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Soft launch proxy-based access for a few partners
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Description

Prior to our full rollout of proxy-based access on the Library Card platform, we have selected a few partners for which we will initiate an early soft-launch:

These publishers were selected as mid-sized partnerships for which we've seen moderate user activity. The soft launch will test both the proxy system as well as coordinator workflows for approving and managing access while we continue to implement the core features required for our full rollout.

Feedback

This task will serve as the central feedback location for users accessing resources for these publishers.

If you're here to leave feedback, please make sure to note the publisher you were attempting to access.

Event Timeline

When I try to access MIT via proxy, the error message I receive is "You don't have an email on file. We can't finalize your access to partner resources, and you won't be able to contact us without an email. Please update your email." I do in fact have an email on file. Test was on production, have verified that I have an active authorization for the partner, the partner is set to proxy access, the target URL is correct (although the Proxy/Bundle page in My Collections links to the unproxied target URL).

@Nikkimaria This issue *should* be resolved. I verified that I was able to apply for and access MIT via proxy. Could you please verify?

Confirmed, appears to be working as expected

good deal. For the record, the error definitely didn't have anything to do with your account. For whatever reason, the production system never picked up on the additional proxy configuration details that were added some weeks ago. We had do delete the docker stack and re-add it for the configuration to be available.

Migration issue: RBP moved from email to access code to proxy, so only four users have active authorizations but many more have an active account on the RBP side.

Would Like To Inform: Rock's Backpages library has not picked up by server! so noting in proxy/bundle access section in My Collection. just a message what says: You have no active proxy/bundle collections.

I wonder why the authorization_backfill script did not pick these up. Was this partner waitlisted until recently @Nikkimaria? If we do run this script again to create authorizations for all applications, when do we want the accounts to expire?

EDIT: The script wasn't meant to backfill authorizations for waitlisted (no not available) partners. Since RBP and MIT were only recently unwaitlisted, most applications did not have corresponding authorizations. The auths will be set to expire an year from the date of application.

Okay, I went ahead and backfilled authorizations for all partners recently marked as available. @Dejavu can you confirm you see the RBP tile in 'My Collections'? Although you'll want to apply for renewal before you can access RBP.

I tried to access Rock's Backpages and I got an error page saying that I don't have access to this resource. I can still log in just fine the old-fashioned way, however.

@Rosguill can you expand a bit more on that please? What do you see on the 'My Collection' page? (a screenshot would be ideal)

Also, can you try again after agreeing to the terms of use?

I can see my Rock's Back Pages subscription under Proxy/bundle access, with an expiration date of Dec 9, 2019. But, when I click on "Access resource", I get "We are sorry, but your account does not have access to this resource. If you think you have reached this screen in error or have questions about the resource you were trying to reach, please contact your library", at URL https://wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://www.rocksbackpages.com

I just accepted the TOS (ticked the "I agree with the terms of use" checkbox, then clicked the "I accept" button). Then clicked on "Your collection", "Proxy/bundle access", then "Access resource". Still getting the same error message.

@RoySmith, thanks. I just tried this myself and it doesn't seem to work for me either. The error you are seeing is supplied by OCLC, probably due to a misconfiguration on RBP's side. @Nikkimaria not sure if there's something we can do on the EZProxy admin panel (if there's one) or reach out to RBP?

Please can someone clarify what is technically being launched here? I'm seeing references to proxies but also wmflabs.org URLs. Is a network proxy being run inside labs?

What's being launched here (on a pilot basis) is direct access to paywalled resources, rather than having to apply manually for accounts. The web proxy (EZProxy) is being operated by OCLC and the Library Card platform simply redirects users to OCLC with a target URL and an authentication token.

@AVasanth_WMF, my experience has been the same as what RoySmith describes above.

Landing page for my collection

Screen Shot 2019-11-16 at 6.04.35 PM.png (1×2 px, 407 KB)

The page with Rock's Backpages on it

Screen Shot 2019-11-16 at 6.04.42 PM.png (1×2 px, 238 KB)

After clicking the access resource button

Screen Shot 2019-11-16 at 6.04.56 PM.png (1×2 px, 492 KB)

@Nikkimaria @AVasanth_WMF : I tried to access Rock's Backpages and I got an error page saying that: We are sorry, but your account does not have access to this resource. If you think you have reached this screen in error or have questions about the resource you were trying to reach, please contact your library. exact like other user and above screenshots.

Thanks everyone for the feedback. Please give us a couple of days while we look into what's causing the error.

So, just to pitch in a little additional info:

@Dejavu the "We are sorry, but your account does not have access to this resource. If you think you have reached this screen in error or have questions about the resource you were trying to reach, please contact your library" error is from OCLC proxy, as @AVasanth_WMF mentioned. That error got triggered because users logged in initially without an authorization for that partner on our end (pre-backfill), and the login session was still active. Our plan is to ultimately have the proxy send users back to the library card platform when this error occurs, so we can handle it more intelligently.

By now your login session to the proxy should be expired, so you should be able to proceed past this step, although it looks like there's another issue happening here as well. For the record, if trying to access previously unauthorized resources trips up another user before we take over this error handling, users can log themselves out of the OCLC proxy by going here:
https://login.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/logout
so that a new authorization check happens when they click an access url.

Hmm, I thought there was another error message being discussed, but I can see this is it. I don't think this is an issue with RBP, I think it's an issue with us

I verified that this is an EZProxy configuration issue on our end. Working on fix.

Okay, fix deployed. I was able to access rock's backpages. If you run into the error message, try using that logout link and then try again. Let me know how it goes.

@RoySmith @Dejavu @Rosguill and others - how are you finding access via proxy? Any further issues? Any feedback on the process as compared to logging in? We'd love to hear so we can iron out any issues before launching proxy access for a further ~30 publishers :)

Not really much I can add. RBP is the only subscription I have that's been converted to the new system, and that's one I use very rarely.

A piece of feedback about extending account duration (i.e. renewing) at T238671.

@Samwalton9 seems to be working now for me as well.

Samwalton9-WMF claimed this task.

Given that we've solved major outstanding issues here and the soft-launch is functioning correctly, I'm going to mark this resolved. We have a couple of small improvements still to make, however, and further feedback here is still very welcomed.