Printing Circulation Notices with Print Templates
If your site has enabled Print Templates, you can use customized templates for printing circulation notices to a PostScript compatible printer. If your library has acquired the Sending Circulation Notices via Email product, you can also use customized templates for emailing circulation notices.
With the appropriate editing software (e.g., Jaspersoft Studio), you can specify the data that appears on customized notices. You can also control font selection and layout, and you can incorporate graphic images into notice templates. Customized circulation notices can be printed or sent to patrons via email. For more information about customizing notice templates, see Creating Customized Print Templates and Print Templates Settings for Circulation Notices and Receipts.
If you are printing circulation notices with print templates, you can:
- select print templates for circulation notices jobs
- view selected templates in the Saved Notices table
For more information about print template functionality for circulation notices, see How the System Chooses a Notice Template
Selecting Print Templates for Circulation Notices
To select a family of print templates for a circulation notices job:
- Choose Notices from the Function list.
- Access the notices job parameters screen.
- Select a notice type from the Notice Type drop-down list. (This list contains only the notice types for which you have been assigned permission.)
- Choose Select Template. Sierra displays the Print Notice dialog box, which lists the template family names available for this notice type.
- Select the desired notice template family and choose Select. Sierra displays the name of the selected template family on the Selected Template button.
For more information about how the system uses the appropriate template for each patron based your choice of notice template family, see How the System Chooses a Notice Template.
- Select additional notice parameters as desired.
- Either manually prepare notices using the current parameters or save the notice parameters.
Circulation Notices and Print Templates
Following is additional information about using print templates to send circulation notices:
- Print Templates for circulation notices use the PostScript format. The target printer must be capable of printing PostScript formats.
- If you have enabled Print Templates, the system disables the Include Telephone Number and Include Amount Owed options in the notices job parameters screen. To include this information in a notice, add the corresponding elements from the notice's data library to the customized print template for the appropriate circulation notice.
- If you are using Print Templates to send auto notices, use Auto Notices File Manager in Data Exchange to print or resend the auto notices you save to the file save printer.
- If you are using Print Templates to manually send notices that are saved to a file save printer, use FTS file save printing in Data Exchange to print or resend the notices.
- If you are using Print Templates to send circulation notices via email, the system ignores your library's character map settings and uses UTF-8 encoding to email notices.
- You can still move all notices to the print queue when you prepare notices, even if some notices use customized email print templates and/or are for patrons who prefer email notices.
- When you end your Notices session, the system sends any notices that were prepared for email delivery.
- Because circulation notices are sent based on prepared notices jobs, the system enables you to use Print Templates to print circulation notices only within the Notices function, and only by selecting a print notice template family from the notices job parameters screen. The system does not enable circulation notice printing from any other function or menu option.
Viewing the Selected Template in the Saved Notices Table
If your library's uses either the Save Parameters or Auto Notices setting, the system displays the template family name selected for each saved notices job in the Template column of the Saved Notices table.
How the System Chooses a Notice Template
To determine the appropriate notice template for each patron, the system checks the Language and Delivery Method attributes of each notice template within the selected notice template family against each patron record's LANG PREF and NOTICE PREF fields, and chooses a notice template based on the following criteria:
- If the system finds a template for which both the language and delivery method match the patron's preferences, the system uses that template.
- If a complete match does not exist, the system searches for a partial match:
- If the system finds templates in which either the language or the delivery method (but not both) matches the patron's preferences, the system uses the template in which the language matches the patron's preference.
- If the system does not find a template in which the language matches the patron's preference but does find a template in which the delivery method matches, the system uses that template.
- If neither a complete nor partial match exists, the system uses the general template.
- If none of the above exist (there is no complete match, partial match, or general template), the system uses the first template listed under this template family name.