211 lines
9.2 KiB
Text
211 lines
9.2 KiB
Text
==============================================================================
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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 Alpha from the following URL:
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http://download.koha.org/koha-3.00.00-alpha.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 alpha release of Koha 3.0 is versioned 3.00.00.041. 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 alpha release of Koha 3.0 will be followed by a beta release on Feb 1,
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2008, including fixes to the following components:
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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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* Documentation and Translations (everyone)
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The final stable release of Koha 3.0 is slated for March 1 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 alpha (this release) currently has complete translations for en-GB
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(English) and fr-FR (French). The Koha Team welcomes additional translations;
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please see 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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