Innopac Session Ssope Bug

This is mainly a FYI for those people who have a problem with scopes not sticking when you first search the OPAC from an external site and then click home, the session loses the scope. I've seen a few people use a javascript workaround to ensure that the first page visited isn't actually the search results (with the javascript forwarding the user to the search results, thus making the scope 'sticky').

My alternative approach is to have a hidden image on the same page as the externally hosted search form. The hidden image is in fact a URL to the OPAC. e.g.

<div style="display:none">
	<img src="http://www.elgar.govt.nz/search~S6/"
		width="1" height="1" alt="Cookie Setter" /> 
</div> 

The div stops the image from showing a broken icon link, as the src is actually a normal OPAC page, not an image. But doing this forces the OPAC to start a session for the person, which is what is needed to preserve the scope. In my testing, it doesn't matter what page on the OPAC you choose, though I only tested against the standard Mil. pages. You can see this at work here at the search box on the top right: http://www.shorelibraries.govt.nz/

If anyone is interested in the technical problem... It seems is a bug in the way the OPAC handles session-creation, where the first page you visit doesn't correctly create the session. It sends you a HTTP Cookie for the Session, and the OPAC registers that session, but it *appears* that it has a bug setting scope information on the same page that created the session.

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