About embedding

If you are exploring options for embedding elements of OpenAthens in your own site this page will tell you what is and isn't possible. If you are a publisher, you should skip this page and head over to our publisher information.

The first thing to know is that you can't just pop it in an iframe or div. The user needs to be authenticated and because the request, although benign, would be indistinguishable from a phishing attack our system just won't accept it; that there would also be problems with session cookies is mooted by the authentication problem.

There are things you can do though, and it will make a difference  

I want someone to sign-in to my library catalogue using OpenAthens

If your library catalogue or site in general has a SAML option (either built in or via an optional module), then using that will be the simplest approach - once enabled you would configure things in OpenAthens as if it were any other 1-2-1 connection to a SAML resource. See: Sign in to things with OpenAthens in the third party apps section.

Advantages: Works with OpenAthens whichever type of user account you have. You can share this resource with other organisations. 

Disadvantages: If you don't have SAML built in, it is a lot more work to add it, and would only be possible if you were hosting your own site

Use our API to authenticate the user. This can be as simple as a single request that gives you a yes / no answer, or you can use the system to do things such as starting an OpenAthens session or listing resources.

Advantages: Very flexible 

Disadvantages: Does not work if you use local accounts (e.g. ADFS, LDAP, etc)

I want to start an OpenAthens session when a user signs into my systems

See: How to put an OpenAthens sign-in on your portal

I want to have the list of resources from MyAthens in my site

See: How to list a user's resources in your own portal or application