Improved presentation of ILIAS links in social media

1 Initial Problem

The way links to ILIAS resources are presented in social media tools is often not very satisfying, e.g. link is called as login page.

2 Conceptual Summary

Many social media platforms or communication tools provide links to web pages with additional information rather than just a simple link. Links are often presented as "cards" with a title, description, and often an image:

Although there is no official standard for it, virtually all major social media platforms use the Open Graph protocol: https://ogp.me/

With ILIAS 9 we want to support such Open Graph information for Reposity objects in ILIAS.

With the GlobalScreen service (Scope Layout\Meta) we already have the possibility to add additional headers to the rendering of the final HTML page. This is used e.g. to provide LOM keyword (see Feature Request Expose LOM keywords in HTML header).

• og:title: Title of the Object
• og:locale: Language (if set in Metadata)
• og:site_name: Name of the ILIAS-Installation (configured in Administration)
• og:type: Always 'website'
• og:description: Description of the Object, if available
• og:image: Defaults to the ILIAS-Logo (which must be converted to JPG or PNG, since OG doesn't support SVG). In a future release, a dynamically genereted Images could be used as well
• og:url: Static-Link to the ILIAS-Object

This information can and may only be sent if the anonymous user also has visible rights to the desired object. If there is no permission, no information will be sent.

3 User Interface Modifications

3.1 List of Affected Views

• No changes are made to the UI or new UI concepts are introduced.

3.2 User Interface Details

No changes are made to the UI or new UI concepts are introduced.

3.3 New User Interface Concepts

No changes are made to the UI or new UI concepts are introduced.

3.4 Accessibility Implications

Since only HTML header information is extended, there is no impact on the accessibility of the page.

4 Technical Information

Debugging and implementing Open Graph locally can be done with Browser-Extensions such as

• https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/open-graph-preview-and-debug/
• https://og.nullnull.dev/

5 Privacy

Only additional headers in HTML are sent. The accessibility is not affected or changed. 

6 Security

Only information that may also be seen as an anonymous user may be issued. This means that at least Visible permission must exist for the desired object, since title, description, etc. are already visible and this information may also be available as OG data.

7 Contact

• Author of the Request: Kunkel, Matthias [mkunkel]
• Maintainer: Schmid, Fabian [fschmid] for Global Screen Service
• Implementation of the feature is done by: Fuhrer, Thibeau [tfuhrer]

8 Funding

If you are interest in funding this feature, please add your name and institution to this list.

• …

9 Discussion

JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe], 11 JUL 2022 : We highly appreciate this suggestion and schedule the feature for ILIAS 9.

JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe], 19 DEC 2022: Fabian asks for some support by experienced developers. Stephan and Pascal are willing to help. Fabian will contact them.

10 Implementation

OpenGraph metadata is output in the header of the respective page:

With a browser extension, these can also be viewed directly as a preview. How this data is displayed in Twitter, Facebook or other services, for example, depends on the respective services.

Test Cases

Test cases completed at 24 FEB 2023 by Lorenz, Katharina [klorenz]

• C54153 : Show ILIAS link in Social Media

Approval

Approved at 29 SEP 2023 by Kunkel, Matthias [mkunkel]