Setting Up Ask Us in Mobile PAC

As in Polaris PowerPAC, Mobile PAC users can send an “Ask Us” reference question to a designated library email address. When the user clicks the Ask Us link on the home page, and the library requires patrons to log on to use this feature, the logon page appears. Once logged on, the user can type the question and send it to the library.

You set up a receiving email address on the branch level with the PAC profile Patron access options, then enable the feature specifically for Mobile PAC. As with Polaris PowerPAC, you can require a patron logon for Ask Us in Mobile PAC, or bypass the logon and allow anyone to send a question via Ask Us. In this case, a Guest button is displayed on the logon page.

The Sent From email address on the message to the library is the email address the user has specified in the Ask Us form, if any. If no address is specified, the user has logged on as a patron, and the patron account includes an email address, that address is used. If no email address is specified in the Ask Us form or the patron account, or the patron has cleared the address from the form, the Sent From address is that specified in the PAC profile Email notification: Email address of sender.

Note:
Any email from PAC, including Ask Us messages, requires you to specify the SMTP server in Polaris Administration. Double-click the PAC profile Email notification: Server running SMTP service, and type the domain name of the email SMTP server. This setting applies to all Polaris PAC applications and is also used by other Polaris processes, such as email notification.

To set up the Ask Us function in Mobile PAC:

  1. In the Administration Explorer tree view, open the Profiles folder for the branch, and click the PAC tab in the details view.

Important:
These settings also affect Polaris PowerPAC.

  1. Double-click Patron Access options. The Patron Access Options dialog box appears.
  2. Click the Ask Us tab.
  3. To specify the receiving address for Ask Us email messages, do these steps:
  1. Click Add, and use the Find Tool to search for the staff member or members who should receive the Ask Us messages.
  2. Select the names in the results list, right-click the highlighted names, and choose Select from the context menu. The Patron Access Options dialog box appears, and the selected names are displayed in the E-mail to list.
  1. Click Apply to apply your settings and continue working with Patron Access options, or click Save to save your settings and close the Patron Access options dialog box.
  2. To make the Ask Us feature available in Mobile PAC, do these steps:
  1. Click the MobilePAC tab in the details view of the Explorer.
  2. Double-click Navigation: Ask us, and select Yes.
  3. To require a patron logon for Ask Us, double-click Ask Us: Require Login, and set the value to Yes. If this value is set to No, a Guest button is displayed on the Ask Us logong page in Mobile PAC. The user can click Guest to send a question without logging on.
  1. Select File | Save.