Re: [VuFind-Tech] Placing holds in Horizon using VuFind

[Demian K. <dem...@vi...>]

What happens if you change holds_mode to "driver" in config.ini?  This will set things up so you will only see hold links for items that Horizon says are allowed to be placed on hold.  I can imagine two likely outcomes to the change:


1.)    You start seeing errors on every record page - this would suggest some sort of communication problem between VuFind and Horizon (a failure when calling the "is hold allowed" routine).

2.)    All hold links disappear - this would suggest that communication is working but Horizon is reporting that holds are not allowed; perhaps a Horizon configuration needs to be adjusted in this case, or maybe there is some kind of permissions problem.

(Again, I know nothing about Horizon specifically, so this is pure speculation... but hopefully it's helpful speculation).

- Demian

From: Joe Thornton [mailto:jth...@uh...]
Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2012 11:38 AM
To: Demian Katz
Cc: vuf...@li...
Subject: Re: [VuFind-Tech] Placing holds in Horizon using VuFind

Thanks, Demian.

I've attached the [Catalog] section of config.ini and our HorizonXMPAPI.ini file.

-- Joe

Joe Thornton
Manager, Automation Services
Upper Hudson Library System
28 Essex Street
Albany, NY 12206
518-437-9880 x230

On Tue, Mar 20, 2012 at 8:47 AM, Demian Katz <dem...@vi...<mailto:dem...@vi...>> wrote:
Unfortunately, I believe Luke no longer has access to a Horizon system, and I never have, so this may hamper our ability to help you...  but I'm certainly willing to try!

First of all, it sounds like you have read the right documentation.  Do you mind sharing your [Catalog] section from config.ini and your HorizonXMLAPI.ini (minus any sensitive passwords, of course)?  Perhaps we can spot an issue there.  If those look right, the next step is probably to add some debug statements inside the code...

Regarding "first available copy" functionality, we've just added support for this in the trunk, so it will be available in VuFind 1.4.  I have also posted a patch to JIRA which you may be able to apply to your 1.3 test copy:

http://vufind.org/jira/browse/VUFIND-507

Currently, the option is only available for Voyager, but if the Horizon XML API supports title-level holds, you should be able to extend the VuFind driver to add the functionality.  Obviously the first step is to get item-level holds working, but if you manage that, we might be able to help you bring things up to the next level.

- Demian

From: Joe Thornton [mailto:jth...@uh...<mailto:jth...@uh...>]
Sent: Monday, March 19, 2012 6:01 PM
To: vuf...@li...<mailto:vuf...@li...>
Subject: [VuFind-Tech] Placing holds in Horizon using VuFind

Thanks to the indispensable help of Luke O'Sullivan and Demian last year, we've been using VuFind since about July 2011. Our libraries (35) have been very happy with it but will be even happier if we can do requests within VuFind and not have to hand that function off to our Horizon server.

We're currently using VuFind 1.1 (vufind.uhls.org/vufind<http://vufind.uhls.org/vufind>) but I installed a test version of 1.3 here: testvufind.uhls.org/vufind<http://testvufind.uhls.org/vufind>. The test server uses the HorizonXMLAPI driver but I haven't gotten it to work yet. When I try to place a hold I get the message: "Your request failed. Please contact the circulation desk for further assistance."

We're running the latest version of Horizon Web Services and we're on Horizon 7.5.1.

My questions are:

-- Can someone help me find the cause of the "Your request failed" error?
-- Is there documentation that I should be reading? I've read the "ILS Driver" document at vufind.org<http://vufind.org> and Demian's "Expanded ILS Functionality in VuFind" blog post.
-- Most important: Because we're a system of 29 libraries and six branches, it's very important that we have the ability to request the first available copy instead of a specific item. Is that functionality part of the driver?

I'll be really grateful for any help -- even just a push in the right direction.

Thanks,
Joe

Joe Thornton
Manager, Automation Services
Upper Hudson Library System
28 Essex Street
Albany, NY 12206
518-437-9880 x230<tel:518-437-9880%20x230>