Web Addons

Web addons extend the Aeon 7 web staff client — a catalog search that imports bibliographic data into a request, for example. You manage them on one page of the Customization Manager: install an addon from the Atlas catalog or from a ZIP package, fill in its settings, make it active, and update it when a new version appears.

The normal path for a new addon:

1. Open the Customization Manager and go to Integrations & Messaging > Web Addons.
2. On the Catalog tab, select the addon and click Install.
3. Back on the Installed tab, open the addon's Settings tab, fill in the values for your institution, and click Save.
4. On the General tab, confirm that Proxy Allowed URLs shows the host you expect.
5. Turn on Active and click Save.

Who can change this

Managing web addons requires the Integrations configuration permission. Staff without it don't see this section of the Customization Manager — see Editing a Role: Configuration Capabilities. Using an active addon needs no configuration permission.

Web addons require Google Chrome

The web addon system is supported only in Google Chrome. See What Is the Aeon 7 Web Staff Client?.

The Web Addons page

The page has two tabs:

• Installed — the addons on your system. The sidebar lists each one with its identifier, an Active or Inactive badge, its version, and when it was last updated. Select an addon to open it on the right.
• Catalog — the addons available from the Atlas addon registry, ready to install.

If you switch addons or tabs with unsaved edits, Aeon asks "Discard unsaved changes?" Choose Stay to keep editing or Discard & continue to drop the edits.

Install an addon

From the catalog

1. Open the Catalog tab. Use Search catalog... to filter by name, description, category, or author.
2. Select an addon. The detail pane shows its Description and Details, the Settings it has (with each default), its Proxy Allowed URLs, its Chrome Extension Patterns, and its Version History.
3. Click Install. To install an older version, pick it from the version list next to the button first.

Aeon confirms with a message such as "Installed "Alma/Primo Catalog Search" v2.4.4." and takes you to the addon on the Installed tab. An addon you already have shows an Installed badge in the catalog; if the catalog has a different version than yours, the button reads Update to v(version). An addon whose versions have all been withdrawn shows No versions available and cannot be installed.

From a package file

If Atlas or a developer gave you a ZIP package, click Install Package at the top of the Installed sidebar and choose the file. The package must be a .zip of 5 MB or less containing a web addon; Aeon refuses anything else, including server addon packages, which belong on the Server Addons page.

Each addon has a unique identifier. Uploading a package whose identifier is already installed is refused with a message giving that identifier — open the installed addon and use Update Package instead.

What a new addon starts with

A newly installed addon is Inactive, so you can configure it before staff see it.

Installing an addon saves the addon's default values as its settings. A setting that shows a default — the standard address of a hosted service, for example — holds that value from the moment of install, whether or not you ever open the Settings tab. Credential settings never have a default; you always enter those yourself.

Configure an addon

Select the addon on the Installed tab. Its name, identifier, version, and author appear at the top, with two tabs below.

General

Item	What it is
Display name	The addon's name in Aeon. Required, 255 characters or fewer.
Active	Active addons are available in the staff web client.
Description	The addon's own description. Read-only.
Registry Source	Shown for addons installed from the catalog: the version installed and when.
Proxy Allowed URLs	The outside addresses this addon may call through Aeon. See Allowed URLs.
Chrome Extension Patterns	The web addresses where the Aeon Chrome extension works with this addon. "No extension patterns configured. Chrome extension integration is not enabled." means the addon doesn't use the extension.

Settings

The Settings tab shows one card per setting: its name, its description, a badge with its type, the input, and — where the addon defines one — a Default value line. An addon with nothing to configure shows "This addon does not expose configurable settings."

A credential setting, such as an API key, is a masked input. Once a value is saved the card shows Configured (enter new value to replace); the saved value is never sent back to your browser. Leave the input empty to keep the saved value, or type a new one to replace it.

Click Save (Ctrl+S / ⌘S) to store your changes, or Cancel to put the form back the way it was. Aeon confirms with a message such as "Saved changes to "Alma/Primo Catalog Search"."

Clearing a setting and saving stores it as blank. Aeon treats a blank as your choice and does not refill it with the default later, including when the addon is updated.

Allowed URLs: which outside services an addon can call

An addon that talks to an outside service — your library system's API, for example — sends those requests through Aeon, and Aeon only passes along requests to addresses on the addon's allowed list. The Proxy Allowed URLs section on the General tab shows that list exactly as Aeon enforces it. In a pattern, * stands for any text.

When the list follows a setting

An addon can declare an allowed URL in terms of one of its own settings, written as the setting's name in braces. The Alma/Primo Catalog Search addon declares a single pattern, {AlmaAPIURL}/*. Aeon fills in the braces from the value you saved for that setting, so the addon may call the API address you entered and nothing else:

• With AlmaAPIURL left at its default, https://api-na.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/almaws/v1, the addon may call:

  https://api-na.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/almaws/v1/*

• With AlmaAPIURL saved as https://gateway.youruniversity.edu/alma/almaws/v1, the addon may call:

  https://gateway.youruniversity.edu/alma/almaws/v1/*

If your institution reaches a service through its own gateway, enter the gateway's address in the setting and save. No change to the addon is needed.

When the enforced list came from a setting, a line under it names the pattern it was resolved from and reminds you to "Change the referenced setting to allow a different host."

The value you enter must be a full address beginning with http:// or https://. A trailing slash is ignored. Aeon does not use a value that contains *, and never fills a pattern from a credential setting. Whatever the list says, Aeon refuses requests to private or internal network addresses.

When the list needs attention

Message under Proxy Allowed URLs	What it means	What to do
"None of the addon's allowed URL patterns could be resolved from its settings."	The setting a pattern refers to is blank, is not a full http:// or https:// address, or contains *. The addon's requests are refused until this is fixed.	Open the Settings tab, enter the full address, and Save.
"The stored proxy configuration for this addon is missing or unreadable."	Aeon could not read what it stored about this addon's package.	Update the addon, or use Update Package to upload its package again.
"No proxy URLs configured. This addon cannot make proxied HTTP requests."	The addon does not call outside services.	Nothing — this is normal for such an addon.

Update an addon

When the catalog has a newer version of an addon you installed from it, the sidebar shows a v(version) available badge and the addon's detail shows an Update available: v(version) banner with the start of the new version's notes. Click Update. Aeon confirms with a message such as "Updated "Alma/Primo Catalog Search" to v2.4.4."

For an addon installed from a file, open Actions (Alt+A / ⌥A), choose Update Package, and select the new ZIP.

Either way, your saved settings are kept. If the new version adds a setting that has a default, that default is saved for you; settings you already saved — including ones you deliberately left blank — are not touched. The allowed URLs and Chrome extension patterns are replaced by the new version's.

Turn an addon on or off, or delete it

Make Active and Make Inactive are in the addon's Actions menu and in the menu on its sidebar entry (hover the entry, or right-click it). They take effect immediately, without Save. The Active switch on the General tab does the same thing as part of a save.

Delete removes the addon's package and its settings, including saved credentials. It cannot be undone.

Delete from the sidebar is immediate

Actions > Delete in the addon's detail asks "Delete addon?" before it removes anything. Delete in the sidebar entry's menu removes the addon as soon as you click it.