[Koha] Computer Management System and Koha

Fri Sep 2 02:52:47 NZST 2011

This is a middle-front-burner issue for us, so I'll just jump right in here.

First of all, "for Koha" probably isn't quite the words we want to use. 
There are a number of systems that work fine with Koha right now, 
including Userful which we use, PC-Cop and Envisionware, et al. These 
are external programs that work with Koha through the SIP interface. I 
don't think logical design would suggest a pc reservation module be 
incorporated in Koha itself.

However, there are a couple of now apparently abandoned open-source pc 
reservation projects. I should perhaps emphasize "apparently", since the 
status isn't entirely clear and I can't get in contact with the authors. 
There is Jesse Weaver's Powerline, written in Python, and Kyle Hall's 
Libki. Code for both is available, and we've tried Libki quite a bit. It 
was our feeling that Libki v1 was an excellent start, but needed some 
additional features. Kyle was going to do a complete re-write of the 
system, but that has apparently not been done. If you want to give Libki 
a try, you will probably need to look at our git repo where we did a 
couple of fixes.

The local university where I graduated is looking for php projects for 
their Jr-Sr level programming classes, and 1 project for a grad student. 
I met with the faculty advisers just yesterday, and submitted two 
projects to them. One was a Koha VM project suggested by sekjal (Ian 
Walls). The second was, in fact, a computer reservation system à la 
Libki and Powerline. They will consider these two projects with others 
they have and decide within a week on which they will work. If they 
chose either or both, then I intend to work closely with them on the 
specs and functionality. If the undergrads take the reservation system, 
then it will be a two semester project, the first for doing the design 
and project planning and specs, the second semester the students and 
project pass to a second class and instructor for coding.

Whether either of these are picked up by the university or not, this is 
important enough that while I have a tech assistant with the expertise 
we may try to hack something ourselves, but it must be harder than it 
seems at first, so we may need some dev assistance. Again, that depends 
on me being able to find/retain a tech good at coding. If anybody else 
wants to start a project we'll be glad to help with coding or testing.

I would like to encourage a public discussion on this subject.

I'm going to cut-paste part of the doc I gave to the school yesterday 
since it has lots of good links. The formatting got stripped but it's 
still readable.

-- 

Greg Lawson
Rolling Hills Consolidated Library
1912 N. Belt Highway
St. Joseph, MO 64506

-----------------------------------------paste------------------

Libraries and schools need a public access control system. Public access
controls permit individuals to login to and use computers based on a 
number of
controls.

Typical characteristics and features of a public access control system:

Policies enforce:

1. Time restrictions
Time maybe limited to a certain number of minutes/hours per day, for 
example, 60
minutes. The time needs to be a system configuration on the server/staff
interface.
--need to be able to set max number of sessions while still enforcing 
the max
total minutes
--staff need the option to manually override and extend time
--need to reset at end of day
--need popup warnings at configurable times before end of session 
notifying user
their time is about to expire.

2. Authentication

The user must authenticate, typically via account ID and password, that 
they are
an authorized user.  This is frequently done by querying a database 
using the
SIP interface.

There should also be a local user database for guest users who are 
temporary or
do not have a database entry. This feature is obviously controlled by 
staff. For
legal accountability reasons, there should also be a free-text field for 
staff
to enter credentials, like name and driver's license details.

3. Print controls
When a user prints from an application (web browser, text editor, etc), 
there
should be a popup which calculates the price of the print job, based on 
policies
assigned to printers which are also configured in the system, and 
requires the
user to click-through the popup, accepting the charges.
4. Prohibit changes to the operating system;

5. Miscellaneous
Policies also enforce end-of-day shutdown times. This requires the 
creation of
"buildings" (or better, areas or sections). If a facility closes, for 
example,
at 8:00pm, and a user logs on at 7:15pm, the system must only allocate 
enough
time to the session up to the closing time. Most systems will have a "real"
closing time, but have a forced logoff time configurable for a certain 
number of
minutes before closing.

I am aware of two systems available under open licenses that can be used for
examples, Libki and Powerline.

Libki

The sites below list his original version only, I think. I'm not aware 
that any
of his intended rewritten code was ever posted anywhere.

The existing codebase, however, does still work and can be downloaded and
installed from sourceforge. Even though it is open source however, I 
strongly
recommend that the new system---your creation--be written from scratch.

Libki-related Sites:

http://libki.org/
note link to rewrite status update*

http://kylehall.info/index.php/2009/02/11/libki-updates/

Important site---contains numerous enhancements we requested. I 
recommend that all
relevant contents of this site be downloaded soonest---with the Libki 
project possibly
abandoned there is no guarantee this data will remain available.

http://kylehall.info/index.php/projects/libki-kiosk-system/
old site

http://libki.git.sourceforge.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=libki/server;a=summary

https://sites.google.com/site/rhclpac/home
Not much content, but has phpsip connector code under docs

* "I thought everyone might appreciate knowing how the rewrite is coming 
along.
So far, the server side administration app is nearing completion. 
Authentication
is all that is left to do. The entire app is fully ajax powered and is a 
single
page for everything! It works very well, but could still use some 
tweaking here
and there. After the admin app is done, I will write the REST api, and 
then be
able to finish the client. At that point, phase 1 will be complete!" 
(comment:
this would be great code to get if you can find it anywhere)

Powerline

Powerline was written by Jesse Weaver. I have never used Powerline, but 
suspect
it has great potential, and may be a candidate framework for a public access
computing project.

Sites:

http://code.google.com/p/powerline/

http://techsoupforlibraries.org/blog/stop-flipping-burgers-and-come-to-the-
library

Commercial systems:

Userful (http://userful.com)

PC Cop (http://www.cmsdiginet.com/pccop.htm)

Envisionware (http://www.envisionware.com/)

Cassie    (http://www.librarica.com/index.shtml)

Philosophy:

We've used one system with a distributed database, and found that it had 
trouble
sharing data. I would recommend a centralized database, using either 
Postgresql
or MySql.

Code license should be under the terms of the Gnu Public License (GPL) 
version 3
or any subsequent version.

Git is highly recommended since it's used for Koha development.

------------------------

Greg

---------------------

On 08/31/2011 08:01 PM, Melissa Parker wrote:
> I was doing some research to try and see if there is any sort of 
> computer reservation/ computer management system module in the 
> pipeline for koha.  If there is not, is a module of this type even 
> feasible to create for koha?
>
> Thanks
>
> Melissa Parker
> SEKLS
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Koha mailing list  http://koha-community.org
> Koha at lists.katipo.co.nz
> http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.katipo.co.nz/pipermail/koha/attachments/20110901/3bba3a05/attachment-0001.html>