Bug 18498 - Staff can place next available holds when rule is set to forced
Summary: Staff can place next available holds when rule is set to forced
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: Koha
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Hold requests (show other bugs)
Version: Main
Hardware: All All
: P5 - low enhancement
Assignee: Bugs List
QA Contact: Testopia
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2017-04-26 16:52 UTC by Christopher Brannon
Modified: 2020-04-20 14:54 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

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Description Christopher Brannon 2017-04-26 16:52:48 UTC
While the item level holds is set to force in the rule, and it is enforced on the OPAC, staff can still place next available holds on these items.

To test:
1) Set a rule for an item with the Item Level Holds set to Force.
2) Try to place a hold on an item governed by this rule in the OPAC.  See that you can only place on an item specific hold.
3) Try to place a hold on an item governed by this rule in the staff client.  See that you CAN place a next available hold on the item.
Comment 1 Christopher Brannon 2017-08-25 22:59:48 UTC
Rebased.  Please try again.  Sorry for delays!
Comment 2 Christopher Brannon 2017-08-25 23:00:22 UTC
(In reply to Christopher Brannon from comment #1)
> Rebased.  Please try again.  Sorry for delays!

Wrong bug.  Ignore this comment.
Comment 3 Katrin Fischer 2020-04-19 11:16:50 UTC
This is not a bug, but intentional - the setting is only meant to work for the OPAC. To make this clearer, it's labelled "OPAC item level holds" now in current versions. I think the idea is that staff know what they do, so they can do a bit more than the patrons and get to pick.

As this is from 2017 I will close "WONTFIX" - please reopen as an enhancement request if still seen as a problem.
Comment 4 Christopher Brannon 2020-04-19 18:03:25 UTC
I would not have created this patch request had I thought this was an expected behavior.  It is not.  As it is a problem, there needs to be a way to limit this further.  Not all staff at all libraries are going to keep this exception in mind.  There is absolutely nothing about the item that stands out that indicates to staff that they should only place next available holds for the item on rare occasions.

We should this preference be a global feature that affects both sides of circulation, and have a preference to indicate what rule with this condition can be overridden.  I would NOT want a preference that just turns it off for everything on the staff side.
Comment 5 Katrin Fischer 2020-04-19 18:14:37 UTC
I think there are different use cases at play here. I'd like it better if we could keep staff and OPAC separate in defining the behaviour.

An example would be 'only allow record level holds' - if staff needs a specific item because it's the oldest, damaged or the one with the extra material, they can place item level holds from staff side for internal use.

For us it has always been more of a feature.

It's not true there is no visible indication in staff, for example, for OPAC item level holds = Forced, Koha shows a note for each item on the place hold screen:

Item level hold forced from OPAC

Maybe if this stood out a bit more?
Comment 6 Christopher Brannon 2020-04-20 14:54:35 UTC
(In reply to Katrin Fischer from comment #5)
> I think there are different use cases at play here. I'd like it better if we
> could keep staff and OPAC separate in defining the behaviour.
> 
> An example would be 'only allow record level holds' - if staff needs a
> specific item because it's the oldest, damaged or the one with the extra
> material, they can place item level holds from staff side for internal use.

Katrin, your example is confusing me.  This would not block item level holds on staff side.  It would block the record level (next available) holds on the staff side.  It would mean they would ALWAYS have to pick a specific item.  Right now they can do both.  Can you present a case for why staff would ever need to bypass a block to a next available item when they would always have the choice to pick a specific item?  And, if they did have a scenario where they would need to bypass and do a next available hold, why a warning would be better than overriding?

> It's not true there is no visible indication in staff, for example, for OPAC
> item level holds = Forced, Koha shows a note for each item on the place hold
> screen:
> 
> Item level hold forced from OPAC
> 
> Maybe if this stood out a bit more?

Obviously this isn't obvious enough.  Regardless, staff have a habit of blowing through such messages when they are working quickly and not taking the time to read messages.  At the very least, it needs to be an override.