Passing information into a request form on display (URL parameters)
Where information is known by your (intelligent) web pages, you can pass information from that web page, into a RefTracker request form displayed from that page, by using URL parameters.
For example, you may have your web pages set up so that clients have to log in (provide client identification) before they can access the link to the RefTracker ILL form. In this case your web pages will know certain information about the client as a result of them logging in, and any of that information can be passed into the RefTracker form by using URL parameters.
For example, to pass the client’s student number into the RefTracker Borrower number field, as evidence of their eligibility for requesting ILL’s, you may use a hyperlink similar to the following:
http://reftracker.altarama.com.au/reft100.aspx?key=ILL&clno={studentNumber}
where “key=ILL” determines that it is the ILL Request form that will be displayed by this hyperlink, and “clno={studentNumber}” is the RefTracker URL parameter for client borrower number, and {studentNumber} is replaced by the variable used in your own web pages to store the student number information known by that web page. The student number will be saved into the RefTracker client borrower number field.
clno is just one of the many URL parameters that RefTracker provides – URL parameters are provided for each of the fields in the RefTracker question tables – in other words, for every field that you can include in a Request form.
A common use of URL parameters is to pass information about an item that a client is viewing in your catalogue or web pages, into a RefTracker request form – for example the client may want to obtain a Copyright clearance to use the image they are viewing in your web pages:
http://reftracker.altarama.com/reft100.aspx?key=NewBook&bbttl={title}&bbaut={Author}&bbno={ISBN}
And here’s link with values substituted that you can try
To create a URL that will pass information into your form when it displays, go to System>Request forms, and then the Edit layout page for the form that you want to use. Make a note of the RefTracker fields that are used for the field that you want to pass information know by the web page, into. If you drop down the Field definition for the line you will be able to see which RefTracker table the field in use comes from.
Go to System>Data dictionary>Questions tables and the table from which the field or fields comes from. The page that displays shows the URL id for all fields in that table in the left most column. Find the field you want to use and copy it into your URL string in the format shown in the example URL above.
Note that if your variable inserts text that is too long for the field it will be stored in RefTracker, but the provided data will be truncated so it fits in the field.
Also note that RefTracker automatically collects the URL of the referring page (but only if the URL of the RefTracker client interface page was embedded in a web page outside of the RefTracker client interface), so that staff working on the question created in this way, will be able to click that link to view the page from which the RefTracker form was submitted, so they can see what the client was viewing before submitting the request.
RefTracker forms also allow OpenURL parameters to be provided. See the next section for information about OpenURL. Any parameters that are not valid for OpenURL or for the RefTracker Data dictionary will be ignored.
If you enter an incorrect client interface URL, you will be taken to the Ask a question (reft120) page – so if you unexpectedly see that page, check your URL parameters!!! where they will be able to select an appropriate request form to user.