Self-registration of non-institute patron identifiers in Aleph

Agenda

Aleph identifiers and aliases

Touchstone: two Identity Providers

Aleph’s handling of regular patrons

Collaboration Accounts Management System

Aleph’s handling of CAMS patrons

The primary problem and its solution

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Glossary of terms

CAMS: Collaboration Accounts Management System.

Aleph ID: A number that identifies a patron in Aleph.

Alias: A synonym for an aleph id.

API: Application Programming Interface.

X-server: An Aleph API.

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Glossary of terms

Shibboleth: Federated ID management software.

Touchstone: MIT’s branding of Shibboleth.

IdP: Identity Provider (Shibboleth)

SP: Service Provider (Shibboleth)

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Identifiers and Aliases in Aleph

What are they?

How does Aleph use them?

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Aleph identifiers – Z308

Z308_REC_KEY Z308_ID

50481 50481

29080005932917 50481

900059159 50481

RWENGER@MIT.EDU 50481

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Touchstone review

Temporary redirect to the login page

Identifier returned to the application

User redirected back to original target

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Production IdP(Kerberos accounts)

idp.mit.edu

Collaboration Accounts Management System IdP

(CAMS)

idp.touchstonenetwork.net

Aleph

Touchstone Touchstone

Production IdP(Kerberos accounts)

idp.mit.edu

Aleph

Touchstone

rwenger@mit.edu

Your Account

Points to remember aboutregular patron handling

Everybody is a number in Aleph.

Aleph uses aliases for alternate ways of identifying a patron.

Aliases must be explicitly defined before use, and require two pieces of information: the alias character string,

the corresponding aleph id number.

Since Kerberos ids are predictable, the loader scripts set up all required aliases for patrons who have a Kerberos id.

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CAMS review

CAMS IdP

1. Open to the world for self-registration

2. No privileges attached

3. Id must be a valid email address, but NOT one with ‘mit.edu’ domain

4. Identifier returned from authentication is NOT predictable.

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New manually-registered patron

Circ staff member

1. creates the patron’s new Aleph id2. creates a library card with a barcode 3. adds the barcode to the Aleph record as an

alias4. presents the library card to the patron

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Aleph identifiers – Z308

Non-institute patron’s aliases when the card is issued.

Z308_REC_KEY Z308_ID

12345 12345

11111111111111 12345

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Collaboration Accounts Management System IdP

(CAMS)

idp.touchstonenetwork.net

Aleph

Touchstone

Your Account

<unknown>

Solving the alias problem

A tale of two scripts:

1. alcams1.cgi

2. alcams2.cgi

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Overview of the process

If the patron requests access to Your Account, two operations accomplish the task.

1. Circ staff runs the alcams1.cgi script from a form, which constructs a magic URL and emails it to the patron.

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Details of alcams2.cgi - 1

At a convenient time and place the patron registers his or her Shibboleth (CAMS) identifier by clicking the magic URL that was sent from alcams1.

Example of a magic URL:

http://library.mit.edu/shib/alcams2.cgi?parm=94451594151565253505

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Aleph identifiers – Z308

Z308_REC_KEY Z308_ID

50481 50481

29080005932917 50481

900059159 50481

RWENGER@MIT.EDU 50481

RICH.WENGER_1@TOUCHSTONENETWORK.NET 50481Staff Training 2014Page 18

Details of alcams2.cgi - 2

Alcams2.cgi combines four things:

1. Access to patron’s CAMS identifier.

2. Access to the patron’s Aleph id.

3. Writeable access to Aleph for updating z308 table.

4. Convenience and privacy for the patron.

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Experiment

CAMS identifiers can be created and used with regular Aleph patron accounts.

Try the CAMS experience yourself

1. Ask the circ staff to generate the instructional email for your Aleph id.

2. Follow the steps in the email and experience what non-institute patrons experience.

3. Tell me about any difficulties.

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Useful links

Creating a Collaboration account: http://kb.mit.edu/confluence/display/istcontrib/Creating+a+Touchstone+Collaboration+Account

Touchstone at MIT: http://ist.mit.edu/touchstone

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Finis

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Rich Wenger rwenger@mit.edu Phone 617-253-0035