GET v3/licenses - Read – VitalSource Developer Network

This API will allow you to check existing licenses held by a user on the VitalSource Bookshelf ecosystem. A product license grants the user the right to access a product until the license expiration date. The default request provides a listing of all products and their expirations, including any licenses that have expired. The sku version of this request is useful to prevent duplicate sales.

This endpoint has two valid use-cases.

Get a listing of all content in a users' Bookshelf account
Determine if a specific title currently exists in a users' Bookshelf account

Note: An HTTP 200 only indicates that you successfully completed this request. You must parse the response body to determine which content is in user accounts.

Verb/URI
Data Definitions
Request Headers
- Request header - default example Request header - sku example
Response
- Response Body
  - Response body - default example
  - Response body - sku example
- Response Descriptions
Error Codes

Verb/URI

GET https://api.vitalsource.com/v3/licenses.xml

Data Definitions

Name	Usage	Description	Data Type	Example	Required
	URL param	The default request	N/A	v3/licenses.xml	Yes
sku	URL param	The VitalBookID (VBID) for the title	string	v3/licenses.xml?sku=BOOKSHELF-TUTORIAL	No
license_type	URL param	online, download, all	string	v3/licenses.xml?sku=BOOKSHELF-TUTORIAL&license_type=online	No

Request Headers

X-VitalSource-API-Key: ALLCAPSANDNUMBERS
X-VitalSource-Access-Token: lowercaseandnumbers

Request Header - default example

GET https://api.vitalsource.com/v3/licenses.xml

Request Header - sku example

This request would return only the specified sku in payload

GET https://api.vitalsource.com/v3/licenses.xml?sku={SKU}&license_type=all

Response

Response body - default example

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<licenses>
 <license imprint="VitalSource Technologies" publisher="VitalSource Technologies" name="Bookshelf Tutorial" sku="BOOKSHELF-TUTORIAL" isbn="BOOKSHELF-TUTORIAL" part_of="" term="" code-use="demo" kind="book" type="online" expiration="never"/>
</licenses>

Response body - sku example (No license)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<licenses>
</licenses>

In the above response the sku passed to VitalSource is not currently licensed in this Bookshelf account.

Note: VitalSource supports duplicate licenses, ad-finitum. If you grant more than one license to a title we simply store the expiration date and remember that. Only one copy of the title ever will appear in the users account. Selling/billing more than one copy of a title is the responsibility of the integrator.

Response Descriptions

Name	Description
distributable_products	Number of licensed products returned in the initial request to which the user has access
total_products	Total number of licenses to products for a user, including deactivated titles
publisher	Publisher for product
imprint	Imprint for product
type	License type, either online or downloadable. If there is both a downloadable and an online license type for the same product, two <license/> elements will be returned (one for each type).
sku	Unique product identifier, also known as the VBID
expiration	Date the license expires; if one is not set, this will return "never"
code-use	How the code was created and meant to be redeemed. code-api, add-drop, promotional, and p+e are valid returns.
name
term
kind	Describes the "kind" of asset
part_of	Part of a package. If NULL/Blank, then it's a single title NOT part of a package.

Error Codes

HTTP & Error messages	Message	Notes
200	Activation request already redeemed	Success. Errors provided simultaneously

GET v3/licenses - Read