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OpenAthens Ideas Portal

We're always looking for ways to improve our products, and we'd love your input to help us make that happen. Your suggestions will guide us in deciding where we should focus our future research and development.

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Here’s how the portal is organised:

  • Librarians (Identity Providers): Share ideas that help organisations that manage user identities and provide access to online content and services. This includes improving the experience for students and researchers.

  • Publishers (Service Providers): Share ideas for organisations that offer content and services.


Guidance on using this portal

Status Feedback wanted
Workspace Librarians
Categories Redirector
Created by Guest
Created on Aug 20, 2025

Enhance Link Generator to Convert Proxied URLs

I’d like to request an enhancement to the OpenAthens Link Generator tool (example: https://go.openathens.net/generate/myInstitution.edu/123456787 to improve its ability to handle generic proxied URLs.

Currently, the generator successfully converts clean vendor URLs (e.g.,

https://globalarbitrationreview.com) into institution-aware redirector links such as:

https://go.openathens.net/redirector/myInstitution.edu?url=https://globalarbitrationreview.com.

However, the generator does not recognize or properly convert generic OpenAthens proxied URLs like:

https://globalarbitrationreview-com.us1.proxy.openathens.net/.

These links are commonly copied (usually by professors and shared in Canvas or course reserves) from browser address bars and are often shared among users. As a result, users encounter access issues or are prompted to "find your institution" instead of being routed through the proper institutional redirector.

Please consider enhancing the Link Generator to detect and convert these generic proxy-format URLs by stripping the proxy components and reconstructing the base URL, so the result is a valid WRYFless / institution-aware redirector link. For example:

• Input: https://globalarbitrationreview-com.us1.proxy.openathens.net/

• Desired Output: https://go.openathens.net/redirector/myuniversity.edu?url=https://globalarbitrationreview.com

This enhancement would significantly improve link consistency, user experience, and reduce confusion among our users and staff.

Thank you for your consideration!

Is this currently impacting your ability to use OpenAthens effectively? Yes
Idea type Improves value of OpenAthens to my team/organization, Day-to-day tasks/actions improvements
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