Re: Digital card and selfscheck
Oops, I forgot to add the image. On 8/4/2026 10:12 AM, Andy Boze wrote:
Hi, David.
I first noticed this feature a couple of years ago (I think) when I was adding/updating patron accounts. At the time, I believe it only allowed for a single Digital Card (DC). More recently it seems that you can add multiple DCs. See the screen capture below.
We're interested in this because recently our university has instituted a systems where faculty/staff/students can have up to three different card numbers. There's one card number associated with their physical ID card, and a different number for their phone, and a third number for their watch. Any of these three methods can be used for unlocking doors, checking out books, purchasing food at campus eateries, etc.
The Koha circulation systems lets you read the card number from any of these devices (if you have the appropriate hardware), but we need to be able to use those digital card numbers at the selfcheck station. At this time the selfcheck system only seems to be able to use the main patron card number, not the digital ones.
I've already checked Bugzilla and didn't see anything and it's not mentioned in the patron account creation section of the Koha manual.
Thanks!
Andy
On 8/4/2026 3:23 AM, David Liddle wrote:
Hi Andy, if you haven't found mention of the feature in the documentation, could you describe how you came across it and how you access or manage it? I've seen references to the "Patron card creator" in Tools and the "OPACVirtualCard" in System preferences, but they don't seem to match your description. Another way to find the origins of a setting or feature is to search Bugzilla for the exact terms used within the feature, system preferences, or database.
Regards,
David Liddle (a bog-standard system administrator)
On Mon, Aug 3, 2026 at 11:24 PM Andy Boze via Koha <koha@lists.katipo.co.nz> wrote:
Hi, all.
I'm trying to learn more about the Digital Card identifier in the patron account information. I haven't been able to find any mention of this feature in the Koha manual. I see that I can create multiple Digital Cards, and I can use those card numbers just like I would use the regular card number for circulation in the staff module. The selfcheck page doesn't recognize the Digital Card number, only the regular card number. Is there a system setting that would allow selfcheck to use digital card numbers, or is that currently not possible?
Thanks for any advice.
Andy
-- Andy Boze, Associate Librarian University of Notre Dame 271H Hesburgh Library (574) 631-8708 _______________________________________________
Koha mailing list -- koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://koha-community.org To unsubscribe send an email to koha-leave@lists.katipo.co.nz Unsubscribe:
-- Andy Boze, Associate Librarian University of Notre Dame 271H Hesburgh Library (574) 631-8708
-- Andy Boze, Associate Librarian University of Notre Dame 271H Hesburgh Library (574) 631-8708
Hi Andy, the image didn't make it through on the mailing list, it might have answered my question :) As far as I know there is nothing named Digital Card in standard Koha right now so I have been wondering, what it could be you describe: * A patron attribute named Digital Card? (can be repeatable) * A plugin providing a Digital Card feature? * A local customization? Again, as far as I know, at the moment you can only use card number and username as the login in the OPAC. Hope that helps, Katrin On 04.08.26 16:14, Andy Boze via Koha wrote:
Oops, I forgot to add the image.
On 8/4/2026 10:12 AM, Andy Boze wrote:
Hi, David.
I first noticed this feature a couple of years ago (I think) when I was adding/updating patron accounts. At the time, I believe it only allowed for a single Digital Card (DC). More recently it seems that you can add multiple DCs. See the screen capture below.
We're interested in this because recently our university has instituted a systems where faculty/staff/students can have up to three different card numbers. There's one card number associated with their physical ID card, and a different number for their phone, and a third number for their watch. Any of these three methods can be used for unlocking doors, checking out books, purchasing food at campus eateries, etc.
The Koha circulation systems lets you read the card number from any of these devices (if you have the appropriate hardware), but we need to be able to use those digital card numbers at the selfcheck station. At this time the selfcheck system only seems to be able to use the main patron card number, not the digital ones.
I've already checked Bugzilla and didn't see anything and it's not mentioned in the patron account creation section of the Koha manual.
Thanks!
Andy
On 8/4/2026 3:23 AM, David Liddle wrote:
Hi Andy, if you haven't found mention of the feature in the documentation, could you describe how you came across it and how you access or manage it? I've seen references to the "Patron card creator" in Tools and the "OPACVirtualCard" in System preferences, but they don't seem to match your description. Another way to find the origins of a setting or feature is to search Bugzilla for the exact terms used within the feature, system preferences, or database.
Regards,
David Liddle (a bog-standard system administrator)
On Mon, Aug 3, 2026 at 11:24 PM Andy Boze via Koha <koha@lists.katipo.co.nz> wrote:
Hi, all.
I'm trying to learn more about the Digital Card identifier in the patron account information. I haven't been able to find any mention of this feature in the Koha manual. I see that I can create multiple Digital Cards, and I can use those card numbers just like I would use the regular card number for circulation in the staff module. The selfcheck page doesn't recognize the Digital Card number, only the regular card number. Is there a system setting that would allow selfcheck to use digital card numbers, or is that currently not possible?
Thanks for any advice.
Andy
-- Andy Boze, Associate Librarian University of Notre Dame 271H Hesburgh Library (574) 631-8708 _______________________________________________
Koha mailing list -- koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://koha-community.org To unsubscribe send an email to koha-leave@lists.katipo.co.nz Unsubscribe:
-- Andy Boze, Associate Librarian University of Notre Dame 271H Hesburgh Library (574) 631-8708
Thanks, Katrin. It looks like my last e-mail didn't make it to the list. David pointed me in the right direction. It was indeed a patron attribute. I thought it was a newish feature in Koha since I'm usually the only one adding things like patron attributes, but someone else must have added it as an experiment. It was probably wishful thinking on my part since we would really like to be able to have multiple card numbers per user. Andy On 8/5/2026 3:11 PM, Katrin Fischer via Koha wrote:
Hi Andy,
the image didn't make it through on the mailing list, it might have answered my question :)
As far as I know there is nothing named Digital Card in standard Koha right now so I have been wondering, what it could be you describe:
* A patron attribute named Digital Card? (can be repeatable) * A plugin providing a Digital Card feature? * A local customization?
Again, as far as I know, at the moment you can only use card number and username as the login in the OPAC.
Hope that helps,
Katrin
On 04.08.26 16:14, Andy Boze via Koha wrote:
Oops, I forgot to add the image.
On 8/4/2026 10:12 AM, Andy Boze wrote:
Hi, David.
I first noticed this feature a couple of years ago (I think) when I was adding/updating patron accounts. At the time, I believe it only allowed for a single Digital Card (DC). More recently it seems that you can add multiple DCs. See the screen capture below.
We're interested in this because recently our university has instituted a systems where faculty/staff/students can have up to three different card numbers. There's one card number associated with their physical ID card, and a different number for their phone, and a third number for their watch. Any of these three methods can be used for unlocking doors, checking out books, purchasing food at campus eateries, etc.
The Koha circulation systems lets you read the card number from any of these devices (if you have the appropriate hardware), but we need to be able to use those digital card numbers at the selfcheck station. At this time the selfcheck system only seems to be able to use the main patron card number, not the digital ones.
I've already checked Bugzilla and didn't see anything and it's not mentioned in the patron account creation section of the Koha manual.
Thanks!
Andy
On 8/4/2026 3:23 AM, David Liddle wrote:
Hi Andy, if you haven't found mention of the feature in the documentation, could you describe how you came across it and how you access or manage it? I've seen references to the "Patron card creator" in Tools and the "OPACVirtualCard" in System preferences, but they don't seem to match your description. Another way to find the origins of a setting or feature is to search Bugzilla for the exact terms used within the feature, system preferences, or database.
Regards,
David Liddle (a bog-standard system administrator)
On Mon, Aug 3, 2026 at 11:24 PM Andy Boze via Koha <koha@lists.katipo.co.nz> wrote:
Hi, all.
I'm trying to learn more about the Digital Card identifier in the patron account information. I haven't been able to find any mention of this feature in the Koha manual. I see that I can create multiple Digital Cards, and I can use those card numbers just like I would use the regular card number for circulation in the staff module. The selfcheck page doesn't recognize the Digital Card number, only the regular card number. Is there a system setting that would allow selfcheck to use digital card numbers, or is that currently not possible?
Thanks for any advice.
Andy
-- Andy Boze, Associate Librarian University of Notre Dame 271H Hesburgh Library (574) 631-8708 _______________________________________________
Koha mailing list -- koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://koha-community.org To unsubscribe send an email to koha-leave@lists.katipo.co.nz Unsubscribe:
-- Andy Boze, Associate Librarian University of Notre Dame 271H Hesburgh Library (574) 631-8708
_______________________________________________
Koha mailing list -- koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://koha-community.org To unsubscribe send an email to koha-leave@lists.katipo.co.nz Unsubscribe:
-- Andy Boze, Associate Librarian University of Notre Dame 271H Hesburgh Library (574) 631-8708
Yes, I think we each had messages with images in them that got held up for moderation that never manifested. I got an automated message that indicated:
The message is being held because:
The message is larger than the 100 KB maximum size
Mine was a whopping 194 KB. So many bytes. My text read:
Hi Andy, since I see that information entered in the *Additional attributes* section of your patron entry in the staff interface, I suspect that it's a local customization of patron attributes and not a default feature of Koha. That would also explain why you don't see mentions of that exact terminology in the manual or Bugzilla. I'd start by looking at what's been added in *Administration > Patron attribute types*. I imagine that you'll find your "Digital Card" there, with the boxes highlighted in this image checked:
[imagine image here, showing a snippet of a patron attribute type with checkbox numbers 1, 2, 6, 7, and 9 checked.]
Other people reading these messages in the mailing list may have more information to add.
I'm just guessing here, but if your issue centers on the self checkout system, making use of the following system preference:
https://koha-community.org/manual/latest/en/html/circulationpreferences.html... then it may be that the self checkout module can't associate those other card numbers with your patrons because it is *strictly* focused on a patron's "true" *cardnumber* in Koha, unlike the patron searches that *do* work in your other examples. Again, that's just a guess, but it might point you in the right direction.
On Wed, Aug 5, 2026 at 9:46 PM Andy Boze via Koha <koha@lists.katipo.co.nz> wrote:
Thanks, Katrin.
It looks like my last e-mail didn't make it to the list. David pointed me in the right direction. It was indeed a patron attribute. I thought it was a newish feature in Koha since I'm usually the only one adding things like patron attributes, but someone else must have added it as an experiment. It was probably wishful thinking on my part since we would really like to be able to have multiple card numbers per user.
Andy
On 8/5/2026 3:11 PM, Katrin Fischer via Koha wrote:
Hi Andy,
the image didn't make it through on the mailing list, it might have answered my question :)
As far as I know there is nothing named Digital Card in standard Koha right now so I have been wondering, what it could be you describe:
* A patron attribute named Digital Card? (can be repeatable) * A plugin providing a Digital Card feature? * A local customization?
Again, as far as I know, at the moment you can only use card number and username as the login in the OPAC.
Hope that helps,
Katrin
On 04.08.26 16:14, Andy Boze via Koha wrote:
Oops, I forgot to add the image.
On 8/4/2026 10:12 AM, Andy Boze wrote:
Hi, David.
I first noticed this feature a couple of years ago (I think) when I was adding/updating patron accounts. At the time, I believe it only allowed for a single Digital Card (DC). More recently it seems that you can add multiple DCs. See the screen capture below.
We're interested in this because recently our university has instituted a systems where faculty/staff/students can have up to three different card numbers. There's one card number associated with their physical ID card, and a different number for their phone, and a third number for their watch. Any of these three methods can be used for unlocking doors, checking out books, purchasing food at campus eateries, etc.
The Koha circulation systems lets you read the card number from any of these devices (if you have the appropriate hardware), but we need to be able to use those digital card numbers at the selfcheck station. At this time the selfcheck system only seems to be able to use the main patron card number, not the digital ones.
I've already checked Bugzilla and didn't see anything and it's not mentioned in the patron account creation section of the Koha manual.
Thanks!
Andy
On 8/4/2026 3:23 AM, David Liddle wrote:
Hi Andy, if you haven't found mention of the feature in the documentation, could you describe how you came across it and how you access or manage it? I've seen references to the "Patron card creator" in Tools and the "OPACVirtualCard" in System preferences, but they don't seem to match your description. Another way to find the origins of a setting or feature is to search Bugzilla for the exact terms used within the feature, system preferences, or database.
Regards,
David Liddle (a bog-standard system administrator)
On Mon, Aug 3, 2026 at 11:24 PM Andy Boze via Koha <koha@lists.katipo.co.nz> wrote:
Hi, all.
I'm trying to learn more about the Digital Card identifier in the patron account information. I haven't been able to find any mention of this feature in the Koha manual. I see that I can create multiple Digital Cards, and I can use those card numbers just like I would use the regular card number for circulation in the staff module. The selfcheck page doesn't recognize the Digital Card number, only the regular card number. Is there a system setting that would allow selfcheck to use digital card numbers, or is that currently not possible?
Thanks for any advice.
Andy
-- Andy Boze, Associate Librarian University of Notre Dame 271H Hesburgh Library (574) 631-8708 _______________________________________________
Koha mailing list -- koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://koha-community.org To unsubscribe send an email to koha-leave@lists.katipo.co.nz Unsubscribe:
-- Andy Boze, Associate Librarian University of Notre Dame 271H Hesburgh Library (574) 631-8708
_______________________________________________
Koha mailing list -- koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://koha-community.org To unsubscribe send an email to koha-leave@lists.katipo.co.nz Unsubscribe:
-- Andy Boze, Associate Librarian University of Notre Dame 271H Hesburgh Library (574) 631-8708
_______________________________________________
Koha mailing list -- koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://koha-community.org To unsubscribe send an email to koha-leave@lists.katipo.co.nz Unsubscribe:
participants (4)
-
Andy Boze -
boze.1@nd.edu -
David Liddle -
Katrin Fischer