[OPEN-ILS-DEV] Item types in Template Toolkit

[Mike Rylander]

On Tue, Sep 13, 2011 at 9:34 AM, Kathy Lussier <klussier at masslnc.org> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I've been looking at ways that we might be able to configure the item type
> list on the advanced search screen of the Template Toolkit catalog. What we
> would like to be able to do is list more specific formats (e.g. DVD,
> Blueray, CD, cassette) that can be pulled from the fixed fields rather than
> using a local MARC field to store this information.
>
> In looking at one of the e-mails Bill Erickson posted to the list, we should
> be able to customize the item type list by using Server Administration <
> Coded Value Maps. I came across a little trouble because I couldn't save any
> of the coded values I created in the staff client (I submitted a bug report
> on this at https://bugs.launchpad.net/evergreen/+bug/845096)), but I could
> see how I might be able to create more specific videorecording item types by
> creating maps based on the videorecording format record attribute.
>
> My question relates to the best way to incorporate these in the item type
> dropdown list. When looking at the search.tt2 and coded_value_selector.tt2,
> I see that two record attributes (mattype, item_type) can populate the item
> type dropdown menu. If there are values for the mattype attribute, it will
> stop and only use the mattype attributes. If there are no values for
> mattype, it will then use the values created by the item_type record
> attributes. Am I understanding this correctly?
>
> Ideally, I think what we would like to do is to populate that dropdown list
> with values that are pulled from several record attributes (videorecording
> format, item_type, etc.) instead of just one record attribute. Is there any
> way we could do that or is there any reason why it would be inadvisable to
> do so?

There are several ways you could do this today (hard-code chunks of
searches in the dropdown; use a little client-side js to manage a
dropdown; other things), but none of them are very "nice" ... not
configuration based, and less upgrade proof than a baked in solution.
(But still more upgrade proof in the tpac than in the jspac, of
course.)

So, my ideal suggestion would be to build a mechanism for creating
what I'm calling "SVF Families" which would then contain "SVF Group
Values".  These would allow you to predefine a combination of SVF
entries and use them as  afilter value in the same way you can use
individual SVF values today, spanning across SVF filters with one
query-level filter.

I hope that makes sense...

-- 
Mike Rylander
 | Director of Research and Development
 | Equinox Software, Inc. / Your Library's Guide to Open Source
 | phone:  1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)
 | email:  miker at esilibrary.com
 | web:  http://www.esilibrary.com