• Product: Aleph
• Product Version:  22, 23
• Relevant for Installation Type: Dedicated-Direct, Direct, Local, Total Care

Question    
Was the Patron id (z308_id) extended to 255 characters in Aleph 22?

Answer    
No, the z308_id is still 12 characters long.

Additional Information
In Aleph there are different ID numbers.
First, there is the z303_id ("patron id")
This is the internal ID of the patron and Aleph uses this ID to connect to different Oracle tables (e.g. z36 "Loans")
This ID cannot be changed and should not be used for authentication (e.g. do not print it on patron cards etc.)
If a patron loses his card, the patron record would need to be deleted entirely.

The z303-id (z308-id) is 12 character long and this has not changed in Aleph 22.
But the patron can have additional "ID" (z308 records).
At a minimum, there is an additional ID of type "01" (Barcode) and more, as defined in the table ./xxx50/tab_bor_id.<lng>.
Those can be used for authentication (e.g. type "02" for LDAP etc.).
Those IDs are part of the Z308_REC_KEY, position 03 - 258 (resulting in 255 characters).
The connection between Z303 and Z308 and other tables is always via Z308_ID (12 characters) which contains the internal patron ID.
 

• Article last edited: 6-Jun-2016