Question re: NPL OPAC icons & ItemTypes
Wednesday, June 15, 2005 17:39 CDT Hi, Stephen et alii, Taking the ItemType breakdown and clever material representative OPAC icons as a starting point, I have been working on designs of icons for other ItemType categories (specifically in the context of GMD-based ItemTypes requested by Chris Jones at DSA, which differed in degrees from what you created for NPL: BTW, when I am done, I can post these, in case they might be of use for other Koha'ites, as I think they might be, especially for school library settings). Given the complexity of the genre categories with some GMDs (text, videorecording, etc.), I am wondering, Stephen, if it would be practicable to use a simpler set of ItemTypes and have the OPAC icon called by another field. I assume there is a line of code that tells Koha if ItemType = X then icon = X'. If it isn't an unreasonable request, Stephen -- keeping in mind my lack of programming skills -- could you point me in the right direction? Thanks in advance for any and all words of wisdom. Sincerely, Steven F. Baljkas library tech at large Koha neophyte Winnipeg, MB, Canada _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
Given the complexity of the genre categories with some GMDs (text, videorecording, etc.), I am wondering, Stephen, if it would be
Hi practicable to use a simpler set of ItemTypes and have the OPAC icon called by another field. I assume there is a line of code that tells Koha if ItemType = X then icon = X'. Yep that's excatly right - well it's what we do anyway for HLT and our other clients. We have just one "book" icon, and all the itemtypes that someone would think of as books use the same icon. Cheers Rachel -- ----------------------------- Rachel Hamilton-Williams General Manager Katipo Communications Ltd Phone: +64-4-934 1285 Mobile: 021 389 128 E-mail: rachel@katipo.co.nz Web: www.katipo.co.nz _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
I assume there is a line of code that tells Koha if ItemType = X then icon = X'.
No, there's no such line of code. The icons work because their file names are the same as the item's itemtype code or itemtype description. So if the itemtype code is 'AF', then the template says: <img src="/includes/images/<!-- TMPL_VAR NAME='itemtype' -->.gif"> ...And in your images directory, you have AF.gif, AV.gif, AC.gif, SF.gif, etc. This is a clumsy system, but it's what worked given the framework that now exists. Paul has talked about building a better database/preference-based system, but that hasn't come to pass yet. The interim solution is to have multiple copies of the same image with different file names. So, if you have one book icon but several book item types, you just copy and rename the file for each item type. Would that work? -- Owen _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
Sorry to get in so late on this thread. I have little to add, except to give credit where credit is due -- Owen is the person who developed NPL's nifty icon feature. I have to say that the idea of developing icons for every general medium designator (GMD) is intriguing, and we could make the icons available as part of the Koha package. Is there something similar to the GMD in UNIMARC? Stephen Steven F.Baljkas said:
Wednesday, June 15, 2005 17:39 CDT
Hi, Stephen et alii,
Taking the ItemType breakdown and clever material representative OPAC icons as a starting point, I have been working on designs of icons for other ItemType categories (specifically in the context of GMD-based ItemTypes requested by Chris Jones at DSA, which differed in degrees from what you created for NPL: BTW, when I am done, I can post these, in case they might be of use for other Koha'ites, as I think they might be, especially for school library settings).
Given the complexity of the genre categories with some GMDs (text, videorecording, etc.), I am wondering, Stephen, if it would be practicable to use a simpler set of ItemTypes and have the OPAC icon called by another field. I assume there is a line of code that tells Koha if ItemType = X then icon = X'.
If it isn't an unreasonable request, Stephen -- keeping in mind my lack of programming skills -- could you point me in the right direction?
Thanks in advance for any and all words of wisdom.
Sincerely, Steven F. Baljkas library tech at large Koha neophyte Winnipeg, MB, Canada
-- Stephen Hedges Skemotah Solutions, USA www.skemotah.com -- shedges@skemotah.com _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
Stephen Hedges a écrit :
Sorry to get in so late on this thread. I have little to add, except to give credit where credit is due -- Owen is the person who developed NPL's nifty icon feature.
I have to say that the idea of developing icons for every general medium designator (GMD) is intriguing, and we could make the icons available as part of the Koha package. Is there something similar to the GMD in UNIMARC? What is a GMD is not clear to me...
However, I plan to add a feature to itemtypes, the url to the image to show in front of it (in head, for next major relase, not for 2.2.x) The url being either a "relative url" (= an image in Koha official release) or a "complete url (=an image belonging to the library). The "relative url" being for libraries that are happy with official images, the "complete url" being for libraries that want their own images. My idea being the itemtype code is local to a library, so we need a way to "map" itemtype to the image. Let me know what is GMD or if my idea is good/stupid (& why) -- Paul POULAIN Consultant indépendant en logiciels libres responsable francophone de koha (SIGB libre http://www.koha-fr.org) _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
Paul POULAIN said:
Stephen Hedges a écrit : [...]
I have to say that the idea of developing icons for every general medium designator (GMD) is intriguing, and we could make the icons available as part of the Koha package. Is there something similar to the GMD in UNIMARC? What is a GMD is not clear to me...
It's a code that's inserted into the MARC record (245h in MARC 21) that specifies if the item being cataloged is a monograph, a computer file, a video recording, etc. (Maybe Steve B. can tell us what all 27 official GMD's are?) In other words, it's very similar to an itemtype.
However, I plan to add a feature to itemtypes, the url to the image to show in front of it (in head, for next major relase, not for 2.2.x) The url being either a "relative url" (= an image in Koha official release) or a "complete url (=an image belonging to the library). The "relative url" being for libraries that are happy with official images, the "complete url" being for libraries that want their own images.
My idea being the itemtype code is local to a library, so we need a way to "map" itemtype to the image.
Let me know what is GMD or if my idea is good/stupid (& why)
Sounds like a very good idea to me. It should provide libraries with a choice of using an "official" Koha icon for their item types, or making their own icons. How do we decide what the "official" icons are? Stephen
-- Paul POULAIN Consultant indépendant en logiciels libres responsable francophone de koha (SIGB libre http://www.koha-fr.org)
-- Stephen Hedges Skemotah Solutions, USA www.skemotah.com -- shedges@skemotah.com _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
Stephen Hedges a écrit :
Paul POULAIN said: Sounds like a very good idea to me. It should provide libraries with a choice of using an "official" Koha icon for their item types, or making their own icons. How do we decide what the "official" icons are?
Unless someone want to submit files, that will be NPL ones. and even if someone submit, we could have NPL & someoneelsesubmitted ;-) "official" just means they are in official release & available from release to release. -- Paul POULAIN Consultant indépendant en logiciels libres responsable francophone de koha (SIGB libre http://www.koha-fr.org) _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
participants (5)
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Owen Leonard -
Paul POULAIN -
Rachel Hamilton-Williams -
Stephen Hedges -
Steven F.Baljkas