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Letter configuration

Last modified by Alex Fletcher on 2025-11-12, 17:31

In an AFN, the resource-owning institution is the one which sends letters/notifications to a patron, regardless of the patron’s home institution. As such, several of the letters at each institution must be customized to ensure patrons are not confused. Our patrons know they’re requesting an item, but they don’t necessarily know where that item is coming from. We also need to modify the letters exposed to AFN patrons such that they include conditional logic to support the presentation of French language as well. We’ll be providing you code that you can place ABOVE what you’ve got configured in a specified list of letters. The code provided will only handle letters destined for AFN Users, and will automatically detect their preferred language (EN or FR) and will send them the corresponding version of the letter. As you will place this code above what you have already configured for your HOME patrons, this will not impact what your own patrons see.

There is also some configuration that is extremely useful when doing ISO or Email partner sharing. All of that configuration is reflected here.

You can find this configuration as follows:

  1. Login to IZ Alma
  2. Click on the gear (Configuration)
  3. Click on GENERAL
  4. Under LETTERS, click LETTERS CONFIGURATION

There is a public gitlab repository that contains the AFN related xsl changes. This configuration will link directly to example files and exact code snippets to insert into your existing xsl files. Ensure you’re looking at the AFN_WORK branch. This will show HOW the changes are used within a completed file.

Just a note. We’re not changing any of the letter labels. All AFN related text will be within the letter xsl itself. We’re doing this to minimize impact for each existing letter and allowing home institutions to leverage the labels as they see fit.

There is ONE EXCEPTION to the labels. Switch to the French labels and you’ll need to enter your desired addressFrom email. This will need to be done for ALL letters that we adjust here.

All of the letters with separate documentation pages below should be activated and the labels customized as desired, especially the addressFrom email address. Many of our libraries deactivate the header ("Dear Sir/Madam,") and the signature ("Sincerely"), but all libraries may have their own communication protocols and tendencies.

In addition to the letters in the documentation section that need activating, the following letters do NOT have any XSL changes but should be activated in your instance:

  • Borrower Claim Email Letter
  • Borrower Overdue Email Letter
  • Borrower Receive Email Letter
  • Borrower Return Email Letter
  • Ful Damaged Email Letter
  • Ful Lost Email Letter
  • Ful Renew Email Letter
  • General Message Email Letter

Letters Documentation

Changelog

November 12, 2025

August 14, 2025

January 22, 2025

  • Update Windsor segments in footer.xsl. See "AFN-VERSION 1.12 START ADJUST Windsor contact" segments in the repository. You can search for "LeddyLibrary@uwindsor.ca" to find the two spots to update (English and French footer)

November 12, 2024

  • Update the Ful Transit Slip Letter to handle ISO return-anywhere items that belong to another AFN member. These changes are tagged in the repo with "AFN-VERSION 1.5"

November 4, 2024

Sep 30, 2024

Feb 28, 2024:

  • Activate the Return Receipt Letter for email partners. Email partners will be notified that Omni institutions received their book back. Letter is terminated (doesn’t happen) for all other patrons. So only for email partners.

Jan 15, 2024:

  • On Hold Shelf letter improvement
    • Clarify information by adding lending institution name, instead of just the Alma configured Library name
    • Enhance the pickup location instructions by using a data field that contains institution, library name and circ desk. Helpful for buildings with multiple circ desks or have crafted descriptive names to aid patrons
    • Search in the file for AFN-VERSION 1.10 for the changes.
      • We’re adjusting the French and English AFN intro paragraph’s
    • On Hold Shelf Letter.xsl: https://gitlab.com/ug-library/alma-letter-config/-/blob/AFN_WORK/Letters/On Hold Shelf Letter/On Hold Shelf Letter.xsl
    • On hold letter BEFORE adjustments
    • On Hold Shelf - Before.png
    • On hold letter AFTER adjustments
    • On Hold Shelf - After.png

Jan 12, 2024:

Jan 8, 2024:

Nov 24, 2023:

  • Racer End of Life. Email partners
    • Ensure the following letters are activated. While activating, remember to customize your desired labels and addressFrom email address. Eg. Guelph generally deactivates the header (Dear Sir/Madam,) and signature (Sincerely) but every Institution may have their own communication protocols and tendencies:
      • Borrower Claim Email Letter
      • Borrower Overdue Email Letter
      • Borrower Receive Email Letter
      • Borrower Return Email Letter
      • Ful Cancel Email Letter
      • Ful Damaged Email Letter
      • Ful Lost Email Letter
      • Ful Outgoing Email Letter
      • Ful Renew Email Letter
      • General Message Email Letter
    • No xsl templates for these letters have been adjusted. They are all the system defaults
    • There are some eg. data xml files located in the AFN_WORK repository: https://gitlab.com/ug-library/alma-letter-config/-/tree/AFN_WORK/Letters

Nov 22, 2023:

May 30, 2022:

May 26, 2022:

Oct 07, 2021:

  • Updated IZ - footer.xsl please re-apply. The code in the repository was changed (example file and snippet). The transit letter was adjusted to include Institution name instead of the OCUL code that was displaying for AFN requests in the *from* and *owning library* sections. File and snippet show the line when you search on AFN-VERSION 1.4.
  • Updated / added IZ - Ful Transit Slip Letter.xsl. New AFN adjusted letter, not included previously. Some institutions have noticed on transit slips that some odd and confusing data exists within the *from* and *owning Library* fields.
    • Transit Slip - Bad 1.png
    • Transit Slip - Bad 2.png
    • The code in the repository was changed (example file and snippet). The transit letter was adjusted to include Institution name instead of the OCUL code that was displaying for AFN requests in the *from* and *owning library* sections. Replaced the <td> tags for those two fields and also added a couple variables at the top of the file. File and snippet show the line when you search on AFN-VERSION 1.4.
  • Added IZ - FulDigitizationDocumentDeliveryNotificationLetter.xsl to evaluate. The code in the repository was added (example file and snippet) for ISO resource sharing support. This is recommended to check. This digital document delivery letter was not part of the AFN expansion project. With ISO testing there MAY be some changes required depending on your local digitization letters. In some ISO testing, the xml data fields download_url_saml, download_url_local and download_url_cas need to be used. At Guelph, we weren’t using these because our idpCode for SAML auth wasn’t in the url (maybe UG has something missing somewhere). We’ve adjusted to use the download url’s and add in the institutions idpCode. This file is NOT AFN related, it only goes to local patrons, however ISO requests change some of the info that required changes. This letter is Guelph specific, don’t use entire letter. Search on AFN-VERSION 1.4, lines 98 – 119. Look for an AFN TODO tag so replace idpCode.

July 16, 2021

June 14, 2021

June 8, 2021