Item sorting in serials is not correct

• Article Type: General
• Product: Aleph
• Product Version: 17.01

Description:
Although we have set the item sort in tab_z30_sort for issues as both 01 and 00, the sorting of the issues in the check-in screen is not correct.
There are issues that are expected in December in the list before the September issues and the April issues preceed the January issues.

Resolution:
The 6 choices which you see in the "Sort options" drop-down on the Acq/Serials items screen correspond to the SERIAL-CHK-SORT-TYPE lines in the ./uip50/tab/pc_tab_exp_field.eng. Column 4 of these lines specifies ITEM-0 through ITEM-5 as the "Code". This Code links to column 1 in tab_z30_sort.

Looking at the ITEM-0 through ITEM-5 lines in the ./uip50/tab/tab_z30_sort, we see that column 3 of the ITEM-1 line has an ISSUE sort identifier of "01" and that ITEM-0, ITEM-2, -3, -4, and -5 all have an ISSUE sort identifier of "00".

The tab_z30_header describes sort identifier "00" as:
! 00 - by numbering, ignores location, reverses enum b/c
! ------------------------------------------------------
! if chronological-i(year) is spaces and
! enumeration-a(volume) is spaces then
! description+
! item-sequence.
! if chronological-i(year) not spaces then
! chronological-i(year)+
! enumeration-a(volume)+
! enumeration-c(part)+
! enumeration-b(issue)+
! item-sequence

And sort identifier "01" as:
! if chronological-i(year) is spaces and
! enumeration-a(volume) is spaces then
! description+
! item-sequence.
! if chronological-i(year) not spaces then
! chronological-i(year)+
! enumeration-a(volume)+
! enumeration-b(issue)+
! enumeration-c(part)+
! item-sequence

You will note that neither of these sorts include the z30_chronological_j, _k, _l, or _m. Since the item records for ADM rec 000973199 use these chron fields (rather than the enumeration fields which sorts 00 and 01 expect), you are not getting a good sort.

Unless you are planning to move your z30_chronological_j, _k, _l, and _m fields to z30_enumeration fields, you will need to specify either 06, 07, or 08 as the sort identifier for ITEM-0 through -5 (in column 3). Please refer to the tab_z30_sort header to see which of these seems most appropriate.