4 When people want to find things in your Evergreen system, they will check the
5 catalog. In Evergreen, the catalog is made available through a web interface,
6 called the _OPAC_ (Online Public Access Catalog). In the latest versions of the
7 Evergreen system, the OPAC is built on a set of programming modules called the
8 Template Toolkit. You will see the OPAC sometimes referred to as the _TPAC_.
10 In this chapter, we'll show you how to customize the OPAC, change it from its
11 default configuration, and make it your own.
13 Configuring and customizing the public interface
14 ------------------------------------------------
16 The public interface is referred to as the TPAC or Template Toolkit (TT) within
17 the Evergreen community. The template toolkit system allows you to customize the
18 look and feel of your OPAC by editing the template pages (.tt2) files as well as
19 the associated style sheets.
21 Locating the default template files
22 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
24 The default URL for the TPAC on a default Evergreen system is
25 _http://localhost/eg/opac/home_ (adjust _localhost_ to match your hostname or IP
28 The default template file is installed in _/openils/var/templates/opac_.
30 You should generally avoid touching the installed default template files, unless
31 you are contributing changes for Evergreen to adopt as a new default. Even then,
32 while you are developing your changes, consider using template overrides rather
33 than touching the installed templates until you are ready to commit the changes
34 to a branch. See below for information on template overrides.
36 Mapping templates to URLs
37 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
39 The mapping for templates to URLs is straightforward. Following are a few
40 examples, where _<templates>_ is a placeholder for one or more directories that
41 will be searched for a match:
43 * _http://localhost/eg/opac/home => /openils/var/<templates>/opac/home.tt2_
44 * _http://localhost/eg/opac/advanced =>
45 /openils/var/<templates>/opac/advanced.tt2_
46 * _http://localhost/eg/opac/results =>
47 /openils/var/<templates>/opac/results.tt2_
49 The template files themselves can process, be wrapped by, or include other
50 template files. For example, the _home.tt2_ template currently involves a number
51 of other template files to generate a single HTML file.
53 Example Template Toolkit file: _opac/home.tt2_.
55 [% PROCESS "opac/parts/header.tt2";
56 WRAPPER "opac/parts/base.tt2";
57 INCLUDE "opac/parts/topnav.tt2";
58 ctx.page_title = l("Home") %]
59 <div id="search-wrapper">
60 [% INCLUDE "opac/parts/searchbar.tt2" %]
62 <div id="content-wrapper">
63 <div id="main-content-home">
64 <div class="common-full-pad"></div>
65 [% INCLUDE "opac/parts/homesearch.tt2" %]
66 <div class="common-full-pad"></div>
71 Note that file references are relative to the top of the template directory.
73 How to override template files
74 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
76 Overrides for template files or TPAC pages go in a directory that parallels the
77 structure of the default templates directory. The overrides then get pulled in
78 via the Apache configuration.
80 The following example demonstrates how to create a file that overrides the
81 default "Advanced search page" (_advanced.tt2_) by adding a new
82 _templates_custom_ directory and editing the new file in that directory.
85 bash$ mkdir -p /openils/var/templates_custom/opac
86 bash$ cp /openils/var/templates/opac/advanced.tt2 \
87 /openils/var/templates_custom/opac/.
88 bash$ vim /openils/var/templates_custom/opac/advanced.tt2
91 Configuring the custom templates directory in Apache's eg.conf
92 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
94 You now need to teach Apache about the new custom template directory. Edit
95 _/etc/apache2/sites-available/eg.conf_ and add the following _<Location /eg>_
96 element to each of the _<VirtualHost>_ elements in which you want to include the
97 overrides. The default Evergreen configuration includes a VirtualHost directive
98 for port 80 (HTTP) and another one for port 443 (HTTPS); you probably want to
99 edit both, unless you want the HTTP user experience to be different from the
100 HTTPS user experience.
106 # - absorb the shared virtual host settings
107 Include eg_vhost.conf
109 PerlAddVar OILSWebTemplatePath "/openils/var/templates_custom"
116 Finally, reload the Apache configuration to pick up the changes. You should now
117 be able to see your change at _http://localhost/eg/opac/advanced_ where
118 _localhost_ is the hostname of your Evergreen server.
120 Adjusting colors for your public interface
121 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
123 You may adjust the colors of your public interface by editing the _colors.tt2_
124 file. The location of this file is in
125 _/openils/var/templates/opac/parts/css/colors.tt2_. When you customize the
126 colors of your public interface, remember to create a custom file in your custom
127 template folder and edit the custom file and not the file located in you default
130 Adjusting fonts in your public interface
131 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
133 Font sizes can be changed in the _colors.tt2_ file located in
134 _/openils/var/templates/opac/parts/css/_. Again, create and edit a custom
135 template version and not the file in the default template.
137 Other aspects of fonts such as the default font family can be adjusted in
138 _/openils/var/templates/opac/css/style.css.tt2_.
140 Media file locations in the public interface
141 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
142 The media files (mostly PNG images) used by the default TPAC templates are stored
143 in the repository in _Open-ILS/web/images/_ and installed in
144 _/openils/var/web/images/_.
146 Changing some text in the public interface
147 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
149 Out of the box, TPAC includes a number of placeholder text and links. For
150 example, there is a set of links cleverly named Link 1, Link 2, and so on in the
151 header and footer of every page in TPAC. Here is how to customize that for a
152 _custom templates_ skin.
154 To begin with, find the page(s) that contain the text in question. The simplest
155 way to do that is with the grep -s command. In the following example, search for
156 files that contain the text "Link 1":
159 bash$ grep -r "Link 1" /openils/var/templates/opac
160 /openils/var/templates/opac/parts/topnav_links.tt2
161 4: <a href="http://example.com">[% l('Link 1') %]</a>
165 Next, copy the file into our overrides directory and edit it with vim.
167 Copying the links file into the overrides directory.
170 bash$ cp /openils/var/templates/opac/parts/topnav_links.tt2 \
171 /openils/var/templates_custom/opac/parts/topnav_links.tt2
172 bash$ vim /openils/var/templates_custom/opac/parts/topnav_links.tt2
175 Finally, edit the link text in _opac/parts/header.tt2_. Content of the
176 _opac/parts/header.tt2_ file.
179 <div id="gold-links-holder">
180 <div id="gold-links">
181 <div id="header-links">
182 <a href="http://example.com">[% l('Link 1') %]</a>
183 <a href="http://example.com">[% l('Link 2') %]</a>
184 <a href="http://example.com">[% l('Link 3') %]</a>
185 <a href="http://example.com">[% l('Link 4') %]</a>
186 <a href="http://example.com">[% l('Link 5') %]</a>
192 For the most part, the page looks like regular HTML, but note the _[%_(" ")%]_
193 that surrounds the text of each link. The _[% ... %]_ signifies a TT block,
194 which can contain one or more TT processing instructions. l(" ... "); is a
195 function that marks text for localization (translation); a separate process can
196 subsequently extract localized text as GNU gettext-formatted PO (Portable
199 As Evergreen supports multiple languages, any customization to Evergreen's
200 default text must use the localization function. Also, note that the
201 localization function supports placeholders such as [_1], [_2] in the text;
202 these are replaced by the contents of variables passed as extra arguments to the
205 Once the link and link text has been edited to your satisfaction, load the page
206 in a Web browser and see the live changes immediately.
208 Adding and removing MARC fields from the record details display page
209 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
211 It is possible to add and remove the MARC fields and subfields displayed in the
212 record details page. In order to add MARC fields to be displayed on the details
213 page of a record, you will need to map the MARC code to variables in the
214 _/openils/var/templates/opac/parts/misc_util.tt2 file_.
216 For example, to map the template variable _args.pubdates_ to the date of
217 publication MARC field 260, subfield c, add these lines to _misc_util.tt2_:
221 FOR sub IN xml.findnodes('//*[@tag="260"]/*[@code="c"]');
222 args.pubdates.push(sub.textContent);
224 args.pubdate = (args.pubdates.size) ? args.pubdates.0 : ''
227 You will then need to edit the
228 _/openils/var/templates/opac/parts/record/summary.tt2_ file in order to get the
229 template variable for the MARC field to display.
231 For example, to display the date of publication code you created in the
232 _misc_util.tt2_ file, add these lines:
235 [% IF attrs.pubdate; %]
236 <span itemprop="datePublished">[% attrs.pubdate | html; %]</span>
240 You can add any MARC field to your record details page. Moreover, this approach
241 can also be used to display MARC fields in other pages, such as your results
244 Setting the default physical location for your library environment
245 ------------------------------------------------------------------
247 _physical_loc_ is an Apache environment variable that sets the default physical
248 location, used for setting search scopes and determining the order in which
249 copies should be sorted. This variable is set in
250 _/etc/apache2/sites-available/eg.conf_. The following example demonstrates the
251 default physical location being set to library ID 104:
254 SetEnv physical_loc 104
257 Setting a default language and adding optional languages
258 --------------------------------------------------------
260 _OILSWebLocale_ adds support for a specific language. Add this variable to the
261 Virtual Host section in _/etc/apache2/sites-available/eg.conf_.
263 _OILSWebDefaultLocale_ specifies which locale to display when a user lands on a
264 page in TPAC and has not chosen a different locale from the TPAC locale picker.
265 The following example shows the _fr_ca_ locale being added to the locale picker
266 and being set as the default locale:
269 PerlAddVar OILSWebLocale "fr_ca"
270 PerlAddVar OILSWebLocale "/openils/var/data/locale/fr-CA.po"
271 PerlAddVar OILSWebDefaultLocale "fr-CA"
274 Below is a table of the currently supported languages packaged with Evergreen:
277 |================================================================
278 |Language| Code| PO file
279 |Czech| cs_cz| /openils/var/data/locale/cs-CZ.po
280 |English - Canada| en_ca| /openils/var/data/locale/en-CA.po
281 |English - Great Britain| en_gb| /openils/var/data/locale/en-GB.po
282 |*English - United States| en_us| not applicable
283 |French - Canada| fr_ca| /openils/var/data/locale/fr-CA.po
284 |Portuguese - Brazil| pt_br| /openils/var/data/locale/pt_BR.po
285 |Russian| ru_ru| /openils/var/data/locale/ru_RU.po
286 |=================================================================
287 *American English is built into Evergreen so you do not need to set up this
288 language and there are no PO files.
290 Editing the formats select box options in the search interface.
291 ---------------------------------------------------------------
293 You may wish to remove, rename or organize the options in the formats select
294 box. This can be accomplished from the staff client.
296 . From the staff client, navigate to *Admin > Server Administration > Marc Coded
298 . Select _Type_ from the *Record Attribute Type* select box.
299 . Double click on the format type you wish to edit.
301 To change the label for the type, enter a value in the *Search Label* field.
303 To move the option to a top list separated by a dashed line from the others,
304 check the *Is Simple Selector* check box.
306 To hide the type so that it does not appear in the search interface, uncheck the
307 *OPAC Visible* checkbox.
309 Changes will be immediate.
311 Adding and removing search fields in advanced search
312 -----------------------------------------------------
314 It is possible to add and remove search fields on the advanced search page by
315 editing the _opac/parts/config.tt2_ file in your template directory. Look for
316 this section of the file:
319 search.adv_config = [
320 {adv_label => l("Item Type"), adv_attr => ["mattype", "item_type"]},
321 {adv_label => l("Item Form"), adv_attr => "item_form"},
322 {adv_label => l("Language"), adv_attr => "item_lang"},
323 {adv_label => l("Audience"), adv_attr => ["audience_group", "audience"], adv_break => 1},
324 {adv_label => l("Video Format"), adv_attr => "vr_format"},
325 {adv_label => l("Bib Level"), adv_attr => "bib_level"},
326 {adv_label => l("Literary Form"), adv_attr => "lit_form", adv_break => 1},
327 {adv_label => l("Search Library"), adv_special => "lib_selector"},
328 {adv_label => l("Publication Year"), adv_special => "pub_year"},
329 {adv_label => l("Sort Results"), adv_special => "sort_selector"},
333 For example, if you delete the line:
336 {adv_label => l("Language"), adv_attr => "item_lang"},
339 the language field will no longer appear on your advanced search page. Changes
340 will appear immediately after you save your changes.
342 Changing the display of facets and facet groups
343 -----------------------------------------------
345 Facets can be reordered on the search results page by editing the
346 _opac/parts/config.tt2_ file in your template directory.
348 Edit the following section of _config.tt2_, changing the order of the facet
349 categories according to your needs:
354 {facet_class => 'author', facet_order => ['personal', 'corporate']},
355 {facet_class => 'subject', facet_order => ['topic']},
356 {facet_class => 'series', facet_order => ['seriestitle']},
357 {facet_class => 'subject', facet_order => ['name', 'geographic']}
362 You may also change the default number of facets appearing under each category
363 by editing the _facet.default_display_count_ value in _config.tt2_. The default
366 Including external content in your public interface
367 ---------------------------------------------------
369 The public interface allows you to include external services and content in your
370 public interface. These can include book cover images, user reviews, table of
371 contents, summaries, author notes, annotations, user suggestions, series
372 information among other services. Some of these services are free while others
373 require a subscription.
375 The following are some of the external content services which you can configure
381 The default install of Evergreen includes OpenLibrary book covers. The settings
382 for this are controlled by the <added_content> section of
383 _/openils/conf/opensrf.xml_. Here are the key elements of this configuration:
386 <module>OpenILS::WWW::AddedContent::OpenLibrary</module>
389 This section calls the OpenLibrary perl module. If you wish to link to a
390 different book cover service other than OpenLibrary, you must refer to the
391 location of the corresponding Perl module. You will also need to change other
392 settings accordingly.
398 Max number of seconds to wait for an added content request to return data. Data
399 not returned within the timeout is considered a failure.
401 <retry_timeout>600</retry_timeout>
404 This setting is the amount of time to wait before we try again.
407 <max_errors>15</max_errors>
410 Maximum number of consecutive lookup errors a given process can have before
411 added content lookups are disabled for everyone. To adjust the site of the cover
412 image on the record details page edit the config.tt2 file and change the value
413 of the record.summary.jacket_size. The default value is "medium" and the
414 available options are "small", "medium" and "large."
419 ChiliFresh is a subscription-based service which allows book covers, reviews and
420 social interaction of patrons to appear in your catalog. To activate ChiliFresh,
421 you will need to open the Apache configuration file _/etc/apache2/eg_vhost.conf_
422 and edit several lines:
424 . Uncomment (remove the "#" at the beginning of the line) and add your ChiliFresh
428 #SetEnv OILS_CHILIFRESH_ACCOUNT
431 . Uncomment this line and add your ChiliFresh Profile:
434 #SetEnv OILS_CHILIFRESH_PROFILE
437 Uncomment the line indicating the location of the Evergreen JavaScript for
441 #SetEnv OILS_CHILIFRESH_URL http://chilifresh.com/on-site /js/evergreen.js
444 . Uncomment the line indicating the secure URL for the Evergreen JavaScript :
447 #SetEnv OILS_CHILIFRESH_HTTPS_URL https://secure.chilifresh.com/on-site/js/evergreen.js
454 Content Café is a subscription-based service that can add jacket images,
455 reviews, summaries, tables of contents and book details to your records.
457 In order to activate Content Café, edit the _/openils/conf/opensrf.xml_ file and
458 change the _<module>_ element to point to the ContentCafe Perl Module:
461 <module>OpenILS::WWW::AddedContent::ContentCafe</module>
464 To adjust settings for Content Café, edit a couple of fields with the
465 _<ContentCafe>_ Section of _/openils/conf/opensrf.xml_.
467 Edit the _userid_ and _password_ elements to match the user id and password for
468 your Content Café account.
470 Change the _return_behavior_on_no_jacket_image_ to set the behavior of your
471 service when an image is not available for an item. By default this value is set
472 to T which will result in a small image with the text "No Image Available" in
473 place of a book cover. If you set this value to 1 a 1X1 blank image will be in
474 place of a book cover.
479 Google Analytics is a free service to collect statistics for your Evergreen
480 site. In order to use Google Analytics you will first need to set up the
481 service from the Google Analytics website at http://www.google.com/analytics/.
482 To activate Google Analytics you will need to edit _config.tt2_ in your
483 template. To enable the service set the value of google_analytics.enabled to
484 true and change the value of _google_analytics.code_ to be the code in your
485 Google Analytics account.
490 Novelist is a subscription-based service providing reviews and recommendation
491 for books in you catalog. To activate your Novelist service in Evergreen, open
492 the Apache configuration file _/etc/apache2/eg_vhost.conf_ and edit the line:
495 #SetEnv OILS_NOVELIST_URL
498 You should use the URL provided by NoveList.
503 RefWorks is a subscription-based online bibliographic management tool. If you
504 have a RefWorks subscription, you can activate RefWorks in Evergreen by editing
505 the _config.tt2_ file located in your template directory. You will need to set
506 the _ctx.refworks.enabled_ value to _true_. You may also set the RefWorks URL by
507 changing the _ctx.refworks.url_ setting on the same file.
512 An OpenURL resolver allows you to find electronic resources and pull them into
513 your catalog based on the ISBN or ISSN of the item. In order to use the SFX
514 OpenURL resolver, you will need to subscribe to the Ex Libris SFX service. To
515 activate the service in Evergreen edit the _config.tt2_ file in your template.
516 Enable the resolver by changing the value of _openurl.enabled_ to _true_ and
517 change the _openurl.baseurl_ setting to point to the URL of your OpenURL
523 Syndetic Solutions is a subscription service providing book covers and other
524 data for items in your catalog. In order to activate Syndetic, edit the
525 _/openils/conf/opensrf.xml_ file and change the _<module>_ element to point to
526 the Syndetic Perl Module:
529 <module>OpenILS::WWW::AddedContent::Syndetic</module>
532 You will also need to edit the _<userid>_ element to be the user id provided to
535 Then, you will need to uncomment and edit the _<base_url>_ element so that it
536 points to the Syndetic service:
539 <base_url>http://syndetics.com/index.aspx</base_url>
542 For changes to be activated for your public interface you will need to restart
543 Evergreen and Apache.
547 A http://www.sitemaps.org[sitemap] directs search engines to the pages of
548 interest in a web site so that the search engines can intelligently crawl
549 your site. In the case of Evergreen, the primary pages of interest are the
550 bibliographic record detail pages.
552 The sitemap generator script creates sitemaps that adhere to the
553 http://sitemaps.org specification, including:
555 * limiting the number of URLs per sitemap file to no more than 50,000 URLs;
556 * providing the date that the bibliographic record was last edited, so
557 that once a search engine has crawled all of your sites' record detail pages,
558 it only has to reindex those pages that are new or have changed since the last
560 * generating a sitemap index file that points to each of the sitemap files.
562 Running the sitemap generator
563 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
564 The `sitemap_generator` script must be invoked with the following argument:
566 * `--lib-hostname`: specifies the hostname for the catalog (for example,
567 `--lib-hostname https://catalog.example.com`); all URLs will be generated
568 appended to this hostname
570 Therefore, the following arguments are useful for generating multiple sitemaps
571 per Evergreen instance:
573 * `--lib-shortname`: limit the list of record URLs to those which have copies
574 owned by the designated library or any of its children;
575 * `--prefix`: provides a prefix for the sitemap index file names
577 Other options enable you to override the OpenSRF configuration file and the
578 database connection credentials, but the default settings are generally fine.
580 Note that on very large Evergreen instances, sitemaps can consume hundreds of
581 megabytes of disk space, so ensure that your Evergreen instance has enough room
582 before running the script.
586 To enable search engines to maintain a fresh index of your bibliographic
587 records, you may want to include the script in your cron jobs on a nightly or
590 Sitemap files are generated in the same directory from which the script is
591 invoked, so a cron entry will look something like:
593 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
594 12 2 * * * cd /openils/var/web && /openils/bin/sitemap_generator
595 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
597 Troubleshooting TPAC errors
598 ---------------------------
600 If there is a problem such as a TT syntax error, it generally shows up as an
601 ugly server failure page. If you check the Apache error logs, you will probably
602 find some solid clues about the reason for the failure. For example, in the
603 following example, the error message identifies the file in which the problem
604 occurred as well as the relevant line numbers.
606 Example error message in Apache error logs:
609 bash# grep "template error" /var/log/apache2/error_log
610 [Tue Dec 06 02:12:09 2011] [warn] [client 127.0.0.1] egweb: template error:
611 file error - parse error - opac/parts/record/summary.tt2 line 112-121:
612 unexpected token (!=)\n [% last_cn = 0;\n FOR copy_info IN
613 ctx.copies;\n callnum = copy_info.call_number_label;\n