What are administration settings?

The Administration settings are high-level preferences intended for network administrators, IT support departments, or operators with administrator-level permissions; in other words, they're advanced settings used to configure your main Data Station once and then be forgotten.

While every operator with the proper security permissions can access the Administration module, it contains settings that most operators won't be able to configure without help. An operator's access to these settings is governed by Alexandria's security preferences. Your library's administrator can manage these settings in Tools > Preferences > Security.

Actions Menu

• Send Data to COMPanion. If a Customer Support Representative needs your library data for troubleshooting you can easily send it to us by selecting this option and entering the Authorization Code you are provided.
  
  

• Log Out. This button will log you out of Alexandria, despite if you have multiple windows open. 
  
  

• Quit Alexandria. This option will stop the Data Station from running and log out any active operators.

Navigation Bar

What does the status interface do?

Database Maintenance 

You have the ability to preserve and maintain your library catalog data by utilizing the following options through the status interface.

• Restore From Archive. Use this option to replace your current data folder with a previously created archive. This is useful if you need to undo a completed process such as imports or utilities. 

  Steps to restore from an archive.

  1. Click Restore From Archive, this will trigger a roll-down menu.

  2. . From the list of Available Archives, select the archive date/time you would like to restore to; dates/times are listed as yyyy/mm/dd 24:00

  3. Click the Restore button to proceed. If you no longer want to restore simply click Cancel to abort the process. By clicking Restore your current data will be replaced by that contained in the selected archive folder. 
  4. (optional) You can check the Delete the archived data after restoring box if you would like to remove the selected archive from your Archive Directory upon successful restoration.

• Archive. Selecting this button performs an immediate, manual archive of your database. During an archive, all information in the Data Station's Data folder is copied into the Archive Directory you've configured. While the Archive is running all services on the Data Station are temporarily disabled. We recommend running an archive before making any large-scale changes to your database, such as imports, updates, utilities, or machine upgrades.
  
  

• Restart. Selecting this button will restart the Data Station remotely. During the restart duration, Alexandria services and modules will be unavailable to all operators.
  
  

• Database Maintenance. Selecting this button will examine your database files and perform Patron, Item, and Circulation verification routines. If database damage is detected, it's automatically fixed. While maintenance is being performed the data station will be inaccessible. This process can also be scheduled to perform regularly. 

If you want the ability to email reminders, such as the Overdue Items Notice, to your patrons or staff you will need to configure how Alexandria communicates with your library's email server. Alexandria's email system is designed to potentially cope with hundreds of emails being sent (or resent) over many machines at the same time. If a send fails, the next resend time is generated by adding a random value between 3 and 9 minutes, spreading out the resend times so all the undelivered email still in the “short range” period isn't sent at the same time. If a send hasn't succeeded by the end of the “short range” period, the program will generate new send times using random values between 60 and 90 minutes. If a send still hasn't succeeded after 100 hours the email is discarded and a “return-to-sender” email will be sent.

Email Settings 

The Server 1 and Server 2 sections are used for out-bound email. The Test Server button will send a test email using your provided SMTP settings. 

SMTP Server 1 and 2. This is the TCP/IP or DNS address of your library's mail server. Typically, this will be “ mail.” followed by your domain name. 

Port. Enter the port number that your email server uses.

Allow Non-Secure Connections. Alexandria uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) for secure web communications, when this setting is enabled checked the system will use non-TLS connections if it cannot make an TLS connection.

Log In. Enter the login for your email server. 

Password. Enter the password for your email server.

Test Server. Test the SMTP Server settings by sending a test email.

Last Tested On. This field displays the last date/time that the server test was performed.

Last Test Results. This field displays whether the test was successful or not.

Setting Up Your SMTP Server 

Before setting up your SMTP server you will need to enter a valid email address in the Site management settings of Alexandria. To do this you will:

1. Click on Tools to the left of your Circulation window. 
2. Click on Sites under the Management header. 
3. Enter the name of your site contact (typically this will be the District or Library Administrator of Alexandria), their title, their email and their phone/fax numbers.
4. Click Save in the upper right corner.

Once you have saved this information you are ready to set up the SMTP server. To do this you will:

Go to the Administration settings.

1. Click on the Email icon on the left.
2. To successfully use an external SMTP, you must provide both a valid Site Email Address and a valid Email Address for one of your Administrator-level operators.
3. Supply your SMTP Server information, Port, and, if Use Authentication is needed, check that box and provide your Log In and Password. Also check Use SSL if needed.
4. Click Save in the upper-right corner of the window.

Using Gmail as your SMTP Server

One of the little-known freebies Gmail offers is a portable SMTP server to send mail from any network for any email address.

1. Type the server domain name (or IP address), (optional) port number, and (optional) serial number (if you're Distributed Catalog) of your Data Station followed by “/admin” into your browser's Address field (usually located in the upper-left corner of the window).
2. Next, click on the Email icon located in the Data Station Administration section.
3. In the Email tab, type the following address into the SMTP Server Address field: smtp.gmail.com
4. Be sure that the Port field is configured with either 465 or 587 depending on the version of Alexandria you are using; For versions 7.14.1 to 7.17.1 you will use Port465 for versions 7.17.7 & up you will use Port587
5. Make sure that the Use SSL box is checked.
6. Make sure that the Enable CRAM-MD5 box is not checked.
7. Next, check the Use Authentication box and provide your Google email account name in the Login field.
8. Provide your Google email password in the Password field.
9. To use Gmail as your SMTP server you will need to click on the Test Server button and verify a test email was successfully sent to the email address of the administrator responsible for the SMTP server; this email address is specified in the Sites Management interface Email address.
10. Finally, it may be necessary to set your Google Account Settings to Allow Less Secure Apps. You can read more about this below.
11. Voilà! Using your Gmail account, you can now send email to any email address from any network that lets you connect to an outside SMTP server

Allow Less Secure Apps

When setting up Google SMTP service for use in Alexandria's email, it may be necessary to set your Google Account settings for Access for Less Secure Apps from No to Yes. This can be done by going to Account Settings or going directly here. It should be noted, that email sent through Alexandria uses the most up to date TLS security standard. In order for Alexandria to make contact with your Google SMTP, it is necessary that Alexandria (the App) retrieves your sign in credentials from Google. We do not use your Gmail SMTP credentials for anything other than authenticating to Gmail. Your account information is always stored securely and it will not be viewed or used by COMPanion for any other purpose. You can learn more about this topic by reading Allowing Less Secure Apps to Access Your Account.

It should be noted that Google's statement of '''Less Secure''' should not be read as '''Insecure'''. '''Less Secure Apps''' is a label describing a behavioral issue and not a technical issue. Lots of things can go wrong when you give your credentials to a third party to give to the authentication authority: the third party might keep the credentials in storage without telling you, they might use your credentials for purposes outside the stated scope of the application, they might send your credentials over a network without encryption, etc. Ultimately, it is only '''Less Secure''' if the third party in question has malicious intent and therefore you should always be vigilant in knowing who you are sending your credentials to. COMPanion Corp stores your credentials only for the purpose of utilizing Googles SMTP Email service and they are stored using the most up-to-date security.