Koha 22.11 Data Changes

by Hebah Amin-Headley on May 20, 2023

Improved Data for Renewals

The biggest data change for reporting pertains to renewals, which come with some substantial table structure changes.

Renewal information is moving into a new table, checkouts_renewals, in 22.11 instead of the issues/old_issues tables of the initial checkout in prior versions of Koha. Bug 30275 moves renewal information into this table, also capturing the interface of the renewal (staff intranet, automatic renewal by cron job, OPAC, sip machine, etc) and, as of 22.11.03, what type of renewal it is (manual or automatic) courtesy of bug 30642. Each checkouts_renewals entry does contain the issue_id, so it can be cross-referenced with the initial checkout.

In addition to proving new data, this update has implications for existing reports that rely on the issues/old_issues table. Reports that use either issues.renewals or old_issues.renewals fields will need to be updated to point to issues.renewals_count and old_issues.renewals_count instead. These reports might be circulation reports that rely on issues data instead of statistics or potentially reports for third-party messaging integrations.

Statistics Now Capture Patron Category

A long-standing request in the Koha community, adding patron category to the statistics table, is coming in 22.11 courtesy of bug 7021.

Now libraries can see and report on statistics by patron category. The new field is statistics.categorycode. This allows libraries to report on usage by categories without having to make complicated joins to account for both active borrowers and since-deleted ones since the data is captured at time of transaction. This is captured in statistics for checkouts ('issues'), renewals, and local use.

Deleted Items Introduces a Deleted_on Field

Many libraries report on deleted items as part of their reporting, and bug 30392 improves on deleteditems data.

Previously, the only measure of when an item was deleted was a timestamp that could sometimes be updated by other system activity. This enhancement adds a new datetime field, deleted_on, to the deleteditems table.

Upon upgrading to 22.11, libraries who have existing reports for deleted items can update any use of deleteditems.timestamp to deleteditems.deleted_on for a stabler accounting of when an item was truly deleted.

Report Questions or Concerns?

As always, reach out and put in a ticket if you need assistance updating any existing reports or even if any of the new data points inspire a report you'd like to see!