[Koha-devel] Re: [Bug 516] biblioitems.itemtype does not load

[Stephen Hedges]

The "only solution" is not a solution at all.  The only place the itemtype 
exists in a MARC record is in the holdings tag (be that 952, 995, whatever), so 
Koha _must_ be able to move that info into the biblioitems table.  The user 
should not have to invent a workaround!!

Just a general note -- DATA IMPORT PROBLEMS ARE CRITICAL!!  The libraries you 
want to see using Koha are already going to have their data in a commercial 
ILS, and Koha must be able to smoothly incorporate that data into its tables.  


I appreciate the beauty of the Koha database structure, but the import scripts 
cannot be limited by that structure.  Since the itemtype info is located in the 
MARC holdings tag, then Koha has to retrieve that info from the MARC tag and 
put it in the appropriate table.  If items attached to a MARC record have 
different itemtypes, that is a MARC cataloguing error and should generate an 
error message when an import is attempted.  Perhaps the import scripts could 
parse the file to check for such errors before a load is attempted.

Stephen 

> Stephen Hedges wrote:
> 
> >Paul -
> >
> >I'm not getting any warnings when I make this 
> change to bulkmarcimport.pl and 
> >run it.  Just to be sure, I also commented out 
> the line "$batch-
> >  
> >
> >>warnings_off();" in dumpmarc.pl and ran the 
> file through that script -- no 
> >>    
> >>
> >warnings.
> >
> >I've attached a copy of the file of MARC records 
> ("marctestout").  Our mapping 
> >is at http://koha.athenscounty.lib.oh.us:8080
> >  
> >
> >>http://bugs.koha.org/cgi-
> bin/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=516
> >>
> >>------- Additional Comments From 
> >>address@hidden  2003-07-03 02:39 -------
> >>strange... it works fine for me (with UNIMARC 
> >>files).
> >>Could you check that your MARC record is 
> >>correct.
> >>just add : 
> >>    warn "==>".$record->as_formatted();
> >>after :$record =
> >>MARC::File::USMARC::decode(char_decode($record-
> 
> >>    
> >>
> >>>as_usmarc(),$char_encoding));
> >>>      
> >>>
> OK, I understand the problem...
> 952 it the tab you use for ITEMS. So it's stored 
> with items, NOT with 
> biblioitems. Thus, it's not transmitted to the 
> correct function.
> 
> what's the solution ? the only one is to move 
> itemtype from 952 to 
> something else.
> Why is it coded like this ? it's an historical 
> behaviour (from 1.2.x)
> biblioitems is supposed to store infos common to 
> some/many items, and 
> there can be more than one for a given biblio. 
> It's something that 
> doesn't exist in MARC, who only has 2 different 
> levels (biblio & item)
> 
> One sample :
> * biblio =>
> 1- the 2 towers, from tolkien
> * biblioitem =>
> 1- edited in 1957, by "greatbook edition".
> 2- edited in 2002, by "pocket edition".
> * items =>
> 1- barcode 100001, biblioitem 2
> 2- barcode 100002, biblioitem 1
> 3- barcode 100003, biblioitem 2
> 
> HTH.
> Note that an error should be reporter in 
> checkmarc, i'll investigate why 
> it does not.
> 
> PS : i copy this mail to bugzilla and mark #516 
> as invalid.
> 
> -- 
> Paul POULAIN
> Consultant indépendant en logiciels libres
> responsable francophone de koha (SIGB libre 
> http://www.koha-fr.org)
> 
>