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. 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, downloadable, 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

<?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

Error Codes

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

GET v3/licenses - Read