Carousel Instructions

Description

This handy extension is designed to promote your OPAC’s collections. In just a few clicks you can generate multiple cover image carousels from lists, reports or collection codes (952 $8 code – of items) to increase their visibility.

 

This extension also offers several configurations:

      • carousel display styles
      • carousel appearance order
      • title, text and background color
      • autorotation
      • single display per library
      • external URLs that allow redirection to an external source contained within the 856 $ u of records.
      • URL suffixes used for integration of statistical analysis tools.

Warning

If your Koha system currently has a carousel plugin installed, begin by uninstalling the previous version. Next, upload and install the latest version (4.3.5+).

Info

Koha 19.05 and older versions

While generating the carousel, the plugin will insert the code in the OpacMainUserBlock system preference surrounded by HTML tags.

Koha 20.05 and newer versions

In the most recent Koha version, the carousel content code will be added in an OpacMainUserBlock within the HTML customization tools.

Carousel Configurations

 To access the configurations page, click on the ‘Action > Configure’ button of the Carousel extension in the Koha plugin page.

Add carousels

First, choose a carousel source:

– Lists: select one or more lists.

– Reports: Check one or more reports.

Important notes:
—> The report must have a ‘biblionumber’ column (without AS ‘…’) and no drop-down menu at runtime. If these criteria are not met, the report will not appear in the report choices.

– Collection code (952$ 8 in the item record): Check one or more codes.

Once these options have been selected, choose your carousel preferences at the top of the page…

Carousel options

Title:

Text to be displayed as the carousel title. If this field is left empty, the list name will be used instead.

example of the carousel mode view

Carousel type

Select a display style…

Carousel mode

The images are arranged in a circle with a 3D perspective effect, this is the classic carousel view.

example of the carousel mode view

Carousel – scrolling mode

This mode is a modernized version of the carousel, with images presented horizontally.

example of the scrolling mode view

Carousel – scrolling with title mode

This mode is an alternative to the “Scrolling” view, and it also shows the document title below the image.

example of the scrolling mode view

External URL

This function redirects the user after a click on one of the images in the carousel. When enabled, Koha opens the URL link indicated in the 856$u field of the record. If the record does not contain a link in this zone, or if the function is deactivated, the image will lead directly to the corresponding record in your catalog.

view of the "external url" carousel parameter

URL suffix

This parameter allows you to add a suffix to the URLs of a particular carousel. It can be used to integrate analytics tools into your OPAC and track which images users click on.

suffix examples:

  • ?clickAnalyse=1
  • ?utm_source=carousel
view of "?clickAnalyse=1" in the suffix text box

Carousel Generation

To generate your new carousels:

    1. In the Koha plugins page (Administration > Koha plugins page), click on the ‘Action’, and select ‘Execute’ button
    2. Then, click on ‘Generate’.

This should add your carousels to your OPAC.