[Utilities-announce] NCBI E-Utility Policy Change

[utilities-announce at ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]

As part of an ongoing effort to ensure efficient access to the Entrez
Utilities (E-utilities) by all users, NCBI has decided to change the
usage policy for the E-utilities effective June 1, 2010. Effective on
June 1, 2010, all E-utility requests, either using standard URLs or
SOAP, must contain non-null values for both the &tool and &email
parameters. Any E-utility request made after June 1, 2010 that does not
contain values for both parameters will return an error explaining that
these parameters must be included in E-utility requests.

 

The value of the &tool parameter should be a URI-safe string that is the
name of the software package, script or web page producing the E-utility
request.

 

The value of the &email parameter should be a valid e-mail address for
the appropriate contact person or group responsible for maintaining the
tool producing the E-utility request.

 

NCBI uses these parameters to contact users whose use of the E-utilities
violates the standard usage policies described at
http://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query/static/eutils_help.html#User
SystemRequirements. These usage policies are designed to prevent
excessive requests from a small group of users from reducing or
eliminating the wider community's access to the E-utilities. NCBI will
attempt to contact a user at the e-mail address provided in the &email
parameter prior to blocking access to the E-utilities. 

 

NCBI realizes that this policy change will require many of our users to
change their code. Based on past experience, we anticipate that most of
our users should be able to make the necessary changes before the June
1, 2010 deadline. If you have any concerns about making these changes by
that date, or if you have any questions about these policies, please
contact eutilities at ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

 

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in helping us continue
to deliver a reliable and efficient web service.

 

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