[Koha] Brainstorm Help - Improve Reporting

[Msgr. Marion J. Makarewicz]

The whole data to report question is a huge part of Koha. The web interfaced
based scripts are essential that give the info desired for end users without
their having to worry about code. But isn't that the question? Getting
non-coders the tools to get the particular data set desired.

 

My way around the report limitations of any canonical software (Koha
included) is to connect the MySQL data to a ODBC application, either
OpenOffice/BibLibre Writer document through Base with merge data (excellent
for printing customized patron cards or labels) or to Word and Access. Once
I set up the database queries through Base or Access, the librarians only
have to click on the report they want and a dialogue box opens to filter by
date or patron number or any other category that is essential to the data.
The appearance of the reports is very polished because of the text editing
tools available to a merge template in a document editor or a database
frontend like access's reporting tools. Granted, this is mean for printouts
and not for the online interface, but the librarians still like to have
printed reports for many day to day operations. 

 

I  did try out phpMyAdmin for a while, but generally use Access with ODBC
drivers to work with the data directly. Sometimes I use Webmin's MySQL
module to view the data and run the queries. Of course the most efficient
way is command line SQL syntax, but front end helpers really make editing
the queries easier.

 

I know it is preferred to keep everything "in application,"  but this is
what my brainstorm has come up with.

 

Marion

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