On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 10:05 AM, Matt Lewin <[email protected]> wrote:
> Gentlemen- > > Thanks very much for your quick responses and encouragement. Until a > moment ago, I had the listserv set to digest mode, which, it turns out, > makes interaction with the list on a per-thread basis somewhat more > challenging. I’ve pruned the digest message below and will attempt to > respond to each of you in this message. > > Mike Rylander, it appears that your “U2” implementation does exactly what > I am looking for. Though I would love to hand the working app to my > daughter immediately, I am also very happy that you pointed me at code that > is yet to be rolled out. In case you couldn’t figure it out from my > initial email, I was at my wit’s end. If you had responded with something > akin to, “Matt, you can simply include, > ‘tag:open-ils:acp_by_barcode/<barcode #>/‘ in your GET query, and it will > do what you want *and* cure Cancer,” I think I would have engaged in > self-flagellation. I will admit, though, I pushed so hard on this one > because I couldn’t imagine *not* being able to easily retrieve information > by barcode, and I didn’t want to waste anybody’s time by asking a question > I should have been able to find on my own. > > Also, you may want to consider renaming your new method, because you know > that some smarty-pants is going to sneak in a “Bono” mode that formats all > responses in “sunglasses” mode. > > We welcome all forms of Easter Egg in Evergreen ... I look forward to your patch! ;) > Michael Peters, the app I’m writing is an iOS app, though I may implement > it on Android, as well. The app allows its user(s) to track items they’ve > borrowed from and returned to the library. It is 100% separate from > anything the library itself does to track such things. In essence, it’s > meant to allow somebody to provide a “check” against the library’s > borrowing records. > > The idea arose from my daughter’s repeatedly returning items to the > Westford library, only to be told that the items were never returned. Or > at least, that’s her story. ;) The folks at the library are very > forgiving, but my daughter *has* had to spend some of her allowance > reimbursing the library for lost books. > > The works as follows: when borrowing an item, the user scans the Codabar > barcode of the item. The barcode is used to retrieve the information about > the item. (This is obviously the part I wrote to you guys about; I’ve been > using canned data up to this point.) The user then sets the due date for > the item, and the app stores the information in a device-local list. The > user then scans the item again to tell the app she is returning it. The > app provides a simple interface to everything currently borrowed and > everything previously returned. It also provides visual indication when an > item is overdue or due within the next week. I’ve got nearly everything > working using canned data, and so it was time to put on the big-boy pants > and talk to the Evergreen server. > > I’m having a blast writing it, and my daughter is eager to see me do > something — anything, really — she can use herself. > > It also turns out there’s a real need for an app such as this, as a friend > of mine I described it to said his wife has resorted to taking pictures of > herself returning books, just to avoid paying replacement fees for “lost” > books. > > On a related topic, as I take the app to completion, I’m considering > wrapping whatever Evergreen interaction code I write up into a Cocoapod for > all to use. With that in mind, is there a straightforward means for > 3rd-party software to perform authentication on Evergreen? Put another > way, if I wanted to write a mobile app that would allow a user to retrieve > and manage his own library record, would I end up coming back to you guys? > For example, I might want to extend the functionality of the app to > reconcile the library’s idea of what a user has borrowed with the app’s > idea. > > From my perspective, it seems reasonable to expose sufficient APIs to > parallel the functionality a library patron can perform through the > website. In fact, I had assumed these APIs already existed and that the > website was using them to do what it does. Obviously, I’m relatively new > to Evergreen and OpenSRF. Is there some risk — security or otherwise — to > what I suggest? Or is it simply that people have only so many cycles in > the day, and Model-View-Controller is all nice in theory, but is a right > PiTA to make happen in the real world? > > The APIs used in the backend, indeed, exposed to the world, including authentication. Evergreen uses a CHAP implementation for auth, so it's not a simple user+pass submission, but every existing client does the CHAP dance, so there's plenty of example code floating about. Here's a thread from the olden days pointing the way to some of the low-level bits: http://libmail.georgialibraries.org/pipermail/open-ils-dev/2009-February/004269.html . > Thank you both again for your interest in what I’m doing and your help in > my achieving it. > We look forward to seeing it in action. --Mike > > -Matt > > > On Nov 20, 2014, at 11:33 PM, > [email protected] wrote: > > > > Today's Topics: > > > > 2. Re: Public API to Lookup Items By Barcode (Michael Peters) > > 3. Re: Public API to Lookup Items By Barcode (Mike Rylander) > > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > Message: 2 > > Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 22:49:27 -0500 (EST) > > From: Michael Peters <[email protected]> > > Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-DEV] Public API to Lookup Items By Barcode > > To: "Evergreen Development Discussion List" > > <[email protected]> > > Message-ID: <76298868.00000590.00000009@MichaelPetersPC> > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > > > Matt, > > > > > > > > First of all, I think it is AWESOME you are attempting to do this just > for > > your daughter. That makes you an awesome dad, for sure! > > > > > > > > Would you mind sharing a few more details about how you intend to use the > > app? What platform will it be used on? Is it just a webpage she can go > to > > that makes some calls to your local library public API?s? Is it a mobile > > app for Android or iOS? > > > > > > > > Do you intend for this to be a ?reading list? of sorts, where she can > keep > > track of the barcodes (or maybe better yet, bib id?s) for materials she > has > > already enjoyed? Do you intend for this to be a way to keep her > responsible > > with her borrowing (alert her if she has a book coming due or already > > overdue)? Or maybe some combination of both. > > > > > > > > While I may not be able to help write the app, I do know that these were > the > > first questions that came to mind for me when considering how to respond > to > > your message. > > > > > > > > Congrats on your drive to develop something like this, and for going > above > > and beyond what the average library patron would even attempt. You are > way > > cool for checking out Evergreen on a deeper level, rather than just > using it > > as a patron. Major high five for that! > > > > > > > > Look forward to hearing more about what you are hoping your app to look > like > > and what it will do for you and your daughter (and hey, maybe even other > > people around the world if you were to share it) and seeing how this > > progresses! > > > > > > > > Best of luck, > > > > Michael Peters > > Senior Systems Analyst > > Emerald Data Networks, Inc. > > Phone: 678.302.3000 x1013 > > Help Desk: 678.302.3000 x1500 > > www.emeralddata.net > > > > ------------------------------ > > > > Message: 3 > > Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 23:33:17 -0500 > > From: Mike Rylander <[email protected]> > > Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-DEV] Public API to Lookup Items By Barcode > > To: Evergreen Development Discussion List > > <[email protected]> > > Message-ID: > > <CAO8ar=nfUNiknX4CUhpueKx+J-YDKh= > [email protected]> > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > > > Matt, > > > > As it happens, I wrote the code needed to do exactly what you're > attempting > > just two months ago. It's linked from here: > > https://bugs.launchpad.net/evergreen/+bug/1367926 ... the commit > message in > > the git branch attached to that launchpad bug gives an example of > > retrieving the details of a title by an attached barcode. Now, there are > > ways to gather that data programmatically without that code, but it > > requires several hoops and is far from trivial for anyone not familiar > with > > the internals of Evergreen. > > > > I'm pretty sure that MVLC does not have that branch in production, but it > > will almost certainly be included in the next major release, due out in > the > > spring, and I bet that MVLC will be one of the first to deploy it. They > > often run pretty close to the leading edge. > > > > Hope that helps, and good luck! > > > > -- > > Mike Rylander > > | President > > | Equinox Software, Inc. / Your Library's Guide to Open Source > > | phone: 1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457) > > | email: [email protected] > > | web: http://www.esilibrary.com > > End of Open-ils-dev Digest, Vol 104, Issue 9 > > ******************************************** > >
