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How to download Zettels and JSON files from the Luhmann Archive

harrharr
in Software & Gadgets

The Niklas Luhmann Archiv in Bielefeld has scanned the entire content of Niklas Luhmann's famous "Zettelkasten" (aka slip box, card index). The digital edition of the Zettelkasten is available online.

You can search for zettels on the search page. If you want to download an individual zettel, click on the desired zettel in the search results. You'll find various download options at the bottom of the page.

You can also download more than one zettel at a time as a JSON file. The trick is to search for a selection of zettels and replace a part of the URL. For example, search for all zettels in the ZK II 9/8 Branch:

https://niklas-luhmann-archiv.de/bestand/zettelkasten/suche?q=%7B%22page%22:1,%22rows%22:50,%22fulltext%22:%22%22,%22fuzzy%22:false,%22FTSearchMode%22:%22and%22,%22zettelnummer%22:%229/8%22,%22zettelnummerSearchMode%22:%22starts-with%22,%22areas%22:%5B%5D,%22ref%22:%22%22,%22zks%22:%5B%222%22%5D%7D

Replace

https://niklas-luhmann-archiv.de/bestand/zettelkasten/suche

with

https://v0.api.niklas-luhmann-archiv.de/ZK/search

and the query returns a JSON file with all search results:

https://v0.api.niklas-luhmann-archiv.de/ZK/search?q=%7B%22page%22:1,%22rows%22:50,%22fulltext%22:%22%22,%22fuzzy%22:false,%22FTSearchMode%22:%22and%22,%22zettelnummer%22:%229/8%22,%22zettelnummerSearchMode%22:%22starts-with%22,%22areas%22:%5B%5D,%22ref%22:%22%22,%22zks%22:%5B%222%22%5D%7D

You can edit the URL manually. For example you can increase the number of rows per request. Here's the query string without URL encoding, so that you get a better idea of the parameters:

q={"page":1,"rows":50,"fulltext":"","fuzzy":false,"FTSearchMode":"and","zettelnummer":"9/8","zettelnummerSearchMode":"starts-with","areas":[],"ref":"","zks":["2"]}

If you want to download all zettels, you might want to download them in chunks for better performance. I tried 8 requests with 10.000 rows each successfully.

Have fun and share your experiences!

References:

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