[Koha-devel] How we can input a very large field

[Paul POULAIN]

Andrés Tarallo a écrit :
> We are making some fixes into our production instalation. We noticed 
> that the input field in cataloging only allows 255 characters and is an 
> input field. We have currently resume fields that are much larger than 
> that (about 3000 characters).
> 
> We re trying to develop a way to make our templates aware of the fact 
> that a field is large enough to be better input in a text field insted 
> of an input field. We want to develop something more generic.
> 
> An idea we have: having in the system preferences a list of fields that 
> may contain large values. When we're about displaying an input field we 
> should take into account the systems  preferences.
> 
> We will accept your fedback, we hope we can contribute this back to the 
> CVS.
In the last version (2.2.2b) the limit of 255 chars has been removed.
PLUS : when a field is more than 200 chars, the next time the biblio is 
edited, it's shown as a textarea. automatically.

I agree it's not a perfect solution for the 1st edition.

I can do something else, but it's a dirty hack imho : if there is 
[textarea] in subfield name (like "010$a : ISBN [textarea]"), then I 
could remove [textarea] and use a textarea input even on an empty record.

The best solution being, imho, to add another constraint in 
marc_subfield_structure, that would be the size (length & height) of the 
field.
If height=1, then it's an input. if >1, then it's a textarea.
The length being usefule whatever height is (it's stupid to have 
isbn=255 char. 10 (13 soon) would be enough)

This requires some (minor) changes in the DB, so i won't do it in 2.2 
branch. But if it sounds interesting, I could add this to 2.4 features.

-- 
Paul POULAIN
Consultant indépendant en logiciels libres
responsable francophone de koha (SIGB libre http://www.koha-fr.org)