[OPLINTECH] PC Reservation (PreBook ) is now open source

[Bob Neeper]

Two articles http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;397749598 and
http://userful.com/news/news/item?item_id=259758 led me to believe the
PreBook iso and Windows client were 'finished' products and I was excited to
try them.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be 'finished' and I suggest not spending
time on it.

But if you want to, here are some things I learned during my 3 day attempt.

It helps knowing:
Red Hat Linux, PostgreSQL, the firewall,
AOLserver (http://panoptic.com/wiki/aolserver/What_is_AOLserver)
  which uses ADP (AOLserver Dynamic Pages) containing TCL intermixed with
HTML.

Call Tech Support for the login password.
Also ask how to change HPG_VERSION from 8.0 to 8.0.9 in Linux.
This incorrect version number in prebookver3.0.iso make's the system a
non-starter!

The Windows Client is proclaimed a Trojan by Symantec and Zonealarm.
Set your antivirus s/w to ignore it.

Find the Canadian website admin instructions, it has an important setup that
were wrong on the USA website.
Otherwise you'll get this Error popup:
   cannot execute XML-RPC method: winconf.statuscheck
   server: 10.3.147.198 port: 980 URI: /userful-pcres/XMLRPC

Probably ignore these errors.
1) fatal error inserting acpi_cpufreq
(/lib/modules/2.6.18-1.2849.fc6/kernel/arch/i386/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/acpi-cpu
freq.ko) No such device
2) starting firewallprebook   FAILED

I never talked to anyone that knew PreBook.
Although one person said he knew someone who did.

Most major questions went unanswered by them.

An email was responded to by telephone, **after 3 weeks**, but he didn't
know PreBook.
He didn't answer any questions but seemed to be pushing paid support and the
DiscoverStation s/w.


Some testing results

The webpage time was off by many hours, as well as 35 minutes.
Admin guide only has directions to change the time zone but it was correct.
A Red Hat command fixed it, until a reboot, when it changed back.

After hours of experimenting I conclude you can't easily add library card
barcodes.
I found in 'bypass' mode when a number is entered, it becomes something the
system knows as a barcode.
But you wouldn't want to do 50,000 this way.

If you make a few users, then delete one is seems to go away, as it didn't
show up in the Complex User Search screen.
But if you try to re-create it, the system says it is a duplicate user.

Turned on Require Email Verification for a user to see what happens.
Got an email with a link to /register/email-confirm?row%5fid=66086
But the link didn't work ! You get
  Problem with your input
   We had some problems with your input:
   You must supply a value for token
   You must supply a value for user_id

Override barcodes work in demo and existing_users mode.
Also in bypass (after changing 'Concurrent Reservations' from 0)

Email login seems to work
1) create a user
2) log in with the email address and book a station
3) log in at the station with the email address


Good luck !


R. W. (Bob) Neeper     Cell: (740)-407-3572
Community Library
44 Burrer Dr.
Sunbury, Oh 43074
Tel:  (740)-965-3901