[Koha] Idea: Basing Cart off Items instead of Biblios

[Ian Walls]

Thanks to everyone for your feedback on this idea.  What I've distilled out
of this:

   - Cart used to work off items, but switched to biblios for a reason

   - In some contexts, users don't care about particular items, only titles,
   so the system would need to continue function on the OPAC just like user's
   are used to

   - In other contexts, users DO care about which volume, issue or version
   of a material they're adding, and having the option to pick that one
   specifically could be handy

   - In a multi-branch setup, there should be an option to only add items
   from one's home library.

   - All the hard work should be done developer-side in order to make the
   interface experience as consistent and simple as possible.

Perhaps item-based Cart makes more sense on the staff side only.  Or, maybe
having two separate Carts, Biblios and Items, would be the way to go, though
that seems to be overcomplicating things.

Thank you all for helping me understand this idea a little better; one of
the many reasons why I love being part of this community so much.

Cheers,


-Ian

On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 3:10 AM, LAURENT Henri-Damien <
henridamien.laurent at biblibre.com> wrote:

> Le 08/03/2011 22:32, Ian Walls a écrit :
> > Koha Community,
> >
> >
> > I'd like to solicit some feedback on this idea.  It seems to me that we
> > could greatly increase the utility of the Cart, both on the patron side
> > and the staff side, if we had it work off Item records primarily instead
> > of the Biblio record.  Some things we'd be able to do from the Cart if
> > we had this:
> >
> >    1. Batch Item mod
> >    2. Move items from multiple biblios to a single new biblio, in one
> step
> >    3. Print label batches
> >    4. Place item-level holds (in addition to title-level)
> >
> > Since item records all contain the biblionumbers for their Biblios, it
> > would be a single additional step to convert the list of itemnumbers
> > into a list of distinct biblionumbers, and do all the same biblio-level
> > functions we do now (like biblio-level holds, emailing/printing, and
> > adding to Lists).
> >
> > Am I missing a complication in the implementation or a workflow issue
> > that would make this untenable?  What does everyone think?
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> >
> > -Ian
> >
> Hi Ian
> I think that one thing you are missing is the user point of view of the
> cart. From the OPAC user point of view, you donot care of items, what
> you want is to be able to read the book or the collection you placed on
> your cart.
> So Yes, we could add item level for Cart, like we did for reserves. But
> it should not be done without taking into account the OPAC users' need.
> And it should be done with cautious, since when doing batch operations
> with your cart, you would have to take care of ppl doing the same
> operation in // . (I reckon this has not been dealt with many of our
> developments, reserves, batch edits... But maybe could be added)
> Maybe it would be the time to consider having OPAC and intranet as
> separate applications. But this would duplicate the effort and maintenance.
> Hope that helps.
> --
> Henri-Damien LAURENT
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>



-- 
Ian Walls
Lead Development Specialist
ByWater Solutions
Phone # (888) 900-8944
http://bywatersolutions.com
ian.walls at bywatersolutions.com
Twitter: @sekjal
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