Re: 2nd try: WAM and Books24x7

["Craig A. Summerhill" <summerhi@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On 6/9/2004, Gina Roth wrote:
> This email is addressed to those libraries using WAM rewriting
> proxy with Books24x7.  Have you heard about the new Books24x7
> user interface that is going to use tokens in conjunction with
> referring-url authentication to uniquely identify users?  The
> other option is for users to enter their university email address.
> What option are you going to use?  Do you know if the first option
> is compatible with WAM because I don't get the impression that it
> is.  Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Gina,

It is difficult to comment on a technical issue such as this
when you don't have any concrete data with which to work.  Can
you provide an example of what such a URL employing a token
would look like?  Do you have a URL for the new interface?

In general, I do not think this is going to be that big a deal
with the WAM re-write proxy.  The URL we use from our homepage
(which bypasses the Books24x7 homepage and goes straight through
to the Collections page where links to the collections to which
we subscribe are setup) is:

   http://library.books24x7.com/topics.asp

The same URL can be used with a token argument to link to a
specified sub-collection of books at Books24x7.  We subscribe
to the ITPro series (collection id 0) and the BusinessPro
series (collection id 6).  When the token is passed to the
topics.asp page / script, those URLs become:

   http://library.books24x7.com/topics.asp?acol=0

Both of these URLs can be re-written, and they work fine:

   http://0-library.books24x7.com.your.wam.server/topics.asp

   http://0-library.books24x7.com.your.wam.server/topics.asp?acol=0



Without a specific example, it is hard to guarantee anything,
but it looks to me like Books24x7 has a similar token mechanism
in mind for handling registered users via an ASP page / script
named login.asp.

   http://library.books24x7.com/login.asp

It "could" work equally well with a user token passed through
when re-written:

   http://0-library.books24x7.com.your.wam.server/login.asp?id=foo

Whether it will or not, I suppose, is up to the technical
people at Books24x7.

In either event, it is my distinct impression that user
registration is entirely optional.  People do not have to
login to the Books24x7 website in order to access the
materials to which we subscribe... nor have I heard this
will change.  What is the source of your information?

--

   Craig A. Summerhill
   Applications Development Librarian
   University of Nevada, Reno
   Getchell Library 174A / Mail Stop 322
   1664 North Virginia Street
   Reno, NV   89557-0042

      (775) 784-6500 x227
      <summerhi@xxxxxxxxxx>