[Koha-devel] Review on Koha Order Module/plugin API

[dcook at prosentient.com.au]

Hi again Ola,

 

Apologies if my previous email came across as rude or aggressive. That
certainly wasn't my intention. I can be overly enthusiastic about technology
and overly focus on details. I am very excited by the work you have in mind.

 

I think that it's great that the Swedish Koha User Group has created a task
group for creating a Order module/plugin for Koha. That use case seems like
a good candidate for a Koha plugin. I do have critical feedback for the
proposed design, but one of the advantages of Koha plugins is that it is
easy to iteratively develop them. 

 

Actually, I also have a few more questions. You mention that you haven't
hired a contractor yet, but you've proposed a particular design. I'm
guessing that design is coming from the Vendor? I wonder if it would be
worthwhile having that vendor get in touch with us. I suspect that the Koha
community would be able to give the best advice if we knew more about the
Vendor service. 

 

Going back to the proposed design, if I understand correctly, I think you
may run into issues doing the HTTP POST with the base64 encoded JSON data to
Koha when unauthenticated, as the user will be prompted with a login screen
that will perform another HTTP request to Koha, which means your "order"
field will be lost. But maybe I'm missing something.

 

Thanks for posting to the listserv, and looking forward to hearing more.

 

David Cook

Software Engineer

Prosentient Systems

72/330 Wattle St

Ultimo, NSW 2007

Australia

 

Office: 02 9212 0899

Online: 02 8005 0595

 

From: Koha-devel <koha-devel-bounces at lists.koha-community.org> On Behalf Of
dcook at prosentient.com.au
Sent: Tuesday, 8 September 2020 11:44 AM
To: 'Ola Andersson' <ola.andersson at ltu.se>;
koha-devel at lists.koha-community.org
Subject: Re: [Koha-devel] Review on Koha Order Module/plugin API

 

Hi Ola,

 

I've only skimmed the document, but I really dislike the proposal. It's not
really describing an API. It's describing a non-standard workaround. I've
seen integrations like this before, but I wouldn't recommend them,
especially not for a new development.

 

I'd suggest that the Koha plugin provides an API where the Vendor Service
can send the JSON in the body of a background POST request using AJAX. Once
that POST request is complete, they could then offer a link to navigate to
Koha. That link would be to the Koha plugin and include an identifier
returned by the earlier AJAX POST request. 

 

In Koha, the user logs in and sees the Vendor Service order as shown by the
Koha plugin, and then you can action that order from there however you like.
Easy.

 

You would need to provide authentication credentials to the Vendor Service,
but that's a reasonable thing to do when consuming an API. 

 

I hope that helps.

 

David Cook

Software Engineer

Prosentient Systems

72/330 Wattle St

Ultimo, NSW 2007

Australia

 

Office: 02 9212 0899

Online: 02 8005 0595

 

From: Koha-devel <koha-devel-bounces at lists.koha-community.org
<mailto:koha-devel-bounces at lists.koha-community.org> > On Behalf Of Ola
Andersson
Sent: Tuesday, 8 September 2020 12:41 AM
To: koha-devel at lists.koha-community.org
<mailto:koha-devel at lists.koha-community.org> 
Subject: [Koha-devel] Review on Koha Order Module/plugin API
Importance: High

 

Dear Koha Developers,

 

Here in Sweden we have started a task group in the Swedish Koha User Group
to build a Order module/plugin to Koha that allow automatic influx of order
data directly from a book vendor into Koha. 

 

The API draft is described here:
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/13EIWxTlN3Wo-8OtJuwu5serQu-dl-zdpK1qY5BN
s0dk/edit#heading=h.jtxo4681sgpr>
https://docs.google.com/document/d/13EIWxTlN3Wo-8OtJuwu5serQu-dl-zdpK1qY5BNs
0dk/edit#heading=h.jtxo4681sgpr

 

We have had it posted for review in the Swedish user group - but we are
thinking it would be valuable to get the larger Koha community to give
feedback before we hire contractors to build the module/plugin.

 

Please share thoughts on the API and how to best implement it in Koha from a
developer/QA perspective. All comments are appreciated and anyone looking at
the Google docs above can send comments/suggestions into the document.

 

When the API is becoming more stable and comments have been looked at we
could move it into the Koha wiki site.

 

Please leave comments before 21 September 2020.

 

/Swedish Koha User Group - the book vendor module/plugin task group

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