My previous email included a patch that was, unfortunately, just the
tip of the iceberg, so to speak. I have since figured out a lot of
what needs to be done to do this on the backend.
However, in looking at what needs to be done, I came up with several
questions as to how to handle things.
Currently the circulation flag, duration rule, recurring fine rule,
and max fine rule are on my list of things to have "fall through".
I am unsure as to whether or not to have the total copy hold ratio or
the available copy hold ratio values fall through or not. They are not
"endpoint" data, but at the same time may be considered to be an
important part of the checks.
In that regard, I see three logical options:
1 - Don't have them fall through. If they aren't set on the first
matchpoint found, they aren't set.
2 - Have them fall through until we run out of rules or they are
filled, like the four values above.
3 - Have them fall through, but only until we have filled the other
four values. Once the other four values are filled we officially stop
checking them.
I am partial to 1 or 3 in this case.
The other main issue I am seeing right now is the circ mod test. In
particular, the current system uses the matchpoint ID for the check.
As my changes make it so that there is more than one matchpoint ID
possibly involved there are several options:
1 - Negate the check when there is more than one matchpoint used in
the final result
2 - Use only the first matchpoint found for the check
3 - Have it use all matchpoints that were considered for the check
(were valid and before we filled in our values)
4 - Have it use all matchpoints that contributed to the check (were
valid, before we filled in our values, AND set at least one value)
I am partial to 3 in this case, as that would allow for creating a
matchpoint that would be specifically for triggering that limit,
without changing any of the resulting rules.
Any thoughts?
Thomas Berezansky
Merrimack Valley Library Consortium
Quoting Thomas Berezansky <[email protected]>:
Theory:
Make the things returned (circulate, duration_rule,
recurring_fine_rule, max_fine_rule) "fall through" when set to NULL.
The attached patch attempts to make this happen on the back end, but
provides no front end interface changes for configuring it.
IT HAS NOT BEEN TESTED, mainly because I don't want to screw with
our test system right now when others may be trying to test
existing functionality.
It also adds in the ability to pass in one more (optional) boolean
parameter to the function to return the entire list of rules used to
create the final result, intended for "debug/test" front end
functionality to show what rules were considered in the fall-through
checking.
Pros:
You can override a subset of those fields with a specific rule while
allowing broader rules to fill in the holes.
This may result in less duplication of information across rules,
making things easier to maintain.
Thus, this may result in less rules in general, and thus less
processing time on sorting them overall.
Cons:
Manually figuring out the specifics of what will happen will take
more time/effort.
Changing a single rule may have a greater unintended effect on other rules.
Staff would need training for when to have a rule fall through and
when to set it.
More time to return from the DB for any rule that is "falling
through" to broader rules.
Examples for the following org tree:
CONS
-SYSA
--LIBC
--LIBD
-SYSB
--LIBE
--LIBF
Implementing the following "business" rules:
At the CONS level:
By default, everything circulates, uses DFLT_DUR duration,
DFLT_RFINE recurring fine, and DFLT_MFINE max fine.
Circ Modifier "book" uses the duration BOOK_DUR
Reference flagged materials don't circulate
At the SYSA level there are no special rules.
At the SYSB level the max fine should be SYSB_MFINE.
At the LIBC level the recurring fine is LIBC_RFINE
At the LIBD level circ modifier "book" uses the DFLT_DUR duration
instead of "BOOK_DUR"
At the LIBE level reference flagged materials circulate.
At the LIBF level there are no special rules.
The current method would require the following circ rules to
implement those business rules:
CIRC_LIB CIRC_MOD REFERENCE CIRC? DURATION_RULE RECURRING_FINE MAX_FINE
CONS NULL NULL TRUE DFLT_DUR DFLT_RFINE DFLT_MFINE
CONS NULL TRUE FALSE DFLT_DUR DFLT_RFINE DFLT_MFINE
CONS book NULL TRUE BOOK_DUR DFLT_RFINE DFLT_MFINE
CONS book TRUE FALSE BOOK_DUR DFLT_RFINE DFLT_MFINE
SYSB NULL NULL TRUE DFLT_DUR DFLT_RFINE SYSB_MFINE
SYSB NULL TRUE FALSE DFLT_DUR DFLT_RFINE SYSB_MFINE
SYSB book NULL TRUE BOOK_DUR DFLT_RFINE SYSB_MFINE
SYSB book TRUE FALSE BOOK_DUR DFLT_RFINE SYSB_MFINE
LIBC NULL NULL TRUE DFLT_DUR LIBC_RFINE DFLT_MFINE
LIBC NULL TRUE FALSE DFLT_DUR LIBC_RFINE DFLT_MFINE
LIBC book NULL TRUE BOOK_DUR LIBC_RFINE DFLT_MFINE
LIBC book TRUE FALSE BOOK_DUR LIBC_RFINE DFLT_MFINE
LIBD book NULL TRUE DFLT_DUR DFLT_RFINE DFLT_MFINE
LIBD book TRUE FALSE DFLT_DUR DFLT_RFINE DFLT_MFINE
LIBE NULL NULL TRUE DFLT_DUR DFLT_RFINE SYSB_MFINE
LIBE book NULL TRUE BOOK_DUR DFLT_RFINE SYSB_MFINE
16 circ rules total.
The new method would require the following circ rules to implement
those business rules:
CIRC_LIB CIRC_MOD REFERENCE CIRC? DURATION_RULE RECURRING_FINE MAX_FINE
CONS NULL NULL TRUE DFLT_DUR DFLT_RFINE DFLT_MFINE
CONS book NULL NULL BOOK_DUR NULL NULL
CONS NULL TRUE FALSE NULL NULL NULL
SYSB NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL SYSB_MFINE
LIBC NULL NULL NULL NULL LIBC_RFINE NULL
LIBD book NULL NULL DFLT_DUR NULL NULL
LIBE NULL TRUE TRUE NULL NULL NULL
7 circ rules total.
Starting with the above, lets assume that SYSA wants to change their
recurring fine to SYSA_RFINE.
LIBC's recurring fine is to be unchanged.
The current method requires the following changes:
ADD the following entries:
CIRC_LIB CIRC_MOD REFERENCE CIRC? DURATION_RULE RECURRING_FINE MAX_FINE
SYSA NULL NULL TRUE DFLT_DUR SYSA_RFINE DFLT_MFINE
SYSA NULL TRUE FALSE DFLT_DUR SYSA_RFINE DFLT_MFINE
SYSA book NULL TRUE BOOK_DUR SYSA_RFINE DFLT_MFINE
SYSA book TRUE FALSE BOOK_DUR SYSA_RFINE DFLT_MFINE
UPDATE the LIBD entries:
CIRC_LIB CIRC_MOD REFERENCE CIRC? DURATION_RULE RECURRING_FINE MAX_FINE
LIBD book NULL TRUE DFLT_DUR SYSA_RFINE DFLT_MFINE
LIBD book TRUE FALSE DFLT_DUR SYSA_RFINE DFLT_MFINE
4 rules added, 2 changed, total is now 20 rules.
The new method would require the following changes:
ADD the following entry:
CIRC_LIB CIRC_MOD REFERENCE CIRC? DURATION_RULE RECURRING_FINE MAX_FINE
SYSA NULL NULL NULL NULL SYSA_RFINE NULL
1 rule added, 0 changed, total is now 8 rules.
Thomas Berezansky
Merrimack Valley Library Consortium
