Bug 10327 - Rename poorly named system preferences
Summary: Rename poorly named system preferences
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: Koha
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Architecture, internals, and plumbing (show other bugs)
Version: master
Hardware: All All
: P5 - low trivial (vote)
Assignee: Kyle M Hall
QA Contact:
URL:
Keywords: Manual
Depends on: 27490 27503 10328 10329 10330 12160 27485 27486 27487 27491
Blocks:
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2013-05-24 11:23 UTC by Kyle M Hall
Modified: 2021-01-26 22:21 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

See Also:
Change sponsored?: ---
Patch complexity: ---
Documentation contact:
Documentation submission:
Text to go in the release notes:
Version(s) released in:


Attachments

Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.
Description Kyle M Hall 2013-05-24 11:23:43 UTC
Over time Koha's system preference names have become de facto standardized using upper camel case. It would be nice to go through our system preferences and rename those prefs that do not follow this standard.
Comment 1 Galen Charlton 2013-05-24 17:12:06 UTC
We should probably decide on some ground rules for this.  I'm not opposed to the idea in general terms, as choosing better names for some system preferences can improve Koha's polish.  However, I think it safe to assume that there are no system preferences so poorly named that it's worth risking functionality breakage.

Here are my preferences regarding system preference names:

- They should make positive assertions.  Consequently, "noItemTypeImages" and "noissuescharge" should be considered for renaming.
- They should be fully spelled out except for very well-known acronyms (e.g., "MARC" is OK in a syspref name)
- They should describe their current purpose.

And some caveats:

- If a system preference name is also used for other purposes, particularly database column names, the bar is going to be higher for accepting the patch.  I'm thinking of 'marcflavour' in particular.  I value consistency in the code base pretty highly; I would rather have a non-optimal name be used throughout than mixing old and new names for the same concept.
- Patches that just rename system preferences are much more likely to be accepted at the beginning of a release than at the end.
- It is OK for Koha to have a few idiosyncrasies.  Unless there's evidence that a given name is *actually* confusing to users, these patches are never going to be high priority.

One thing for folks to keep in mind is that system preference lookup (as with everything else in MySQL) is case-INsensitive.  Consequently, if you're grepping for a system preference name, remember to use -i

By the way, thanks, Kyle, for creating the omnibus bug.
Comment 2 Galen Charlton 2013-05-24 20:23:59 UTC
I would also urge folks to write test cases exercising each syspref that get srenamed, as that would make the benefit not just cosmetic.
Comment 3 Mathieu Saby 2013-05-25 13:21:10 UTC
I don't know if you agree, but here are some sysprefs that I always found poorly named : 

- dontmerge (Don't merge what? when?)
- insecure (What is insecure? when?)
- authoritysep (=> AuthoritySeparator ?)
- delimiter  (=> CSVDelimiter ?)
- reviewson (=>OPACAllowComments ?)
- suggestion (=>OPACAllowSuggestions ?)
- AnonSuggestions (=>OPACAllowAnonymousSuggestions ?)
- language  (=> StaffLanguage ?)
- useDaysMode (don't know how to rename it, b


Maybe because I don't speak english fluently, I don't understand the group of sysprefs "Local use". What is the meaning of this phrase?
I don't understant the group of sysprefs "Creators" either. What does it mean for you?

We could also improve the description (or the name?) of some MARC21 specific features, as  MARCOrgCode : it only applies to MARC21, and not to UNIMARC, but it is said nowhere.

And we should remove the following sysprefs :
-NoZebraIndexes
- hidelostitems (an other pref can make the same job. I forget its name...)

M. Saby
Comment 4 Galen Charlton 2013-05-28 15:40:53 UTC
(In reply to comment #3)
> Maybe because I don't speak english fluently, I don't understand the group
> of sysprefs "Local use". What is the meaning of this phrase?

In this context, "Local use" means "locally-defined", i.e., system preferences that aren't in stock Koha and are strictly for the use of that particularly installation.  One of example of such system preferences would be for Koha-as-a-CMS.

> I don't understant the group of sysprefs "Creators" either. What does it
> mean for you?

I don't think "Creators" is a good name -- that section refers to sysprefs related to item labels and patron card priting.
Comment 5 Mathieu Saby 2013-12-27 23:27:21 UTC
What about renaming "gist" preference?
For a french speaking person, it means nothing at all.
"AcceptedTaxRates" would be easier to understand

Mathieu