[OPEN-ILS-DEV] Smart Float: Self balancing floating collections

[Galen Charlton]

Hi,

On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 8:51 AM, Doug Kyle <dkyle at grpl.org> wrote:
> Smart Float automates the redistribution of floating collections based on
> available shelf space and duplicate copies. Smart Float also allows
> automatic
> "re-homing" of items based on a number of circulations from the original
> library or a specified time frame.

Looks like useful behavior for Evergreen to support.

> Copy locations are the units of Smart Float operation. Copy locations are
> mapped to the following attributes that Smart Float uses to determine how to
> distribute copies.
> - active: if true, Smart Float will be used, otherwise traditional floating
> will occur.
> - items_allowed: the number of items the shelving location can hold.

I'm curious about the relationship between org units and shelving
locations in the smart float configuration.  In particular, the
existence of the items_allowed column makes me wonder if the code
handles both the case where each org unit owns a separate set of copy
locations and the case where org units for the libraries share a
common set of copy locations owned by a higher-level org unit.  In the
latter case, is the smart float config able to express that different
libraries might have different capacities for a given shelving
location?

It strikes me that an estimate of capacity for a shelving location (or
shelving location and OU combination) would be useful for purposes
beyond smart float.

> The Grand Rapids Public Library is now running an initial version of Smart
> Float in production on Evergreen 2.2.  I've committed a lightly tested
> version for Master in my working repository.

I took a very brief glance at the patch.  One thing that jumped out is
that the queries that join on the asset.copy table aren't excluding
deleted items.  Once that's corrected, you likely won't need to define
a separate index on asset.copy.barcode; the existing partial index
should suffice.

Regards,

Galen
-- 
Galen Charlton
Manager of Implementation
Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts
email:  gmc at esilibrary.com
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