Robert Heller
Forum Replies Created
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Forum: Plugins
In reply to: [WebLibrarian] Bulk Upload IssuesIf you are not actually going to use a bar code reader and put bar codes on your books, you probably should just not include the barcode column. The bulk upload with generate unique bar codes. Setting all of the bar codes to the same value will prevent the items from being uploaded.
Question: Does the CSV file include a header line? That is, does the first line itentify the columns and do you enable the header processing? Unless you have the columns in the *correct* order, things are going to work poorly, so it is probably best to use the header processing and include a header line.
I don’t know if Notepad++ has a strict 7-bit ASCII mode, but it is important that the separators (,) and quote marks are the *ASCII* comma and double quote and NOT the UTF-8 characters.
Otherwise, I don’t know. Do you have a short sample from your CSV file that I can look at and/or try to upload to my test site?
Forum: Plugins
In reply to: [WebLibrarian] Bulk Upload IssuesYes, a final check with the text editor is always a good idea.
Forum: Plugins
In reply to: [WebLibrarian] Bulk Upload IssuesHow are you preparing the CSV files? Excel is *notorious* for “misformatting” CSV files. Check the files with a *plain text editor* before uploading. Note for some fields (notably the barcode field) UTF-8 characters will be problematical.
Forum: Plugins
In reply to: [WebLibrarian] Multiple copies of the same bookEach *physical* item in the library needs to have a *unique* bar code. If you have multiple copies of a book, each copy needs to have a different bar code. Don’t use the ISBN or UPC bar codes for your library bar codes.
Forum: Plugins
In reply to: [WebLibrarian] About the reservation logicNo queue. “B” can checkout, even though “A” reserved first.
Forum: Plugins
In reply to: [WebLibrarian] Some more basics inquiry….1. Are there are due date to cancel for a reservation hv been made but patron hv not borrowed that book?
Holds have an expiration date and the loan period for the item is used to compute the expiration date of the hold.
2. Possible to assign different type of patrons with a) different amount of books can be borrowed? b) with differnent days for a book to be borrowed?
This would require major changes to the code.
3) How to modify the number of books can be borrowed? (Now is unlimit)
This would require changes to the code. Probably these changes would be simple.
4) How to modify the number of renewal for each patron? (Now is 3 times)
This would require a change to the code. The renewal count is currently hardwired to 3 in WebLibrarian.php.
Forum: Plugins
In reply to: [WebLibrarian] Date FormatYou will have to edit the file includes/short_codes.php to change the displayed date format.
Forum: Plugins
In reply to: [WebLibrarian] Error display on checkout items?Ok, this looks like a real bug. I suspect I am not carrying some state info into the pagination link code. I’ll have a look and make an update soon.
Forum: Plugins
In reply to: [WebLibrarian] French translationSend them to support@deepsoft.com. This will open a ticket, which I will resolve once I merge the files into the plugin.
Forum: Plugins
In reply to: [WebLibrarian] Enquire some basics of this plugin, as a libarian.Yes, the “Hold List” is available as a feature of the Circulation Desk page. There is not “export”, but the Librarian should be able to use the Print function of the web browser to make a hard copy to carry down to the stacks and collect the books on hold and bring them to the hold shelf.
Forum: Plugins
In reply to: [WebLibrarian] Translation to Brazilian PortugueseI believe there already is a brazilian portuguese translation.
Forum: Plugins
In reply to: [WebLibrarian] Issues w/ List Checked Out ItemsI am not able to re-create your problem. Can you give be the *exact* squence to reproduce it?
Forum: Plugins
In reply to: [WebLibrarian] Bug in new version.Fix pushed…
Forum: Plugins
In reply to: [WebLibrarian] Enquire some basics of this plugin, as a libarian.There are three “roles”: librarian, senioraid (staff), and volunteer. The librarian has access to everything, the senioraid has access to the circulation and the collection, and the volunteer only has access to the circulation. You can promote patrons to volunteers. Note that is the whole circulation and can check out any patron, not just themselves.
The original intent/design was based on practices at the Wendell Free Library. There is one paid Library Director and one Assistant Librarian and some Senior Aids. The Library Director is mostly in her office dealing with admin stuff — paying bils, ordering books, and so on (yes, she will work the circulation desk at times). Some days of the week the Assistant Librarian is there and the Library Director has the day off. But much of the time a Senior Aid or a volunteer “mans” the circulation desk. Note: the volunteers are just library patrons who have volunteered for a a few hours each week. But there is always a paid staff member on hand “minding the store”. While the volunteers can and do check their own books out the idea of patrons in general checking their own books out was never contemplated. The WebLibrarian plugin does not have a mechanism specificity to do that. So, the short answer is to just make all of your patrons “volunteers”, with the obvious security concerns: Do you want patrons to be able to “see” what other patrons has checked out? Do you want patrons checking out books on each other’s cards (patron id)? These might not be issues, other than the obvious privacy issues. To have a “proper” self-serve library system, would need some major rewriting of the code with some special attention to these security and privacy issues. (No this is not something I have any interest in doing.) Some food for thought.
Forum: Plugins
In reply to: [WebLibrarian] Enquire some basics of this plugin, as a libarian.For point 4, I login as Libarian and checked through, seems cannot trace the exact area to apply outstanding fines…. Can explain more sepcific?
It is on the Patron Admin Page, along with the rest of the Patron info (eg name, address, phone number, esp. date, etc. The field is not modified programmitally — to do that would require lots of code hacking.
You select the
Patronsdashboard menu (when logged in as the Librarian), and then under the Patron Name, select the Edit link in the hover menu. This gives you a page where the Librarian can edit the Patron’s info: telephone, name, address, etc. One of the editable fields is the Outstanding Fines. The plugin does not do anything with this field — it is never checked (eg to block checkouts) and never updated when books are overdue. The librarian can just record a value there by manually editing the field. When a patron goes to view/edit his/her info it is displayed, but the patron cannot change it (the patron can change his/her name, telephone number and address).