Extending MERCI's Functionality with Submodules

MERCI consists of the main MERCI module and several submodules. The reason for submodules is to break functionality up into more manageable parts. Everything necessary to operate an equipment checkout is included in the main MERCI module.

Modules Included in MERCI module

MERCI Inventory - Makes it easier to manage custom CCK fields between content types. Using MERCI Inventory to directly add common fields to the all of the content types managed in MERCI, creating custom reports in Views is much easier. Add fields to the merci_inventory_master and synchronized them with all the content types managed by MERCI. MERCI Inventory also includes a Views Bulk Operation merci_inventory content type for taking inventory. Node References to the nodes in the inventory are added to a new merci_inventory node along with the date, time, and user who took the inventory.

MERCI Permissions - Makes it much easier to understand MERCI's permissions. Instead of manually editing the Edit Own and Delete own settings in Drupal default permission grid, users are only click one checkbox for each role they want to have access to the equipment. Users in that role then see the equipment while making a Reservation and are by limited to the content type's default settings for max hours, cost, weekends, etc. After giving a role access to the equipment, MERCI Role/Rule Override can be used to customize the rules for that role.

MERCI Role/Rule Override - Adds a role to rule relation that will allow different rates or max durations for users in different roles. An obvious use for that would be charging users in the member role a lower rate. A less obvious would be to have a role called "Active Projects" that is populated in the background similar to how User Karma works. Users who are listed as contributing members of a project that has added new video in the last 3 weeks (or whatever duration is appropriate at your location) are kept in the Active Project role. If the project isn't contributing video back to the station, the user would either have to pay the commercial rate or convince a staff member to temporarily add them back to the Active Project role to get the lower rate.

MERCI Template - Groups to prepopulate a Reservation form. An example is reserving a studio or an entire computer lab for a class. Reporting is more accurate because each items is actually reserved, but it saves time for the person teaching the class. It is also helpful to know for an instructor to learn a camera or edit station is unavailable because it is reserved or temporarily unavailable while being repaired

MERCI Staff - Provides a staff driven solution for stations that want to keep reservations internal rather than allowing producers to make their own reservations. This module changes MERCI's validation from that of the logged in user to the username entered in the author field, which is brought to the top of the form. This effectively eliminates the need for masquerade or using switch user from the devel module. The module also defaults the group list to those corresponding with the user whom the reservation is created for, as well as limiting the equipment checkout based upon the user's permissions. An override options allows staff to make a reservation for a user that includes equipment or extends over hours the user wouldn't be allowed to make themselves.

MERCI Related modules in separate downloads

MERCI Quota, MERCI Email, MERCI Signup, MERCI Pricing, MERCI CiviCRMSync, and MERCI Barcode Labels