17 June 2023
This page has been moved over to https://support.goalexandria.com/release-notes/23-2-release-notes/
Important: You may see changes in Security settings after this update, especially for reports. Contact your administrator to make sure you have appropriate access.
NOTE: If you are having troubles seeing the login window for Alexandria, try zooming out your browser (to 100%). We'll handle this better in the next release!
Have you tried BestMARC to clean up and enhance your MARC records? Our BestMARC users love the ease and control it gives them over their MARC data! Our newest BestMARC Standard add-on allows you to try a few of BestMARC's powerful and convenient MARC management tools—sign up for your free account now, or contact the Alexandria Sales team at 1-800-347-6439 or sales@goalexandria.com to learn more.
Compare BestMARC Standard to our other options.
(Alexandria Librarian only)
Important
New and Improved
Patrons
- If an operator doesn’t have permissions to remove a patron, we now give them a better error message explaining what’s happening.
Circulation
- The Patron Lookup window is so popular! And so many of you noticed when we changed the shortcuts for selecting a patron! :D We’ve made some adjustments and it works better now. Keep in mind that for accessibility requirements the entire window has to be accessible via the keyboard, so pay attention to where the focus goes when you ‘tab’ or ‘enter’ in the window. You can now arrow through the results of the lookup, then press enter once to leave the list, and enter again to make the selection. We are confident that our awesome users will learn very quickly how the new window works!
- When you declare an item lost, or charge an overdue fine or discard fee, the patron email now automagically fills for you in the charge window!
Textbooks
- If you try to remove a textbook that has copies checked out, the ‘are you sure’ dialog may give you some indication of that. You can also check the copy list. We recommend handling all checked-out copies (i.e. declare them lost) before removing a title.
Fixed
Circulation
- Renewing items or changing due dates was causing the original checkout date to be changed as well. It wasn’t obvious until the Makeover Circulation which shows that original checkout date. So, we fixed that, and you should now be able to see the original date the item was checked out!
- When scanning an item already checked out to a patron, you get an alert asking if you want to check it in or renew it. This alert is supposed to have a sound, and the sound went missing. It had a little vacation. We’ve got it back at its desk now.
- The cursor wasn’t always returning to the command line after some actions and commands—usually when closing dialogs. We combed through and fixed a bunch of dialogs, so when you close them the cursor is back in the command line. Think we missed something? Go to help in the topnav and Contact us!
- Often when you are discarding items you are discarding a bunch for the same reason, whether that’s our standard reasons or a custom one of your own. The new Circulation window wasn’t remembering what you entered the last time you discarded, and that was inconvenient, but now it’s got its memory working. Keep in mind you can always keep the same reason by going into discard mode: enter dm in the command line, select your reason, and that reason will show next to the command line.
Reports
- The Unpaid Charges Notice report was behaving poorly when it came to lost items, especially when paired with overdue charges for those lost items. We tested multiple scenarios a billion times and it’s all working now!!!
- The Titles Missing Information report for missing cover art was mysteriously including titles that…did have cover art. We found the issue (it was sneaky) and fixed it.
Operations
- Some operations come with files you can download, like reports and exports. Some don’t, like utilities and imports. When sending notification emails, we were including a link to download…something…when there wasn’t anything to download. So we fixed that.
Patrons
- The new Patron and Circulation windows were having some issues with patron barcodes starting with alpha characters, such as p50. Those issues are now resolved although we still recommend numeric barcodes. See more in Barcode Guidelines.
Scout
- Once upon a time, Scout didn’t like hyphens. It discriminated against titles with hyphens and refused to search for them. One day, a savvy developer had a talk with Scout, conveying all of the many reasons why hyphens were cool. Nowadays, Scout likes hyphens. So you can search for spider-man.
Bulletins
- Bulletin Boards are now accepting of all date preferences. If you set your date format to European or ISO (in addition to USA), and you set bulletin/board show/hide dates in European or ISO format, Bulletins will understand and show/hide boards accordingly!
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.