web client serials: add helper for combined issues input (wishlist)

[Andrea Neiman]

Web Client 3.0+

The specific regularity information in pattern wizard includes a section for setting combined issues. In the web client this combined issue entry requires a code to be entered -- i.e., to indicate that July & August are combined issues, you'd enter 07/08 in the "combined issue code" box. This information is available in the MFHD standard (https://www.loc.gov/marc/holdings/hd853855.html) but is slightly less friendly than it could be.

Recommend to create some helper mechanism for this to either link to the standard or otherwise make the entry conventions for this field clearer.

[Chrisy Schroth (cschroth)]

There is still no helper or anything which tells you how to create these combined issue entries in a pattern.

It is even LESS intuitive, because if the title is bimonthly, but the issues are labeled Jan./Feb., Mar./Apr., etc., instead of Jan., Mar., etc., you must choose the "Number of issues per year" at the top as monthly, not bimonthly, and then put in the combined issue codes of 01/02, 03/04, etc. If you choose bimonthly, because that is what it is, you'll get unusable results from the pattern.

[Beth Willis (willis-a)]

This remains an issue in EG 3.9

The lack of help when adding regularity information makes it difficult to generate specific prediction patterns. I often need to create at least two patterns before I hit upon the correct pattern--very inefficient. Linking to the MFHD standard might help. But, I don't think that documentation is easily translatable into a prediction pattern and a simpler help document would be more useful.