November 2014 - Koha-devel - lists.koha-community.org

Middleware for RFID implementation with Koha
by DP Tripathi 25 Nov '14

25 Nov '14

Dear All, I am trying to integrate RFID Device with Koha but have been unsuccessful. Looking for any middleware (open source) which can solve my problem. Or any tool using which I can develop the same. Thanks -- ********************* D. P. Tripathi Assistant Librarian Biju Patnaik Central Library NIT Rourkela Odisha - 769008 **********************

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Sign off request...
by Mark Tompsett 24 Nov '14

24 Nov '14

Greetings, I was hoping that someone might look at http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=11592 opac detail scripts do not respect MARC tag visibility The differences in what appears between Normal View and Marc View (and potentially ISBD view) differs even if some things are marked as not visible. It’s too late for 3.18, but it would be great to get a sign off. I just rebased it. There is a pretty good test plan that should be easy enough to follow. GPML, Mark Tompsett

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Tied Hashes in suggestions.pl and opac-suggestions.pl
by David Cook 24 Nov '14

24 Nov '14

I've noticed that suggestions.pl, opac-suggestions.pl, and other old code make use of the Vars() CGI method. "Called in a scalar context, it returns the parameter list as a tied hash reference. Changing a key changes the value of the parameter in the underlying CGI parameter list." This has some problems. When you manipulate the tied hash reference, you're changing the underlying CGI object. That means that calls to $input will change depending on what you've entered into $tied_hashref. 99% of the time, we probably do NOT want to do that. In suggestion.pl, it creates all sorts of weirdness: ~line 245: unless ( exists $$suggestion_ref{'branchcode'} ) { $$suggestion_ref{'branchcode'} = C4::Context->userenv->{'branch'}; } ~line 303: my $branchfilter = ($displayby ne "branchcode") ? $input->param('branchcode') : ''; $$suggestion_ref itself is tied to $input->param(s). So in the first case, by default, there won't be a branchcode. So we stuff in the user context branch. In this case, it's a debatable idea. I've noticed a few librarians complaining about not being able to find suggestions, and it's because of this default branch filter which isn't obvious at all. But that's a side note... Anyway, once $$suggestion_ref{'branchcode'} is changed, $input->param('branchcode') will also be changed, as they rely on the same hash in the CGI object. I was going crazy over this one... I couldn't see how $input was being set at all! Then I figured out that $suggestion_ref was a tied hash ref. It makes the following line utterly redundant: ($branchfilter and $branches->{$thisbranch}->{'branchcode'} eq $branchfilter ) || ( $$suggestion_ref{'branchcode'} and $branches->{$thisbranch}->{'branchcode'} eq $$suggestion_ref{'branchcode'} ) $branchfilter will always be the same as $$suggestion_ref{'branchcode'}. In terms of the end result. it might not matter so long as we keep that earlier condition "unless ( exists $$suggestion_ref{'branchcode'} )" so that we're not overwriting the real CGI parameter with our user environment variable. However, it makes for some ridiculous code. It took longer than I would've liked to figure out what was going on there. I rather improve code readability and not have situations where we might accidentally be changing underlying variables without knowing it. This might even have a few issues in these scripts that I haven't noticed. Actually, I have noticed a problem in opac-suggestions.pl because of this very issue. ~line 37 in opac-suggestions.pl: "my $suggestion = $input->Vars;" We later try passing $suggestion to a DBIC object, but it croaks because the template used "branch" while the DBIC object expects "branchcode". We should probably be using the param() method to explicitly build our data structure. Using Vars() also has other consequences. If we add a CGI parameter and don't delete it in the opac-suggestions.pl script (like we're already doing for 'op') then we're going to get more errors. If this were set up as a service and the client sent some additional information, it would croak. I suppose what I'm trying to say is. we should keep this in mind when we're writing new code and when we're looking at old code. opac-suggestions.pl will need a patch just to start working again (although the easiest fix there is to change the template rather than the perl script). Alas, I don't have time at the moment to tidy up these scripts. I found out what I need to know and now I have to move onto the next issue. I don't mean this to be a "someone should fix this" email. Rather a FYI. David Cook Systems Librarian Prosentient Systems 72/330 Wattle St, Ultimo, NSW 2007

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Tidying .mailmap for release
by Tomas Cohen Arazi 20 Nov '14

20 Nov '14

I've attached a patch with small changes to the .mailmap file on the prohect source tree. [1] The file is important (at least) for those not showing correctly on the release notes. Please check the release notes [2] and if you find any trouble add a followup or just email me. And sign the previous patches of course :-D The last mappings section is important for companies or institutions to be attributed the work from their people. For example: <tcohen(a)psi.unc.edu.ar> <tomascohen(a)gmail.com> maps the personal email I use (on Gmail) to my institutional one, so the script that generates the release notes can map the insitutional domain to the proper institution name. That said, please provide feedback on this last part too, the way you want your institution to show, and what domains should be mapped. Thanks in advance. [1] http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=13314 [2] http://git.koha-community.org/gitweb/?p=koha.git;a=blob;f=misc/release_note…

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Call for development news: November newsletter
by Koha News 19 Nov '14

19 Nov '14

Koha Development community ~ If you have any bugs or projects you'd like us to highlight or promote in the October newsletter, please let us know. Maybe it'll attract some additional eyes, testers and sign-offs. k o h a news AT gmail dot com Thank you! -- Chad Roseburg Joanne Dillon Editors, Koha Newsletter

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Call for news: November 2014
by Koha News 19 Nov '14

19 Nov '14

Fellow Koha users ~ We're collecting news for the November newsletter. Send anything noteworthy to: k o h a news AT gmail dot com News criteria: --------------------------- * News items can be of any length. * Anything and everything Koha. * Submit by the 26th. If you are working on an interesting project or development related to Koha, please let us know and we'll include it in the development section. -- Chad Roseburg Joanne Dillon Editors, Koha Newsletter

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Koha YouTube channel
by Tomas Cohen Arazi 19 Nov '14

19 Nov '14

Hi, for uploading the recent KohaCon14 video, I'be been playing with YouTube (how to create a channel, add subtitles, etc) because I didn't want to 'own' the video (it was created by/for the community). So I created a YouTube channel named Koha. Later I found a way to grant Liz the rights to manage it (she already does with the community site). I'm not sure we will make use of the channel soon, for other purposes (there are dozens of videos for Koha spreaded all around). But if you have any comments, or stuff to discuss/add to it, please let us know, or just put them on this thread. Regards Tomás

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String freeze shifted, till friday
by Tomas Cohen Arazi 19 Nov '14

19 Nov '14

Hi, I'll be pushing stuff today and tomorrow, but will be dealing with some other stuff at work too, so I'm moving string freeze to friday. The strings have actually been updated for the beta release a couple days ago (please test! :-D) and there won't be too many changes. Sorry for the inconvenience. Best regards Tomás

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Koha 3.18 beta released
by Tomas Cohen Arazi 18 Nov '14

18 Nov '14

A beta release of Koha 3.18 is now available for dowload. We encourage all users of Koha to download and test this beta prior to its release on November 28th. Debian packages for this beta will be available soon on the squeeze-dev repository. Koha 3.18.0 is a major release, that comes with many new features. This beta preview is released for testing purposes. Its use on production sites is discouraged. Draft release notes and download links can be found below. Share and enjoy (and test)! Download: http://koha-community.org/download-koha/ Draft release notes: http://koha-community.org/koha-3-18-beta-released/ Thanks everyone!

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Reminder: Koha general IRC meetings 19 November at 05:00 and 21:00 UTC
by Owen Leonard 18 Nov '14

18 Nov '14

The next Koha general IRC meetings will be taking place 19 November at 05:00 and 21:00 UTC First meeting: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=Koha+IRC+General+M… Second meeting: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=Koha+IRC+General+M… The first meeting has no volunteer to chair. Please volunteer if you'd like to attend the first instead of the second meeting. The agenda is here: http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/General_IRC_meeting_19_November_2014 Please add yourself to the "Apologies" section of the agenda if you know you will not be able to attend either meeting. Thanks, Owen -- Web Developer Athens County Public Libraries http://www.myacpl.org

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