Identify Patrons to Provide Relevant Services

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PDS is not applicable to Primo VE. For details regarding Primo VE authentication, see Authentication Configuration.

The following figure illustrates the authorization/authentication process used between Alma and Primo’s PDS:

Alma - Primo Authentication Flow

After Alma receives a Get It or View It request, it sends a bor-info request to Primo's PDS, as follows:

http://primo1.staging.alma.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com:8991/pds?func=bor-info&calling_system=urm&pds_handle=12345678

In return, Alma receives an XML response, as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>

<bor>

<bor_id>

<id>exl_support</id>

<handle>23820123442435521060831483217</handle>

<institute>university</institute>

</bor_id>

<bor-info>

<id>exl_support</id>

<institute>university</institute>

<name>exl_support</name>

<group>STAFF</group>

</bor-info>

</bor>

The ID attribute coming from PDS bor-info should match the Primary identifier as defined in on the User Details page in Alma (see Managing Users).

PDS Configurations

This section describes the configurations that may be necessary in order for Alma to interact with Primo’s PDS. For information regarding Alma and Primo sandboxes, see Alma Sandbox Environments and Alma-Primo Sandbox Integration.

Configuring the PDS URL

To identify patrons, Alma must point to the relevant PDS server (see #4 in the figure above). This is configured by entering the URL of the PDS in the primo_pds_url parameter (see Configuring Other Settings).

For example:

http://primo.exlibrisgroup.com/pds"?

https://primo.exlibrisgroup.com/pds?

Make sure that there is a question mark (?) at the end of the URL.

Configuring the PDS bor-info Function

In the PDS, the bor_info function should be configured to retrieve the following mandatory fields:

Name – The user name
ID – The user ID
email_address – The user email address
Institute – The institution code

This should be checked especially when working with LDAP authentication. To configure the above, see the Patron Directory Services Guide.

To test the PDS configuration:

Open the Primo Front End in a browser, but do not sign in.
Perform a search.
In a brief result, select Get It.

No request options should display, and the following message should display in the Get It tab:
You must sign in to get Request options
Select Sign in and enter your login information.
Perform a search.
In a brief result, select Get It.

The request options should display, and you should no longer get the message to sign in. If not, check the PDS log on the Primo server to see whether the bor-info request was sent from Alma and to see whether the bor-info response included the required attributes (name, institute, and so forth).
Select My Account and then select the Personal Settings tab.

You should see user details. If this is not the case, check the PDS log on the Primo server to see whether the bor-info request was sent from Alma and to see whether the bor-info response included the required attributes (name, institute, and so forth).