Joshua Ferraro
17 years ago
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============================================================================== |
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RELEASE NOTES FOR KOHA 3.0 ALPHA |
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============================================================================== |
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Koha 3 is the next-generation release of the award-winning Koha open-source |
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integrated library system. |
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You can obtain Koha 3.0 Beta from the following URL: |
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http://download.koha.org/koha-3.00.00-beta.tar.gz |
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These Release Notes cover What's New in Koha 3, information about the new |
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Revision control system (Git), and Version-release process, pointers to |
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Download, Installation, and Upgrade documentation, a brief introduction to the |
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new Templates, a call to Translation and Documentation writers, and finally, |
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Known Issues with this version. |
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============================================================================== |
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WHAT'S NEW IN KOHA 3? |
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============================================================================== |
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1. Zebra plugin - Zebra is a high-performance, general-purpose structured |
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text indexing and retrieval engine. It supports large data sets (tens of |
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millions of records) and includes support for SRU, Z39.50 and several query |
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languages: CCL, CQL, and PQF. For more information about Zebra, please see: |
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http://indexdata.dk/zebra |
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Koha's new search engine, built on top of Zebra, supports features such as |
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relevance ranking, field weighting, truncation, stemming, use of fuzzy |
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operators, language-specific indexing, sorting, etc. |
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Indexes are updated in real-time with circulation transactions, enabling |
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limits by availability and statuses. |
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Faceted refine-by limits are available from both staff and opac interfaces. |
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For libraries that don't want the overhead of maintaing Zebra, Koha 3 ships |
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with a NoZebra option, in which bibliographic and authority data is indexed |
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in the RDBMS. |
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2. New installer - based on the common Perl module ExtUtils::MakeMaker, the |
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new installer makes it a snap to get Koha running on just about any platform. |
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The installer comes complete with a Developer's Toolkit target ('dev') that |
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can be used to get a development environment linked directly to revision |
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control, to support rapid prototyping and an agile development process. |
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3. Standard APIs - Koha 3 supports a number of important library search and |
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retrieval standards and microformats, such as SRU/W, Z39.50 |
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(http://www.loc.gov/standards/sru/), UnAPI (http://unapi.info/) and |
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COinS/OpenURL |
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(http://ocoins.info; http://www.niso.org/committees/committee_ax.html). |
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Also supported is the popular Internet standard: OpenSearch |
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(http://opensearch.a9.com/) created by Amazon's A9. |
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Records are stored internally in an SGML-like format and can be retrieved in |
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MARCXML, Dublin Core, MODS, RSS, Atom, RDF-DC, SRW-DC, OAI-DC, and EndNote; |
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and the OPAC can be used by citation tools such as Zotero. Creating new |
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export formats is a trivial exercise in writing XSLT; records can be passed |
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through XSLT transformations either directly out of the index, or via a |
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separate parsing function. |
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To retrieve and interact with Circulation and Patron data, Koha 3 includes |
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support for 3M's Standard Interchange Protocol (SIP2), using the OpenNCIP |
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libraries (http://openncip.org). |
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There are also an ever-expanding set of native REST APIs to handle |
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interoperability with external tools such as third-party cataloging clients. |
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These APIs provide authentication as well as add/edit/delete control over |
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bibliographic data within a Koha system. For more information, see: |
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http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?id=en:development:web_services |
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Koha 3 also includes pluggable authentication - easy integration with LDAP and |
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Active Directory via the Auth_with_ldap module. |
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The Amazon.com module can be enabled to enrich bibliographic data with jacket |
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covers, professional reviews, ratings and comments from Amazon users, as well |
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as point to 'Similar Items' within the catalog. OCLC's xISBN, and |
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LibraryThing's ThingISBN can likewise be enabled to provide an 'Editions' tab |
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on item detail pages. New with Koha 3 is service throttling for these services, |
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to keep within subscription limits. |
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4. Cross-platform, multi-RDBMS, Web-server agnostic - Run Koha on the platform |
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of your choice: Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, Solaris. Koha 3 also |
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includes better support for multi-RDBMS (MySQL 5.0 and PostgreSQL), and runs |
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under Apache2, IIS, or the web server of your choosing. |
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5. Multi-lingual support - Koha was designed from the ground up for multilingual |
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libraries. Koha 3 can handle Chinese, Japanese, and even right-to-left languages |
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such as Arabic and Hebrew with ease (BiDi). |
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Koha's index engine (Zebra) can handle record formats containing any UNICODE |
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compliant script, such as Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Japanese and Korean. Zebra |
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has this support via the ICU libraries created and maintained by IBM. |
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You can translate Koha into your language using the built-in translation tools, |
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or by visiting http://translate.koha.org. |
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6. New templates - Koha's staff and patron interfaces are developed with a |
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template system that's easy to theme. The default templates are composed of 100% |
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valid XHTML and CSS. Koha aims to meet or exceed U.S. Government Section 508 and |
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W3C's WAI-AA standards for sight and motor impaired individuals. All |
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Javascript usage comes with fallback modes that work in any web browser. |
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7. Koha 3 has quite a few new modules, as well as enhancements to existing |
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modules, including: news writer, label creator, calendar, OPAC comments, MARC |
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staging and overlay, notices, transaction logs, guided reports with a data |
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dictionary and task scheduler, classification sources/filing rules. |
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============================================================================== |
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REVISION CONTROL |
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============================================================================== |
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With Koha 3, we've started using a new distributed revision control system |
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called Git; it's the same system in use by many other projects, including the |
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Linux Kernel. To learn more about how to develop Koha using Git, please see |
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the Wiki page: |
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http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?id=en:development:git_usage |
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============================================================================== |
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VERSION NUMBERING |
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============================================================================== |
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With Koha 3, version numbering has been changed to use a method similar to |
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Perl's: |
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major.minor[.revision[.build]] |
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* major: one digit |
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* minor: two-digit |
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* revision: two-digit |
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* build: three-digit |
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This beta release of Koha 3.0 is versioned 3.00.00.056. Every database change |
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or significant enough code change requires an update to the 'build' number, |
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and developers will be able to easily upgrade their systems using the built-in |
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updater. |
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Koha 3.0 Release Schedule: |
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This beta release of Koha 3.0 includes the following general improvements over |
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the alpha release on XXX: |
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* General Bugfixing (everyone) |
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* New API for item management (gmcharlt) |
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* MARC21 Authorities (gmcharlt) |
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* Improved I18N/L10N, lang detection (kados) |
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* OPAC Templates re-design (oleonard) |
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* Additional translations |
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This beta release of Koha 3.0 will be followed by a stable release on Mar 15, |
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2008, including fixes to the following components: |
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* General Bugfixing (everyone) |
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* Sync the system preferences between dev_week, rel_2_2 and 3.0 (gmcharlt) |
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* Additional Template improvements (oleonard) |
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* Documentation and Translations (everyone) |
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The final stable release of Koha 3.0 is now slated for March 15 2008 and will |
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include bugfixes to 3.0 beta. |
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Subsequent releases of 3.0 will be bugfix releases, and won't include any new |
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features. |
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New features will be available in Koha 3.2 and subsequent releases. |
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============================================================================== |
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UPGRADING FROM A PREVIOUS VERSION OF KOHA |
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============================================================================== |
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The upgrade process from a previous version of Koha is documented on the Wiki |
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at the following page: |
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http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?id=22_to_30 |
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============================================================================== |
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TEMPLATES |
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============================================================================== |
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You may have heard that the templates for Koha 3 have been re-skinned; there |
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is also the start of a template style guide on the Wiki: |
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http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?id=en:documentation:templates_style_guide |
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Kudos to Owen Leonard and the Nelsonville Public Library for their |
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contributions! |
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============================================================================== |
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TRANSLATIONS |
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============================================================================== |
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Koha 3 beta (this release) currently has complete translations for the following |
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languages: |
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OPAC: de-DE (German), el-GR (Greek), es-ES (Spanish), en (English), fr-FR (French) |
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hu-HU (Hungarian), it-IT (Italian), pt-PT (Portuguese), tr-TR (Turkish) |
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Staff Client fr-FR (French), en (English), hy-Armn (Armenian) |
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Additionally, Koha 3 beta (this release) has partial translations for the following |
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languages: |
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OPAC: am-Ethi (Amharic), bg-Cyrl (Bulgarian), fa-Arab (Persian), fi-FI (Finnish) |
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gl (Galego), he-Hebr (Hebrew), id-ID (Indonesian), ja-Japn (Japanese), |
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kn-Knda (kannada), ko-Kore (Korean), mi-NZ (Maori), pl-PL (Polish), |
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tet (Tetum), zh-Hans-CN (Simplified Chinese in China), |
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zh-Hans-TW (Simplified Chinese in Taiwan) |
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Staff Client: de-DE (German), el-EL (Greek), es-ES (Spanish), hu-HU (Hungarian), |
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ja-Japn (Japanese), tr-TR (Turkish), zh-Hans-CN (Simplified Chinese in China), |
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zh-Hans-TW (Simplified Chinese in Taiwan) |
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The Koha Team welcomes additional translations; please see |
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http://www.kohadocs.org/usersguide/apb.html for information about |
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translating Koha, and join the koha-translate list to volunteer: |
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http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/koha-translate |
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============================================================================== |
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DOCUMENTATION |
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============================================================================== |
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User-contributed documentation for Koha 3 is available on the Koha Wiki |
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(http://wiki.koha.org). The Koha Team welcomes documentation contributions; |
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please join the Koha-devel list to volunteer: |
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http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/koha-devel |
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============================================================================== |
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KNOWN ISSUES |
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============================================================================== |
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Known bugs are documented on the Koha wiki: http://bugs.koha.org and at the |
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3.0 RM's QA notes Wiki page: |
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http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?id=en:development:qanotes3.0 |
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