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    360 Link: OpenURL and ILL Forms

    • Product: 360 Link

    How can I learn more about ILL forms?

    360 Link can generate custom OpenURL links that lead the user directly from a search-results page to your library's ILL article-request web form. Many ILL web forms are set up so that the fields on the form auto-populate with citation information so that the user does not have to enter them manually. If your web form currently does not auto-populate, you may be able to modify your ILL form in order to be able to extract the values for title, author, ISSN, etc., from 360 Link's OpenURL link and automatically fill them in when the form is displayed.
    The OpenURL-enabled link that 360 Link generates will pass the necessary data to your form through a list of name/value pairs in the query string.
    What is OpenURL?
    OpenURL is a standard syntax that indicates what names will be used to identify each piece of information in a URL.
    What is a query string?
    The query string is the portion of the URL that follows the question mark (in red below).
    For example:
    http://aj2vr6xy7z.search.serialsolutions.com&rft.atitle=global+warming&rft.jtitle=TCE&rft.au=Brent,+G&rft.date=2008-05-01&rft.pub=INST+CHEMICAL+ENGINEERS&rft.issn=0302-0797&rft.issue=803&rft.spage=56&rft.epage=56&rft.externalDBID=n/a&rft.externalDocID=000255968900067
    In the above example, the query string is everything from the "atitle" meta tag to the end of the URL (this portion of the above URL is highlighted in Red). Ampersands (&) separate the distinct pieces of information, such as article title, journal volume, and journal issue number.
    The most reliable way to extract this information from the query string and place it into your ILL form is by using a server-side scripting language like ASP/VBScript, PHP, Perl, JSP, or ColdFusion. You can choose whatever scripting language is most convenient for you. It will need to be a language that's supported by the web server software that your library's website runs on, and preferably it will also be a language that's familiar to the staff member who maintains your ILL form.
    First, if your ILL form is currently a static HTML page, you will need to modify it so that your web server recognizes that it uses server-side scripting. In most cases, this involves changing the file extension. For example, from ILLArticleReqForm.html to ILLArticleReqForm.asp , to indicate that it's an ASP page. You may need to make additional changes, depending on the scripting language you are using, and the configuration of your web server.
    Second, you'll need to modify the HTML form fields on your ILL page so that when a user accesses it from an OpenURL-enabled link, the web server will know how to extract the appropriate values from the query string and insert them as default values into the various text boxes and other input controls. All server-side scripting languages provide a way to retrieve information from a link's query string, but the specific syntax will vary depending on what language you use. For example, if your ILL page had a text box for the user to enter the article title, the original HTML for the text box would look something like this:
    <input type="text" name="ArticleTitle" length="150"></input>
    If you were using ASP as your scripting language, you would change the above to:
    <input type="text" name="ArticleTitle" length="150"
    value="<%=Request.QueryString("atitle")%>"></input>
    The "value" attribute tells the user's web browser what to pre-fill the text box with, and the part between the <%and %> symbols is the ASP code that will retrieve the value for "atitle" from the OpenURL link. Again, note that the exact syntax will depend on what scripting language you choose.
    The name string would be used to populate that field in a URL.
    Once you have set up the form to support OpenURL, you will need to send an example of a working ILL URL to Library Support via the Support Center's Support Portal option near the top of this page. Once we receive your request, we will update your ILL form custom link to pass the citation information from the 360 Link Results screen directly into your ILL form.

    We do not answer any specific questions regarding the creation or implementation of OpenURL and ILL forms. If you have additional questions, we suggest that you contact your web administrator or qualified web programmer. Information provided here is intended solely to provide general guidance on matters regarding ILL forms and OpenURL.

    Here is a list of the meta tag values that we support:
    Meta tag
    Description
    <?artnum?>
    The number of an individual item, in cases where there are no pages available
    <?atitle?>
    The title of an individual item (article, preprint, conference proceeding, part of a book)
    <?au?>
    The author of a work
    <?aucorp?>
    The corporate author of a work
    <?aufirst?>
    A string with the first author's first name
    <?auinit?>
    A string with the first author's first and middle initials
    <?auinit1?>
    A string with the first author's first initial
    <?auinitm?>
    A string with the first author's middle initial
    <?aulast?>
    A string with the first author's last name
    <?coden?>
    A coden (a unique, alpha-numeric code assigned to serial publications)
    <?date?>
    The publication date of the item or bundle encoded in the "Complete date" variant of ISO860 (see http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-datetime). This format is YYYY-MM-DD where YYYY is the four-digit year, MM is the month of the year between 01 (January) and 12 (December), and DD is the day of the month between 01 and 28 or 29 or 30 or 31, depending on length of the month and whether it is a leap year.
    <?eissn?>
    An ISSN that refers to the electronic version of a serial publication (without hyphen)
    <?eissnh?>
    An ISSN that refers to the electronic version of a serial publication (with hyphen)
    <?epage?>
    The end page of an individual item in a bundle
    <?genre?>
    Designates the format of the request: article or book
    <?gt?>
    Escape string for >
    <?inventor?>
    The inventor (as related to a patent)
    <?invfirst?>
    The inventor's first name (as related to a patent)
    <?invlast?>
    The inventor's last name (as related to a patent)
    <?isbn?>
    The international standard book number
    <?issn?>
    An ISSN (without hyphen)
    <?issnh?>
    An ISSN (with hyphen)
    <?issue?>
    The issue of a bundle
    <?lt?>
    Escape string for <
    <?number?>
    The patent number
    <?pages?>
    Pages covered by an individual item in a bundle. The format of this field is 'spage-epage'
    <?part?>
    The part of a bundle
    <?place?>
    The place of a publication
    <?pmid?>
    A numeric PubMed identifier
    <?pub?>
    The publisher of a work
    <?quarter?>
    The quarter of a publication
    <?sici?>
    A SICI of a journal article, volume, or issue. Compliant with ANSI/NISO Z39.56-1996 Version 2 (see http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/SICI/)
    <?sid?>
    The originating sid (Source ID). Note that this is NOT the Serials Solutions sid
    <?spage?>
    The start page of an individual item in a bundle
    <?ssn?>
    The season of the publication
    <?stitle?>
    The abbreviated title of a bundle
    <?title?>
    The title of a bundle (journal, book, conference)
    <?volume?>
    The volume of a bundle

    • Date Created: 9-Feb-2014
    • Last Edited Date: 14-Feb-2014
    • Old Article Number: 7260
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