Top 10 Frequently Asked Questions

Here are the current ten most frequently asked questions. If you don't see an answer to your question here, please access Talis Knowledgebase.

1. Why am I getting "The first DataField element tag in the Record.DataFields attribute must start with either 1, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8"?

In MARC 21, the 240 field should only be used in conjunction with a 1xx field. The authority control rules expect there to be a 1xx if there is a 240, and if there isn't, as in this case, the web service puts out this rather cryptic message. So, if the record needs a uniform title, but there's no author to go in a 1xx field, that uniform title should be coded as 130, not 240.

2. Why can't we tab to the official order no box since 4.2?

Since upgrading to alto 4.2 we can no longer tab to the Official Order Number box - it jumps from Relink to Order Date.
This is a known defect in Alto 4.2 Defect no 6584.

3. Whenever I copy a record then edit I get AV and Alto closes down. Why?

This is a known defect in Alto. Defect no 6209.

4. Why are authority edits and merges not taking effect?

In Alto 4.1 Authority control when an authority edit or a merge is executed the authorities involved are temporarily stored in a file called AuthorityCache.xml (usually located in the c:\program files\Talis\Alto directory). Usually the application deals with the contents of this file very quick and removes the processed records from the file. Occasionally, however it doesn't process them and so the records start to accumulate in the file. This is one of the reasons merges and edits might not be taking effect. If your edits and merges are not taking place, take a look at this file. Normally it will only contain the line <AuthorityCacheData /> however if you find it contains more than this after you have logged out and back into Alto more than once it may be that the application is struggling to process them. To correct this:

1. Logout of Talis Alto
2. Rename the AuthorityCache.xml file
3. Start Alto again

Alto will recreate the file and then subsequent merges and edits should take effect provided the grabber is also running.

5. Why hasn't the status of reservation change from "Not Yet Effective" to "Active" when reached the effective date?

You need to be running the resupdate.pl script with -tACT in order for the status of reservations to be changed to ACTIVE from not yet effective when effective date reached.

6. What zebra log file should I rotate?

The log files for the zebra process grow very quickly so it is important to rotate them on a regular basis. See the Solution: "How do I set up logrotate" for more information. The logs should be rotated at least once per week.

The following logs should be rotated:

In /usr/opt/blcmp/talis/reports:

mcoll_dae_history.log

mcoll_dae_history.rep

mcoll_dae_history.err

In /var/tmp: marcgrabber_<database>.out

zebra_bib_index_<database>.log

zebra_auth_index_<database>.log

grab_delta_<database>.log

7. Why has a self issue transaction not registered on the database?

If a self issue transaction gets "lost" (not added to the LOAN table) even though it is registered in the log, check that the transaction was not cancelled immediately afterwards.

If the user removes the item from the machine too quickly the transaction may be cancelled by the server because the machine has not had time to desensitise the item. See the following lines from a sip2 log file for an instance of this:

<3M machine sends an "issue" request> 2007/10/31 12:05:18(53) - Received: 11YN20071031 120506 AOML|AA19902426048|AB11109341219|AC|BON|BIN|AY2AZEC55^M

2007/10/31 12:05:18(53) - Response: 121NNY20071031 120518AOML|AA19902426048|AB11109341219|AJTeenage motherhood|BV0.00|CK000|AH28/11/2007 23:55|AY2AZD491^M

<3M machine sends a "cancel previous issue" request - see BIY field>

2007/10/31 12:05:20(53) - Received: 09N20071031 12050820071031 120508AP|AOML|AB11109341219|AC|BIY|AY3AZEF24^M

2007/10/31 12:05:20(53) - Response: 101YNN20071031 120520AOML|AB11109341219|AJTeenage motherhood|AQML|AA19902426048|CK000|AY3AZD905^M

That's why the LOAN table shows nothing. Although the original issue caused a "succeeded" response, when it received the cancellation message the LOAN table transaction was rolled back.

8. How do I check if there are asterisks in the borrower import input file? And is there a Unix utility that can be used to remove them?

An asterisk in the xx_bbreg input file will cause the borr_import program to abort with a core dump. You can check in Unix if there are asterisks in the file by using "grep", e.g.

grep -n "\*" nn_bbreg

This will output the lines containing asterisks and their line numbers. The "*" characters can then be removed or replaced using the "vi" editor, or with a Unix utility such as "tr", e.g.

cat nn_bbreg | tr "\*" "-" > nn_bbreg.new

will translate any occurrence of "*" to "-" and write the output to file "nn_bbreg.new".

To delete the asterisks completely, you can use "tr -d", e.g.

cat nn_bbreg | tr -d "\*" > nn_bbreg.new

9. Why is work_logdelete not suppressing works?

If some works are failing to be suppressed by work_logdelete.pl, check if a 773 tag is present in the marc record. The script does not suppress works that contain this tag.

10. Why do discharged items still appear on a users record?

This may be down to user error. The item must be left on the machine until the user gets a message saying that the item is issued/discharged. Some machines may even print the receipt to prove that it was discharged. However, if the user removes the item before it has been desensitized, sip will cancel the transaction.

In the /scratch/sip2_logs folder (or replace the * for the machine logfile name),
grep "BIY" * | wc -l -- to find all of them
grep "BIY" * | grep "Received: 11" | wc -l -- to find checkin cancellations
grep "BIY" * | grep "Received: 09" | wc -l -- to find checkout cancellations

Leave off the wc part of the command if you want to see all the rows returned to find a particular user, or pipe the output to a file if there is more lines returned than you can read on screen.