Published at October 27th, 2025 • Last updated 8 days ago

Handle.Net

Handle.net is a unique identifier URL for web pages.  It is used as a unique identifier URL for records (record metadata, not files) in Pure and it will stay static.  Clicking a handle.net URL will redirect you to the record location at the Pure Portal. It is used on Research outputs, Student projects, and Student thesis records.

URL Structure: These unique URLs always consists of the string http://hdl.handle.net/prefix/UUID

 

Concept

Adding Handle.Net IDs to existing publications or during import

In order to to add a handle.net id on existing publications, one needs to do the following:

  • Use the Pure API to update the publication and add a new secondary source id with the source "handle.net" and then the id you want to add as source id.

In order to to add a handle.net id on publications during import, one needs to do the following:

In the publication import xml add the following data snippet, if your handle is 99999/1234:

<v1:externalIds>
  <v1:id type="handle.net">999999/1234</v1:id>
</v1:externalIds>

Installation of Handle.Net

There is currently three versions of the Handle.Net plugin. Select the appropriate version, to see the configuration that applies to that version:

Version 1.x

Pure can act as back-end for a Handle Server. 
Follow these guidelines to make that happen.

  1. Copy the Pure integration code to the Handle server installation (Contact us for download information)
  2. Change the configuration of the Handle server 
    In the server configuration block of the config.dct file, add the following:
"storage_type" = "custom"
"storage_class" = "dk.atira.pure.integration.handle.PureHandleStorage"
"allow_list_hdls" = "no"
 
"storage_config" = {
"pure_ws_url" = "http://localhost:8080/ws/rest"
"pure_assigned_prefix" = "0.NA/12345"
}

Of course, the URL and prefix must be changed to the correct values. 

  1. Restart the Handle server 
     
  2. Enable HANDLE.NET integration in Pure 
    It's found on the administrator tab, and must be enabled. The assigned prefix must be entered here too. 
     
  3. Check that it works 
    This can be done by running the hdl-admin tool (distributed with the Handle server) and lookup a publication from Pure by entering "<prefix>/<uuid-of-pure-publication>" and press “Lookup”.

 

Version 2.x

To install handle.net module version 2.c

  1. Copy the Pure integration code to the Handle server installation (Contact us for download information)
  2. Change the configuration of the Handle server
    In the server configuration block of the config.dct file, add the following:
"storage_type" = "custom"
"storage_class" = "dk.atira.pure.integration.handle.PureHandleStorage"
"allow_list_hdls" = "no"

"storage_config" = {
    "pure_handles" = (
        "<prefix>;<pure ws api url>"
    )
}
 

Of course, the URL and prefix must be changed to the correct values. If the handle.net server should handle more than one Pure installation, add more handles in the pure_handles part

  1. Restart the Handle server
     
  1. Enable HANDLE.NET integration in Pure
    It's found on the administrator tab, and must be enabled. The assigned prefix must be entered here too.
     
  2. Check that it works
    When the handle.net server is running, it can be tested by using the web page, running at <bind ip>:8000 (default settings)

 

Version 3.x

To install handle.net module version 3.c

  1. Copy the Pure integration code to the Handle server installation:
    1. If any, remove existing versions of 'pure-handle.net-x.x-jar-with-dependencies.jar' from your handle installation lib directory.
    2. Download pure-handle.net-3.0.4-jar-with-dependencies.jar
  2. Copy 'pure-handle.net-3.x.x-jar-with-dependencies.jar' to the Handle installation lib directory
  3. Change the configuration of the Handle server
  4. In the server configuration block of the config.dct file, add the following:
"storage_type" = "custom"
"storage_class" = "dk.atira.pure.integration.handle.PureHandleStorage"
"allow_list_hdls" = "no"
 
"storage_config" = {
    "pure_handles" = (
        "<prefix>;<pure ws api url>;<pure ws api key>"
    )
}

The URL and prefix must be changed to the correct values:

  • Prefix:
    • You decide the value for this field.
  • URL: (The earliest version of the API to support this update, is 514.)
    • "http://www.example.com/ws/api/514"
  • API Key:
    • The API Key needs access to Research Output and/or Student Thesis

 

If the handle.net server should handle more than one Pure installation, add more handles in the pure_handles part:

...
 
"storage_config" = {
    "pure_handles" = (
        "<prefix1>;<url for installation 1>;<api-key for installation 1>"
        "<prefix2>;<url for installation 2>;<api-key for installation 2>"
    )
}

If you have configured basic authentication for your web service you can add the username/password details like this:

...
 
"storage_config" = {
    "pure_handles" = (
        "<prefix>;<pure ws api url>;<pure ws api key>;<username>;<password>"
    )
}
  1. Restart the Handle server
     
  2. Enable HANDLE.NET integration in Pure
    It's found on the administrator tab, and must be enabled. The assigned prefix must be entered here too.
     
  3. Check that it works
    When the handle.net server is running, it can be tested by using the web page, running at <bind ip>:8000 (default settings)

Content Support

The handle.net integration currently supports:

  • Research Output
  • Student Thesis

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