Aspen Discovery Announces 20.15.00 Release and Notes

by Emily Fowler on Nov 17, 2020

Aspen Discovery announced this week that the 20.15 release is available. This major release includes 1 new major feature and 28 other updates to the Aspen Discovery system.

We would especially like to acknowledge the Utah State Library Division, as their grant funding made the contributions of the Uintah County Library to the new web builder functionality possible.

Mark Noble, Aspen Discovery Developer, recently commented on the release:

In version 20.15 we thoroughly enjoyed working with Uintah County Library in Utah to introduce the ability to build website pages directly in Aspen Discovery. With their support, this functionality is now available to all libraries using Aspen Discovery at no additional support cost. We're very excited to see how libraries use this functionality.

Web Builder Functionality

Aspen Discovery 20.15.00 adds the ability to create web content directly within Aspen Discovery. All content created is responsive so it works well on all devices and created with accessibility in mind so it will work for most users. The following types of content can be added:

Basic Pages

Basic pages are simple pages based on markdown that allow you to easily create simple pages with text and images.

Custom Pages

Custom pages are more complex pages that use a responsive grid based system to easily create pages containing a combination of text, images, collection spotlights, and more.

Custom Forms

Custom forms allow you to create forms for your patrons to fill out. Results of the form can be emailed to you or viewed within Aspen Discovery.

Web Resources

Web Resources allow you to promote specific resources that the library has access to or wants to promote. Resources can be found in search results or in a categorized list of resources.

Staff Directory

The staff directory allows you to display a list of staff for the library.

Account Updates

• When showing barcodes for a patron's library card within their account, also show barcodes for any accounts they have linked.
• Allow home library to be edited in both Contact Information and My Preferences if the library allows the home library to be edited.
• Allow Reading History to be displayed, but not updated with current checkouts, when the catalog is offline.
• Detect if a user does not have a connection to the ILS when placing holds and display an appropriate error message.

Administration Updates

• Add the ability to add custom JavaScript Snippets within Aspen Discovery. This allows libraries to add chat widgets and other functionality that uses JavaScript snippets. Snippets can be scoped by library and location. Custom JavaScript can be turned off by adding a noCustomJavaScript parameter to the request url.
• Hide administration actions a user does not have access to from the administration menu.
• Permission updates when roles are assigned by patron type.
• Fix downloading a MARC record from staff view for records from the ILS.
• Mail functions can now accept multiple email addresses separated by semicolons.
• When creating subcategories of a browse category, automatically use the main category name as part of the text ID to prevent naming collisions.
• Add the ability to validate zip codes on the self registration form using a regular expression.
• Updates for checking background processes for modules that share the same process.

Advanced Search Updates

• Move the link to Advanced Search from a button in the search bar to a link within the search type dropdown. This eliminates confusion for the type of search being performed.
  

• When starting a new advanced search after entering new text to be searched in search box, use the new term in the Advanced Search box.

API Updates

• For records with volumes do not allow bib or item level holds via the UserAPI.
• Add additional fields to getPatronProfile method.

Access 360 Updates

• Add support for using Axis360 with linked users.
• Add support for indexing eAudiobooks.
• Updates for indexing multiple collections within a single Aspen instance.
• Updates for continuous indexing.
• Fix record source when showing checked out titles.

Book Cover Updates

• Do not use "Image not found" images from Google books
• Updates to load covers in more cases from OMDB.

CARL.X Integration Updates

• Correct opting in and out of Reading History to opt in and out of reading in CARL.X as well as Aspen Discovery.
• Correct the display of contact information and fix updating contact information for patrons.
• Optionally display the system a fine or fee was created from.
• Add While You Wait information for holds that are not available yet.
• Allow extracting and indexing a single record from CARL.X via the APIs.
• Updates for determining when an item is On Order.
• Update determination of status to use status tables rather than hardcoded status.
• Update loading fines and fees from CARL.X to properly format currency values.

Collection Spotlight Updates

• Add a new collection spotlight style based on the jcarousel control. This will ensure that the entire width of the spotlight is used when displaying titles.

• Do not show entries for grouped works that no longer exist within the catalog.
• Fixes for showing a medium covers for a carousel with a style of Single Title.

Documentation Updates

• Recorded tutorial videos for configuring Aspen in the administration interface. Videos are available in the help manual as well as on the ByWater Solutions Aspen Administration Page.

Events Integration Updates

• Add automatic monitoring of events logs to check for errors.

Google Integration Updates

• Remove Google Translate functionality.
• Add the ability to use either Google Analytics 3 or 4.

Hoopla Integration Updates

• Show While You Wait for titles checked out from Hoopla.
• Updates for reprocessing hoopla records after merging them with other works.

Indexing Updates

• Remove custom code for Arlington when determining audience so new functionality can be used.
• Don't trigger an error in indexing after deleting a side load profile.

Interface Updates

• Fix so menu sections within hamburger menu expand and collapse properly.
• Fix so breadcrumbs work if the library does not specify a home link, but the layout settings specify using the home link for breadcrumbs.
• Update all Javascript to be backwards compatible with older browsers by complying with ECMAScript 5.1 and not using new ECMAScript 6 features.

Koha Integration Updates

• Process items with item types equal to download as eContent so they show in the results properly.
• If a patron's account has expired and BlockExpiredPatronOpacActions is set to Block, do not allow them to place holds.
• When extracting eContent stored within Koha, automatically handle sources of gpo.gov and galegroup.com to translate as Government Document and Gale Group respectively for the eContent Source facet.

Location Updates

• Added the ability to add a TTY number for display in the hours and locations dialog.

• Added the ability to add a description to a location for display in the hours and locations dialog.

List Updates

• Updates to ensure that New York Times Lists show appropriately using new permissions and list capabilities.
• Do not link to lists that have been deleted from search results and full record displays.
• When deleting a list, send the user back to their list of lists rather than the account home page.
• When sorting a list by title, make sure that the sort is not case sensitive and properly handle titles that no longer exist in the catalog.

Login Updates

• Added the ability to add notes to the login form that are displayed under the username and password links.

Configuration of the login notes is within the library settings and uses Markdown for formatting.

Materials Request Updates

• Update so emails can be sent to the patron when new Materials Requests are created and when they are updated individually rather than in bulk.
• Fix so deleting statuses redirects to the correct location.

Open Archives Updates

• Updates to load thumbnail images from ContentDM sites in more cases.

RBdigital Updates

• Disable the display of RBdigital holds if there are no eBooks or eAudiobooks in the collection.
• When RBdigital magazines are no longer available, do not show a link to open it in RBdigital, but leave it in the list of checked out titles so it can be returned.
• Use home library settings for a patron when connecting to RBdigital, and properly evaluate if linked users have RBdigital accounts.
• Add additional handling of errors when checking out RBdigital titles.

Recommendations Updates

• Display While You Wait information while placing holds with remember pickup location on.
• Display an icon for While You Wait recommendations that have a format category of Other.
• Update so that recommendations work properly for users that have very large reading histories and/or very large numbers of titles that they have rated.
• Improve the speed of recommendations.
• Index links between users and grouped works including records in their reading history, records they have rated, and records they are not interested in.

Record Status Updates

• Update status display for titles at a location when viewing the catalog for that location from outside the location. I.e. looking at an elementary school catalog from home.
• Update copy count within the status indicator to properly indicate on order counts and to not show counts for on order items when disabled.
• Update Library Use Only indicator to show records as Library Use Only for the status rather than On Shelf (Library Use Only)

Search Updates

• Correct applying facets with special characters (i.e. ampersands) from the popup showing available facet values.

Self Registration Updates

• Do not show self registration form at /MyAccount/SelfReg if self registration is disabled and the user goes directly to the link.

Sierra Integration Updates

• Updated to use connection information in the Account Profiles rather than the configuration ini file.

Symphony Integration Updates

• Updates to place holds using patron session rather than staff session.
• Fix display of copy level holds.
• Fix so Aspen removes holds from the display after the patron cancels them.
• Update loading fines and fees from Symphony to properly format currency values.

Translation & Internationalization Updates

• Add the locale that a language should use when displaying currencies.
• Add a system variable to define the currency that should be used within Aspen Discovery when showing and paying fines.

• When searching for terms to translate, make the search case insensitive.
• Update menus to properly handle translation mode so HTML renders properly.