13 March 2020
Our recent updates have added cool new features like GG4L and merge patrons. Tell us how Alexandria is working for you!
What's New?
Announcing our partnership with Bound to Stay Bound! Also, we are moving things around in Alexandria and Textbooks to prepare for more changes coming in the next year.
Bound to Stay Bound integration. Do you order from Bound to Stay Bound? Now the items from your orders can be automatically added to Alexandria! Contact our Sales team at 1-800-347-6439 or sales@goalexandria.com and ask about our Online Services bundle.
Circulation updates. We have made a few small changes to Circulation: Renewals is a main tab instead of a subtab and has been renamed “Items out,” you can see shortcuts for all your tabs, Charges History was renamed Payments, and more.
Items Management updates. Yep, we’ve done the same with Items! We moved Copy Notes to be with the other copy information and renamed the Study Programs tab to Programs.
Utility changes. A few utilities have been merged, making it easier for you to find the one you need! If you use Check Out or Change Policy utilities, take a look at the Utilities section below.
Important
If you self-host on a Mac, hold off updating to macOS 10.15 Catalina. Alexandria may be 64-bit compatible in an upcoming release.
New & Improved
Administration
- Corrected a bug that was causing the Send Data to COMPanion preference to not work.
- Fixed a bug that was causing the email Test Server option to not generate results.
- Our system logs have changed from a text format to an SQL database.
Circulation
- Fixed a bug that was causing the GG command to check out items with multiple reservations to the past patron on the list.
- Moved Renewals to a main tab and renamed it “Items out.”
- Added shortcuts to some tabs, which can be typed into the command line to go to that tab.
- Homeroom (Location): HW
- Items out: QE
- Charges: F
- Payments (subtab): FF
- Command Help: ?
- Removed the Notes button from the Current Patron and Current Item panes. But they can still be accessed through the Actions menus.
- Moved the Command Help tab to the far rightmost end.
- Renamed the Charges History subtab to Payments.
Export
- Added the Export Log export to the System category. This allows you to export system logs for a specific date range or relative date.
Items Management
- Moved Copy and Alert Notes to the Information tab.
- Renamed the Study Programs tab to Programs.
Preferences
Reports
- Removed the Subscriptions and Routes subcategories in the Periodicals category.
- Fixed the Patron Monthly Usage and Patron Monthly Usage Detailed reports to display results when sorting by grade.
- Corrected the Lost Copies report to display replacement cost charges instead of overdue fines.
Researcher
- Fixed a bug that was causing title call numbers to not display in Search, Scout, Browse, and Explore when a title had no copy.
Utilities
- Added a “Match Copy to Title Policy” option to the Change Copy Policy utility.
- Added a “Match Title to Copy Policy” option to the Change Title Policy utility.
- Removed the Subscriptions and Routes subcategories in the Periodicals category.
- Combined the Check Out to Standard Patron and Check Out to System Patron utilities into the single Check Out utility.
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.