Hi Jill,
You may consider setting up a recurring report on the staff client to
receive an email on regular basis. The drawback I can see is the file
may be empty sometimes.
Tina
Quoting Jill Minor <[email protected]>:
We're curious: is there a way to set Evergreen up to flag books with
a ceiling of holds (like say 8) to notify staff that more copies
need to be purchased? Or do you need to be a programmer and use SQL
or PHP to make that work?
[phpp2mebdAM.jpg]
Jill Minor
Electronic Services Librarian
Washington County Public Library
205 Oak Hill St
Abingdon, VA 24201
276-676-6298
http://www.wcpl.net<http://www.wcpl.net/>
Twitter: jillrhudy<http://www.twitter.com/jillrhudy>
I link patrons and staff
to technology.
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On
Behalf Of Rogan Hamby
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2013 7:39 PM
To: Evergreen Development Discussion List
Cc: Evergreen Discussion Group
Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] [OPEN-ILS-DEV] Evergreen and QA
I'm going to look at how SCLENDS could contribute to this and make
some recommendations. I'm leaning towards $1 per staff member. I
can guarantee that my own library, York County Public Library, will
do that if I have to pay it out of my own pocket in our name. It
won't be a lot. We aren't that large but I feel like we should pay
something for each one of us that hands on really uses Evergreen.
Actually, I will do that with a smile.
If we start adding up staff time ultimately saved by QA, speeding up
code, etc... I think a $1 levy is pretty cheap. I'll be glad to
call it a tax. Taxes are meant for the common good and I wish
everyone felt like they had to pay into the pool. I'd like to
believe that a kickstarter could raise a good bit of cash just off
frustrations of front line staff. (I'm not suggesting a
kickstarter, it's just to illustrate the point of who often feels
the greatest pain but heck, maybe it would work. If I could
guarantee a certain speed I'd probably have funding for a new staff
client within days.)
So, let me say, thank you Equinox. We need movement and direction
made on these big ticket tasks like QA. I remember spending a fair
bit of time talking about this last year at the conference, then
regularly since and we're almost at the next conference! I'm going
to be blunt and say that while I'm always gladdened to see efforts
by individual community members or small groups funding new
features, I don't think we're headed in the right direction on the
big things - really big features, fundamental changes that we can
build off of, big revisions to code bases like the optimization we
talked about at the last developer meeting, quality assurance
processes, etc... I know no one wants to put any one vendor in too
central or strong a role and I'd rather QA came out of a community
effort, but there hasn't been a community led effort and I care
about results.
I'm not talking about the theory of community or the principles of
open source. I do believe in those things by the way, but I have
circ and reference staff report directly to me. I man those desks
and use it myself. Results matter and if ESI will lead the way I'll
gladly buy my war bonds ... er, send them my money.
<start sandbox rant>
And I'm really, really interested in having a dialogue about other
things. I want the community to be more aware of things like the
web sockets conversations and potential of a browser loaded staff
client and need for optimization and I want to hear the community's
feedback and who they think should be leading this up. I think in
open source there is a certain ethical mandate to take direction
from the community and if you're willing to spend time on it to go
that direction. As a member of the Oversight Board I want us to be
more aggressive about helping big things happen but do we have the
backing of the community to do that or do they not want a central
body in the at role?
I'll be honest, I don't think the listserv is the best place for
these conversations. I hope to have them a lot more at the
conference, especially at the close where I'll be doing some talking
about community engagement. I'll hold Google Hangouts. Heck, I'm
willing to hold regional meetings and if I can reasonably drive to
it attend. I'd rather have a thousand people talking and make sense
of overload than nothing. I want us to look forward years ahead
and be ambitious but that's me. And that's also kind of the great
thing about open source. ESI can lead this because they're willing
to. And one guy can stand around and be loud and folks can agree
or ignore him but if enough agree ... well, that's open source.
And I love open source and results.
</end sandbox rant>
On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 2:38 PM, W. Brad LaJeunesse
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Fellow Evergreeners:
At the "future of the staff client" developer meeting Quality
Assurance (QA) came up repeatedly. This is a serious issue that
affects every one of us. It obviously affects all users of
Evergreen, whether staff or customer, but it also greatly affects
Equinox in that bugs and other software defects increase our support
load and also decreases overall satisfaction with the Evergreen
product. It's an issue we've been deeply concerned about for some
time.
A few years ago, there was a formal and concerted QA effort. GPLS
was generous to fund it, and we were making good headway with
nightly builds, tests, etc. However, with funding cuts and other
issues becoming priority, QA has largely been ignored and we've all
felt the result. As a community, we need to correct this.
Equinox would like to be part of the solution and we very much want
to re-launch and lead the QA effort, but we need the community's
help and support. We have a formative plan and we have resources we
can devote, but we need funding to make it happen.
We propose that Jason Etheridge will be responsible for the QA
project and will direct and manage appropriate Equinox resources.
Jason will have authority to pull in any Equinox developer (or any
other personnel/resources), as needed, to get the job done. We
propose that Equinox devote a total of one FTE to the QA effort as
well as any server/hardware required. Jason will work closely with
community stakeholders, coordinate, and make sure Equinox's efforts
are in line with community needs. We expect, in the least, to have
nightly builds and increased automated test coverage.
We believe that a 3-month period is enough to get started and see if
this effort is fruitful. We're looking for $30,000 to fund a
3-month effort. If we're successful, then we'll search for further
funding to keep rolling.
I understand budgets are tight and we're all looking for ways to
make everything fit, but QA is an important and worthwhile project
and we need your help to make it happen--to make Evergreen better
for all of us.
If you're interested in making a pledge, just let me know.
Thanks for your consideration.
--
W. Brad LaJeunesse
| President
| Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts
| phone: 1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)
| email: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
| web: http://www.esilibrary.com<http://www.esilibrary.com/>
--
Rogan Hamby, MLS, CCNP, MIA
Managers Headquarters Library and Reference Services,
York County Library System
"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough
to suit me."
- C.S. Lewis<http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1069006.C_S_Lewis>
Tina Ji
1-888-848-9250
Trainer/Help Desk Specialist
BC Libraries Cooperative/Sitka
