upgrade

[Bert Heijenga]

Could you - the makers of Alexandria Book Library) - please have a thorough look at your upgrade process from version 1.1.2 to 2.0.4?
We are still running a Joomla 1.5 website, which we have to upgrade, because as you know 1,5 is no longer maintained. Our website historischleek.nl (about local history)  contains a library with over a 1000 entries. Apart from the booktitle and author we also have data for category, year, editor, library, location and bookcover.
In the upgrade process only booktitle and author are copied, whatever transfer method we try: sql or cvs (as mentioned on your site). The bookcovers do not show up, although they are during the Joomal upgrade process copied to the right directory /jupgrade/images/abook.
We are not looking forward to manually add again al the data! On your forum "support" we got no usefull answers to our questions.
At our site  you can see for yourself that version 1.1.2 is fully functional.
Greetings,
Bert Heijenga, maintainer.

beheerder@historischleek.nl

[federica]

Hi Bert,
what is the location where you have stored the images?
The 1.1.2 version is no longer developed. I put this information at our site, thank you for notice.

[Bert Heijenga]

I know that. Hence the upgrade!
Location of bookcovers is /jupgrade/images/abook

Bert

[A. Wayne Webb]

I know that. Hence the upgrade!
Location of bookcovers is /jupgrade/images/abook

Bert

Bert,

Just a thought.  Your site is at <http://historischleek.nl/> and I am assuming that your upgrade site is at <http://historischleek.nl/upgrade>.  I see no difference between the two. I see a thumbnail of the book cover.  Can I assume that your problem has been successfully resolved. I was viewing this book.  Which version of Joomla and ABL is on each site?

I might offer a suggestion, your facility being a regular library and not a personal book catalog.  In ABL in the Catalog Number field enter the string of text from your traditional cataloging system.  Furthermore, and I do not know if the Netherlands uses the Dewey Decimal System as we here in the United States do, using that string of text might be an option.  I created a library system for a group that had over 10,000 items, both archival material and books, and I plan on using ABL for their site.

One other thought...  Your library likely has stacks / book shelves that might be numbered.  Might I suggest that in ABL's Location field enter that data into it.  Use a string such as 23 / 1 which would be the 23rd stack and the 1st shelf in that stack.

In closing, I have upgraded about a half dozen or so sites now, using JUpgrade, and while it is fairly decent it is problematic.  Whatever you do, stay at J2.5.6 as each site I upgraded to J2.5.8 had problems.  I had similar problems as you are having so please do not feel bad. I will try to help if I can.

Cordially,
Wayne

[Bert Heijenga]

Hallo Wayne,
no, the new site is at <http://historischleek.nl/jupgrade>. (notice the letter j)
There is definitely a difference between the two, as you' ll see. I did not fine tune the template, just took one.
and no, my problems are not solved yet.
Concerning the library: I use that field to store the name op the publisher, and location as the place of publication, I translated it ( in Dutch to   " uitgever"  = publisher  and " plaats van uitgave"=place of publication.

thanx for your help.

Bert

[federica]

Hi Bert,
if you are able to access mysql you can solve the image trouble with a query.
Make a copy of the database then run this query:
UPDATE #__abbook SET image = CONCAT( 'images/abook/', image ) WHERE image != ''
substitute "#_" to your prefix. eg. sdd_abbook

[A. Wayne Webb]

Hallo Wayne,
no, the new site is at <http://historischleek.nl/jupgrade>. (notice the letter j)
There is definitely a difference between the two, as you' ll see. I did not fine tune the template, just took one.
and no, my problems are not solved yet.
Concerning the library: I use that field to store the name op the publisher, and location as the place of publication, I translated it ( in Dutch to   " uitgever"  = publisher  and " plaats van uitgave"=place of publication.

thanx for your help.

Bert

Morning Bert,

Or at least it is morning here on the east coast of the U.S.A.  It seems that Federica has the correct solution to your problem.  Or at least as much as I understand about MySql databases.  She's pretty smart in that regard.

As to the comment you made in regards to the "Location" field you are setting yourself up for a heartache later on.  For the publisher you should create a "Tag" (not day either), calling it Publisher and into that enter the name of the publisher of your book.  For my needs I also created another tag, calling it binding, into which I place either Hardbound or Paperback.

For the "Location" field, that is intended to indicate the physical location of where the book is stored.  I have some location entries indicating a closed stack which is common in many archives.  We don't want everybody having access to those precious 17th or 18th Century publications.  Or the earlier ones either, as they are all too fragile to handle on a come-as-you-may basis.

But since you already have it mixed up I am sure that Federica could come up with a MySql query correcting this oversight.  A few kronors, lire, dollars, etc. would definitely help to grease the wheels to use an American euphemism.  In other words, take the "Location" field, copy all those entries, and paste them into a "Tag" called Publisher.  I'm assuming that a routine would check to ensure that in the "ablocations" database it would check to make sure the data was correctly copied to the "abtag" database by the ID.  It would also need to take into account the "abbooktag" database.  This last database appears to be where the "abbook" and "abtag" databases meet, through the "idbook" and "idtag" fields.

As for how to use the "Location" field you can see this in play on my site.  I set up the first two items, Bones of the Dragon and Bury Elminster Deep to demonstrate what I am saying.  Click into each of them and please note a string in the Location field.  The "Box 1" string it is in Box #1 which means it is stored in that archival box.  I do not have enough shelving to accommodate all of my collection and so a portion of it is stored away in boxes.  The string "Case 1 / 2" indicates that the book is housed in book case 1 on shelf 2.

A site I am developing for a historical society I work closely with needs to include another field that is used only here in America.  While everyone is accustomed to using the ISBN number, here in America we have another number used as well.  Our largest government archive is the Library of Congress.  For each item in their collection the maintain a catalog number.  This link is for those items with "Church of the Brethren" in their title.  They do not have every book though.

Meanwhile you may be familiar with WorldCat.Org.  This link is for the same partial title showing all their items.  Their numbering system is their own but since the organization is world wide it lists items not normally to be found here in America.  Again, they do not catalog everything. To be specific, and taking directly from your site I offer your listing from WorldCat for the first item in your catalog, "The Atlas of Huguenin, 1819-1829."  It can be found here.  I would highly recommend that you use this site to fill in your database.

Hopefully in future renditions of ABL Federica and her cohorts will put in place other fields needed by bibliophiles and institutions.  I posted some of my thoughts in the "Suggestions" forum. I am especially interested in an add-in whereby I can ask ABL to go to WorldCat and plug in the data for a book or item.  She could use their OCLC number as a new field, similar to the ISBN field.

Cordially and with Best Wishes,
Wayne

P.S  I am a historian, and a bibliophile.  I have been a bibliophile since I was 6 years old, still owning some of my earliest books.  My personal collection includes many works of fiction as well as non-fiction extending mostly into historical works.  I have in my collection also many, many original archival documents from the late 18th and of the 19th Centuries.  Therefore my catalog, I run two of them, must meet many needs.