[Koha] Seeking programmer: Patron Cards and Book labels: 3.06-- How are people printing them?

Mon Aug 30 17:18:49 NZST 2010

Thank you all for this.  I have gone ahead with 3.2 and am  
optimistically experimenting.

This how-to (below) belongs on the wiki how-to somewhere, don't you  
think?  excellent!  Thank you.

David

----- Message from sowen at edzone.net ---------
     Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2010 11:55:23 -0400
     From: Scott Owen <sowen at edzone.net>
Reply-To: sowen at edzone.net
  Subject: Re: [Koha] Seeking programmer: Patron Cards and Book  
labels: 3.06-- How are people printing them?
       To: koha <koha at lists.katipo.co.nz>

> Mike,
>
> I tried to respond off-list but keep getting
>
> *******
>     all relevant MX records point to non-existent hosts or   
> (invalidly) to IP addresses
> *******
> ???
> Might want to check your MX record.
>
>
> I believe we are just using a standard 29mm thermal label.
> This printer is a thermal printer, so there is no ink to rub/smear etc.
>
> We just use standard labels sizes and trim appropriately. Then put a  
>  piece of clear book-tape over top of that.
> We also book-tape cover the barcode.
>
> Takes a little more time, but, holds up to wear and tear of k-12 students.
>
>
> From: koha-bounces at lists.katipo.co.nz   
> [mailto:koha-bounces at lists.katipo.co.nz] On Behalf Of Scott Owen
> Sent: 23 August 2010 14:14
> Cc: koha at lists.katipo.co.nz
> Subject: Re: [Koha] Seeking programmer: Patron Cards and Book   
> labels: 3.06-- How are people printing them?
>
> Just installed Koha from git, and the patron card/spine labels seem   
> to work fine.
>
> However....
>
>
> While using Koha 2.2.9 on win32 I was not happy with the standard   
> barcode generated by Koha (when I
> could get them to work) so I used the following software and process to
> generate my own.
>
>
> Option 1 ********************************
>
> This requires allowing access to the MySQL database that holds all   
> of your Koha information.
> *BE CAREFUL AND MAKE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND THE RAMIFICATIONS OF DOING THIS*
>
> Barcodes are just a font.
> Free barcode 39 font http://www.squaregear.net/fonts/free3of9.shtml
> Free (for non-profit and edu) label making/design software
> http://www.idautomation.com/labelsoftware/free/
> MySQLAdmin and GUI tools from
> http://library.pantek.com/Applications/MySQL/Downloads/MySQLGUITools/mysql-gui-tools-5.0-r12-win32.msi
>
>
> Install MySQLGUITools.
> Use a multi-table MySQL query to pull the data from both the biblio and
> items tables into a single ?output? table, then export to CSV.
>
> the SQL query :
> SELECT biblio.biblionumber, biblio.title, items.barcode,
> items.itemcallnumber FROM biblio, items WHERE biblio.biblionumber =
> items.biblionumber;
>
> Will produce (in my case) a CSV like
> biblionumber title barcode itemcallnumber
> 1 Novell's ZENworks administrator's handbook / 1
> 2 The New York Public Library desk reference. 30525 031 new
> 3 Picture perfect / 36003 FIC PIC
> 6 Just listen : 30431 FIC DES
> 5 The lovely bones : 30319 FIC SEB
> 8 Unexplained / 109541 001.94 ALL
> 9 Whatever happened to Janie? / 109542
> 10 The bad beginning / 50000 F SNI
> 11 The field guide / 50003 F DIT
> 12 The clique : 109528 F HAR
>
>
> As you get into larger and larger biblionumbers you may want to add a >
> to the query:
>
> SELECT biblio.biblionumber, biblio.title, items.barcode,
> items.itemcallnumber FROM biblio, items WHERE biblio.biblionumber>4 =
> items.biblionumber;
> The >4 causes the query to only show rows where the biblionumber is
> (greater than)> 4
>
> Install the barcode font, and the label making software. You can then
> design your labels, input data from the CSV, and produce your own custom
> labels with almost any information you desire.
> I include the barcode, title, call number, and school name on all of my
> labels.
>
> If you can obtain one, the Brother QL-500 is a wonderful label printer
> that also includes label design software that will allow you to print
> barcodes.
>
> This process is not as easy as just pressing the button in Koha, but, I
> have found it to work quite in my environment.
> Option 2:******************************
>
> Create a "remote query" in PHP so that you can automagically   
> generate a barcode ready list.
> The cut/paste/format into a CSV, and print as above in option 1.
>
> example:
> http://koha.almaschools.net/RQ/booklist.php
>
> This requires a bit more work....but is very handy.
>
> If you want the messy details, let me know off list......
>
>
> -Scott Owen
> Alma Public Schools
>
>
>
>
>
>
>>>> Chris Nighswonger<cnighswonger at foundations.edu> 8/23/2010 7:53 AM >>>
> Hi David,
> On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 4:02 AM, David M. Bucknell   
> <dbucknell at iteachnet.org> wrote:
> If there is someone who would be willing to jury-rig patron card and
> spine label printing ... write a script ... I'd be willing to
> compensate hourly costs.
>
> I haven't heard from anyone except Chris, who is a contributing
> programmer, I take it, so I guess everyone else has either an on-site
> team or is paying a provider. 3.06 seems pretty cool and there is
> really no alternative, so if anyone is willing to help for some cash
> via paypal, it would be worth it to me. I have three installations
> that need this, none of which have a budget, but all of them hell-bent
> on Koha because of me.
>
> Why don't you just upgrade to the current beta of Koha 3.2? There   
> are several libraries, including ours, that have been running over   
> this code for months now.
>
> It seems a bit counter productive to pay money for a feature that   
> will die in a couple of weeks anyway.
>
> Kind Regards,
> Chris
> ----- Message from cnighswonger at foundations.edu ---------
> Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2010 08:27:26 -0400
> From: Chris Nighswonger <cnighswonger at foundations.edu>
> Reply-To: Chris Nighswonger <cnighswonger at foundations.edu>
> Subject: Re: [Koha] Patron Cards and Book labels: 3.06 -- How are
> people printing them?
> To: david at intknowledge.com
> Cc: koha <koha at lists.katipo.co.nz>
>
>
>> Hi David,
>>
>> On Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 11:24 PM, David M. Bucknell <dbucknell at iteachnet.org
>>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hello Everyone,
>>>
>>> Printing Spine label and patron cards: I started working on this in
>>> May and 3.06 is
>>> still the preferred stable version. I've seen two posts that say to
>>> wait for 3.2.
>>>
>>>
>> 3.2 includes a complete re-write of the label and card creator code. So
>> waiting is probably the thing to do.
>>
>>
>>> I've installed in various configurations (now have Thai lang with
>>> marc-21; strange, but
>>> it seems to work for input and searching).d
>>>
>>> I can't get any of the label options to work (English lang mostly) for
>>> books or patrons
>>> (at least not more than minimally -- I can get a barcode graphically
>>> and as text, but
>>> that's it. (Oh, and a nice red box around the items. Nothing I do to
>>> customize (choose
>>> what's on the label) has any effect.
>>>
>>>
>> Label printing is pretty broken when it comes to unicode support. The short
>> of it is that the pdf standard is not unicode friendly. This is true of 3.2
>> as well.
>>
>> Having said that, we printed several thousand English (and a few Spanish)
>> labels with the 3.0.x labels code. So it will work for English and probably
>> some other Latin based alphabets.
>>
>>
>>> Finally, I can't get the export to csv to work to try it.
>>>
>>
>> I'm not sure what might be going on here.
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Apologies for not seeing it if it's obvious, but now I would like to
>>> ask for suggestions.
>>> Am I wrong or is this just not working? How are people getting
>>> their labels and patron
>>> cards done in 3.06?
>>>
>>
>> The patron card code in 3.0.x is basically inflexible as many of the
>> settings are hard coded. You will have to wait for 3.2 stable or go ahead
>> and grab 3.2 alpha2 or the latest development master from
>> http://git.koha-community.org/koha.git
>>
>> Kind Regards,
>> Chris
>>
>
>
> ----- End message from cnighswonger at foundations.edu -----
>
>
>
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