How to enable Elements to search ORCID
Integrating Elements with ORCID is a three-step process. First, you must register with ORCID. Then, you must add your ORCID credentials to Elements and, last, enable Elements to retrieve data from ORCID. Depending on how quickly ORCID responds to your registration request, the entire process can take up to a week.
Note: Prior to requesting access to the live ORCID registry: please ensure your institution is an ORCID member.
Registering with ORCID
To enable Elements to search ORCID, you will need to register your Elements server(s) with ORCID. Please read the article explaining how to register a member API client application on the ORCID support website before completing the registration form for a Production Member API client application. Information on how to configure Elements to connect to ORCID can be found below.
Important: If enabling the ORCID write integration you must connect DEV or UAT instances to the ORCID sandbox NOT the ORCID live registry (see bottom section).
When registering, you should register the URL needed to access the secure (https) version of the page "orcidcallback.html" on your Elements server as your Callback URL.
For example, if the server is located at https://fire.symplectic.co.uk, then the appropriate Callback URL would be: https://fire.symplectic.co.uk/orcidcallback.html. You can check this under Global Settings (System Admin).
Tip: Using a plain http URL for the callback URL represents a security risk whereby attackers could potentially access 'read-limited' data in a user's ORCID profile without their consent. By default, and without explicit configuration changes to Elements to force non-SSL website page use, http callback URLs will not work in any case - only an https callback will function properly. Please be careful to verify that the callback you have registered with ORCID begins with "https://" and not "http://".
Example values for filling in the registration form:
Note: As Elements is an ORCID-enabled system, please ignore the information about having to provide a demo of your integration to ORCID. This will be clear from the ‘Notes for ORCID staff’.
Field | Example value |
|---|---|
Update existing credentials? | "No" - (at least when first registering) |
Notes for ORCID staff | "This is a request to register %Institution Name%'s Symplectic Elements server with ORCID." |
Name of your organization? | Your institution's name, e.g. "Lilliput Institute of Technology" |
Technical Contact e-mail address | The email address of someone who will be responsible for the Elements/ORCID integration at your institution. |
Contact for receiving PIN to access credentials | Must be different from the technical contact email address listed above. Use a second email address, phone number (with country code) to receive an SMS, or Skype handle. If you would prefer to receive the PIN via a different method, please enter it in the notes field. |
Name of your client application (generally, this is the name of your organization) | How Elements is referred to at your institution, e.g.Symplectic Elements at %Institution Name%" |
URL of the home page of your application (to be shown to the user during authorization) | The Home URL of the institution's Elements system, e.g. https://fire.symplectic.co.uk" |
Short description of your client application (max 300 char) | A description of Elements at your institution, e.g."%Institution Name%'s CRIS system" |
Redirect URI 1 | The Callback URL, i.e. the secure (https) URL needed to access the page "orcidcallback.html" on your institution's Elements server, e.g. https://fire.symplectic.co.uk/orcidcallback.html |
Configure Elements with ORCID credentials
A few days after registration, the nominated email address should receive an email containing your ORCID access credentials. Elements should now be configured to make use of these credentials.
In the email from ORCID locate the section similar to this:
<client-id>0000-1111-2222-3333</client-id>
<client-secret>1dfab456-ce45-df56-123f-56abc5df89ee</client-secret>These values should be entered into both the web.config and Synchronise.exe.config files of your Elements instance in the value attribute of the appropriate keys like this
<!--the orcid-consumer-key states the identity of the client institution to Orcid-->
<add key="orcid-consumer-key" value=" 0000-1111-2222-3333"/>
<!--the orcid-consumer-secret proves the identity of the client institution to Orcid-->
<add key="orcid-consumer-secret" value=" 1dfab456-ce45-df56-123f-56abc5df89ee "/>Note: Both the web.config and Synchronise.exe.config files must be configured. After editing these files, you must restart the Synchroniser service on the Scheduled Jobs page within the Elements user interface.
Enable Elements to search ORCID
Given the need to complete the above registration before you can make use of ORCID within Elements, Elements ships with the ORCID data source entirely inactivated by default.
Once the registration and configuration steps described above have been completed ORCID, should be enabled within Elements under Data Source Management (System Admin). On the "Manage Data Sources" page, tick the checkbox to enable ORCID, scroll down and hit the 'Update' button.
Once the source is enabled, users should be able to connect their Elements account to their ORCID account by using the "configure" links available from both their home page and within their search settings.
Note: Although ORCID will allow Elements users to connect their Elements account to their ORCID account at this point, the very first synchronisation will fail (and break the connection) for users who have not yet verified their ORCID account using the email received from ORCID upon registration there. Once broken, the connection must be re-established by the user after properly verifying their ORCID account.
If you plan to integrate Elements and ORCiD in both Development and Production environments
ORCiD recommends registering your QA server against the ORCiD development sandbox so that you can do testing without any fear of corrupting production data. Then, when testing is complete, do a separate registration of your production instance against the ORCiD production environment.
In order to use an Elements instance with ORCiD's sandbox registry you must make changes in both the web.config and Synchronise.exe.config files of your Elements instance to update the relevant web addresses by updating the value attribute of the appropriate keys as shown below:
<!--the orcid-website url. Do not alter.-->
<add key="orcid-website-url" value="https://sandbox.orcid.org" />
<!--the orcid-api-url points to core Orcid API URL. Do not alter.-->
<add key="orcid-api-url" value="https://api.sandbox.orcid.org" />Note: Both the web.config and Synchronise.exe.config files must be configured. After editing these files, you must restart the Synchroniser service on the Scheduled Jobs page within the Elements user interface.