Configuring Linked Data for External Records
Overview
By default, Linked Data entities in Primo VE are available only for local Alma bibliographic records that are linked to Community Zone (CZ) authorities via the originating system ID. This means that records loaded from external data sources, or Alma records linked to non-CZ authorities, do not benefit from Linked Data enrichment.
The Linked Data for External Records feature extends this capability by allowing institutions to specify a local field that stores authority identifiers for external records. Primo VE uses these identifiers to match records against its authority storage and display the corresponding Linked Data entities (persons, organizations, subjects, and locations) in the discovery interface.
This feature is relevant for both the original Primo VE UI and the NDE UI, and is supported for all external data formats. Note that implementation requires re-indexing.
For general information about the Linked Open Data feature in Primo VE, see:
- Original UI – Searching Linked Open Data - Person Entity
- NDE UI – Linked Open Data in the NDE UI
Activating this Feature
By default, this feature is not activated. In order to activate it, you must set the value of the local_field_external_lod customer setting (Configuration Menu > Discovery > Other > Customer Settings) to the number of the local field that will store the authority identifiers for external records (for example, 3 for local field 3).
Defining the Authority Identifiers
The authority identifiers used for this feature must correspond to authorities in the Primo VE authority storage (for example, LC or GND identifiers). These identifiers must be in a local field that is part of the source record, in the format described below. To accomplish this, the records can either be cataloged with this local field defined in the required format (this is possible, for example, if your records are in MARC format), or you can use Normalization Rules (NR) in the external-data import profile to populate the local field (see Populating the Local Field via Normalization Rules, below).
Required Local Field Format
Each value in the local field must include:
- The entity type: Author, Contributor, or Subject
- Optionally, the entity name (for display purposes)
- One or more authority identifiers, comma-separated
The format of the local field should be:
<Type>: [optional entity name]; ID: <id1>,<id2>,...
A single local field occurrence can contain only one entity. Use multiple occurrences of the local field for multiple entities.
The entity type is determined by the text at the beginning of the field value (Author:, Contributor:, or Subject:); it is not derived from the entity name.
Including the entity name in the field is optional. Primo VE does not use the entity name for this feature, but the option is available for customers who want to use it via NR for display purposes.
Populating the Local Field via Normalization Rules
If you cannot populate the local field in the source record, you can use Normalization Rules (NR) in your external-data import profiles to populate it. Each value written to the field must follow the required format described below. For information about creating normalization rules for external resources, see Configuring Normalization Rules for External Resources (Primo VE).
The following is an example of a normalization rule for populating the local field for an author based on a GND structure in the external data. This rule takes the contents of the Relation field in the record and saves it in local field 3 as an Author entity.
rule "GND ID -- Author"
when
exist "//*[local-name()='Register'][contains(*[local-name()='RegisterRole'],'Relation')]/*[local-name()='RegisterGND']"
then
copy
"//*[local-name()='Register'][contains(*[local-name()='RegisterRole'],'Relation')]/*[local-name()='RegisterGND']"
to "discovery"."local3"
add prefix "Author: "
end
Mapping Logic
When the local_field_external_lod parameter is configured, Primo performs the following during PNX creation:
- Reads all occurrences of the configured local field (for example, local3).
- For each occurrence, parses the entity type and extracts the identifier list after ID:.
- Maps the identifiers to the corresponding PNX authority ID field:
Entity Type PNX Field Author originatingSystemIDAuthor Contributor originatingSystemIDContributor Subject originatingSystemIDSubject - Exposes the populated PNX fields to the CDI API, enabling Linked Data matching and entity enrichment in the same way as for local Alma records.
This mapping logic is hard-coded and requires no additional configuration beyond selecting the local field and ensuring the correct format.
Configuration Settings
In order for Linked Data from external records to be included in Primo VE, the following configuration is required:
- Enable the Linked Data features – Info Cards and/or autocomplete – you want to use. either for your entire Primo VE environment or for the views in which you want the Linked Data to appear. That is, make sure one of the following is true:
- In the Customer Settings (Configuration Menu > Discovery > Other > Customer Settings), the parameters enable_entity_info_card and/or enable_entity_autocomplete are set to true, or the view options Enable Entities Info Card and/or Enable Entities Autocomplete must be selected for the views in which you want the Linked Data to appear. For additional information about these settings, see Searching Linked Open Data - Person Entity or Linked Open Data in the NDE UI.
- In the Customer Settings (Configuration Menu > Discovery > Other > Customer Settings), set the value of the local_field_external_lod parameter to the number of the local field that will store the authority identifiers for external records (for example, 3 for local field 3). Enter only the field number (do not include the text "local field"). Leave the value empty to disable the feature (default).