Re: [Koha-devel] Re: how to automate adding of items.

[Michael Hafen]

I have made a script that will take a microlif file as input, with some
other options, and if there are holdings records will add the biblio and
holdings records.  I believe it uses the C4 modules for the heavy work.
I have not yet posted this to the koha bugzilla as I have some of my
other customizations.
This script may be what you are looking for.  I could email the files to
you if you like.  I will warn though that I only have an npl-ish
template file.  That is the template I have been using, and haven't
taken the time to write template files for the other templates.
Let me know if you want to see these scripts.

On Fri, 2006-11-24 at 12:09 +1300, Alex King wrote:
> I'm replying to my own message (below,) to let folks know where I got to 
> and to re-ask the same questions on -devel, because it got nowhere on 
> the user list (perhaps not surprisingly)
> 
> What follows relates to Koha 2.2, and is probably all simple stuff to 
> people who are actually involved in Koha devel stuff.  However I thought 
> it might be useful to others in my position.
> 
> Records in the Koha "reservoir" (uploaded through the "upload MARC 
> records in reservoir" function in the ui) exist in the marc_breeding 
> table, with an ISBN and a "breedingid" key.
> 
> To add an item manually through the ui, the user goes first to 
> "Catalogue", "Add Biblio", which corresponds to 
> acqui.simple/addbooks.pl.  A search on the ISBN calls 
> acqui.simple/isbnsearch.pl which in my case brings up one result if the 
> ISBN is in the reservoir.  I can do this automatically easily enough by 
> searching for the ISBN in the marc_breeding table.
> 
> Next the user clicks "Add biblio" next to the listed item.  This calls 
> acqui.simple/addbiblio.pl with the breeding_id set which takes them to a 
> screen with all the cataloguing details in the browser window.  This is 
> presumably so the user can check and correct those details for their 
> library.  In our case, all the details in the reservoir have come from a 
> single trusted source and no details need to be changed.  The user then 
> clicks an "Add biblio" (which I believe POSTs to 
> acqui.simple/addbiblio.pl), and actually adds the biblio record in the db.
> 
> modules/C4/Biblio.pm is helpfully documented with an explanation of the 
> old-DB and MARC-DB databases.  I don't know without further research 
> whether koha2.2 still keeps up two parallel data sets, but it certainly 
> seems it would be simpler to manipulate Biblio data through the API 
> provided than through direct DB access.
> 
> I also suspect the complete MARC data is transferred to the browser for 
> the user to review, then it is transferred back to 
> acqui.simple/addbiblio.pl via a post (with "op" set to "addbiblio").  So 
> in other words the data probably goes from the marc_breeding table to a 
> biblio entry only via the browser and there is probably no API call to 
> transfer this data directly.  I this is what is making me think what I 
> am trying to do is too difficult.
> 
> Once the biblio is added, the browser redirects to 
> acqui.simple/additem.pl, with a bibid set to reflect the newly added 
> biblio.  This screen allows the user to set data related to the item 
> (barcode being the most important one for me.)  This then POSTs back to 
> acqui.simple/additem.pl to add the item (calling NEWnewitem).
> 
> My lack of perl is hindering a comprehensive understanding, but it seems 
> to me what I am trying to do isn't going to be straightforward.  It's 
> probably going to be cheaper for the client to manually enter their 
> items (~2000) than for me to work out how to automate the process.
> 
> Cheers,
> Alex
> 
> Alex King wrote:
> > I'm needing some assistance with adding (biblios & items) into koha 
> > automatically.
> >
> > The biblio data is (for the most part) already in the reservoir.
> >
> > I have a list of matched ISBNs and barcodes, and I need to "create" a 
> > biblio from data in the reservoir and add an item.
> >
> > I can do this easily enough through the web UI, but there has to be a 
> > better way to enter the data automatically, given that I have the list 
> > of ISBNs and barcodes already in a text file.
> >
> > I am comfortable enough with scripting and accessing the mysql tables 
> > directly.  I'm not though familiar enough with the koha database to 
> > know what to do there.  I know it's not simply a matter of adding 
> > records in a single table.
> >
> > Can anyone point me to any scripts I can start from or suggest better 
> > ways to achieve what I'm trying to do?  My thinking is to look at the 
> > cgi scripts and see what they are doing behind the scenes and write 
> > non-interactive scripts that do the same thing.  My guess is they 
> > probably call library routines in the "C4" directory, and I could hook 
> > into the same library routines.
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Alex
> >
> 
> 
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