Carousel Usability and Performance Issues

[Terran McCanna]

Evergreen 3.4

We have installed 3.4 on a test server with a copy of PINES data and have discovered several usability, documentation, and performance issues with it that are preventing us from using the feature.

Configuration:

There are three new permissions that are not mentioned in the release notes that should be in the documentation: ADMIN_CAROUSEL, ADMIN_CAROUSEL_TYPE, REFRESH_CAROUSEL

Performance:

From what we are seeing in the logs, it appears that for each bucket in the database, it checks 1) whether you have ADMIN_BIB_BUCKET at all 2) whether you have CREATE_BIB_BUCKET at all 3) whether you have ADMIN_BIB_BUCKET for that bucket and 4) whether you have CREATE_BIB_BUCKET for that bucket.

Multiply that by the 91,739 buckets in the PINES database to see what a burden this is - it should only really be doing perm checks on the 2 buckets that we have configured as carousels.

Usability:

1. The bucket id in the grid should be linked to the bucket.

2. Shelving location should not be required. There is no indicator that shelving location is currently required, but if you don't add a shelving location, it generates an error in the logs, but doesn't give an error in the interface to let you know what went wrong.

3. It is not clear that the shelving location field works as a filter and not a dropdown - I kept clicking on the arrows thinking that it wasn't loading the list I was expecting to see. Changing the wording from "Shelving Location" to "Shelving Location Filter" or adding some rollover help text or something would improve usability.

4. The order of the fields on the carousel editor form is strange - why is Name not first?

5. Is the age limit field required? If so, what is supposed to be entered? There are no indications on the form.

6. The Item Libraries selector is unclear. If you select the consortium, does it automatically include all systems and branches? Likewise, if you select a system, does it include all branches? Or is it like reports, where you need to select every single branch if you want to include the entire consortium? If we need to select every individual branch, then the selector should allow the selection of multiple branches at once. (It would not be feasible for us to select 300 branches one by one if we want a carousel that incorporates results from all branches.)

7. Since some types of automated carousels might be updated multiple times per day, having a the time display on the "Last Refreshed" field would be helpful.

[Galen Charlton (gmc)]

> From what we are seeing in the logs, it appears that for each bucket
> in the database, it checks 1) whether you have ADMIN_BIB_BUCKET at
> all 2) whether you have CREATE_BIB_BUCKET at all 3) whether you have
> ADMIN_BIB_BUCKET for that bucket and 4) whether you have
> CREATE_BIB_BUCKET for that bucket.
>
> Multiply that by the 91,739 buckets in the PINES database to see what
> a burden this is - it should only really be doing perm checks on the 2
> buckets that we have configured as carousels.

Could you describe the circumstances where it is doing the permission
checks? It is not clear to me that the referent of "it checks" is.

[Galen Charlton (gmc)]

OK, I've worked out what's going on and opened bug 1851884 for an eg-fm-record-editor bug where the entire contents of linked tables are being fetched unnecessarily.

[Dan Scott (denials)]

ADMIN_BIB_BUCKET and CREATE_BIB_BUCKET don't even exist in the data seed values for Evergreen, making this a *really* unusable feature (unless you're lucky enough to run across this bug, currently): https://git.evergreen-ils.org/?p=Evergreen.git;a=blob;f=Open-ILS/src/sql/Pg/950.data.seed-values.sql;h=37d7ebb9ec82542495e9fb60d0a72ce59a012129;hb=refs/heads/rel_3_4

But they do exist in the fm_IDL.xml. So adding ADMIN_BIB_BUCKET and CREATE_BIB_BUCKET to the data seed values and an appropriate default user permission group should probably be a different (but linked) bug.

[Steve Callender (stevecallender)]

I've been hearing more about #3 above, about the displays being a filter for Item Location and Shelving Location and the little arrows on the right side of that box making it look like you can sort through it.

I'm not sure about the best solution. Either making it a combo box, or actually explain that you must first partially enter what you are looking for, but I am seeing confusion happen because of the way it is right now.

[Terran McCanna (tmccanna)]

Is it possible that bug 1754164 (gateway request timing out when too many shelving locations) is contributing to the carousel edit form not opening when on the PINES production database?

[Terran McCanna (tmccanna)]

I'm marking this one "Won't Fix" as I've created individual bugs for each of the issues instead:

New bugs created: bug 1901888, bug 1901893, bug 1901895, bug 1901896, bug 1901897