[Koha-devel] Issuing rules

[Joshua M. Ferraro]

Hi Ernesto,

Thanks for giving us some indication about your preferences for
issuing rules, and also the information about what you've developed
inhouse. Now that the official Koha project runs Git, it will be much
easier for your team to contribute select features, and also manage
a local repo that can be synchronized with the main Koha repo (it's
the main reason we switched to a distributed version control system).

Just in case you haven't seen these links:

Instructions on how to use Git
http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?id=en:development:git_usage

Git repo for the 3.0 release
http://git.koha.org

Git allows us to take advantage of some powerful tools for merging
'branches' of Koha ... it gives you the opportunity to share things
very easily, and for us to ingest them into the main Koha repo ...
it'd be well worth the time to learn how it works before our
codebases get too divergent. In fact, I think the main reason we
weren't able to integrate your code into this release was not
because we weren't interested in it, it was because we simply didn't
have time to hunt and peck through it and figure out what has
changed.

As always, we're available any time on the #koha channel on IRC if
you'd like to discuss anything in real time.

Cheers,

-- 
Joshua Ferraro                       SUPPORT FOR OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE
President, Technology       migration, training, maintenance, support
LibLime                                Featuring Koha Open-Source ILS
jmf at liblime.com |Full Demos at http://liblime.com/koha |1(888)KohaILS

----- "Ernesto Silva" <silva at ort.edu.uy> wrote:
> Hi,
>     I've read the message and I do agree. I just want to mention some
> of 
> our own developments.
> 
> We have 2 types of items in case of biblios representing books. We
> have 
> "room" and "common" items; "common" items use the standard issuing
> rules 
> but "room" items cannot be on loan during working days, our librarians
> 
> lend them to the users for the weekend.
> What is the porpouse of this? well, not to have a book sleeping in the
> 
> shelve during the weekend if a borrower needs it. This can't be done 
> during working days (Monday to Friday) because we must always have one
> 
> copy (item) to be used in the lecture room. The circulation depends on
> 
> one item field which has the value specifying it's a "normal" or
> "room" one.
> 
> We also don't work with fees and fines, we penalize with suspensions,
> 
> we've developed a module for this.
> 
> Perhaps some of this ideas can be integrated into 3.0, just a 
> suggestion, I'm not asking for it.
> 
> I don't know if this situation exists in other libraries. We can't
> share 
> this lines of code because we have merged them with other particular 
> modifications which only apply to our university (as far as I know).
> What we can do is send you ALL the code, we don't have the time (at
> this 
> moment) to extract a clean module to send it to you.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> -- 
> Ernesto Silva.
> Coordinador de Desarrollo Web y Sistemas Abiertos
> Centro de Procesamiento de Datos
> Universidad ORT Uruguay.
> E-mail: silva at ort.edu.uy
> Tel: (+598-2) 902-1505 ext. 206
> Fax: (+598-2) 900-2952
> 
> 
> 
> Paul POULAIN wrote:
> > Hello world,
> >
> > We are reviewing Koha for 3.0 Release & Joshua pointed something 
> > important: the way issuingrules worked in koha 2.2.
> >
> > In Koha 2.2, the way it works is :
> > - you define the rules depending on itemtype / patron category /
> branch
> > - you have "wildcard" that means "all of them". For example, * /
> adult 
> > / * = 5 means "an adult patron can't issue more than 5 items
> whatever 
> > the branch".
> > - The circ module check ALL the rules & warn if one is not correct.
> 
> > So, if you don't fill a cell, it's considered as 0 (= no issue
> possible)
> > - you must fill book / * / * by understanding it means : "no patron
> 
> > can't issue more than X book(s)"
> >
> > This behaviour troubled a lot users, as we often have questions
> about 
> > warnings that were not expected.
> >
> > Joshua think, and i' fully agree with him, that the user understand
> 
> > the wildcard as 'default if nothing specified'.
> > So, for example, book / * / * would mean : if a specific rule is not
> 
> > defined for patron category, then use this default value.
> >
> > We should not have a "check ALL the rules", but a "check the 1st 
> > available, from most to less specific + check the total rule if 
> > available.".
> >
> > The "wildcard" on itemtype being renamed to "total", and being
> applied 
> > if defined, as total document the patron can issue.
> >
> > so we could have something like that
> >        adult   children  default
> > book   empty     3,21      5,21
> > serial  4,14     3,21      5,21
> > comic   5,21     3,21      empty
> > total    7       empty      5
> >
> > which would mean :
> > - an adult can issue 5 books for 21 days (default rule)
> > - an adult can issue 4 serials for 14 days (specific rule)
> > - an adult can issue 7 documents total
> > - a child can issu 3 books, 3 serials, 3 comics, but 5 document
> maximum
> >
> > The "branch level" has the same behaviour : it a rule for a branch
> is 
> > defined, then it's applicable, otherwise, it's the default rule of
> the 
> > default branch.
> >
> >
> > Let us know your opinion on this.
> > It would require some tweaking on issuingrules definition & a small
> 
> > rewrite the CanBookBeIssued sub, to check only 2 rules (1st found +
> 
> > total), not 8 (every cell that fit the issue).
> >
> >
> 
> 
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