Discovery and E-Resources Guide

NDE: A Quick Guide to What You Need to Know

ExLibris will be sunsetting Primo VE and Primo Analytics within the next few years and will be replacing it with NDE (Next Discovery Experience) and Mixpanel. The FLVC consortium will have early access to the new NDE interface in Production on June 8th for FLVC and institutions to start testing, configuring, and developing the new interface for a Go Live date in Summer 2026. The Mixpanel access will be announced at a later date.

Things to keep in mind:

• FLVC will be kicking off the implementation project for the update to NDE and Mixpanel in mid to late July.
  • The implementation project will coordinate training, consortial configuration decisions, consortial systems development, and communication of all of the above.
• Institutions do not need to start testing and configuring until after the implementation kick off.
• The NDE that is being released to us is still a work in progress by ExLibris. The Timeline can be found here: NDE Release Plan
• FLVC will be developing training webinars to support institutions in configuring the new NDE.
  • Announcements for training webinars will go out to the ILS Coordinators and PRIMO listservs.
  • Recordings will be posted on the NDE Implementation LibGuide when it is published.
• FLVC will be relying on input from relevant MCLS Standing Committees, including the User Interfaces Standing Committee, as well as creating implementation task forces to make consortial configuration decisions.
• All FLVC members will switch over from Primo VE to NDE at the same time. The specific date is TBD, but is expected to be summer 2026.
  • With this in mind, it is very important to NOT click on the "Switch to Live" menu option in any configured NDE view until the agreed upon date.

Getting Started:

The following steps have been adapted from this ExLibris page: Go NDE - Steps to Transition to NDE UI 

1. STEP 1 - Enable NDE views - You can create NDE views that will exist in parallel with each of your current Primo views.
2. STEP 2 - Test and Review Configuration - For each NDE view, you should test to make sure your existing functionality is working and consider taking advantage of new NDE configuration enhancements.
3. STEP 3 - Brand your NDE view - Get creative with the look and feel and the new landing page.
4. STEP 4 - Start getting familiar with MixPanel - FLVC has already contacted ExLibris about enabling MixPanel for the consortium. Information about access will be forthcoming.
5. STEP 5 - Go Live - All FLVC members will go live on the same day. Specific date is TBD, but is expected to be summer 2026.

What to do - more details and images are included in the "NDE UI Enablement" link below

To create an NDE view:

1. Open your Views List page in Alma - Configure>Discovery>Display Configuration>Configure Views
2. Click the ellipse next to the view you would like to configure for NDE and choose "Duplicate for NDE" - the new view will be NDE and will retain the settings of the old view.

Note: When creating a duplicate NDE view, there is a prompt to create a code. This code can only contain alphanumeric characters and underline (ex: 'NDE' or 'NDE_TEST'). As seen in the screenshot above, this code will be the view's name in the Configuration Views list and the code will contain the original code of the view that was duplicated.

To see the new view:

1. Click the ellipse next to the NDE view you created and choose "Go to View"

Remember - DO NOT use the "Switch to Live" option on any of your NDE views until the specified Go Live date. There will be a confirmation prompt with the option to cancel if "Switch to Live" is accidentally selected, but please note that once "Switch to Live" has been enabled there is no easy way to revert this change. 

When you create your NDE test view, consider adding text  similar to this, reminding users to not "Switch to Live"

The NDE User Interface is mainly an interface upgrade. All discovery-related data managed in Alma (such as local fields, local resource types, external data sources, labels, and other configurations) remain unchanged and utilizes your existing set-up.

This approach limits the learning curve and provides a strong starting point for migrating to the new UI.

• Many labels have been reused. New labels for the NDE UI are easily identified and start with the prefix nde.

• You can use the existing Primo VE documentation in most cases. Configurations specific to NDE will be marked as such.

• As we shift from AngularJS to Angular 18, the new NDE customization Framework will support the same customization options and introduce new ones. In addition, we plan to add configuration options for common customization activities to simplify the customization process. More information will be provided when available.

What to do - more details and images are included in the "Overview of the NDE" link below

• Review Main Menu links 
  • Review list of new NDE Labels that can be customized
• Review your search scopes (Everything, Library Catalog, Statewide Catalog, etc.) 
  • review customizable NDE Labels
• Review Advanced Search 
  • review customizable NDE Labels
• Review your facets 
  • review customizable NDE Labels
• If you use the Resource Recommender, review it. Notice you can change the location of the banner.
• Review Brief Record Display  
  • review customizable NDE Labels
  • **In Config Views, you can now check a box to display a Summary and/or Snippet (if available)
  • You can now group record actions in the following categories: Share Actions, Export Actions, Citation, and Save to Favorites. The Share Actions and Export Actions are configurable from this tab.
• Review the Full Display for a record  
  • review customizable NDE Labels
  • **MARC 034 - if you have coordinates here, you now have the ability to check the box to display map widget
  • **A configuration option was added to indicate whether a section is expanded by default.
• Review Enhanced Request Forms  
  • review customizable NDE Labels
  • **Booking Request Form has new parameters
• Review Collections Discovery display - now includes the ability to search from any Collections Discovery screen
  • review customizable NDE Labels
  • **Collections Discovery can now be added as a facet (Config Views >Brief Results tab)
• Review Enhanced User Area  
  • Dashboard is customizable
  • review customizable NDE Labels
• ****Manage Customization Package tab
  • From the NDE Best Practices link below, pay attention to the section labeled Understanding the File Structure of a Customization Package
  • A color theme can now be selected from this tab
• Review Unique JS Configurations in Customization Package
• Third party integrations
  • As Ex Libris switches to Angular 18, they plan to make third party integrations easier, not requiring much programming knowledge. Current customizations will need to be addressed. Details have not been released, but we've heard these products mentioned:
    • StackMap
    • ThirdIron
    • Browzine
    • SpringShare products

Specific suggestions and training will be forthcoming.