Feedback from Chris (08-07-2014)

[squidgetx]

Hi Devs!

I was just wondering whether there was any progress on getting an instance-specific admin-editable text popup when a patron requests an extended reservation? I remember it being mentioned at some point, and I wanted to be sure it didn’t already exist without my knowing how to use it. So far, we’ve had one patron utilize the request function.

I have some thoughts on it, which may reflect the fact that currently I’m the only person who grants extended reservations for BMEC.

Currently, the feature allows a patron to request equipment for a longer-than-allowed period of time (or to request more of a single type of equipment than allowed) and then prompts them to make a request. This request shows up under the “Reservations” tab to be reviewed by an admin and, if granted, creates the reservation in question. I tested it a bit, and I don’t THINK creating the request affects the availability of the equipment until an admin approves the request.

This doesn’t quite jive with our workflow at BMEC, and I totally understand that the system needs to be abstracted from our model because of the other departments that have since started using the system, but I want to document the problems in case some are easy fixes, or can be added to the abstracted system. I’d say the theme for 95% of the below is to reduce the number of email exchanges necessary between myself and the patron before I can make an extended reservation, in order to both save my time and be able to approve extended checkouts for the patron quicker.
Prompting for the right information

The concern I had from before the upgrade persists: there are specific pieces of information we require from patrons requesting an extended reservation which, if I’m unable to prompt them (which I’d be able to once the above feature happens) requires additional email exchanges to ensure we have the correct information.

There’s also a problem of who can approve these requests. At present, anyone with the admin role can do so, and though we did speak about the possibility of recreating/defining the roles and their privileges, at present many of the media techs need admin access in order to view reservation histories and patron information. This means that they can approve their own extended reservation requests. Obviously, this is currently the situation, since as it is admins don’t even need to provide reasons, but media techs with admin privileges are told to check extended reservations with me first and for the most part are enough in awe of the circulation desk workers’ ability to keep tabs on weird extended reservations that they don’t do so willy nilly.

I think the solution here will eventually be to create a separate role between checkout person and admin that media techs can occupy which can do everything except approve extended reservation requests (among other things, like change the terms of service, etc). Basically, what I’m saying is that the ideal situation in this respect is for myself and a small group of people to be the only ones with OK power over requests (it’s currently only me, and this works).

Another small issue is how the system notifies me that requests have been made, or rather, how it doesn’t. With the Google Form, every entry sends me a notification email, which is handy because it means I don’t have to constantly be checking the form responses. Is there a way for Reservations to email the admin email whenever an extended checkout is requested?
Individually approvable requests and availability viewing

A slightly more frustrating problem relates to how extended reservations are generally approved. Aside from the viability of the project itself, the approve/deny decision is primarily decided by the availability of the equipment for the requested span at the time the request is made. With the google form, I’d see the requested span and the equipment required, then be able to go into the catalogue, set the dates, and then view the equipment availability for each piece requested. If there’s available equipment, I just add an object of each requested type that’s available to the cart and make the patron their reservations with one keystroke. The way the system is now, I basically have to do this anyway, and since I have to approve each piece of the request separately it creates a workflow of clicking back and forth between the catalogue and the requests. I could see this being addressed using the new system by better grouping of reservation requests (maybe an “Approve all for this patron” button?) and availability displays within the requested reservation (X of equipment Y available for requested dates).

Another problem with having the patron create reservations that are approved rather than having an admin approve a request and then go make the reservations is that often, the patron isn’t really sure what kind of equipment they need. Ordinarily this prompts an email exchange where I try to see what kind of equipment would best suit the needs of the project. With the old system, this wouldn’t create any additional work since I wouldn’t create the reservation until all the documentation had been received and the patron had decided on their equipment, but with this system I have to deny their request for the wrong equipment then make them a new reservation for the correct equipment.

The final problem I have with the new feature is actually also a problem of the old system as well, but a problem I was hoping would be addressed, and that’s visibility of the extended reservation option. Before, a patron would learn about it either by reading our Terms of Service or emailing bassmedia@yale, which I suppose is still an option, but this only works with patrons that think outside the limitations imposed them. Ideally, I’d want something that shows up near the patron cart that either directs them to the Extended Reservations portion of the Terms of Service, or which would direct them to the Google Form (which has all our requirements and stipulations in a header before the form). Even a new tab up top that says “Extended Reservation” that would direct them to a page explaining the process. Basically, I want a visible portion of the patron UI that says “Extended Reservation” and then directs the patron to information about that process, whatever form it may take.

As a conclusion to this very (very very very very) long email, I’m going to describe my ideal Reservations extended checkout scenario. A patron wants equipment longer than allowed, and signs into reservations and sees a button or tab that says “Extended Checkout,” which directs them to a page containing all our specific requirements for BMEC extended checkout before allowing the patron to indicate, either through a reservation request or by listing in a project description a la google form, both the dates and equipment objects they’d like, as well as prompting them to include the required documentation. This generates an email that is sent to me, notifying me that a request has been made and for what. I look at this email and, if possible, approve immediately (if it’s short term/the equipment is available/there aren’t any problems/there’s no documentation needed) or send the patron an email asking for the required documentation/verifying the equipment they asked for is the equipment they need. I get one more email from them with this information (ideally and clearly that’s up to the patron) before I go back into reservations and approve the extended request for all their equipment with a single keystroke.

I think my ideal short term fix would be for there to be a button somewhere on the UI that prompts an admin-determined message to appear, through which I could direct the patron to our Google form.

ALRIGHT Thanks so much! I also wanted to mention that I am BLOWN AWAY with how quickly and well Reservations works now! I’ve also heard so much positive feedback from the circ desk workers, thanks so much for working so hard!
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[squidgetx]

Okay, it's a long email. Let's break it down.

I was just wondering whether there was any progress on getting an instance-specific admin-editable text popup when a patron requests an extended reservation?

This is implemented in #864. We should either consider backporting it to 3.4.x, or crack down on a 4.0.0 release. Personally I feel like we should try to get 4.0.0 out ASAP, as maintaining 3.4.x is going to become more and more difficult as time goes on. 4.0.0 has an improved testing suite and is (almost) fully upgraded to Rails 4 and Rspec 3. It's going to be a lot easier to deal with, especially with new devs coming in.

There’s also a problem of who can approve these requests. At present, anyone with the admin role can do so...many of the media techs need admin access in order to view reservation histories and patron information.

IMO we should just allow staff to view this information, and encourage discretion when assigning admin roles. We should talk with Chris about what range of priveleges MTs should be allowed to have and then expand the number of options in appconfigs for "checkout people can do x"

Is there a way for Reservations to email the admin email whenever an extended checkout is requested?

#869. Again, I think we should clean up and push out 4.0.0

With the google form, I’d see the requested span and the equipment required, then be able to go into the catalogue, set the dates, and then view the equipment availability for each piece requested. If there’s available equipment, I just add an object of each requested type that’s available to the cart and make the patron their reservations with one keystroke. The way the system is now, I basically have to do this anyway, and since I have to approve each piece of the request separately it creates a workflow of clicking back and forth between the catalogue and the requests. I could see this being addressed using the new system by better grouping of reservation requests (maybe an “Approve all for this patron” button?) and availability displays within the requested reservation (X of equipment Y available for requested dates).

Hmm, this is interesting and deserves attention. We should discourage clicking around for sure. We should definitely add availability counts to the review page for sure. We should also make sure that it's easy to view and approve all of a patron's requests for the same time span on the review page. Reservations sort of does this already but it's not really enough information. (#673)

Another problem with having the patron create reservations that are approved rather than having an admin approve a request and then go make the reservations is that often, the patron isn’t really sure what kind of equipment they need

Okay, this sounds more like an abuse of their Google Form than an issue with the extended reservation process. If people don't know what equipment they need, that is BMEC's/MT's responsibility to handle it. It really shouldn't affect how reservation requests work.

The final problem I have with the new feature is actually also a problem of the old system as well, but a problem I was hoping would be addressed, and that’s visibility of the extended reservation option. Before, a patron would learn about it either by reading our Terms of Service or emailing bassmedia@yale, which I suppose is still an option, but this only works with patrons that think outside the limitations imposed them. Ideally, I’d want something that shows up near the patron cart that either directs them to the Extended Reservations portion of the Terms of Service, or which would direct them to the Google Form (which has all our requirements and stipulations in a header before the form). Even a new tab up top that says “Extended Reservation” that would direct them to a page explaining the process. Basically, I want a visible portion of the patron UI that says “Extended Reservation” and then directs the patron to information about that process, whatever form it may take.

Do other people have thoughts on this? I think an FAQ type page might be useful but in my mind someone who wants an extended reservation is either going to 1. email the department and get told they can use the request form, or 2. try to make the reservation themselves and be prompted to the request form with the admin configured text.

As a conclusion to this very (very very very very) long email, I’m going to describe my ideal Reservations extended checkout scenario. A patron wants equipment longer than allowed, and signs into reservations and sees a button or tab that says “Extended Checkout,” which directs them to a page containing all our specific requirements for BMEC extended checkout before allowing the patron to indicate, either through a reservation request or by listing in a project description a la google form, both the dates and equipment objects they’d like, as well as prompting them to include the required documentation. This generates an email that is sent to me, notifying me that a request has been made and for what. I look at this email and, if possible, approve immediately (if it’s short term/the equipment is available/there aren’t any problems/there’s no documentation needed) or send the patron an email asking for the required documentation/verifying the equipment they asked for is the equipment they need. I get one more email from them with this information (ideally and clearly that’s up to the patron) before I go back into reservations and approve the extended request for all their equipment with a single keystroke.

I don't think extended checkout button is necessary for reasons we detailed above (how would that even work? I feel like it would be a UX nightmare as well as internally. Does it trigger an 'extended checkout mode'? How is that different from regular checkout mode, since both would presumably lead to the reservation request page anyway, which would then have the 'specific requirements for extended checkout', etc.). Emails are necessary and implemented. We should allow admins to view all relevant information about a set of checkouts on a single page and implement them in one click.

In my view:

• User wants extended checkout
• User files reservation request using normal reservation methods
• Email gets sent to admins
• Admin clicks link in email which takes him/her directly to review page where the following information is displayed for every request in that time span
  • Equipment model (linkified for easy access to calendar view of availability)
  • Dates
  • Notes given from justification
  • Validations failed
  • Availability for time span given
  • Button to approve individual request
• Admin approves individual requests or can mass-approve all requests
• If a user has requested the wrong equipment or whatever the admin should deny the request which should bring up a prompt for denial reason. This reason gets sent to the patron via email and it's their responsibility to make themselves a new reservation for the proper equipment or whatever.

[orenyk]

I just re-read this for the first time since the summer and I think there are a lot of important things to deal with. We might want to consider backporting #869 to release-v3.4 (I might take a stab at this later) since that seems like it will help their workflow a lot. Otherwise, I think that the modifications to the review page can be addressed in v4.1 or thereabouts to properly polish the feature. As I see it, the major additions (drawing from the previous comment) are:

• Add link to Equipment Model on review page
• Add equipment availability for request time span

It might be better to set this up similarly to our checkin / checkout UI, perhaps even on a per-user basis to further simplify the workflow. I'll open up some new issues for this shortly, then we can close this parent issue.

[orenyk]

I think I've created issues for everything in Chris' e-mail, I'm closing this issue in lieu of those.