[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] mobile OPAC functionality in 2.0

[Dan Scott]

On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 03:25:35PM -0800, Tara Robertson wrote:
> Hi,

<snip>
 
> I see that there's now a basic mobile OPAC (
> http://catalog.kcls.org/opac/extras/mobile/)--rad! Is anyone else using
> this? It says Copyright © SITKA <http://sitka.bclibraries.ca/>, are there
> SITKA sites using this?
>
> I'm wondering if additional mobile PAC functionality will be available in
> future releases. 

Given the hoped-for rewrite of the OPAC, I would suggest that it might 
make more sense to invest in that direction: a plain-HTML interface that 
works for every device - possibly with UI tweaks for smaller screens. 

> I'm not sure of quite how to ask this, but will the mobile
> PAC recognize that I'm using a smart phone and give me the mobile PAC, or
> would I have to go to a specific mobile URL?

I don't know how SITKA are handling this - their code has not yet been 
published, to my knowledge - but a basic implementation could use Apache 
directives to sniff the browser's user agent and automatically direct 
users to the mobile PAC. Ideally, it would check to see if a cookie 
stating "No thanks, I prefer the full OPAC!" has been set before doing 
that to avoid triggering my pet peeve of being forced to use a less 
functional mobile UI when my phone is perfectly capable of handling the 
full-on Evergreen OPAC.