Technical Documents

Gale Admin offers many ways to authenticate patrons.

Available at the Institution level (blue tab):

• IP Addresses: IP addresses that are added at the Institution level apply to all locations within the institution.
• Passwords: The Institution level lists passwords used by member locations and links to edit pages for each location.
• Cookie Password: From the Institution level, you can access a list of the cookie passwords used by member locations and link to the edit page for a specific location.
• RPAS (Barcode Authentication): The Institution level lists RPAS settings used by member locations and links to edit pages for each location.
• Referring URL: Referring URL patterns that are entered at the Institution level can be set to apply to all locations or to a specific location.
• Shibboleth: From the Institution level, you can see Shibboleth settings used by member locations and links to edit pages for each location.

Available at the Location level (green tab):

• IP Addresses: Any IP address that are assigned from the Location level, are applied to all locations in the institution. If you need the IP address moved to the location, please contact Gale Technical Support at [email protected] or 800-877-4253 Opt. 3.
• Passwords: Passwords must be set at the Location level.
• Cookie/RPAS: Settings for either cookie passwords or RPAS authentication, if used, must be set up at the Location level.
• Referring URL: Referring URL patterns that are entered at the Location level only apply to that location.
• Shibboleth: Shibboleth settings must be set up at the Location level.

IP Addresses

IP address ranges authenticate patrons by validating that the patron's IP address matches IP ranges set for the institution or its locations.

NOTE: IP addresses that are added at the Institution level (blue tab) apply to all locations within the institution. To assign IP addresses to a specific location, edit the IP addresses' Location Name field.

Assign IP Addresses to All Locations

Use the following steps to assign one or more IP addresses to locations within an institution. You can upload a .csv file of IP addresses or manually enter them.

1. Navigate to the Institution Summary page of the account for which you wish to add/edit IP address information.
2. From the Institution Summary page, click Institution Authentication in the left-hand sidebar menu. Then select IP Addresses from the submenu.
3. The IP Addresses page is displayed.
4. To upload a .csv file (spreadsheet) that contains your IP addresses, click Choose File, select the file from your local drive, and then click Upload .csv File. Continue with Step 6.
5. To manually enter IP addresses, type a specific IP address (for example: 140.244.88.41) or a range (140.244.88.0-255). Use the Description field to optionally add descriptive text. The IP address(es) will be assigned to all locations.
6. To enter additional IP addresses, click the Add Row button.
7. Click the Save button to save your changes.
8. The list will be refreshed and sorted in ascending order by IP address.

To delete IP addresses, select a row or rows via the selection boxes and then click the Delete Selected button.

To the save list of IP addresses shown on the IP Addresses page as a .csv file, click Download as .csv File.

More on masking: IP Address subnet values range from 0 to 255. Some examples of masking are: a mask of 0 in a subnet means that all values in the subnet are included; a mask of 255 means that the address must match the subnet value exactly; a mask of 248 means that values ip -(ip+7) are included, and ip must be multiple of 8.

Assign IP Addresses to a Single Location

Use the following steps to assign one or more IP addresses to one location within an institution.

1. Navigate to the Location Summary page of the account for which you wish to add/edit IP address information.
2. From the Location Summary page, click Location Authentication in the left-hand sidebar menu. Then select IP Addresses from the submenu.
3. The IP Addresses page is displayed.
4. Enter a specific IP address (for example: 140.244.88.41), or a range (140.244.88.0-255). Use the Description field to optionally add descriptive text.
5. To enter additional IP addresses, click the Add Row button.
6. Click the Save button to save your changes.
7. The list will be refreshed and sorted in ascending order by IP address.

To delete IP addresses, select a row or rows via the selection boxes and then click the Delete Selected button.

After entering the location's IP addresses, they will appear on the IP Addresses page at the Institution level.

Passwords

Passwords can be used to authenticate users when they access the various subscription-based products. Once set up, patrons will be prompted for the password each time they log in. Multiple passwords can be set for a location. Passwords can optionally have an expiration date.

NOTE: Passwords can only be added and edited on the Passwords page at the Location level (green tab).

1. Navigate to the Location Summary page of the account for which you wish to add/edit password authentication.
2. From the Location Summary page, click Location Authentication in the left-hand sidebar menu. Then select Passwords from the submenu. (Alternatively, from the Passwords page at the Institution level, you can click a location's View/Edit link.)
3. The Passwords page at the Location level is displayed.
4. Enter a password (up to 22 characters long), an optional expiration date and an optional description. Leaving the expiration date blank means the password will not expire. The expiration date, if used, can not be greater than 2 years (730 days) in the future.
5. To enter additional passwords for the location, click Add Row.
6. Click Save. The list will be refreshed and sorted in alphabetical order by password.

To delete passwords, select a row or rows via their selection boxes, and then click Delete Selected.

Cookie Passwords/RPAS

At the Location level, cookie passwords and RPAS authentication methods are grouped together so that a location can use one of these methods, or neither of them.

NOTE: Cookie passwords and RPAS authentication information can only be added and edited at the Location level (green tab).

1. Navigate to the Location Summary page of the account for which you wish to add/edit cookie passwords or RPAS authentication.
2. From the Location Summary page, click Location Authentication in the left-hand sidebar menu. Then select Cookie/RPAS from the submenu. (Alternatively, from the Cookie Password or the RPAS page at the Institution level, you can click a location's View/Edit link.)
3. The Cookies/RPAS page at the Location level is displayed.
4. Only one authentication type can be active at a time, as determined by the Activate authentication type radio button selection.
   • Cookie: Use this authentication if the location does not have fixed IP ranges or shares IP ranges with non-subscribing institutions. Cookie dialup password sets a cookie on the computer for a set number of days. Enter the password, and then the cache life of the cookie in days.
   • Remote Password Script: Remote patron authentication can be set by the customer or by Gale. For customers that authenticate their users via a script housed on their server, enter the host, port, and path/query to the script. Gale also can provide remote authentication for customers who do not have the means to create or house a script on their own servers to authenticate their users. Contact your Cengage Learning representative for more information.
5. Click Save.

Referring URL

Referring URL authentication allows library patrons to access Gale subscription products from a secure library-hosted Web page. The URL of this referring page is called the 'referring URL.' Enter into Gale Admin the referring URL pattern(s). Then when a patron clicks on the Gale product link, the referring URL that is sent to Gale is matched to a pattern and the patron is authenticated.

Referring URLs are generally entered at the Institution level (blue tab).

However, the referring URL can be used for identification of a location as well as for authentication. When it is used for identification, the pattern can only be specified for at the Location level. Furthermore, the pattern must exactly match the left-hand part of the referring URL (i.e. it may not have any wildcard characters in it) and there can only be one location using this pattern not specifying the location Id on the Gale product link. The length of the pattern is arbitrary.

NOTE: At the Institution level (blue tab) you can view/edit referring URLs that apply to all locations within that institution or to a specific location. The Location level (green tab) is only for location-specific referring URLs.

1. Navigate to the account's Institution Summary or Location Summary page to add/edit referring URL information.
2. From the Institution Summary page, click Institution Authentication in the left-hand sidebar menu. Or from the Location Summary page, click Location Authentication. Then select Referring URL from the submenu.
3. The Referring URL page is displayed for the corresponding account level.
4. Enter the referring URL pattern. When you are at the Institution level, by default the referring URL will be assigned to all locations. To assign it a specific location, select the location from the Location Name pull-down list. When you are at the Location level, the referring URL that you enter will only apply to the current location. (Refer to the headnotes.)
5. To enter additional referring URLs, click Add Row.
6. Click Save.

To delete referring URLs, select a row or rows via their selection boxes, and then click Delete Selected.

Shibboleth

Shibboleth authorization allows library patrons to access Gale subscription products from a secure library-hosted Web page. Enter into Gale Admin the provider ID patterns. When a patron clicks on the Gale product link, the location ID that is sent to Gale is matched to an IDP entity ID and the patron is authorized.

If the location also has password authentication set up and you attempt to enable Shibboleth, Gale Admin will display a warning message that Location password must be cleared for Shibboleth to work.

NOTE: Shibboleth authentication settings can only be added and edited on the Shibboleth page at the Location level (green tab).

1. Navigate to the account's Location Summary page to add/edit Shibboleth authentication.
2. Click Location Authentication in the left-hand sidebar menu. Then select Shibboleth from the submenu. (Alternatively, from the Shibboleth page at the Institution level, you can click a location's View/Edit link.)
3. The Shibboleth page at the Location level is displayed.
4. To enable Shibboleth, check the IDP Enable Shibboleth box.
5. Enter the IDP Entity ID. This ID can be assigned to multiple locations.
6. Optionally select a Federation and Assertions. When 'Scope' has been selected as the Assertion, you must enter Scope information.
7. Click Save.