[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] How do other systems handle print notices?

[Thomas Berezansky]

We have handled this in two different manners. Kathy is likely  
somewhat aware of both already, but for the benefit of everyone else:

For the first, we started with consortia-wide printing at our central  
site. Generally, everyone got the same formatted output with minor  
changes.

We handled that with the generate_circ_notices.pl script generating a  
single XML file for output that we then parsed with a PHP script for  
formatting on our ancient printers.

Issues with that method included the catch that all notices were going  
out as the circ library, and we wanted billing notices to go out as  
the item owning library (but overdue to continue to use the circ  
library).

The newer one, that we are officially doing a "test run" of today,  
uses a heavily modified generate_circ_notices.pl script to not only  
output the circs but a handful of OU settings. A PHP script then reads  
that XML file and generates PDF and/or CSV files based on the OU  
settings, followed by sending emails about the generated files. We are  
still limited to specific (in this case hard-coded) intervals, but  
libraries can customize their output greatly just by editing the OU  
settings.

I was planning on doing the newer one entirely in perl (with no XML  
output needed), but found it easier to make PDF files in PHP, so I  
went back to using PHP to parse the XML file.

Thomas Berezansky
Merrimack Valley Library Consortium


Quoting Aaron Zsembery <azsembery at pls-net.org>:

> We have some libraries who have us print multi-part mailers , others  
> who use PDF letters and a few who use stickers (which go on  
> postcards).
> I am not sure exactly how ESI handled it, but I think they set up a  
> script to run the various notifications and put a list of what  
> library gets each type of notification in the script.
>
> Aaron Z
> Jr. Systems Administrator
>
> Pioneer Library System
> 2557 State Rt. 21
> Canandaigua, New York 14424
> Phone: (585) 394-8260
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
>> From: "Steve Wills" <swills at beyond-print.com>
>> To: "Evergreen Discussion Group"
>> <open-ils-general at list.georgialibraries.org>
>> Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2012 5:20:29 PM
>> Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] How do other systems handle print
>> notices?
>
>> I've also been working on this issue for Balsam and will second the
>> call for info. I was thinking of adding a parmeter to take circ_lib
>> from the command line, insert it into the QUERY in
>> generate_notice_set() and feed it different templates for each
>> respective library that needs it's own formatting. Right now I think
>> we have a couple that want to stuff window envelopes but not
>> everyone is asking for that.
>
>> so def bump!
>> Stev3
>
>> > -----Original Message-----
>>
>> > From: Kathy Lussier [mailto:klussier at masslnc.org]
>>
>> > Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2012 03:37 PM
>>
>> > To: ''Evergreen Discussion Group''
>>
>> > Subject: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] How do other systems handle print
>> > notices?
>>
>
>> > Hi all, I've been exploring print billing notices and was wondering
>> > if others could share how they are handling print notices. I'm
>> > aware
>> > that print notices can be set up in opensrf.xml, but any template
>> > created here will be global. I've also been looking at some scripts
>> > based on the ones available at
>> >  
>> http://svn.open-ils.org/trac/ILS-Contrib/browser/ESI-Examples/trunk/notices
>> > to provide some level of customization for different. Are there
>> > other ways multi-site consortia are handling print notices? Thanks
>> > in advance for your feedback! Kathy Lussier
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------- 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
>>