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    Indexing CAT field for OPAC searching; CDATE and WCT index

    • Article Type: General
    • Product: Aleph
    • Product Version: 20

    Description:
    When I look at an item's detail, I see a CAT field. This CAT field has a date which I think is the date the record was cataloged. Is this correct, and is there a way to index that date so I could search it through the Web OPAC?

    Resolution:
    When a bib record is created, a CAT field with the creation date is added to the record. A 2nd, 3rd, etc., CAT field is added to the record with each subsequent update.

    An index could be built on the CAT field, but since there are multiple CAT fields, with multiple dates, for each record, it doesn't work so well. (If you search for CAT date > 2007, you will get not just records added to the database in 2007 or 2008, but also any record which was *updated* in 2007 or 2008.)

    You have two choices:

    1. Use the OPAC short-filter-a. This can be seen by doing a Word search in the usm01 database and then clicking on the "Filter" option. Both the "Created after date" and the "New records" options use the short-filter-a function. This function looks at the first CAT field, the actual creation date -- in the same fashion as the z13_open_date. KB's 3902 and 5904 talk about limitations of OPAC Filters; you may want to use the following option (#2) instead....


    2. Use the virtual "CDATE" (creation date) field. This line would need to be added to tab_expand:

    WORD expand_doc_open_cat

    and this to the tab11_word, to include the CDATE in a WCT index (which you would define in tab00.eng):

    CDATE c 03 WCT

    The WCT index can then be used to set up a "Limit" on the initial search screen or added as a "Refine".

    This WCT index might also be queried by the x-server to get recent records.

    Note: The CDATE and expand_doc_open_cat were added with version 16 and are noted in the ALEPH 16.02 Release Notes.pdf. This expand continues to exist in v17, 18, etc., but is not described in subsequent documents.


    • Article last edited: 10/8/2013
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