• Article Type: General
• Product: Aleph
• Product Version: 18

Desired Outcome Goal:
Maintain local error messages and modify services files

Procedure:
In version 18 some directories that were previously placed below $alephe_root can now be found in $aleph_dev/aleph. Since this new architecture often raises questions, we would like to point out some important consequences.

The directories error_lng (error messages, warnings and variable texts) and pc_b_lng (services) were moved from $alephe_root to $aleph_dev/aleph. In version 16 there was another directory pc_b_lng containing the help texts of the services. This directory is now called pc_b_help_lng. (The extension "lng" is the language code, e.g. ger, eng or fre.)

The important consequence of these new locations: The amount of maintenance has considerably decreased. Previously those error messages and services that were delivered into the a-tree needed to be copied into the u-tree. Now you do not have to take care of these messages. Modified error messages are placed in the a-tree without any maintenance expected from you.

It is nonetheless still possible to maintain own versions of messages and services. Therefore you may create the directories pc_b_lng and error_lng (but not pc_b_help_lng!) in $alephe_root. Now the system will prefer your text and ignore the standard version in $aleph_dev/aleph.

Example: You decide to change the message "Patron expiration date has passed" to "Patron's library card has expired".

1. Find the message (for example with a grep command in error_lng). It is placed in $aleph_dev/aleph/error_eng/www_f_heading:

0121 L Patron expiration date has passed - $1.

2. Make an own directory error_eng:

cd $alephe_root
mkdir error_eng

3. Copy the file www_f_heading here:

cd error_ger
cp $aleph_dev/aleph/error_ger/www_f_heading .

4. Open the copy of the www_f_heading file and change the above-mentioned line.

It is not necessary to keep the entire file as a copy. You may delete those lines from the file that you do not intend to change. Those lines will be read from the original file in $aleph_dev/aleph.

An important consequence arises from the file "global". This file is placed in error_lng. It is a so-called "catch-all file" which is consulted whenever an error code cannot be found in any other file. The sequence that the system uses for searching an error code is the following:

1. in $alephe_root/error_lng/(specific file) 2. in $alephe_root/error_lng/global 3. in $aleph_dev/aleph/error_lng/(specific file) 4. in $aleph_dev/aleph/error_lng/global

Since this may have unwanted consequences, we recommend to let the file global in $aleph_dev/aleph/error_lng without copying it to the u-tree.