SDS-Labels is a static web-based application for generating shipping labels to be used by the Statewide Delivery System, a service managed and coordinated by the State Library of Ohio. More information about the service can be found on the State Library's website.

SDS Labels uses the following libraries:

• Bootstrap 5.0 alpha
• TaffyDB

TaffyDB consumes a JSON file, output.json, of the shipping label data and creates a JavaScript-like database of the entries:

// Initialise TaffyDB from JSON file
function initDB() {
    let xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
    xmlhttp.onreadystatechange = function () {
        if (this.readyState === 4 && this.status === 200) {
            data = JSON.parse(this.responseText);
            db = TAFFY(data);
            db.sort("name"); // Alphabetize
            loadOptions();
        }
    };
    xmlhttp.open("GET", "output.json", true);
    xmlhttp.send();
}

If the JSON structure is malformed, the entries will not populate the dropdown menus. If the dropdown menus are empty, verify the structure of the JSON data, and correct it. A single label object will look like the following:

  {
    "id": 9999,
    "libid": 900,
    "name": "A Single Library",
    "address": "123 Very Nice Rd.",
    "city": "Columbus",
    "state": "OH",
    "zip": 43201,
    "seo": "XXX",
    "hub": "ZZZ",
    "route": 9999,
    "latitude": "39.98153098",
    "longitude": "-82.99600477",
    "is_primary": true
  }

The output.json content may occasionally need to be updated to add entries as new libraries enter the program. When adding a new library, append their new entry to the end of the output.json file. You can omit the id field when adding a new entry; the workflow (below) will assign one automatically.The critical thing to remember is that the id value must be unique.

When adding a branch location for an existing library in the list, you can duplicate the libid value for the branch, but the is_primary value must be set to false for the new branch. Only 1 entry per libid can be flagged as true in the is_primary field.

A GitHub Actions workflow, .github/workflows/sort-libraries.yml, automatically sorts output.json alphabetically by library name each time a change to output.json or sort_libraries.py is pushed to main. The sort is performed by sort_libraries.py:

python sort_libraries.py output.json

Continue to append the new entry to the bottom of output.json without an id, push to main, and the workflow will normalize the file, automatically assigning a new id for you.