[Koha] Federated Library based on Koha

[Anselm Olweny]

Dear List members,

Recently I was involved in setting up a federated library system using koha
for African parliamentary libraries. See http://fpl.apkn.org/
In this set up all the libraries (18) are using a single database

If you visit the particpating libraries found at http://fpl.apkn.org/ you
will notice that they all have there own look and feel as well as different
addresses for both the opac and staff interface. For example the opac for
the Parliament of Kenya library is accessed using http://ke.fpl.apkn.org and
its staff interface is at http://ke.fpl.apkn.org:8080; whereas the opac for
the Uganda Parliamentary Library is accessed using
http://ug.fpl.apkn.organd its staff interface is at
http://ug.fpl.apkn.org:8080. Using these addresses these libraries are able
to search only their collection.

With this mail I intend to share with you how I achieved this, just in case
someone may want to develop the same or even help me improve.

The illustration below is limited to the creation of a single participating
library, however, the steps described were peroformed for all the 18
libraries. The default koha installation serves as the Federated
Parliamentary Library interface

After successfully installing koha:

   - I duplicate the perl scripts located in koha/opac/cgi-bin/opac and
   koha/intranet/cgi-bin/.
   - I duplicated the templates located in
   /koha/opac/cgi-bin/opac/htdocs/opac-tmpl/prog/en/modules and
   koha/intranet/htdocs/intranet-tmpl/prog/en/modules
   - I duplicated the files located in
   koha/opac/htdocs/opac-tmpl/prog/en/includes and
   koha/intranet/htdocs/intranet-tmpl/prog/en/includes
   - I duplicated the file opac.css located in
   koha/opac/htdocs/opac-tmpl/prog/en/css
   - I duplicated the file Auth.pm located in koha/lib/C4
   - I identified a two letter code to represent the individual libraries
   e.g. "ug" for Uganda and "ke" for kenya. These codes were also used in
   distinguishing the opac and staff interface URLs
   - I renamed all the duplicated files, adding the two letter code e.g.
   "ug" as a suffix to the file names i.e a file like opac-main.pl becomes
   opac-mainug.pl, masthead.inc becomes mastheadug.inc; opac-main.tmpl,
   becomes opac-mainug.pl and opac.css becomes opacug.css
   - I edited all the renamed files and modified all links in each of them
   to reflect the new file names e.g. a reference to a file like /cgi-bin/koha/
   opac-search.pl was modified to /cgi-bin/koha/opac-searchug.pl;
   opac-bottom.inc was modifed to opac-bottomug.inc etc in all files in which
   it occurs
   - In the perl scripts I change C4::Auth; to C4::Authug; and C4::Auth qw;
   to C4::Authug qw; in all ocurances
   - I created a new DNS record for the new library e.g ug.fpl.apkn.org for
   the Uganda Parliament Library and enabled the "Repeat this virtualhost
   stanza" found in /koha/etc/koha-httpd.confSavitra's advice see
   http://old.nabble.com/Re%3A-Koha-as-a-federated-library-p28289266.html)
   (thanks to
   - I created new virtual host entries for the new library opac and staff
   interfaces in /koha/etc/koha-httpd.conf
   - I restarted the apache server
   - I accessed the individual library opac e.g. the uganda Parliamentary
   library opac using http://ug.fpl.apkn.org
   - I created logo and banner images and transfered them to
   koha/opac/htdocs/opac-tmpl/prog/images and
   koha/intranet/htdocs/intranet-tmpl/prog/img
   - I edited mastheadxx.inc, opacxx.css, loginxx.css and staff-globalxx.css
   to achieve required look and feel

I hope this may help anyone who might need to achieve the same kind of
library with koha.

I will be glad to provide any clarification and receive advise from you all.

Thanks

Anselm O
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