[Koha] Inventory & items.itemcallnumber

[Joshua M. Ferraro]

Hiya Matthew,

See answers below :-)

----- "Matthew Metzger" <news at metzger.cc> wrote:
> My problem is that our librarian cannot currently do inventory because
> we have not been entering in a value for items.itemcallnumber (which I
> believe to be MARC 082b).
> 
> Our call number is, however, recorded in the database field 
> biblioitems.classification. What seems to be the solution is for the 
> value of biblioitems.classification to be copied to, or synced with, the 
> value of items.itemcallnumber.
> 
> I'm sure that if I knew SQL decently that I could invoke some command to 
> do just that. I don't know SQL. Could anyone give me a way to copy 
> biblioitems.classification to items.itemcallnumber?
> 
> I'm assuming that this syncing of fields would solve my problem and that 
> then our librarian could begin working on inventory.
OK, so there are few steps here:

1. run some SQL to copy the contents of biblioitems.classification
into items.itemcallnumber

Here's a script I whipped up that should take care of that issue:

http://kados.org/stuff/update_itemcallnum.pl

NOTE: I haven't tested this script, if it destroys your database
or pilfers your wife's jewelry, don't blame me ;-) Seriously, I'd
recommend trying this out on a test database first to make sure
it works.

When you've got that test db set up, you should be able to run:

$ wget http://kados.org/stuff/update_itemcallnum.pl
$ export KOHA_CONF=/path/to/koha.conf (the test db one)
$ perl -I /path/to/koha update_itemcallnumber.pl

2. map items.itemcallnumber, set it up as an items field, and write
a plugin to populate it automatically to save your cataloger the
grief of having to copy/paste it from the biblio level.

This one is slightly trickier, because I haven't written the plugin
yet ;-). I'll see if I have some time later today. If I don't
get back to you in a day or two be sure to ping me ;-)

3. I'd recommend looking at the newer versions of the inventory
scripts in CVS, I know Ryan's patched them up lately and they
(I think) have some better handling of the callnumber strings
and more functions ...

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

-- 
Joshua Ferraro                       SUPPORT FOR OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE
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