Re: [Koha] Seeking programmer: Patron Cards and Book labels: 3.06-- How are people printing them?
Mike, I tried to respond off-list but keep getting ******* all relevant MX records point to non-existent hosts or (invalidly) to IP addresses ******* ??? Might want to check your MX record. I believe we are just using a standard 29mm thermal label. This printer is a thermal printer, so there is no ink to rub/smear etc. We just use standard labels sizes and trim appropriately. Then put a piece of clear book-tape over top of that. We also book-tape cover the barcode. Takes a little more time, but, holds up to wear and tear of k-12 students. From: koha-bounces@lists.katipo.co.nz [mailto:koha-bounces@lists.katipo.co.nz] On Behalf Of Scott Owen Sent: 23 August 2010 14:14 Cc: koha@lists.katipo.co.nz Subject: Re: [Koha] Seeking programmer: Patron Cards and Book labels: 3.06-- How are people printing them? Just installed Koha from git, and the patron card/spine labels seem to work fine. However.... While using Koha 2.2.9 on win32 I was not happy with the standard barcode generated by Koha (when I could get them to work) so I used the following software and process to generate my own. Option 1 ******************************** This requires allowing access to the MySQL database that holds all of your Koha information. *BE CAREFUL AND MAKE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND THE RAMIFICATIONS OF DOING THIS* Barcodes are just a font. Free barcode 39 font http://www.squaregear.net/fonts/free3of9.shtml Free (for non-profit and edu) label making/design software http://www.idautomation.com/labelsoftware/free/ MySQLAdmin and GUI tools from http://library.pantek.com/Applications/MySQL/Downloads/MySQLGUITools/mysql-g... Install MySQLGUITools. Use a multi-table MySQL query to pull the data from both the biblio and items tables into a single “output” table, then export to CSV. the SQL query : SELECT biblio.biblionumber, biblio.title, items.barcode, items.itemcallnumber FROM biblio, items WHERE biblio.biblionumber = items.biblionumber; Will produce (in my case) a CSV like biblionumber title barcode itemcallnumber 1 Novell's ZENworks administrator's handbook / 1 2 The New York Public Library desk reference. 30525 031 new 3 Picture perfect / 36003 FIC PIC 6 Just listen : 30431 FIC DES 5 The lovely bones : 30319 FIC SEB 8 Unexplained / 109541 001.94 ALL 9 Whatever happened to Janie? / 109542 10 The bad beginning / 50000 F SNI 11 The field guide / 50003 F DIT 12 The clique : 109528 F HAR As you get into larger and larger biblionumbers you may want to add a > to the query: SELECT biblio.biblionumber, biblio.title, items.barcode, items.itemcallnumber FROM biblio, items WHERE biblio.biblionumber>4 = items.biblionumber; The >4 causes the query to only show rows where the biblionumber is (greater than)> 4 Install the barcode font, and the label making software. You can then design your labels, input data from the CSV, and produce your own custom labels with almost any information you desire. I include the barcode, title, call number, and school name on all of my labels. If you can obtain one, the Brother QL-500 is a wonderful label printer that also includes label design software that will allow you to print barcodes. This process is not as easy as just pressing the button in Koha, but, I have found it to work quite in my environment. Option 2:****************************** Create a "remote query" in PHP so that you can automagically generate a barcode ready list. The cut/paste/format into a CSV, and print as above in option 1. example: http://koha.almaschools.net/RQ/booklist.php This requires a bit more work....but is very handy. If you want the messy details, let me know off list...... -Scott Owen Alma Public Schools
Chris Nighswonger<cnighswonger@foundations.edu> 8/23/2010 7:53 AM >>> Hi David, On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 4:02 AM, David M. Bucknell <dbucknell@iteachnet.org> wrote: If there is someone who would be willing to jury-rig patron card and spine label printing ... write a script ... I'd be willing to compensate hourly costs.
I haven't heard from anyone except Chris, who is a contributing programmer, I take it, so I guess everyone else has either an on-site team or is paying a provider. 3.06 seems pretty cool and there is really no alternative, so if anyone is willing to help for some cash via paypal, it would be worth it to me. I have three installations that need this, none of which have a budget, but all of them hell-bent on Koha because of me. Why don't you just upgrade to the current beta of Koha 3.2? There are several libraries, including ours, that have been running over this code for months now. It seems a bit counter productive to pay money for a feature that will die in a couple of weeks anyway. Kind Regards, Chris ----- Message from cnighswonger@foundations.edu --------- Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2010 08:27:26 -0400 From: Chris Nighswonger <cnighswonger@foundations.edu> Reply-To: Chris Nighswonger <cnighswonger@foundations.edu> Subject: Re: [Koha] Patron Cards and Book labels: 3.06 -- How are people printing them? To: david@intknowledge.com Cc: koha <koha@lists.katipo.co.nz>
Hi David,
On Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 11:24 PM, David M. Bucknell <dbucknell@iteachnet.org
wrote:
Hello Everyone,
Printing Spine label and patron cards: I started working on this in May and 3.06 is still the preferred stable version. I've seen two posts that say to wait for 3.2.
3.2 includes a complete re-write of the label and card creator code. So waiting is probably the thing to do.
I've installed in various configurations (now have Thai lang with marc-21; strange, but it seems to work for input and searching).d
I can't get any of the label options to work (English lang mostly) for books or patrons (at least not more than minimally -- I can get a barcode graphically and as text, but that's it. (Oh, and a nice red box around the items. Nothing I do to customize (choose what's on the label) has any effect.
Label printing is pretty broken when it comes to unicode support. The short of it is that the pdf standard is not unicode friendly. This is true of 3.2 as well.
Having said that, we printed several thousand English (and a few Spanish) labels with the 3.0.x labels code. So it will work for English and probably some other Latin based alphabets.
Finally, I can't get the export to csv to work to try it.
I'm not sure what might be going on here.
Apologies for not seeing it if it's obvious, but now I would like to ask for suggestions. Am I wrong or is this just not working? How are people getting their labels and patron cards done in 3.06?
The patron card code in 3.0.x is basically inflexible as many of the settings are hard coded. You will have to wait for 3.2 stable or go ahead and grab 3.2 alpha2 or the latest development master from http://git.koha-community.org/koha.git
Kind Regards, Chris
----- End message from cnighswonger@foundations.edu ----- -- *http://iteachnet.org *http://flossed.org *http://ischoolnet.org *Web Ideas, Tools and Sites for Teachers, Schools, and You. *Cell: +66(0*)84 329 1183; Office: +66(0*)2 980 9464 (*No "0" if calling from overseas.) ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program. _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
Thank you all for this. I have gone ahead with 3.2 and am optimistically experimenting. This how-to (below) belongs on the wiki how-to somewhere, don't you think? excellent! Thank you. David ----- Message from sowen@edzone.net --------- Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2010 11:55:23 -0400 From: Scott Owen <sowen@edzone.net> Reply-To: sowen@edzone.net Subject: Re: [Koha] Seeking programmer: Patron Cards and Book labels: 3.06-- How are people printing them? To: koha <koha@lists.katipo.co.nz>
Mike,
I tried to respond off-list but keep getting
******* all relevant MX records point to non-existent hosts or (invalidly) to IP addresses ******* ??? Might want to check your MX record.
I believe we are just using a standard 29mm thermal label. This printer is a thermal printer, so there is no ink to rub/smear etc.
We just use standard labels sizes and trim appropriately. Then put a piece of clear book-tape over top of that. We also book-tape cover the barcode.
Takes a little more time, but, holds up to wear and tear of k-12 students.
From: koha-bounces@lists.katipo.co.nz [mailto:koha-bounces@lists.katipo.co.nz] On Behalf Of Scott Owen Sent: 23 August 2010 14:14 Cc: koha@lists.katipo.co.nz Subject: Re: [Koha] Seeking programmer: Patron Cards and Book labels: 3.06-- How are people printing them?
Just installed Koha from git, and the patron card/spine labels seem to work fine.
However....
While using Koha 2.2.9 on win32 I was not happy with the standard barcode generated by Koha (when I could get them to work) so I used the following software and process to generate my own.
Option 1 ********************************
This requires allowing access to the MySQL database that holds all of your Koha information. *BE CAREFUL AND MAKE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND THE RAMIFICATIONS OF DOING THIS*
Barcodes are just a font. Free barcode 39 font http://www.squaregear.net/fonts/free3of9.shtml Free (for non-profit and edu) label making/design software http://www.idautomation.com/labelsoftware/free/ MySQLAdmin and GUI tools from http://library.pantek.com/Applications/MySQL/Downloads/MySQLGUITools/mysql-g...
Install MySQLGUITools. Use a multi-table MySQL query to pull the data from both the biblio and items tables into a single ?output? table, then export to CSV.
the SQL query : SELECT biblio.biblionumber, biblio.title, items.barcode, items.itemcallnumber FROM biblio, items WHERE biblio.biblionumber = items.biblionumber;
Will produce (in my case) a CSV like biblionumber title barcode itemcallnumber 1 Novell's ZENworks administrator's handbook / 1 2 The New York Public Library desk reference. 30525 031 new 3 Picture perfect / 36003 FIC PIC 6 Just listen : 30431 FIC DES 5 The lovely bones : 30319 FIC SEB 8 Unexplained / 109541 001.94 ALL 9 Whatever happened to Janie? / 109542 10 The bad beginning / 50000 F SNI 11 The field guide / 50003 F DIT 12 The clique : 109528 F HAR
As you get into larger and larger biblionumbers you may want to add a > to the query:
SELECT biblio.biblionumber, biblio.title, items.barcode, items.itemcallnumber FROM biblio, items WHERE biblio.biblionumber>4 = items.biblionumber; The >4 causes the query to only show rows where the biblionumber is (greater than)> 4
Install the barcode font, and the label making software. You can then design your labels, input data from the CSV, and produce your own custom labels with almost any information you desire. I include the barcode, title, call number, and school name on all of my labels.
If you can obtain one, the Brother QL-500 is a wonderful label printer that also includes label design software that will allow you to print barcodes.
This process is not as easy as just pressing the button in Koha, but, I have found it to work quite in my environment. Option 2:******************************
Create a "remote query" in PHP so that you can automagically generate a barcode ready list. The cut/paste/format into a CSV, and print as above in option 1.
example: http://koha.almaschools.net/RQ/booklist.php
This requires a bit more work....but is very handy.
If you want the messy details, let me know off list......
-Scott Owen Alma Public Schools
Chris Nighswonger<cnighswonger@foundations.edu> 8/23/2010 7:53 AM >>> Hi David, On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 4:02 AM, David M. Bucknell <dbucknell@iteachnet.org> wrote: If there is someone who would be willing to jury-rig patron card and spine label printing ... write a script ... I'd be willing to compensate hourly costs.
I haven't heard from anyone except Chris, who is a contributing programmer, I take it, so I guess everyone else has either an on-site team or is paying a provider. 3.06 seems pretty cool and there is really no alternative, so if anyone is willing to help for some cash via paypal, it would be worth it to me. I have three installations that need this, none of which have a budget, but all of them hell-bent on Koha because of me.
Why don't you just upgrade to the current beta of Koha 3.2? There are several libraries, including ours, that have been running over this code for months now.
It seems a bit counter productive to pay money for a feature that will die in a couple of weeks anyway.
Kind Regards, Chris ----- Message from cnighswonger@foundations.edu --------- Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2010 08:27:26 -0400 From: Chris Nighswonger <cnighswonger@foundations.edu> Reply-To: Chris Nighswonger <cnighswonger@foundations.edu> Subject: Re: [Koha] Patron Cards and Book labels: 3.06 -- How are people printing them? To: david@intknowledge.com Cc: koha <koha@lists.katipo.co.nz>
Hi David,
On Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 11:24 PM, David M. Bucknell <dbucknell@iteachnet.org
wrote:
Hello Everyone,
Printing Spine label and patron cards: I started working on this in May and 3.06 is still the preferred stable version. I've seen two posts that say to wait for 3.2.
3.2 includes a complete re-write of the label and card creator code. So waiting is probably the thing to do.
I've installed in various configurations (now have Thai lang with marc-21; strange, but it seems to work for input and searching).d
I can't get any of the label options to work (English lang mostly) for books or patrons (at least not more than minimally -- I can get a barcode graphically and as text, but that's it. (Oh, and a nice red box around the items. Nothing I do to customize (choose what's on the label) has any effect.
Label printing is pretty broken when it comes to unicode support. The short of it is that the pdf standard is not unicode friendly. This is true of 3.2 as well.
Having said that, we printed several thousand English (and a few Spanish) labels with the 3.0.x labels code. So it will work for English and probably some other Latin based alphabets.
Finally, I can't get the export to csv to work to try it.
I'm not sure what might be going on here.
Apologies for not seeing it if it's obvious, but now I would like to ask for suggestions. Am I wrong or is this just not working? How are people getting their labels and patron cards done in 3.06?
The patron card code in 3.0.x is basically inflexible as many of the settings are hard coded. You will have to wait for 3.2 stable or go ahead and grab 3.2 alpha2 or the latest development master from http://git.koha-community.org/koha.git
Kind Regards, Chris
----- End message from cnighswonger@foundations.edu -----
-- *http://iteachnet.org *http://flossed.org *http://ischoolnet.org *Web Ideas, Tools and Sites for Teachers, Schools, and You. *Cell: +66(0*)84 329 1183; Office: +66(0*)2 980 9464 (*No "0" if calling from overseas.)
---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program.
_______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
----- End message from sowen@edzone.net ----- -- *http://iteachnet.org *http://flossed.org *http://ischoolnet.org *Web Ideas, Tools and Sites for Teachers, Schools, and You. *Cell: +66(0*)84 329 1183; Office: +66(0*)2 980 9464 (*No "0" if calling from overseas.) ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program.
participants (2)
-
David M. Bucknell -
Scott Owen