Setting-up an OPAC User

Outline Procedure
Exiting from OPAC
Chapter Summary

Outline Procedure

Set up a Unix login. This involves setting-up an account in Unix for the new user, as explained in Adding a UNIX User Account of the Adding Users Implementation Guide.
Amend the new login, as explained in Setting-Up the User's Login Environment of the Adding Users Implementation Guide. This entails setting-up any environment variables that you require to apply to OPAC in the .profile of the user.

Note: Any environment variables that need to apply to all users may be better set in the talis script.

To edit the .profile, log-in as that user and type:

vi .profile <Enter>

Set up the following essential variables as the last two lines in the file:

START_SCREEN='OI_IN'; export START_SCREEN <Enter>
exec talis <Enter>

The "START_SCREEN" environment variable tells the system to go straight into OPAC.

To prevent the users being prompted for a location it may also be necessary to set the environment variable :

TAL_LOCATION=XX; export TAL_LOCATION <Enter>

(where XX is a location code).

Setting this variable provides additional functionality within OPAC; it conditions which reservation filter will be used (by means of which Site Profile this location_id is linked). It also controls the order in which the copies are displayed on the Locations List.

Note: The "exec talis" line must be the last line in the file.

Add the new user to the database, as explained in Adding a User to Talis and Sybase of the Adding Users Implementation Guide. This entails logging on as "talis" and running the "add_user" script.
Set-up OPAC Terminals and define OPAC Security Rules in Talis, as covered in Adding OPAC Terminals to Talis of the Adding Users Implementation Guide. To prevent OPAC users from logging out of Talis it is necessary to set the "OPAC Exit" field to "No" in OPAC Security Rules for the appropriate combination of Operator Profile and Site Profile.

The "Exit Timeout" field should also be "No", otherwise the user will be logged-out when the system times-out.

Exiting from OPAC

It is possible to set up timeout to exit the user from OPAC. This may be desirable in the case of users dialling-in remotely. This is done by setting the field "Exit Timeout" field in OPAC Security Rules to "Yes".

Public terminals should have the "Exit" option in OPAC disabled, whereas staff terminals will need to be able to exit from OPAC.

This can be achieved in two ways:

The "Exit" option can be removed from the Action bar for all OPAC collections via "Variable Menus" - see Variable Menus & Collection Lists. However, this is not going to give staff searchers the option of exiting from OPAC (unless they are doing an OPAC search from Cataloguing, Acquisitions or Circulation in which case the <F6> ("Exit") key will be available).
The alternative is to retain the "Exit" option but enable or disable it's use depending upon the user. This can be done via Utilities - Parameters - OPAC - Security Rules. Refer to Defining Security Rules. This provides the facility to configure whether OPAC exit should be available by Operator Profile and Site Profile combination. To disable "Exit" from OPAC, set the "OPAC Exit" option to "No".

The "Exit Time-out" option provides the function to exit Talis on time-out. This is commonly used by login over a network, rather than dedicated terminals. For this to work correctly, the "START_SCREEN" environment variable must be set; this is usually "OI_IN" where Collection 1 is used as the "main" catalogue.

Chapter Summary

This chapter has given a brief overview of how to set up an OPAC user and configure the OPAC Exit option. Reference has been made to related documents.