Alma TXT Export – Automated (SFTP Method)

Modified on Tue, 24 Feb at 12:07 AM

When Should I Use the Automated TXT Export Method?

The Automated TXT Export method is recommended if:

You are using the TXT export workflow rather than the OAI Publishing Profile.
You operate in a multicampus or shared Institution Zone (IZ) environment and require strict campus-level separation of holdings.
You prefer snapshot-based exports delivered via SFTP.

If your institution is using the BrowZine OAI Publishing Profile method, please refer to the Publishing Profile documentation instead.

Please make sure you have already configured a SFTP Connection to our server at sftp.thirdiron.com. If you have not done so, please refer to the instructions here: Alma - Configuring a SFTP Connection

Once the SFTP Connection(s) have been set up, follow the instructions below to schedule the automation component. Note that you will need to follow these instructions for EACH campus that has an instance of BrowZine/LibKey.

1. Go to Admin -> Manage Jobs and Sets -> Run a Job

2. Select “Export Electronic Portfolios”

** If using a Title-level set (single-campus), select “Export Electronic Titles” instead.

3. Select your defined logical set.

Select the logical set you created for this export.

Single-Campus Alma: If you are a single-campus institution, we recommend defining your set as:

Electronic Titles where Material Type equals “Journal”

This results in one row per journal title in the export.

Multicampus Alma (Shared Institution Zone): If you operate in a multicampus Alma environment and require campus-level separation, we recommend defining your set as:

Electronic Portfolios where Material Type equals “Journal”

Your set should be scoped to include only the portfolios belonging to the intended campus. This may involve filtering by:

Campus code
Owning institution
Available for group
Local coverage

Portfolio-level sets typically provide more deterministic campus isolation.

Important: Do not mix Electronic Titles and Electronic Portfolios in the same export job.

The example below shows a set defined at the Electronic Titles level. Multicampus institutions using portfolio-level TXT export should instead define an Electronic Portfolios set.

If you need additional assistance in defining a set, please refer to the Ex Libris Manage Search Queries and Sets documentation, under the "Creating Logical Sets" section.

*** CONSORTIA MEMBERS ***

Use the Combined Results Filter to configure Alma to add the Network Zone (NZ) search results to the Institution tab (IZ).

First, contact Ex Libris to enable this feature for you. Once it's activated, use the option “Search scope: Combined results” in order to include in the set titles managed in the Network zone for you.

If you operate within a consortial or Network Zone (NZ) Alma configuration:

Determine whether the TXT export will be generated centrally or at the member level.
If exporting at the member level, ensure the defined Logical Set includes only the portfolios or titles belonging to that institution and aligns with the selected export job (Electronic Titles or Electronic Portfolios)..
If strict institutional separation is required, portfolio-level sets are typically recommended.

Because consortial configurations vary, confirm your scoping approach with your Alma administrator before scheduling your TXT export.

The example below illustrates a sample configuration with this option enabled.

The example above shows a set defined at the Electronic Titles level. Consortial or multicampus institutions using the TXT method may instead define their set at the Electronic Portfolios level when institutional separation is required.

4. Configure the export task parameters:

* Physical Format: TXT schema

* Number of records in file: One File

* Export into folder: Private

* FTP configuration: BrowZine FTP (or whatever you named your SFTP Connection to the sftp.thirdiron.com server)

Do not modify the generated TXT file structure or header fields. The automated job will deliver the file exactly as generated by Alma.

5. Review and Confirm

Schedule the job in the "Schedule" panel using the following settings:

* Frequency: Weekly

* Every: 1 week(s)

* On: Saturday (our system checks for updated files each Sunday, so scheduling the job on Saturday helps ensure timely processing)

* At: 10:00 (the time is not critical so you can adjust as needed to accomodate other tasks)

* Schedule Name: any name of your choosing - we recommend using "CAMPUS NAME - BrowZine" so that it's clear as to which campus this scheduled job belongs to.

You can set "Email Notifications" if you wish to be notified when the job runs to our SFTP server each week.You are also welcome to setup a notification to come to support@thirdiron.com, which will alert us as well, although our system automatically checks for updated files each Sunday.

Hit Submit once done.

6. Hit Confirm when the confirmation window pops up

You should be deposited on the Scheduled Manual Jobs tab after you confirm, but if not you can navigate to

Admin > Monitor Jobs > Scheduled Manual Jobs to edit or delete schedules.

7. Notify Us

Once the schedule has been confirmed, please email us at support@thirdiron.com to confirm this has been set up so that we can "turn on" the automated updates on our end. Note that our scheduler will not run until we are notified that the Alma configuration is complete.

Running the job manually

If you ever need to run a manual update outside of the weekly automated schedule, you can do so by using the "Run Now" feature in the Options menu (three dots next to the scheduled job item).

This might be done after making a sizable/important collection change that you wish to have reflected on our end right away (you must also notify us at support@thirdiron.com to request a manual Alma refresh so that we know to trigger the corresponding update from our end to harvest the newly exported data).

If you have any questions, please contact us at support@thirdiron.com.