Question

Are there changes for the PLIF Loader Sequential ("Flat") Input File in Aleph?
What consequences does the increase in length of the parton id and address fields for V22 have for the sequential input file used in the PLIF loader?

Answer

No.
There are no consequences. The structure of the sequential (flat) input file is unchanged

Additional Information

Ex Libris supports the flat file format only for backward compatibility reasons and do not change anything in the format anymore as this would mean that we force customers using it to change their working format.

Per this policy Ex Libris does not implement *any* new function to the flat format for many versions now.
For example the flat format also does not support the fields Gender and Birthplace that were introduced in Aleph 18.

Accordingly the new patron features in Aleph 22 are not supported in flat format.

Customers can't load or update patrons using flat format that have IDs longer than 20 characters or that have addresses where the line length exceed 50 chars.

If customers want to use the new patron record features they must use the XML format instead of the flat format.

Category: Circulation/ALEPH

Subject: Services - ALEPH

• Article last edited: 4/1/2014