The Support Center has moved!! See the new website https://support.goalexandria.com/ 
23.1 Release Notes
17 June 2023
This page has been moved over to https://support.goalexandria.com/release-notes/23-1-release-notes/
Sites Management has a new look! Now when you open it from Tools, it will stay in the same window with your sidenav and topnav, and display in the style of the Makeover.
What else is new? Researcher Notice is called ‘Site Notice’ because it’s available in librarian and Researcher—and Textbook Tracker librarian.
You asked, and we listened! The text color above input boxes is now darker, so it shows with more contrast—especially when the record is locked (which was very light before). You’ll see this change most in Patrons and Items Management. The new colors continue to adhere to modern accessibility standards.
Include/exclude is now on reports for Items with a Policy of selection. This means Title Information and Copy Information reports, and many more. You can run reports with several different policies (e.g. Fiction and Children’s), or excluding certain policies (e.g. Class Sets).
Note that if you have a saved report you will need to recreate it to get the new selection.
New and Improved
Preferences
- It’s easier now to set up Overdrive account information. Once you enter an account ID, it will be validated and you can choose your Advantage Account Name from a dropdown.
Circulation
- You can now find the serial number in Textbook Tracker Circulation by opening Copy Stats.
Reports
- The Top Circulated Titles report now includes titles without copies.
TIP: How can you tell if your ebooks are being used? Previously, you’d have to check the individual services for whatever they can share with you. Nowadays, Alexandria counts link clicks as usage. This means when patrons click the links to ebooks from Overdrive or Capstone etc., that title will be ‘used’, and it will start showing up on things like Top Circulated Titles and other statistics reports, so you can evaluate your ebook title usage right alongside the physical books. (Alexandria Librarian only) - We have a new report category: Popular. If you aren’t sure where to start with your reports, start with the popular reports!
(Alexandria Librarian only for now) - When you send a Patron Details email either through Circulation or Reports, the Email Signature (found in Preferences > Circulation > Letters) will now show at the bottom of the email.
Fixed
Circulation
- When you Forgive a charge, and put in a note, that note will now show up on various reports.
- Your preferred study program will show in Circulation.
- The ‘today’ numbers in the Homeroom subtab were not refreshing even if you pressed ‘refresh’. Now they not only refresh…they count from all sites!
- There was some mix-up with security when trying to refund payments or add credits. This has been fixed.
- Circulation Groups are now showing on the screen when you set them. That makes it much easier! (Alexandria Librarian only)
- Never put spaces in barcodes! Usually we don’t allow you to do that anyway, but sneaky temporary items weren’t preventing it. We’ve put a stop to that!
- In Textbook Tracker Circulation the copy location and shelving are once again showing in the current item pane.
Preferences
- LDAP settings are now correctly reading registration, so if you are registered for LDAP you can make changes!
Reports
- Patron Details Summary report once again correctly shows lost/discarded fees for removed copies. The report is also showing the Replacement Cost as expected.
- The Overdue Items Notice option to ‘include cover art’ was not letting you click it unless you clicked it just right. We fixed that.
Items
- In the Copies tab, the filter was not behaving for site selection. It’s been put in its place. Also, in addition to barcode, you can now filter your copies by
barcode, copy notes, alert notes, copy tag, volume, call number, serial number, vendor, location, shelving, funding, and site code. - Copy Condition is now showing up…as it should be.
- For whatever reason, copies that were in-transit or On Order were hiding from the Copy List (from Items or Circulation). We’ve persuaded them to show themselves. We also convinced the Lost and Discarded copies to show the right dates.
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.
