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

John's Ideas about a Koha Foundation
by Kyle Hall 10 Aug '06

10 Aug '06

John Brice has been working on some ideas for a flexible setup for a Koha Foundation. He's written a blog post about it here: http://www.meadvillelibrary.org/director/ Please post any comments you have to that page and/or here on the list. Kyle -- IT Tech Crawford County Federated Library System

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New feature for Koha (2.2) : website checking
by Paul POULAIN 07 Aug '06

07 Aug '06

Hi, In Unimarc, the 856$e provides the "hour and date of access", which is the last time the URL has been checked. A library of mine asked me : could this information be updated automatically (say each week, for example). The answer being yes, I will ask Antoine to add it during the next weeks. It should be quite easy to add : - use LWP; - search in the DB (marc_subfield_table) every 856$a value - query the URL (in 856$a) - if $rec->is_success => update the 856$e value The idea being to have something that can run in a crontab (ie : silently) A small report to show all electronic values not working since more than X days could also be added. PS : in MARC21, 856$e don't exist, and there is no "hour and date of access". I think it could be harmless to use is as well ;-) -- Paul POULAIN et Henri Damien LAURENT Consultants indépendants en logiciels libres et bibliothéconomie (http://www.koha-fr.org) Tel : 04 91 31 45 19

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Offline Circulation & Other Stuff
by Kyle Hall 05 Aug '06

05 Aug '06

Hey All, I just complete the front-end of an Offline Circulation Firefox Extension for Koha. As of now, it stores all the necessary data. Now it just needs to get it to Koha. I've been talking to Josh about how to do that. I'm looking for anyone who might volunteer to help on this aspect. Also, the extension is ready for translation, so if anyone wants to add French, or any other language to it, just let me know and I'll send you the neccessary files for translation. You can download the extension and try it out from http://ccfls.org/koha I've also made it part of my project on sourceforge, koha-tools. Everything I've been working on involoving Koha is in the koha-tools subversion repository. That includes my other firefox extension, the activity simulator, the custom reports I've written, a few tools for fixing data problems in koha and in marc records, and the scripts and classes I wrote to move data our of our current ILS and into koha. Check it out at : http://sourceforge.net/projects/koha-tools Browse the repo online: http://svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/koha-tools/ Kyle -- IT Tech Crawford County Federated Library System

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Unicode and Fonts
by Joshua Ferraro 04 Aug '06

04 Aug '06

Hi all, I've been working to determine which fonts work best for all browsers/OSes when using UTF-8 and I ran across this email: http://lists.indexdata.dk/pipermail/yazlist/2006-April/001586.html That suggests: font-family: Lucida Grande, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; I've tried it and it does seem to be the best option. I propose that NPL templates in rel_2_2 switch to this font and in Koha 2.4/3.0 we use it as well. The current NPL font-family setting doesn't work well for geko-based browsers on OSX (combined characters in particular aren't displayed combined (and the second character is often represented as a box) in Arial or sans-serif). Any comments? -- 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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purpose of itemcallnumber syspref?
by Joshua Ferraro 03 Aug '06

03 Aug '06

Hi paul, I'm wondering why we need a itemcallnumber system preference. Isn't it the same as the items.itemcallnumber definition in the framework? If it's not, why not? 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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koha 2.2.6RC2 is ...
by Paul POULAIN 03 Aug '06

03 Aug '06

... available for download at : http://download.savannah.nongnu.org/releases/koha/ WARNING : this is a Release Candidate, so, if you decide to install it, you must know that : - some bugs may remain - you MUST backup your database before updating - you must know how to roll-back to previous version if things goes wrong. Otherwise, don't install it and wait for official 2.2.6 ! Release notes : *************************************** RELEASE NOTES ============= Koha is the first Open-Source Integrated Library System. Released in New Zealand, in January 2000, it is maintained by a team of volunteers from around the globe. The Koha system is a full catalogue, opac, circulation and acquisitions system. Koha 2.2.6 is more than 247 000 lines of code, developed by more than 30 differents developers (and even more translators). With the 2.2.6 version, Koha is now a mature product, with a lot of nice features. It's used in more than 100 libraries, of all kinds (public, schools, religious...), of different sizes (from 1 to 8 branches, from 1000 to 300 000 items). ======== WARNINGS ======== * The librarian interface is tested only with Mozilla/Firefox. Should work (partially) with IE. OPAC should work fine with any browser. * In this release, french & english are uptodate. Other language po files are provided in the package. If you update/complete one of them, please send it to paul.poulain @ free.fr, it will be included in a 2.2.6b release ! * NEW PACKAGES REQUIRED : - Class::Accessor (0.25) - XML::SAX (0.14) - MARC::File::XML (0.83), - MARC::Charset (0.95), - LWP::Simple - XML::Simple KNOWN BUGS ********** Critical/blocking : none see bugs.koha.org for more information. Please report any problem in bugs.koha.org Apple users : it seems there is an annoying bug in Firefox, that you can have in librarian biblio search: only the first MARC field list is available and the others can't be opened. The problem is described and fixed at http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20051226091140372 ======= CHANGES ======= Changes 2.2.5 => 2.2.6 ********************** DB CHANGES ********** DB structure : dewey field has been moved to a char(30) DB content : many many new systempreferences Koha opac stylesheets : none BUGFIXES === CATALOGUING === * result page display was incorrect when searching a biblio before adding a new one. * no more saving of an empty field in the DB * Fix for splitting up fixed fields containing | in them causing incorrect storage of fixed fields in Koha DB. * An item that is on loan can't be deleted anymore. === CIRCULATION === * minor bugfix : Adding 0 before days and months in order to make date comparison work. === PARAMETERS === * adding page facility in book funds. IMPROVEMENTS Almost nothing has changed in the DB, so the stability should be good. But you are warned that some/few bugs may occur. Please READ the release notes. Everything is compatible with previous versions, so, if you just install Koha, you should have the same behaviour as previously, but you will miss many interesting features! === ACQUISITION === * added a (crontab) script : check_suggestion.pl, that send a mail to the librarian when a suggestion is pending * *MAJOR IMPROVEMENT* : - online help has been added - the order.pl page doesn't show baskets closed for more than 6 months anymore. - when recieving an order, you now see the list of existing parcels. The parcel code used to be the "Supplier invoice information". Now when you go to the reciept page, you see all previous recieves, and can create a new parcel, exactly as before. This does not require any change in Koha internals, but we hope it's clearer than before. - when recieving an order in a parcel, you now see all orders still waiting for a receipt. Thus, you can enter isbn/title as previously, or directly click on a title in the list. We worked hard on those new acquisition screens, and hope that you'll find it easier to use than before. === AUTHORITIES === * if the library doesn't define a summary for an authority, a standard/default one will be built automatically. * if the librarian set * as subfield, all subfields will be shown, without any separator, but respecting the order. Previously, you had to define every subfield, causing problems in case of reordered subfields. === CIRCULATION=== * added a (crontab) script : overduenoticesSelect.pl, that can be used as replacement for the overduenotice script. This one has many more parameters, including a filter on branches and an external letter (to avoid the need to modify the script on each release) * merged today & previous issues list during issuing. Added a button to renew issues & return issues in 1 click === CATALOGUE === * highly improved MARC21 default framework * new systempref "sortbynonfiling". If you catalogue with complete MARC (including indicators), you can set this pref to Yes. It will remove non filing chars and order "The King Henry IV" to letter "K". This systempref is USELESS for UNIMARC (as UNIMARC doesn't manage non-filing chars in an indicator, unlike MARC21) === CATALOGUING === * added a (crontab) script : delete_authority.pl, that deletes all entries of an authority in a biblio. * *MAJOR IMPROVEMENT* in MARC editing : - duplicating a field (+ on the tag) does not require a server call anymore : it's much faster. - duplicating a subfield is no longer done with a pipe (|), but by clicking on the + facing the subfield - the "hidden" property of the framework now has 19 possible values. Look in the online help to see them. The immediate interesting value is -1, which means the subfield is minimized on the MARC editor and you must click on it to expand it. Rarely used fields/subfields are easier to manage. - a advancedMARCeditor systempref has been added. If set, tag/subfield values are not shown, except when putting the mouse on the tag/subfield. This systempref is only for "MARC addicts"! * MARC21 : many plugins have been added (by joshua). It seems you now have as many plugins for fixed length fields in MARC21 as in UNIMARC! Note that plugins help you filling a tag/subfield in the MARC editor. === MEMBERS === * patron images management. A new systempreference has been added (patronimages, in borrowers section). If set (to an image extension, like jpg or gif), the image will be shown on patron detail or circulation page. The images must be stored in KOHADIR/htdocs/intranet-tmpl/patronimages/ . The image must be named <borrowernumber>.<patronimagessystempref> (1.jpg for example, for borrower #1) === OPAC === Many preferences have been added to OPAC. Read them carefully, as you will be able to modify highly the look and behaviour of your OPAC! * new default stylesheet for css (purple on white). A new stylesheet (contributed by liblime.com) has been added to show everybody the changes in OPAC. If you want to stay with the old one (dark/light green), just reach Koha >> Parameters >> Systempreferences >> OPAC >> opacstylesheet > modify > /opac-tmpl/default/opac_old.css * Amazon content : if the new AmazonContent systempref is set AND an AmazonDevKey/AmazoneDevTag (available on www.amazon.com) is entered in systempreferences AND XML::Simple package is installed, OPAC will show amazon cover pages when available. Note that this feature may not be legal everywhere. For example, it seems it may not be legal in France (you must ask each editor for permission) * new systempref : opaccredit. If something (including html) is stored there, the footer of OPAC pages will contain what is there (instead of the "Library powered by Koha..." that is on css default templates) * new systempref : opacnav. In this preference, you can put any html that will be added to your menu. For example, to add a button to reach the koha website : <a class="menu" href="http://www.koha.org" title="Koha world website">Koha</a> * new systempref : opacbookbag : if set to 0, the basket/book bag features will be hidden in OPAC (even for logged in users). * authorities heading search : a new menu has been added so the user can search in authorities (same behaviour as in intranet) * new systempref : opaclanguagesdisplay. If set to "yes" (default value), the list of available language is shown. Otherwise, there is no list, koha will stay in default language only. * new systempref : opacreadinghistory. If set to "yes" (default value), the reading history will be available on OPAC (for logged in users). If set to "no", the reading history never appears. * Recent Acquisition : added a new page to filter recent acquisitions on a given branch. * if you use npl templates, you can have an alternate stylesheet (to set it, go to librarian interface >> Parameters > Systempreferences > OPAC > opacstylesheet > modify > /opac-tmpl/npl/en/includes/opac.liblime.css) * when there is more than 1 item at a given location (branch/callnumber/location), the list shows the number of items, not 1 line for each (same) value. === REPORTS === * Inventory : you can now scan in a text file, on an unconnected laptop, with every book in your library. Then, just upload the file in Koha. It will "mark as seen" all books. Once you've scanned everything in your library, just query for all books not seen since the beginning of the inventory, and you'll get "lost" books. === SERIALS === * MAJOR IMPROVEMENT : Adding item creation on the fly when receiving serial : if you activate systempref > Catalogue > serialsadditems, you'll have a form to create an item on the fly at the end of the serial receipt form. The item contains the callnumber, the branch, the barcode and the location (where applicable). Go to the catalogue after setting a serial to "arrived", and you should see the item created. If you let serialsadditems to OFF, behaviour is unchanged from previous releases. * the last 5 arrived serials are shown when receiving serials. -- Paul POULAIN et Henri Damien LAURENT Consultants indépendants en logiciels libres et bibliothéconomie (http://www.koha-fr.org) Tel : 04 91 31 45 19

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last chat, koha 3.0, synching of dev_week/head & branches
by Paul POULAIN 02 Aug '06

02 Aug '06

Hello the list, During our last chat, we decided to : 1- release Koha 2.2.6 ASAP 2- release 2.4.0 (=2.2+zebra) ASAP 3- synch dev_week and head, in a rel_3 branch, and stabilize Koha 3.0 4- let Tumer & any other volunteer work on head for Koha 3.2 1- Release 2.2.6 ================ WHEN : today for 2.2.6RC2 WHO : Paul NOTES : none 2- Release 2.4.0 ================ WHEN : ASAP, before end of August WHO : Joshua (with Tumer) NOTES : - it's in production in at least 2 libraries already (1 in cyprus, 1 in US). - It will use NPL templates, and won't be translated to french, because it will be a short-life version 3- Release 3.0 ============== WHO : - Antoine for synch'ing dev_week & head - Everybody WHEN : - synch'ing dev_week & head : next week NOTES : The SAN-OP plans to start tests in september, and production in january. We all agree it's a possible goal, and the timeline for Koha 3 will probably become the SAN-OP one. ********* QUESTION ********* We decided during the meeting to : - branch head => rel_3 - synch dev_week with rel_3 - stabilize rel_3 - let head staying unstable, tumer having many ideas (full XML, XSLT...), that could be tested here. I was wondering if it would not be better to : - synch dev_week and head - immediatly branch rel_3 when the synch is done - stabilize rel_3 for Koha 3 & let head unstable That would let head with dev_week zebra integrated. Otherwise, i'm afraid someone (tumer ?) will have to merge dev_week with head anyway, to add zebra support Let me know your opinion. Whatever it will be, Antoine started a few minuts ago installing dev_week and will do the merge (dev_week into head or rel_3) next week. -- Paul POULAIN et Henri Damien LAURENT Consultants indépendants en logiciels libres et bibliothéconomie (http://www.koha-fr.org) Tel : 04 91 31 45 19

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Z39.50
by lalitanand dandge 01 Aug '06

01 Aug '06

Hi I installed Koha2.2.5 on my debian system. I want to import the marc tags from the Library of Congress or other z39.50server, I added the Z3950 server: the entries I added are: hostname: z3950.loc.gov Port No: 7090 and Database name: voyager but the problem i am facing is: when i do search on particular ISBN no. like 0-07-049543 (Java Complete Reference) then the result i get is: Nothing found: (the url shows " http://localhost:8080/cgi-bin/koha/z3950/search.pl?bibid=&isbn=0-07-049543" and then changes to " http://localhost:8080/cgi-bin/koha/z3950/search.pl?bibid=&random=249094171.… ") please tell me how to configure and check my koha system with z3950 support. another problem I am getting is, when i search for patrons it gives the list of members page " http://localhost:8080/cgi-bin/koha/members/member.pl" then after clicking issue: i get " http://localhost:8080/cgi-bin/koha/circ/circulation.pl?findborrower=1" page there is link "details" of the borrower, i get " http://localhost:8080/cgi-bin/koha/members/moremember.pl?borrowernumber=1" this page, but the borrower details fields are blank (it does not show name and other things) the error i get while doing these steps in the koha-error_log is [Tue Aug 01 12:38:42 2006] [error] [client localhost] 2007-07-19 at /usr/local/koha/intranet/cgi-bin/circ/circulation.pl line 127., referer: http://202.141.152.81:8080/cgi-bin/koha/members/member.pl [Tue Aug 01 12:39:02 2006] [error] [client localhost] 2007-07-19 at /usr/local/koha/intranet/cgi-bin/circ/circulation.pl line 127., referer: http://202.141.152.81:8080/cgi-bin/koha/members/member.pl [Tue Aug 01 12:40:56 2006] [error] [client localhost] DBD::mysql::st execute failed: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'and reserves.borrowernumber = borrowers.borrowernumber, referer: http://localhost:8080/cgi-bin/koha/circ/circulation.pl?findborrower=1 [Tue Aug 01 12:40:56 2006] [error] [client localhost] \t\t\t\t\tand reserves.biblio' at line 2 at /usr/local/koha/intranet/modules/C4/Reserves2.pm line 147., referer: http://202.141.152.81:8080/cgi-bin/koha/circ/circulation.pl?findborrower=1 [Tue Aug 01 12:40:56 2006] [error] [client localhost] DBD::mysql::st fetchrow_hashref failed: fetch() without execute() at /usr/local/koha/intranet/modules/C4/Reserves2.pm line 149., referer: http://202.141.152.81:8080/cgi-bin/koha/circ/circulation.pl?findborrower=1 So please help me in this regard, How to configure my koha system to enable the marc record search using z3950 and how to get the above mentioned errors sorted out. thanks lalitanand. -- "Talk is cheap. Show me the code. Think Open, use Open Source!" Visit & Register at http://www.ossrc.org.in

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Authorities : Tree Display.
by Henri-Damien LAURENT 31 Jul '06

31 Jul '06

Hi, I designed a display of trees for hierarchical authorities. It is based on an analysis of authority records. It is mainly hard-coded. But could get adapted if need be. (And this avoids a big bunch of system preferences.) In my case, trees were to be found for subject authorities (main heading in field250). In UNIMARC, $3 subfield contains authority number, $5 contains a code that will tell you whether the field contains a broader term ($5==g) or a narrower term ($5==h). So let's take an example. 250$3 1212 $aEurope 550$3 1213 $5 g $aContinents 550$3 1214 $5 h $aFrance 550$3 1215 $5 h $aGermany 550$3 1216 $aNATO Will be displayed : Continents+ (Europe Asia America Africa...) (Continents) +Europe+ (France Germany) hierarchy.css contains the stylesheets for these facilities. So long. -- Henri-Damien LAURENT

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Frameworks in rel_2_2
by Joshua Ferraro 31 Jul '06

31 Jul '06

Hi Paul, Mainly a question for you. It looks to me like it's possible in rel_2_2 to define different mappings to the koha tables for different frameworks such that the editor ends up saving data to different fields depending on the definition. However, I don't see any search facility that uses frameworks to discover which fields to search. As a result, if you create an record using a framework that has mappings that disagree with the default framework, I'm assuming that the fields won't be searchable. If I'm correct, then we need to either: not allow frameworks to disagree on koha mappings or create a way to search using the alternate frameworks (seems very difficult). Let me know what you think ... 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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