Standing Penalty - End User Visible Label

[Josh Stompro]

EG 2.10.6

Currently when a user hits the default staff applied block, they are shown something along the lines of "Hold was not successfully placed Problem: STAFF_CHR"

They are shown the Name of the Standing Penalty type.

This often confuses customers and staff since "Problem: STAFF_CHR" means nothing to them.

The standing penalty types also have a label field, which could maybe be displayed instead, but I don't think the label contents are really intended for patrons to see.

One option might be to have a second label field "Block Message" or something like that. That way a library could choose a specific message to show the user.

Or maybe the hold screen should just show a more generic message that doesn't include info based on the specific block?

Catalog renewals that are blocked are equally unhelpful, it just shows the standing penalty name in red under the item.

Has anyone else found this to be a problem and solved it some way?

Thanks
Josh

[Josh Stompro (u-launchpad-stompro-org)]

I discovered a note to myself yesterday about the templates/opac/parts/hold_error_messages.tt2 file which allows setting a custom message for particular blocks for tpac placed holds.

There doesn't seem to be an equivalent file for tpac renewal error messages though? I wonder if it would make sense to use the same data as the hold_error_messages? Or if not the same, then at least combine them both into the same file so they are all in one spot, even if there are separate lists for holds and renewals.

Josh

[Michele Morgan (mmorgan)]

Marking Confirmed. Better messaging here would greatly enhance usability.

[Felicia Beaudry (fbeaudry)]

+1 - hoping an additional comment will help this get some attention. There really does need to be a better way to communicate why a hold isn't successful.

[Felicia Beaudry (fbeaudry)]

This behavior still appears in 3.2.2

[Nathan Eady (mrmcquack)]

First-draft suggested generic wording: "The hold was blocked from being placed. This can happen because the patron is blocked, or because the item is not holdable, or because the combination of this patron, item, and pickup location conflicts with a transit rule."

[Terran McCanna (tmccanna)]

This is still a problem in 3.8 and neither patrons nor staff understand it.

[Christine Burns (christine-burns)]

Confirmed this is still a problem in 3.11.1