Alma User Data Transformers

This repository was created to store scripts that can transform patron data from external Student Information Systems into Alma-compliant XML so that it can be uploaded into Alma. These scripts were written to help a few SUNY Libraries during their migration from Aleph to Alma, and are here to help libraries by serving as templates that need to be slightly modified in order to fit the external patron data. The scripts have No Warranty and are licensed Creative Commons BY-NC-SA.

There is one Python script to transform each file type:

• .plif
• .csv
• .xml

Instructions for running the Python scripts:

• Mac
• Windows

The Python scripts will need to be changed depending on your situation:

In the .plif file:

• Change the text values for the "patron_type_text" variables to their correct number/user-label pair from your Aleph user type table.
• In line 140, ['<id_type desc="Power Campus ID">99</id_type>' + ], you will probably have a different value for "desc" other than "Power Campus ID"

In the .csv file:

• The .csv file that was used had headings in this order:
  • LastName
  • FirstName
  • User Group
  • Expiration Date
  • Purge Date
  • Primary Identifier
  • Email_Address
  • Additional Identifier

The minimal XML structure for the user (with sample values from a .csv file):

        	user_xml = ('<user>' +
             '<primary_id>' + ''.join({row[5]}) + '</primary_id>' +            
             '<first_name>' + ''.join({row[1]}) + '</first_name>' +
             '<last_name>' + ''.join({row[0]}) + '</last_name>' +
             '<user_group desc="' + patron_type_text + '">' + patron_type_number + '</user_group>' +
             '<preferred_language>en</preferred_language>' +
             '<expiry_date>' + expiry_date + '</expiry_date>' +                  
             '<purge_date>' + purge_date + '</purge_date>' +
             '<status desc="Active">ACTIVE</status>' +         
             '<contact_info>' +
             '<emails>' +
             '<email preferred="true">' +
             '<email_address>' + ''.join({row[6]}) + '</email_address>' +
             '<email_types>' +
             '<email_type desc="School">school</email_type>' +
             '</email_types>' +
             '</email>' +
             '</emails>' +
             '<phones/>' +
             '</contact_info>' +
             '<user_identifiers>' +
             '<user_identifier>' +
             '<id_type desc="Additional">02</id_type>' + 
             '<value>' + ''.join({row[7]}) + '</value>' +
             '</user_identifier>' +
             '</user_identifiers>' +
             '</user>')