Seeking user feedback: item pools and sites

We’re looking at making changes to how users connect items and sites in Omeka S, and as part of that, we’d like to hear from the users.

The current item pool system makes it tricky for us to implement some features (for example, a public side search that works across multiple sites), so we are considering some different systems for choosing which items appear in which sites.

So, what we’re really interested to hear about is: what about the current item pool system do you think works well for you, and what doesn’t? Is configuring and using the item pool for sites convenient, or is it more of something that you’re “working around” (or maybe even ignoring).

Feel free to make specific suggestions or complaints (or kudos, we like those too), but even just a more general sense of how you’re finding using the item pools would be greatly appreciated.

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A couple of items that I would like to see changed:

  • In the admin users only see items associated with item sets from sites they are part of. Users are constantly having to click advanced search to get to the items they want to see.

  • On the front end advanced search, only item sets that are associated with the site should be options in the item set pulldown.

Overall I think the functionality works well. And I appreciated the opportunity to provide feedback.

You’re saying you’d like it to be this way, not that it is this way, correct?

Restricting non-admin user access to resources based on sites they belong to is a functionality that we also need, and we have been developing a module for that purpose that is nearly ready for internal testing.

We’d like for users to only see items from item sets tied to sites they user belongs to, with the option to “see all” if desired. Essentially flip the current model.

Awesome! Hope internal testing goes well.

As a relative noobie, what I found/find confusing is the way that the item pool is created by clicking on a thing labeled “Resources.”

Why not call this “Item Pool” or otherwise indicate how that the pool is selected there? Are there other resources available in this area?

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@muccigrosso Yes, the item sets are separate resources you can add to your site.

I am at a fairly early stage of testing Omeka S (having used Classic in the past). While I am adding and uploading items I find the item pools give nice flexibility for populating sites later on. For example, one archival collection is mostly letters but has some other related items. At this point I’m not sure if a public site will include just the letters or all the items (and I don’t really want to wait until I know). Two item pools, one containing everything and another containing just the letters means I can leave both options open for quick deployment. I can see these kind of hierarchical pools being useful for a lot of different reasons - say, if some items are held back for copyright checking or whatever.

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