OUseful Course Search Tool

The OUseful course search tool allows you to search a mySQL database to identify a course code and course title from the following search terms:

• a course code, or part of a course code;
• a particular level of study;
• a keyword or keyphrase that appears in the course title.

DISCLAIMER: The information provided is not endorsed by the Open University and is not necessarily correct, although we do aim to keep the information current.

Format of OUseful Course Search Tool Queries

• HTML output: courseSearchHTML.php
• RSS output: courseSearchRSS.php
• RSS output preview: view the RSS feed via rssViewer.php, setting the variable rssURL to the URL of the RSS feed you wish to preview (e.g. rssViewer.php?rssURL=http://whatever.com/whatever.rss)
• RSS feed embedded in your own page using Javascript: use the page rssViewerJS.php and set rssURL to the URL of the RSS feed you wish to embed:
  <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" src="$FULLPATH$/rssViewerJS.php?rssURL=$FULLPATH$/courseSearchRSS.php?CFSearch=T"></script>
  Several classes are defined in the output table to facilitate your own styling:
  <table class="rssResultItemTable">
  <tr class="rssResultItemTitleRow"><td class="rssResultItemTitleCell"></td></tr>
  <tr class="rssResultItemLinkRow"><td class="rssResultItemLinkCell"></td></tr>
  <tr class="rssResultItemDescRow"><td class="rssResultItemDescCell"></td></tr>
  </table>
  

Searches are made by providing Key/Value pairs to the search page:

• CCSearch: search by course code (e.g. CCSearch=T396) or partial course code (e.g. CCSearch=171);
• CFSearch: search by Faculty (e.g. for the Arts Faculty, CFSearch=A). Note that upper/lower case distinctions are ignored.
• CKWSearch: search by keyword (e.g. CKWSearch=intelligence). In the HTML output version, this search additionally returns the first 10 hits from a Google search (using the Google web service API) on that keyword;
• CLSearch search by course level (e.g. CLSearch=2);

• CLSearch: search by course level (e.g. to search for 3rd level courses, CLSearch=3);
• CKWSearch: search by keyword (e.g. CKWSearch=history). Note that upper/lower case distinctions are ignored.
• CSSearch: specialist searches. For example, CSSearch=residential will identify residential courses.

Example queries and outputs are shown below for HTML and RSS output, RSS preview and Javascript insertion from an RSS output. If you have trouble viewing the RSS feeds directly, right click on the link and save the output to a file, then inspect the file in a text editor.

OUseful Course Search Web Service

The web service can be called through a web page that uses a similar syntax:

• course search:
  • set CSearchType=CCSearch and CCode=/whatever course code/
  • the service returns details for a single course as an array indexed with ccode and ctitle elements
  • Search for details of T171

Example Course Information by Course Code

Courses relating to '171': HTML Table, RSS

Example Course Information by Faculty

Technology Courses: HTML Table, RSS

Example Course Information by Level

Level 3 Courses: HTML Table

Example Course Information by Keyword in Course Title

Courses with 'intelligence' in the Title: HTML Table, RSS

Example Course Information by Faculty and Level

Arts Level 2 Courses: HTML Table, RSS

Example Course Information by Faculty and Keyword in Course Title

Science Courses about Evolution: HTML Table, RSS

Example Course Information by Keyword in Course Title and Level

Level 3 Courses on Politics: HTML Table, RSS

Example Course Information by Faculty, Level and Keyword in Title

Technology Level 3 Courses with 'Technology' in the title: HTML Table, RSS

Additional information

All residential courses: HTML Table, RSS

Level 2 Technology residential courses: HTML Table, RSS

Example RSSView on supplied URL

Technology Faculty courses: try it

Courses containing keyword 'history': try it

Embedded RSSView