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

[Bill Erickson]

On Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 11:29:53AM -0400, Mike Rylander wrote:
> 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?

That's correct.

> >
> > 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.

For a practical example, a Group by be "Large Print Books" with
item_type=a + item_form=d?

IIUC, this would be another (more easily configured) way to implement
audience groups... E.g. Group "Children" = audience=a + audience=c + ...

-b

-- 
Bill Erickson
| Senior Software Developer
| Equinox Software, Inc. / Your Library's Guide to Open Source
| phone: 877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)
| email: erickson at esilibrary.com
| web: http://esilibrary.com