foss

Oh, I was sending Notifications to Patrons on Item Issue, but suddenly the management have instructed to send notifications on Item Return, Renewal etc as well or they have asked to send Notifications as SMS/WhatsApp in addition to Email, and now i realise that this will ge a pain to implement as i will need to implement this for each patron.

NO NO

This can be done automatically here is the solution

Step 1 ) Modify Messaging Preference for each  Patron Categories

For Each Patron Category set the Default Message Templates from the link  http://<your-library-staff-panel>/cgi-bin/koha/admin/categories.pl

Step 2) Use the following commands on the Koha Server Terminal

sudo su

export PERL5LIB="/usr/share/koha/lib"

export KOHA_CONF="/etc/koha/sites/library/koha-conf.xml"

cd /usr/share/koha/bin/maintenance

perl borrowers-force-messaging-defaults.pl --doit

You are Done !!!

The Script borrowers-force-messaging-defaults.pl  will force update messaging preference of all Patrons

Ensure that the koha-conf.xml PATH is correctly set in Step 2 in case your library name is other than library.

This will be useful if you have just implemented my New Module to send Notifications via WhatsApp Business API

Koha already have a feature to Push Notices via SMS

Koha uses SMS Drivers to push these Notices to a Service Provider

SMS Driver can be written which can Push Notices using an External API (Gupshup WhatsApp API) in this case which can inturn send the Notice as WhatsApp Messages.

Requirements

1. Facebook Business Account
2. GupShup Account with WhatsApp Business API
3. GupShup API Key
4. Approved Templates for CHECKOUT, CHECKIN, DUE
5. GupShup Endpoint URL for API
6. SOURCE Number as Registered in Facebook Business Account and Mapped in Gupshup

How to Install

1. Download the Package File (.KPZ) from this github Repository
2. Upload the Package File in the Koha Plugins
3. Configure the Plugin by entering the Information already stated in Requirements
4. Modify the SMSSendDriver Value to SMS::Send::Gs in the System Preferences in Koha
5. Enable Notices via SMS in Koha for desired category of Patrons
6. Configure the messages cron if not already configured on Koha Server

Configuration

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Assumptions of this Driver

Template for CHECKOUT, CHECKIN, DUE is already approved by Facebook and contains 2 Variables/Parameters

eg Template

==================================================

Dear {{1}},

The following books have been issued to you as per your request in Library

{{2}}

Thank you for visiting The Institute Library.

==================================================

The Driver will replace {{1}} with the Patron First Name & {{2}} will be replaced with the SMS Template Data as recieved from KOHA eg {{2}} can contain Barcode of Books issued which will convert the Template to the following and send

==================================================

Dear Abhishek,

The following books have been issued to you as per your request in Library

6754, 5754

Thank you for visiting The Institute Library.

Github Repository : https://github.com/abhisheknagar/gupshup-wa-koha-driver

Need Help in Configuration

#Idea

Use the SMS Service present in Koha to send Notices to Patrons

SMS Plugin which send Notices as JSON Data to an Endpoint using POST, Endpoint can be yours own endpoint or a service provided by a service provider. Handle the JSON data in Endpoint and send the Notice using your Custom Code or Service Provider to WhatsApp / Telegram / Whatever

GIT Repository : https://github.com/abhisheknagar/wa

JSON POST made by this Koha Plugin to Endpoint will look as follows : 

{
           "api_key"        => $api_key,
           "customerFirstName" => $patron->firstname,
           "customerLastName"  => $patron->surname,
           "phone"             => $patron->smsalertnumber || $patron->phone,
           "code"              => $m->letter_code,
           "messageBody"       => $m->content,
    }

What is Koha ?

Community Driven world's first free and open source library system, Koha https://koha-community.org/ powers major libararies around the world. 

No one likes a silence when tuning to a radio station, and for a radio manager its tough to have 24*7 programmes, in case you are running an Internet Radio Station using Airtime you probably would be programming your shows and in Offtime your radio is always silent i would suggest you to play some random tracks in this Offtime and also include a track which tells when your station plays live so here is how to achieve this

1. Put some MP3 files in a folder of your server, please also record a message with the showtimings etc or what ever you want this folder may contain any number of files which you want to play in off time (Folder used in the below script /store00/rand)
2. Edit /usr/lib/airtime/pypo/bin/liquidsoap_scripts/ls_script.liq (below is the patch) the modified lines are in bold

@@ -150,14 +150,14 @@
 #                "read_stop_all",
 #                fun (s) -> begin log("dynamic_source.read_stop") destroy_dynamic_source_all() end)

-default = amplify(id="silence_src", 0.00001, noise())
+#default = amplify(id="silence_src", 0.00001, noise())
 ref_off_air_meta = ref off_air_meta
 if !ref_off_air_meta == "" then
     ref_off_air_meta := "Airtime - offline"
 end
-default = rewrite_metadata([("title", !ref_off_air_meta)], default)
-ignore(output.dummy(default, fallible=true))
-
+#default = rewrite_metadata([("title", !ref_off_air_meta)], default)
+#ignore(output.dummy(default, fallible=true))
+default = playlist(mode='random', "/store00/rand/")
 master_dj_enabled = ref false
 live_dj_enabled = ref false
 scheduled_play_enabled = ref false

Once you have modifed you are good to go restart the services, upon restarting you will listem random tracks in offtime from the folder you have set in the script.

Tested on Airtime 2.5.1, do listem to VMOU's stream @ http://vmou.ac.in/stream

I am sure you would have come to a situation when you would have to resize multiple images say you copied 200 images from your Digital Camera and now need to upload them and need to resize them all, now doing this using GIMP would take ages here is a easy way.

Step 1) Install ImageMagick

sudo apt-get install imagemagick

Step 2) Change to the Directory where all Images are Present

Step 3)

a) If you need to reduce images to a specific Percentage

mogrify -resize 20% -format jpg *

b) If you need to reduce to Specific Width & Height

mogrify -resize 800x600 -format jpg *

c) If you need to reduce to Specific Width

mogrify -resize 1024x -format jpg *

Further Reading Click Here !!!

Hopefully there would be many like me who have struggled in configuring Broadcom Wifi Cards on Linux due to their proprietory drivers, now a days it works fine in Ubuntu if you download the drivers available but still it doesnot work with various other distros. so here is a 3 step guide to configure Broadcom Wifi on your linux box these steps have been tested on openSUSE but would work on any distro Step 1 ) Download a file from here. Step 2) Install bcm43xx-fwcutter it is commonly avaiable for all distros Step 3 ) follow the commands

# bcm43xx-fwcutter wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o

(bcm43xx-fwcutter is the application which u have installed wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o is the file which you have downloaded from this blog:)  preferably create a directory and copy wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o there and execute the command in the directory)

# cp *.wl /lib/firmware

(*.wl are the files which were generated from the command above there would be some 16 files)

And you are done use the network manager to configure Wireless Netwoks :) this was really simple. Desclaimer: code/commands given in the posts worked fine for the author please use them on your own risks they may damage your system.

GNUnify is one of the biggest FOSS event which is completely managed and organized by the students of Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies & Research. Each batch of MSc (CA) only gets one opportunity to organize it last time we "RESPAWN" organized and the tradition continued with the current batch which organized the 7th GNUnify. It was sponsored by Mozilla, they also presented a few talks this year which were great. I also got an opportunity to conduct a workshop this year which  went on well the participants were able to create websites on their local machines atleast :) this was the second time when i got the opportunity to be a speaker @ gnunify.

This year we had more then 50 speakers covering topics in various areas of software development, administration the new addition this year was the FOSS in academics Track where in teachers from various colleges came up and discussed about FOSS.
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