November 2016 - Koha-devel - lists.koha-community.org

Koha Wiki Facebook
by Kyle Hall 28 Nov '16

28 Nov '16

Hello All! You can think Nick for finally pushing me to put up all the photos from the HackFest! For the uninitiated, for a long time I've been wanting to have a Koha community facebook, in the original sense of the word. So here it is! https://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Community_Facebook *Please* feel free to add and update this page. If you see any misspellings or misinformation, please correct it! In particular, I wasn't able to add the diacritics to names. If you are not listed, please add yourself! You can upload a file and edit the wiki page. If you need help doing so, please let me know! Kyle http://www.kylehall.info ByWater Solutions ( http://bywatersolutions.com ) Meadville Public Library ( http://www.meadvillelibrary.org ) Crawford County Federated Library System ( http://www.ccfls.org )

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Koha and Qvarn, a suggestion (also too long for anyone to finish reading)
by Lars Wirzenius 28 Nov '16

28 Nov '16

Hi, Koha developers, some of you may remember me from the Debian packaging of Koha I made in 2010 for Catalyst IT. I've never looked much at the actual code base of Koha, but one thing that even a quick grep reveals is that SQL code is sprinkled all over the code base. To me, this indicates that the application code ("business logic") and the way data is stored are closely coupled, and that's generally not a good thing. Among other things, if there's a need so change the database schema, or database engine, the whole code base might be affected. In my current job we develop a storage system (roughly, "database, but with better access control") with an emphasis on privacy. Our software is free software released under the Affero GPL, version 3 or later. I suggest that our software (called Qvarn) would be worth considering for Koha. A summary of my impression of the situation: * Koha stores very sensitive information about people's reading habits. * In the EU the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is in effect (with a transition period until some time in 2014), which requires everyone who collects or stores personal information to take good care so the data doesn't leak and violate people's privacy. Koha, or at least libraries using Koha, would seem to fall under this (IANAL, TINLA, AYOL). * At minimum, a "privacy impact assessment" needs to be made. Basically, think about what the happens to the people whose data it is that gets leaked. (Best to assume it will be.) * Koha stores all its data (including the personal stuff) in MySQL/MariaDB. There is no clean abstraction layer, which means SQL is all over the code base, making things harder to change. I think it would be good for Koha to add an abstraction layer even if Koha stays with MySQL. * Qvarn was designed from the ground up with privacy and security in mind. It is meant to be the least weak link in the chain to protect privacy of the data it stores. It's still under active development, and doesn't have all the planned features yet. It's backed by my new company, QvarnLabs, and is in production use already, storing around a million personal identities. * Qvarn provides a RESTful HTTP(S) JSON API, meaning there's no per-client/per-user session state on the Qvarn side. Makes it really easy to use, from the client, in my opinion. All data is in JSON form, which also makes things easier to use, in my opinion. It's conceptually JSON objects, not tables/columns. Qvarn uses Postgres behind the scenes, at least for now, but that's not visible to API clients (read: we could replace it with individual files on disk and you'd not notice). * Qvarn requires the use of Gluu (see gluu.org) for authentication and authorization. Gluu is an identity management server, which is also free software. We aim to hide Gluu entirely behind the Qvarn API, and already mostly do that, so it's not something you need to know much about, except that operationally it's a bit tricky, since it's harder to deploy than Qvarn itself it (Qvarn comes as a .deb). Here's my thoughts about Koha using Qvarn: * First step would be to change Koha to have a suitable abstraction layer for storing data. I imagine this will be a big job. * Second step would be to model the data Koha stores in Qvarn resource types, i.e., decide which types of records should be and what they should contain. * Third step is ... * Fourth step is profit. Benefits to Koha as far as I can see: * Abstraction layer: cleaner code, easier database related changes in the future, possibly a better test suite as a side effect. * Qvarn: more privacy protection for user data, maybe (this is my highly personal and biased opinion) a nicer way to store/access the data. What do you think? Is this something that the Koha community might want? I don't want to waste your time or anyone else's time if it's not interesting. However, if it is interesting, QvarnLabs is willing to work on making sure Qvarn is good for Koha. Note: though both Qvarn and Koha are developed/supported by companies, they're free software and also free to use. This is not unlike Koha itself. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have, preferably on the koha-devel list.

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INSTALL.debian is outdated
by Jonathan Druart 27 Nov '16

27 Nov '16

2015-11-11 22:37 GMT+00:00 Robin Sheat <robin(a)catalyst.net.nz>: > Aparrish schreef op wo 11-11-2015 om 08:13 [-0700]: >> I followed the official instructions: >> http://git.koha-community.org/gitweb/?p=koha.git;a=blob;f=INSTALL.debian;hb… > > We need to delete those, they're from 2012 and are super out of date. Shall we 1) delete them, 2)replace them with the content of the wiki page or 3) just put a link to the wiki page?

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Bug 17624: Hide (some) not-for-loan items on search results' availability
by Marcel de Rooy 26 Nov '16

26 Nov '16

Hi all, What about the question on this report: Hide Staff Collection only? Note: See item field notforloan, value 2 == Staff Collection. Authorised value category NOT_LOAN. Any feedback appreciated. Here or on the report. Thx Marcel

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Uploading circulation related Data to Koha. Help required.
by G.K.MANJUNATH 24 Nov '16

24 Nov '16

dear All, We are experimenting with data migration from our existing library software to Koha. We could successfully transfer the bibliographic data ( .mrc) after appropriate conversion and also the patrons' records with photos. However, one important job remains unfinished. We have downloaded circulation data in Excel format and trying to upload this to Koha. We do not know how to go about it . I very appreciate your help : 1. Is it possible to directly upload the circulation data stored either in a MS-Excel file or a text file? * We have 5 fields - date of transaction, Patron codes, barcode numbers, date of issue and due date. ( Will be converted to tab separated file if required ) 2. If not, is there any way I can convert the circulation related data stored in Excel or text file to .koc format so that it can be uploaded to Koha using the utility developed by 'Bywater solutions'. 3. What is the structure of .koc file ? Can any one please send me a .koc file with few sample records in it ? From my understading it is a simple text file with fields separated by tab. Any input in this regard is highly appreciated. thanks in advance, G.K.Manjunath Chief Librarian Indira Gandhi Inst of Development Research Film City Road Santosh Nagar Goregaon(East ) MUMBAI - 400 065 INDIA

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Re: [Koha-devel] Koha 16.11.00 released!
by Kyle Hall 23 Nov '16

23 Nov '16

Here is a link to the original text version, as I've been told that my attachment has been stripped out! Kyle <https://secure2.convio.net/cffh/site/Donation2?df_id=1395&FR_ID=4715&PROXY_…> http://www.kylehall.info ByWater Solutions ( http://bywatersolutions.com ) Meadville Public Library ( http://www.meadvillelibrary.org ) Crawford County Federated Library System ( http://www.ccfls.org ) On Tue, Nov 22, 2016 at 2:05 PM, Kyle Hall <kyle.m.hall(a)gmail.com> wrote: > It is my great pleasure to announce the release of Koha 16.11.00! > > Thanks be to everyone involved in getting 16.11 out the door! > > Attached are the release notes. > > Kyle > > http://www.kylehall.info > ByWater Solutions ( http://bywatersolutions.com ) > Meadville Public Library ( http://www.meadvillelibrary.org ) > Crawford County Federated Library System ( http://www.ccfls.org ) >

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Failed QA number over 200.
by Mark Tompsett 23 Nov '16

23 Nov '16

Greetings, The number of Failed QA’s has significantly grown in the last few months. And while this is a good problem (congrats QA Team), perhaps there are some that should be either closed or revisited. I just dealt with one of mine, after a long while, and I’m wondering if others have accidentally forgotten theirs as well. GPML, Mark Tompsett

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OAI-PMH filter data
by Rodrigo Santellan 23 Nov '16

23 Nov '16

Hi, I been reading about how to connect with the OAI protocol. My problem is that I want to publish only a result set of data, per example only the biblios that are on a specific framework with and author starting with a specific letter. I look on the OAI pages and there is nothing like that, and the google group is almost dead. Does anybody can give me a clue for where to start looking to accomplish that? I believe could be a nice resource to add to the wiki! Regards and thanks for any help! Rodrigo Santellan

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Next hackfestv(2017) in Marseille, proposed dates
by Paul Poulain 22 Nov '16

22 Nov '16

Hello, I'm planning to switch back to march for the Hackfest in Marseille. What about Week #11 (march 20th-24th) or #12 (march 27th-31th) ? Any problem or collisions with those dates ? -- Paul Poulain, Associé-gérant / co-owner BibLibre, Services en logiciels libres pour les bibliothèques BibLibre, Open Source software and services for libraries

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Re: [Koha-devel] Koha 16.11 Release Notes ( 2nd Draft )
by Kyle Hall 17 Nov '16

17 Nov '16

I've already noticed the "new feature" count is off. I'll fix that in the next revision. Kyle <https://secure2.convio.net/cffh/site/Donation2?df_id=1395&FR_ID=4715&PROXY_…> http://www.kylehall.info ByWater Solutions ( http://bywatersolutions.com ) Meadville Public Library ( http://www.meadvillelibrary.org ) Crawford County Federated Library System ( http://www.ccfls.org ) On Thu, Nov 10, 2016 at 10:18 PM, Kyle Hall <kyle.m.hall(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Hey All! > > Here is the second draft of the release notes for Koha 16.11! > > Additional bugs pushed since then have been added and I've made some > manual changes based on feedback kindly made by Katrin. Thanks Katrin! > > The HTML is attached, and you can find them on GitHub here > <https://github.com/kylemhall/Koha/commits/rel16_11_00_release_notes_draft_2> > . > > Kyle > > http://www.kylehall.info > ByWater Solutions ( http://bywatersolutions.com ) > Meadville Public Library ( http://www.meadvillelibrary.org ) > Crawford County Federated Library System ( http://www.ccfls.org ) >

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