Date: Sun, 31 May 2020 13:51:23 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: <> Subject: Exported From Confluence MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/related; boundary="----=_Part_304_15268309.1590933083360" ------=_Part_304_15268309.1590933083360 Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Location: file:///C:/exported.html OpenAthens link generator

OpenAthens link generator

This page is about the link generator at https= ://

On this page:

=20 =20

What are OpenAth= ens links?

OpenAthens links are a marvellous thing. They allow you to link to a pag= e via an authenticated route without the headache or hassle of long and com= plicated "Wayfless URLs". All you have to do is pop the target page (or DOI= link, or Ebsco SmartLink) for a specific article at the end of a prefix th= at is specific to your organisation, and something called the OpenAthens re= director sorts it all out. Here's an example:

ht= tps://go.openathens= .net/redirector/

That link is made up of two parts:

  1. The prefix part [ director/ ] 
  2. and the target part [ = ha= ppens when you follow the link?

    What happens is...

    1. The redirector reads the organisation from the link [ athens= ]
    2. The redirector checkes if the user's location is covered by an IP addre= ss it has been told to treat as on-site / within network for that organisat= ion
      1. If YES, then it simply forwards the user on to the target [ &= nbsp; sp;>>> https://iopsci= ]. End.
      2. If NO, then...
        1. The redirector looks up the access URL format to use for the resource t= hat target is part of
        2. The redirector plugs in the relevant details to that access URL to bypa= ss any 'where are you from' questions and sends the user via a being-signed= -in route to the target [ -0807/18/4/012 >>>]. = End.

    How to use the = link generator

    Since the links are specific to your organisation, and we don't know wha= t that is yet, the first thing you need to do is tell the page where you ar= e from. There's a search box that will find any OpenAthens organisation. If= you don't find yours then it may be known by another name - for examples y= ou may have entered GCC but our system only knowns it as Greendale Communit= y College.

    Once you've told the page which organisation to use, you can pop in the = target link or links. You can just paste one or more in, as many as you nee= d to - just make sure each one starts with http:// or https:// and is separ= ated by a space, or is on a new line:



    Not OK:


    (... because one or more of the links does not start with http:// or&nbs= p;https://)


    (... because this is a comma separated list rather than spaces or new li= nes)

    It was =
    the best of times, it was the worst of times,

    (... because none of these words are a URL)

    Anything e= lse I might want to know?


    Once you've selected your organisation, the address of the page changes = to include its identifier. If you bookmark the page with this URL, you can = skip the part where you search for your organisation on future visits.

    Couldn't I= just use a spreadsheet?

    This link generator also checks that the resource the target link points= to is compatible - every link it spits out should work - but once you know= that a given resource works there's no reason not to use a spreadsheet if = you prefer. Assuming the link were in cell A1 the formula to pop into B1 wo= uld be:

    =3D"="&ENCOD= EURL(A1)

    (where YOUROPENATHENSDOMAIN matches what the link generator= used in the prefix part )

    This works in most spreadsheets, but some don't have the URL encoding co= mmand available.