Alma Letters Central Repository
View Central Repository on Github
View XSLT Letters Description Spreadsheet
View our FAQ page for Common Questions you may have about editing letters
XSL Letter Editing Quick Guide
From the Functional Call on Letters Located Here.
How does the editing process work for letters? How do you get a copy of a specific letter to see how it looks?
Customizing Text Elements / Label
Administration > General Configuration > Configuration Menu > General Configuration > Letter Emails
Actions → Edit on the letter that you want to change
Open Footer..xsl
You can customize the email addresses (or URL) to which the Contact Us and My Accountlinks are directed by modifying the parameter values of the email_my_account and email_contact_us parameter keys in the General Customer Parameters mapping table (Administration > General Configuration > Configuration Menu > Other Settings).
Customizing Look & Feel of Letters
Administration > General Configuration > Configuration Menu > General Configuration > Customize Letters
Note that other XSL template are calleds (e.g. Sender/Receiver and MailReason) that can be used to drill down to the specific point of customization
Note @@variable@@ which indicates that data is pulled from the text elements & labels area
To get a copy of a specific letter to see how it looks:
Two options:
Easy – do an activity in Alma that causes the email to be sent to your email address
Not as easy:
Navigate to Administration > General Configuration > Configuration Menu > General Configuration > XML To Letter Admin
Select a letter administrator from the dropdown and then select the letter for which you want to receive the XML
Do an activity in Alma that would generate the letter (Example: Cancel a RS request)
You can also utilize the XML of letters found on the Developers Network
Note from task force: This list is not complete, you will have to generate many of the letters on your own. To learn how to test the xml output of a specific letter, use this page.
Save the XML, navigate to Administration > General Configuration > Configuration Menu > General Configuration > Notification Template and upload the XML that was sent, choose whether to receive in email or view in browser
Background
Problem: there is no centralized repository for all CSUs to learn how to edit the XSL in their letters
Policy Statement
This statement applies to all notification letters sent to patrons that are listed in the general configuration area in Alma.
Best practice recommendations
While we understand that everyone has differing ideas of what their letters should look like, we recommend that everyone use this repository for help in editing their letters as it will provide a more cohesive look and feel for all CSU Libraries. This will make it easier for the group to troubleshoot any potential issues and provide resources for those who are not comfortable editing the letters on their own.
- We suggest these areas to begin learning xsl:
http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xsl_intro.asp
http://www.tizag.com/xmlTutorial/xslttutorial.php
http://libraryjuiceacademy.com/019-intro-xml.php
http://gandhimukul.tripod.com/xslt/xslquality.html <--- program to judge the XSL quality of your letter
- We suggest you use whatever free software you have available for editing your letters. Most standard web development software will be good enough for working on customizing letters in Alma.
oXygen https://www.oxygenxml.com/xml_editor/xslt.html Note: oXygen is a really nice software product but we believe it's overkill for what most libraries will be doing.
Treebeard http://treebeard.sourceforge.net/ Free
Notepad++ https://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/v7.1.html Free
XSLT Customizations
We are currently working on an XSL customizations spreadsheet that describes each letter and includes links to what each letter looks like.
Procedures in Alma
Action log
| Section | Point Person | Expected Completion Date | Last action taken | Next action required |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Articulate the need for the policy (background) |
| 10/10/16 We discussed the need for a central repository that people from all the CSUs can use to help with editing their letters. | Natasha will draft the need for this policy the week of 10/09/16 | |
Create a Policy Statement |
| 10/10/16 The decision was made to have Natasha draft the policy statement | Policy statement draft must be added to Confluence by Nov 11. | |
Identify and create best practice recommendations |
| 11/01/16 Natasha drafted the Best Practice policy recommendations and added them to the repository page | N/A | |
Where applicable, identify and write up procedures in Alma |
| N/A | N/A | |
| Update Goals | Natasha Allen (Unlicensed) |
| N/A | N/A |
| Finish all repository drafts | Natasha Allen (Unlicensed) |
| 1/13/17 Finished earlier drafts in January | 04/28/17 Continue working on the rest and be finished by April. |
Tasks to be completed
- Description of each letter and when it would be sent
- Example XML of each letter sent to patrons