September 2000 - Koha - lists.katipo.co.nz

Localisation of koha
by Chris Cormack 21 Sep '00

21 Sep '00

* Benedykt P. Barszcz <kb2qzv(a)poczta.onet.pl> [000921 00:47]: > > > Hi, > I am attempting to rewrite the koha scripts so they can use gettext funtion for > other languages. Here is the problem: xgettext extracts all the strings where it > finds print function with "any_string". It seems it may be undisirable in some > situations. Here is an example: > #: boraccount_i18.pl:67 > msgid "$accts->[$i]{'amount'}" > msgstr "" > > In case it is disirable please let me know. I don't know > what to do with it. Should I change line no 67 into this: > gettext("$accts->[$i]{'amount'}) ? > > Another example: > #: boraccount_i18.pl:41 boraccount_i18.pl:42 > boraccount_i18.pl:43 > #: boraccount_i18.pl:44 > msgid "99cc33" > msgstr "" > > #: boraccount_i18.pl:41 boraccount_i18.pl:42 > boraccount_i18.pl:43 > #: boraccount_i18.pl:44 > msgid "/images/background-mem.gif" > msgstr "" > > Here 'xgettext' extracted html codes because they where > part of the print function in perl scripts. > Can anyone shed some light on how to actually rewrite > the scripts. > Ahh, right, probably what you need to do here, is just manually remove these lines from the file created by xgettext. Since these lines arent going to be called with the gettext function. Ie we dont want to translate html, or for that matter variables. Hope this makes sense Chris PS, xgettext was what i was going to suggest in response to your other email. -- Chris Cormack Katipo Communications Programmer/Sys Admin chris(a)katipo.co.nz 025 500 789 www.katipo.co.nz

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New version available for download
by Chris Cormack 18 Sep '00

18 Sep '00

Hi all Version 1.05 is available for download now at http://www.koha.org/download/ Changes include Fixing reserves/requests, so that only items in the group requested (not whole biblio) trigger the reserves flag. Fixed bad behaviour in subject search. Got Dewey decimal search going Got receript summary screen in acquisitions working better Fixing more spelling mistakes Enjoy Chris -- Chris Cormack Katipo Communications Programmer/Sys Admin chris(a)katipo.co.nz 025 500 789 www.katipo.co.nz

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Re: [Koha] i18n of .pl scripts
by Stuart A Yeates 11 Sep '00

11 Sep '00

> It should be quite easy to get Koha supporting many dialects once you've > finished, Koha in Klingon anyone? > > Let me know if this doesn't make any sense to you. This does, indeed make sense. However, there are limitations of the approach you suggest. *) images presented in the UI are social constructs, for example visual representations of people are strongly loaded in Maori culture (C.F. the Goldie exhibition at Te Papa). So the images need to be internationalised too. *) appropriate colour schemes for presentation on the web is culturally dependent (I can look up references for this if you like). *) the structure of the presentation of information in the interface may be culturally dependent (browse some Chinese or Asian language library sites and you'll notice that the structure and layout is different). The way we solved these problems in greenstone is to define the ENTIRE UI in terms of macros which can then be overridden on a collection or locale basis. stuart -- stuart yeates <s.yeates(a)cs.waikato.ac.nz> aka `loam' any problem in the world can be solved by dancing. -- james brown X-no-archive:yes

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Re: [Koha] Koha details/features
by Randy Edwards 08 Sep '00

08 Sep '00

> What's distribution? Is that circulation - issues and returns Yes, exactly. I'm not sure if that's the right term (I'm a computer geek, not a librarian) but that's what our librarians call it. > Yes does barcode scanning - am surprised by how often this comes up That's what I thought. One suggestion might be to do a short "gee whiz" list of features on the web site bragging about Koha's capabilities. > More specifically than that - it doesn't curently import MARC > records as such That's okay; as I said, I'm not a librarian so I don't have a clue as to what a MARC record is. :-) The tiny school libraries I'm dealing with are still using card catalogs, so I don't think they're using a 3x5 inch paper record. :-) > It doesn't currently do Z3950 Again, my apologies as I don't know what that is either. I'm sure I'll asking lots of "dumb" questions. The things I'm thinking of is types of interfaces for the scanners, models that can be used, everything like that -- as I said, I'm a complete newbie when it comes to library automation, bar codes, etc. Regards, . Randy

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catalogue maintenence module
by Joann Ransom 08 Sep '00

08 Sep '00

Hi Chris / Mark, My eyes lit up at the thought of a catalogue maintenance module being written! Mark - if you are interested in pursuing this I'd be very happy to write down the kind of things we would like to have included. We are cataloguing all our acquisitions into koha which helps us identify glitch areas. Also, I tend to get the problems resulting from imperfect cataloguing practices in our original system that have been discovered since being converted to koha. just sing out - Jo.

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Koha details/features
by Randy Edwards 06 Sep '00

06 Sep '00

Hi Folks, I just ran across KOHA and am quite excited. I've always felt that library automation software was ridiculously expensive and would be an ideal candidate for a copyleft project -- kudos to those of you that have tackled this! Perusing the web site I find myself full of questions as to the exact capabilities and features of KOHA. For example, does it handle distribution; bar coding, scanning and things like that? What are its exact functions and capabilities? To give you an idea of the angle I'm coming from, I'm the technology coordinator for a public school district here in New Hampshire in the U.S.. I'd love to get some software to replace the ancient card catalogs that our students are using. Of course, the librarians of our two schools would love to be able to bar scan books to check them out, to generate reports of whose book is late, and to merge the catalogs of our two schools. Any whacks with a clue-bat, pointers, descriptions of capabilities, and other info for a KOHA newbie would be greatly appreciated -- TIA. Regards, . Randy

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Re: [Koha] Introduction
by Chris Cormack 05 Sep '00

05 Sep '00

Hi Mark, > > Bluntly, the CDK based issues system isn't reliable. It crashes every so > > often (sometimes 2-3 times in quick succession, sometimes only once or twice > > a day). We haven't been able to track it down directly, since it seems to > > be a difficult-to-emulate combination of CDK, server load, and possibly > > giffy data coming out of the database. The slang module supports colour, > > and will provide us with more data points for the unreliability, whether it > > is more stable or not. > > > I've certainly experience some of the Perl wrappers segfaulting on me > (the RRDtool wrappers spring to my mind) when you feed them crap. > > Are you also using the SLang Toolkit by Joey Hess (Term::Stool)? > When do you think you'll have your returns/issue converted over to slang > and have made another release/set up anon CVS? Yep, thats indeed what we are using. It has been pretty much all converted over it just needs some serious testing. The conversion only affects a small number of modules namely all those in Circulation/ and Circulation.pm itself. The rest of the modules have been untouched. Work had stalled for a little while, as I was away all last week, but I should be able to work some more on it this week. Im not entirely sure what I will do with Slang modified modules ... whether I fork the cvs tree, or give them new names and add them. I could tar them up and pop them on www.koha.org for download I guess, until they have been tested. Then if its all good they can replace the CDK based modules. > > My next major conumdrum is where to start working on Koha, any suggestions? > I know Benedict from poland is very keen to work on localising koha. He has offered to write some locale files in polish. So that koha can be modified to uses locales::gettext. He's not a programmer tho, so he will need help on editing the perl scripts to use gettext. Hmmm, there are also some bugs/glitches in acquisitions. One of the biggest being, the librarians often want to order some books with the same title but in a different format. Eg A video, a talking book and a paperback copy of the same title. The also might want each one of these to come out of a seperate bookfund. At the moment there is no easy way to do this, and they would have to place 3 separate orders. Another section that needs work is what im calling a catalog maintenance section. So, somewhere you can go to edit/delete subject headings in the subject authority file. Or edit the other authority files. Were you could tidy up mistakes easily, like merge two identical biblios. And anything else the librarians need :-) This may well fit into your goals below. > In terms of my goals for producing a library system that UniSFA can use > it would be working on a catalouging application in terms of their > requirements: ie as quick and painless for the (volunteer) librarian to > use. > > ziggy's catalog application - (this may not be 100% accurate, I coded this > up over 12 months ago) > - ran in a telnet window > - code worked and proceeded as follows: > 1. User scanned in EAN barcode from back of book or alternatively typed > in ISBN number (or just skipped this step) > If ISBN number was already in the database, copy details and goto step 4. > 2. A listbox with a list of Publishers was displayed with > publishers who shared the same publisher code as decoded from the ISBN > listed first. Alternatively, the user could enter a new publisher > into the database. > 3. A listbox with a list of Authors (with authors who share the publisher > listed first) Alternatively, the user could enter a new author > into the database. > 4. A screen to enter the rest of the books details in (including barcode) > > Of course, I think a real librarian (tm) would run cringing from this, but > UniSFA is almost exclusively devoted to one genre and these optomisations > would save a lot of time. (especially since we tend to catalog a lot > of books at once rather than spread over time) > > > Where should I start? Or should I work seperately and make some effort > to merge my changes back at a later date? > If any of the areas I mentioned seem like a good place to start, let me know and we can work out a good way to go about it. There are also lots of other things to work on. So let me know what you think. Chris -- Chris Cormack Katipo Communications Programmer/Sys Admin chris(a)katipo.co.nz 025 500 789 www.katipo.co.nz ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Chris Cormack Katipo Communications Programmer/Sys Admin chris(a)katipo.co.nz 025 500 789 www.katipo.co.nz

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Fwd: Re: [Koha] Contributions/Alliances
by Simon Blake 03 Sep '00

03 Sep '00

Hi Michael On Fri, Sep 01, 2000 at 12:38:56AM -0400, Michael S. Williams said: > > Hello all, > > As a small school district in the US we are very interested and > excited about the work you have done and are doing. Our Media > Specialists have proposed contracting out the modifications to the > software that they would like to have. (ie Barcodes/Readers, Data > conversion, MARC records) . We are in the process of deciding to either > upgrade our current software (Follett's Unison) or purchase another so > the timing is pretty good. Anyone interested? Koha does barcodes, in the sense that keyboard wedge barcode scanners work a treat. We haven't needed to write any support for other input devices, but we'll cheerfully incorporate code from anybody who does. > Also, have you considered putting this project up on Sourceforge ? Not to any particular depth. New Zealand is (quite literally) at the ends of the earth, and Internet links out of here are slow and expensive (at least in comparison to the mainland US). So we'd be less keen on moving our CVS tree out of town, since it would probably mean slower access for our programmers. Having said that, sourceforge has lots of neat resources, and it would mean that we could cut down on our data transfer costs if the Koha site gets busy. So we may well look at using sourceforge in the future. Cheers Si -- Simon Blake simon(a)katipo.co.nz Katipo Communications +64 25 300 825 ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Simon Blake simon(a)katipo.co.nz Katipo Communications +64 25 300 825

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Contributions/Alliances
by Michael S. Williams 01 Sep '00

01 Sep '00

Hello all, As a small school district in the US we are very interested and excited about the work you have done and are doing. Our Media Specialists have proposed contracting out the modifications to the software that they would like to have. (ie Barcodes/Readers, Data conversion, MARC records) . We are in the process of deciding to either upgrade our current software (Follett's Unison) or purchase another so the timing is pretty good. Anyone interested? Also, have you considered putting this project up on Sourceforge ? Michael Williams Haywood County Schools http://www.k12linux.org

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