records are going to have ISBNs, so the standard allows you to specify a value to be used as the ISBN for these records. Very nice, but Copac just doesn't support this.
- 214 - Illegal sort relation
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Only ascending or descending sorts are allowed. I'm not even going to mention what the others are.
- 237 - Illegal sort
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Nothing understandable was found in the Sort Request that suggests how you want the result set sorting.
- 244 - Present: comp-spec parameter no supported
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Don't ask.
- 246 - Type-1 query: `complex' attributeValue not supported
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Don't ask.
- 1011 - Init/AC: Bad Userid and/or Password
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You supplied a user name and password that weren't valid. The Copac service doesn't need a user name or password anyway.