[Koha] RFC Discussion

[Thomas Dukleth]

Reply inline:


1.  CATEGORY NAMING.

On Fri, November 12, 2010 09:53, MJ Ray wrote:
> Magnus Enger <magnus at enger.priv.no>
>> But I still think it would be a good idea to specify that this
>> Cataloguing-category is for Cataloguing RFCs... Any thoughts on that?
>
> I think it would be a bad idea.  Such an RFC should be in both the
> Cataloguing category and the RFC category, which should let browsers
> identify that it is a Cataloguing RFC.

Searching for the intersection of multiple wiki categories such as 'RFCs'
and 'Cataloguing' would be a simple way of finding appropriate content. 
Until yesterday, we did not have an effect means for making such searches
implemented.  See section 2 further below for the extension which I added.

More use of 'RFC' in titles for RFCs would also help.  MediaWiki article
pages can be renamed along with their history by following the move link. 
A redirect is automatically created for moved article pages.  (I have
never renamed anyone's article except those which I had created without
thinking well enough about the name.)  Adding 'RFC' to the end of RFC
titles which do not include 'RFC' in the title already may be helpful.

With or without category intersection searches, there is an advantage to
being able to add granular RFC categories to watched pages for catching
new additions.  There is no similar means implemented for automatically
watching changes in search results.

Browsing the category hierarchy in a simple manner without forming
multi-category queries is also aided by having distinctive category names.

I addressed some other details about how category names function within
MediaWiki in an earlier message in this thread,
http://lists.katipo.co.nz/pipermail/koha/2010-November/026261.html .  I
have also addressed some other problems with category use relating to
MediaWiki extensions which we have installed,
http://lists.katipo.co.nz/pipermail/koha/2010-November/026309.html .


1.1.  CONSISTENCY IN CATEGORY NAMING.

>
> On a related point, it pains me to see that there are
> inconsistently-named categories for RFCs for 3.2 and 3.4 but I haven't
> seen a way to fix that before I get time to visit each RFC and change
> the categories.

Inconsistent category names pained me so much that I spent many hours
fixing the naming inconsistencies.  On the way I added applicable
categories for Koha components matching the categories established in
bugzilla.  In cases where more than one Koha component category was
applicable, I added multiple categories.

The real problem had been the proliferation of category name variants from
typing a category name into the former form of the RFC template. 
Templates are fine for assigning fixed categories for all uses of the
template but templates are problematic when the user has to type in a
category name.  The problem is no different for cataloguing bibliographic
material without guided input for authority controlled fields.

The procedure which I followed to obtain consistent category use was to
create a new category with a simple conventional name or choose the most
conventionally well understood of the multiplicity of variant category
names for using.  I then changed each page in inconsistent categories to
consistent categories.  Once the inconsistent categories contained no more
pages, I deleted the inconsistent categories to avoid polluting the
category lists with disused categories.

I have not change category assignment for 'Abandoned RFC' and I am in no
hurry for what I expect would not be a rapidly expanding category. 
'Abandoned RFCs' in plural would be a more conventionally consistent name
but again I hope that the category use is small.


2.  SEARCHING CATEGORY INTERSECTIONS AND DISJUNCTIONS.

> I think they should be in 3.4 and RFC categories, or
> 3.2 and RFC categories, as appropriate, if we can search for things
> in the intersection of two categories, which I also haven't seen a
> way to do yet.

There are a few means to implement searches for category intersections in
MediaWiki.  The most flexible means include adding additional indexing
software along with some extensions.  First we would need to fix a problem
with command line scripts failing for the Koha MediaWiki installation,
http://lists.katipo.co.nz/pipermail/koha/2010-November/026256.html .

I have installed the MultiCategorySearch extension as the best alternative
for now, http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Special:MultiCategorySearch .
 I have extensively modified the extension mostly to allow the drop down
hierarchy of categories to be populated automatically from the current set
of categories.

Searches can be conducted for pages which are in one or more category.. 
Additionally, searches can exclude pages in one or more categories.

I set the query protocol to get for bookmarking queries.  Some possible
extreme use might exceed URL length limits but I would not expect that to
be a problem with real world use.  I could also shorten get parameter
names and by that point I would have done almost a complete rewrite of the
extensions.

MutliCategorySearch has no provision for including pages within subsidiary
categories in a hierarchy.  There is also no provision for combining text
searching with explicit category searching in the Koha wiki at present. 
Some of the more flexible solutions for which we would need MediaWiki
command line scripts to be working provide for searching subsidiary
categories to a specified depth along with other options such as text
searching.

[...]


Thomas Dukleth
Agogme
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