Evergreen 3.4 Release Notes

An option, --date, has been added to the action_trigger_aggregator.pl support script that allows the user to specify a specific date to aggregate event output for. This new argument cannot be used with either --start-date or --end-date. This option was added to simplify pulling event output for a single day.

Two new database tables are added for tracking aged billings and payments: money.aged_billing and money.aged_payment.

Two new database views are added, money.all_billings and money.all_payments for aggregating data across the active and aged tables.

When a circulation is aged, billings and payments linked to the circulation are migrated from the active billing and payment tables to the new aged tables.

The new tables are accessible to the reporter.

New optional email notification that is sent when a block is applied to a patron’s account due to excess fines.

(The patron block functionality itself already exists and is based on the settings in Local Administration → Standing Penalties (PATRON_EXCEEDS_FINES) and Local Administration → Group Penalty Thresholds.)

The script for the MARC stream importer, marc_stream_importer.pl, is now installed in the Evergreen bin directory (typically /openils/bin) by default. It now also expects that its configuration file will be in the usual config directory (typically /openils/conf) and the example configuration file is installed there by default.

AuthProxy now supports LDAP-based login with a username that is different from your Evergreen username.

This feature may be useful for libraries that use an LDAP server for single sign-on (SSO). Let’s say you are a post-secondary library using student or employee numbers as Evergreen usernames, but you want people to be able to login to Evergreen with their SSO credentials, which may be different from their student/employee number. To support this, AuthProxy can now be configured to accept your SSO username on login, use it to look up your student/employee number on the LDAP server, and log you in as the appropriate Evergreen user.

For this to work, in the AuthProxy configuration for your LDAP server in opensrf.xml, set bind_attr to the LDAP field containing your LDAP username, and "id_attr" to the LDAP field containing your student or employee number (or whatever other value is used as your Evergreen username). If bind_attr is not set, Evergreen will assume that your LDAP username and Evergreen username are the same.

Now, let’s say your LDAP server is only an authoritative auth provider for Library A. Nothing prevents the server from reporting that your student number is 000000, even if that Evergreen username is already in use by another patron at Library B. We want to ensure that AuthProxy does not use Library A’s LDAP server to log you in as the Library B patron. For this reason, a new restrict_by_home_ou setting has been added to AuthProxy config. When enabled, this setting restricts LDAP authentication to users belonging to a library served by that LDAP server (i.e. the user’s home library must match the LDAP server’s org_units setting in opensrf.xml). Use of this setting is strongly recommended.

The Administration → Server Administration → Organizational Units page has been migrated to Angular.

An option, --rebuild-rmsr, has been added to the pingest.pl support script. This option will rebuild the reporter.materialized_simple_record (rmsr) table after the ingests are complete.

This option might prove useful if you want to rebuild the table as part of a larger reingest. If all you wish to do is to rebuild the rmsr table, then it would be just as simple to connect to the database server and run the following SQL:

Hyperlinks in the public catalog now have a separate color definition in the colors.tt2 template to make it easier to style the public catalog header/footer to use the same background color as the center panel.

Adds support for generating print content via server-side web service. Server print templates are implemented as Template Toolkit and content is compiled and generated on the server, based on runtime data provided by clients.

Feature includes a new Angular admin interface for testing and editing server-managed print templates. The UI is accessed under Administration → Server Administration → Print Templates, though the menu entry may be moved to Administration → Local Administration, once Local Administration is migrated to Angular.

Two sample templates are included to demonstrate the format and functionality. The Holds For Bib Record template may be tested by navigating to the record holds tab in the Angular staff catalog (/eg2/en-US/staff/catalog/record/<record-id>/holds) and chose the Print Holds grid action.

The Administration → Local Administration → Standing Penalties page has been migrated to Angular.

Copy alerts were improved in recent releases of Evergreen, but the permissions were not assigned to any of the stock permission profiles in the "seed data" supplied to first time installations.

The VIEW_COPY_ALERT permission is now assigned to all profiles under the "Staff" parent profile, and ADMIN_COPY_ALERT is now assigned to Cataloging Administrator and should be available to all Administrator profiles.

This change does NOT include an upgrade script, so site server administrators are responsible for updating the permissions profiles for their individual systems.

Grids in new Angular staff interfaces now have options to

Many external services need to authenticate patrons and retrieve information about their accounts from Evergreen. Most of these services support some form of HTTP-based authentication, but every service has its own requirements and none of them support native Evergreen authentication. Meanwhile, libraries often need to restrict access to these external services based on patron type, current status, standing penalties, and so on.

To meet these needs, Evergreen now has support for separate, configurable HTTP API endpoints for remote patron authentication and retrieval. Each RemoteAuth endpoint handles a different external service or authentication method. You set up the endpoints you want in your Apache config; each one uses a generic mod_perl handler to manage incoming requests, and specifies a Perl module that can actually talk to the external service, as well as an authentication profile that determines which patrons can be authenticated at this endpoint. Support for "Basic" HTTP Authentication is provided as a reference implementation.

The open-ils.circ.renew.auto API added in release 3.2 is deprecated and will be removed in Evergreen release 3.5. Please switch to using the open-ils.circ.renew API with the auto_renew option set to 1 in any custom code.

The web staff client’s Record Merge dialog now has a "Cancel Edit" button that is displayed when editing the lead record in place. Using this button will abandon any pending record edits without requiring that the entire dialog be dismissed.

Adds a new "Export Records" option to the staff catalog basket menu. When selected, the user is directed to the Vandelay record export interface, which will be set to "basket export" mode. Staff can then apply export preferences (usmarc, marxml, etc.) and export the basket records. In "basket export" mode, Vandley provides a link to return to the catalog (preserving search parameters).

Two new options for importing holdings have been added to MARC Batch Import/Export:

The Request Items action available in the Item Status and Item Buckets interfaces has been given an Honor User Preferences checkbox which does the following for the selected user when checked:

Success and Failure toasts have also been added based on what happens after the Request Items interface has closed.

Also, a Title Hold option has been added to the Hold Type menu. This will create one title-level hold request for each unique title associated with the items that were selected when Request Items was invoked.

Drop-downs in the Physical Characteristics Wizard in the MARC editor now display both code and label.

The Booking module has been redesigned, with many of its interfaces being redesigned in Angular.

This adds a new screen called "Manage Reservations", where staff can check details about all outstanding reservations, including those that have been recently placed, captured, picked up, or returned.

On many screens within the new booking module, staff are able to edit reservations. Previously, they would have needed to cancel and recreate those reservations with the new data.

There is a new notes field attached to reservations, where staff can leave notes about the reservation. One use case is to alert staff that a particular resource is being stored in an unfamiliar location. This field is visible on all screens within the booking module.

The Create Reservations UI is completely re-designed, and now includes a calendar-like view on which staff can view existing reservations and availability.

This permission is required to create (or re-create) a pre-cataloged item through the "Barcode ??? was mis-scanned or is a non-cataloged item." dialog. All form elements in the pre-cat dialog other than the Cancel button will be disabled if the current user lacks the CREATE_PRECAT permission when an uncataloged (or already pre-cataloged item) is scanned. This permission is not needed to renew pre-cataloged items.

The upgrade script for this feature will insert the permission into every permission group that has the STAFF_LOGIN permission, so out-of-the-box no behavior will change.

Evergreen’s Mark Item Damaged and Mark Item Missing functionality has been enhanced, and the ability to mark an item with the Discard/Weed status has been added. This enhancement affects both the Evergreen back end code and the staff client.

The Billing Full Details view now includes links to information about the billing and owning libraries. This can be useful in situations where circulation staff are troubleshooting a bill and would like to quickly find contact information for the billing or owning library.

The Angular Sandbox now includes an example for developers interested in sharing data between staff client browser tabs.

Adds support for the Holds tab in the record detail view of the Angular staff catalog. Includes grid and hold-related actions.

Adds support for call number browsing in the staff catalog. The browse results display vertically for consistency with the regular search and browse result interfaces.

The Administration → Server Administration → Permission Groups admin page has been migrated to Angular.

As an added feature, the interface now displays inherited permissions alongside linked permissions for each group. Inherited permissions are read-only and act to indicate to the user when a group already has a certain permission and therefore may not need a new one added.

Additionally, a new filter option is available in the linked permissions interface for filtering the displayed linked permissions by code or description.

The Administration → Server Admininistration → Organization Types admin page has been migrated to Angular.

The Administration → Local Administration page has been migrated to Angular along with the following specific Local Administration interfaces:

This feature fully integrates the creation and management of book carousels into Evergreen, allowing for the display of book cover images on a library’s public catalog home page. Carousels may be animated or static. They can be manually maintained by staff or automatically maintained by Evergreen. Titles can appear in carousels based on newly cataloged items, recent returns, popularity, etc. Titles must have copies that are visible to the public catalog, be circulating, and holdable to appear in a carousel. Serial titles cannot be displayed in carousels.

When item tags display in the catalog, they will now include the label from the item tag type. For example, for a tag of type "Digital Bookplate", here is a comparison of the old and new display:

The type label is wrapped in a new CSS class copy_tag_type_label that allows it to be styled separately from the tag value or hidden entirely.

A new column, Owning Library, is now optionally available for the OPAC Items Out display which shows the owning library of the item (not necessarily the library at which the item was picked up). Clicking on the library name will provide contact information for that library. This is useful for When a patron has run out of renewals and the owning library, not the patron’s home library, is the one with whom the patron will negotiate additional renewals. If the patron will negotiate additional renewals with their home library or the checkout library, then display of this field is superfluous.

The display of this column is controlled by the organization setting opac.show_owning_library_column.

SIP now suppports enhancements for the Fine Item Detail returned by by Patron Information Response (code 64). Different manufacturers of self-check systems specify the format of the fine item detail differently. A new option allows you to select the format to return.

A new option has been added to the SIP2 implementation configuration, msg64_hold_items_available. When set, this option will limit the count and list of hold items in the SIP2 patron information response message (64) to only those holds that are available for pickup. When not set, the full list of the patron’s holds will continue to be sent. This option is useful because some self checks expect to receive only the list of available holds in the hold items and have few settings to control the display of holds.