Bug 11599

Summary: itemBarcodeFallbackSearch should work even for items that don't have barcodes
Product: Koha Reporter: Galen Charlton <gmcharlt>
Component: CirculationAssignee: Bugs List <koha-bugs>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact: Testopia <testopia>
Severity: enhancement    
Priority: P5 - low CC: gmcharlt, hebah, Jeremy.evans, kyle.m.hall
Version: Main   
Hardware: All   
OS: All   
Change sponsored?: --- Patch complexity: ---
Documentation contact: Documentation submission:
Text to go in the release notes:
Version(s) released in:
Circulation function:

Description Galen Charlton 2014-01-22 15:55:03 UTC
When itemBarcodeFallbackSearch is in effect, falling back to a keyword search currently performs the search -- then filters out items that do not have barcodes.  This is because the checkout interface currently requires an item barcode to make a loan; it cannot identify the item using the itemnumber.

It would be nice if the itemnumber could be used instead.  That way, if a library truly does not use item barcodes or RFID tags, they could leave the barcode field blank and still be able to circulate.  Currently, they would have to fill in dummy values for the barcode.
Comment 1 Katrin Fischer 2014-11-16 10:02:33 UTC
One problem here is the check-in of items with holds on them. Currently you can't do that from the patron account and there would be no way to check-in without a barcode.
Comment 2 Jeremy Evans 2015-05-13 12:52:31 UTC
I encountered this problem earlier.  We had received a couple of new books required urgently by one of our users so they were sent straight to him.
Therefore I was not able to put a barcode into the books when cataloguing/issuing them.
When I tried to issue them to the user the books did not appear on the list of titles if I did a title search in the checkout.  
one other point - a filter on the holding library would be useful here as it brings up a long list of items held by other branches without giving details of the location.


I got round the issuing problem using the method Galen mentioned - i.e. using a dummy barcode in the format of temp1234.

On the default item view screen there is a place hold button so maybe an additional checkout link from there would be another useful way to handle these items. Or a checkout link from the list of holds?

The barcode not being in the book/item record when it is returned would not be a problem for us - as we would at that point edit the item to put in a barcode number.
Comment 3 hebah 2024-10-31 20:45:54 UTC
I will just chime in on this a decade later to note that in the intervening time, batch patron actions went from cardnumber only to being able to use borrowernumber, and batch actions can be run with an itemnumber, so it would be great if this preference meant that items without barcodes could be searched up and circulated this way since they ultimately do still have itemnumbers.