2021-09-08 Meeting notes

Bulk Edit changes 

made locally and

then uploaded

Discussed the proposal passed on by Erin via Slack to have bulk editing work by having the changes to the records made in a file on the local machine (e.g. in Excel or Notepad++, etc.) and then the changed file is uploaded to the FOLIO Bulk Edit app which then carries out the changes. Magda likes this idea for the pilot, as it will make the development a lot easier. Magda presented mock-ups that Kimie created (see link above). The first few steps will be unchanged. User will search for records to change, a screen will show preview of the first few records that would be changed, with any errors (No matches/ dupes) shown. There will be option to download the matched records, and the error records as csv files. File names will have default file name starting with date (e.g. YYYY-MM-DD-matched-records-user-UUIDS.csv). The FOLIO user will make the desired changes to the downloaded file of matched records on the local machine. The edited file is then uploaded into the Bulk Edit app of FOLIO. Confirmation screen will show the number of records that will be changed, and any errors (records that can't be changed due to invalid values). There will be also be an option to skip past the records selection process, and go straight to uploading the bulk-edited file (in cases where this work has already been done).

This approach was deemed a good method for the pilot, as it will make development easier. This method does make bulk editing more difficult versus doing the changes via a browser interface. Brooks asked about the case where there are repeatable fields, such as address. Magda said that in those cases there would be multiple records (for that user). The local editing approach proposed does have the advantage of making dealing with custom fields much easier. It was agreed that the locally edited approach is good for the pilot project, but it would be nice in later versions to have local editing be an option, along with being able to make the bulk edits via the browser interface.

Magda will be presenting the mock-ups to other SIGs in the coming weeks (RA, Inventory, Metadata) and soliciting their feedback. Hopefully the pilot will be ready sometime in October.