Joomla In Libraries

I see a number of the library sites showcased here have nice search boxes that have options for both the basic joomla site search and a library catalog search. I have a colleague who wants me to help them do this on their joomla site. Have to admit, I'm not sure where to start.

Do I need any add-ons to joomla? Or is this just a matter of getting my smart programming guy to write some javascript for me?

Thanks for any advice!

Polly

Hey Pollyalida! They are just custom HTML codes added into modules.

Thanks Tao!! That should be very do-able then.

I would like to see some examples of this...

i currently just wrote two modules for our new joomla site which is still in it's dev stage. one module i have created basically will only work with the HIP of the Horizon catalogue system from SirsiDynix. the module lets a patron select their library (we have 96) and from there configures a search box, with a drop down of search indexes and a few links to My Account and Renew online for easy access for the patron. Right now the module, which in reality should be a component has a mix of Joomla and pulling data from external sources to build the list of libraries, and is directly tied to our needs and setup. But once i get more comfortable with coding modules I may release it to users of this site free to use.

the 2nd module goes hand in hand with the catalogue module. What it does, is, once a patron has selected their library, it will display their libraries information, such as the local librarian, phone number, and hours. along with some quick link icons that would popup a picture of the library, the google map, services and so on.

But again. these are both crude modules and hopefully with a little more development i can bring both to a level which can be used by the community.

i can see catalogue module becoming particulary usefull to other systems that use Horizon and multipile profiles on the HIP to serve their patrons online needs.


cheers