[OPEN-ILS-DEV] ***SPAM*** Re: Sorting by distance in the OPAC

[Mike Rylander]

On Tue, Jul 14, 2009 at 4:13 PM, Paul Waak<ptwaak at gmail.com> wrote:
> I have worked out the back end for sorting the holdings in the OPAC by
> physical distance from a location.  The idea here is to let the OPAC in a
> library display the holdings of other libraries in the system according to
> how far an anonymous user would have to drive to get it right away,
> independent of administrative organization.  Presumably, the library can
> just add ol=<id> to the OPAC URL to trigger this behavior.
>
> In the OPAC, I am looking at changing rdetail.js in the default skin so the
> holdings list will be sorted by distance if:
>
> a global called rdetailSortDistance is true AND
> getOrigLocation() != globalOrgTree.id() AND
> findOrgType(getOrigLocation().ou_type()).can_have_vols()
>
> If any of these conditions are false, then the standard display applies.
>
> If all three conditions are true, then the holdings are sorted by the
> distance of the copy's circ_lib from getOrigLocation().
>
> Is this in line with how getOrigLocation() was meant to be used?  Or does
> the value represent something other than what I am thinking?  I am modifying
> release 1.4.0.4, in case that affects the answer.

Yes, that's what getOrigLocation() is for, though getLocation().  I'm
much more curious, as you might imagine, about the backend parts
you've worked on.  Have you modified the staged_search stored
procedure, and how are you storing the geospacial data or are you just
working off the org tree proximity data, etc.

A couple side notes:

* I think the second test (getOrigLocation() != globalOrgTree.id()) is
probably not needed.  I can imagine scenarios where the top of the org
tree is a real location, and child nodes "hang off" that.  The
can_have_vols condition seems that it would be enough to restrict to
valid cases.
* For the third test, you may want to use something like:
    var here = getOrigLocation() || getLocation();
    var this_org = findOrgUnit( here ).ou_type();
    if (
      isTrue( rdetailSortDistance ) &&
      isTrue( findOrgType( this_org ).can_have_vols() )
    ) { ... }

-- 
Mike Rylander
 | VP, Research and Design
 | Equinox Software, Inc. / The Evergreen Experts
 | phone:  1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)
 | email:  miker at esilibrary.com
 | web:  http://www.esilibrary.com