Koha on Android

I recently acquired an HTC Hero with Android. I installed a nice barcode reader application on it: one can scan the barcode and search web sites, starting with Amazon. But one can also do a custom search: I put the url for my koha opac in there.

So if, say, you're at the local bookshop, or at a friend's looking at her bookshelves, I can scan the barcode with my phone.

The barcode reader does recognize the ISBN of a book.

And clicking on "Custom Search", I can push the barcode to Koha, and check if my library has the book.

It was also an occasion to see how the Koha opac would fair on a mobile phone: it doesn't use a specific stylesheet for this, but does a decent job, I thought: one can indeed connect to Koha through a smartphone like Android or the iPhone. That's nice.

Comments

If anyone wants to sponsor

If anyone wants to sponsor development of a mobile version of the OPAC please give me a call! :-)

Koha-Android

Owen,

Could you tell me what barcode app you downloaded with the customization feature, please?
thanks,
Scott

Sure: it's called Barcode

Sure: it's called Barcode Scanner in the Android Market, by ZXing Team

URL

Thanks, Nicomo...

I have the barcode app, but I'm having problem with the custom search url string....

I have tried the following..

http://kohaopac.mtpl.org/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?isbn=

http://kohaopac.mtpl.org/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl&isbn=

http://kohaopac.mtpl.org/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl&isbn=%

http://kohaopac.mtpl.org/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?

But with no success...

I am getting the error message, "Can't next outside a loop block @ /home/mtpl/kohaclone/C4/XSLT.pm line 65.", when the search performs.
I am using an HTC phone with Android.

Any help on this issue would be greatly appreciated. thanks.
Scott

Hi Scott, This is not an

Hi Scott,
This is not an issue with Android or the barcode thing. This is an issue with you local install. When I paste http://kohaopac.mtpl.org/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?isbn=9780778326724 into my browser, I get the same error. Even though the book exists in your catalog, it's http://kohaopac.mtpl.org/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=121619
There's something wrong with the XSLT stylesheet used, that's making the isbn call fail.
As far as the barcode app in Android is concerned, the third url string is the right one: http://kohaopac.mtpl.org/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl&isbn=%
Nicomo

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

More information about formatting options