[Koha-devel] GetMember() cardnumber vs. firstname search

[Joshua Ferraro]

On Thu, Nov 6, 2008 at 3:57 AM, Paul POULAIN <paul.poulain at free.fr> wrote:
> Joe Atzberger a écrit :
>
>> I find the fallback to firstname entirely regrettable and have argued
>> against it in the past.  I am certain the only accounts in favor of it
>> were regarding small libraries where a firstname basis might make sense.
>
> I disagree ;-)
>
> It's interesting for large libraries to be able to get the result they
> want when they enter "doe john". As entering just "doe" would result in
> a large result set.
> So I think it's useful for large libraries, more than for small ones ;-)
>
> However, i'm not against a change here, but I just care about the
> useability : atm, the behaviour is quite easy for librarians (except for
> the cardnumber=surname case i've already pointed, but it happends only once)
>
> A can I suggest a solution where the patron would be splitted in 2 parts :
> cardnumber or surname : _____________________
> firstname : __________________________
>
> that would result in a better SQL, and would not be a pain for the
> librarian.
I think there's two points being made here:

1. (Galen and Joe): the core API shouldn't have fallbacks on what
would normally appear to be a lookup on a unique value. This is
primarily a coding standards statement.

2. (Paul): there should be one search box that allows search by
barcode, but also falls back to searching by name (which I think most
of the community would agree on).

So the resolution should probably be to just split up those functions
into two API calls to improve the quality of the code. Right? I happen
to know for certain that a lot of libraries rely on the single search
input box as the way to search for a patron record by barcode and
name, and some libraries want to be able to enter in other stuff like
telephone number or address in that one input box too -- they prefer
not to have to click on Patrons and do an 'advanced search'.

Cheers,

-- 
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