[Koha] Setting folders for access_dir

[library at ssst.edu.ba]

Hi David,

That sounds good! It would solve the need to use outside services such as imgur or others to link to various logos and icons, and I was also thinking about uploading files such as student books of regulations, plagiarism guides and such. This is what we have in the current in-house system. _ Honestly it would be much simpler to just continue using that since it covers a lot of our needs well, but whenever I need to add something or make a change, I have to track down IT staff, who are incredibly busy and have a list of tasks months long. I need something that I can go into and just make all the changes myself._

Thank you for the link; I don’t often think to check the bugs and see whether any solutions are hiding there. It would be _really_ useful if this could be made available out of the box as they say because, while I’ve had to learn how to install Koha and make the necessary edits to various config files by asking for help and following directions (with fingers crossed!) I would be much more comfortable with flipping a switch. (On the other hand, learning new skills is both useful and interesting; thankfully, my installations are for testing purposed only at this time.)



Best regards

Aida Đikić


From: David Liddle <david at liddles.net>
Sent: Monday, March 6, 2023 5:58 PM
To: koha at lists.katipo.co.nz
Cc: library at ssst.edu.ba
Subject: Re: [Koha] Setting folders for access_dir

Hello Aida, I just had my first experience with the “access_dir” function today. I’m experimenting with using it to expose the files that I have put into the following new directory on the server:

/var/lib/koha/libraryname/web/

The idea is to put files in this directory that can be referenced by URLs that are manually entered in system preferences, e.g. the favicon.ico image shown in the browser tab. The location of this directory was suggested to me in Bug 33115, https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=33115, because I was looking for a directory that would be included in the Koha backup routine and koha-dump and could be served through the web.

Back to the use of “access_dir”. By listing the files in that directory, a staff user with the access_files permission can see what files are available for logos and icons, for example, and enter the appropriate URL in the system preferences by putting the file name after the base URL and /web/ (as set up according to the bug commenter’s suggestion). I don’t expect it to be used this way very much, but doing this can enabled authorized staff to make changes to the site’s appearance without asking a system administrator to do everything.

The feature only lists the files in the staff interface and allows the staff user to download them. They can’t be edited or deleted, so they’re safe.