[Koha] images - query re ISBN use as link

[baljkas at mb.sympatico.ca]

Thursday, January 22, 2004     01:54 CST

Hey all,

Owen is definitely right in saying that it would be preferable to have the
image load inline as opposed to via a browser.

(When I initially tried to ask this question months and months ago I
phrased it as a query re MARC21 856 tag 'cause I'm too ignorant about
programming niceties to have thought of actually integrating a picture any
other way.)

Did I understand correctly that it would be possible to have the format of
the item display graphically (a little book for text, a videocassette
image, and so on)?

>A PHP solution was suggested to me in which the image tag point to a
>php file, passing the ISBN as a parameter. The PHP file then checks >for
the existence of the image, and if delivers it if found. If not it
>delivers an alternate.

(Would that be like what Amazon.com does with its 'Image not available' as
the default unless they have entered a cover image?)

Earlier this evening I was actually wondering what would happen if there
were more than one ISBN or there were none?

With MARC21 coding of 020 $a you could easily have one or more valid ISBNs
in the field (chiefly from pbk. and hc. versions of the same book having
different numbers, although we have encountered overseas versions having
different numbers assigned from different centres). Would Koha permit
multiples and then be able to check each one?

What about books having no ISBN? Is there an alternate (9xx?) field the
coding information to link images with could be entered as (following most
standards strictly it would be illegitimate to enter a fake number in the
020)?

Apologies in advance if I am asking something painfully obvious to the
programmers.

Thanks,

Steven F. Baljkas
library tech at large
Koha neophyte
Winnipeg, MB, Canada