[Koha] [EXTERNAL] fighting feature creep and cleaning up Koha

Gaetan Boisson gaetan.boisson at biblibre.com
Mon Apr 9 20:36:45 NZST 2018


  Hi Heather,

yes, this is the tab i'm talking about, feel free to join the brawl ;)



Le 06/04/2018 à 18:00, Hernandez, Heather a écrit :
> Hi--
>
> Sorry to reply with questions, but before I try to log in to bugzilla to
> comment, I'd like to be sure I'm understanding things correctly.  In this
> bug:
> https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=20528
>
> I'm not completely understanding the first paragraph:
>
> The normal view offers a nice tabular display of the items, with
> buttons to choose which one to modify, and lots of other options. The
> items tab seems redundant to me, not as pretty/legible, and in fact
> quite confusing.
>
> I understand the "normal view" in the staff client.  Are the "buttons to
> choose which" referring to the buttons on the right in each item record
> that say, "Edit?"
>
> To what does, "items tab" refer?  Is that the button on the left that says
> "Items" which is in between buttons that say "ISBD" and "Holds?"
>
> If I'm understanding correctly, I'll gladly try to comment in bugzilla,
> because trying to edit items via that "Items" button on the left in between
> the "ISBD" and "Holds" button is, to me, horrid--the resulting display of
> item records going endlessly down screen with tons of white space is
> terrible.  When I have a serial with 200+ items, it is pretty much
> impossible to try to navigate to trying to edit an item via that button.  I
> always choose the "Edit" pull-down-menu button across the top of the bib
> record which is in between the "New" button and the "Save" button, which
> gives me a more easily navigated visually table of items with instant
> access to a search box at the top of the table, and I would love for this
> to be the only way to get into editing items.
>
> Thank you for the help!  Cheerio,
> h2
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Heather Hernandez
> Technical Services Librarian
> San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park Research Center
> 2 Marina Blvd., Bldg. E, 3rd floor, San Francisco, CA  94123-1284
> 415-561-7032, heather_hernandez at nps.gov
> Library catalog: http://keys.bywatersolutions.com/
>
> On Fri, Apr 6, 2018 at 8:32 AM, Gaetan Boisson <gaetan.boisson at biblibre.com>
> wrote:
>
>>   Hello community,
>>
>> (please don't answer to this message with comments about the specific
>> issues mentioned, do it rather on bugzilla to keep things manageable,
>> thanks!)
>>
>> during the last hackfest in Marseille we started a list of features or
>> parts of Koha that currently exist but don't make us entirely happy for a
>> reason or another and could be removed. At first i was only thinking of
>> broken features that are part of Koha, then defaults that could be better,
>> and it grew to whole parts that might be considered not so useful. (The
>> list was made mostly by me and two other BibLibre project managers :
>> Claudie and Stéphane, Owen also had a look.)
>>
>> Since we started i have found the right term for what i was concerned
>> with: feature creep.
>>
>> I feel like there's been a very solid effort into refactoring code. But we
>> should also consider the features themselves. Every feature comes with a
>> cost: we need to maintain the code for it, we need to maintain
>> documentation about it, we need to train people about them, etc. Having
>> redundant features might look like it leaves choice to the user and is a
>> good thing, but it can turn into a mess pretty fast. Another aspect that i
>> am really concerned about are features that don't actually work. The best
>> example for this according to me is results highlighting. I'm so used to
>> the interface I barely see it any longer and don't pay attention, but it's
>> broken, and new users notice it. This kind of not really functional feature
>> included in the release looks extremely bad in my opinion. We need to do
>> something about it to make Koha more accessible and better.
>>
>> As this is very much as controversial as this sounds, some of these bugs
>> have generated debates, as expected. So i'm bringing this to the mailing
>> list in order for all users to be able to have a look at them and tell us
>> what they think. Since there are a few places concerned, an omnibus was
>> created: https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=20396.
>> I don't want to send one message per topic to the list, that would probably
>> be way too much. I also think it won't be that productive if the debates
>> start from this generic message on the list. If you are a library with a
>> strong opinion about one of these issues, i suggest you create an account
>> on bugzilla and voice your concerns there. You are most welcome to do so in
>> order to say that killing feature X is a great idea! (I expect we are more
>> likely to hear from people who are against change than from people who are
>> for it.)
>>
>> I'd like to add that since i don't write code, i'm not going to "kill" any
>> of these features myself, this is more about putting the spotlight on some
>> aspects of Koha that i think should be streamlined.
>>
>> Here's what was created so far, i will try to put the more contentious
>> issues first:
>>
>>
>> - https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=20415
>>
>> Remove UseKohaPlugins system preference
>>
>>
>> - https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=20417
>>
>> Remove OpacCloud system preference and feature
>>
>>
>> - https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=20528
>>
>> Remove the items tab from the detailed bibliographic view
>>
>>
>> - https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=20398
>>
>> Add a system preference to disable search result highlighting in the staff
>> interface
>>
>>
>> - https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=20401
>>
>> "Item circulation alerts" is overkill and could be removed
>>
>>
>> - https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=20406
>>
>> Remove ISBD display
>>
>>
>> - https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=20408
>>
>> Remove the availability facet and filter
>>
>>
>> - https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=20414
>>
>> Remove COinSinOPACResults system preference and make it always on
>>
>>
>> - https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=10047
>>
>> "Cataloguing search maybe useless?": in the cataloguing module, there is a
>> different kind of search, that we could do without.
>>
>>
>> - https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=12561
>>
>> Omnibus: Deprecate non-XSLT detail and result views
>>
>>
>> - https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=20399
>>
>> "Remove "did you mean" for the staff interface"
>>
>>
>> - https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=20403
>>
>> Refactor "Keywords to marc mapping"
>>
>>
>> - https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=20404
>>
>> Extended patron attributes should always be on
>>
>>
>> - https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=20405
>>
>> enhanced messaging preference should always be on
>>
>>
>> - https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=20409
>>
>> Remove OpacBrowseResults system preference and make it always on
>>
>>
>> - https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=20410
>>
>> Remove OpacGroupResults system preference and feature
>>
>>
>> - https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=20411
>>
>> Remove StaffDetailItemSelection system preference and make the feature
>> always on
>>
>>
>> - https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=20413
>>
>> Remove the "template" system preference
>>
>>
>> - https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=20416
>>
>> Remove hide_marc and advancedMARCeditor system preferences
>>
>>
>> - https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=20418
>>
>> Remove UpdateTotalIssuesOnCirc and make it cron everywhere
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Gaetan Boisson
>> Chef de projet bibliothécaire
>> BibLibre
>> +33(0)6 52 42 51 29
>> 108 rue Breteuil 13006 Marseille
>> <https://maps.google.com/?q=108+rue+Breteuil+13006+Marseille&entry=gmail&source=g>
>> gaetan.boisson at biblibre.com
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Koha mailing list  http://koha-community.org
>> Koha at lists.katipo.co.nz
>> https://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
>>
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-- 
Gaetan Boisson
Chef de projet bibliothécaire
BibLibre
+33(0)6 52 42 51 29
108 rue Breteuil 13006 Marseille
gaetan.boisson at biblibre.com



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