[Koha-announce] Koha 2.2.0RC3 has been released...

[Paul POULAIN]

RELEASE NOTES
=============

Koha is the 1st Open-Source Integrated Library System.
Released at first in New zealand, in 2000 januaray, it is maintained by 
a team of volunteers from around the globe, the Koha system is a full 
catalogue, opac, circulation and acquisitions system.

Koha 2.2 is more than 247 000 lines of code, developped by more than 30 
differents developpers (excluding translators !).

With the 2.2 version, Koha is now a mature product, with a lot of nice 
features. It's used in more than 50 libraries, from all kinds (public, 
schools, search, religious...), of all size (from 1 to 8 branches, from 
1000 to 300 000 items).

========
WARNING
========
* This version is in the stable tree of Koha, but still evaluated as 
"Release Candidate". A few bugs are still known or have to be found, 
maybe by you. But it's stable enough to be used in production.
* This version is ONLY available in ENGLISH and FRENCH. Many languages 
to come.
* Biblio frameworks :
 - In UNIMARC - french. Frameworks are defined and can be set up during 
installation for : old documents, cartographies, electronic documents, 
microfilms, monographies, serials, films and images, "tire à part"
 - In English, only a default framework is provided. If you define 
specific frameworks, mail paul _at_ koha-fr.org or a koha mailing list 
to know how to add them to official release.
* the librarian interface is tested only with mozilla/firefox. Should 
work (partially) with IE. OPAC should work fine with any navigator.
* Any 2.1.x install must be uninstalled before installing 2.2.0 No 
update is provided for 2.1.0.

=======
DIFFS
=======

Diff 2.2RC2 => 2.2RC3
*********************
* CRITICAL bug in acquisition : biblio badly stored in MARC part of 
Koha, deleting another biblio...
* CRITICAL problem : the duplicate finder (when adding a biblio) has 
performances problems under certains circumstances.
* bug #862 fixed : Upgrade does not work (from 2.2RC1 to 2.2RC2)
* bugfix in acquisition, when a line is modified, aqorderbreakdown was 
duplicated. (Seems it was a mysql return value depending on mysql version)
* bugfix in setting user permissions (they were stored, but not shown 
correctly after)
* bugfix in translation error for basket sent in OPAC
* bugfix in 225a plugin (editor chooser)
* adding itemcallnumber entry in systempreferences during install
* error in biblio detail showing when MARC=ON (bug from RC2, did not 
exist before)
* bug in acceptorreject OPAC suggestion (bug from RC2, did not exist before)
* Not really a bug but : stopword must not be empty. If it's empty, the 
search fail.
* During install, the user can load french and english stopwords if he want.
* French librarian interface seems OK
* addbook (1st page when MARC=ON) is a catalogue screen, not an 
acquisition one, changing css
* The barcode is shown in the list of books issued by a borrower in 
opac-user page.

Diff 2.2RC1 => 2.2RC2
*********************
* bugfix for import in reservoir : title and isbn where not extracted.
* bugfix in OPAC : it was possible to reserve books that where "notforloan"
* bugfix in circulation : no warning when a reserve was made on a book 
that you try to issue to someone else.
* bugfix & improvement for catalogue management behaviour when MARC=OFF
* bugfix in bookshelves (in CVS, probably not in official tar.gz)
* bugfix in online help (in CVS, probably not in official tar.gz)


=============
INSTALLATION
=============
* Download the package
* tar xvfz koha-version.tar.gz
* cd koha-version
* ./installer.pl
* READ and FOLLOW the instructions

READING what is on screen during installation is VERY important. Some 
decisions you make during install stage are very hard to reproduce after.


UPGRADE from previous 2.0.0preX or RCx version
*******
* Download the package
* tar xvfz koha-version.tar.gz
* cd koha-version
* ./koha.upgrade
* Follow the instructions

UPGRADE from previous 1.2.x version :
********
UPGRADE TO A 2.0.0 version before upgrading

UPGRADE from a 2.1.x version is NOT AVAILABLE. Don't install 2.2 on a 
2.1.x test database. A lot of DB changes have been done since 2.1.x & 
cannot be handled by the DB updater.

=============
NEW FEATURES
=============
Koha 2.2 has, of course, all the previous features from Koha 
(acquisition, cataloguing, circulation, members modules, OPAC, complete 
MARC support...) plus the following new ones :

General :
*********
* (almost) complete rewrite of librarian GUI : now Koha uses CSS, and is 
easier to use. However, users of Koha 2.0.0 won't be lost, as the 
general organisation of the product has not changed.
* Online Help : an online help is available everywhere in the librarian 
interface. It's complete in the parameters section of Koha and for new 
features. It will be completed for the rest of the product.
* Better LDAP suport : Koha 2.2 can be "connected" to a LDAP server and 
get all borrower informations from there (including borrower category 
where applicable). However, to avoid problems for libraries without LDAP 
server, the LDAP features have been stored in 
modules/C4/Auth_with_ldap.pm file. The standard Auth.pm don't use it. If 
you want LDAP, just perldoc Auth_with_ldap.pm and manually tune your 
Auth package !

Acquisition :
*************
* suggestion : borrowers can suggest items to buy in OPAC. Then, the 
librarian can manage (accept or refuse) and order them.
* possibility to close a basket, he can't be modified then
* order a basket by publisher or by bookfund/publisher
* search order history

Cataloguing :
*************
* Cataloguing frameworks : you can define as many frameworks as you 
want. A framework describes how a material is catalogued (which fields, 
subfields, which constraints on them...)
* MARC authorities : Koha now supports authorities in MARC. You can 
define the MARC structure for authorities like for biblios.
* New contraints can be set for subfields :
 - subfield is hidden : appears in MARC editor, but not in OPAC.
 - subfield is an URL : the field can be cliqued
 - related fields : a search made on a subfield also uses other 
subfields automatically. Using this feature, a search on "title" can 
search title, but also subtitle, uniform title,...
* Item location can now be done on 3 levels : the branch, the location 
(room), the callnumber.
* The callnumber can now be calculated from the LC, the dewey, or be 
freely (and manually) entered.
* Duplicate finder : this powerful feature help your cataloguers 
avoiding duplicate biblios.
* ISBD view : in librarian interface as well as in OPAC biblios can be 
shown in standard (default) presentation, in MARC (human readable) or 
ISBD. The ISBD view can be tuned by the librarian team.

Serial cataloguing :
********************
Koha 2.2 manage serial subscriptions and issuing of those subscriptions.

Catalogue search :
******************
* Search in OPAC and librarian interface has been improved. They now are 
exactly the same.
* Spelling suggestion : before sending a request, the user can ask for 
spelling suggestion. This shows other forms of words entered that would 
give results.
* The user can select the order of the results

Circulation :
*************
* New issuing rules : Issuing can be set for branch / borrower type / 
item category, by number of days and number of items available.
* "joker" issuing rules : the library can set issuing rules for "any 
branch" or "any borrower type", or "any item category".
Both issuing rules are cumulative : a library can set issuing rules to 
10 books, 5 CD, but 12 total (books or CD).

OPAC :
******
In Koha 2.2, koha has :
* baskets. A basket can be printed or sent by mail to the borrower
* virtual shelves : a virtual shelf can be created and filled by any 
logged borrower. A given virtual shelf can be private or public. Or even 
free-for-all.
* language chooser : the borrower can change the language on the fly. 
The default language being still choosen by the library

Barcode printing :
******************
A new module has been added to the parameters section : barcode 
printing. It requires the PDF::Api2 Perl package and can print barcode on

============
KNOWN BUGS
============
* bug with biblio management for libraries with MARC=OFF systempreference
* modifying an order seems to duplicate the order line
* french OPAC is OK, french librarian interface seems to be a little buggy.

============
Koha Future
============
The future of Koha is being discussed on mailing lists and on koha wiki 
: http://www.saas.nsw.edu.au/koha_wiki/index.php?page=KohaRoadmap2.2.x

--
Paul POULAIN
Consultant indépendant en logiciels libres
responsable francophone de koha (SIGB libre http://www.koha-fr.org)