Referring URL

Referring URL authentication allows library patrons to access Gale subscription products from a secure library-hosted Web page. The URL of this referring page is called the "referring URL." Enter into Gale Admin the referring URL pattern(s). Then when a patron clicks on the Gale product link, the referring URL that is sent to Gale is matched to a pattern and the patron is authenticated.

Referring URLs are generally entered at the Institution level (blue tab).

However, the referring URL can be used for identification of a location as well as for authentication. When it is used for identification, the pattern can only be specified for at the Location level. Furthermore, the pattern must exactly match the left-hand part of the referring URL (i.e. it may not have any wildcard characters in it) and there can only be one location using this pattern not specifying the location Id on the Gale product link. The length of the pattern is arbitrary.

NOTE: At the Institution level (blue tab) you can view/edit referring URLs that apply to all locations within that institution or to a specific location. The Location level (green tab) is only for location-specific referring URLs.

  1. Navigate to the Institution Summary or the Location Summary page of the account for which you wish to add/edit referring URL information.
  2. From the Institution Summary page, click Institution Authentication in the left-hand sidebar menu. Or from the Location Summary page, click Location Authentication. Then select Referring URL from the submenu.
  3. The Referring URL page is displayed for the corresponding account level.
  4. Enter the referring URL pattern. When you are at the Institution level, by default the referring URL will be assigned to all locations. To assign it a specific location, select the location from the Location Name pull-down list. When you are at the Location level, the referring URL that you enter will only apply to the current location. (Refer to the headnotes.)
  5. To enter additional referring URLs, click Add Row.
  6. Click Save.

To delete referring URLs, select a row or rows via their selection boxes, and then click Delete Selected.