Evergreen 3.0 development update #15: feature freeze

The past couple weeks have been a bit busy.

Since the previous update, another 199 patches have made their way into master. Today marks feature freeze; after today, no additional patches that add new features should be merged to master.

Why? September is going to be mostly concerned with making Evergreen 3.0.0 as stable and bug-free as possible, particularly with respect to the web staff client. However, there are a few exceptions to the freeze, including:

• small additions to the web staff client that ensure that it has functional parity with the XUL client
• improvements to the internationalization tools
• support for the current Debian stable release, stretch.

A beta release is scheduled to be built on 6 September, and the name of the game henceforth is TEST ALL THE THINGS. I think it’s distinctly possible that a second beta release will be needed by mid-September, and I also expect one or two OpenSRF releases over the next couple weeks.

So, how have we done so far? A look at the roadmap shows a lot of things marked as done, including:

• web staff client offline circulation and serials modules
• metabib display fields
• improvements to catalog search performance and completeness
• significant improvements to headings browses in the public catalog
• better support for multi-timezone consortia
• batch patron editing
• copy tags and digital bookplates
• searching for patron records by birth date
• adding the ability to search for a patron from the place hold interface in the staff interface
• transits can now be canceled instead of deleted outright
• the integration with OverDrive and OneClickDigital now allows ebook hold requests and loans to be done without leaving the Evergreen OPAC
• patrons can now suspend their hold requests when they create them
• report templates can now be searched

We’re well on track to meet the primary release goal of 3.0: full community support of the web staff interface. There are still some bugs to sort out, but that’s why we have Bug Squashing Weeks; the next one is scheduled for 11-15 September.

Remember: TEST ALL THE THINGS.

Duck trivia

The first known patent for a duck call in the U.S. was issued to Elam Fisher in 1870.

Submissions

Updates on the progress to Evergreen 3.0 will be published every Friday until general release of 3.0.0. If you have material to contribute to the updates, please get them to Galen Charlton by Thursday morning.