OpenURL is an industry-standard way of encoding resource metadata into a URL. Aeon supports all configurations of OpenURL and is highly customizable for different OpenURL sources. Aeon OpenURL is installed and functional as a part of the standard Aeon server installation. As a general rule, if your Aeon web pages are functional, so is Aeon OpenURL. No further installation on the Aeon side of things is required.
Configuring Aeon Requesting From Your Electronic Resources
While the Aeon side of OpenURL is functional immediately, OpenURL will not be functional until an OpenURL-compatible system is set up to submit requests via your Aeon server. Aeon allows you to submit Unicode data in OpenURL requests. When a request is submitted, the Unicode data appears correctly on the Aeon request form. The user web interface and Staff Client will accept and display CJK, Hebrew, Arabic, and other non-Western character sets as well as Extended Latin. If your site implements an OpenURL link to Aeon but can only offer one outbound link, you can edit your request forms to allow users requesting items to order copies without having to first submit a loan request and then request a clone to copy order.
Installing Aeon OpenURL
Aeon is capable of linking with any database system that supports OpenURL. This allows the researcher to request items found in various library databases directly through Aeon, without having to re-key any of the request information. Aeon OpenURL uses the built-in Aeon web pages, so you don't have to customize separate request pages specifically for OpenURL. The OpenURL link places them directly inside the standard Aeon web front-end.
Once requested using Aeon OpenURL, the transaction will appear in the Staff Client at the status of Awaiting Request Processing. Aeon OpenURL is an integral part of the Aeon Web DLL and uses the same technology and web pages as the rest of the Aeon web system. The Aeon DLL supports OpenURL Version 1.0 in addition to the previous version of OpenURL, Version 0.1. To learn how web session data is maintained when placing requests through external systems such as OpenURL, see Submitting Requests.
Setting Up and Testing OpenURL with Aeon
To configure the base URL and test the setup with your catalog, create an OpenURL target of http://your.server.name/aeon/aeon.dll/logon?Action=10&Form=30 and add your test parameters:
- http://your.server.name/aeon/aeon.dll/logon?Action=10&Form=30&title=Test&author=Smith
The OpenURLMapping Table
The OpenURLMapping table is pre-seeded with a setup that should work with most default OpenURL systems. If you need to change the behavior of how OpenURL interprets certain fields or genres, this is where you can make the changes. The OpenURLMapping table appears in the Customization Manager under Web Interface | OpenURL | OpenURLMapping.
The OpenURLMapping Table Fields
The OpenURLMapping table consists of the following fields:
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Field Name |
Information |
|---|---|
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URL_Ver |
This field has a default value of Default and rarely needs to be changed. Additional entries can be configured in the OpenURLMapping table with modified URL_Ver values targeting a specific OpenURL version if you would like to have separate mappings available based on the version of OpenURL used to place the request. An example of the value for OpenURL version 1.0 would be "Z39.88-2004". |
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rfr_id |
This field has a default value of Default and rarely needs to be changed. Additional entries can be configured in the OpenURLMapping table with modified rfr_id values if you would like to have separate mappings available based on the source of the OpenURL link used to place the request. For example, to have all requests of a specified OpenURL genre considered a Monograph when submitted from FirstSearch, but to have those same requests considered a Manuscript when submitted from Alma, you could configure separate OpenURLMapping table entries for each of these behaviors with the rfr_id setting on the entries specifying which mappings to use for FirstSearch and which mappings to use for Alma. |
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Aeon Action |
Three actions requiring separate OpenURLMapping table entries are used to convert an OpenURL request to an Aeon request: As these three actions work in conjunction with each other, please ensure that you create separate entries for each Aeon Action below when adding new entries to the OpenURLMapping table targeting a specific rfr_id or URL_Ver value.
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Aeon Field Name |
See the Aeon Action documentation above for more detailed guidance on configuring the Aeon Field Name for each action.
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OpenURL Field Values |
See the Aeon Action documentation above for more detailed guidance on configuring the Open URL Field Values for each action.
Assigning Multiple OpenURL Values to the Same Aeon Field Entries in the OpenURLMapping table configured to use the Aeon Action 'Replace' can have separate OpenURL values assigned to the same Aeon field in a single OpenURLMapping table entry. This is useful for handling different OpenURL mappings that end up going to the same Aeon fields. You can separate these values with a pipe character (|). When Aeon sees the pipe, it interprets everything up to that point in the expression. If it has no values for the OpenURL fields up to that point in the expression, then it continues and uses the next expression. If it already has a value, then it ignores everything after the pipe. You can have as many pipe/field value combinations as you need. Example: This example uses the default Open URL Field Values configuration in the OpenURLMapping table entry for the ItemAuthor field: <#author>|<#rft.au>|<#rft.aulast>, <#rft.aufirst> <#rft.auinitm>|<#aulast>, <#aufirst> <#auinitm>
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Aeon Value |
The Aeon Value field must be configured only for entries using an Aeon Action type of Substitute:genre or Substitute:rft.genre. See the Aeon Action documentation above for more detailed guidance on configuring the appropriate Aeon Value for these actions. Entries with action types of Replace do not need a value configured in this field.
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