Hi, I have recently installed Koha3.4 on Ubuntu. I would like to interface an RFID reader with Koha. More specifically when the user goes to Circulation -> check out -> and enter the patron details, there will be a place to "Enter item barcode". The usual procedure is that the barcode scanner will fill in this value. But what we want to implement is an RFID reader instead of the barcode scanner. Each book will have a RFID tag. The patron will pick the books from the shelf and bring it and place some books on top of RFID reader which will read all the books at once, say for example 4-5 books at once. My doubt is how can I read this information into koha. Any suggestion please. On further thought, I was thinking on developing an application which would read the data from the RFID reader and update the MySQL database in the same way/format Koha would do. Would someone recommend doing it this way. If so how do I develop this application. Because I know C#.net and VB.net. But these can be used only for developing application on windows. How do I develop an application that will run on Ubuntu and suffice as an interface for Koha. Regards Ajesh
This is something I was thinking about too! Because I manage equipment through Koha (not just books) it would be amazing to place a camera kit on top of an RFID reader and let Koha scan all the contents in the kit making sure everything was there: camera, charger, USB cord, etc. If it comes up empty on an item, we look inside and double check if its actually there or missing. I noticed a few youtube videos of RFID and a Koha terminal interface a while back . . . But I feel it would be as simple as expanding the checkin/checkout field to bulk update. ex input all at once: barcode1 barcode1 barcode1 Walker On Friday, May 13, 2011 at 9:17 AM, ajesh@maxenna.com wrote: Hi,
I have recently installed Koha3.4 on Ubuntu.
I would like to interface an RFID reader with Koha.
More specifically when the user goes to Circulation -> check out -> and enter the patron details, there will be a place to "Enter item barcode". The usual procedure is that the barcode scanner will fill in this value.
But what we want to implement is an RFID reader instead of the barcode scanner. Each book will have a RFID tag. The patron will pick the books from the shelf and bring it and place some books on top of RFID reader which will read all the books at once, say for example 4-5 books at once.
My doubt is how can I read this information into koha. Any suggestion please.
On further thought, I was thinking on developing an application which would read the data from the RFID reader and update the MySQL database in the same way/format Koha would do. Would someone recommend doing it this way.
If so how do I develop this application. Because I know C#.net and VB.net. But these can be used only for developing application on windows. How do I develop an application that will run on Ubuntu and suffice as an interface for Koha.
Regards Ajesh
Oops. I hit return by accident and sent this email before I was ready> (continue below) On Friday, May 13, 2011 at 9:53 AM, Walker Blackwell wrote:
This is something I was thinking about too! Because I manage equipment through Koha (not just books) it would be amazing to place a camera kit on top of an RFID reader and let Koha scan all the contents in the kit making sure everything was there: camera, charger, USB cord, etc. If it comes up empty on an item, we look inside and double check if its actually there or missing.
I noticed a few youtube videos of RFID and a Koha terminal interface a while back . . .
But I feel it would be as simple as expanding the checkin/checkout field to bulk update.
ex input all at once:
barcode1 barcode2 barcode3
. . . . Then Koha would simply pick up all the items at once. The RFID import could be programmed to add a return between each item. Does this already work? Walker
ajesh@maxenna.com wrote:
I have recently installed Koha3.4 on Ubuntu. [...] But what we want to implement is an RFID reader instead of the barcode scanner. Each book will have a RFID tag. The patron will pick the books from the shelf and bring it and place some books on top of RFID reader which will read all the books at once, say for example 4-5 books at once.
My doubt is how can I read this information into koha. Any suggestion please.
I have code for this. It works basically like you describe, although I note that reading tags on electronic kit is a bit of a pain. Even DVDs will shield some tags, so choose carefully. The last release was for 3.0, which is just being end-of-lifed. It needs updating for 3.4 and the recent ISO standard for RFID tags, but is already in use by at least one library. I plan to be updating it for 3.4 and then 3.6 as soon as funding is agreed. It will go quicker with either help or additional funding. Do you have either? More details or a place to subscribe for news: http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=2244 Hope that helps, -- MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op. Webmaster, Debian Developer, Past Koha RM, statistician, former lecturer. In My Opinion Only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html Available for hire for various work through http://www.software.coop/
MJ, I may be able to shake loose some funding for this. I'm pretty sure I could help you get an development partner (library) with RFID self-check and ISO 28560 compliant tags. Do you have a more format spec or RFC? Lori On Fri, May 13, 2011 at 1:57 PM, MJ Ray <mjr@phonecoop.coop> wrote:
ajesh@maxenna.com wrote:
I have recently installed Koha3.4 on Ubuntu. [...] But what we want to implement is an RFID reader instead of the barcode scanner. Each book will have a RFID tag. The patron will pick the books from the shelf and bring it and place some books on top of RFID reader which will read all the books at once, say for example 4-5 books at once.
My doubt is how can I read this information into koha. Any suggestion please.
I have code for this. It works basically like you describe, although I note that reading tags on electronic kit is a bit of a pain. Even DVDs will shield some tags, so choose carefully.
The last release was for 3.0, which is just being end-of-lifed. It needs updating for 3.4 and the recent ISO standard for RFID tags, but is already in use by at least one library. I plan to be updating it for 3.4 and then 3.6 as soon as funding is agreed. It will go quicker with either help or additional funding. Do you have either?
More details or a place to subscribe for news: http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=2244
Hope that helps, -- MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op. Webmaster, Debian Developer, Past Koha RM, statistician, former lecturer. In My Opinion Only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html Available for hire for various work through http://www.software.coop/ _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
-- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Lori Bowen Ayre // Library Technology Consultant The Galecia Group // www.galecia.com (707) 763-6869 // Lori.Ayre@galecia.com <Lori.Ayre@galecia.com>Specializing in open source ILS solutions, RFID, filtering, workflow optimization, and materials handling =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Lori Bowen Ayre <lori.ayre@galecia.com>
I may be able to shake loose some funding for this. I'm pretty sure I could help you get an development partner (library) with RFID self-check and ISO 28560 compliant tags.
Do you have a more format spec or RFC?
I'm sure I've more info but it's 1am Saturday here now so I can't put my hand on it. It is ISO-28560 tags and we've got it working with TRF7960 (definitely) and MicroRWD (probably, needs retesting) USB pads using the usb-serial drivers on Linux and MacOS X. Having USB pads as well as a self-check is the tricky part to find. Thanks - it could be very helpful. I'll get an RFC up as soon as I can. Please add yourself as a cc to the bug? http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=2244 Thanks, -- MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op. Webmaster, Debian Developer, Past Koha RM, statistician, former lecturer. In My Opinion Only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html Available for hire for various work through http://www.software.coop/
Thanks, MJ. I've cc'd myself on this bug. On Fri, May 13, 2011 at 5:35 PM, MJ Ray <mjr@phonecoop.coop> wrote:
Lori Bowen Ayre <lori.ayre@galecia.com>
I may be able to shake loose some funding for this. I'm pretty sure I could help you get an development partner (library) with RFID self-check and ISO 28560 compliant tags.
Do you have a more format spec or RFC?
I'm sure I've more info but it's 1am Saturday here now so I can't put my hand on it. It is ISO-28560 tags and we've got it working with TRF7960 (definitely) and MicroRWD (probably, needs retesting) USB pads using the usb-serial drivers on Linux and MacOS X. Having USB pads as well as a self-check is the tricky part to find. Thanks - it could be very helpful. I'll get an RFC up as soon as I can. Please add yourself as a cc to the bug? http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=2244
Thanks, -- MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op. Webmaster, Debian Developer, Past Koha RM, statistician, former lecturer. In My Opinion Only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html Available for hire for various work through http://www.software.coop/
-- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Lori Bowen Ayre // Library Technology Consultant The Galecia Group // www.galecia.com (707) 763-6869 // Lori.Ayre@galecia.com <Lori.Ayre@galecia.com>Specializing in open source ILS solutions, RFID, filtering, workflow optimization, and materials handling =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
participants (4)
-
ajesh＠maxenna.com -
Lori Bowen Ayre -
MJ Ray -
Walker Blackwell