Re: [External] Forward EZproxy request to OpenAthens

Coral,



We've done both things: send users automatically to another URL and shown them a landing page (using login.htm).  We’re using a landing page right now.  One thing to be careful of when showing users a landing page is that anyone using the Zotero Connector browser extension with the proxy configured will repeatedly be brought back to the EZproxy landing page – essentially causing a loop.  It took me a while to figure this out.  It’s the proxy host entries in the extension that cause the issue.



Thanks,

Heather

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Heather Klish | Senior Systems Librarian

TTS : Library Technology Services

Tufts University

heather.klish_at_tufts.edu | 617.627.5853

Pronouns: she/her/hers



-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries <CODE4LIB_at_LISTS.CLIR.ORG> On Behalf Of Coral Sheldon-Hess
Sent: Friday, February 27, 2026 12:41 PM
To: CODE4LIB_at_LISTS.CLIR.ORG
Subject: [External] [CODE4LIB] Forward EZproxy request to OpenAthens



Hi!



We're considering a move away from self-hosted EZproxy and one-off Shibboleth SSO connections to our vendors, to OpenAthens. People are, understandably, concerned about the migration. Obviously, we'll change the links we control, but we don't control our faculty colleagues' Canvas shells, for instance.



Since we host (and control, down to Apache settings) our own proxy server, is there some fundamental reason why we couldn't do some kind of forwarding, rewriting requests with our proxy prefix to have the OpenAthens prefix on the fly? Has anyone done this?



Even if we don't do an automatic forward, I could imagine a landing page that says something in the neighborhood of "you entered EZProxyPrefix?url=https://whatever. Please update your link to [linked]OpenAthensPrefix?url=https://whatever[/linked], or alert the owner of the site that directed you here." That feels totally doable. There's no reason that couldn't work, even if it means disabling the proxy and writing our own PHP; it shouldn't even be difficult. Right? And it could stay up for as long as we feel like maintaining our server. (Just kidding, we'd count hits and take it down when they get low enough.)



Is there something even simpler, that you did during your migration, that I'm overlooking?



The floor is open for other opinions about OpenAthens, too. The price tag is … significant, during a bad budget cycle, so, even if all the other stars align, we may not be making the switch. If you want to tell me horror stories so I don't feel bad about a potential "no," you'd probably be doing me a favor. 😁



Thanks!



--

*Coral Sheldon-Hess*

coral_at_sheldon-hess.org<mailto:coral_at_sheldon-hess.org>



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