“Koha is assigning a default username and password when I add a new patron. What is the password?”
If you’ve had the same question, you are not alone! I have been seeing a lot of tickets with a similar question cross my desk since the latest Koha upgrade to 3.12. You have probably noticed that Koha is now assigning a default username to new patrons when you do not enter one. It is defaulting to the format of firstname.lastname. example: jane.smith
Koha is not, however, assigning a default password to patrons. It appears to be assigning a password due to the asterisks (****) that appear next to the password on the patron screen and in the text box when editing a patron. The asterisks are standard for a password field are not an indication of the existence of data in the field or the length of any data in the field. In looking at the database the password field is actually blank.
The behavior of the username/password fields is the same if you are adding patrons one by one in the Patron module of Koha or if you are bulk importing patrons through the Tools module. Both methods of patron entry will result in a username of firstname.lastname with blank password if none is specified by the user.
I hope this helps clarify any questions you may have about these two fields in Koha 3.12. If not, let us know!
-joy
Update: 1/13/2014- Just remember that users cannot log in to Koha unless you assign them a password! The blank password is not a valid password.
The post Patron Usernames in Koha 3.12 by Joy Nelson appeared first on ByWater Solutions - Koha Open Source ILS Support.