Access URLs

When you complete the access URL and redirector fields in the dashboard, there are a couple of things you need to know

Redirector URL fields / tab

Redirector URLs are WAYFless URLs with tokens for entityID and target, and an associated list of internet domains that they apply to.

The tokenised URL

This is similar to a WAYFles URL but with the entityID is replaced with a token, and with another token for the URL that your login will send the user to after authorisation - e.g:

https://www.yourservicedomain.co.uk/protectedlocation?entityID={entity}&target={target}

The two tokens are:

• {entity} for the IdP's entityID
• {target} for the URL to deliver the user to

The user should be delivered to the target page rather than, for example, your homepage.

The redirector hostname(s)

These identify which internet domains should use the tokenised redirector URL. E.g:

• if all your content is on the same domain, you would enter only that domain.
  
  • e.g. mydomain.com
• If your content was on several domains, you would enter all of them
  • e.g. mydomain.com, alsomydomain.com
• If your content was only on specific sub-domains you would enter only the relevant subdomains
  • e.g. content.mydomain.com, othercontent.mydomain.com

What redirector URLs are used for by IdPs

They allow an IdP to use a consistent URL for all resources only varying the final URL target parameter. This allows them to massively simplify the maintenance of links in their content catalogues, freeing up budget to buy more content. The format also removes the need to use proxy servers for enabled resources because the format can work with link resolvers.

An example link as used by a customer would look like:

https://go.openathens.net/redirector/ourcustomerid?url=https://www.yourservicedomain.com/somecontent.html

Only the url= parameter would change for them.

Access URL field

Whilst we hope to retire this requirement in the near future, it's still necessary.  What you'll need is our generic entityID (https://idp.eduserv.org.uk/openathens) and a target page. Simply plug those into your redirector URL in place of the tokens (percent encoded is best) and stick that in the field.

In a URL this might look like

https://www.yourservicedomain.co.uk/protectedlocation?entityID=https%3A%2F%2Fidp.eduserv.org.uk%2Fopenathens&target=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.yourservicedomain.co.uk%2Fgenericlandingpage

The publisher dashboard will require you to enter an access URL when you publish an entity in the OpenAthens federation and our service desk will confirm that it works before making an entity live.