Managing Offline Circulation

Your library can use Polaris offline when the Polaris server is not accessible, such as during an upgrade or when you use the Bookmobile. The offline files contain the transactions that occurred while the workstations were disconnected from the main server.

To manage offline circulation in Polaris Administration, you can set up a highly automated process that copies and retrieves the offline transactions from the workstations and automatically loads them into the database, or you can opt for a more manual process for transferring and uploading the transaction files.

With either the manual or automated offline process, the offline files PolPatron.mdb and PolSystem.mdb must first be copied from the server to the workstations that will be used offline. These .mdb files are updated automatically each night by the Offline Extract SQL job, but if you are copying the files to the workstations at a time other than the beginning of the day, you must run the job manually to ensure that the files are updated.

After the .mdb files are updated, you can copy them from the server to the designated offline workstations manually or automatically. To copy the .mdb files automatically, you must enable the Copy Offline Files SQL job, which automatically updates the offline files on designated workstations. The job is disabled by default because it must be run under an account that has rights to copy the files to the local workstations on a network. To create the account, first create a SQL Server credential and then create a proxy account that associates this credential with the process that allows access to the workstations. The credential name and proxy name can be anything you choose.

If your library is implementing automated offline processing, whereby the offline transaction files are uploaded automatically to the server, you must also set up a credential and proxy to allow this process.

The procedure staff use when working offline is the same whether your library is set up for manual or automatic uploading of the transaction files.

Important:
The procedures described in this unit differ for Polaris Hosted customers. Polaris Hosted customers can find specific instructions for installing the Polaris staff client and working offline on the Polaris Hosted Utilities page or the Innovative Customer Supportal (https://support.iii.com).

To use the Automated Offline process, the Polaris system used for offline processing must be directly accessible by the SQL Server where the Copy Offline and the Automated Offline jobs and processes are executed.

In a Polaris library with their databases running in a hosted environment, the workstations designated for offline processing must be directly connected to the SQL server to use Automated Offline. If the Polaris client is installed on a local workstation that is not connected to a terminal server via a Remote Desktop connection, the user must manually copy the .mdb files to work offline and must also manually copy the transaction files.

For information on the steps you must take to ensure that the offline workstations are prepared for offline transactions, whether you are implementing the automatic upload process or using the manual upload process, see:

• Manually update the offline .mdb files
• Enable automatic copying of .mdb files from the server to offline clients
• Copy files from the server to the offline client manually

If you are implementing automated offline processing, see Setting Up Automated Offline Processing

If you are implementing offline circulation with manual uploading of transaction files, see Setting Up Offline Circulation for Manual Uploading.

For procedures staff members use when working offline, whether the transactions are uploaded automatically or manually, see Working Offline.