[Koha-bugs] [Bug 12769] Notice fee management

[bugzilla-daemon at bugs.koha-community.org]

http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=12769

--- Comment #35 from Gaetan Boisson <gaetan.boisson at biblibre.com> ---
---Short Version---
 Do we want to be able to charge users on arbitrary notifications, and if we
do, are we willing to provide users with a design that will require maintaining
all the different variants of the notifications?

---Long Prose---
 I went and read the RFC mentioned at the top of this thread first, which seems
to be where the initial requirement was expressed. Bug 14666 is obviously
trying to achieve something quite similar.

I see two possibilities:

- The requirement is to charge on notifications for late documents, something
that indeed cannot be done in Koha right now. That is my understanding of the
RFC actually, but I didn't write it, and I don't know the sponsor;). I have had
libraries asking me how to have a one time charge when patrons have late
documents. Koha makes some complicated calculations regarding each document and
the number of days late, according to the circulation matrix, which definitely
doesn't fit everyone's needs, and which will generate odd amounts for fines. My
point is that there clearly is a need to be able to charge a simple one time
amount to patrons with late documents.
 If this is the only scenario for the requirement, then I think adding this
possibility at the notification level is a bad idea. It makes it difficult to
charge different amounts for different patron categories or different libraries
since you will have to edit different notifications for these, I find the
"notices and slips" tool quite complicated already, while the "overdue status
trigger" tool is very clear. It also makes it possible to charge for
notifications for which I cannot see the need, like PREDUE. There are other
notifications for which I think "fair enough, why not", like "hold available
for pick up", but frankly none of them make as much sense to me as the overdue
notices (and I don't see myself needing this anytime soon).


- But maybe that is precisely the requirement, to be able to charge users on
arbitrary notifications and not just for late items.
 If this is the case then in the current design libraries who want to manage
different fine amounts for different patron categories / libraries combinations
for overdue notices will have to deal with having a really long list of
notifications to maintain, since they will have one for each combination of
patron category / library for which the amount is different. If the wording has
to change in the notification, all of them will need to be edited. This adds up
with the different notifications for each stage (1st reminder, 2nd reminder,
etc.), so it will be a lot of lines in the tool.

 So I would say the question is: do we want to be able to charge users on
arbitrary notifications, and if we do, are we willing to provide users with a
design that will require maintaining all the different variants of the
notifications?

 The BibLibre development (bug 14666) is not about charging for arbitrary
notifications. You have my opinion on the above question ;) InLibro and the
Halland County Library should give their input and we'll see how to move
forward!

(Although I work for BibLibre, I am not in charge of the development on bug
14666. So if the answer is that the need is to send notifications for arbitrary
notifications, I will not block the proposed functionality: it is possible to
achieve our needs with it. I just think the interface is going to make it
painful. I will ask Stéphane Delaye to give his opinion here though.)

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