MERCI

I'm looking into using MERCI as a reservation and checkout system for our college's film program. If this isn't the correct place to ask, I apologize and let me know where.

There is a LOT of work being done with Open Media modules right now that is not being reflected on this list. On Drupal 7. A lot of things are in development, and I will only speak from my own experiences - but I'll post and hope others will add. Please correct any errors.

There really seem to be two aspects of the Open Media System that are being implemented concurrently.

1) Facility and Project Management through modules like MERCI and OM_Show.

First is it best to set my roles before entering information into MERCI? Let's say am going to assign roles based off membership levels, would it be best to do so first and then enter in the different MERCI content types?

Also, am going to have 3 edit stations would this lend itself better as a Bucket item.

Thank you

Sven

I ran the Cron and it gave me this:

•   warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in C:\wamp\www\hosted\seattlecommunitymedia\modules\merci\merci.module on line 1063.
•   warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in C:\wamp\www\hosted\seattlecommunitymedia\modules\filefield_paths\filefield_paths.module on line 389.
•   warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in C:\wamp\www\hosted\seattlecommunitymedia\modules\filefield_paths\modules\filefield.inc on line 50.
•   

Any ideas why?
Thank you in advance for your help.

Sven

As part of the effort to refine the useful documentation for non-developers I am trying to expand kreynen's 12 step program for an OMP install. I was tempted to post this as a wiki - but it is very rough, incomplete working path at a public access TV station that just has two staff. For those who have gone through the process or my be farther along - please feel free to comment and provide any feedback. What's missing - really help us break it down. We're moving slow and steady here. - Jason

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Documenting channelAustin's MERCI Implementation

NOTE: There has been ongoing debate as to the best location to post documentation (or even raw documentation as this is), and while www.openmediaproject.org was provisionally agreed upon as the best landing place for this, I feel that GDO OMP may be more accessible and definitely has a wider audience.

I don't know if anyone else has come across this issue but we can overbook node in bucket content types. If there are two inventory nodes in a bucket content type, you are able to make three+ overlapping reservations.

You only receive an error AFTER applying the two inventory nodes to reservation. Any overlapping reservation edited after that will return an error stating the item is no longer reservable.

Our only workaround is to have all bucket content types only reservable by staff and make reservation for the related equipment first come, first served.

channelAustin is now testing MERCI's import feature and looking to expand its capabilities. We have a large database of equipment and want to minimize the amount of manual data entry required. Some basic information about MERCI's import feature is located in the Open Media Project handbook in the section on Equipment.

This is a discussion about what is the best approach in MERCI for dealing with Resources that comprise a number of additional Resources, Buckets, and/or Accessories, such as a Studio.

The Open Media Project Handbook section on MERCI defines 3 types of equipment available for checkout:

Resource - Individual items that are unique. Example: Studio A vs. Studio B

Bucket - Items that are identical or so similar that users don't care which one they get. Example: DV Cameras

Accessories - Items that you don't track other than to ensure that if someone takes one or more with other equipment, it is returned. Examples: Batteries, lens cap, usb cable.

Here is a working list of channelAustin's content types for MERCI. There are about 150 here. We have about 20 certifications. So we'll quickly get into a fairly complicated permissions grid.

Accessory Apple Box
Accessory Production Bag
Accessory Runbag
Accessory Video Projector
Accessory Headphones
Adapter Beach Tek
Adapter BNC Barrel Connector
Adapter BNC RCA
Adapter RCA Barrel
Cable AC Cord
Cable AC Extension
Cable AC Power Strip
Cable BNC
Cable BNC Long
Cable FireWire 4-4
Cable FireWire 4-6
Cable FireWire 6-6
Cable RCA Dub
Cable RCA Y
Cable S-Video
Cable XLR