Evergreen 2.4 Beta1 Release Notes

Acquisitions selection lists and purchase order interfaces contain a new link beside each lineitem which, when clicked, creates an inline grid of copies linked to the lineitem. The grid contains the same information that displays in the full copy edit grid (from clicking on the Copies(n) link). However, the inline grid is read-only, so it displays much faster and does not require the user to change visual contexts.

Included along the top of the lineitem table is a new Expand All link which, when clicked, expands or collapses the inline grid for all visible lineitems.

Staff now have the ability to specify the identifier value to use for lineitems when communicating order information to vendors. This is particularly important when a lineitem has, for example, multiple ISBNs. Determining which ISBN is to act as the "order identifier" allows staff to provide the most accurate order information to vendors.

Supported identifier types include ISBN, ISSN, and UPC. Order identifier values are relayed to vendors via EDI and print PO.

Adds a two-layer persistence mechanism for the acquisitions MARC file upload interface. A set of org unit settings now exist for managing default values for the interface. Additionally, for each field where no org unit setting value is configured, the last-used value will be persisted locally and re- used with subsequent loads of the interface.

Acquisitions providers have a new "Default # Copies" field. When the value is set, this number of copies will be automatically added to each lineitem added to a purchase order for the provider. This takes place during PO creation from a selection list or existing bib record and when a lineitem is added to an existing purchase order. If a lineitem already has copies attached, no default copies are added.

By default, Evergreen displays alternate graphic fields, if any, for contributors (1xx / 7xx), titles (245), edition statements (250), imprints (260), notes (5xx), subjects (6xx), and series (4xx / 8xx) in search results and record details per the Library of Congress MARC21 specifications:

In addition to the already supported formats, you can now get raw MARC21 from OpenSearch feeds, à la:

A number of changes have been made to search to allow more control and improve performance. These changes and their associated configurations are global to the entire system and can not be configured on a per-library basis.

Amongst other things the new search code fixes:

Improvements include:

Default configuration is geared towards English but is easily changed. In a production environment changes will likely require re-indexing, however.

The upgrade script could be pre-tweaked to install desired configuration before it builds and/or re-builds many of the indexes.

If an opac-visible call number exists that is owned by an org unit relevant to the patron, show the most relevant call number label and owning branch name in the My Lists display for each record in the list. Call number is displayed in both saved and temporary lists.

A call number is considered relevant if its owner is one of:

physical location library preferred library (plib, home, etc.) search library

If no relevant call number is found, no call number is displayed.

Setting ctx.google_books_preview to 1 in the TPAC config.tt2 configuration file will cause the TPAC to check to see, as part of the record details view, if Google Books has an online preview available. If it does, then a preview button will be displayed in the book cover image location. If the user then clicks the preview button, the preview will load below the title of the book in the record details page.

By default, this functionality is disabled to protect the privacy of users who might not want to share their browsing behavior with Google.

Adds support for the opac.org_unit_hiding.depth org unit setting to TPAC, which makes out-of-scope org units disappear (except when explicitly requested).

Org unit hiding is based on the physical_loc (Physical Location) param / cookie, which is the closest analog to ol (original location), from which it was based in the JSPAC.

Administrators can configure MARC tags which are removed from MARC records imported via Z39.50 and the Vandelay MARC Import/Export UI (ACQ and non-ACQ). Tags are organized into groups. Groups can be marked as optional or required. For each tag, every instance of the tag (including all subfields) are removed from the record.

MARC fields which are contained within required (always_apply) tag groups are always removed from inbound records. No action is needed. Tag groups which are optional will appear in MARC import interfaces (see below) allowing staff to select which groups of tags to strip from incoming records at import time.

A new org unit setting to specify a default Record Match Set when importing MARC records through the MARC Batch Import/Export interface. It does not affect the default match set selected in acquisitions. If this is set, it will not be possible to leave the Record Match Set field blank; it may be necessary to define a default match set that replicates the current default behavior.

A new "Vandelay" org unit settings group is also created.

When retrieving a patron record, staff can now click on the indicators listed beneath the patron’s name and launch the related tabs.

For example, clicking on (See Notes) will open the associated patron’s notes.

To give staff the ability to warn patrons when their account is about to expire, the staff client can display an alert message on the patron information window. A new library setting, Warn patrons when their account is about to expire in the Circulation section of the Library Settings Editor, determines how many days in advance of a patron’s account expiry date the alert should be displayed. By default, warnings about upcoming patron account expiry dates are not displayed.

When looking up patron information for hold placement via the staff client in TPac, the hold patron name is now shown next to the entered barcode. In the event that the barcode is not found, a notice is displayed and the submit button is disabled until a valid barcode is entered or the staff member is switched to.

Add direct "Show holds on bibs" menu option from item checkin, item status, and patron hold interfaces. This gives staff a quicker way of viewing who else has holds on an item instead of having to click an option to view the bib record, then clicking into the menus to view holds.

Allows customization to the way that Evergreen measures the distance between org units for the purposes of 1) determining what copy at what org unit is best suited for targeting a title-level hold, and 2) determining what hold is best suited for fulfillment by a copy-in-hand at capture (checkin) time. The customization is based on a table actor.org_unit_proximity_adjustment, with certain matching criteria that the system compares to properties of the holds and copies in question.

The ranking algorithm that chooses the best hold to target a copy in hand at a capture time used to be fairly simple. It had two modes, FIFO and not-FIFO, and that was it.

This change allows full configuration of that algorithm. In other words, when the system captures a copy and sets out to evaluate what hold, if any, that copy might best fulfill, site staff of sufficient permission level are now empowered to choose exactly which comparisons the systems makes in what order. This gives said staff much greater flexibility than they have today over holds policy.

For more information, see the included tech spec documents.

New Action/Trigger template and sample event definitions for creating a CSV export file for various patron actions, primarily for the purpose of creating patron notices via external notification mechanisms.

The reference implementation for this development is the TalkingTech iTiva product, which consumes CSV files for generating phone/text notifications and produces CSV results files for informing the ILS of notification statuses. The template and send/receive scripts, however, should be generic enough to create CSV for any type of 3rd-party notification product.

For more information, see the included tech spec documents.

In the Z39.50 configuration interface, staff now have the option to apply z39.50 login credentials to each Z39.50 server at different levels of the org unit hierarchy (similar to org unit settings). When credentials are set for a Z39 server, searches against the z39 server will used the stored credentials, unless other credentials are provided by the caller, in which case the caller credentials are used.

For security purposes, passwords may not be retrieved or reported on by staff. Staff can only apply new values for credentials or clear existing ones.

In order to support verification of URLs, Evergreen now has several new capabilities, and extensions to some existing features.

A wizard-style interface that walks a staff member through the process of collecting records and URLs to verify, verifying and reviewing the URLs.

URL validation sessions are built as a whole to support immediate and future review of any URLs. Each session carries a name, an owner, a set of record search criteria, a set of tag and subfield combinations describing the location of URLs to validate, a record container for tracking individual records to verify, and a set of state and data tables for managing the processing of individual URLs.

A set of middle-layer methods provide the business logic required to collect records, extract, parse and test the validity of the URLs.

For more information, see the included tech spec documents.

As another step toward a unified interface, the serial control subscription editor now consists of an embedded version of the alternate control. This reduces duplication of both code and documentation, and smooths the eventual transition to a single interface.

In order to not lose any essential features, the following additions were made to the new combination editor:

The Serial Control interface prevents direct editing of serial item statuses for data integrity reasons. As an alternative to direct control, the interface now offers new menu options for setting items to claimed, not held, and not published. Note that these statuses are still currently useful for reporting and display purposes only.

about:about gives access to various XULRunner diagnostic tools. Useful ones include: