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

[dkyle at grpl.org]

Hi Galen,

> 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?

Yes, we have different capacities for a given shelving location at each
branch that floats.  Those branches have all the same locations, which are
owned by the system in asset.copy_location.  Smart_float.config would have
an entry for each shelving location/branch combination specifying
items_allowed, dups_threshold, etc. The smart_float.destination function
pulls the config record based on copy.location and checkin org ( and
copy.location and asset.call_number owning lib for the homing settings).

>
> 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.

Ah, I should have figured the deleted exclusion, I was wondering why that
existing index was not used, thanks!

Doug.

>
> Regards,
>
> Galen
> --
> Galen Charlton
> Manager of Implementation
> Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts
> email:  gmc at esilibrary.com
> direct: +1 770-709-5581
> cell:   +1 404-984-4366
> skype:  gmcharlt
> web:    http://www.esilibrary.com/
> Supporting Koha and Evergreen: http://koha-community.org &
> http://evergreen-ils.org
>