Second Evergreen 3.0 beta released + OpenSRF 3.0.0-alpha

The second beta release of Evergreen 3.0 is now available for testing from the downloads page.

The second beta includes the following changes since the first beta release:

• Support for Debian Stretch
• Various improvements to the translation system.
• Various bug fixes; the complete list can be found on Launchpad.

This release now requires OpenSRF 3.0.0. An alpha release of OpenSRF 3.0 is available today as well.

OpenSRF 3.0.0-alpha also adds support for Debian Stretch. OpenSRF also changes how services written in the C programming language are loaded, and as a consequence, testers of the second Evergreen 3.0 beta release must plan on installing or upgrading to OpenSRF 3.0.0-alpha.  If you are upgrading a test system that used an older version of OpenSRF, please note the instructions for updating opensrf.xml.

Evergreen 3.0 will be a major release that includes:

• community support of the web staff client for production use
• serials and offline circulation modules for the web staff client
• improvements to the display of headings in the public catalog browse list
• the ability to search patron records by date of birth
• copy tags and digital bookplates
• batch editing of patron records
• better support for consortia that span multiple time zones
• and numerous other improvements

For more information on what’s coming in Evergreen 3.0.0, please read the updated draft of the release notes.

Users of Evergreen are strongly encouraged to use the beta release to test new features and the web staff client; bugs should be reported via Launchpad. A release candidate is scheduled to be made on 27 September.

Evergreen admins installing the beta or upgrading a test system to the beta should be aware of the following:

• The minimum version of PostgreSQL required to run Evergreen 3.0 is PostgreSQL 9.4.
• Evergreen 3.0 requires that the open-ils.qstore service be active.
• SIP2 bugfixes in Evergreen 3.0 require an upgrade of SIPServer to be fully effective.
• There is no database upgrade script to go from 3.0-beta1 to 3.0-beta2. While we recommend testing an upgrade by starting from a 2.12 test system, if you want to go from beta1 to beta2, you can apply the 1076.function.copy_vis_attr_cache_fixup.sql schema update.

Evergreen 3.0.0 will be a large, ambitious release; testing during beta period will be particularly important for a smooth release on 3 October.