1 Evergreen 3.1 Release Notes
2 ===========================
10 This release contains bug fixes improving on Evergreen 3.1.1. Note that
11 all bug fixes refer to the web staff client unless otherwise specified.
19 * The MARC editor now handles 008 fields better.
20 * Adds spaces between subfields when suggesting a call
21 number for a new volume.
22 * MarcXML exports from the MARC Batch Import/Export ->
23 Export Records screen now downloads the file, rather than opening
25 * The Item Status Circulation Library column now displays a
26 shortname rather than the full library name.
27 * The Item Status Remaining Renewals column now displays
29 * The Item Status now has a "Last Renewal Workstation" column
31 * Fixes the circulation counts displayed in Item Status Details.
32 * Removes an error that got thrown in the Holdings View when a call number
34 * Fixes an issue where multiple copies with different values for required
35 statistical categories could not be edited and saved in batch.
36 * Add an option to remove floating in the copy editor.
37 * Fixes an issue with the floating dropdown in the copy editor.
38 * Fixes a problem in which the copy template didn't properly copy
40 * Reduces the number of API calls that the MARC Editor requires.
41 * The order of the Z39.50 servers on the Z39.50 import screen
42 no longer relies on capitalization.
47 * Fixes an issue that prevented the offline patron registration
49 * Fixes an issue with searching patrons by permission group.
50 * The barcodes in the patron search are now clickable.
51 * Staff members can now manually override the patron juvenile
52 flag value, regardless of the patron's date of birth.
53 * Checkboxes on patron registration screen are now properly aligned
55 * The user permission group dropdowns in the patron registration,
56 edit, and search interfaces now have scrollbars.
57 * The date picker on the checkout screen is now hidden unless
58 circ staff activates a specific due date option.
59 * The check-in screen now includes a copy status column.
60 * The Merge Patrons interface now displays the date of birth.
61 * The user bucket screen now displays the Bucket ID.
62 * The payment button on patron bills screen is now inactive if the
63 Payment Received field is blank.
64 * The Bill History receipt now includes a Finish date and a Last
66 * When a patron summary contains an image of the patron,
67 that image tag now has a null alt attribute to remove it from
68 the flow of a screen reader.
69 * Corrects an issue that caused the transit dialog to show the
71 * Corrects an issue with printing transit lists.
72 * "Find another target" on transiting hold no longer leaves the
74 * The images now display to distinguish hold and transit slips.
75 * The Clearable Holds list printout now only shows holds that have
77 * Restores the call number prefix and suffix fields to the holds
79 * The documentation at the top of the hold shelf slip template
81 * The cursor in the in-house use screen now automatically goes
83 * The in-house use screen now shows a copy status column.
84 * Add support for converting change to patron credit in the patron bills
85 interface, consistent with the XUL feature.
86 * Fixes a bug that caused pickup/request library fields to be
88 * Fixes a bug in the offline org unit tree.
90 Command-line system administration
91 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
93 * The novelist entry in `eg_vhost.conf` includes two new
95 * Corrects an issue with the `--max-sleep` argument on the
96 `action_trigger_runner.pl` support script.
97 * Corrects an issue with how the `eg_pbx_allocator.pl` script
98 detects an existing lock file.
99 * The 3.0.2-3.0.3 upgrade script disables triggers before
100 recalculating bib visibility.
105 * Fixes an issue that caused records with located URIs to be
106 retrieved in Copy Location and Copy Location Group searches.
107 * Fixes an error message that appeared in the search box
108 in the public catalog while placing hold after an advanced search.
109 * Restores the display of copy information for the user's
110 preferred library in the public catalog.
111 * Author and contributor names are no longer highlighted in
112 search results when the user has turned off highlighting.
113 * Fixes regression errors in the search results page.
114 * Removes redundant call numbers from the Show More Details
116 * The cast field in the catalog is now taken from the 511 field
117 when first indicator = 1, rather than the 508.
118 * Fixes a display issue caused by editing holds.
124 * Fixes an issue that prevented users from searching for
125 receivable issues using Database ID or ISSN in the Serials
126 Batch Receive interface.
130 * Pins AngularJS support to version 1.6, which prevents unsupported
131 AngularJS versions (such as 1.7) from breaking the build process.
132 * Adds some padding to the bottom of Web Client interfaces.
133 * Logins now honor all org unit timeout settings.
134 * Evergreen will now identify and handle invalid timezones.
139 We would like to thank the following individuals who contributed code,
140 tests and documentation patches to the 3.1.2 point release of
176 This release contains bug fixes improving on Evergreen 3.1.0.
178 * Fixes a performance issue with the Patron Billing History screen and
179 other screens that cause Flattener.pm to re-create joins
181 * Fixes an issue that prevented patron alerts from showing to staff at
183 * Corrects the "Holdable" attribute display on the Item Status detailed
185 * Fixes the ability to delete multiple copies from Item Status.
189 We would like to thank the following individuals who contributed code,
190 tests and documentation patches to the 3.1.1 point release of
205 Like many major Evergreen upgrades, 3.1 requires a full reingest of your
206 bibliographic records before the system is usable again. While a basic reingest
207 is included at the end of the upgrade script, it happens after the main
208 COMMIT, so it is safe to cancel that and run the required reingest as you see
209 fit (e.g. via pingest.pl).
218 New Latency Tester Tool
219 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
220 The Evergreen Web Staff Client now includes a section called *Tests* linked from
221 *Administration -> Workstation*. The *Tests* page houses a simple tool
222 that can be used to test the latency of the websocket connection between the
223 client and the server (via the `opensrf.echo` service).
225 This page displays which Evergreen host server is being queried. Upon hitting
226 the blue "Start Test" button for the first time, it will issue 10 sequentially
227 fired requests in order to get a solid initial average. Clicking the button a
228 second time will take one more measurement and recalculate the average
229 latency. The results can be copied to clipboard for troubleshooting purposes
230 and also cleared from display.
232 marc_export --uris option
233 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
234 The marc_export support script now has a `--uris` option (short form:
235 `-u`) to export records with located URIs (i.e. electronic resources). When
236 used by itself, it will export only records that have located URIs. When
237 used in conjunction with `--items`, it will add records with located URIs
238 but no items/copies to the output. If combined with a `--library` or
239 `--descendants` option, this option will limit its output to those
240 records with URIs at the designated libraries. The best way to use
241 this option is in combination with the `--items` and one of the
242 `--library` or `--descendants` options to export *all* of a library's
243 holdings both physical and electronic.
249 Sample Data Includes Surveys
250 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
251 The Concerto sample data set now includes patron surveys, questions,
252 answers, and responses.
254 Virtual Index Definitions
255 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
256 The practical purpose of Virtual Index Definitions is to supply an Evergreen
257 administrator with the ability to control the weighting and field inclusion of
258 values in the general keyword index, commonly referred to as "the blob,"
259 without requiring tricky configuration that has subtle semantics, an
260 over-abundance of index definitions which can slow search generally, or the
261 need to reingest all records on a regular basis as experiments are performed
262 and the configuration refined. Significant results of recasting keyword indexes
263 as a set of one or more Virtual Index Definitions will be simpler search
264 configuration management, faster search speed overall, and more practical
265 reconfiguration and adjustment as needed.
267 Previously, in order to provide field-specific weighting to
268 keyword matches against titles or authors, an administrator must duplicate many
269 other index definitions and supply overriding weights to those duplicates. This
270 not only complicates configuration, but slows down record ingest as well as
271 search. It is also fairly ineffective at achieving the goal of weighted keyword
272 fields. Virtual Index Definitions will substantially alleviate the need for
273 these workarounds and their consequences.
275 * A Virtual Index Definition does not require any configuration for
276 extracting bibliographic data from records, but instead can become a sink for
277 data collected by other index definitions, which is then colocated together to
278 supply a search target made up of the separately extracted data. Virtual Index
279 Definitions are effectively treated as aggregate definitions, matching across
280 all values extracted from constituent non-virtual index definitions. They can
281 further make use of the Combined class functionality to colocate all values in a
282 class together for matching even across virtual fields.
284 * Configuration allows for weighting of constituent index definitions that
285 participate in a Virtual Index Definition. This weighting is separate from the
286 weighting supplied when the index definition itself is a search target.
288 * The Evergreen QueryParser driver returns the list of fields actually
289 searched using every user-supplied term set, including constituent expansion
290 when a Virtual Index Definition is searched. In particular, this will facilitate
291 Search Term Highlighting described below.
293 * Stock configuration changes make use of pre-existing, non-virtual index
294 definitions mapped to new a Virtual Index Definition that implements the
295 functionality provided by the `keyword|keyword` index definition. The
296 `keyword|keyword` definition is left in place for the time being, until more data
297 can be gathered about the real-world effect of removing it entirely and
298 replacing it with Virtual Index Definition mappings.
300 * New system administration functions will be created to facilitate
301 modification of Virtual Index Definition mapping, avoiding the need for a full
302 reingest when existing index definitions are added or removed from a virtual
305 Increased use of Metabib Display Fields
306 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
307 We use Metabib Display Fields (newly available in 3.0) to render catalog search
308 results, intermediate metarecord results, and record detail pages. This requires
309 the addition of several new Metabib Display Field definitions, as well as Perl
310 services to gather and render the data.
312 We also use more Metabib Display Fields in the client. As a result,
313 bibliographic fields will display in proper case in more client interfaces and
314 in Evergreen reports.
318 A new AngularJS "MARC Search/Facet Fields" interface has been created to replace
319 the Dojo version, and both have been extended to support Virtual Index
320 Definition data supplier mapping and weighting.
322 Settings & Permissions
323 ++++++++++++++++++++++
324 The new Virtual Index Definition data supplier mapping table,
325 `config.metabib_field_virtual_map`, requires the same permissions as the
326 MARC Search/Facet Fields interface: CREATE_METABIB_FIELD, UPDATE_METABIB_FIELD,
327 DELETE_METABIB_FIELD, or ADMIN_METABIB_FIELD for all actions
331 There now exist several new database tables and functions primarily in support
332 of search highlighting. Additionally, the QueryParser driver for Evergreen has
333 been augmented to be able to return a data structure describing how the search
334 was performed, in a way that allows a separate support API to gather a
335 highlighted version of the Display Field data for a given record.
339 By default, the following fields will be weighted more heavily in keyword
340 searches. Administrators can change these defaults by changing the values in the
341 "All searchable fields" virtual index in the "MARC Search/Facet Fields"
345 * Main title (a new index limited to the words in the 245a)
349 In addition, note indexes and the physical description index will receive
350 less weight in default keyword searches.
352 Re-ingest or Indexing Dependencies
353 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
354 With the addition and modification of many Index Definitions, a full reingest is
355 recommended. However, search will continue to work as it did previously
356 for those records that have not yet been reingested. Therefore a slow, rolling
357 reingest is recommended.
359 Performance Implications or Concerns
360 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
361 Because the Metabib Display Fields infrastructure will eventually replace
362 functionality that is significantly more CPU-intensive in the various forms of
363 XML parsing, XSLT transformation, XPath calculation, and
364 Metabib Virtual Record construction, it is expected that the overall CPU load
365 will be reduced by this development, and ideally the overall time required to
366 perform and render a search will likewise drop. It is unlikely that the speed
367 increase will be visible to users on a per-search basis, but that search in
368 aggregate will become a smaller consumer of resources.
376 When 2 or more bib records are merged, all records involved are stamped
377 with a new `merge_date` value. For any bib record, this field indicates
378 the last time it was involved in a merge. At the same time, all
379 subordinate records (i.e. those deleted as a product of the merge) are
380 stamped with a `merged_to` value indicating which bib record the source
381 record was merged with.
383 In the browser client bib record display, a warning alert now appears
384 along the top of the page (below the Deleted alert) indicating when a
385 record was used in a merge, when it was merged, and which record it was
386 merge with, rendered as a link to the target record.
392 Alternate Patron Hold Pickup
393 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
394 This feature adds a bit of convenience to a common task: checking out
395 an item on hold to another patron (typically a family member or helper).
397 When you checkout the item, you will get a pop-up window with warnings associated
398 with this item. The "ITEM_ON_HOLDS_SHELF" message is now expanded to
400 * Let you know the name of the person who had placed the hold.
401 * Give you the option (in the form of a checkbox) of cancelling the
402 hold placed by the above-named patron. (Checked = Cancel the hold;
403 Unchecked = Leave the hold in place)
405 The initial value of the checkbox is derived from the
406 `circ.clear_hold_on_checkout` organizational setting.
408 If the operator has CANCEL_HOLD privilege, then if the checkbox is checked and
409 the checkout is allowed to proceed, the hold will be cancelled with a note that
410 the item was checked out to another patron.
412 This feature is available in the browser-based staff client.
414 New Patron Billing Statement
415 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
416 The Evergreen web staff client now includes a patron billing statement,
417 which summarizes a patron's bills, credits and payments in a familiar
418 layout. This can be found on the "Statement" tab of the Patron Bill
419 Details page. (From the Patron Bills page, double-click a row to view
420 its details, or choose "Full Details" from the Actions menu.)
422 Enhanced Billing Timestamp Support
423 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
424 Previously, billings had to make do with a single timestamp attempting
425 to fill two different roles. In the case of an overdue fine, the
426 timestamp represented the *end* of the fine period for that billing,
427 while for all other fines, the timestamp was merely the time the bill
428 was created. This setup generally worked, but not without confusion,
429 and limited our ability to understand and process the data.
431 Billings will now have up to three timestamps: a create date, and when
432 applicable, a fine period start and a fine period end. This clarifies
433 and simplifies things like backdating, retrospective fine generation,
434 account balancing for negative balance avoidance, and billing timeline
437 Copy Alerts and Suppression Matrix
438 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
439 The Copy Alerts feature allows library staff to add customized alert
440 messages to copies. The copy alerts will appear when a specific event
441 takes place, such as when the copy is checked in, checked out, or
442 renewed. Alerts can be temporary or persistent: temporary alerts will be
443 disabled after the initial alert and acknowledgement from staff, while
444 persistent alerts will display each time the alert event takes place.
445 Copy Alerts can be configured to display at the circulating or owning
446 library only or, alternatively, when the library at which the alert
447 event takes place is not the circulating or owning library. Copy Alerts
448 can also be configured to provide options for the next copy status that
449 should be applied to an item. Library administrators will have the
450 ability to create and customize Copy Alert Types and to suppress copy
451 alerts at specific org units.
453 Copy alerts can be added via the volume/creator and the check in,
454 check out, and renew pages. Copy alerts can also be managed at the
457 Copy alert types can be managed via the Copy Alert Types page in
458 Local Administration, and suppression of them can be administered
459 via the Copy Alert Suppression page under Local Administration.
461 Place Multiple Holds At Once
462 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
463 Users with the appropriate permissions now have the ability to place multiple
464 title/metarecords holds at once. This feature is especially beneficial for book
465 clubs and reading groups, which need to place holds on multiple copies of a
468 In order to use the feature:
470 * Set the _Maximum number of duplicate holds allowed_ Library Setting
471 (`circ.holds.max_duplicate_holds`) to a number higher than 1
472 * Log in as a user with the CREATE_DUPLICATE_HOLDS
474 When placing a title or metarecord hold, a _Number of copies_ field will
475 display for these users. This field is not available when placing part, volume
478 This feature does not change the way in which the system fills holds. The
479 multiple holds will fill in the same way that they would if the user had placed
480 multiple holds separately.
482 New Notice Columns in Items Out Grid
483 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
484 The grid in the patron "items out" page in the Evergreen web staff client has two new
485 columns indicating the number of notifications generated for a given loan and the date of
486 the most recent notification. These columns will allow circulation staff to better respond to
487 patron questions about whether they were sent notification about an overdue item.
489 The columns are based on the number of completed Action Trigger events on the
490 loan that have a 'checkout.due' hook. In other words, they would include overdue
491 and courtesy notices.
493 A new library setting, "Exclude Courtesy Notices from Patrons Itemsout Notices Count",
494 if set will cause the notice count and date fields to exclude courtesy notices.
496 Patron Email Addresses Now Clickable In Web Staff Client
497 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
498 Adds a mailto link to the patron's email in their profile so it can
499 be clicked to send and email to the patron. No new settings or
500 permissions are included in this feature.
502 Pickup Library for Staff-placed Holds
503 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
504 Adds a new library setting, _circ.staff_placed_holds_fallback_to_ws_ou_,
505 that helps determine the hold pickup library in cases where patrons don't
506 have a preferred hold pickup library in their account and a staff member
507 is placing the hold on their behalf.
509 * When this setting is true and the patron doesn't have a preferred
510 library listed, the hold pickup library will default to the
511 workstation's organizational unit.
512 * When this setting is false and the patron doesn't have a preferred
513 library listed, the hold pickup library will default to the
514 patron's home library.
519 Search Term Highlighting
520 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
521 Evergreen now highlights search terms on the public catalog's main search
522 results page, the record detail page, and intermediate pages such as metarecord
523 grouped results page. Highlighting search terms will help the user determine why
524 a particular record (or set of records) was retrieved.
526 Highlighting of matched terms uses the same stemming used to accomplish the
527 search, as configured per field and class.
529 This feature will help the user more quickly determine the relevance of a
530 particular record by calling their attention to search terms in context. Lastly,
531 it will help familiarize the user with how records are searched, including which
532 fields are searched as well as exposing concepts like stemming.
534 You can turn off search term highlighting by uncommenting the line
535 `search.no_highlight = 1;` in `config.tt2`.
537 When highlighting is generally enabled, it may be turned on or off on a per-page
538 basis through the use of a UI component which will request the page again
539 without highlighting.
541 Highlighting of terms uses Template::Toolkit-driven CSS. A generic CSS class
542 identifying a highlighted term, along with CSS classes identifying the search
543 class and each search field are available for use for customization of the
544 highlighting. A stock CSS template is provided as a baseline upon which sites
548 Copy Location Filter Displays for System Searches
549 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
550 The Shelving Location filter now displays on the advanced search page when
551 a search is scoped to a library system, not just to an individual branch. If
552 a library system is selected as the Search Library, the shelving location
553 limiter will display any shelving location that is owned by the selected system
554 or by the consortium. It will NOT display shelving locations owned by child
557 Multi-source Attributes
558 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
559 We now allow record attribute definitions to extract data using more than
560 one strategy (XPath, tag+subfield, fixed field, etc.) as long as the values
561 from various sources would, after normalization, have the same shape.
565 This change allows us to configure multilingual search, by extracting values
566 from both the 008 controlfield and the 041 datafield. Because the values
567 in each can be normalized to the same controlled list (and, in practice, are
568 already from the same normalized value set), catalog searches can now use normal
569 boolean search semantics to find records with various combinations of
572 E.g., in the concerto test data:
574 * `keyword: piano item_lang(eng) item_lang(ita)`
577 Optional Display of Badges in Catalog
578 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
579 A new setting controls whether badges (popularity, etc.) are displayed
580 in the catalog. If you do not wish badges to be displayed, set the
581 `ctx.hide_badge_scores` setting to "true" in `config.tt2`.
587 Fixes to patron name/username search indexes
588 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
589 When using pg_restore to restore an Evergreen database, some of the
590 indexes used to speed up patron searches on names and usernames
593 This release fixes the underlying issue and re-creates the indexes
598 When using pg_restore to restore an affected database, the
599 "unaccent" indexes on actor.usr would not be created due to an
600 unqualified function reference in `evergreen.unaccent_and_squash`.
602 The function will be replaced to resolve the search path issue,
603 and the following indexes on actor.usr will be dropped and then
606 * actor_usr_first_given_name_unaccent_idx;
607 * actor_usr_second_given_name_unaccent_idx;
608 * actor_usr_family_name_unaccent_idx;
609 * actor_usr_usrname_unaccent_idx;
611 This will be done even if the indexes are already present, and may
612 take a few minutes on a database with many patrons.
615 3.1.0 Acknowledgments
616 ---------------------
617 The Evergreen project would like to acknowledge the following
618 organizations that commissioned developments in this release of
621 * Albany Public Library (Oregon)
622 * Consortium of Ohio Libraries
624 * Indiana State Library
625 * Georgia Public Library Service
626 * Hagerstown - Jefferson Township Library
627 * Linn-Benton Community College
629 * Pennsylvania Integrated Library System
630 * Sage Library System
631 * Union County Public Library (Indiana)
633 We would also like to thank the following individuals who contributed
634 code, translations, documentations patches and tests to this release of
661 We also thank the following organizations whose employees contributed
665 * British Columbia Libraries Cooperative
668 * Equinox Open Library Initiative
669 * Georgia Public Library Service
670 * Greater Clarks Hill Regional Library System
671 * Jordanian Library and Information Association
672 * King County Library System
674 * Linn-Benton Community College
677 * Traverse Area District Library
679 We regret any omissions. If a contributor has been inadvertently
680 missed, please open a bug at http://bugs.launchpad.net/evergreen/