How to identify the field name syntax for an Open URL Template in a General Electronic Service

When creating a General Electronic Service it is necessary to identify the exact syntax of how field names are called when formulating the URL Template which is part of the General Electronic Service.

This blog post will show how to identify the exact syntax of how field names are called.  Other blog posts describe how to create the General Electronic Service which includes the URL Template.

For example, see:

How to create a general electronic service to search by author name in VIAF

How to create a general electronic service to search by title in another library or database

How to create a general electronic service to send an email with bibliographic information and predefined text

See also: Commonly Returned OpenURL Attributes from Alma’s Link Resolver

(Note that the end of this blog includes a section for those institutions still using Primo Classic)

STEP ONE

Do a search in Primo and click either the  “Available Online” or “Available at” link

STEP TWO

Add to the end of the URL “&displayCTO=true” (without the quotes).

So instead of this

https://exldeveu00.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma99133011000121&context=L&vid=EXLDEV1_INST:Alma&lang=en&search_scope=MyInstitution&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=LibraryCatalog&query=any,contains,Gloria%20Steinem%20:%20feminist%20extraordinaire%20%2F%20by%20Caroline%20Lazo.&offset=0

We will have this

https://exldeveu00.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma99133011000121&context=L&vid=EXLDEV1_INST:Alma&lang=en&search_scope=MyInstitution&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=LibraryCatalog&query=any,contains,Gloria%20Steinem%20:%20feminist%20extraordinaire%20%2F%20by%20Caroline%20Lazo.&offset=0&displayCTO=true

STEP THREE

See that the above URL with suffix “&displayCTO=true” creates a button called “DISPLAY CTO” (CTO is The Context Object).

STEP FOUR

Click the “DISPLAY CTO” button and get an XML which shows what the fields are called and how they appear.

For example:

The contents of the 245 subfield a is called “rft.stitle”

The contents of the 260 subfield b is called “rft.pub”

The contents of the 245 subfield a and b is called “rft.btitle”.

The contents of the ISBN 13 is called “rft.isbn_13”

The contents of the 260 (or 264) subfield a is called “rft.place”

The contents of the 020 subfield a is called “rft.isbn”

The contents of the 10 digit ISBN from 020 subfield a with dashes in it is called “rft.isbn_10”

The contents of the 100 subfield a is called “rft.au”

STEP FIVE

Now that we know how to get the official names of the fields for the URL Template of the General Electronic Service, we can begin creating General Electronic Services.

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For those institutions still using Primo Classic

Note that the above is relevant for Primo VE. 

For those institutions still using Primo Classic:

1. Search Primo for any record which has electronic availability and click the title to go to the full view of the record

   

2. Scroll to the Online Access section and right click the frame which has the availability links.  Choose to open the frame in a new tab.  Note that depending on your browser the right click options may look slightly different than below.

   

3. In the URL of the new tab change the text “viewit” to “CTO”
   For example instead of this:

   https://ylk.userservices.exlibrisgroup.com/view/uresolver/01YLK_INST/openurl?ctx_enc=info:ofi/enc:UTF-8&ctx_id=10_1&ctx_tim=2025-03-18T07%253A40%253A18IST&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&url_ctx_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rfr_id=info:sid/primo.exlibrisgroup.com-01YLK_ALMA&rft_dat=ie=01YLK_INST:512533442580003941,language=eng,view=YLK2&svc_dat=viewit&u.ignore_date_coverage=true&is_new_ui=true&Force_direct=false

   It will be this:

   https://ylk.userservices.exlibrisgroup.com/view/uresolver/01YLK_INST/openurl?ctx_enc=info:ofi/enc:UTF-8&ctx_id=10_1&ctx_tim=2025-03-18T07%253A40%253A18IST&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&url_ctx_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rfr_id=info:sid/primo.exlibrisgroup.com-01YLK_ALMA&rft_dat=ie=01YLK_INST:512533442580003941,language=eng,view=YLK2&svc_dat=CTO&u.ignore_date_coverage=true&is_new_ui=true&Force_direct=false

4. The CTO will display with an XML which shows what the fields are called and how they appear.  Here for example is the rft.title and the rft.isbn