[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Changes to Phone Number Fields

[Benjamin Shum]

Hi all,

Based on some chatter on the IRC today, we've decided to start an e-mail to discuss some of the possible revisions people would like to see available when entering user phone number fields and additional fields.

Specifically, we began with an interest in developing a truly separate extension field for the phone numbers for each user.  This field would allow us to have the phone number act more like a real phone number for use in other areas, while having a specific extension area if need-be for entering additional data.

To add this, we weren't sure if it would be as simple as adding three new fields to the existing structure or if it's time to pull out the entire phone number block and transfer it to a new table (such as actor.usr_phone, as was suggested on IRC to have some work done in this area already).

A separate extension field for phone numbers is definitely highest on our priority list right now.  But we had some other ideas to consider as well:

- having other label options; right now you have day, night, other; but what about cell?
- having a hold information note field; such as "do not call in morning" or "do not leave message"
- including a true/false field for whether a number is unlisted

We'd be very interested to find out what other members of the Evergreen community feel about these kinds of changes.

Thanks,

Ben

Benjamin Shum
Open Source Software Coordinator
Bibliomation, Inc.
32 Crest Road
Middlebury, CT 06762
203-577-4070 ext. 113