Retrieving the Data
Step 1.
The code snippet below shows the string I use to query Google Book's, it must contain my API key, which can be found as a variable at the end. Of course, it also needs to contain the ISBN number for that book which is being queried; this can be found as a variable near the beginning.
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Step 2.
Google returns the data in the below format, some of which can be used straight away, some of which can't and needs to be formatted; I've covered this, below.
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Formatting the Data
Step 3.
In this snippet, I format the title for Harvard references by checking whether a subtitle exists. Subtitles need to follow a semi-colon after the main title. This function returns one of two possibilities.
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Step 4.
This is a slightly more involved function, which splits a single name string between the 'firstname' and 'surname'. It will always return the surname followed by a comma, then a space, which is followed by the initial of the first name.
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Step 5.
The date is passed from Google as yyyy-mm-dd, so this function splits the date every hyphen (-) and then returns just the first chunk; the year, in brackets.
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