1. Enhancing Primo Back Office
Uwe Dierolf KIT-Bibliothek

2. One of the first 24h libraries in Europe
KIT Library
One of the first 24h libraries in Europe
Opened in April 2006
Never closed
> visitors per week
Uwe Dierolf – KIT-Library

3. University of Applied Sciences
KIT Library
KIT Campus South = Karlsruhe University
KIT Library Campus South
24h library
Karlsruhe Research Centre
KIT Library Campus North
KIT: University + Research Centre
Distance 12 km
University of Applied Sciences
In the centre of the city
Completely managed by KIT Library
Not part of KIT
Research Centre
University
University of Applied Sciences
Uwe Dierolf – KIT-Library

4. Motivation for enhancing the Back Office
Bad usability of Primo Back Office
Lot of things can't be searched
BO is like a big memory game, you have to remember where you put things
Uwe Dierolf – KIT-Library

5. Buttons are spread across the whole page
Usability problems
Buttons are spread across the whole page
Cancel / Go back – bottom left Save / Refresh – bottom right
Edit-buttons on the right force user to scroll horizontal
Navigation needs a lot of mouseclicks
Or bookmarklets
Fields are often too short
XPath-names and other fields are not completely readable
Tables
Zebra stripes are missing
You can't copy content
You can't fade out irrelevant lines
Uwe Dierolf – KIT-Library

6. Changing the user interface
Menus instead of bookmarklets
You find them in every browser
You can maintain them centrally on the server
Tables with zebra-striped lines
Cloned Edit-buttons
Edit-buttons on the left side too, you can hit them more easily
Important and heavily used buttons are on top
Policy: always clone, do not remove original button
Implementation of a search feature
Search for text in mapping tables und normalization rules
Technique: using Oracle database via JSONP & PHP
Better usability makes working more comfortable
Uwe Dierolf – KIT-Library

7. Demo A picture is worth a thousands words … 18.09.2018
Uwe Dierolf – KIT-Library

8. Menus
Uwe Dierolf – KIT-Library

9. Normalization Rules – cloned Edit buttons
Uwe Dierolf – KIT-Library

10. Mapping und Code Tables - cloned Edit buttons
Uwe Dierolf – KIT-Library

11. Normalization Rules – larger fields
Uwe Dierolf – KIT-Library

12. Mapping und Code Tables – table search
Uwe Dierolf – KIT-Library

13. Code Tables – change column width
wider column
Uwe Dierolf – KIT-Library

14. Search feature on the BO homepage
Uwe Dierolf – KIT-Library

15. Searching II
Uwe Dierolf – KIT-Library

16. Usage of Javascript library jQuery
Realization
Usage of Javascript library jQuery
Advantage: loosely coupled
Minimal invasive
Only two files in tiles directory have to be modified
headerTile.jsp und old_headerTile.jsp
Searching is using jQuery's JSONP-Request
Javascript calls a PHP script to search in the Oracle database
Why JSONP?
JSONP = JSON with padding
JSON = Javascript Object Notation
We can use services from our server
Circumvent cross domain restriction / same origin policy of the browser
Uwe Dierolf – KIT-Library

17. JSONP in jQuery Client Server Think asynchron !
var jsonUrl = ' $.getJSON(jsonUrl, jsonCallback);
The ? becomes a random function name like json
Server
PHP-Skript returns Javascript function call
json ( { json data } );
Think asynchron !
Wikipedia:
Uwe Dierolf – KIT-Library

18. AJAX-Architecture http Primo-Server EXL Oracle Web-Server KIT
jQuery / JSONP
PHP
Search in Mapping Tables and Normalization Rules
Uwe Dierolf – KIT-Library

19. Content Delivery Networks (CDN)
Motivation
Permits BO-search for different Primo Admins
Important in multitenant environments
In general: CDN permits userspecific delivery of Javascript
Endusers get minimized Javascript
Without comments and debug statements
Only developers get the debug version
Additional functions only for special user groups
Admins or librarians
CDN permits collaborative development
One primo installation but every developer sees his Javascript code
Uwe Dierolf – KIT-Library

20. PHP script creates individual Javascript code
How doesn CDN work?
PHP script creates individual Javascript code
Example at KIT: title statistics link only for librarians
Apache mod_rewrite with proxy rules makes it invisible RewriteRule kit_primo.js$ [P,L]
Browser caching should be forced
via .htaccess <Files kit_primo.php> <IfModule mod_expires.c> ExpiresActive On ExpiresByType text/javascript "access plus 10 minutes" </IfModule> </Files>
Uwe Dierolf – KIT-Library

21. Techniqually (almost) everything is possible
Conclusion
Techniqually (almost) everything is possible
Lose coupling allows incremental enhancements
Adaption to Primo V4 should be possible
More features are planned
Results of BO-search as link list which leads directly to normalization rules or mapping table records
Nicer user interface by using jQuery UI
Desire for Ex Libris
More speaking ID and class names within Back Office as they use it in the Primo frontend makes it easier to find things within HTML
Code has been given to Ex Libris !
Perhaps they will integrate it in future release of Primo BO
Uwe Dierolf – KIT-Library

22. Do you have any questions?
Thank you
Do you have any questions?
Uwe Dierolf – KIT-Library