Aspen Discovery 23.02.00 Release Notes

by Mark Noble on Feb 15, 2023

Aspen Discovery announced this week that the 23.02.00 release is now available.

See Release Summary Here

This release includes code contributions from:

• ByWater Solutions
• Equinox Open Library Initiative
• Nashville Public Library

Thanks to all of our contributors!!

23.02.00 Release Notes

Account Integration

• Add new settings within library settings to control whether the patron should be opted in or out of reading history in the ILS when the opt in/out in Aspen.
• Disable hold button while Aspen is processing placing the hold
• Update "Place Hold" button to "On Hold For %1%" after a hold is successfully placed
• Add confirmation modal for placing duplicate holds
• Allow reading history to be disabled by Patron Type.
• Hide areas of Linked Accounts page if patron does not have needed permissions to take those actions

  New Settings

• Primary Configuration > Library Systems > ILS / Account Integration > Opting in to Reading History Updates ILS settings
• Primary Configuration > Library Systems > ILS / Account Integration > Opting out of Reading History Updates ILS settings
• Primary Configuration > Library Systems > ILS / Account Integration > Opting in to Reading History Updates ILS settings

Account Linking Updates

• Allow administrators to prevent users from removing linked accounts by patron type.

Axis360 Integration

• Ensure titles are properly deleted when they are no longer marked active within Axis 360.
• When checking availability in Axis 360, retry the API call if it fails to account for server issues.

cloudLibrary Integration

• Return a 401 error with an appropriate page if a user is not logged in while attempting to view a cloudLibrary title.
• Properly handle spaces within barcodes for cloudLibrary.

Evergreen Updates

• Allow libraries to define how organizational units are defined when loading organizational units from Evergreen.
• Record payments made in Aspen Discovery within Evergreen.

Evolve Updates

• Protect against null barcodes and locations when updating items.

Indexing Updates

• If the 250a contains "Wii U" or "WiiU", the format will be "Nintendo Wii U"
• If the bib info contains indicators for "Kit" or "Book Club Kit", the format will be "Book Club Kit"
• When loading format from the 300 field, do not mark the title as a SoundDisc if the 300a is CD-ROM.
• Optimize loading authoritative author
• Optimize saving call numbers

Koha Updates

• When opting in and out of reading history add functionality to opt in and out within Koha as well as Aspen.
• Update for Koha 22.11 to correct loading renewals for checkouts.

Open Archives Updates

• Update to better handle OAI-PMH data that has been GZipped.
• Update error messaging as part of site status checks.

OverDrive Updates

• Update publication date parsing to handle new unexpected formats.

Polaris Updates

• Additional error trapping for Polaris connections

Sierra Updates

• Additional error handling when the Sierra APIs cannot return a valid MARC record for an existing bib record.
• Correct caching INN-Reach checkouts.
• When loading titles from the Sierra API, delete the record if a response code of 107 is returned.

SSO Updates

• Added options for customizing the card number and username when creating new accounts.
• Added options for creating staff accounts when also allowing patrons to use single-sign on.
• The login button for SAML is now customizable.
• When allowing a single sign-on service for staff only, it will now hide the login option from the patron login and create a Staff Login link in the footer.
• Added the ability to bypass the Aspen Discovery login page when using the Staff Login link in the footer.

Symphony Updates

• When changing preferred name for a patron, set the use preferred name checkbox within Symphony. This can be controlled with a new setting in Library Settings.

Web Builder Updates

• When accessing pages that need login before viewing the content, make sure the user views the correct content after login.
• Update error messaging as part of site status checks.

VDX Updates

• When placing VDX holds, return an error if the VDX Client Category is not set for a patron's PType.
• Check for error code 447 when placing the hold in Symphony and redirect to VDX when that occurs.
• Correct logging in from the New VDX request page.
• Updates for placing VDX requests from the blank request form.

Other Updates

• Fix sorting by title for searching websites, lists, and events
• Fixed a bug in Greenhouse API that would return a partial URL when fetching a theme favicon or logo.
• Correct error changing location on the hours and locations form when the hours and locations form is embedded in a web builder page.
• Fix displaying new stats on the Usage Graphs
• Correct permission for selecting which cover is used within a grouped work.
• Updates for merging duplicate barcodes to improve performance and handle timeouts when there are large numbers of duplicates.
• Remove ProPay as an eCommerce option.
• Fix showing staff view for eContent stored within the ILS.
• Updates for display label for record variations to avoid translating blank eContent Sources.
• Updates for setting a default indexing profile.
• Fix directories for installing SimpleSAML for CentOS
• Remove user caching add additional checks when loading users
• Updates to Debian installer
• Don't update unused directories in fix sideload permissions

Aspen LiDA Updates

• Holds can be filtered, sorted, and are now separated into pending and ready for pickup.
• Axis 360 checkouts can now be returned early from the Checkouts screen.
• Fixed a bug that prevented Reading History to load on Android devices.
• If a patron logs in with an expired pin, they will now be prompted to reset it
• Fixed some bugs that prevented VDX requests from being created when using the app.

Watch the 23.02.00 Aspen Updates in an Instant Recording

Watch a short highlight video of the some of the new features available in 23.02.00