Schedule a Report to Run via a Cron Job
Once a report is created and saved into a library’s Koha system, this report can be run via the Schedule tool or scheduled through a cron job.
The scheduling tool found in Koha currently can be used to schedule a report to run at a specific time on a specific day. Alternatively, a cron job can schedule to run a saved report on a more regular basis (daily, monthly, etc).
Cron Details
When a library has a saved report that they would like to schedule as a cron job, a ticket can be sent to ByWater to set it up. A few more key details are required for the ByWater team to set up the cron report:
- What Report Number would your library like schedule via the cron?
- What email would you like this report emailed to when run?
- What format would your library like this report to be sent to your library?
- What email subject you would like to have to alert you of the email?
- In addition to all this, we will need to know when you would like this run and how often.
An Example Cron
If a library wanted report #42 scheduled to run and the library would like the report sent as a CSV with headers and emailed to library@library.com. The subject of the email should read “Weekly Circulation Report”.
An example of this cron file would be:
$KOHA_CRON_PATH/runreport.pl --to=”library@library.com” --subject=”Weekly Circulation Report” --format=csv --csv-header -a 42
Parameters
A report that a library would like to be scheduled through a cron cannot have parameters. Report parameters would be a date range or shelving location selected from a dropdown list. If a library does have a report that they would like to schedule and it does have parameters, we can help with the adjustment of the report.
For example, if the report asked for a date range, the report can be manipulated to look at the last 30 days:
SELECT *
FROM items
WHERE homebranch = <<Pick your branch|branches>>
Instead, the report would need to be changed to specifically say what branch the home branch should be equal to:
SELECT *
FROM items
WHERE homebranch =’EAST’
If your library had a report to show new items in a date range such as this one:
SELECT items.dateaccessioned,biblio.title,items.itemcallnumber
FROM items
LEFT JOIN biblioitems ON (items.biblioitemnumber=biblioitems.biblioitemnumber)
LEFT JOIN biblio ON (biblioitems.biblionumber=biblio.biblionumber)
WHERE DATE (items.dateaccessioned) BETWEEN <<Between (yyyy-mm-dd)|date>> AND <<and (yyyy-mm-dd)|date>>
ORDER BY items.itemcallnumber ASC
An adjustment could be and this would provide the library with a list of new items in the last 30 days:
SELECT items.dateaccessioned,items.itemcallnumber,biblio.title,biblio.author
FROM items
LEFT JOIN biblioitems ON (items.biblioitemnumber=biblioitems.biblioitemnumber)
LEFT JOIN biblio ON (biblioitems.biblionumber=biblio.biblionumber)
WHERE DATE_SUB(CURDATE(),INTERVAL 30 DAY) <= items.dateaccessioned
ORDER BY biblio.title ASC
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