May 2003 - Koha-devel - lists.koha-community.org

Ding, ding... koha 1.9.3 just arrived at sourceforge airport. Welcome onboard
by paul POULAIN 20 Jun '03

20 Jun '03

This release add a lot of bugfixes, a 1st z3950 support, and a script for migration from previous ILS. FEATURE FREEZE ! --------- This version is the last version with new features before 2.0. Please, report bugs on bugs.koha.org, and feel free to fix them (through patch or cvs commit) PACKAGE NEEDED : --------- Update your MARC::Record to get the latest version (1.26). Koha won't work with old versions, and bulkmarcimport.pl need MARC::Batch.pm, whichi is recent. MARC::Record 1.25 works to, but reports hundred of warnings in error_log. pls upgrage to 1.26 ! DB modifications : --------- * the marc_breeding table has been modified. A row "encoding" varchar(40) has been added. It's used to manage character encoding. * the z3950_servers table has been modified. A row "syntax" varchar(40) has been added. It's used to manage character encoding. z3950 : --------- * the z3950 script in admin part of Koha has been fixed and can be used and translated. * z3950 cataloguing : when you reach the MARC-cataloguing screen, a new link appear : z3950 search. * If you click on this link, a popup appears, and the search begins. The window is refreshed every 2 seconds, until all servers answered. * The avaible records are shown in the popup. Click on the one you want, and... the popup closes and the biblio is copied in the cataloguing screen. This works ONLY IF the z3950 daemon is launched. It's located at $kohadir/scripts/z3950daemon/ * MODIFY the scripts to fit you directory structure. * Warning : due to a small bug, processqueue is in $kohadir/cgi-bin/z3950/ directory, not in the script one. * Start daemon in a non-X shell, or launch processqueue in a shell, and KEEP IT OPEN. iso2709 file import : --------- This tools is very important and was waiting by libraries that plans to migrate from a previous ILS. VERY IMPORTANT : BEFORE using this script, take care of your MARC parameters, and check them twice. If they are wrong, you will get wrong results... It's located (in CVS tree) at $koharoot/misc/bulkmarcimport.pl It loads an iso2709 file into the ACTIVE Database. My 1st tests on sample files shows it works quite fine. Feel free to try it. How it works ? enter ./bulkmarcimport in a console, and look. KNOWN LIMIT : If the barcode of an item does not exists, the scripts report an SQL error, and continue. BUT the corresponding item is not in the non-marc db, so it can't be requested or loaned. sample file : --------- The sample file has been removed from this release, as it's buggy (no MARC datas, making it quite useless) BUG FIXED (see bugs.koha.org for more infos) ========= A lot... (around 35). Thanks to Mike that fixed a lot, Steve that fixes some, MJ Ray that upgraded the installer for non-root install, and Chris that fixed some and begins backport of non-marc stuff from 1.2 Bugs still open in bugs.koha.org ======================= A lot... (around 60. some being really trivial to fix, some being more important) TODO ===== * some GUI reordering, as planned with Rachel from Katipo and others (paul & others) * finishing backport of non-marc cataloguing & non-marc simple acquisition from 1.2 version (chris) * bug fixes (everybody) * cleaning z3950 old searches (more than 1 hour/day old ?) (paul) -- Paul POULAIN Consultant indépendant en logiciels libres responsable francophone de koha (SIGB libre http://www.koha-fr.org)

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Re: [Koha] Barcode scanner - keyboard wedge or not
by paul POULAIN 06 Jun '03

06 Jun '03

Waylon Robertson wrote: >16/05/03 01:54:03, paul POULAIN <paul.poulain(a)free.fr> wrote: >Well.. incidently.. I know nothing about the template system.... and I know only english. Just want it in pre-template perl? > > Fairly simple : the templates are stored in a specific file & path, and looks like : /<HTML> <TMPL_VAR NAME=startmenuissue> <p> Each box needs to be filled in with fine,time to start charging,charging cycle<br> eg 1,7,7 = $1 fine, after 7 days, every 7 days.<p> <table> <tr bgcolor="white"> <TMPL_LOOP NAME=firstrowloop> <td><TMPL_VAR NAME=description></td> </TMPL_LOOP> </tr> <form action=/cgi-bin/koha/updatecharges.pl method=post> <TMPL_LOOP NAME=tablebodyloop> <tr bgcolor="whitw"> <td><TMPL_VAR NAME=description></td> <TMPL_LOOP NAME=rowloop> <td><input type=text name="<TMPL_VAR NAME=name>" value="<TMPL_VAR NAME=value>" size=6></td> </TMPL_LOOP> </tr> </TMPL_LOOP> </table> <input type=submit> </form> <TMPL_VAR NAME=endmenuissue> </body> </HTML>/ It's a mix of true HTML and H::T variables. The H::T are replaced during execution by "true" value. The templates are managed by specific koha-subs, that looks which one to use and check for auth : /use strict; use CGI; use C4::Auth; use C4::Output; use C4::Interface::CGI::Output; use C4::Database; use HTML::Template; my $query = new CGI; my ($template, $loggedinuser, $cookie) = get_template_and_user({template_name => "parameters/admin-home.tmpl", query => $query, type => "intranet", authnotrequired => 0, flagsrequired => {parameters => 1}, debug => 1, }); output_html_with_http_headers $query, $cookie, $template->output; / Look at : http://html-template.sourceforge.net/html_template.html#tutorial for a tutorial and some explanations. HTH -- Paul POULAIN Consultant indépendant en logiciels libres responsable francophone de koha (SIGB libre http://www.koha-fr.org)

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Templates
by Owen Leonard 03 Jun '03

03 Jun '03

I'm glad to see discussion of the templates, since that's my project right now as well. I took the intranet templates from the 1.9.3 release and did a bunch of clean-up. Here's what I did: - added DOCTYPE declaration where appropriate - added optional closing tags in some cases (</li>, </option>) - converted html tags to lower-case - made sure all attributes are quoted - fixed any minor markup errors I could see I think they're in better shape, hopefully I didn't introduce any errors through all that search-and-replace. I zipped it up and posted it to our site if anyone's interested: http://koha.athenscounty.lib.oh.us/Koha193-intranet-templates_revised.tgz I think we still need to work to make it easier to adapt and write custom templates. A couple people have mentioned the idea of producing 'skeletal' versions of the templates, maybe just listing all the available variables, form structures, etc. I'd love to hear other folks' input on this, including any suggestions for how to proceed. -- Owen ---- Nelsonville Public Library Koha 1.9.3

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z39.50 Search
by Thien Ho 03 Jun '03

03 Jun '03

Hello Paul, I'm testing z39.50 search in Koha and having problems. It does not seem to work as it does in Koha-1.2.3. First, I think it's supposed to search at the specified z39.50 server. If I add serveral z39.50 servers in Koha, how can I tell Koha to search using specific z39.50 server? Secondly, can I search a z39.50 server using keyword, title, author as in 1.2.3? For now, I couldn't figure out how to do that. TIA, Thien ctho(a)sdf.lonestar.org SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org

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Simple Acquisitions
by Owen Leonard 28 May '03

28 May '03

I'm trying to figure out Simple Acquisitions in 1.9.3. We have acquisitions set to 'simple' and marc 'on'. I went into 'acquisitions' and entered an ISBN, and clicked the 'Add new Biblio' link. Once I'm in the 'MARC biblio' entry interface, I can click to open the first three 'sections' (0-2, up to 300--PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION). The rest of the section links (3-9) don't bring up anything when clicked. Are these other fields inaccessible during simple acquisitions? -- Owen ---- Nelsonville Public Library Koha 1.9.3

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Re: koha español...
by Pat Eyler 28 May '03

28 May '03

On Wed, 28 May 2003 Pablo.Reyes-cabrera(a)lium.univ-lemans.fr wrote: > Hello, > i have a problem with the subscription.... Ahh, it seems there was a small misconfiguration that affected incoming mail from external servers. If you've previously tried to subscribe and it hasn't worked, please try again ... everything should be fine now. -pate > > pAblO > > > Hola Javier, > There are a couple of groups working on a spanish translation of Koha > right now. Since interest seems to be growing, I've started a mailing > list to coordinate the work. > > If anyone is interested in joining the mailing list, please send an email > to: > koha-subscribe(a)es.koha.org > > and follow the instructions you recieve in return. >

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tropheesdulibre => more complete news.
by paul POULAIN 28 May '03

28 May '03

Hi, As some persons asked for more informations aroudn tropheesdulibre, here are some. 1st of all, i put a scanned trophy. As you can see, it's awful. It's due to the fact that it's done in plexiglass, on 3 differents parts, for 10cm depth. quite hard to scan, I couldn't do better, sorry. 1st of all, I arrived 1 day before the ceremony. It was quite a good idea : I met some really nice hackers from other projects, and some ppl involved in free software. We went to bed at 11:30PM, and 3 of us stayed till 1AM to install the new-top-wonderful-wifi-card-with-pcmcia_ps-patched-kernel. I went to bed :-) Then, it was time for the "tropheesdulibre" day... Around 250 persons were here. Many hackers, with debian of deCss t-shirts, and many businessmen too. 9:00 -> 9:30 : RMS evangelist was here to say once more that freedom was more important than anything else (I must admit that even if I have respect for RMS, I think that his speech was not productive for business men/women). 9:30->10:30 : roberto DiCosmo had a very interesting speech (i think everybody know this guy ? In france, he's well known anyway). something around "why will free software win". 11:00-> 12:30 : time with journalists. With a very very interesting speech from M. Lang, french scientist from CNRS, about free software economy. To resume, he said "when you share something like your bred, you loose some. but when you share your software, you earn more than you loose". 12:30-> 14:00 : time for lunch. With lot of alcool I didn't drink (alcool makes me ill) :-) 14:00-> 16:00 : time for trophy. I don't think it was a nice ceremony. Some interesting speechs, but the interviewer asked always the same questions. 16:00-> 18:00 : eating again :-) 18:00-> ... trying to go back home. But my 1st train was late, so I failed to have my 2nd one and had to stay in Paris for the night. My experience : I met some really interesting ppl : * The hacker that works on abuledu : a specific linux distro based on mandrake, that is builded for french schools. He plans to add Koha on AbulEdu in the near future. * Some journalists that will write a paper about Koha. They work on very specific news that are only for public agencies. So it's really more interesting than being in linuxworld or something like that. * A company that is involved only in free software, and has some contacts with public agencies libraries. As a conclusion : it was a very interesting meeting for business purposes for me. And we won !!! I have to say many thanks to steve that subscribed for all of us :-) An important news, about something else : In France, there is a very famous and important customer association (UFC-Que choisir). They announced yesterday that they attacked in justice (approximative translation...) 5 "majors" (EMI Music France, Warner Music France, Universal Pictures Vidéo, Auchan, FNAC) because of their copy-protection on recent CD that makes them unuseable on some recent equipements. It's the 1st stage of a more global lobbying action against the EUCD (european version of dmca) UFC is a very important association here in France : every radio or TV news speaks of this action. they have a very good press-relation manager. The court decision will occur at end of june. UFC is known to attack only when sure to win. -- Paul POULAIN Consultant indépendant en logiciels libres responsable francophone de koha (SIGB libre http://www.koha-fr.org)

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Re: [Koha-devel] More about templates
by Owen Leonard 27 May '03

27 May '03

> Michael W. Hansen wrote: > > The best thing that I can think of off the top > of my head would be > >to go the SourceForge Web CVS browser and look > at the diffs between the > >version you started from and the current version Back in six months! :) Paul wrote: > We agree that's not a really nice method. We're > thinking about tools to > help checking the differences. I'm glad to hear it's an issue under consideration. I'd love to hear more about the solutions being considered. Maybe some discussion will prompt some movement on the issue? -- Owen

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Re: [Koha] Koha in Spanish????
by Pat Eyler 26 May '03

26 May '03

Hola Javier, There are a couple of groups working on a spanish translation of Koha right now. Since interest seems to be growing, I've started a mailing list to coordinate the work. If anyone is interested in joining the mailing list, please send an email to: koha-subscribe(a)es.koha.org and follow the instructions you recieve in return. As far as what needs to be done, the html templates can be translated (this is a pretty straightforward issue), specific features of interest to the spanish community need to be specified and developed, and a spanish speaking Koha community needs to be developed. The third item is likely the hardest, and can be addressed on the koha(a)es.koha.org mailing list. I'll try to hang out there, pero yo hablo un pocito espanol. mucho gusto, -pate Pat Eyler Kaitiaki/manager migrant Linux sys admin the Koha project ruby, shell, and perl geek http://www.koha.org http://pate.eylerfamily.org On Mon, 26 May 2003, JAVIER RICARDO MEJIA C. wrote: > Hi, I�m Javier want to kwon is exist a version of Koha in Spanish ??? > or what can i do for change the lenaguaje???? > > > Thanks, > Javier >

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Re: MyLibrary & Koha
by Eric Lease Morgan 26 May '03

26 May '03

On 5/15/03 9:47 AM, Nicolas Morin <nicolas.morin(a)scd.uhp-nancy.fr> wrote: > How could Koha and MyLibrary come together? ... We have many oss building > blocks : there's no way Koha is going to become something like Millenium, but > MyLibrary + Koha + DSpace + OpenILL, etc... could soon provide something not > too far from it. For that to happen they would have to have the ability to > work together perfectly and also, I feel, to appear under one unifying > "umbrella" (OSS4LIB?) that would make this "de-centralized" system visible and > credible to librarians and library managers. What should we do to achieve > these strategic goals? I don't know. Perfect interoperability between the > various oss projects I guess. Maybe XML, SOAP and web services are the way > forward? Maybe developpers from the various projects could come up with > something like a "roadmap for interoperability"? On 5/15/03 2:04 PM, Pat Eyler <pate(a)eylerfamily.org> wrote: > I'm working on an idea in Koha which might fit well with what you're doing ... > > I've created an engine to extract data from Koha and syndicate it with RSS > (0.91). It's pretty simple, and very extensible. You can look at it here: > http://www.kohalabs.com/rss/ -- for small values of looking at it Nicolas and Pat, I think your ideas are very exciting, and I hope you don't mind me sharing my reply with wider audiences. Like other people, I believe the present implementations of integrated library systems are overly monolithic and represent "black boxes" when it comes to interoperability. For a long time I have thought about "rethinking the integrated library system." Now these ideas are being expressed in forums such as OSS4Lib as well the smaller OCKHAM group: http://ockham.library.emory.edu/ In fact, the OCKHAM group has submitted an NSF proposal to address just these issues. Only time will tell whether or not the proposal is accepted. IMHO, there are three technical ways to make things like Koha and MyLibrary (as well as other library-related software) work better together: 1) common application program interfaces (APIs) - APIs center around particular computer programming languages. There are Perl APIs, Java APIs, PHP APIs, etc. This approach is easy to implement if everybody were to agree on the programming language. Not likely. This approach is also prone to operating system dependences. Sort of limiting. 2) common file formats - The sharing of common file formats has a proven track record. MARC records are an excellent example. The use of one or more XML vocabularies (RSS/RDF, MARCXML, EAD, etc.) represent the more modern and more flexible formats of today. The sharing of common file formats is not dependent on a network as well as opens the door for storing and archiving data/information. Like the written word, common file formats transcend space and time, but they are not necessarily accessible in the here and now. 3) common network protocols - Common network protocols have made the Web what it is today. None of what we do would be possible without things like DNS, SMTP, FTP, and HTTP. Network protocols are essentially sharing data via conversations between computers taking place at a specific time and a specific place. They are operating system independent and immediate, but utterly dependent on a fragile, ever-present, working Internet connection. As Nicolas mentions above, network protocol techniques such as Web services seem to offer a lot of potential. As Pat demonstrates RSS version 0.91 files can be the content shared via a Web Service, such as a SOAP envelope. This is very similar to the framework described in the OCKHAM NSF proposal. In this proposal a light-weight reference model will be borrowed, modified and/or articulated -- essentially an XML vocabulary -- that will be used as the common language for sharing data/information between library services and modules. These services will then publicize their availability on a peer-to-peer network. Other peers (clients) will identify required services by first querying the network. Peers will then exchange data/information via some sort of Web Service and the XML vocabulary. Many of the tools necessary to make these ideas a reality already exist such as JXTA for the peer-to-peer networking and SOAP for the Web Service. What we need to do is two things. First we need to enhance our software so it can operate as a Web Service. While not necessarily trivial, this process is well documented and supported by lot o' API's. Second, and more importantly, we need to agree on a file format/XML vocabulary to encode our data into. This is the hard part. We need to borrow, modify, or articulate a data structure that will hold the data/information we want to exchange. Based on my knowledge, I advocate using RDF. RSS (RDF Site Summary) 1.0 is a particular implementation of RDF: RDF Site Summary (RSS) is a lightweight multipurpose extensible metadata description and syndication format. RSS is an XML application, conforms to the W3C's RDF Specification and is extensible via XML-namespace and/or RDF based modularization. http://web.resource.org/rss/1.0/ The nicest things about RDF is it extensibility. By defining any number of additional XML namespaces, it is possible to encode many types of information into a single XML file/stream. For example, it is possible to include Dublin Core, RSS, or a made-up namespace (such as a MyLibrary name space as I have done) for the purposes of encoding the necessary data/information. I've done this in a minor way as illustrated and briefly described here: http://dewey.library.nd.edu/mylibrary/rdf/ I think the things outlined above are entirely possible. Again, the hard parts would be integrating a Web Service into our applications and agreeing on an XML vocabulary. The Web Services are well documented and can be implemented through existing program (PHP, Perl, Java, etc.) libraries. The really hard part would be agreeing on the XML vocabulary. This agreement will only come after lots o' discussion and communication. Comments are desired, and what are our next steps? -- Eric Lease Morgan Head, Digital Access and Information Architecture Department University Libraries of Notre Dame (574) 631-8604

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