Pardon the mess! The Support Center is undergoing construction. 
20.4 Release Notes
10 September 2020
Our recent updates have added cool new features like an upgraded Item Details and the Reset Patron Accounts utility. Tell us how Alexandria is working for you!
Highlights
We’ve been hard at work cleaning things up, adding to Textbook Tracker, and enhancing reports. Take a look at what we’ve got for you this month!
Search
You’ll now see newer titles at the top when sorting Search’s results by Year.
Circulation Preferences
We’ve increased the Letters > Email Signature character limit to 1500, meaning you can now fill it with all the important information your patrons need!
Important
- Due to lack of interest, we no longer support a direct integration with Soundzabound and have removed its preferences.
- If you self-host on a Mac, hold off updating your servers to macOS 10.15 Catalina. Alexandria will be 64-bit compatible in a future release. We highly recommend you consider Cloud Hosting.
New & Improved
Circulation
- Simplified the Email to dropdown menu on the Support tab. We're also pre-selecting Customer Support for you to make your life simpler.
Export
- Expanded the length of the field selecting dialog so you can see more fields on a larger screen.
- Added and changed some exportable patron fields to differentiate between Librarian and Textbook Tracker data. See the Export Patron Fields for more information.
- Total Currently Out → Total Library Items Out and Total Textbook Items Out
- Currently Overdue → Overdue Library Items and Overdue Textbook Items
- Total Fines → Total Library Fines and Total Textbook Fines
- Total Payments → Total Library Payments and Total Textbook Payments
- Life to Date Usage → Lifetime Usage (Library)
- Life to Date Overdue → Lifetime Overdues (Library)
There is no lifetime usage or overdues for Textbook Tracker.
Import
- Expanded the length of the field mapping dialog so you can see more fields on a larger screen.
Preferences
- Reduced the Z39.50 server list included with Alexandria to eliminate servers that are inactive. This will only affect new databases, so stay tuned for a future Tip of the Week if you want to learn how to update your own database to our new list. Learn about resources you can use to bolster your library's Z39.50 list!
- Updated terminology in the On-Shelf Hold email notification to consistently say “on-shelf hold.” (These notifications go out when you have the Email Librarian when an On-Shelf Hold is placed through Researcher preference turned on in Circulation Preferences.)
- Fixed Clever daily syncs.
Reports
- Corrected reports to complete with all results even when items have invalid cover art URLs.
Researcher
- Fixed a bug that was causing blank screens to load while navigating through Researcher.
- Corrected Search and Explore to respect Require Login preferences.
System
- Improved performance and reliability.
Tools
- Added a link to Offline Mode. Did you know you can use it to take inventory in your library with your mobile phone? Don't forget to upload when you're done! Mobile inventory—Offline Mode
Utilities
- New utilities in Textbook Tracker. Check them out!
This page has been moved over to https://support.goalexandria.com/release-notes/
All release notes 23.9 and onward are on the new Support Center.
Cloud-Hosted Updates
When you host with us, we take care of all updates! During these updates—the second to last or last weekend every month (Saturday and Sunday)—please plan for possible downtimes with Alexandria. And if you need to contact Customer Support over the weekend, please call us (emails are only responded to during regular business hours Monday–Friday).
Self-Hosted Updates
Once all of the Cloud-Hosted servers have been updated, we will make the update available to Self-Hosted servers.
We highly recommend you consider Cloud Hosting.
Not every version is able to update to the newest version, so the Available Updates window will only include those versions that meet your machine and version requirements.
Self-Hosted Notice - Mac
If you self-host on a Mac, hold off updating your servers to macOS 10.15 Catalina until you can update to Alexandria 22.8 or later (64-bit compatible releases).
If you self-host on a Mac, here's how to install the update on your Self-Hosted server:
- Log in to Alexandria.
- Append /admin to the end of your Alexandria URL.
- Click the Actions menu, then select Check For Updates.
- Select the update version from the list, then click Update. Your update will now download.
- The update screen will close automatically and you will be redirected to the login window.
Self-Hosted Notice - Windows
As of 2023 our self-hosted update process has changed.
If you self-host on a Windows machine and are on Alexandria 22.6 or earlier: Contact us for instructions and assistance updating to the latest version.
If you self-host on a Windows machine and are on Alexandria 22.12 or later, here's how to install the update on your Self-Hosted server:
- Log in to Alexandria.
- Append /admin to the end of your Alexandria URL.
- Click the Actions menu, then select Check For Updates.
- Select the update version from the list, then click Update. Your update will download to the Updates folder in your Alexandria Support folder.
- The download may take several minutes.
- The update screen will close automatically and you will be redirected to the login window.
- Once the installer has downloaded, and not before, quit Alexandria.
- Remove your existing Alexandria application using Add or Remove Programs in System Settings.
- Run the newly-downloaded Alexandria Installer.
Important Information
Version Numbering Change
As of 20.1, we've simplified our versioning scheme by dropping the series version. We now use the following:
- xx = academic year, beginning in June; yy = month
For example, 20.1 means:
- 20 = 2020 academic year
- 1 = The first monthly update (June)
Centralized Catalogs
If you have more sites than you are licensed for, contact our Sales team immediately at 1-800-347-6439. You can check this in Sites Management; the number of total sites plus the Union Site shows at the top, and the number you have licensed is at the bottom. The Union Site does not require an additional license.
Data Conversion
These Data Conversion notes are for Self Hosted users updating from v7 and switching from v6. If you are cloud-hosted or moving to cloud-hosted, we do everything for you!
Data conversions from older versions may not be supported. Before updating, please check the version you're currently running.
Updating from v7
If you're already running 7.17.12 or newer, you can update to the latest version. But if you're running an older version, you'll need to update a few times.
- Running 7.16.3? Update to 7.17.12 before updating to the latest version.
- Running 7.16.2? Update to 7.16.3, then to 7.17.12, before updating to the latest version.
- Running an even older version? Contact COMPanion Support for assistance. Depending on your current version, your upgrade path may go through one or more of the following: 7.15.3 → 7.16.2.6 → 7.16.3 → 7.17.12 → Current Version
Upgrading from v6
The process to update from 6.23.1 to v7 is quite a bit different than updating from a more recent version. Check out our v6 to v7 Conversion Guide for more information.
Running 6.22.9 or older? Update to 6.23.1, then to 7.17.12, before updating to the latest version.
Data conversion can take up to 10 minutes for a single database of average size or longer for larger collections and Centralized Catalogs, during which time the program will be inaccessible in your browser. Do not fear; it's still working. If you're concerned, check your server logs for a progress update.
