Hi all.
I have been set the unenviable task of extracting library records from our
old system (MultiLIS) so that it can be transfered to our new system.  The
old system is running on SCO Unix.  So far, the only thing I can think of to
do is set up a dummy printer that prints to a file and print the needed
reports to it.

Here's my problem:  I have limited experience in the Unix/Linux world and
don't know how to do this.  If any of you know of any online tutorials that
might get me moving and could post a link to it/them, it would be very much
appreciated.

Thanks,

--
Daniel Goodchild
A day without sunshine is like, well... night.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Dan <anshar2k3@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all.
> I have been set the unenviable task of extracting library records from our
> old system (MultiLIS) so that it can be transfered to our new system.  The
> old system is running on SCO Unix.  So far, the only thing I can think of 
to
> do is set up a dummy printer that prints to a file and print the needed
> reports to it.

You just said it ; hire someone -with- unix experience; I can think of
several (all "better" ) ways of dumping your existing database.

> Here's my problem:  I have limited experience in the Unix/Linux world and
> don't know how to do this.  If any of you know of any online tutorials tha
t
> might get me moving and could post a link to it/them, it would be very muc
h
> appreciated.

Spend you miney wise, keeping your current data intact might be worth
more then saving a few bucks.



> Thanks,




--
Peter Håkanson
IPSec  Sverige      ( At Gothenburg Riverside )
Sorry about my e-mail address, but i'm trying to keep spam out,
remove "icke-reklam" if you feel for mailing me. Thanx.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

<phn@icke-reklam.ipsec.nu> wrote in message
news:c0v2me$1pdq$3@nyheter.ipsec.se...
> Dan <anshar2k3@hotmail.com> wrote: 
our 
The 
of to 
>
> You just said it ; hire someone -with- unix experience; I can think of
> several (all "better" ) ways of dumping your existing database.
> 
and 
that 
much 
>
> Spend you miney wise, keeping your current data intact might be worth
> more then saving a few bucks.
>
>
> 
>
>
>
>
> --
> Peter Håkanson
>         IPSec  Sverige      ( At Gothenburg Riverside )
>            Sorry about my e-mail address, but i'm trying to keep spam out,
>    remove "icke-reklam" if you feel for mailing me. Thanx.

Thanks, but we're a very small, budget-strapped public library.  We don't
have the funds to hire a unix guru.  If we did, we could afford to have the
supplier of the original system extract the data for us.
If you can think of several better ways of extracting our data, please,
share them here.

Thanks,
Dan

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Anshar wrote:

> <phn@icke-reklam.ipsec.nu> wrote in message
> news:c0v2me$1pdq$3@nyheter.ipsec.se...
> 
>
> our
> 
>
> The
> 
>
> of to
> 
>
> and
> 
>
> that
> 
>
> much
> 
> Thanks, but we're a very small, budget-strapped public library.  We don't
> have the funds to hire a unix guru.  If we did, we could afford to have th
e
> supplier of the original system extract the data for us.
> If you can think of several better ways of extracting our data, please,
> share them here.

It would help if we understood what facilities you have at your disposal
under MultiLIS, what sort of library records you need extracted, and
what your target is.

A quick Google search brings up a lot of websites relating to MultiLIS,
which seems to be a library management and cataloging system described
as "an older Integrated Library System (ILS) whose graphical interface
left something to be desired". So, apparently you need to get
information out of your MultiLIS ILS and into some other ILS.

What is your target ILS? I hear that Koha is pretty good, and capable of
handling small and medium size libraries. Is that the ILS you are moving
to? If not, then which one? Your goal is to get your MultiLIS data into
shape to be moved into your new LIS, and that means you (and we) need to
know what LIS you are moving to, in order to determine what format it
accepts it's data in.

It also helps if you could narrow down the question of which data your
are migrating. An ILS has many data classes; everything from material to
patrons to lending tracking. What are you migrating?





--
Lew Pitcher, IT Consultant, Application Architecture
Enterprise Technology Solutions, TD Bank Financial Group

(Opinions expressed here are my own, not my employer's)

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

On Tue, 17 Feb 2004 15:35:46 -0500, "Dan" <anshar2k3@hotmail.com>
wrote:

>Hi all.
>I have been set the unenviable task of extracting library records from our
>old system (MultiLIS) so that it can be transfered to our new system.  The
>old system is running on SCO Unix.  So far, the only thing I can think of t
o
>do is set up a dummy printer that prints to a file and print the needed
>reports to it.
>
>Here's my problem:  I have limited experience in the Unix/Linux world and
>don't know how to do this.  If any of you know of any online tutorials that
>might get me moving and could post a link to it/them, it would be very much
>appreciated.
>
>Thanks,


Various ways - What version of SCO?  Try uname -X. (man uname will
show you the various options for uname)

http://aplawrence.com/Unixart/printing.html#save

Personally, I would create a new printer that places its output into a
file

1)  Create an empty file (eg. touch /tmp/recs.out)
2)  Create a printer to point to the above file:
(I believe you will need to be root for this)
/usr/lib/lpadmin -p<newprintername> -mdumb -v/tmp/recs.out
enable <newprintername>
accept <newprintername>

where <newprintername> is anything you want to call it

3)  Print your records to <newprintername>

If your recs.out is going to get very large (ie you have a large
number of records to print and/or each record printed contains alot of
data), you may need to clear out recs.out before each new print job.

>/tmp/recs.out

would do that.


You may want to try asking in comp.unix.sco.misc, maybe someone there
has some experience with this MultiLIS and can suggest a different
approach.



Scott McMillan

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Anshar <daniel_goodchild@hotmail.com> wrote:
> <phn@icke-reklam.ipsec.nu> wrote in message
> news:c0v2me$1pdq$3@nyheter.ipsec.se... 
> our 
> The 
> of to 
> and 
> that 
> much 

> Thanks, but we're a very small, budget-strapped public library.  We don't
> have the funds to hire a unix guru.  If we did, we could afford to have th
e
> supplier of the original system extract the data for us.
> If you can think of several better ways of extracting our data, please,
> share them here.

Put up signs at local high-scool and universities, asking for help. Also loc
ate
any local Linux usergroups ( you did not say were you are located ).

In exchange for the help you _could_ give back some resources needed by thes
e local
groups, ( meeting rooms, litterature load etc) have you imagination figure o
ut
how you can mutually help each other.


Who knows, if you just ask you might find a guru that does what you need. Yo
u already started
this process by asking in this newsgroup, when you tell us where you are
chances are that someone reading here will spend some time helping you out.
> Thanks,
> Dan



--
Peter Håkanson
IPSec  Sverige      ( At Gothenburg Riverside )
Sorry about my e-mail address, but i'm trying to keep spam out,
remove "icke-reklam" if you feel for mailing me. Thanx.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Lew:
We are moving to the Dynix Horizon system.
I don't need to worry too much about formatting the data for the horizon
system as Dynix will do that for us.  But it's up to us to get the data out
of our system in the first place.
The data we're trying to get out is Patron records (names, addresses,
outstanding fines) and Circulation data (what's currently out, is it overdue
or not, and who has it).  Most if not all of this information is available
in printed reports, but MultiLIS doesn't offer us the option to save the
report to a file, it will only send it to a printer.  (Which is why I had
thought to set up a printer that writes to a file).

Peter:
The Universities and Colleges idea could work... thanks for the suggestion I
will follow that up and see if it turns up anything.  (Come to think of it,
one of my old professors might be able to help too.)
I am in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada.

Scott:
Thanks very much, that's exactly what I want to try.
I believe the version is 11.3.  Does that make sense?  (I hope I'm not
confusing the O/S version with the MultiLIS verison).
I will try the other group you mentioned too... if my ISP has them on their
list.

Thank you all for your input.  I will try what I can this afternoon and let
you know how I make out with it.

Dan Goodchild

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

On Thu, 19 Feb 2004 10:24:38 -0500, "Anshar"
<daniel_goodchild@hotmail.com> wrote:

>Lew:
>We are moving to the Dynix Horizon system.
>I don't need to worry too much about formatting the data for the horizon
>system as Dynix will do that for us.  But it's up to us to get the data out
>of our system in the first place.
>The data we're trying to get out is Patron records (names, addresses,
>outstanding fines) and Circulation data (what's currently out, is it overdu
e
>or not, and who has it).  Most if not all of this information is available
>in printed reports, but MultiLIS doesn't offer us the option to save the
>report to a file, it will only send it to a printer.  (Which is why I had
>thought to set up a printer that writes to a file).
>
>Peter:
>The Universities and Colleges idea could work... thanks for the suggestion 
I
>will follow that up and see if it turns up anything.  (Come to think of it,
>one of my old professors might be able to help too.)
>I am in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada.
>
>Scott:
>Thanks very much, that's exactly what I want to try.
>I believe the version is 11.3.  Does that make sense?  (I hope I'm not
>confusing the O/S version with the MultiLIS verison).
>I will try the other group you mentioned too... if my ISP has them on their
>list.

I think you're confusing the MultiLIS version with the OS version.
Run 'uname -X' (without the quotes) at a shell prompt and let us see
what spews forth.  If the -X doesn't produce, run 'man uname' (again,
no quotes) to see the options for the uname command.  More information
is better.

>
>Thank you all for your input.  I will try what I can this afternoon and let
>you know how I make out with it.
>
>Dan Goodchild
>


Scott McMillan

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