Issue Connecting Evergreen ILS via Evergreen Driver

[ahazaril]

Hi All!

I'm currently attempting to connect our Evergreen ILS as the backend for our OPAC discovery layer using the Evergreen Driver. However, I'm encountering connection issues and the system fails to establish a proper link with the database.

Here are the steps I've taken so far:

1. Filled in the database credentials (hostname, port, database name, username, password) correctly in the configuration file.
2. Verified that the PostgreSQL server is reachable from the application server.
3. Confirmed that the database user has the appropriate permissions.

Despite this, the connector doesn't seem to work, and the discovery platform cannot communicate with Evergreen.

As a temporary workaround, I'm currently ingesting MARC records manually into the discovery layer, but I’d prefer to enable direct connectivity for real-time integration.

Is there a recommended way to troubleshoot this connection? Any logs I should look into or settings that are commonly missed?

Thanks in advance for your support!

[demiankatz]

@ahazaril, you might find some of the suggestions on the ILS troubleshooting wiki page helpful. Beyond that, I'm afraid I don't personally have any experience with Evergreen, but maybe some Evergreen users in the community (like @gmcharlt) will have further suggestions.

[ahazaril]

Thanks @demiankatz for the prompt response.

Just to update, I’ve managed to return results, but every item displays:
Library System Unavailable

Here’s a snippet of the returned status block for multiple records:

{
"data": {
"statuses": [
{
"id": "1",
"availability": "unknown",
"availability_message": " <span class="label label-default">Library System Unavailable</span>\n ",
"location": "WEA0213 WEA0213",
"locationList": false,
"reserve": "false",
"reserve_message": "Not On Reserve",
"callnumber": "(KA) 899.231009 HAR",
"callnumber_handler": "1",
"full_status": "<table class="table table-condensed">\n \n Location</th>\n Call Number</th>\n Status</th>\n </tr>\n \n <td class="fullLocation">\n WEA0213 WEA0213 </td>\n <td class="fullCallnumber">\n <a href="/vufind/Alphabrowse/Home?source=1&from=(KA) 899.231009 HAR">(KA) 899.231009 HAR</a>\n </td>\n <td class="fullAvailability">\n <span class="text-muted">Library System Unavailable</span>\n </td>\n </tr>\n\n </table>\n",
"record_number": 0
},

This seems to suggest that the connector is partially working, but Evergreen isn't providing real-time availability or item status as expected.

As a temporary workaround, I'm ingesting MARC records manually into the discovery platform, but I’d really like to get full Evergreen integration (including real-time availability) up and running.

Any ideas on what might cause this "Library System Unavailable" message? Could it be related to SIP2 or missing configuration on the Evergreen side?

Thanks again — I really appreciate the community support!

[EreMaijala]

@ahazaril Just a note: Regardless of whether the ILS connection works, you'll need to index the MARC records in VuFind for searching. Now when you see the results it means that search is working; this is VuFind functionality that does not use the ILS.

I think you'll want better information on what's not working. I'd start by turning on logging at debug level. Depending on the ILS driver (I'm not familiar with Evergreen driver) the logs could provide you information on what's happening.

[ahazaril]

Thanks for the clarification @EreMaijala !

I’ve enabled debug logging, and from what I can see, there are no explicit errors related to the Evergreen connector. However, the Evergreen Driver still doesn’t seem to function — I’m not getting real-time item status, and user login isn’t working either.

I’ve also enabled SIP2 as the authentication method for user login, but I receive the following message when attempting to log in:

"We cannot log you in at this time. Please try again later."

This makes me wonder if the SIP2 connection is failing silently or if there are additional configuration steps needed for Evergreen specifically.

Appreciate any further insights from the community, especially from anyone who’s successfully connected Evergreen via SIP2 or the Evergreen Driver.

[EreMaijala]

@ahazaril Oh no. Looks like the Evergreen driver doesn't log anything, so that was useless advice from me. If you're willing to try adding some logging, this should work:
Right before the $this->throwAsIlsException($e); here in module/VuFind/src/VuFind/ILS/Driver/Evergreen.php, add the following line:
$this->logError((string)$e);
So the whole block should look like this:

        } catch (PDOException $e) {
            $this->logError((string)$e);
            $this->throwAsIlsException($e);
        }

Then do a search in VuFind and you should get some errors in the log. Fingers crossed!

[EreMaijala]

I might be mistaken, but that seems to be a customized holdings display. At least I've never seen vanilla VuFind display holdings with this style. I'd suggest trying with the bootstrap5 (or bootstrap3, if 5 isn't available) theme and reporting back how it looks.

[ahazaril]

I'm using a custom theme based on Lboro VuFind Theme 2024 (vufind-10.0 branch), which displays shelving location using the shelving_loc field. However, I’m not sure where I should map or define this field.

Should I configure this in marc.properties, or is it something that needs to be set in the Evergreen.ini ILS driver configuration?

Appreciate any guidance on how to correctly extract and display the shelving location from MARC or ILS.

[EreMaijala]

The data used on the holdings screen usually comes from the ILS, so it would required changes to the Evergreen driver. Though it could be something else in a custom theme, so I can't speak for that. In any case shelving_loc is not a standard VuFind field, so I can't help you with that, sorry!

[ahazaril]

Thanks for the clarification!

Just to confirm — is there a standard field or variable that VuFind uses by default to display Shelving Location on the holdings screen when retrieving data from the ILS?

Since shelving_loc isn’t part of the standard VuFind fields, I’d like to ensure I’m aligning with the correct field used by VuFind core. This will help me decide whether I need to modify the Evergreen driver or just adjust the custom theme logic.

Appreciate your guidance!

[EreMaijala]

What you're looking for is probably callnumber. For reference, we have a wiki page that documents all the standard fields an ILS driver can return. Evergreen supports the ones listed in the driver.

[demiankatz]

@ahazaril, I have never seen the Lboro theme (and was not aware of its existence before today). I notice that the developers seem to have included a custom version of the Koha ILS driver. Comparing their Koha driver against the standard VuFind one may provide clues about what they customized to create the layout you desire.

[ahazaril]

Thanks for the clarification!

For now, I've decided to override the shelving location display with a generic message like "Ask at Circulation Desk" as a temporary solution.

I’ll also take your suggestion and compare the custom Koha driver in the Lboro theme against the standard VuFind driver to better understand how their layout and display logic differs — that might give me clues on how to adapt it for Evergreen.

Appreciate your help as always!