ABLE^TM

Advanced Bindery Library Exchange

Reference Guide

Volume 26

Integrated ILS Services

(ILS-Link)

Version 6.6.1

June 9, 2003

ABLEä Ventures, LLC

Copyright by ABLEä Ventures, LLC

This reference guide is copyrighted and all rights are reserved. This document may not, in whole or in part, be copied, photocopied, reproduced translated, reduced to any electronic medium or machine readable form without prior consent, in writing, from the ABLEä Ventures, LLC.

The information in this document is subject to change without notice. The ABLEä Ventures, LLC assumes no responsibility for errors that may appear in this document.

For more information visit the ABLEä web site: http://www.programmingconcepts.com/able/

Or contact,

ABLEä Ventures, LLC

c/o Paul Parisi

ACME Bookbinding

100 Cambridge Street

Charlestown, MA 02129

(800) 242-1821

For technical support contact:

Programming Concepts, Inc.

web site: http://www.programmingconcepts.com/able/

e-mail: able_support@programmingconcepts.com

telephone: 631-563-3800 x230

fax: 631-563-3898

ABLEä Partnership

Acme Bookbinding

Information Conservation, Inc.

Kater-Crafts Bookbinders

Lehmann Bookbinding

Mekatronics Inc.

National Library Binding of Georgia

Ocker & Trapp Library Bindery Inc.

Programming Concepts, Inc.

ABLEä is a trademark of Mekatronics, Inc. / Bendror International Inc. 1987-2001

Table of Contents

1 Introduction. 4

2 Barcode Retrieval from the ILS. 5

3 ABLEä Barcode Retrieval Key.. 7

4 Updating the ILS. 8

4.1 ILS Configuration Parameters. 8

4.2 Bindery Transfer Process. 9

4.2.1 ILS Checkout Service. 9

4.2.2 ILS Check-In Service. 10

4.2.3 Error Handling. 10

4.2.4 Manual Update of the ILS. 11

5 Printing Barcodes. 12

Appendix A. ALEPH Error Codes. 13

Appendix B. Workflow... 14

1 Introduction

The integration with ILS systems is one of the important goals for capturing a larger share of the library binding and bindery system business. ILS integration includes the following services:

¨ Barcode retrieval from the ILS via Z-Link

¨ Saving of barcode in ABLEä title or item record

¨ Retrieving a Title or Item record by barcode.

¨ Automatically updating the status of volumes when sent to and received from Bindery

¨ Printing of barcode on the UBS slip

2 Barcode Retrieval from the ILS

Retrieving an item from the ILS by barcode is accomplished using the ABLE ä Z-Link interface. Refer to the ABLE Z-Link Reference Guide for steps on searching the z39.50 database.

Once a record is found in the ILS, it can be imported into ABLEä and saved as a Title or Item record. The barcode used in the search is also imported into the ABLEä record. The following screens show the selected ILS record from Z-link and the imported record on the Title screen.

Imported barcode from Z-Link

Once a Title or Item record is saved, it can be retrieved using the barcode.

3 ABLEä Barcode Retrieval Key

An ABLEä title or item record can be retrieved using one of two keys:

Title: Barcode

Lot: Barcode

The operator can scan in the barcode into the retrieval key field or enter it by hand. Since barcodes are unique to an account, there is no barcode retrieval key for Jobs in ABLEä Bindery.

4 Updating the ILS

When a lot is transferred to the Bindery or received from the Bindery, ABLEä automatically informs the ILS that each item in the lot is “out of circulation” or “in circulation”. Updating of the ILS is accomplished using an ILS specific API. The transfer of lot information to or from the Bindery is not dependent upon successful communication with the ILS. ABLEä allows the operator to send the item information at a later time if communication is unsuccessful with the ILS.

Note: All communications with the ILS is done from the ABLEä server side. The ABLEä client makes no connections to the ILS.

4.1 ILS Configuration Parameters

The ILS Configuration screen is used to set up parameters needed for the ABLEä to ILS communications. To set up the configuration, select:

WindowàFile MaintenanceàILS Configuration.

The following screen shows the required information.

Field	Description
Account	ABLEäAccount ID.
ILS Type	Contains a list of valid ILS systems. One must be selected.
Auto Update	Checked if the ILS should automatically be updated after successful completion of the Bindery Transfer process.
Library ID	The ILS Library ID for this account. See ILS vendor’s documentation.
Host	TCP/IP address of the ILS host.
Port	TCP/IP port number of the ILS host
User ID	Valid ILS User. See ILS vendor’s documentation.
Password	ILS user’s password. See ILS vendor’s documentation.
Confirm Password	Confirmation of password entered.
License Key	A valid license key must be entered in order to save this information. Contact your binder for a valid license key. This license key is valid for 1 year. Once entered it cannot be modified until it expires.

4.2 Bindery Transfer Process

The update of the ILS occurs after a successful Transfer to or Receive from Bindery. After a lot is transferred to the Bindery, the ILS checkout service is invoked for each item in the lot. After a lot is received from the Bindery, the ILS check-in service is again invoked for each restored item in the lot. These services update the status of each item as “out of circulation” or “in circulation” respectively.

4.2.1 ILS Checkout Service

The ILS checkout service is automatically invoked after a successful lot transfer if the “Auto Update” option is checked in the ILS Configuration screen. If unchecked, the ILS checkout service can be invoked from the Process menu on the Bindery Transfer screen.

The following information is sent to the ILS for each item in the lot:

Field	Description
Account	ABLEä Account ID
Binder	ABLEä Binder ID from Lot header.
Lot ID	ABLEä Lot ID
Barcode	Item’s barcode. This uniquely identifies the item in the ILS.
Item Number	Item number in Lot.
Department	ABLEä department code
Expected Return Date	From the Lot header. The format sent to the ILS is in YYYYMMDD format. If the value in the lot header cannot be converted to this format, then 0 is sent.

4.2.2 ILS Check-In Service

The ILS check-in service is automatically invoked after a successful lot restore if the “Auto Update” option is checked in the ILS Configuration screen. If unchecked, the ILS check-in service can be invoked from the Process menu on the Bindery Transfer screen.

The following information is sent to the ILS for each item in the restored lot:

Field	Description
Account	ABLEä Account ID
Binder	ABLEä Binder ID from Lot header.
Lot ID	ABLEä Lot ID
Barcode	Item’s barcode. This uniquely identifies the item in the ILS.
Item Number	Item number in Lot.
Department	ABLEä department code
Cost*	The item’s cost. If not cost information is associated with the item, 0 is sent.

* Cost information is generated at the bindery during the billing process in Auto Process or by selecting the Generate Bill option on the Tools menu.

4.2.3 Error Handling

There are two types of errors that are possible when communicating with the ILS, data and network errors. Data errors are ones that deal with erroneous data sent to the ILS. Network errors are ones resulting in communication failure with the ILS.

Each item that is sent to the ILS requires validation. After all items are sent to the ILS, any data errors are logged to the screen. Consult the ILS vendor’s documentation for descriptions of possible errors. Lots are transferred to or received from the Bindery regardless of the result of updating the ILS.

The following is displayed in the ILS System Messages window for each item that had an error, and therefore, was not updated in the ILS:

Lot ID

Barcode

Error Message

Any network error that occurs will cause all attempts to update the ILS to cease. The operator can manually attempt to update the ILS from ABLEä at a later time.

4.2.4 Manual Update of the ILS

If data or network errors prevent the update of the ILS, the operator can manually check-in or checkout the items in a lot by selecting “ILS Check-in” or “ILS Check-out” from the Process menu on the Bindery Transfer screen. All items in the lot are sent to the ILS. If one or more have already been successfully sent, it will be listed in the ILS Warnings/Errors window. See the appendix for some ALEPH specific errors that may be displayed in this case.

5 Printing Barcodes

A Code39 barcode along with its ASCII text representation is printed on the UBS slip for any item containing a barcode in its record. This barcode can be used to scan the item into ABLEä if the volume does not have one. Barcode printing is accomplished using third party software that must be installed on each ABLEä client workstation. This is installed by default for the ABLEä client installation.

Appendix A. ALEPH Error Codes

Consult the ALEPH documentation for a complete list and description of all error codes. The following is a list of errors that may appear in ABLEä during the check-in or checkout process. If any other error appears check the ALEPH documentation.

Error	Description
Unable to find item (21).	The barcode was not found in the ALEPH system.
Unable to find global user information (22).	The Binder ID is not defined in the ALEPH system.
Item already on loan (24).	An attempt was made to checkout the item, but the item was already checked out in ABLEä or from within the ALEPH system itself.
Item not on loan (27).	An attempt was made to check-in the item, but the item was either never checked out or already checked in.
Error in user name (1).	Invalid user name
Error in password (2).	Invalid password for user.
Library not defined on server (5).	Invalid ALEPH Library ID.

Appendix B. Workflow

Item Processing

• Retrieve title information from the ILS using the ILS Bar Code via Z-Link. The retrieved title information is then used like any other title data using Z-Link. The bar code that was scanned is also saved in the Lot record. See Note.

• A Lot record may also be retrieved using the ILS Bar Code if it was previously saved using bar code retrieval or scanned in or keyed in.

• Binding slips with barcode.

• When the Library transfers Lots to the bindery, the ILS is updated for each volume in a Lot indicating that it is “out for binding” and the “expected return date”.

• When the Library transfers Lots from the bindery, the ILS is updated for each volume in a Lot indicating that it is “in-circulation” and may include “cost information”.

• A failure to update the ILS system with volume status is reported to the ABLEä user. The manual Lot status update mode can then be used to update the ILS system when the ILS system is available.

Notes:

• Searching by bar code via Z-Link will return an exact match from the ILS system. The ILS does not return the bar code. ABLEä will automatically store the scanned bar code. This means that if any other retrieval key is used, the bar code will not be available and, therefore, not saved in ABLEä. The reason is that any other key may not refer to a unique record (e.g. five copies of Moby Dick have unique bar codes but no other key is unique.)

• The automatic updating of the ILS system volume status will only work if each item record has a defined bar code. This is because the barcode is the only unique ILS identifier.