Feature Requests – Adaptation for Educational Institution Use (Adult Learning Center)

[nickun]

Hello,
We are currently trying to adapt Pinakes for use at an Adult Learning Center, where it would serve as a system for managing educational literature and tracking borrowing/returns by both teachers and students. During this process, we've run into several limitations that currently prevent full deployment. We'd like to request improvements or ask whether workarounds already exist for the following:

1. Subtitle not shown in search results
   When searching for a book by title, the results list displays only the main title, not the subtitle. In our collection, a base textbook and its accompanying workbook often share the exact same title and are distinguished only by subtitle (e.g., "Workbook" vs. no subtitle). This makes it impossible to tell them apart in the search results, leading to a high risk of selecting the wrong item.
   Request: Please add the subtitle field to the search results list (or make it optionally visible/configurable), so that items with identical titles can be distinguished.
2. No practical way to use unique physical copy numbers
   The system supports registering individual physical copies of a book with unique numbers, which is exactly what we need for accurate inventory tracking. However, there is currently no way to make practical use of this feature:

• The label printing function does not include the unique copy number on the printed label.
• There is no way to register a borrowing/return transaction against a specific physical copy — only against the general book/ISBN record.
  Request: Please add the unique copy number to the printable labels, and add the ability to select/scan a specific physical copy (not just the general title) when registering a loan or return.

3. Need for a streamlined, code-based borrowing/return workflow with camera scanning
   Building on point 2 — once individual physical copies can be identified by a unique code (e.g., barcode or QR code) on the printed label, we would need a simple and transparent workflow for registering borrowing and returns using that code, ideally including:

A dedicated "Scan" button next to the code input field.
The ability to use a device's camera as a barcode/QR scanner directly in the browser, without requiring external hardware.

For reference, the zxing-wasm JavaScript library has worked well for this kind of in-browser camera scanning in our testing, and might be a useful option to consider for implementation.

Thank you for considering these requests. We believe these changes would make the system significantly more practical not only for our use case but for any library managing physical copies with unique identifiers. We're happy to provide more details about our specific workflow or test any changes if that would help.
Best regards,
Nikola

[fabiodalez-dev]

All three are done and merged:

1. Subtitle in search results — the results list now shows the subtitle under the title, so a base textbook and its workbook are easy to tell apart.

2. Copy numbers you can actually use — each physical copy's inventory number now prints on its own label as a Code128 barcode, and you can register a loan or a return against a specific copy by that code, not just by the title.

3. Camera scan — a "Scan" button sits next to the code field on both the loan and the return form, using the device camera right in the browser, no external hardware. zxing-wasm was a good call — that's what I ended up using.

It's all on the main branch, so it lands in the next release (0.7.31) rather than something you can download today. One honest caveat: I could only test the scanner headless (no camera on my build machine), so the live decode I haven't run on real hardware yet — once it's out, tell me how it behaves on your devices.

The copy-tracking side is the part I most wanted to get right for a center like yours, so I'd really like to hear whether the label + scan flow matches how you track copies day to day.

[nickun]

Thank you! As soon as the release comes out, I'll immediately check how everything works.
Another question - does the "Remember me" checkbox on the login page affect anything? If I check it, the session still expires.

[fabiodalez-dev]

I'll check the "Remember me" checkbox. Should works as expected by I'll investigate the session...

[nickun]

Thank you for the improvements — printing labels with physical copy numbers instead of the EAN now works well.
While testing further, we found a few remaining issues with the "Create New Loan" workflow and the camera scanning module:

1. "Create New Loan" still requires searching by title/ISBN/EAN, even when the copy code is known
   In the "Create New Loan" form, the "Book – Search by title, ISBN or EAN" field is mandatory, even though there is a separate "Copy code (inventory)" field below it. This means that simply scanning or pasting the physical copy code is not enough to register a loan — the staff member still has to search for and select the book manually.
   This creates a real risk: it's possible to select a book in the search field that does not actually correspond to the physical copy code entered below, resulting in a loan registered against the wrong item.
   Request: Please combine these into a single field — e.g., "Search by title, ISBN, EAN, or Copy code (inventory)" — so that scanning/entering a copy code alone is sufficient to identify and register the correct book and copy, without a separate mandatory title search.
2. Subtitle still missing from search results in this form
   As a related note: the search field in "Create New Loan" also does not display the subtitle, even though it is shown in other parts of the system. Since we rely on the subtitle to distinguish between similarly titled items (e.g., a textbook vs. its workbook), this inconsistency increases the risk described above. Please ensure the subtitle is shown consistently across all search fields, including this one.
3. Camera scanner blocked by Permissions-Policy header
   The barcode scanning module fails to access the camera. The browser console shows the following error:
   [Violation] Permissions policy violation: camera is not allowed in this document.
   copy-scanner.bundle.js
   at: navigator.mediaDevices.getUserMedia(...)
   I traced this to public/index.php, where the response header is set as:
   php->withHeader('Permissions-Policy', 'geolocation=(), microphone=(), camera=()');
   This explicitly denies camera access for the entire document, which blocks the scanner from functioning.
   Request: Please update this header to allow camera access (e.g., camera=(self)) so that the in-browser barcode scanning feature can work as intended.
4. "Loan Details" page does not show the physical copy number
   On the "Loan Details" page, the physical copy number (inventory code) is not displayed, even when the loan is linked to a specific copy. This makes it impossible to verify at a glance which physical copy was actually borrowed, which is important for tracking and for resolving discrepancies during returns.
   Request: Please display the physical copy number on the "Loan Details" page whenever the loan is associated with one.
5. Return receipt PDF is missing subtitle and inventory code
   The PDF receipt generated after returning a book does not include the subtitle in the "Book Details" section, nor does it show the physical copy's inventory code, even when the loan was linked to a specific copy.

[nickun]

Here is another error:

[nickun]

In the file app/Views/prestiti/index.php the script "Auto-trigger PDF download after loan creation" has the comment that contains </script> which breaks html and shows the following:

if a future refactor ever lets a non-numeric // value through. var pdfId = 3; if (pdfId > 0) { var iframe = document.createElement('iframe'); iframe.style.display = 'none'; iframe.src = window.BASE_PATH + '/admin/loans/' + pdfId + '/pdf'; document.body.appendChild(iframe); // Clean up URL params after download triggers if (window.history && window.history.replaceState) { window.history.replaceState({}, '', window.BASE_PATH + '/admin/loans'); } } })();

[fabiodalez-dev]

All of this is in v0.7.31, out now.

Copy code alone identifies the book. On the Create New Loan form, entering or scanning a copy inventory code now resolves the book automatically and pins that exact copy. The title search is no longer something you have to do, and you can no longer end up with a loan registered against a book that doesn't match the scanned copy — the book field fills itself from the code, with a status line confirming the identified copy (and a warning if that copy isn't available).

Subtitle in the loan search. The book-search suggestions on that form now show the subtitle, so a textbook and its workbook are distinguishable there too. The loan details page and the receipt PDF also carry the subtitle and the physical copy inventory code.

Camera scanner. It was blocked by the Permissions-Policy response header (camera=()); it now allows the camera on the same origin, so the in-browser scanner works. One thing to check on your side: browsers only grant camera access over HTTPS (a secure context), so the scanner needs your instance to be served over https.

"Remember me". That checkbox was silently ignored due to a field-name mismatch — it is honoured again.

Update from the admin panel, or grab it here: https://github.com/fabiodalez-dev/Pinakes/releases/tag/v0.7.31

[fabiodalez-dev]

The "another error" — the block of raw JavaScript shown as text on the loans list after creating a loan — is fixed in v0.7.32. An inline script was being closed early by a comment that contained a literal script-closing tag, so the rest of the JS rendered as page text. It no longer does.

This is on top of the loan-workflow and camera-scanner fixes already in 0.7.31. https://github.com/fabiodalez-dev/Pinakes/releases/tag/v0.7.32