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Developer Guide

This is a guide meant to help you both use the mod-circulation module and enable you to contribute to the module.

Automated Testing

See companion document for information on the automated testing approach used in mod-circulation.

Storage

This circulation module has no persistent storage of its own. Therefore, it should be used in combination with another module that offers such a storage, for example mod-circulation-storage. For the current version, this mod-circulation-storage offers an interface (API) for storing:

  • fixed due date schedules
  • loan policies
  • loan rules (as a single entity/entry)
  • loans
  • requests

How does the module work?

This module actually handles the loans and the requests for those loans.

Requests and loans

A request for an item can be created by a requesting user. Both item id and requesting user id are stored in the newly created request. If the item is picked up, the request is closed and a loan is created. The corresponding loan consists of the same item id and requester id.

What about the items and requesting users?

Well, the items and requesting users don't live in this module themselves, but can be retrieved by their id from other modules, responsible for users and inventory.

Items? Not instances?

The terminology might be a little confusing, but the item is the (mostly) physical copy of a resource (which has a location), whereas the instance refers to an instance of a work. (see BIBFRAME 2.0 for more information)

Currently, only a specific item can be requested. So, if a library usually has three paperback copies of "George Orwell - 1984" on the shelf but none at the moment, is not possible to request "the first that comes available again".

Statuses

See list of item and request statuses in the README file

So, if a request for an item that is already checked out to another user is created, the request status becomes "not yet filled". If the item is checked in AND the request is the first in the list of requests 1, the request status is set to "awaiting pickup". If the item is then picked up, the request is closed and a loan is created.

Footnotes

  1. Currently this is ordered by creation date (time stamp) and can not be altered. ↩