RFC: plan to reorganize cronjobs for overdues, notices, and fines
Hi Koha Developers - After a brief audit of some of the code in misc/cronjobs it looks to me that the cronjobs that handle things like overdues, notices, and fines could use some work. There's a lot of overlapping functionality in the scripts in that directory, and not everything that we need for 3.0 is there yet. So, I'm hoping to find a reasonable way to get what we need easily. I'm looking for guidance here on developing a roadmap, so please speak up if you have recommendations. These are the scripts that I think we need: overdue_notices.pl - will prepare notices for items that are overdue. This increments the overdue notice counters. fines.pl - will calculate and update patron fines. This will NOT prepare notices. advance_notices.pl - will prepare notices for items that are not yet due, or have just become due. Patrons will have the option of receiving these or not. This is what will happen to many of the scripts that are there now: overduenotices-30.pl will get folded into overdue_notices.pl overduenotices-csv.pl will get folded into overdue_notices.pl overduenoties.pl will get replaced by overdue_notices.pl smsoverdues.pl will get replaced by overdue_notices.pl fines2.pl will get replaced by fines.pl fines-ll.pl will get folded into fines.pl. This script has good calculation stuff that should be salvaged. fines-sanop.pl will most likely be replaced by fines.pl. There are also some changes to the staff interface that will probably be done, as there is a similar disorganization there, but we can deal with that separately, I think. If we can agree on a general path like this, it will help us work together to reach a common goal. I can certainly get to much of this work myself in time, but there is some work going on in this directory by others and I want to make sure I'm not stepping on anyone's toes. If it looks like this path won't get us to where you think we should be, please speak up. If it looks like this is a reasonable way to proceed, please feel free to help out. Thanks! -Andy _______________________________________________ Koha-devel mailing list Koha-devel@lists.koha.org http://lists.koha.org/mailman/listinfo/koha-devel
Andrew Moore a écrit :
Hi Koha Developers -
After a brief audit of some of the code in misc/cronjobs it looks to me that the cronjobs that handle things like overdues, notices, and fines could use some work. There's a lot of overlapping functionality in the scripts in that directory, and not everything that we need for 3.0 is there yet. So, I'm hoping to find a reasonable way to get what we need easily. I'm looking for guidance here on developing a roadmap, so please speak up if you have recommendations.
These are the scripts that I think we need:
overdue_notices.pl - will prepare notices for items that are overdue. This increments the overdue notice counters.
OK
fines.pl - will calculate and update patron fines. This will NOT prepare notices. advance_notices.pl - will prepare notices for items that are not yet due, or have just become due. Patrons will have the option of receiving these or not.
Can't this one get merge into Overdue_notices that would become circulation notices. imho, it is quite the same process. Or do I misunderstand the process you want to settle ?
This is what will happen to many of the scripts that are there now:
overduenotices-30.pl will get folded into overdue_notices.pl overduenotices-csv.pl will get folded into overdue_notices.pl overduenoties.pl will get replaced by overdue_notices.pl smsoverdues.pl will get replaced by overdue_notices.pl
OK. I bet that we could add some improvements to Scheduler to add some recurrent task... Seems that it is not ready for recurrent tasks... But with Date::Calc we could add some recurrent task.
fines2.pl will get replaced by fines.pl fines-ll.pl will get folded into fines.pl. This script has good calculation stuff that should be salvaged. fines-sanop.pl will most likely be replaced by fines.pl.
Fine with us, provided that fines-SANOP workflow or calculation is kept as parameter.. Maybe improving Notices. Or adding some way to send reports via email. But later on. -- Henri-Damien LAURENT BibLibre SARL http://www.biblibre.com Expert en Logiciels Libres pour l'info-doc tel : +33 4 67 65 75 50 _______________________________________________ Koha-devel mailing list Koha-devel@lists.koha.org http://lists.koha.org/mailman/listinfo/koha-devel
On Wed, Jun 4, 2008 at 2:21 PM, henridamien.laurent <henridamien.laurent@biblibre.com> wrote:
Andrew Moore a écrit :
advance_notices.pl - will prepare notices for items that are not yet due, or have just become due. Patrons will have the option of receiving these or not.
Can't this one get merge into Overdue_notices that would become circulation notices. imho, it is quite the same process. Or do I misunderstand the process you want to settle ?
They are very similar, and I can see them being in the same script. It seems that the only differences may be that the patron can choose whether to receive advance notices or not. They cannot choose to avoid overdue notices. Also, many libraries will choose to not send advance notices. That may not be enough of a distinction to separate them. Thanks for your consideration! -Andy _______________________________________________ Koha-devel mailing list Koha-devel@lists.koha.org http://lists.koha.org/mailman/listinfo/koha-devel
"Andrew Moore" <andrew.moore@liblime.com> wrote:
overdue_notices.pl - will prepare notices for items that are overdue. This increments the overdue notice counters. fines.pl - will calculate and update patron fines. This will NOT prepare notices. advance_notices.pl - will prepare notices for items that are not yet due, or have just become due. Patrons will have the option of receiving these or not. [...] If it looks like this path won't get us to where you think we should be, please speak up. If it looks like this is a reasonable way to proceed, please feel free to help out.
Can we merge them further? Firstly, there's the similarilty between the two notices that Henri notied. Secondly, it would be good to have the option of only fining patrons if we've successfully sent a notice (successful as far as reaching our outgoing mailserver, anyway). Thirdly, the fewer cronjobs the better! They are one of the main stumbling blocks for new sysadmins installing koha, in my experience. If there's a strong reason for fines.pl and overdue_notices.pl to remain split, go ahead like that. Hope that helps, -- MJ Ray (slef) Webmaster for hire, statistician and online shop builder for a small worker cooperative http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ http://mjr.towers.org.uk/ (Notice http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html) tel:+44-844-4437-237 _______________________________________________ Koha-devel mailing list Koha-devel@lists.koha.org http://lists.koha.org/mailman/listinfo/koha-devel
Hi MJ - On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 7:06 AM, MJ Ray <mjr@phonecoop.coop> wrote:
Can we merge them further? Firstly, there's the similarilty between the two notices that Henri notied. Secondly, it would be good to have the option of only fining patrons if we've successfully sent a notice (successful as far as reaching our outgoing mailserver, anyway).
I would like to be able to as well. I don't yet have a model for that in my mind, though. I thought that cleaning all of this up in the brief time before next Monday's deadline was aggressive, so I'm not sure if I can make that much of a change before then. I'll see how I do, or if anyone else gets some time to lend a hand.
Thirdly, the fewer cronjobs the better! They are one of the main stumbling blocks for new sysadmins installing koha, in my experience.
I agree wholeheartedly. Some applications use a single cronjob that delegates tasks to different scripts depending on what needs to be done or what time it is. Perhaps that's a model we can consider down the road.
If there's a strong reason for fines.pl and overdue_notices.pl to remain split, go ahead like that.
OK. Thanks for your help here! -Andy _______________________________________________ Koha-devel mailing list Koha-devel@lists.koha.org http://lists.koha.org/mailman/listinfo/koha-devel
This is just a reminder that I'm working to consolidate the three misc/cronjobs/overduesnotices*.pl programs. From what I can tell two of them are nearly identical, but don't really work, and the third doesn't add enough extra functionality to justify a separate program. I expect to send out a proposed patch by tomorrow and (depending on the amount of suggestions I receive from that) have a final version to patches@koha.org by Friday. I'll document this work at http://bugs.koha.org/cgi-bin/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=2274 Thanks, -Andy On Wed, Jun 4, 2008 at 11:11 AM, Andrew Moore <andrew.moore@liblime.com> wrote:
Hi Koha Developers -
After a brief audit of some of the code in misc/cronjobs it looks to me that the cronjobs that handle things like overdues, notices, and fines could use some work. There's a lot of overlapping functionality in the scripts in that directory, and not everything that we need for 3.0 is there yet. So, I'm hoping to find a reasonable way to get what we need easily. I'm looking for guidance here on developing a roadmap, so please speak up if you have recommendations.
These are the scripts that I think we need:
overdue_notices.pl - will prepare notices for items that are overdue. This increments the overdue notice counters. fines.pl - will calculate and update patron fines. This will NOT prepare notices. advance_notices.pl - will prepare notices for items that are not yet due, or have just become due. Patrons will have the option of receiving these or not.
This is what will happen to many of the scripts that are there now:
overduenotices-30.pl will get folded into overdue_notices.pl overduenotices-csv.pl will get folded into overdue_notices.pl overduenoties.pl will get replaced by overdue_notices.pl smsoverdues.pl will get replaced by overdue_notices.pl
fines2.pl will get replaced by fines.pl fines-ll.pl will get folded into fines.pl. This script has good calculation stuff that should be salvaged. fines-sanop.pl will most likely be replaced by fines.pl.
There are also some changes to the staff interface that will probably be done, as there is a similar disorganization there, but we can deal with that separately, I think.
If we can agree on a general path like this, it will help us work together to reach a common goal. I can certainly get to much of this work myself in time, but there is some work going on in this directory by others and I want to make sure I'm not stepping on anyone's toes.
If it looks like this path won't get us to where you think we should be, please speak up. If it looks like this is a reasonable way to proceed, please feel free to help out.
Thanks! -Andy
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participants (3)
-
Andrew Moore -
henridamien.laurent -
MJ Ray