[OPEN-ILS-DEV] ***SPAM*** Re: Public API to Lookup Items By Barcode

[Mike Rylander]

On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 10:05 AM, Matt Lewin <dropbox at mlewin.org> wrote:

> Gentlemen-
>
> Thanks very much for your quick responses and encouragement.  Until a
> moment ago, I had the listserv set to digest mode, which, it turns out,
> makes interaction with the list on a per-thread basis somewhat more
> challenging.  I’ve pruned the digest message below and will attempt to
> respond to each of you in this message.
>
> Mike Rylander, it appears that your “U2” implementation does exactly what
> I am looking for.  Though I would love to hand the working app to my
> daughter immediately, I am also very happy that you pointed me at code that
> is yet to be rolled out.  In case you couldn’t figure it out from my
> initial email, I was at my wit’s end.  If you had responded with something
> akin to, “Matt, you can simply include,
> ‘tag:open-ils:acp_by_barcode/<barcode #>/‘ in your GET query, and it will
> do what you want *and* cure Cancer,” I think I would have engaged in
> self-flagellation.  I will admit, though, I pushed so hard on this one
> because I couldn’t imagine *not* being able to easily retrieve information
> by barcode, and I didn’t want to waste anybody’s time by asking a question
> I should have been able to find on my own.
>
> Also, you may want to consider renaming your new method, because you know
> that some smarty-pants is going to sneak in a “Bono” mode that formats all
> responses in “sunglasses” mode.
>
>
We welcome all forms of Easter Egg in Evergreen ... I look forward to your
patch! ;)


> Michael Peters, the app I’m writing is an iOS app, though I may implement
> it on Android, as well.  The app allows its user(s) to track items they’ve
> borrowed from and returned to the library.  It is 100% separate from
> anything the library itself does to track such things.  In essence, it’s
> meant to allow somebody to provide a “check” against the library’s
> borrowing records.
>
> The idea arose from my daughter’s repeatedly returning items to the
> Westford library, only to be told that the items were never returned.  Or
> at least, that’s her story. ;)  The folks at the library are very
> forgiving, but my daughter *has* had to spend some of her allowance
> reimbursing the library for lost books.
>
> The works as follows: when borrowing an item, the user scans the Codabar
> barcode of the item.  The barcode is used to retrieve the information about
> the item.  (This is obviously the part I wrote to you guys about; I’ve been
> using canned data up to this point.)  The user then sets the due date for
> the item, and the app stores the information in a device-local list.  The
> user then scans the item again to tell the app she is returning it.  The
> app provides a simple interface to everything currently borrowed and
> everything previously returned.  It also provides visual indication when an
> item is overdue or due within the next week.  I’ve got nearly everything
> working using canned data, and so it was time to put on the big-boy pants
> and talk to the Evergreen server.
>
> I’m having a blast writing it, and my daughter is eager to see me do
> something — anything, really — she can use herself.
>
> It also turns out there’s a real need for an app such as this, as a friend
> of mine I described it to said his wife has resorted to taking pictures of
> herself returning books, just to avoid paying replacement fees for “lost”
> books.
>
> On a related topic, as I take the app to completion, I’m considering
> wrapping whatever Evergreen interaction code I write up into a Cocoapod for
> all to use.  With that in mind, is there a straightforward means for
> 3rd-party software to perform authentication on Evergreen?  Put another
> way, if I wanted to write a mobile app that would allow a user to retrieve
> and manage his own library record, would I end up coming back to you guys?
> For example, I might want to extend the functionality of the app to
> reconcile the library’s idea of what a user has borrowed with the app’s
> idea.
>
> From my perspective, it seems reasonable to expose sufficient APIs to
> parallel the functionality a library patron can perform through the
> website.  In fact, I had assumed these APIs already existed and that the
> website was using them to do what it does.  Obviously, I’m relatively new
> to Evergreen and OpenSRF.  Is there some risk — security or otherwise — to
> what I suggest?  Or is it simply that people have only so many cycles in
> the day, and Model-View-Controller is all nice in theory, but is a right
> PiTA to make happen in the real world?
>
>
The APIs used in the backend, indeed, exposed to the world, including
authentication.  Evergreen uses a CHAP implementation for auth, so it's not
a simple user+pass submission, but every existing client does the CHAP
dance, so there's plenty of example code floating about.  Here's a thread
from the olden days pointing the way to some of the low-level bits:
http://libmail.georgialibraries.org/pipermail/open-ils-dev/2009-February/004269.html
.


> Thank you both again for your interest in what I’m doing and your help in
> my achieving it.
>

We look forward to seeing it in action.

--Mike


>
> -Matt
>
> > On Nov 20, 2014, at 11:33 PM,
> open-ils-dev-request at list.georgialibraries.org wrote:
> >
> > Today's Topics:
> >
> >   2. Re: Public API to Lookup Items By Barcode (Michael Peters)
> >   3. Re: Public API to Lookup Items By Barcode (Mike Rylander)
> >
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 2
> > Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 22:49:27 -0500 (EST)
> > From: Michael Peters <mpeters at emeralddata.net>
> > Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-DEV] Public API to Lookup Items By Barcode
> > To: "Evergreen Development Discussion List"
> >       <open-ils-dev at list.georgialibraries.org>
> > Message-ID: <76298868.00000590.00000009 at MichaelPetersPC>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
> >
> > Matt,
> >
> >
> >
> > First of all, I think it is AWESOME you are attempting to do this just
> for
> > your daughter.  That makes you an awesome dad, for sure!
> >
> >
> >
> > Would you mind sharing a few more details about how you intend to use the
> > app?  What platform will it be used on?  Is it just a webpage she can go
> to
> > that makes some calls to your local library public API?s?  Is it a mobile
> > app for Android or iOS?
> >
> >
> >
> > Do you intend for this to be a ?reading list? of sorts, where she can
> keep
> > track of the barcodes (or maybe better yet, bib id?s) for materials she
> has
> > already enjoyed?  Do you intend for this to be a way to keep her
> responsible
> > with her borrowing (alert her if she has a book coming due or already
> > overdue)?  Or maybe some combination of both.
> >
> >
> >
> > While I may not be able to help write the app, I do know that these were
> the
> > first questions that came to mind for me when considering how to respond
> to
> > your message.
> >
> >
> >
> > Congrats on your drive to develop something like this, and for going
> above
> > and beyond what the average library patron would even attempt.  You are
> way
> > cool for checking out Evergreen on a deeper level, rather than just
> using it
> > as a patron.  Major high five for that!
> >
> >
> >
> > Look forward to hearing more about what you are hoping your app to look
> like
> > and what it will do for you and your daughter (and hey, maybe even other
> > people around the world if you were to share it) and seeing how this
> > progresses!
> >
> >
> >
> > Best of luck,
> >
> > Michael Peters
> > Senior Systems Analyst
> > Emerald Data Networks, Inc.
> > Phone: 678.302.3000 x1013
> > Help Desk: 678.302.3000 x1500
> > www.emeralddata.net
> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 3
> > Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 23:33:17 -0500
> > From: Mike Rylander <mrylander at gmail.com>
> > Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-DEV] Public API to Lookup Items By Barcode
> > To: Evergreen Development Discussion List
> >       <open-ils-dev at list.georgialibraries.org>
> > Message-ID:
> >       <CAO8ar=nfUNiknX4CUhpueKx+J-YDKh=
> y1VN8e8TeaLT8TASNKg at mail.gmail.com>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
> >
> > Matt,
> >
> > As it happens, I wrote the code needed to do exactly what you're
> attempting
> > just two months ago.  It's linked from here:
> > https://bugs.launchpad.net/evergreen/+bug/1367926 ... the commit
> message in
> > the git branch attached to that launchpad bug gives an example of
> > retrieving the details of a title by an attached barcode.  Now, there are
> > ways to gather that data programmatically without that code, but it
> > requires several hoops and is far from trivial for anyone not familiar
> with
> > the internals of Evergreen.
> >
> > I'm pretty sure that MVLC does not have that branch in production, but it
> > will almost certainly be included in the next major release, due out in
> the
> > spring, and I bet that MVLC will be one of the first to deploy it.  They
> > often run pretty close to the leading edge.
> >
> > Hope that helps, and good luck!
> >
> > --
> > Mike Rylander
> > | President
> > | 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
> > End of Open-ils-dev Digest, Vol 104, Issue 9
> > ********************************************
>
>
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