Comment 14 for bug 1552409

We really like the idea of being able to use a referring url from the catalog for authentication to electronic resources for a logged in user.

This development is focused on 856 links, but we're also interested in applying the same functionality to added content. For example, we use Novelist Select, which is rich with links to the Novelist platform. Currently, each time a user clicks through to Novelist from the catalog, they need to authenticate each time. If we could authenticate using a referring url, it would make for a seamless experience for the patron.

But at the moment, I'm trying to get the patch running as intended, and am seeing problems.

First, the branch is not applying cleanly to current master, so needs a rebase.

Second, we have applied the patch to a test server and are getting Internal Server Errors.

Using this as a uri for testing:

https://<server>.noblenet.org/eg/opac/referringurl?intendedurl=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?authtype=url&profile=novplus

We are appropriately being directed to the login page with this url:

https://<server>.noblenet.org/eg/opac/login?redirect_to=%2Feg%2Fopac%2Freferringurl%3Fintendedtitle%3DTestTitle%2520%26intendedurl%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebscohost.com%2Flogin.aspx%3Fauthtype%3Durl%26profile%3Dnovplus

When we enter valid opac credentials, however, we get an internal server error. The corresponding log entry is:

Thu Feb 18 14:03:37.263035 2021] [perl:warn] [pid 48137] [client 73.238.14.21:43809] egweb: template error: file error - get_library: not found

We'd be eager to give this another look.