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Uploading Offline Transactions

Once you are able to connect to the server, you need to upload the offline transactions. To avoid confusion for patrons and in the system, you should upload the offline transactions as soon as possible.

Once you can connect to the server, there are 3 steps to uploading offline transactions:

  1. Create a session: to be done by local system administrators at an administration workstation.
  2. Upload transactions to a session: to be done by circulation staff at circulation workstations.
  3. Process the uploaded transactions: to be done by local system administrators at an administration workstation.

Once network connectivity has been restored, a local system administrator must create an offline transaction session. Then, staff can upload transactions from each of the workstations used in offline circulation mode to that session. Once all of the branch workstations have uploaded their transactions to the session, the manager processes all the transactions from all the workstations at once.

Uploading transactions to the session does not put the transactions into the Evergreen database. The transactions will not be sent to the Evergreen database until the manager processes the session.

Creating an Offline Session

In the Evergreen staff client:

  1. Log into Evergreen using an account with local system administrator privileges.
  2. Select Admin (-) → Offline Transaction Management from the menu. The Offline Transactions screen opens. Previously created sessions are listed in the Offline Sessions section.
  3. In the upper Offline Sessions section, click Create to create a new session.
  4. Enter a name for the session, like Internet Down 2012-12-02. Click OK.
  5. In the Offline Sessions section, highlight the session you created. An Uploaded Transactions section appears in the bottom of the screen. Initially, this section is empty.
  6. Inform library staff that the session has been created and tell them the name of the session.

Uploading Workstation Transactions to a Session

Wait until the local system administrator has created a session and told you that it’s ready for your upload. There may be several sessions shown on the Offline Transaction Management screen, so you will need the name of the correct session from your local system administrator.

Each workstation used to perform offline circulation during the outage must upload its transactions to the offline transaction session.

To upload offline transaction from a workstation to a session, perform the following steps in the Evergreen staff client:

  1. Log into Evergreen with your regular username and password.
  2. Select Admin (-) → Offline Transaction Management from the menu. The Offline Transactions screen opens. You should see at least one session in the Offline Sessions section. You may also see older sessions.
  3. In the upper Offline Sessions section, highlight the correct session, then click Upload. The transactions are transferred to the Evergreen server.
  4. When the transactions have been uploaded, select the session in the Offline Sessions section. The value in the Upload Count column has increased by 1 and your workstation is now listed in the Uploaded Transactions section.
  5. Inform your local system administrator that your transaction has been uploaded to the session.

Processing the Transactions

When all of the participating staff workstations have uploaded their transactions to the offline session, the workstation names are listed in the Uploaded Transactions section. To process the offline transactions and make them live on the Evergreen server:

  1. Log into Evergreen using an account with local system administrator privileges.
  2. Select Admin (-) → Offline Transaction Management from the menu. The Offline Transactions screen opens. Previously created sessions are listed in the Offline Sessions section.
  3. Highlight the correct session and, if necessary, click Refresh to verify all the participating workstations have uploaded their transactions to your session.
  4. Click Process. The processing may take some time to complete, depending on how many transactions you have done. Click Refresh to see the updated status of the processing step. Processing is complete when the Processing? column shows Completed.

The number in the Transactions Processed column is equal to the number of items checked out or checked in. For example, 5 transactions processed could mean that:

  • 5 items were checked out, or
  • 3 items were checked in and 2 items were checked out, or
  • 5 items were checked in.

Exceptions

Exceptions are problems that were encountered during processing. For example, a mis-scanned patron barcode, an open circulation, or an item that was not checked in before it was checked out to another patron would be listed as an exception. Those transactions causing exceptions may not be loaded into Evergreen database. Staff should examine the exceptions and take necessary action.

These are a few notes about possible exceptions. It is not an all-inclusive list.

  • Checking out a DVD with the wrong date (leaving due date set at +2 weeks instead of +1 week) does not cause an exception.
  • Overdue books are not flagged as exceptions.
  • Checking out a reference book does not cause an exception.
  • Checking out an item belonging to another library does not cause an exception.
  • The Standalone Interface does not recognize books on hold, so no exceptions will be generated when matching items are checked in or checked out.
  • The Standalone Interface can recognize blocked, barred, and expired patrons, as well as lost cards, if you have recently run an Admin (-) → Download Offline Patron List action on the workstation on which you are using the Standalone Interface. You will get an error message indicating the patron status from within the Standalone Interface at check-out time.

Common error messages

  • ROUTE-ITEM - Indicates the book should be routed to another branch or library system. You’ll need to find the book and re-check it in (online) to get the Transit Slip to print.
  • COPY_STATUS_LOST - Indicates a book previously marked as lost was found and checked in.
  • CIRC_CLAIMS_RETURNED - Indicates a book previously marked as claimed-returned was found and checked in.
  • ASSET_COPY_NOT_FOUND - Indicates the item barcode was mis-scanned/mis-typed.
  • ACTOR_CARD_NOT_FOUND - Indicates the patron’s library barcode was mis-scanned/ mis-typed.
  • OPEN_CIRCULATION_EXISTS - Indicates a book was checked out that had never been checked in.
  • MAX_RENEWALS_REACHED - Indicates the item has already been renewed the maximum times allowed (or it’s a video/DVD).
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