Fulfillment services

Alma offers the ability to “get” printed material or “view” electronic and digital material. The workflow described in this article refers to material that was initiated in Alma and harvested in the discovery system. The workflow for other material is described in OpenURL Resolving.

The publishing from Alma to the discovery system contains inventory information. Based on this information, the discovery system can give an indication (in the results page) whether the title is available in print (i.e. it is possible to ‘get it’) or electronic (it is possible to ‘view’ it) version.

There are two options for implementing fulfillment services once the user clicks on one of the viewit/getit options:

  • Services page (eligible for customers with a subscription to an Ex Libris discovery product), or
  • API based

The focus of this article is on implementing fulfillment services using the services page. For more information on implementing fulfillment services using APIs, see the “Request Options API” documentation and blog.

Implementing fulfillment services using services page

The services page is a dedicated page that displays a record’s services (such as access to full text). For example:

ServicesPage_ViewIt3.png

This page is invoked using an OpenURL request in the following format:

https://<Alma_domain>/openurl/<Alma_institution_code>/<view_code>?

Where the base URL includes the following elements:

  • Alma_domain – Specify the domain for your Alma’s server
  • Alma_institution_code – Specify the institution code defined in Alma
  • view_code – Specify the code that is defined for your view. The default view is <institution code>:AlmaGeneralView

For example: https://na01.alma.exlibrisgroup.com/openurl/01MY_INST/01MY_INST:Services

The services page can be invoked based on title’s mms id, ie id or a specific portfolio id. These information pieces are available as part of the published data. Following is a list of the supported parameters:

ParameterDescription
rft.mms_idThe specific MMS ID
portfolio_pidThe specific portfolio PID (relevant only for viewit, and can be used only when rft.mms_id is not included). When using this parameter, test_access=true should be sent as well.
rft_dat
private data area of the OpenURL which includes the following:
ie=[ie id],language=[language_code]
example: rft_dat=ie=2151085540004141,language=EN
u.ignore_date_coveragetrue
This parameter is required in order to get all services that are related to the specific mms_id or portfolio_id, regardless their coverage.
Force_directTo force a redirect to an electronic journal’s full text include following parameter: Force_direct=true

For more information on services page configuration, see Alma OLH:

Note:

  • If you configured all relevant parameters and still don’t see the Services page please contact Ex Libris support
  • If you do not have the “Discovery” menu in Alma, use the default view: <institution code>:AlmaGeneralView

Customization of this view can be done in Configuration > General > User Interface Settings > Alma Viewer and Deposit Customization.

 

Links to E-resources in the results list

Institutions might want to display links of relevant electronic resources as part of their results list page. This can be done as following:
  • Electronic inventory should be published from Alma to the discovery system, including portfolio pid
  • In the results page, the discovery system should display a list of the electronic resources, according to the published data. Each electronic resource should link to the services page, with the portfolio_pid parameter, test_access=true and Force_direct=true.

Authentication

Fulfillment services might be allowed for logged-in users only. The login options in services page are the various authentication methods supported in Alma.

In order to have login options in the services page, the following is needed:

  • Configure the relevant integration profile in Alma (SAML, social login etc.) – see OLH for more details
  • Configure services page login links – see OLH for more details

 

Important Note: The OpenURL integration is intended for integrating Alma with third party discovery systems. Using it for other workflows is not supported.