[OPEN-ILS-DEV] Running totals or report for checkin session or cart.

[Josh Stompro]

    I was just thinking of how the checkin process could be made 
"better" for those using it and those managing it.  What if each time 
the check in session was started it prompted for a label, which could be 
anything that would help identify that session like.  "Book Drop 
Morning", "AV Cart 1", "Stacks Return Cart Afternoon", "Morning 
Delivery".  As items are checked in the client would keep track of and 
display on screen a running report of the items like.

"Book Drop Morning"
Total items scanned: 10
Items to be shelved: 3
Items in transit to Location 1: 2
Items in transit to Location 2: 1
Items in transit to Location 4: 1
Items to be placed on hold shelf: 3

When all done with a cart or group this would allow some quick checking 
to make sure that the correct number of items are going to be moved to a 
certain location.  As I am checking items out I am placing all the items 
to be shelved in one pile, at the end I could count them to make sure I 
have the correct number.

The system could maybe log the label with the check in record so it is 
easy to track something down, "We can see that this item was checked in 
with the "Book Drop Morning" items on 10/10/2006 by Josh Stompro at 
station BackRoom-Check-In-1".

There could be a report made for all the check-in labels at a certain 
location for a certain day or week. 

Is this an feasible idea?  Are there usually to many items to count in a 
certain pile(Was that 145 or 146 items to shelve).  Is this an example 
of someone who doesn't work in circ trying to make things "Better" and 
just making things less efficient. :)


One other question, I was looking at 
ILS/Open-ILS/xul/staff_client/server/circ/util.js, trying to see how the 
check in pop up messages could have some added format to make the 
information easier to read at a glance.  (Making "Transit","Shelve", 
"Hold Shelf" bold and larger so it is easier to glance at the screen a 
figure out where the item needs to go, maybe bolding other information 
like which location something is in transit to, adding colors that 
correspond with a type of action, etc.)  It looks like the same text 
that is displayed on the receipt is what is displayed in the message 
box.  Would there need to be 2 string variables, msg and msg_display, 
with the msg_display including some sort of markup?  Can the formatting 
just be removed from msg before printing to use just one variable?

Thanks
Josh

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Josh Stompro               | Office 218.233.3757 EXT-139
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