August 2006 - Koha-devel - lists.koha-community.org

QA on Stable Branch
by Joshua Ferraro 31 Aug '06

31 Aug '06

Hi all, Now that pierrick has retired as QA manager ... This email is to remind everyone that the 'stable' branch of Koha is so-named because it's supposed be the most 'bug-free' version of Koha. Especially since we're nearing the release of 2.2.6, it's very important that all commits don't break existing functionality. Please, I can't stress this enough, before you commit something, please test the function completely to make sure it works. Also, test any related functions that may be affected by your commit. This may take a few extra minutes, but it will save the rest of us hours of troubleshooting a so-called 'stable' branch. If you do happen to commit something that breaks Koha, please either fix the bugs immediately, or revert the code back to a working state. There's nothing more annoying than trying to troubleshoot someone else's buggy code. Remember, if you wrote something, it will take you much less time to fix a bug than someone else. As a further reminder, there are still 9 'blocker' bugs that we know about, preventing us from releasing 2.2.6. If you own these bugs, please try to either fix them or revert to the last working copy as soon as possible. (here are the blockers: http://tinyurl.com/fvfxw) Thanks, -- Joshua Ferraro SUPPORT FOR OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE President, Technology migration, training, maintenance, support LibLime Featuring Koha Open-Source ILS jmf(a)liblime.com |Full Demos at http://liblime.com/koha |1(888)KohaILS

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rel_3_0 has been created
by Antoine Farnault 30 Aug '06

30 Aug '06

Hi koha-devel, Last week, i have created the rel_3_0 CVS branch and have totaly forgotten to announce it on this list. Shame on me ! (Just spoken about this on IRC) So, this branch - is synchronized with dev_week, and i'll take care to keep it. - containts all the new features provide by zebra, by the SAN, and paul.... etc. - allows tumer to investigate his new features on head. - should be stabilised to be on production for the SAN soon. Cheers, -- Antoine Farnault

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Useful tools for programmers...
by Antoine Farnault 29 Aug '06

29 Aug '06

Hi koha-devel, I've just created a page on the wiki (http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?id=en:development:tools) to list some usefuls tools for programmers. Don't hesitate to list yours. It can change your life ! ;-) -- Antoine Farnault

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New KOHA API at HEAD
by Tümer Garip 26 Aug '06

26 Aug '06

I have started committing a new API to head and here is what is implemented and what is foreseen. The new DB: changes since 2.2.6; 1-All the information related to biblios, items, and authorities are now held in separate MARC records (currently both MARC and MARCXML and will may drop MARC in due time as well.We have to discuss this!). 2- Biblioitems table completely depreceated. 3- Items table has itemnumber-biblionumber-barcode-marc-marxml-timestamp only 4-Biblio table has biblionumber-title-author-itemtype-isbn-issn-frameworkcode-marc-marcxml- timestamp only 5-auth_header table has authid-authtypecode-marc-datecreated 6- marc_subfield_structure renamed biblios_subfield_structure and kohafield dropped,hidden is tiny int(3) 7- marc_tag_structure renamed biblios_tag_structure 8- biblio_framework renamed biblios_framework 9-New tables added: holdings_tag_structure,holdings_subfield_structure,koha_attr,zebraqueue Concepts behind; 1- Items (holdings) is now a complete record in itself. This provides more flexibility with storing data that was supposed to fit in one field in the early version. Now a whole record. But all the sql fields are gone. So anything you want to put it you have to store them in MARC. Thats why those fields with with %9% in them are designed for. 2- Faster circulation. Only update items record. 3- We can hide the items record from a union catalog in Z3950. Private data in items is protected. 4- Frameworks handling is only for record input and display purposes. You can define different frameworks for biblios and authorities only. Holdings frameworks you can design but cannot rename. A framework name is given at biblios level which creates matching frameworks for biblios and holdings. That is if you create a framework called 'Music Records' then you set it up one for biblios and one for holdings. (Its simpler than it sounds) 5- Visibility flag in frameworks is more verbose. You select "Show","Show collapsed" or "Hide" separately for "OPAC" "Intranet" and "Editor" 6- A new koha_attr table provides the field matching between DB fields and MARC record. Apart from a few fields like biblionumber, itembumber etc. that KOHA requires (and have to be defined to work) the rest is upto the system designer what to match. 7- The same table matches Zebra indexing terms to koha terms or field names. I say kohaterms because most of the fields now do not exist. They are pseudo field names so that we can match 'dewey' to some marc field. In the example koha_attr table provided (for MARC21) all bibliographic fields are matched to Bib-1 attributes to make it universally searchable, while all holdings data is private matches 8- Same table allows creating search screens with field labels and not bothering about what the PQF attibute is for it. All is internally taken care of. You have a show in intranet and show in opac flag. A sort flag is added so that any field that sorts automatically gets added to search screens. 9- zebraqueue table is for zebraupdates. Zebra updating cannot keep up with large libraries circulation demands. So this puts updating in a queue and works asynchronosly so that KOHA can go on doing other things. It has a system preference time switch how long to wait between updates from (0 to forever in seconds). Or a batchMode preference to use shadow files of zebra and not to commit until told so. I personally found zebraqueu to be more reliable than batchMode. New Zebra indexing and KOHA meta record: 1- Having separated holdings record from bibliographic earlier zebraindexing was of no use. Zebra is not a relational DB. (I am surprised at people commenting on this subject at koha-devel !!!). 2- A new KOHA meta record is designed based on MARCXML. Currently it holds one bibliographic and many holdings records in marxml but can be extended to hold authorities records as well. 3- Each individual record is fullfledged MARCXML. 4- The design is <kohacollection><koharecord/></kohacollection>. A koha collection can hold many koha meta records. Its usefull for batch indexing of ZEBRA. Yes we can now batch index XML records with ZEBRA! 5- A koha meta record is <koharecord><record/><holdings><record/></holdings></koharecord> Each <record/> is a MARCXML record. The first one is the bibliographic and any record withing the holdings tag is considered a MARCXML item record.Holdings tag can hold 0 to many records. 6- Zebra can display either the whole koharecord, only the bibliographic or the holdings record. Using yaz-proxy an outside connection to Z3950 server (a union catalogue may be) can be limited to see only the bibliographic record. API and whats next; 1- Due to the urgency of our needed to have the system working ASAP so the current committed API is a mixture of 2_2_6 and 3.0 and working ie it uses both MARC iso2709 and MARCXML. The display and search should be written in xsl stysheets for performace. Already tested it with LibXML perl module and results are promising. 2- Using ZOOM the dependency on Event and Net::Z3950 is depreceated. No more deamons for Z3950 searches. This way KOHA may claim full Windows and IE compatibility. The concept is changed so that cataloger may choose servers on the fly and any record he/she retrieves is not a new addition of biblio but just replaces the old one if he/she was modifying one. 3- HTML::Template is replaced with HTML::Template::Pro - for UTF8 issues 4- A top layer UTF8DBI by Pavel Kudinov http://search.cpan.org/~kudinov/ is implemented as part of API - for UTF8 issues 5- KOHA is now fully UTF8 compliant. 6- Repeated fields and adding authorities bug in addbiblio.pl fixed 7- Using hardcoded subfield 9 for linking authorities to biblios removed. A pseudofield called auth_linkid is defined in koha_attr table which can map to anything with the notation '0009' to use subfield 9 for any tag. Thats generally what it is. I will try to provide an upgrade script from 2_2_6 to HEAD soon. In the meantime once all the commit is finished next week you should be able to play with it with new data. Cheers Tumer

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Fines chargename field
by Jack 24 Aug '06

24 Aug '06

Dear Chris I am currently working on the fines system. At present I am looking at the chargename field, it seems this is no longer used anymore, is that right? Is anyone working on re-writing the fines and accounts system? If not this is somthing I would not mind doing as the original is a litle sparce. Thanks Jack I have changed the fines system in our Koha to work in the following manner : I have changed the fines in the following ways, please check them and let me know if they are correct. Definition >> days_overdue = the number of days that the item has been overdue. Sundays > We dont fine people on Sundays, thus, if the item is 7 or more days overdue, Koha looks at the total no of days the item is overdue, divides it by 7 which gives us the integer number of weeks the item has been overdue. We then subtract this integer number of weeks from the days_overdue amount, as each week has one Sunday. We then subtract one more day from the days_overdue to allow for the fact that we dont fine people for the first day that the item becomes overdue. Thhe fines will be run on Mon, Tue, Wed,Thur and Fri. Each time the fines are run the process is as follows > 1. Item is 2 or more days overdue : When an item has been overdue for 2 or more days a new fines account is created for the item and is updated each day from then on until the item is returned. This is the first account created for the overdue item. The name of the account in the borrowers record will be "Overdue Fine > >" From now on this account will always hold the fines for the item for as long as it is overdue. 2. Item is 7 or more days but less than 14 days overdue : If the item has been has been over due for 7 or more days AND the first fines letter has NOT been sent we will generate the first fines letter for that item. NO new account will be created and the existing account will be updated with the fact that the first letter has been generated. The fines for the item will continue to build on a daily basis until either the item is returned OR the maximum fine amount of $10 is reached. The name of the account in the borrowers record will now be "Overdue Fine > letter_no=1 >.... " to reflect the fact that the account is for overdues fine and the first letter has been sent. If the max fine limit of $10 is reached the fine will remain at $10 from then on. 3. Item is 14 or more days overdue but less than or equal to 35 days overdue : If the item is 14 days overdue AND the second fines letter has NOT already been sent, we will send out the second fine letter. The borrowers record will be updated with the fact that the second fine letter has been sent. NO new account will be created and the existing account will be updated with the fact that the first letter has been generated. The name of the account in the borrowers record will now be "Overdue Fine > letter_no=2 >.... " to reflect the fact that the account is for overdues fine and the second letter has been sent. The fines for the item will continue to build on a daily basis until either the item is returned OR the maximum fine amount of $10 is reached. If the max fine limit of $10 is reached the fine will remain at $10 from then on. 4. Item is more than 35 days overdue but less than or equal to 60 days overdue : If the item is MORE than 35 days overdue AND the third fines letter has NOT already been sent, we will send out the third and final fine letter. From this point on the item is considered lost. Thus the itemlost field in the items table in Koha will be set to 2 ( which means the item is long overdue ). And from then on Koha will treat the item as being lost. The borrowers record will be updated with the fact that the third fine letter has been sent. The name of the account in the borrowers record will now be "Overdue Fine > letter_no=3 >.... " to reflect the fact that the account is for overdues fine and the final letter has been sent. Two new accounts will be created for the newly lost item : 1. Processing fee account > This account holds the non-refundable processing fee for the item. This account will be called "Non refundable processing fee for lost item.". 2. Replacement Account > This account holds the replacement value of the item and is effectively a bill. The account will be called "Lost Item Replacement Bill >..." The fines for the item will continue to build on a daily basis until either the item is returned OR the maximum fine amount of $10 is reached. If the max fine limit of $10 is reached the fine will remain at $10 from then on. Lost Item Search List >> Koha will generate a lost item search list for each branch that will list all of the newly lost items sorted by dewey. This can then be used to do one final shelf check before sending out the final letter.

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[Fwd: Re: [Koha-devel] Koha Barcode Generation]
by Pedro Faria 24 Aug '06

24 Aug '06

Joshua Ferraro escreveu: > Hi Pedro, > > On Thu, Aug 24, 2006 at 11:57:02AM +0100, Pedro Faria wrote: > >> I am using koha 2.2.5. Does anyone, using this version or other, have >> barcode generation working? >> > There's a new barcode generation module that will ship with 2.2.6, > the old one is unmaintained. If you'd like to see the new version, > please visit the LibLime demo: http://koha.liblime.com and click > on _Spine and Barcode Labels_: > > http://koha.liblime.com/cgi-bin/koha/label-home.pl > > Make sure you specify 'Code39' as the type. > > In other news, we're going to be releasing another version of the > barcode generation tool soon that will, like the old one, allow > you to specify the settings of your barcodes (size, type, etc.), > rather than rely on a limited set of supported types. > > Hope that helps, > > -- > Joshua Ferraro SUPPORT FOR OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE > President, Technology migration, training, maintenance, support > LibLime Featuring Koha Open-Source ILS > jmf(a)liblime.com |Full Demos at http://liblime.com/koha |1(888)KohaILS > I tried it in the site you showed me and it looks preety good. But where can I find Koha 2.2.6? I found onlu 2.2.6rc2 which I believe it is not a "stable" version. Is there any isse using koha with mysql 5. I found some problems with sintax in sql statements. Is this going to be fixed? By the way, thank you for helping.

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kohadocs.org Updates
by Joshua Ferraro 24 Aug '06

24 Aug '06

Hi all, Stephen has just finished a new version of the index page for kohadocs.org. This one validates, and all the style information has been moved to the css file (submissions for a new stylesheet are therefore welcome ;-)). Thanks Stephen! Additionally, the new index page links to the new Arabic documentation as well as documentation on the Katipo corpSerials module that is finished and will appear in 3.0. Cheers, -- Joshua Ferraro SUPPORT FOR OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE President, Technology migration, training, maintenance, support LibLime Featuring Koha Open-Source ILS jmf(a)liblime.com |Full Demos at http://liblime.com/koha |1(888)KohaILS

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Koha Barcode Generation
by Pedro Faria 24 Aug '06

24 Aug '06

I am using koha 2.2.5. Does anyone, using this version or other, have barcode generation working? If so, could you aswer attaching barcodeGeneration.pl? All I get so far (following previous help) is a file recognized as HTML wich I must open in web browser to be able to open it in pdf view and all I see is a small label , no black and white bars! Please, any help! Thanks to all

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[Fwd: Re: [Koha-devel] Problems with barcode generation]
by Pedro Faria 24 Aug '06

24 Aug '06

Michael Hafen escreveu: > I had the same problem. To get the barcodes I had to use a different > function entirely. > > I've actually made a lot of changes to this script, but I will post the > relevant bit for your benefit. > > ------------- CUT -------------- > > my $zone = length($code) - 5; > my $barcode = $pdf->xo_3of9(-font => $tr, # The font object to use > -code => $code, # Text to codify > -ext => 1, # extended character set > -extn => '012345', # Barcode extension (if it is aplicable) > -umzn => 9+$zone, # Top limit of the finished bar > -lmzn => 9+$zone, # Bottom limit of the finished bar > -zone => 3+$zone, # Bars size > -quzn => 0, # Space destinated for legend > -ofwt => 0.5, # Bars width > -fnsz => 9, # Font size > -text => '' > ); # umzn +, lmzn +, zone +7 > > # Assigns a barcode to $gfx > my $scale = ($labelConfig{'labelWidth'}-2)/$barcode->width(); > $gfx->formimage($barcode, $x, $y, $scale); > # Assigns the additional information to the barcode (Legend) > if ($text_under_label) { > my @lines = split("\n",$text_under_label); > $title = $lines[0]; > $author = $lines[1]; > } > while ($text->advancewidth($title) > ($labelConfig{'labelWidth'} - 2)) > { > chop $title; > } > while ($text->advancewidth($author) > ($labelConfig{'labelWidth'} - > 2)) { > chop $author; > } > > my ($x_adjust_1, $x_adjust_2, $y_adjust) = (0, 0, 0); > if ($text->advancewidth($title) < ($labelConfig{'labelWidth'} - 5)) { > $x_adjust_1 = (($labelConfig{'labelWidth'} - 2) - > $text->advancewidth($title)) / 2; > } > if ($text->advancewidth($author) < ($labelConfig{'labelWidth'} - 5)) { > $x_adjust_2 = (($labelConfig{'labelWidth'} - 2) - > $text->advancewidth($author)) / 2; > } > $y_adjust = ($labelConfig{'labelHeigth'} - $barcode->height - 18) / 2; > $y_adjust = 5 if ($y_adjust < 0); > $y_adjust += $barcode->height; > > $text->translate($x + $x_adjust_1, $y + $y_adjust + 9); > $text->text($title); > $text->translate($x + $x_adjust_2, $y + $y_adjust); > $text->text($author); > > ------------- CUT -------------- > > Hope that helps. > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Assunto: > SPAM- [Koha-devel] Problems with barcode generation > De: > Pedro Faria <pjf(a)eurotux.com> > Data: > Wed, 23 Aug 2006 18:10:09 +0100 > Para: > koha_mailing_list <koha-devel(a)nongnu.org>, koha(a)lists.katipo.co.nz > > Para: > koha_mailing_list <koha-devel(a)nongnu.org>, koha(a)lists.katipo.co.nz > CC: > > > Dear all,f - Numéro d'inventaire > Want to thank Henri-Damien LAURENT to fabulous help! > Now I am trying to generate barcodes. > First I wanna know if "Inventory code" asked to generate the barcode > is the same that we enter when adding an item (f - Numéro d'inventaire > in additem.pl)? Because I give the same number (1000) and it says that > there was any with that code (using Individual Codes in generator). If > I select Continuous Range of Items from 0 to 1000 it proceeds...A bit > odd :). Any ideas? > > However it still was not ok. First I had to change some scripts > becouse PDF::API2 has changed a bit and things are not anymore in the > same place (e.g PDF::API::Utils is now PDF::API2::Basic::PDF::Utils). > This I figured out myself. But now I got > > Can't locate object method "barcode" via package "PDF::API2::Content" > at /usr/local/koha/intranet/cgi-bin/barcodes/barcodesGenerator.pl line > 259 > > and this one I still couldn't solve. Anyone can help? > > > _______________________________________________ > Koha-devel mailing list > Koha-devel(a)nongnu.org > http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/koha-devel > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > Koha-devel mailing list > Koha-devel(a)nongnu.org > http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/koha-devel > thax for aswering. Can you attach the full barcodeGenerator.pl? This piece of code should replace the code under continuous generation 'if' and the correspondant 'else'?

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Problems with barcode generation
by Pedro Faria 24 Aug '06

24 Aug '06

Dear all,f - Numéro d'inventaire Want to thank Henri-Damien LAURENT to fabulous help! Now I am trying to generate barcodes. First I wanna know if "Inventory code" asked to generate the barcode is the same that we enter when adding an item (f - Numéro d'inventaire in additem.pl)? Because I give the same number (1000) and it says that there was any with that code (using Individual Codes in generator). If I select Continuous Range of Items from 0 to 1000 it proceeds...A bit odd :). Any ideas? However it still was not ok. First I had to change some scripts becouse PDF::API2 has changed a bit and things are not anymore in the same place (e.g PDF::API::Utils is now PDF::API2::Basic::PDF::Utils). This I figured out myself. But now I got Can't locate object method "barcode" via package "PDF::API2::Content" at /usr/local/koha/intranet/cgi-bin/barcodes/barcodesGenerator.pl line 259 and this one I still couldn't solve. Anyone can help?

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