Using WebBridge: Linking Related Web-based Resources
WebBridge is an OpenURL link resolver. It also can "resolve" record data from the Innovative system to create context-sensitive hyperlinks within Sierra and WebPAC displays.
WebBridge allows context-sensitive hyperlinking of Web-based resources. You configure WebBridge to generate hyperlinks within Web pages or within Sierra. Staff and patrons can use the hyperlinks to access all the related material available to your library through the Web. For example, WebBridge is often used to link from a citation to the appropriate available full text copy:
NOTE
Your organization must have access to the Internet to use WebBridge.
Because WebBridge allows your library to create hyperlinks in WebPAC and Sierra staff functions as well as in OpenURL-compliant web sites, WebBridge uses special terminology. For example, when using WebBridge, the display containing a context-sensitive hyperlink (such as a citation) is called an "origin." Origins are "where you link from." WebBridge origins must be OpenURL-compliant. "Origins" are further divided into:
- Sierra origins: Full Record Display and Browse Display
- WebPAC origins: Full Record Display and Browse Screen
- "external origins"
"Resources" are "where you link to" (such as a copy of the full text).
Detailed examples of context-sensitive hyperlinking are found on the following pages:
In the context of WebBridge, a vendor such as EBSCO or ProQuest can serve as an "external origin," as a "resource," or as both. Origins and resources are administered separately in WebBridge. If you use a vendor as both an external origin and as a resource, you must create two definitions for the vendor (the external origin definition and the resource definition).
WebBridge includes a coverage table which contains, amongst other data, your library's full text electronic journal holdings. You must load data into the coverage table through Coverage Load.
By default, WebBridge generates hyperlinks between all of the material that you configure as related. You can administer WebBridge to suppress the display of some of the links so that users are not offered multiple links to the same information, dead links, etc.
The connection between origins and resources is made as follows:
- A user searches a WebBridge enabled database, and from a particular record or citation, clicks on a WebBridge link. The appearance of this link can be customized by the library. It is often in the form of a button labelled WebBridge or Other Resources. From WebPAC, these links can also be drawn directly into the browse and record display.
- When the user clicks on the WebBridge link, the origin creates and sends an OpenURL to the WebBridge resolution server (http://<your_library_IP>:4550/resserv), based on the attributes of the record or citation.
- The WebBridge resolution server interprets the OpenURL from the origin as a request for related resources. It parses the OpenURL (and for Sierra and WebPAC origins, data in the displayed record), recognizing the elements according to user-defined "field selectors". The elements that are sent to WebBridge are used as criteria for determining which resources are relevant as well as to build the link to the target resource. See the section on Suppressing Resources Based on Displayed Records, Coverage Data, or OpenURL Requirements for a description of field selectors and their use.
- WebBridge uses data tests and filters to determine under what conditions a particular target resource should be offered. This can include tests for full text availability or tests against a certain value in the record , including language, call number, or material type. If the test is for full text availability, WebBridge then queries the coverage table, to determine which target resources, if any, provide the full text for the particular citation or record in question. See the section on Suppressing Resources Based on Displayed Records, Coverage Data, or OpenURL Requirements for a discussion of data tests and their use. See the section on Suppressing Resources Based on Session Information for a description of filters and their use.
- Based on the target resource definitions, WebBridge offers relevant resources (and their categories) to the user in a customizable WebBridge window.
- The user clicks on any of the offered resources in the WebBridge window. WebBridge uses the Linking URL in the resource definition to direct the user to the desired full text or detailed record.
The following is the WebBridge process:
- When WebBridge receives a request, it checks to make sure there is a valid, active origin. If the OpenURL request comes from WebPAC or Sierra, a WebPAC or Sierra origin must be defined. If the OpenURL request comes from any other site, an external origin must be defined that matches the service identifier or referrer identifier value that is sent in the OpenURL. WebBridge responds to OpenURL requests only if it can match the source of the request to one of its origin definitions.
- WebBridge checks which categories of resources are appropriate to offer from a particular origin. An origin can have multiple categories applied. For example, you can create categories called "Document Delivery", "Library Catalogs", "Full Text," etc. Each resource is assigned a single category. When WebBridge receives the request from a particular origin, it first pulls together a list of 'possible' target resources based on the allowed categories for that origin.
- WebBridge evaluates the filters assigned to the target resources in the resource definitions. Filters allow the library to block certain resources from appearing in the WebBridge window based on origin, IP or login of the user, or WebPAC port. See Suppressing Resources Based on Session Information.
- WebBridge evaluates the data tests assigned in the resource definitions. The data tests are key to WebBridge. These are what tell WebBridge when a particular resource is relevant based on the OpenURL or record data that is sent to WebBridge from the origin. Data tests can be set to check for the existence of a field, to match on a value of a field (WebPAC and Sierra functions only), or to compare against the holdings in the coverage table. If a resource 'passes' all of its data tests, then that particular resource is offered as a link in the WebBridge window. See the section on Suppressing Resources Based on Displayed Records, Coverage Data, or OpenURL Requirements for a description of data tests and their use.
- The link to a resource is built from the Linking URL in the resource definition. To pass citation or record specific data to the resource, WebBridge uses field selectors to serve as placeholders for actual data. (See the section on Suppressing Resources Based on Displayed Records, Coverage Data, or OpenURL Requirements for a description of field selectors and their use.) When WebBridge builds the link, it uses the data that was passed to WebBridge in the original request, to populate the linking URL. The linking format is not standardized and is specific to each resource. You enter the format when you define the resource. When the user clicks on the link in the WebBridge, the full text or detailed record is displayed.
WebBridge offers additional features which are key to its configurability and power:
- External Lookups can be defined so WebBridge can query services such as CrossRef and PubMed.
- Direct Connect resources can be turned on, so if only a single target resource is available for a particular origin's request, the WebBridge window is bypassed entirely, and the user is taken directly from the origin to the record in the target resource.
- Full WebBridge statistics are provided.
- The WebBridge window is customizable. Libraries have control over the HTML and styles.
- WebBridge offers the ability to suppress certain categories of resources for a given request, if resources are available from another category. For example, you can set it so WebBridge will only offer the 'Document Delivery' category of resources, if there are no resources offered in the Full Text category.
- WebBridge offers the ability to suppress resource links temporarily if an origin or target resource is "down."
- Text generated by WebBridge from WebPAC or Sierra staff functions can be displayed in the language of your choice.
The diagram below summarizes the process WebBridge uses to create and display links from origins to target resources. The user starts the process by clicking the WebBridge-generated hyperlink in the origin (illustrated as a red WB). To see the resource, the user must click the resource link that the WebBridge resolution server displays in the origin at the end of the process (illustrated in blue).
