Release Notes: Move/copy relevant sections to Upgrade Notes

[Evergreen.git] / docs / RELEASE_NOTES_2_9.txt

Evergreen 2_9 Release Notes
===========================
:toc:
:numbered:

Upgrade notes
-------------

Remove Script-Based Circulation Configuration
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Evergreen no longer supports script-based circulation policies.  All
policies must now be managed within the Local Administration ->
Circulation Policies, Hold Policies, and related interfaces.


Remove open-ils.penalty service
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Evergreen no longer uses the 'open-ils.penalty' service.  It is safe
(though not required) to remove the following XML chunks from
/openils/conf/opensrf.xml after stopping services.

[source,xml]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

<!-- first element -->

<open-ils.penalty>
    <keepalive>3</keepalive>
    <stateless>1</stateless>
    <language>perl</language>
    <implementation>OpenILS::Application::Penalty</implementation>
    <max_requests>99</max_requests>
    <unix_config>
        <max_requests>1000</max_requests>
        <unix_log>open-ils.penalty_unix.log</unix_log>
        <unix_sock>open-ils.penalty_unix.sock</unix_sock>
        <unix_pid>open-ils.penalty_unix.pid</unix_pid>
        <min_children>1</min_children>
        <max_children>15</max_children>
        <min_spare_children>1</min_spare_children>
        <max_spare_children>5</max_spare_children>
    </unix_config>
    <app_settings>
        <patron_penalty>penalty/patron_penalty.js</patron_penalty>
        <script_path>LIBDIR/javascript</script_path>
        <script_path>LOCALSTATEDIR</script_path>
        <script_path>LOCALSTATEDIR/catalog</script_path>
   </app_settings>
</open-ils.penalty>

<!-- second element -->

<appname>open-ils.penalty</appname>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Removal of deprecated "JSPAC" interface
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The deprecated Javascript OPAC interface known as "JSPAC" is no
longer included in Evergreen as of this release.

With the understanding that local sites may have made use of
existing parts of the old JSPAC interface -- especially images and
CSS -- no attempt is made at upgrade time to automatically remove
the existing files from disk.

When upgrading, you may wish to remove "index.xml" from your Apache
DirectoryIndex directives.

The following directories, xml, js, and css files were formerly part
of JSPAC, and you may be able to safely remove them from your system
after verifying that they and their contents are no longer required:

- web/opac/common/css/
- web/opac/common/js/dtree.js
- web/opac/common/xml/
- web/opac/extras/bbags.js
- web/opac/extras/bbags.xml
- web/opac/skin/default/js/
- web/opac/skin/default/xml/
- web/opac/theme/

The list of images removed in this change is lengthy, and not
included here.


Removal of legacy selfcheck interface
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The legacy selfcheck interface is no longer included in Evergreen as
of this release.

This interface was formerly located at a URL ending in
extras/selfcheck/selfcheck.xml

No attempt is made at upgrade time to automatically remove this
interface.

It is recommended that you remove this interface and its associated
configuration after performing an upgrade:

(paths relative to Evergreen web root)

- opac/extras/selfcheck/selfcheck.css
- opac/extras/selfcheck/selfcheck.js
- opac/extras/selfcheck/selfcheck.xml
- opac/extras/selfcheck/selfcheck_print.css

You can also remove the related Apache configuration block starting
with:

[source, conf]
<LocationMatch .*/selfcheck.xml>



New Features
------------



Acquisitions
~~~~~~~~~~~~



Improved reporting of progress during purchase order activation
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The progress dialog that is displayed when activating a purchase
order now displays more information, particularly during the asset
creation phase. It is now also updated in a more linear fashion;
making it less likely for it to appear that the activation has
stalled.




==== "Blanket" Orders

"Blanket" orders allow staff to invoice an encumbered amount multiple times,
paying off the charge over a period of time.  The work flow supported by this 
development assumes staff does not need to track the individual contents of 
the order, only the amounts encumbered and invoiced in bulk.

===== Example

 . Staff creates PO with a Direct Charge of "Popular Fiction 2015" and
   a charge type of "Blanket Order".
 . The amount entered for the charge equals the total amount expected
   to be charged over the duration of the order.
 . When a shipment of "Popular Fiction" items arrive, staff creates an 
   invoice from the "Popular Fiction 2015" PO page and enters the amount 
   billed/paid for the received shipment under the "Popular Fiction 2015" 
   charge in the invoice.
 . When the final shipment arrives, staff select the 'Final invoice
   for Blanket Order' option on the invoice screen to mark the PO as
   'received' and drop any remaining encumbrances to $0.
  .. Alternatively, if the PO needs to be finalized without creating
     a final invoice, staff can use the new 'Finalize Blanket Order'
     option on the PO page.

===== New Components/Terminology/Concepts

 * Invoice Item Types have a new flag called 'blanket', available under
   Admin -> Server Administration -> Acq -> Invoice Item Types in the
   staff client.
 * Any direct charge using a 'blanket' item type will create a long-lived
   charge that can be invoiced multiple times.
 * Such a charge is considered open until its purchase order is "finalized" 
   (received).
 * "Finalizing" a PO changes the PO's state to 'received' (assuming there are
   no pending lineitems on the PO) and fully dis-encumbers all blanket charges
   on the PO by setting the fund_debit amount to $0 on the original fund_debit
   for the charge.
 * Invoicing a 'blanket' charge does the following under the covers:
  .. Create an invoice_item to track the payment
  .. Create a new fund_debit to implement the payment whose amount matches the
     invoiced amount.
  .. Subtract the invoiced amount from the fund_debit linked to the original
     'blanket' po_item, thus reducing the amount encumbered on the charge as 
     a whole by the invoiced amount.
 * A PO can have multiple blanket charges.  E.g. you could have a blanket
   order for "Popular Fiction 2015" and a second charge for "Pop Fiction 
   2015 Taxes" to track / pay taxes over time on a blanket charge.
 * A PO can have a mix of lineitems, non-blanket charges, and blanket charges.  
 * A 'blanket' Invoice Item Type cannot also be a 'prorate' type, since it's
   nonsensical.  Blanket items are encumbered, whereas prorated items are 
   only paid at invoice time and never encumbered.






Administration
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Examples in Apache configuration for "No Image"
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
There are now commented out examples for custom images to be used when
"no image" is present in the catalog for cover art. The included examples
are for small/medium/large jacket image art in the event they are not
found by the configured Added Content module.




Pre-Expiration A/T Event Definition
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A new Action Trigger event definition ("30 Day Account Expiration Courtesy 
Notice") for sending alerts to users before their accounts are expired has 
been added.  This is intended to give users time to renew their account before 
they lose access to library services.




Improved caching of web server templates
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Template Toolkit processors used by Apache are now cached for
better performance (by virtue of thereby being able to take advantage
of Template Toolkit's internal caching mechanism). In addition, the
*compiled* versions of the templates themselves can be cached to
provide an additional performance boost.

Two Apache virtualhost configuration variables are added to
control caching of compiled templates:

 * `OILSWebCompiledTemplateCache` - specifies location on the
   web server filesystem to store compiled templates.
 * `OILSWebTemplateStatTTL` - specifies number of seconds before
   checking to see if a newer version of a cached template is
   available.

As a result of the caching changes, it is now necessary for
Evergreen administrators to reload Apache to ensure that a change
to (say) TPAC templates becomes visible.




Cataloging
~~~~~~~~~~



Display Authority Subject Heading Thesaurus Value 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

There is now a new column in the *Manage Authorities* search results. Each result row now displays each authority's thesaurus value with a "Thes: " prefix. In the authority MARC editor interface the thesaurus value corresponds to the "Subject Heading Thesaurus" fixed field (http://www.loc.gov/marc/authority/ad008.html) labeled “Subj”. For example, a value of "Thes: a" means that the authority is a Library of Congress Subject Heading, and a value of "Thes: k" means the authority is a Canadian Subject Heading.

*A Library of Congress list of thesaurus values:*


* '' = Alternate no attempt to code
* a = Library of Congress Subject Headings
* b = LC subject headings for children's literature
* c = Medical Subject Headings
* d = National Agricultural Library subject authority file
* k = Canadian Subject Headings
* n = Not applicable
* r = Art and Architecture Thesaurus
* s = Sears List of Subject Headings
* v = Repertoire de vedettes-matiere
* z = Other
* | = No attempt to code




Importing Statistical Categories
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
You can now retrieve statistical categories (stat cats) from the MARC
record and apply them to the items in Evergreen. When importing or
overlaying items through the Vandelay MARC batch import process, edit
your Holdings Import Profile to tell Evergreen which subfield contains
your stat cat data. That subfield in your MARC records should be
formatted like the following:

----
CATEGORY 1|VALUE 1||CATEGORY 2|VALUE 2
----

Notice that the pipe character '|' is used to separate each category
from its value, and two pipes separate each pair of category values.

If you are overlaying existing copies which already have stat cats
attached to them, the overlay process will keep those values unless the
incoming copies contain updated values for matching categories.




Remove the ‡biblios.net Z39.50 target from seed data
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The Z39.50 target at z3950.biblios.net/bibliographic has not worked
for years, so its service definition is no longer provided in the
seed data for new installations of Evergreen.

Users of existing Evergreen systems should consider removing
the Z39.50 definition for ‡biblios.net. This can be done from
Admin | Server Administration | Z39.50 Servers in the staff
client.




SKOS for coded values
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Some vocabularies used (or which could be used) for stock
record attributes and coded value maps in Evergreen are
published on the web using SKOS. The record attributes system
can now associate Linked Data URIs with specific attribute
values. In particular, seed data supplying URIs for the
RDA Content Type, Media Type, and Carrier Type in this release.

This is an experimental, "under-the-hood" feature that will be built
upon in subsuquent releases.




MARC Tag-table Service
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The tag tables for the web staff client MARC editor are
now stored in the database rather than a separate XML
tooltips file as used by the XUL MARC editor.  The tag-table
service, which is part of the web staff client sprint 2
preview in this release, has the following features:

- specifies whether (sub)fields are optional or mandatory
- specifies whether (sub)fields are repeatable or not
- a coded value map can be associated with a subfield to
  establish a controlled vocabulary for that subfield
- MARC field and subfield definitions can be overridden
  by institutions further down in the organizational unit
  hierarchy.  This allows, for example, a library to specify
  definitions for local MARC tags.
- values supplied by the tag-table service are used to
  populate values in context menus in the web staff client
  MARC editor.

The initial seed data for the in-database tag table is
derived from the current tooltips XML file.




Web staff client cataloging preview
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The web staff client now includes additional functionality
to support cataloging and item maintenance, including:

- a new MARC editor
- the service backing the authority headings chooser now
  has the ability to filter the browse by subject thesaurus
- Z39.50 search and record import
- improvements to copy and record bucket functionality
- embedding the link checker interface
- embedding the MARC batch import/export interface
- the web staff volume/copy editor

Nearly all of the cataloging functionality available in the XUL
staff client is now present in the web staff client with the 
exception of printing spine labels. Nonetheless, the web staff
client remains a preview and is not recommended for production use.




Circulation
~~~~~~~~~~~



Conditional Negative Balances
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Evergreen sites will now have more control over whether a negative balance can
be applied to a user's billing record and when that negative balance can be 
applied. Through a series of Library Settings, a site can prohibit negative
balances on bills or can allow those negative balances to be applied for a
specific period of time after a lost or overdue bill is charged to the user.
Sites can set a default for all types of bills or can apply distinct settings
for lost bills and for overdue fines. The more specific settings will override
the default. 

Sites that opt to allow negative balances for a specific period of time must
1) enable the relevant "prohibit negative balances" setting(s) and 2) specify
the time period in the relevant Negative Balance Interval setting(s).  

In addition to the new library settings, the system now has a new account 
adjustment payment type. This payment type will be utilized for libraries 
prohibiting negative balances to replace the previous voiding behavior that 
caused the negative balances to occur. The account adjustment payment type will
also be used for all libraries, regardless of the state of negative balance
settings, in cases where overdue fines are adjusted when an overdue item is
marked lost.

An _Adjust to Zero_ option has been added to the bills interface of the patron
record. This option will always adjust the selected bill to a zero balance.
It can also be used to easily clear a negative balance from the patron's
record. A user must have the new ADJUST_BILLS permission to see and use this
option.

This new feature also changes the behavior for the client option to void a bill
from the patron record. If a user does not have the VOID_BILLING permission, the
option to void bills will be hidden in the bills interface and in the Full 
Details view of a specific bill. 

To truly remove the ability to produce negative balances on a transaction,
administrators need to 1) enable the relevant setting in the Library Settings
Editor and 2) remove the VOID_BILLING permission from staff accounts since
manual voiding will continue to produce negative balances.

New Library Settings
++++++++++++++++++++
 * Negative Balance Interval (Default) (bill.negative_balance_interval_default)
 * Negative Balance Interval for Lost (bill.negative_balance_interval_on_lost) -
 * Negative Balance Interval for Overdues (bill.negative_balance_interval_on_overdues
 * Prohibit negative balance on bills (Default) (bill.prohibit_negative_balance_default)
 * Prohibit negative balance on bills for lost materials (bill.prohibit_negative_balance_on_lost)
 * Prohibit negative balance on bills for overdue materials (bill.prohibit_negative_balance_on_overdues)
 
New Permissions
+++++++++++++++
 * ADJUST_BILLS 




Selfcheck Inactivity Warning
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The Selfcheck interface now warns patrons when they are about to be
logged out due to inactivity 20 seconds prior to logging them out.

The inactivity timeout is also reset with each checkout to avoid timeouts 
while checking out lots of items.




User Registration Includes Inactive Accounts in Dupe Search
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
When registering a user, the system checks to see if there are already exiting users with the same name, address, email, etc. Now this duplicate user search includes inactive users so that matches can be re-activated if desired, rather than creating duplicate accounts.




Client
~~~~~~



Link in catalog to clear Added Content cache
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
On the catalog's record summary page, there is now a link for staff that
allow them to forcibly clear the cache for the Added Content for that
record. This is helpful if the Added Content retrieved the wrong
cover jacket art, summary, etc. and caches the wrong result.




Disable Google Analytics in Staff Client
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
In the staff client interface, Google Analytics for the web catalog is
now disabled by default. This was a preventive measure to reduce the
potential risks for leaking patron information.




Move Acquisitions Admin Menu
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
In the staff client interface, the Acquisitions Administration menu is
now directly accessible from the main "Admin" menu instead of 
living under "Server Administration". It has also been renamed as "Acquisitions
Administration".




OPAC
~~~~



Account Expiration Date in My Account
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The Account Expiration Date has been added to the catalog's My Account display
on the main Account Summary page and the Account Preferences page.  This should
help patrons with figuring out when their accounts are due to expire before
they actually expire.



Change to Available Copies Display
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The _Show_ link in the available copies area of the record summary will now
display for any org unit that owns a copy of a particular title, even if all
those copies are unavailable. The _Show_ link will not display if a) the copy
display is already scoped to that org unit or b) the org unit does not own
copies of the title.

The language has also been changed to read "x of y copies available at z
library."





Column sorting in circulation screens
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Sorting of selected columns is now available in the *Items Checked Out*, *Check Out History*,
and *Holds* screens.

* Clicking on the appropriate column heads now sorts the contents from
``ascending'' to ``descending'' to ``no sort''.  (The ``no sort'' restores the
original list as presented in the screen.)

* The sort indicator (an up or down arrow) is placed to the right
of the column head, as appropriate.

* The combined *Title/Author* column in the *Items Checked Out* screen is now separated into two
independently sortable columns (Title and Author).

* Title sorting is done with the non-filing characters (leading ``the'', ``a'',
``an'', and other langugage equivalents) removed. The leading articles are rendered in
a smaller font, so as to keep the main entry prominent.  In
addition to the non-filing characters removed for the sort, leading
non-alphanumeric characters are ignored in the sort.




New bib source variable for catalog customization
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
For bibliographic records, there is a "bib source" that can be
associated with every record. This source is now available as a
variable that can be used behind the scenes when customizing
the online catalog. The new bib source variables do not present
themselves in the catalog display by default.




New class attribute for e-resource links
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
In the catalog, links to electronic resources now have a link class
attribute of "uri_link" to make them easier to customize or build
additional services upon.





Removal of deprecated "JSPAC" interface
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The deprecated Javascript OPAC interface known as "JSPAC" is no
longer included in Evergreen as of this release.

With the understanding that local sites may have made use of
existing parts of the old JSPAC interface -- especially images and
CSS -- no attempt is made at upgrade time to automatically remove
the existing files from disk.

When upgrading, you may wish to remove "index.xml" from your Apache
DirectoryIndex directives.

The following directories, xml, js, and css files were formerly part
of JSPAC, and you may be able to safely remove them from your system
after verifying that they and their contents are no longer required:

- web/opac/common/css/
- web/opac/common/js/dtree.js
- web/opac/common/xml/
- web/opac/extras/bbags.js
- web/opac/extras/bbags.xml
- web/opac/skin/default/js/
- web/opac/skin/default/xml/
- web/opac/theme/

The list of images removed in this change is lengthy, and not
included here.




Removal of legacy selfcheck interface
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The legacy selfcheck interface is no longer included in Evergreen as
of this release.

This interface was formerly located at a URL ending in
extras/selfcheck/selfcheck.xml

No attempt is made at upgrade time to automatically remove this
interface.

It is recommended that you remove this interface and its associated
configuration after performing an upgrade:

(paths relative to Evergreen web root)

- opac/extras/selfcheck/selfcheck.css
- opac/extras/selfcheck/selfcheck.js
- opac/extras/selfcheck/selfcheck.xml
- opac/extras/selfcheck/selfcheck_print.css

You can also remove the related Apache configuration block starting
with:

[source, conf]
<LocationMatch .*/selfcheck.xml>




Acknowledgments
---------------
The Evergreen project would like to acknowledge the following
organizations who commissioned developments in this release of
Evergreen:

 * Georgia Public Library Service
 * Grand Rapids Public Library
 * Kenton County Public Library
 * King County Library System
 * Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative
 * NC Cardinal
 * OhioNet
 * Pennsylvania Integrated Library System 

We would also like to thank the following individuals who contributed
code, documentation patches and tests to this release of Evergreen:

 * Thomas Berezansky
 * Matt Berowski
 * Adam Bowling
 * Jason Boyer
 * Christine Burns
 * Galen Charlton
 * Bill Erickson
 * Jason Etheridge
 * Jeff Davis
 * Lynn Floyd
 * Jeff Godin
 * Angela Kilsdonk
 * Doug Kyle
 * Debbie Luchenbill
 * Kathy Lussier
 * Terran McCanna
 * Stephen Moss
 * Dan Pearl
 * Michael Peters
 * Mike Rylander
 * Jane Sandberg
 * Dan Scott
 * Ben Shum
 * Josh Stompro
 * Remington Steed
 * Jason Stephenson
 * Yamil Suarez
 * Dan Wells
 * Liam Whalen

We also thank the following organizations whose employees contributed
patches:

 * Anderson County Library
 * Berklee College of Music
 * Bibliomation
 * British Columbia Libraries Cooperative
 * Calvin College
 * Catalyst Dev Works
 * Central/Western Massachusetts Automated Resource Sharing
 * Emerald Data Networks, Inc.
 * Equinox Software, Inc.
 * Georgia Public Library Service
 * Grand Rapids Public Library
 * Indiana State Library
 * King County Library System
 * Lake Agassiz Regional Library
 * Laurentian University
 * Linn-Benton Community College
 * Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative
 * Merrimack Valley Library Consortium
 * MOBIUS
 * Northwest Regional Library System
 * Sigio
 * Traverse Area District Library 

We regret any omissions.  If a contributor has been inadvertantly
missed, please open a bug at http://bugs.launchpad.net/evergreen/
with a correction.