Koha Question of the Week: How Do I Prevent Systems Permissions from Being Overwritten During Patron Upload?

by Hebah Amin-Headley on Apr 14, 2023

Each Friday, we will bring you a new Koha Question of the Week. We will select real questions that we receive and share the answers with you!

Question: How Do I Prevent Systems Permissions from Being Overwritten During Patron Upload?

Answer: For libraries, frequently academic libraries, periodic updates of patrons via the Import Patrons Tool, can have unintended consequences if staff accounts are included in regular patron imports.

Back in version 21.11, Koha introduced the ability to protect patron fields on import.

If patron uploads are handled manually, the option to protect the "System permissions" (flags in the borrowers table) field is located about halfway down the "Preserve existing values" list.

If "Systems permissions" is selected, and a staff account being imported matches an existing account in Koha with staff client permissions, protecting that field will allow all other account information to overlay the account information but leave the existing permissions intact.

This field can also be protected in automatic import.

Additional Resources

Monday Minutes: Retain Fields during Patron Import

Koha Question of the Week: Can we automate our student and faculty imports directly into Koha?