Defining Web Parts for Dashboards - Overview

Web parts are displayed in the dashboard area on the side of the pages on Polaris PowerPAC and Polaris PowerPAC Children’s Edition. Web parts can provide links to pre-defined searches or websites and deliver messages or instructions. Different web parts can be displayed on different pages. You set up web parts at the system level for use by any or all branches. Then, each branch can choose which web parts to display on the dashboard for any particular page.

Note:
Separate Polaris Administration profiles control web parts for Polaris PowerPAC and Polaris PowerPAC Children’s Edition, but the process for setting up the web parts is the same for both PACs.

For general information on web parts, see:

• Automatic Web Parts
• Custom Web Parts
• Best-Seller Lists from IndieBound (Book Sense, Inc.)

For information on creating and using web parts, see:

• Create a custom web part
• Assign web parts to public pages
• Limit items in Polaris and third-party lists

For reference lists of Polaris PowerPAC and Polaris PowerPAC Children's Edition pages, see:

• Polaris PowerPAC Pages Reference
• Polaris PowerPAC Children's Edition Pages Reference

Automatic Web Parts

Polaris provides several web parts that are automatically updated by background database processing, using transactions at your library to determine the contents of the lists:

• Most Circulated - The Most Circulated web part elements are links that launch searches for popular titles, authors, or subjects in the Polaris database, based on circulation statistics for the past 31 days. Only items that are marked for display in PAC are listed. By default, the SQL job Dashboard_MostCirculated updates the list once a month.
• New Titles - The New Titles web part elements are organized by the broad material categories Books, Videos, Sound Recordings, and Large Print. When the patron selects a category, the page displays appropriate links that launch searches for titles that have recently been added to your catalog. Only items that are marked for display in PAC are listed, and an item must have been checked in to be eligible for inclusion. By default, the SQL job Dashboard_NewTitles updates the list nightly and includes items new in the last 31 days. Although the title search is for bibliographic records, if the process finds any bibliographic records that do not have a First Available date, the process checks their associated items to see if an item has become available since the last time it was processed. If so, the First Available date in the bibliographic record is updated with the item’s First Available date. You can also provide RSS feeds from the New Titles web part. See Setting Up RSS Feeds.

Note:
When the PAC connection is to a branch, the patron sees only new titles for that branch. When the PAC connection is to the system, the patron sees new titles for the whole system.

• On-Order Items  - The On-Order Items web part elements are links that launch searches for titles in the Polaris database that have linked items with a status of On Order. By default, 20 titles are listed; the title that has the linked item with the most recent status change to On Order is listed first. If more than one On-Order item is associated with a bibliographic record, the most recent On-Order item is used to order the list. Only titles that are marked for display in PAC are listed. This web part is updated as part of the nightly Dashboard_NewTitles job.

Tip:
By default, Narrow and Related web parts are displayed on the search results page. You can determine whether or not to display these features, specify the filters and categories they contain, and customize the labels. See Setting PowerPAC Narrow/Related Search Options. You cannot specify the number of elements in them or assign them to other pages.

You can set the number of items that are automatically listed in the Most Circulated, New Titles, and On-Order Items web parts. See Limit items in Polaris and third-party lists.

Polaris also provides a Make a Donation web part that allows users to make a donation to the library by credit card. The user does not have to log in to make the donation.

Custom Web Parts

You can create custom web parts tailored to your needs and programs. See Create a custom web part. Custom web parts can include any combination of the following types of data elements:

• Title Search - Links that launch searches for specific titles. Title search elements work well for listing titles for a particular purpose, such as a reading program, seasonal reading, special-interest subjects, or a teacher’s reading list.
• URL - Links to websites or pages. You define the text or image that serves as the link. The link element can be formatted with basic HTML tags. For example, you can create a link to a URL that launches a search for the records in a record set created in the staff client. See Searching Record Sets (Polaris PowerPAC).
• Free text - Text that is displayed in the web part. You can use free text for announcements, page instructions, or for introducing other elements in the list. The text can be formatted using basic HTML tag elements. You can include images using the <IMG> tag.

Best-Seller Lists from IndieBound (Book Sense, Inc.)

The following web parts are updated automatically with content from IndieBound (formerly Book Sense, Inc.), based on sales from over 350 independent bookstores in the United States: Trade Paperback Fiction, Trade Paperback Nonfiction, Hardcover Fiction, Hardcover Nonfiction, Mass Market, Early and Middle Grade Readers, Young Adults, Children's Fiction Series, and Children’s Illustrated. When a patron selects a title from one of these lists, a search for the title is launched in the Polaris database.

Every week, Innovative Interfaces receives a file of the updated best-seller lists from IndieBound. During overnight processing at your library, the BookSenseImport Microsoft SQL Server Agent at Innovative Interfaces updates the best-seller lists at your site.

Polaris Customer Operations helps you set up your Polaris system to support updating the IndieBound best-seller lists. The server running MS SQL Server must be able to do FTP downloads, and your webpage caches must be cleared after the download to allow the updated pages to be displayed (see Updating Page Caches).

You can limit the number of items that are automatically listed, but you cannot change the contents of the lists. See Limit items in Polaris and third-party lists.