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

Thu Jan 20 14:57:35 EST 2011

On Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 2:03 PM, Kathy Lussier <klussier at masslnc.org> wrote:
> Hi Lori,
>
> I think it would be useful to see the KCLS skin in a public repository, but
> it would also be helpful to know where the trouble spots have been with the
> skin and with the new functionality. For example, we noticed that faceting
> was turned off soon after KCLS went live. Is it a problem with the way
> faceting works with the KCLS skin or is it a general problem with faceting
> that will continue to appear when sites start using the default skin in 2.0?

The primary technical reasons that faceting was disabled are related
to deficiencies in MS Internet Explorer having to do with progressive
rendering of content, the incredibly horrid javascript engine it has
and how it returns (well, how it doesn't return) control to the user.
Basically, IE won't let you do anything until after everything
renders, and the JS engine is so terribly slow that it takes forever
to do what Firefox and Chrome do in tenths of a second.  There have
been, since the KCLS go-live, several important improvements in that
area, specifically the development of controls one can use from within
the skin templates to decide what and how much facet data to send to
the client (meaning tunable rendering costs) but KCLS has not
implemented those changes to date as far as I know.

There are also KCLS-specific configuration and implementation
decisions that impact the amount and shape of their facet data, which
encompass reasonable tradeoffs and provide a set of functionality they
need, but have exacerbated the issues I mentioned with IE.

Now, all that being said, "Watch this space!" (well, the -dev list)
for a design document targetted at addressing some of the
inefficiencies that KCLS' implementation decisions (again, completely
reasonable and needed) exposed.

> It would help us understand which pieces of the KCLS OPAC we may want to
> adapt for our own use and which pieces we may want to avoid.

That's an understandable desire, and one I can appreciate.  However, I
would encourage everyone to test their ideal setup before avoiding any
specific features -- we can't improve something if nobody tries it out
-- and there's nothing intrinsically wrong with the design or
implementation of faceting in particular.

-- 
Mike Rylander
 | VP, Research and Design
 | Equinox Software, Inc. / The Evergreen Experts
 | phone:  1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)
 | email:  miker at esilibrary.com
 | web:  http://www.esilibrary.com

>
> Kathy
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------
> Kathy Lussier
> Project Coordinator
> Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative
> (508) 756-0172
> (508) 755-3721 (fax)
> klussier at masslnc.org
> IM: kmlussier (AOL & Yahoo)
> Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier
>
>
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: open-ils-general-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org
>> [mailto:open-ils-general-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org]
>> On Behalf Of Lori Bowen Ayre
>> Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2011 10:42 AM
>> To: Evergreen Discussion Group
>> Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] mobile OPAC functionality in 2.0
>>
>> Thanks, Dan.  To be honest, I'm not clear what is involved in
>> the "skin" or the "skinning" process and it appears my guess
>> was wrong.  At any rate, I'm happy to pursue publication of
>> the skin that was developed if people think that would be
>> useful as is.
>>
>> I'll let you know what I find out.
>>
>> Lori
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 1:35 AM, Dan Scott <dan at coffeecode.net> wrote:
>>
>>
>>       On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 04:03:23PM -0800, Lori Bowen Ayre wrote:
>>       > Hi Tara,
>>       >
>>
>>       <snip>
>>
>>
>>       > So.  After many attempts at fixes and tweaks, the
>> KCLS and Equinox folks are
>>       > looking are completely rewriting the Evergreen OPAC.
>>
>>
>>       Note that it's not just the KCLS and Equinox folks,
>> although they might
>>       have a contractual relationship. As a project we
>> probably should have
>>       started this effort some time ago - we kicked the idea
>> around a number
>>       of times - however, there were many other fish to fry
>> and not many
>>       friers, and the current OPAC works well enough for most
>> of us (even with
>>       the performance concerns) that it didn't became a high
>> enough priority
>>       (outside of experimental efforts like the plain-HTML
>> social interface).
>>
>>
>>       > This is ultimately
>>       > really good news because all that great new
>> functionality will then be part
>>       > of Evergreen (no "skinning" required).
>>
>>
>>       Well, "skinning" will always be required, unless
>> libraries want to live
>>       with the default Evergreen logo and text and colours
>> and layout...
>>       Unless by "skinning" you mean something like "stripping
>> all of the
>>       site-specific information from the surface of an
>> interface", which is
>>       the opposite of what the term normally means but
>> actually might be
>>       appropriate in the KCLS case.
>>
>>       I'd still like to see the KCLS skin get published in a
>> repository
>>       somewhere, as (unless the skin itself is exacerbating
>> the performance
>>       problems at KCLS) the design elements that many oohed
>> and aahed over
>>       so many months ago could still be a nice contribution
>> to the project.
>>
>>
>>       > The bad news is that might take a while.
>>
>>
>>       If we tackle it as a high priority, rapid iteration
>> effort, then we
>>       should be able to knock out large blocks of
>> functionality relatively
>>       quickly. If pages and pages of formal specs need to be
>> written first,
>>       signed off on, etc, before any code gets written, then
>> that will take a lot longer.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>>
>> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>> Lori Bowen Ayre // Library Technology Consultant The Galecia
>> Group // www.galecia.com <http://www.galecia.com/>
>> (707) 763-6869 // Lori.Ayre at galecia.com
>>
>> <mailto:Lori.Ayre at galecia.com> Specializing in open source
>> ILS solutions, RFID, filtering, workflow optimization, and
>> materials handling
>>
>> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>>
>>
>
>