Aspen Discovery
Aspen Discovery 24.09 Release Notes
by Kalleen Marquise on Sep 18, 2024
Aspen Discovery announced this week that the 24.09.00 release is now available.
24.09.00 Release Notes
This release includes code contributions from
- ByWater Solutions
- Mark Noble (MDN)
- Kirstien Kroeger (KK)
- Kodi Lein (KL)
- Katherine Perdue (KP)
- Kyle M Hall (KMH)
- Liz Rea (LR)
- Grove For Libraries
- Mark Noble (MDN-G)
- Howell Carnegie District Library
- Jeremy Eden (JE)
- Nashville Public Library
- James Staub (JStaub)
- PTFS-Europe
- Chloe Zermatten (CZ)
- Theke Solutions
- Lucas Montoya (LM)
- Tomas Cohen Arazi (TC)
This release includes sponsored developments from
- Minuteman Library Network (Minuteman)
API Updates
- Update getUserForApiCall and checkoutILSItem APIs, so they can be called internally. (DIS-6) (MDN-G, Minuteman)
- Add checkInILSItem API to check in titles. This method cannot be called externally. (DIS-6) (MDN-G, Minuteman)
- Added useAlternateLibraryCardForCloudLibrary in Location and Library APIs to get the useAlternateLibraryCard setting for the assigned cloudLibrary scope. (KK)
- In User API added updateAlternateLibraryCard to allow updating or removing of alternate library cards for a patron. (KK)
- In User API modified getPatronProfile to include the alternateLibraryCard value, if any. (KK)
- In User API added endpoints to fetch, create, and cancel materials requests. (KK)
- Added showAlternateLibraryCard and alternateLibraryCardConfig array in the Library API to get alternate library card setup options. (KK)
- Added alternate library card details to linked accounts in getLinkedAccounts in the User API. (KK)
cloudLibrary Updates
- On Library Systems and Locations, assigned cloudLibrary scopes will again display. (KK)
- cloudLibrary scope assignments now work similarly to the other eContent where you can only assign 1 scope per library and location. (KK)
- Bugfix for alternate card prompt appearing when it should not. (KP)
- Linked accounts use the settings for the scope that matches the linked account's home library during checkout/hold placement. (KP)
Docker Updates
- Add supportingCompany support in Docker scripts. (LM)
- Now cron process is executed in foreground at the end of the start-up script. (LM)
- Improvements to the Docker-related scripts to make them more robust (TC)
eCommerce Updates
- Add FISERV SnapPay as a payment processor. (JStaub)
GitHub Actions
- Add GitHub Actions to check pull requests for release notes (KMH)
- Add GitHub Actions to check pull requests for spaces vs tabs (KMH, JStaub)
- Add GitHub Actions to check pull requests for changes to site creation without changes to Docker files (KMH)
- Improve docker image build time and add support for GHCR (KMH)
- Prevent GitHub Actions from attempting to push Docker images unless the push is to the official rep (KMH)
Grouped Work Display Updates
- Allow records within a Grouped Work to have a custom sort order rather than forcing them to be alphabetic with Book first. (DIS-11) (MDN-G)
New Permissions
- Grouped Work Display > Administer All Format Sorting - Allows users to change how formats are sorted within a grouped work for all libraries.
- Grouped Work Display > Administer Library Format Sorting - Allows users to change how formats are sorted within a grouped work for their library.
New Settings
- Catalog / Grouped Works > Format Sorting
Grouped Work Updates
- Only display "Record Ungrouped" section if user is logged in and has the 'Manually Group and Ungroup Works' permission. (KK)
Indexing Updates
- Add target audience to grouped works diagnostic panel (KP)
- Get volume information for holds from MARC record when not provided via volumes.txt for Symphony (KP)
Koha Updates
- Remove superfluous loop in Koha driver function updateHomeLibrary #1968 (KMH)
- Hide empty item groups for volume-level holds in Koha (KMH)
- Remove old pre-production Koha volumes code (KMH)
- Properly close the connections to Koha from Aspen (KMH)
- Fix query to select circulation rules for Koha (KMH)
Language Updates
- Sort languages by weight, then alphabetically by display name to make consistent with LiDA. (KP)
Libby Updates
- If Lexis Nexis is used, the linking url will use /title instead of /media (KL)
Library & Location Updates
- Allow Stat Group to be defined for each location (Sierra only). Stat Group is used when checking items in or out to determine where to credit the checkout. The stat group can be left -1 to use the default behavior. (DIS-6) (MDN-G, Minuteman)
- Allow Circulation Username to be defined for each location (Sierra only). Circulation Username is used when checking items in or out to determine the location where the item was checked out. The Circulation Username can be left blank to use the default behavior. (DIS-6) (MDN-G, Minuteman)
- Add an internal method to easily look up the main location for a library. (MDN-G)
New Settings
- Primary Configuration > Locations > ILS/Account Integration > Stat Group
- Primary Configuration > Locations > ILS/Account Integration > Circulation Username
Palace Project Updates
- Update Palace Project for consortia with multiple settings and overlapping consortia. (MDN)
- Update to store active borrow link, preview link, and availability per collection.
- Display proper links and availability based on patron home library or the active catalog.
- Remove old non-numeric Palace Project identifiers. (MDN)
Reports
- Improves Nashville-specific Student Barcode report. (JStaub)
- Adds Code 39 barcode generator for Avery 5160 labels to Circulation Reports. (JStaub)
- Adds EAN-8 disc hub barcode generator to Circulation Reports. (JStaub)
New Permissions
- Circulation Reports > Barcode Generators - Allows the user to run the Barcode Generators
Sierra Updates
- Add the ability to show checkout grid per format type for Sierra Systems. (MDN)
New Settings
- ILS Integration > Indexing Profiles > Format Information > Display Sierra Checkout Grid?
- Added patron code to variables used for Sierra self registration via Aspen (KL)
New Settings
- ILS Integration > Self Registration Forms > Patron Code
Palace Project Updates
- Update formatting of Palace Project Collection report to apply default table styling and right align the number of deleted titles. (MDN-G)
Record Display Updates
- Do natural sorting of magazine holdings. (MDN-G)
Self Check Updates
- Add a test page to test self check within Aspen Discovery. The test page can be used for both testing checkouts and check ins. Check ins currently only work with the Sierra ILS. (DIS-6) (MDN-G, Minuteman)
- Add additional error handling if SIP Host or Port are not configured when attempting a checkout by SIP. (MDN-G)
- Refactor determination of whether to use SIP or API for checkouts within drivers. (MDN-G)
New Permissions
- Circulation > Test Self Check - Allows users to access the self check testing page.
Sierra Updates
- Update Sierra Driver to handle checkouts by API. (MDN-G, Minuteman)
System Updates
- Add pagination to Usage by User Agent Report. (KP)
- Added an 'Export as CSV' feature for the raw data of the Usage Graphs accessed through the System Reports' usage dashboard. (CZ)
- CSV usage graphs data download are made available for ILS and Summon usage data (CZ)
WebBuilder Updates
- Do not allow titles for cells to be locked. (AD-8) (MDN-G)
Web Resources Updates
- Added authentication to web resources that require login unless accessing from the library. Checking 'Requires being logged in to access, unless in library' now displays a new setting 'Allow Access to patrons of these home libraries' to select the libraries whose patrons should have access to the resource. By default, existing resources with the logged in required setting checked, will provide access to all their libraries. (KK)
New Settings
- Web Builder > Web Resources > Web Resource > Allow Access to patrons of these home libraries
Other Updates
- Do not apply field locks to new objects. (AD-7) (MDN-G)
- Set up a system so some fields can be prevented from being locked. (AD-8) (MDN-G)
- Create new default IntelliJ and PhpStorm Projects to make setup easier for new developers. (DIS-4) (MDN-G)
- Ignore local IntelliJ and PhpStorm Projects. (MDN-G)
- Suppress warnings when deserializing details to show in search results for Grouped Work Display Settings. (MDN-G)
- Automatically block requests when the User Agent contains spammy content. (KP)
- If 'Show Hold and Copy Counts' in Library Systems is set to "Always", display copy count even if there are no holds or waitlist. (KK) Help Center Documentation
- Added pagination options to Manage Requests page to prevent performance issues when libraries have a large amount of requests. (KK)
- When sending mail via SMTP, check that attachments exist before looping through them. (KK)
- Added Notification History as an inbox for ILS messages to Your Account to allow users to view what notifications have been sent. Applies to Koha libraries only at this time. (KK)
- Added function to gather all the various alternate library card settings for a library system. (KK)
- Changed how Aspen Discovery determines its current version by using the most recent release notes file instead of looking in the git file. (KK)
- The New Materials Request email to staff will only try to send if it has not already been sent. (KK)
- Remove 'required' flag for Order Record Status to treat as Under Consideration in Indexing Profiles (KL)
- Remove false error message "Payment amount did not match..." for NCR payments (KL)
- Account for patron types being '0' when doing boolean check to get the patron type object (KL)
- Fixed an issue where location-related search facets would disappear by amending the 'Show This Branch In Available At and Owning Location Facets' filter so that it can be applied to any scope. (CZ)
- Fixed an issue where attempting to save user preferences would result in an error being displayed on the OPAC and cause the save to fail (CZ)
- 'Your Preferences' settings only show ILS-related options to users associated with ILS (CZ)
- In the 'Administration Options' sidebar, automatically place the cursor at the start of the search bar when the 'Search' option is clicked (CZ)
- Fixed an issue where records from summon and ebsco were not properly added to and were not displayed properly in user lists. (CZ)
- Update order of changing permissions for logs directory in updateSitePermissions scripts. (LR, MDN-G)
- Small bug fix for Admin settings search (JStaub)
- Explicitly disable on screen error display when debugging is disabled by IP. (JE)
- Set cover title text to same as alt text for both browse category and search results views (JE)
- Fix issue where 856 links show copy information in copies table on record view (KL)
Aspen LiDA Updates
- Fixed a bug where when selecting radio button values in Facets (i.e. Search Within), it would display a different value as being selected. (KK)
- Added prompts for providing an alternate library card while placing a hold or checking out cloudLibrary items. (KK)
- Added a screen to modify or remove alternative library card information, if enabled for the library. This screen is accessible in both the Account Drawer and on the Card screens. (KK)
- When freezing a hold, fixed a bug where the date picker actions when selecting the thaw date were not using translated values. (KK)
Watch the 24.09.00 Aspen Updates in an Instant Recording
Watch a short highlight video of the some of the new features available in 24.09.00
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