Pardon the mess! The Support Center is undergoing construction. 
20.7 Release Notes
10 December 2020
Highlights
We've got some Textbook Tracker updates, report improvements, and an exciting announcement for you this holiday season!
Print receipts in Textbook Tracker with the Network Printer! You can set up your receipts in Preferences > Circulation > Receipts.
We've improved the In-Stock Hold Notice and In-Stock Holds reports by adding the ability to select by date(s) the items became in-stock.
Time to get excited! We are thrilled to announce that we have partnered with Mitinet to bring you BestMARC. This MARC data cleanup and supplementation service will take the form of two Alexandria utilities included in a paid add-on. If you're looking to make your catalog more discoverable for your patrons, this will be a great tool to help!
It will be available in January 2021! In the meantime,
learn more and contact our Sales Team if you’re interested.
We've added a lot of cool new features over the year.
Important
- We no longer support Windows 8. See Install Requirements for current notes and recommendations for Self-Hosting.
- Circulation Groups and See & See Also in Authority Control have been removed due to lack of usage and interest.
New & Improved
Operations
- Updated FTP import file names to make them easier to identify.
Patrons
- Clarified the term "card expiration" by renaming it to “account expiration.” The way it works hasn’t changed, but the term itself has been updated in these places:
- Patrons Management. Card Exp. Date → Account Exp
- Patron Preferences. Disable Card Expiration Dates → Disable account expiration dates
- Policies. Days Patron’s Card is Active → Days patron’s account is active
- Utilities. Renew Patron Cards utility → Renew Patron Accounts utility
- Reports. Card Expiring Notice report → Account Expiring Notice report
Preferences
Updated a preference label in
to improve clarity. “Days to Keep an In-Stock Hold Request” is now “Days to keep an In-Stock/On-Shelf hold” because it also includes on-shelf holds.
- Fixed LDAP logins.
- Corrected variable tags for Circulation Letters and notice reports.
- Updated GG4L imports to allow for more than 100 teachers.
Reports
- Added Department to the Copy Labels (3x10) report’s labels for Textbook Tracker.
- Fixed a printing error with the Library Cards (2x5) report.
- Corrected multiple reports to include patrons without a grade (i.e. level) when sorting by grade.
- Updated notices with cover art to fully load even when there’s invalid cover art.
- Split the subject/genre selection in the Title Information by Subject report to improve clarity and functionality.
Researcher
- Improved accessibility in Browse, including tabbing, voiceovers, and more! This makes it WCAG 2.0 AA compliant.
System
- Improved performance and reliability.
- Fixed a database issue.
Textbook Tracker
- Added Alert Notes to textbook copies. When in use, you’ll receive an alert when that copy is made current in Circulation. Need a reminder to check returned textbooks for CDs or other accessories? Add an alert note!
Self-Hosted Notice
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.
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.
