Offline circulation firefox plugin

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Offline Circulation Firefox Plugin

DISCLAIMER: this tool is not available for Koha 3.6, it will be in 3.8

This new offline circulation tool is based on a Firefox plugin. It has many improvements over the previous offline circulation tool:

  • no specific/large installation required, it's just a Firefox plugin, you'll download at https://addons.mozilla.org/fr/firefox/addon/koct/ (french) or https://addons.mozilla.org/en/firefox/addon/koct/ (english)
  • when an update of KOCT is available, it will be updated automatically as any Firefox plugin
  • if you have more than one computer using offline circulation , the improvement will be very useful: do offline circulation, upload all files to Koha once the network is back, then from Koha, apply all changes in sequence based on their timestamp. If a patron has checked-out a book at desk A, then checked it in at desk B one hour later, you won't face the problem of having check-in applied before check-out, resulting in the book being checked-out in Koha.
  • Source code is available on koha-community git contrib repository http://git.koha-community.org/gitweb/?p=contrib/global.git;a=summary

The plugin

A status bar button is added to Firefox status bar. The main window appears when you click it.

Koct01.png

When you launch the plugin, it can warn you about existing entries in your local SQLite database:

Koct-database-warning.png

If you check the "I want to delete rows" option and click "OK", everything will be removed. You should only do this if you are sure all previous transactions have been sent to Koha.


The last tab is for settings. (The authentication process will certainly change.)

Koct-parameters-window.png

The two first tabs contains controls to input data. (a third tab will be added for payments).

Koct-main-window.png

Koct-checkin-window.png

The "log tab" shows the pending operations. It is also the place to commit changes when network connectivity is back. Users will be able to delete some entries before committing:

Koct-log-window.png

When you click on the "Commit to Koha" button, the plugin will send data to Koha using AJAX:

<file> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <offlinecirculation branchcode="ARCH" apply="false"> <operation action="issue" timestamp="2009-09-16 15:07:48" cardnumber="6" barcode="23987396" /> <operation action="return" timestamp="2009-09-16 15:07:53" barcode="09820983698" /> </offlinecirculation> </file>

The data is sent in a specific temporary table on Koha. The check-ins and checkouts are not validated until you've confirmed them in the staff client (see below)

You can also discard everything by clicking "Clear". The option "Apply directly" will directly apply your changes to Koha and should not be used usually.

On Koha side

A librarian can access pending circulation operations in the staff client under Circulation -> Offline Circulation. He or she has the option to delete erroneous operations and to process valid ones. The operations will be applied sequentially without regard to where they were made. The order is defined by a timestamp. Thus, a book checked-out at desk A and checked-in at desk B will always be processed correctly, independently from the order you upload the operations from each location to Koha.

Koct-staff-client-pending-operations.png

KOCT in your language

Operation describes on Zotero web site are also valid for KOCT : Zotero for Firefox

Zotero for Firefox

By default, the user interface (UI) of Zotero (the labels of menu items, tabs, etc.) is displayed in the same language as Firefox. For example, if you download and install the French version of Firefox, your Zotero UI will automatically appear in French. If translations for a language are not available, Zotero's UI will default to US English.
To change the language of the Zotero UI, you can either use the Quick Locale Switcher Firefox add-on (see below), or follow these instructions:

  • Type about:config into the Firefox address bar and press Enter. Dismiss the “This might void your warranty!” warning.
  • Type “useragent” in the Filter text box. Now double-click the general.useragent.locale preference (or right-click the preference and select Modify), and enter the desired language tag (e.g. “en-US” for US English). See the chrome manifest for all available codes.
  • Type “matchOS” in the Filter text box. If the intl.locale.matchOS preference is set to true, double-click to change it to false. Otherwise, Firefox will use your operating system's language instead of the one you just set.
  • Restart Firefox.

Changing the value of general.useragent.locale also affects the Firefox UI, Firefox add-ons, and websites that adapt their content based on the Firefox locale.

Quick Locale Switcher

The Quick Locale Switcher Firefox add-on makes it easier to change the value of general.useragent.locale. After installation of the add-on (and restarting Firefox), go to the Quick Locale Switcher Options window, and check the “User Interface Language (general.useragent.locale preference)” checkbox. You can now use the popup menu of the Quick Locale Switcher to switch the Firefox locale (although you still have to restart Firefox after changing the locale). If it has no effect, you may need to change the intl.locale.matchOS preference (see above).

Language that are currently supported by KOCT (v3.2)
Language code
Language
de-DE
German (Germany)
en-US
English (US)
es-ES
Spanish (Spain)
fr-FR
French (France)
gl-ES
Galician (Spain)
it-IT Italian (Italy)


See also


Troubleshooting

When you "upload" by clicking on "commit to Koha", the column "Status" should change from "local" to "Added". If it stays "local", it probably means your parameters are not set properly. It also seems that the first time you set the parameters you have to restart Firefox to have them be taken in account.

If you're still getting "local" and are sure of your parameters, you should look at Koha log file (or ask your administrator to do it for you).