[Koha] Koha offline circulation tool (firefox plugin) documentation
Hi folks, how are you doing? As requested earlier this week on the IRC, here is the Koha Offline Circulation Tool documentation that the (Koha) world is waiting for! ;^) 1. Humm, but what is it for? Sometimes, you are at the circulation desk and your internet connection goes down. Good news, it may not be as terrible as it seems. If your twitter followers can wait your next tweets, it may not be an option for your patrons. There is already an offline circulation tool that works with Koha but if you want to use an easy to install offline circulation tool (no technical skills are required), you can try this one. It's quite easy to use even if some explanation might be necessary to fully understand everything. 2. Download and installation : First thing : this tool is a firefox plugin you need to download and install on your firefox brownser. To do so, just go to the https://addons.mozilla.org/en/firefox/addon/koct/ page and click on the install now button. You may have to confirm the installation, just click on install now and then restart firefox to complete the installation. The download and the installation will take you a few seconds, it's very quick. Once you installed the plugin and restarted firefox, you have the koha logo in the add-on bar at the bottow of firefox. A click on the logo will open the tool in its own window. 3. Set up : The first thing you want to do then is to set up the plugin. The set up constists on 4 parameters to enter into the plugin. * Go to the Param tab and fill up the following information : - Server = the URL of the librarian interface. - Branch Code = the branch you would log in if the internet connection was working. - Username = your librarian account login - Password = your librarian account password * To save the settings, you will have to close the plugin window and re-open it by clicking again on the koha logo in the add-on bar. Tips : You can create a librarian account dedicated to the offline circulation. So that, no matter which librarian is at the check-in/check-out desk, they won't have to use their collegue account or set up the plugin again. 4. Ergonomy : The plugin consists of four tabs which are quite self explanatory! ;^) * Check Out to check-out items * Check In to check-in items * Log to keep track of every transaction the librarian did * Param to set up the plugin How it works : * To check out items, go to the Check out tab and : - scan the patron barcode - then the item barcode - and click save * To check in items, go to the Check In tab and : - scan the item barcode - and click save Each time, you check out or check in an item, a new transaction is recorded in the local plugin database and you will see, at the bottom of the plugin how many transactions has been made during the offline circulation. For example, 10 Row(s) Added means you did 10 transactions. * Then, if you want an overview of every transactions, go to the log tab. This tab will show you the recordings in the plugin database and each row will give you the following information : - the transaction timestamp - the transaction type : issue or return - the borrower cardnumber for the issues only - the item barcode - the transaction status The status will be Local. as long as you are offline and don't process the transactions into Koha. 5. My internet connection is back, what do I do now? Well, first thing Breathe!, everything is going to be fine... ;^) Then, what you want is to process every transaction in Koha database. To do so, go to the log tab where two options are available for you. You can Commit to koha or Apply directly the transactions into Koha. It depends on how you manage the check in / check out during the offline period. 5.1. If you checked in/out on more than one computer at the same time, what you want is to process every transaction consistently. Let's say for instance that one patron checked a book out on one computer and then checked the same book in on another computer. To be consistent, you need to record the check out first and then the check in. Not the opposite! To do so, you need to group every transactions in one place, sort them all and then, process everything. So, you need to Commit to koha the transactions from every plugins you worked with. This way, every issues and returns will goes to Koha in the Offline circulation page and be sorted out. The transaction status in the log will the following value : * Authentification failed. if the plugin can not connect to your koha. If you encounter this problem, check the set up and be sure that every 4 field is correctly filled. If the problem persists, you may still be offline... ;^) * Added. which means the transaction has been added to the offline circulation page list. Then, to process the transactions from koha. Go to the the offline circulation page from the circulation home page. You will see every transactions listed and you
[Koha] Koha offline circulation tool (firefox plugin) documentation
Hi folks, how are you doing? As requested earlier this week on the IRC, here is the Koha Offline Circulation Tool documentation that the (Koha) world is waiting for! ;^) 1. Humm, but what is it for? Sometimes, you are at the circulation desk and your internet connection goes down. Good news, it may not be as terrible as it seems. If your twitter followers can wait your next tweets, it may not be an option for your patrons. There is already an offline circulation tool that works with Koha but if you want to use an easy to install offline circulation tool (no technical skills are required), you can try this one. It's quite easy to use even if some explanation might be necessary to fully understand everything. 2. Download and installation : First thing : this tool is a firefox plugin you need to download and install on your firefox brownser. To do so, just go to the https://addons.mozilla.org/en/firefox/addon/koct/ page and click on the install now button. You may have to confirm the installation, just click on install now and then restart firefox to complete the installation. The download and the installation will take you a few seconds, it's very quick. Once you installed the plugin and restarted firefox, you have the koha logo in the add-on bar at the bottow of firefox. A click on the logo will open the tool in its own window. 3. Set up : The first thing you want to do then is to set up the plugin. The set up constists on 4 parameters to enter into the plugin. * Go to the Param tab and fill up the following information : - Server = the URL of the librarian interface. - Branch Code = the branch you would log in if the internet connection was working. - Username = your librarian account login - Password = your librarian account password * To save the settings, you will have to close the plugin window and re-open it by clicking again on the koha logo in the add-on bar. Tips : You can create a librarian account dedicated to the offline circulation. So that, no matter which librarian is at the check-in/check-out desk, they won't have to use their collegue account or set up the plugin again. 4. Ergonomy : The plugin consists of four tabs which are quite self explanatory! ;^) * Check Out to check-out items * Check In to check-in items * Log to keep track of every transaction the librarian did * Param to set up the plugin How it works : * To check out items, go to the Check out tab and : - scan the patron barcode - then the item barcode - and click save * To check in items, go to the Check In tab and : - scan the item barcode - and click save Each time, you check out or check in an item, a new transaction is recorded in the local plugin database and you will see, at the bottom of the plugin how many transactions has been made during the offline circulation. For example, 10 Row(s) Added means you did 10 transactions. * Then, if you want an overview of every transactions, go to the log tab. This tab will show you the recordings in the plugin database and each row will give you the following information : - the transaction timestamp - the transaction type : issue or return - the borrower cardnumber for the issues only - the item barcode - the transaction status The status will be Local. as long as you are offline and don't process the transactions into Koha. 5. My internet connection is back, what do I do now? Well, first thing Breathe!, everything is going to be fine... ;^) Then, what you want is to process every transaction in Koha database. To do so, go to the log tab where two options are available for you. You can Commit to koha or Apply directly the transactions into Koha. It depends on how you manage the check in / check out during the offline period. 5.1. If you checked in/out on more than one computer at the same time, what you want is to process every transaction consistently. Let's say for instance that one patron checked a book out on one computer and then checked the same book in on another computer. To be consistent, you need to record the check out first and then the check in. Not the opposite! To do so, you need to group every transactions in one place, sort them all and then, process everything. So, you need to Commit to koha the transactions from every plugins you worked with. This way, every issues and returns will goes to Koha in the Offline circulation page and be sorted out. The transaction status in the log will the following value : * Authentification failed. if the plugin can not connect to your koha. If you encounter this problem, check the set up and be sure that every 4 field is correctly filled. If the problem persists, you may still be offline... ;^) * Added. which means the transaction has been added to the offline circulation page list. Then, to process the transactions from koha. Go to the the offline circulation page from the circulation home page. You will see every transactions listed and you
[Koha] Koha offline circulation tool (firefox plugin) documentation
Hi Francois A big thank you to you for this! God bless you. Take care, arslan ___ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
