The Ex Libris Identity Service provides every institution the ability to manage user passwords in a hosted identity management solution. The service enables authentication to Ex Libris products such as Alma and Primo out of the box. In some cases, institutions may maintain their own library services (such as custom discovery) for which patrons managed…

It's been over a year since we introduced Cloud Apps, and we're so pleased with the reception and adoption they've received. The Cloud App framework provides the ability for institutions to develop apps which run inside the Ex Libris cloud platform. This approach brings benefits for institutions, end users, and developers. Institutions have the flexibility…

In a previous blog post, we learned how to get started with testing Cloud Apps. Since Cloud Apps are written in Angular, they can be tested using the standard toolset, including Jasmine and Karma. Like with any code project, an automated test suite helps to improve quality and prevent regressions, allowing us to make changes…

Errors happen, all the more so when working with external systems, so it's important that we handle them properly. As a part of the published Ex Libris philosophy for building REST APIs, errors are returned from Alma with a 400 response code and a response body with details on what caused the error. Sometimes error…

In previous blog posts, we provided details and examples on how to integrate Alma with open-source discovery solutions. Some best practices have changed over time, so in this post we'll describe how to use the Alma services page to provide fulfillment options for titles and items in your repository. The documentation for integrating with open-source…

The Alma Digital Repository provides many ways to add files, and the documentation in the Developer Network includes examples of how to leverage ingest and deposit capabilities from external apps. In a recent Alma release, the General Configuration API has been enriched with additional fields that make easy work of creating an ingest form. In…

In a previous blog post, we explored property graphs in the context of linked data in bibliographic records. In this post, we'll experiment with exposing information from the graph DB to end users in discovery. Our goal is to add a section to the Primo full record display which shows other works by the same…

Linked data continues to be a topic of interest to libraries, and more institutions are interested in leveraging the power of linked data to improve discoverability and make cataloging workflows more efficient. Alma is continuing to expand its support for linked data as well, with plans in the road map to introduce built-in support for…

A recent version of the Cloud App CLI added support for the test command, which wraps ng test from the Angular framework. I used the opportunity to learn about testing Angular apps and to add some tests to an existing app. In this post, I'll share my experiences getting started with testing using the Jasmine test…

Angular supports a rich component model which allows us to consume and create reusable libraries. In this post, we'll first show how to use a component to select entities, and then we'll walk through how we built the component. Using the Select Entities Component We've started with a brand new Cloud App. Following the instructions…

The Appointment Scheduler Cloud App has been used by institutions to schedule thousands of appointments in their libraries. It's a great way to leverage the Alma platform to provide library-related functionality, and has been especially useful as many libraries are providing service remotely or by-appointment only. The Cloud App supports defining locations and capacity, scheduling…

We've mentioned JWT tokens in several previous blog posts. According to jwt.io, JSON Web Tokens are "an open, industry standard method for representing claims securely between two parties." A quick Google search produces many good websites and videos that describe how these tokens work. And because JWTs are an open Internet standard, there are libraries…

Often when building apps for our users there is a need to host a back-end API. Public cloud offerings make hosting APIs easy and affordable. In a previous post, we used the services of the AWS public cloud to host an API. In this post, we'll learn how to use the AWS API Gateway and…

Webhooks were introduced several years ago and are a great way to have Alma notify you when events happen the system. We continue to see increased webhook usage - last month Alma sent almost 20 million webhook requests! In previous blog posts, we've seen how to develop a webhook listener locally. In this post, we'll…

The Alma configuration and administration APIs are quite powerful and enable advanced orchestration workflows. We've shown how to use the APIs in previous blog posts. In this post, we will show how to use the create set API to create a complex logical set with multiple conditions. The Developer Network contains documentation on the logical…

The Cloud App framework provides the ability for an app to persist data at the user (settings) or institution (configuration) level. The data is stored as a JSON blob and thus can contain standard JavaScript types such as strings, numbers, booleans, and arrays. But what if the developer wishes to provide the opportunity to store…

Alma supports the loading of digital materials via CSV files. MD Import profiles can create bibliographic records, representations, and digital files. The workflow involves creating a CSV file in the supported format with metadata and file information, uploading the CSV and digital files to the appropriate folder in S3, and running the MD import process.…

Most data-manipulation applications have some requirement to limit a form field's value to a controlled list of options. In this case, it's beneficial to have a way to obtain the acceptable values in order to provide a user interface which offers a select box, radio buttons, or check boxes. In our example, we're building a form…

One of the powerful features of Cloud Apps is the ability to make API requests in the context of the current user. This means that no API key is required and the user's privileges are considered when determining which APIs are accessible. In a consortial setting, there is often a need to retrieve or update…

While building a Primo customization package, the need arose to call the Alma Resolver from JavaScript. As we've discussed before, most APIs and services don't support CORS as a security best practice. To work around this limitation, we can configure a proxy which adds the required CORS headers. In this post, we'll show an option…

Last year we launched the Ex Libris App Center, an online marketplace on the Ex Libris Developer Network for publishing and searching for apps which extend or integrate with Ex Libris products. Community developers and partners have shared more than 60 apps that users can find and download. Today, we're announcing the next leap in…

In a previous blog post, we described how to use the Swagger Codegen toolset to build full client SDKs for the Alma APIs. In this post, we'll show how to customize the output of the tool to fit the needs of your workflow. Specifically, we'll perform the following tasks: Download and build the source of…

Many institutions have integrated Alma with their campus ERP system. Using the file-based or API-based integration, it's possible to send invoices which are ready for payment to the ERP system to be processed, and to receive payment confirmation back when the invoice has been paid or rejected. In some cases, the ERP system requires that…

In a previous blog post, we created a simple linked data-powered author card using the Alma Linked Data APIs. In this post, we'll create a Primo customization widget which integrates the author card into the Primo full view. Our author card uses the Bibcard library made available by the University of Wisconsin at Madison. The…

Authentication is one of the most critical integrations between Alma and Primo and the university infrastructure. We continue to invest in authentication options to remain up to date with industry standards, to provide a secure platform, and to fill the integration needs of a wide array of institutional authentication landscapes. In this post, we’ll review…

Several of the Primo REST APIs operate in the context of a user. Those APIs require that the caller send in a token which represents the user’s context. This post lays out the steps required to create the token and use it in subsequent API calls. Create the Token To create the user token, you…

We are in the age of single-page web applications (SPAs). A SPA loads in a user’s browser and sends requests to the server to bring or update data. Rather than returning to the server to receive new HTML, the user interface is updated dynamically based on the data retrieved. The rise of frameworks for JavaScript…

In a previous blog post, we explained the rationale behind offering discovery-optimized APIs. In a recent Alma release, additional support has been added to take display logic rules into consideration when calculating request options for a title. Check out "Discovery-Optimized APIs: Requests and Request Options" for an introduction to the request options API. In this post…

Earlier this year, we announced our support for OpenAPI in the Alma APIs. This support powers our API Console, enables you to leverage the growing number of tools which support Open API, and can be used as a starting point to build client SDKs. In this blog post, we’ll look at how we use our…

Some institutions maintain records in their catalog which are related to a specific geographic location. Records which represent images, manuscripts, or other material which was either composed in or is pertaining to a location is perhaps best displayed on a map. The Primo customization framework allows us to add a widget which shows the relevant…

Alma APIs support XML and JSON for both the request and response payloads. The choice between these formats is left to the preference of the institution or individual programmer. Sometimes the choice of language or platform informs the choice of format, as in the natural fit between Node.js and JSON. Most environments offer tooling which…

Browser security prevents HTTP requests from being made between domains. This "same-origin policy" prevents sensitive information from being revealed to an untrusted party. However, the policy makes it challenging to build JavaScript-based web applications, where AJAX requests are made to a server to retrieve data and display it on the web page. If we want…

Alma recently added support for full text extraction from image files. The resulting text is stored with the file and can be accessed via the file list in the representation resource editor. In addition, the full-text can be searched in the Book Reader viewer. Full-text can be extracted using the “Extract Fulltext” job. In the…

In recent blog posts, we discussed newly-announced support for the OpenAPI standard for Alma APIs. Another benefit of OpenAPI is the ability to generate client class libraries or server stubs for testing. For many developers, “thin” clients for calling REST APIs are sufficient for their needs. A “thin” client encapsulates basic HTTP functionality, such as…

Here at Ex Libris we're very proud of the vibrant community of customers. And we are inspired by the developer community's creativity, professionalism, and willingness to share. Our commitment to the open platform and investment in this Developer Network are the direct result of our belief in the unlimited potential of that community. We're announcing…

Ex Libris has started rolling out support for the OpenAPI standard. The standard is owned by the OpenAPI Initiative and is defined as a "specification for machine-readable interface files for describing, producing, consuming, and visualizing RESTful web services" (Wikipedia). By providing the specification for our APIs in OpenAPI format, you can now integrate with tools…

The updated Developer Network sports a host of features, including a brand-new API Console. This new console is powered by Swagger tools and is made possible by our new support for the OpenAPI standard.A general overview of how to use the API Console is available in the Getting Started Guide. In this blog post we'll…

When we launched the Ex Libris Developer Network in 2014, it was in the context of our Open Platform Strategy. Our stated goal was to: Allow you to leverage your investment in Ex Libris products by integrating them with existing systems and by extending them with additional functionality. Ex Libris, 2014 Since then adoption of the Developer…

The Alma digital repository has supported video playback via the capabilities of the browser. This means that video files had to be prepared and deposited into the repository in a supported format. In addition, large video files were not always delivered in an optimal resolution dependent on the user's bandwidth.It's now possible to leverage recently…

It's often helpful to make several Alma API calls in parallel, for example when using APIs to change lots of data, or to bring data from several sources for an online application. Writing parallel code has always been challenging. It used to be the realm of programmers with specialized expertise and experience. But recent features…

In this contribution to our occasional series on leveraging the public cloud, we're going to add a "Deploy now" button to our Github repository to enable super-simple deployment of the app we want to share. Our repository's readme file has instructions for how to install the app and its dependencies and what environment variables must…

The digital repository features in Alma continue to be developed. Recently support was added for automatic full text extraction for digital images (OCR), and you can now search for text within one of the built-in viewers. In this blog post, we'll review how to extract text from images in Alma and how that text can be…

Case sensitivity in computer programs determines how fields values are treated. Case-sensitive means that the computer program only matches values with the same case (lower/upper). Case-insensitive means the program ignores case and matches values regardless of their lower or upper case letters, e.g. "My Name" = "my name"). Alma has always treated primary identifiers in…

As we've discussed previously, the Linked Data features in Alma now allow bibliographic records to be retrieved in three different formats- BIBFRAME, RDA/RDF and JSON-LD. In addition, staff users can view records in BIBFRAME directly from the record view: For some linked data experts, these formats may be perfectly readable as-is. But they were intended…

All bibliographic and local authority records managed in Alma are available in various linked data formats. Details on Alma’s linked data features are available in the documentation and this blog post. As this is an emerging area, we are exploring possible use cases that can be served well by linked data. A “classic” use of…

In a previous blog post, we explained the rationale behind offering discovery-optimized APIs. In a recent Alma release, additional support has been added for handling requests via APIs. In this post we review the new features and how those features were utilized in our Blacklight reference application. Request Options To display the relevant request options…

In a recent blog post, we described the cataloging enhancements made to the BIB APIs. These enhancements include: The ability to validate and run normalizations on added/updated records Linking/unlinking a local BIB to a network zone record Cataloger level, stale version check to ensure that records are not correctly overwritten Warnings and override when deleting…

Alma's built-in digital viewer can display the wide variety of content supported natively by browsers, including images, movies, audio files, and PDFs. However, the interface and functionality for displaying PDF files varies by browser. In order to better control the user experience, you can implement a custom viewer service for PDF files. For our example,…

In a previous blog post, we explained the background and rationale behind offering discovery-optimized APIs. In a recent Alma release, additional support has been added for the display of serials. In this post we review the new features and how those features were utilized in our Blacklight reference application. Location list for serials To provide…

Alma works great with the Ex Libris discovery systems - Primo and Summon. But we also recognize that some institutions want to develop their own discovery systems. This approach may come from a desire to have a completely tailored discovery experience, or as a response to the need to expose collections and content other than…

Ex Libris has been hard at work implementing linked open data (LOD) features. In close cooperation with the IGELU/ELUNA Working Group on Linked Open Data, LOD has appeared in road map highlights going back several years. Now at the beginning of 2018 I'd like highlight several features released in the past few months, and to pause…

The Analytics Report API provides access to any data that can be exposed in an analytics report. The most recent Alma release has introduced a new API in the analytics area - the Report Path API. It takes the analytics catalog path as a URL parameter and returns a list of subdirectories and reports that appear under…

At Ex Libris we strive to build our APIs according to accepted REST standards and practices. These include: Use of HTTP verbs and status codes Support for JSON and XML including WADLs, XSDs, and Content-Type headers Authentication via Authorization header and API keys Aside from providing a consistent and predictable experience for developers, use of…

As a part of our open collaboration with customers, Ex Libris engages with the IGeLU/ELUNA Interoperability Special Interest Working Group (SIWG) to encourage use of our platform, support a community of developers, and receive input on the APIs and integrations road maps. The working group published a position paper in 2017 in which it recommended…

Alma's support for the SWORD digital deposit protocol makes it easy to build custom deposit tools for our users. However, no matter straight forward we make our deposit tool, we can't beat the ease of email. To allow users to send files to our repository via email would be the ultimate in usability. We've previously…

In a previous post, we showed how to use the IA Book Reader with digital content managed in Alma. Our example used the BIB and file APIs to retrieve the information necessary to display our content in the viewer. Several recent improvements to Alma allow us to make this flow more efficient. These new features include:…

Over the past year, Alma's job and set APIs have been developed to the point where many process orchestration scenarios are now possible. According to Wikipedia, “Orchestration is the automated arrangement, coordination, and management of computer systems, middleware and services.” Alma performs bulk work on sets of records, such as bibliographic records, users, items, etc.…

As more workflows and applications are deployed to the cloud, many organizations are interested in adopting serverless computing. In this model, code is deployed to the cloud provider in the form of discrete functions, and the cloud provider ensures there are ample compute resources to execute the functionality when needed. A previous blog post showed an…

Institutions who implement their institutional repository with Alma require a deposit workflow for users. The requirements for a deposit tool can often vary widely among institutions and even among workflows. For example, a tool to deposit theses would require different metadata and file types than a tool to accept faculty-produced PowerPoint presentations. Now that Alma…

Many Ex Libris customers use Tableau Software for business intelligence. Tableau provides a way to visualize data from various sources, and offers special pricing for academic institutions, making it an attractive option for many university libraries. In a recent Show & Tell sponsored by the ELUNA/IGELU Interoperability Special Interest Working Group, Joan Kolarik showed a…

We were introduced to Alma's support for webhooks in a previous blog post. Webhooks allow us to respond to events that happen inside of Alma. Initial support was provided for the job end event. A recent Alma version has added a new event for patron notifications. We can now configure Alma to send a webhook…

As part of the institutional repository workflows, Alma now supports depositing digital material using the SWORD 2.0 protocol. SWORD is an ATOM-based protocol meant to facilitate the deposit process between a client and digital repository server. In Alma terms, this means that a client can perform the following actions: Deposit one or more files along…

In previous blog entries we’ve been introduced to webhooks in Alma, and we’ve learned how to build and host a webhook listener in the public cloud using the AWS API Gateway and Lambda service. In this article, we will build a webhook listener in C# and host it on the Microsoft Azure cloud service. As…

In a previous blog post, we learned how to integrate Alma with Blacklight as a discovery layer. There we saw how to utilize Alma for real time availability and fulfillment services for materials which are indexed in our institution's repository. In order to provide our users with a search of articles and journals we'll need…

As part of a continuing series on leveraging the public cloud, we present this walk through for hosting an Alma webhook listener using the Amazon Web Services platform. If you're looking for an introduction to webhooks and a basic listener implementation, see this previous blog post. Implement a Webhook Receiver In order to use webhooks,…

As an open library management system, Alma can integrate with third party discovery platforms. In previous blog posts, we've shown how to harvest repository information from Alma into an AWS CloudSearch (Lucene) instance, and how to integrate with Alma to obtain real time availability and and fulfillment services. In this post, we should how to…

Now that Alma supports webhooks, a whole new style of integrating and orchestrating technical tasks is available to developers and system librarians. With webhooks, you can request that Alma make an HTTP callback when a certain event occurs. As Wikipedia describes, webhooks are "user-defined HTTP callbacks ...  usually triggered by some event. ... When that…

In an effort to help our customers plan their development projects against Ex Libris products, we're publishing this product-by-product API Road Map. It represents our thinking about where we're continuing to invest resources and where we see our APIs progressing. IMPORTANT NOTE: Since we're calling this blog a road map, we need to clearly state…

As a part of efforts to support additional methods of authentication, staff users can now log into Alma using social networks such as Google and Facebook. And patrons will be able to login to Primo using social authentication as well, including the option for self registration if enabled by the institution. More information about how…

One of the benefits of the Developer Network is the ability to manage your APIs from the dashboard. The Alma and Primo getting started guides explain how to use the dashboard to create API keys, assign permissions, and direct the API calls to production or sandbox environments. Now the dashboard has become even more useful…

In a previous blog post we demonstrated the ability to access files stored in Alma via a custom viewer. This allows for a user experience best suited to a particular type of digital material. In this post we'll show how to use the Internet Archive Book Reader to display a digitized book stored in Alma.…

The ELUNA & IGELU Interoperability Special Interest Working Group recently hosted a "show & tell" in which we presented an explanation of the governance thresholds that affect Alma and Primo REST APIs. We thought the information might be helpful to the wider Ex Libris developer community, so we're providing a link to the short slide…

At the end of the second year since the launch of the Ex Libris Developer Network, we're happy to share with the community some milestones. Growing Usage The Developer Network has seen continued growth in usage since it was launched, and now serves over 10,000 sessions a  month for more than 5,000 unique visitors. Active…

In a previous blog post we showed how to integrate collections into an external application. We leveraged the Alma digital viewer to display digital materials stored in Alma. The Alma digital viewer is a good generic delivery interface which provides basic support for multi-file representations, metadata, and diverse file types such as images, audio, video,…

Collections in Alma can be used to group bibliographic records into a hierarchical structure. While any bibliographic records can be added to collection, a primary use case is to organize digital resources. As such, records which have digital inventory must be associated with a collection. Alma can be configured to publish collection information to Primo,…

The Alma REST APIs return JSON natively. This is the natural choice for developers working in dynamic languages, such as Node.js and Ruby. These languages interpret the JSON into native types, such as Array, Hash, String, and make it easy to manipulate data returned by the APIs. For those who work in a strongly-typed language…

Alma's software-as-a-service offering allows institutions to reduce expenditures on internal IT infrastructure. Many institutions are looking to extend that savings to integrations and services which support the library system. The public cloud provides an opportunity to host those additional services in a cost-effective and robust infrastructure. This is the first in a series of blog…

In the past couple of years, Node.js has become quite popular. With its cross-platform support, powerful package manager, and asynchronous architecture, Node is the environment of choice for many greenfield applications today. This simple example can get you started using the Alma APIs in a Node.js application. Since the Alma REST APIs return JSON natively…

Alma provides APIs to determine the physical, electronic, and digital availability of a BIB. Alma's fulfillment services page provides users with detailed information about the resource, along with links to view online versions or request physical copies. Combining the availability API with the fulfillment services page can provide your users with a full "discovery-like" experience.…

Happy Birthday to the Developer Network. It's been a year since it was launched at ELUNA 2014. In the past year the Developer Network has grown, and we'd like to take a few moments to look back at what's been accomplished. The Developer Network Community First and foremost, the Developer Network is a community for…

Alma Analytics is a great source of information that can help your institution get even more out of Alma. You can build custom reports and dashboards, and expose the information as a widget to appear on the Alma home page. Alma Analytics comes with impressive data visualizations which present the data in a compelling format.…

Alma supports OAI publishing via its publishing platform. Publishing is a very powerful means of sharing the content of our Alma repository with other systems. When configuring a publishing profile, we specify a set of the records which will be published. We can also specify if we want the results to be written to a…

In this world of cloud systems and integrated user experiences, patrons expect to be able to perform transactions in a frictionless manner. And paying library fines is no exception. Currently, Alma provides out-of-the-box support for the WPM Education payment system in use by many UK institutions.  But the Alma APIs allow us the freedom to…

In designing and implementing the new Ex Libris Developer Network, we considered how applications written against our platforms will be developed in this new age of cloud-based SaaS library systems. We felt it would be beneficial to the community to share what we learned during the process. In cooperation with the Code4Lib journal, we've published…

As a part of the launch of the Developer Network, we at Ex Libris have done some work on standardizing our external APIs. The goal of standardization is to allow those developing applications against Ex Libris products to learn one style and leverage that knowledge across our products. These standards are being implemented for all…

Introduction We're going to use the new Alma REST APIs to build a basic student portal with a few features to help get you started with Alma APIs. First, we create a basic ASP.NET MVC 4 application in C#. MVC is a popular programming style which stands for Model, View, Controller. Of course, Alma APIs…

We've worked hard over the past year to bring to you the next step in our Open Platform Program. The program was instituted five years ago with the goal of providing customers a platform for integration and extension. We've challenged ourselves to take the next step, and to... Allow you to leverage your investment in…

In this use case a single file with a known (and unique) filename needs to be replaced. For this purpose we created a sample program called updateAIP. The program requires: The original filename. The IE PID of the existing file, if not provided, will be retrieved by an SRU search for the filename. The file PID…