Poll - Guess how many columns are in the rules table

Just guess - don’t open Koha and take a count - just guess

https://bit.ly/kohaus2026

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The Terrific-Every-Other-Thursday Training Videos

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YouTube Link

https://bit.ly/kohaus-tteot

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These slides available at

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https://bit.ly/tteot-slides

Terrific Every-Other-Thursday Training Videos - Live

Circulation and Fine Rules

George Williams

Next Search Catalog Coordinator�Northeast Kansas Library System�gwilliams@nekls.org�@georgehwilliams �(on MatterMost)

Has used Koha for 14+ years

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Christopher Brannon

IT Coordinator�Coeur d’Alene Public Library�cbrannon@cdalibrary.org�@crispybran�(on Mattermost)

and support lead for InlandShare

Has used Koha for 14+ years�

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Poll - Guess how many columns are in the rules table

Just guess - don’t open Koha and take a count - just guess

https://bit.ly/kohaus2026

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Circulation and Fine Rules

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Circulation and Fine Rules - Where to find them

Breadcrumbs: Home > Administration > Circulation and fine rules�URL: /cgi-bin/koha/admin/smart-rules.pl

Permissions:

• manage_circ_rules
• manage_circ_rules_from_any_libraries

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Circulation rules table

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Other rules

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Circulation Rules

1. Problems�
2. Past changes�
3. Current bugs�
4. The future

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Problems - this is the view from librarians

We will also freely admit that the more libraries you have in your Koha, the more complex managing circulation rules becomes

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Problems - the view from libraries

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1. Rules table is 9 miles wide
2. Access to view is blocked for most staff
3. Need for a single rule or exception forces rules for all circumstances
4. Rules can’t be applied to groups of “things”

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Problems - the view from libraries

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1. Rules table is 9 miles wide

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Poll - Guess how many columns are in the rules table

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https://bit.ly/kohaus2026

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Season 2: episode 16

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Poll - Guess how many columns are in the rules table

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https://bit.ly/kohaus2026

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Possible solutions

Problem 1 - Table is 9 miles wide

Separate tables for different elements:

• Circulation and renewals rules table
• Fines and fees rules table
• Holds rules table

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Possible solutions

Problem 1 - Table is 9 miles wide

Create a system preference for Suspensions

If you library doesn’t enable Suspensions then the columns for the Suspension rules don’t appear in the table

(like the way Article requests don’t appear if you don’t have the ArticleRequests system preference set to “Enable” )

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Problems - the view from libraries

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1. Rules table is 9 miles wide
2. Access to view is blocked for most staff

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Permissions

If you have this permission, you can edit and view circulation rules for your library

• manage_circ_rules

If you have the first permission and this one:

• manage_circ_rules_from_any_libraries

You can view and edit everyone’s circulation rules

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Work arounds

Problem 2 - Staff can’t view rules without edit permissions

https://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/SQL_Reports_System_Administration

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Possible solution

Problem 2 - Staff can’t view rules without edit permissions

Allow staff without permission to edit rules the permission to view the rules

This could either be by creating a “View rules” permission or allowing anyone with staff interface access to view.

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Problems - the view from libraries

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1. Rules table is 9 miles wide
2. Access to view is blocked for most staff
3. Need for a single rule forces rules for all circumstances �

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Branch/All/All rules and exceptions

If you have an All/All rule for your library, every other rule is an exception to that rule

But if you have just a minor exception, you need to write a complete rule for the patron category/item type

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Example

I have an All patron categories / All item types rule set up that allows

Current checkouts = 10�Loan period = 14�Renewals allowed = 1�Renewal period = 14�Holds allowed = 1�

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Example

If I have an exception to that rule where the “Video” item type only allows 5 current checkouts, I can’t just create a row for All patron categories / Video item type and set

Current checkouts = 5�

If I do, all of the other elements in the row for that rule will default to Null values or zeroes and the rule won’t work the way I want it to.

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Example

If I want Video items to allow 5 current checkouts, I have to write a full rule

Current checkouts = 5�Loan period = 14�Renewals allowed = 1�Renewal period = 14�Holds allowed = 1

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Possible solutions

Problem 3 - Need for a single rule forces rules for all circumstances

If there is an “All/All” rule, it would be better if entering null values in an exception meant that the values from the “All/All” rule were followed rather than following the existing rules for null values

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Possible solutions

Problem 3 - Need for a single rule forces rules for all circumstances

There are other ideas later that will also address this problem

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Problems - the view from libraries

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1. Rules table is 9 miles wide
2. Access to view is blocked for most staff
3. Need for a single rule forces rules for all circumstances
4. Rules can’t be applied to groups of “things”

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Groups of “things”

Things in this context can mean:

• Groups of libraries
• Groups of patron categories
• Groups of item types

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Library groups

It is possible to create library groups�(see Home > Administration > Library groups)�

But you cannot set circulation rules based on library groups

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Groups of patron categories or item types

NEKLS has 3 different item types for video recordings that have matching circulation rules at most of the member libraries. It would be nice to write one rule that applies to all 3 item types at the same time when the rules to be written are identical.

The same is true for patron categories.

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Possible solutions

Problem 4 - Rules can’t be applied to groups of “things”

Incorporate library groups into the circulation rules

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Possible solutions

Problem 4 - Rules can’t be applied to groups of “things”

Add the ability to Multi-select in the Patron category and/or Item type drop-downs in the rules table.

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Changes over the last 14 years

1. More rules!
2. issuingrules data moved to circulation_rules
3. Lost item policy - Waiting hold cancellation policy
4. Warnings
5. Permissions have changed to allow more granular access to rules
6. Highlighting

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1. Lots of rules added since 2010

Koha 3.2 - 14 columns (October 2010)

Koha 25.11 - 36 columns

(More if you turn on features like Unseen renewals, Article requests and Recalls)

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Circulation rules table from Koha 3.2 - 14 columns (October 2010)

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2. issuingrules migrated to circulation_rules

Circulation rules used to be in the “issuingrules” �table in 20.05 bug 18936

Part of a larger (unfinished) circulation rules re-write

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2. issuingrules vs. circulation_rules

issuingrules was structured with each rule in a separate column - the table had the same structure as the interface

circulation_rules is structured with each rule in a separate row

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3. Rule granularity

Lost item fee refund on return policy used to be set system-wide

Can still be set system-wide, but it can now be modified on a library-by-library basis through the rules module

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4. Additions to other rules on the page

Default Checkouts and Hold Policy - 6 columns added�Default checkout, hold policy by patron category - 2 columns added�Default waiting hold cancellation policy - New in 2023?�Default lost item fee refund on return - New in 20.11�Default holds and bookings policies by item type - “Bookings” added in 23.11

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Current bugs in Bugzilla

These are some bugs that are either suggestions, works in progress, works soon to be released, or works that were just released:

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Bug 40757 Highlight circulation rules on click

Click on a row in the circulation rules to highlight

Added in 25.11

Status: Needs documenting

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Bug 41439 Column filtering on the circ rules table

Built in buttons to filter columns - just like the jQuery workaround mentioned earlier

Status: Signed off (but has some potential QA problems)

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Bug 39973 Add inline editing

Add inline editing to circulation and fine rules table

Click on a cell to edit instead of pushing the whole row to the bottom of the table

Status: New

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Bug 15523 Move some sysprefs to circulation rules

Move a number of sysprefs to circulation rules (Omnibus)

Some of these have been done, some have not - the idea is to move some things from system preferences to smartrules.pl so they can be done on a library-by-library basis

Status: Assigned

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Bug 16207 Incorporate circulation . . .

Incorporate circulation and fine rules for library groups

Utilize Koha’s library groups so that rules can be defined for a group of libraries instead of library-by-library

Status: Assigned

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Bug 19037 Circulation and fine rules test tool

Rules testing tool

Create a testing tool that shows the rule that matches item, patron, and branch

Status: Failed QA

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Future of circulation rules - what we’d like to see

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1. Does it have to be that 9 mile wide table? Can we unbiggen the table
2. Permission for view only access to rules page
3. Multiple ways to view the rules/data (what if each column was its own tab)
4. Warnings about rule conflict/duplication
5. Stephen’s ideas (see the next slide)

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Stephen’s ideas for further changes

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The rules are disaggregated now, so why don’t we disagregate the interface

Rules pages - essentially, create rules first, then decide which library/patron/itype groups to add the rules to

(Like roles for permissions in Aspen)

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These slides available at

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https://bit.ly/tteot-slides

cbrannon@cdalibrary.org

george@nekls.org

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Be amazed by us on YouTube at

https://youtube.com/kohaus