Koha offline circulation file format

This is a proposal for a standard file format for offline circulation data to be imported into Koha. This way, there can be any number of offline circulation clients that can take advantage of a single file processor. The following format is based on the offline circulation module from Koha-Tools with additions as suggested by Andrew Moore of Liblime.

Version 1.0

• The extension for the files will be .koc for Koha Offline Circulation
• The file will be essentially a tab delimited csv file

First line

• The first line is a 'configuration' line that describes the data is key=value pairs that are tab delimited. Proposed keys include:
  • Version : The version of the file format
  • Generator : The program that created this file
  • GeneratorVersion : The version number of the program that generated this file

Circulation data

• The rest of the rows will be circulation data.
  • The first column will always be the date ( in the format “YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS ms” )
  • The second column will always be the action performed, the remaining columns for that row will be defined separately for each action.

Current Actions

• issue - Issue an item to a member
  • Format: $date issue $cardnumber $barcode
• return - Return an item to the library
  • Format: $date return $barcode
• payment - Make a payment to the member's account
  • Format: $date payment $cardnumber $amount

Example File:

Version=1.0     Generator=kocPHP     GeneratorVersion=0.7
2008-06-11 12:24:11 547     issue       85947584        8364585674
2008-06-11 12:24:12 368     issue       93847563        3948573894
2008-06-11 12:24:13 213     return      9485694847
2008-06-11 12:24:13 478     return      5564354352
2008-06-11 12:24:14 327     payment     90035676        1.05
2008-06-11 12:24:14 784     payment     23529001        2.45

See also

• Offline circulation firefox plugin