Exporting and Importing Fine Data

While you can manually enter fine information in Circulation, Destiny also accepts fine payment data in an XML (extensible markup language) file format. The import utility does not accept text files with fixed-length, or comma- or tab-delimited fields.

Important: If you can log in as the Destiny Administrator, you can access the files in the \FSC-Destiny\fsc\bin folder, or download them from the District Options page of Destiny.

Consortium users, either the Follett Hosted service or a regional consortium, must download the Command Line tools from within Destiny, and extract them into a folder.

You can:

  • Extract fine information for the entire district, and import it into your cash management system.
  • Import fine payment information from your cash management system into Destiny.

Rename the Configuration File

The Import and Export fine utilities require a text file that contains the Destiny Administrator login name and password.

  1. Navigate to the \FSC-Destiny \fsc\bin folder on your application server.
  2. Locate the two configuration files: exportfines.properties.sample and importfines.properties.sample.
  3. Delete the .sample from the file name, or rename the file.
  4. Open each file, and enter your login name and password.
  5. Close and save each file.

Export Fine Information from Destiny

The command line export utility lets you extract outstanding fine information from the Destiny database. The extraction includes information for the entire district.

  1. Open a command prompt, and change to the \FSC-Destiny\fsc\bin directory.
  2. Enter the command in either of the two forms shown here. For either one, file encoding is optional; the utility assumes UTF-8 unless you define otherwise.
    • This command requires that the information be in the order shown:

      ExportFines configurationFile fineExportFileName contextName fileEncoding

      Example

      ExportFines C:\exportfines.properties C:\FineExport063011.txt

    • This command allows you to put the information in any order. Remember that file encoding information is optional. You only need to include file encoding if it is not UTF-8.

      ExportFines -configurationFile=<value> -fineExportFileName=<value> -contextName=<value> -fileEncoding=<value> (all one line)

      Example

      ExportFines -fineExportFileName=C:\FineExp063011 -configurationFile=C:\exportfines.properties (all one line)

      ParamNameRequiredDescription

      configurationFile

      Yes

      Complete path to the file containing configuration information for Export Fines

      fineExportFileName

      Yes

      Complete path and name for the XML output file

      contextName

      Yes - if a member of a consortium

      Database/Context name of the consortium member

      To find the context name, log in as Super Administrator, open Setup and then the Edit <membername> page.

      fileEncoding

      No

      Character encoding for the export file.

      Can be one of the following:

      ISO_8859-1
      Windows-1252
      UTF-8 (default)
      UTF-16BE
      UTF-16LE
      UTF-16
      UTF-32BE
      UTF-32LE
      UTF-32

Output File Data

The utility writes the following data elements to the output file:

Fine Information

  • FineID (Actual primary key of fine)
  • Fine owner site short name (that is, the site where the fine was assessed)
  • Fine description (for example, Overdue, Lost, Damaged)
  • Fine created date
  • Fine note
  • Fine amount (Remaining balance). This could be either positive, indicating a fine, or negative, indicating a refund due.

Patron Information

  • Patron's site Short Name (site name of patron)
  • Patron District ID
  • Patron barcode number (Barcode of patron)
  • Patron Name (Last, Middle, First)

Item Information

  • The title of the item (if applicable)
  • The collection type of the item (Resource, Library, Textbook) (if applicable)
  • Item barcode number (if applicable)
  • Title Budget Category (if applicable) (Textbook Manager only)
  • Item Budget Category (if applicable) (Textbook Manager only)
  • Item site short name (the site currently owning the item) (if applicable)

Import Fine Information into Destiny

The import utility provides a method for a third-party utility to pass fine payment information to Destiny. This import is available through a command line utility, which submits a job to the Job Manager.

Destiny attempts to apply the fine payment to each fine specified. If an error occurs (for example, the fine is not found or the payment is greater than outstanding amount), an exception is written to the job summary in Destiny.

  1. Open a command prompt, and change to the \FSC-Destiny\fsc\bin directory.
  2. Enter the command in either of the two forms shown here:
    • This command requires that the information be in the order shown:

      ImportFines configurationFile fineImportFileName contextName

      Example

      ImportFines C:\importfines.properties C:\FineImport102111.txt

    • This command allows you to put the information in any order.

      ImportFines -configurationFile=<value> -fineImportFileName=<value> -contextName=<value> (all one line)

      Example

      ImportFines -fineImportFileName=C:\FineExp102111 -configurationFile=C:\importfines.properties (all one line)

      ParamName

      Required

      Description

      configurationFile

      Yes

      File containing configuration information for Import Fines

      fineExportFileName

      Yes

      Fines XML file to be imported

      contextName

      Yes - if a member of a consortium

      Context name of the consortium member

Input File Data

These are the input file elements:

Data Required Comment

FineID

Yes

From the export file

AmountPaid

At least 1 of these 2 amounts

Can be positive, indicating a fine payment was received, or negative, indicating a refund was paid out.

AmountWaived

Payments are applied before waivers.

The amount must be a whole number with no decimals, currency units, or separators.

Fine description

No

Any descriptive information you would like to appear in the job summary. It is not, however, written to Destiny.

Process the Import File

When processing the input file, Destiny creates a job summary containing the following information:

  • It lists each fine payment, refund,or waiver applied.
  • It lists an error when a fine payment, refund, or waiver cannot be applied.
  • If the amount paid exceeds the current outstanding amount of a fine refund, the transaction is skipped, and the job summary lists the exception.
  • If a waiver, or a combination of a payment and waiver, exceeds the fine balance, the transaction is skipped, and the job summary lists the exception.
  • If a payment or refund is a partial payment or refund, the job summary lists the remaining balance.

For a printable version, see Exporting and importing fine data.