From 5fd61f95d0106c09fab8705117a28c3b151c0da1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Joshua Ferraro Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:41:15 -0500 Subject: [PATCH] adding release notes for 3.0 beta Signed-off-by: Joshua Ferraro --- .../release_notes/release_notes_30000beta.txt | 239 ++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 239 insertions(+) create mode 100644 misc/release_notes/release_notes_30000beta.txt diff --git a/misc/release_notes/release_notes_30000beta.txt b/misc/release_notes/release_notes_30000beta.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..9e70630e70 --- /dev/null +++ b/misc/release_notes/release_notes_30000beta.txt @@ -0,0 +1,239 @@ +============================================================================== +RELEASE NOTES FOR KOHA 3.0 ALPHA +============================================================================== +Koha 3 is the next-generation release of the award-winning Koha open-source +integrated library system. + +You can obtain Koha 3.0 Beta from the following URL: + +http://download.koha.org/koha-3.00.00-beta.tar.gz + +These Release Notes cover What's New in Koha 3, information about the new +Revision control system (Git), and Version-release process, pointers to +Download, Installation, and Upgrade documentation, a brief introduction to the +new Templates, a call to Translation and Documentation writers, and finally, +Known Issues with this version. + +============================================================================== +WHAT'S NEW IN KOHA 3? +============================================================================== + +1. Zebra plugin - Zebra is a high-performance, general-purpose structured +text indexing and retrieval engine. It supports large data sets (tens of +millions of records) and includes support for SRU, Z39.50 and several query +languages: CCL, CQL, and PQF. For more information about Zebra, please see: + +http://indexdata.dk/zebra + +Koha's new search engine, built on top of Zebra, supports features such as +relevance ranking, field weighting, truncation, stemming, use of fuzzy +operators, language-specific indexing, sorting, etc. + +Indexes are updated in real-time with circulation transactions, enabling +limits by availability and statuses. + +Faceted refine-by limits are available from both staff and opac interfaces. + +For libraries that don't want the overhead of maintaing Zebra, Koha 3 ships +with a NoZebra option, in which bibliographic and authority data is indexed +in the RDBMS. + +2. New installer - based on the common Perl module ExtUtils::MakeMaker, the +new installer makes it a snap to get Koha running on just about any platform. + +The installer comes complete with a Developer's Toolkit target ('dev') that +can be used to get a development environment linked directly to revision +control, to support rapid prototyping and an agile development process. + +3. Standard APIs - Koha 3 supports a number of important library search and +retrieval standards and microformats, such as SRU/W, Z39.50 +(http://www.loc.gov/standards/sru/), UnAPI (http://unapi.info/) and +COinS/OpenURL +(http://ocoins.info; http://www.niso.org/committees/committee_ax.html). + +Also supported is the popular Internet standard: OpenSearch +(http://opensearch.a9.com/) created by Amazon's A9. + +Records are stored internally in an SGML-like format and can be retrieved in +MARCXML, Dublin Core, MODS, RSS, Atom, RDF-DC, SRW-DC, OAI-DC, and EndNote; +and the OPAC can be used by citation tools such as Zotero. Creating new +export formats is a trivial exercise in writing XSLT; records can be passed +through XSLT transformations either directly out of the index, or via a +separate parsing function. + +To retrieve and interact with Circulation and Patron data, Koha 3 includes +support for 3M's Standard Interchange Protocol (SIP2), using the OpenNCIP +libraries (http://openncip.org). + +There are also an ever-expanding set of native REST APIs to handle +interoperability with external tools such as third-party cataloging clients. +These APIs provide authentication as well as add/edit/delete control over +bibliographic data within a Koha system. For more information, see: + +http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?id=en:development:web_services + +Koha 3 also includes pluggable authentication - easy integration with LDAP and +Active Directory via the Auth_with_ldap module. + +The Amazon.com module can be enabled to enrich bibliographic data with jacket +covers, professional reviews, ratings and comments from Amazon users, as well +as point to 'Similar Items' within the catalog. OCLC's xISBN, and +LibraryThing's ThingISBN can likewise be enabled to provide an 'Editions' tab +on item detail pages. New with Koha 3 is service throttling for these services, +to keep within subscription limits. + +4. Cross-platform, multi-RDBMS, Web-server agnostic - Run Koha on the platform +of your choice: Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, Solaris. Koha 3 also +includes better support for multi-RDBMS (MySQL 5.0 and PostgreSQL), and runs +under Apache2, IIS, or the web server of your choosing. + +5. Multi-lingual support - Koha was designed from the ground up for multilingual +libraries. Koha 3 can handle Chinese, Japanese, and even right-to-left languages +such as Arabic and Hebrew with ease (BiDi). + +Koha's index engine (Zebra) can handle record formats containing any UNICODE +compliant script, such as Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Japanese and Korean. Zebra +has this support via the ICU libraries created and maintained by IBM. + +You can translate Koha into your language using the built-in translation tools, +or by visiting http://translate.koha.org. + +6. New templates - Koha's staff and patron interfaces are developed with a +template system that's easy to theme. The default templates are composed of 100% +valid XHTML and CSS. Koha aims to meet or exceed U.S. Government Section 508 and +W3C's WAI-AA standards for sight and motor impaired individuals. All +Javascript usage comes with fallback modes that work in any web browser. + +7. Koha 3 has quite a few new modules, as well as enhancements to existing +modules, including: news writer, label creator, calendar, OPAC comments, MARC +staging and overlay, notices, transaction logs, guided reports with a data +dictionary and task scheduler, classification sources/filing rules. + +============================================================================== +REVISION CONTROL +============================================================================== + +With Koha 3, we've started using a new distributed revision control system +called Git; it's the same system in use by many other projects, including the +Linux Kernel. To learn more about how to develop Koha using Git, please see +the Wiki page: + +http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?id=en:development:git_usage + +============================================================================== +VERSION NUMBERING +============================================================================== + +With Koha 3, version numbering has been changed to use a method similar to +Perl's: + +major.minor[.revision[.build]] + + * major: one digit + * minor: two-digit + * revision: two-digit + * build: three-digit + +This beta release of Koha 3.0 is versioned 3.00.00.056. Every database change +or significant enough code change requires an update to the 'build' number, +and developers will be able to easily upgrade their systems using the built-in +updater. + +Koha 3.0 Release Schedule: + +This beta release of Koha 3.0 includes the following general improvements over +the alpha release on XXX: + + * General Bugfixing (everyone) + * New API for item management (gmcharlt) + * MARC21 Authorities (gmcharlt) + * Improved I18N/L10N, lang detection (kados) + * OPAC Templates re-design (oleonard) + * Additional translations + +This beta release of Koha 3.0 will be followed by a stable release on Mar 15, +2008, including fixes to the following components: + + * General Bugfixing (everyone) + * Sync the system preferences between dev_week, rel_2_2 and 3.0 (gmcharlt) + * Additional Template improvements (oleonard) + * Documentation and Translations (everyone) + +The final stable release of Koha 3.0 is now slated for March 15 2008 and will +include bugfixes to 3.0 beta. + +Subsequent releases of 3.0 will be bugfix releases, and won't include any new +features. + +New features will be available in Koha 3.2 and subsequent releases. + +============================================================================== +UPGRADING FROM A PREVIOUS VERSION OF KOHA +============================================================================== + +The upgrade process from a previous version of Koha is documented on the Wiki +at the following page: + +http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?id=22_to_30 + +============================================================================== +TEMPLATES +============================================================================== + +You may have heard that the templates for Koha 3 have been re-skinned; there +is also the start of a template style guide on the Wiki: + +http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?id=en:documentation:templates_style_guide + +Kudos to Owen Leonard and the Nelsonville Public Library for their +contributions! + +============================================================================== +TRANSLATIONS +============================================================================== + +Koha 3 beta (this release) currently has complete translations for the following +languages: + +OPAC: de-DE (German), el-GR (Greek), es-ES (Spanish), en (English), fr-FR (French) + hu-HU (Hungarian), it-IT (Italian), pt-PT (Portuguese), tr-TR (Turkish) + +Staff Client fr-FR (French), en (English), hy-Armn (Armenian) + +Additionally, Koha 3 beta (this release) has partial translations for the following +languages: + +OPAC: am-Ethi (Amharic), bg-Cyrl (Bulgarian), fa-Arab (Persian), fi-FI (Finnish) + gl (Galego), he-Hebr (Hebrew), id-ID (Indonesian), ja-Japn (Japanese), + kn-Knda (kannada), ko-Kore (Korean), mi-NZ (Maori), pl-PL (Polish), + tet (Tetum), zh-Hans-CN (Simplified Chinese in China), + zh-Hans-TW (Simplified Chinese in Taiwan) + +Staff Client: de-DE (German), el-EL (Greek), es-ES (Spanish), hu-HU (Hungarian), + ja-Japn (Japanese), tr-TR (Turkish), zh-Hans-CN (Simplified Chinese in China), + zh-Hans-TW (Simplified Chinese in Taiwan) + +The Koha Team welcomes additional translations; please see +http://www.kohadocs.org/usersguide/apb.html for information about +translating Koha, and join the koha-translate list to volunteer: + +http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/koha-translate + +============================================================================== +DOCUMENTATION +============================================================================== + +User-contributed documentation for Koha 3 is available on the Koha Wiki +(http://wiki.koha.org). The Koha Team welcomes documentation contributions; +please join the Koha-devel list to volunteer: + +http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/koha-devel + +============================================================================== +KNOWN ISSUES +============================================================================== + +Known bugs are documented on the Koha wiki: http://bugs.koha.org and at the +3.0 RM's QA notes Wiki page: + +http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?id=en:development:qanotes3.0 -- 2.39.5