Release 2.4
Main Page > Releases > Releases/Release announcements > Release 2.4
Release date: September 5, 2017
Download link: atom-2.4.0.tar.gz
Release 2.4 is the first major release since July 2016, and includes several new features (such as large-scale CSV import and export via the user interface), major redesigns of existing features (such as the clipboard and search index implementation), support for more tasks to be performed asynchronously to avoid browser timeouts during long-running operations, and many bug fixes. We've closed over 150 issues as part of this release – you can view more details on each ticket in our issue tracker at the following links:
Visit the Downloads page to download the most recent release, and consult the 2.4 Upgrading and Installation guides in our documentation for further information.
An overview of some of the major changes in the 2.4 release is included below, followed by a full list of links to relevant tickets, sponsors, and documentation for new features.
Tip
Issue numbers associated with new features and bug fixes listed below refer to the AtoM project issue tracker. Artefactual uses the issue tracker to track development tasks, feature requirements, quality assurance testing, and related development discussion. You can use the numbers to search for the related issue ticket in our Issue tracker - often the tickets will include more information on how the feature was implemented.
For more information, see: Issue tracker
Contents
Accession record enhancements
Summary
Previously in AtoM, Accession numbers could not be edited in the user interface after being automatically generated by the accession mask settings. In 2.4, the accession mask can now be disabled, and accession numbers can be edited whether the mask is used or not. A simple validator has been added to the edit page to ensure that edited accession numbers do not duplicate existing accession numbers - if so, a warning will be provided, and the user will be prompted to edit the accession number to a unique value before being able to save the record.
Related issue tickets
Sponsored by the University of the Witswatersrand
- #9897 - Allow accession numbers to be edited by users via the user interface
- #9915 - Include a setting to disable the accessions mask
- #9917 - Validate and enforce the uniqueness of identifiers
Related documentation
- https://www.accesstomemory.org/docs/2.4/user-manual/administer/settings/#enable-accession-mask
- https://www.accesstomemory.org/docs/2.4/user-manual/add-edit-content/accessions/
Administration enhancements
Summary
AtoM now includes a setting that allows an Administrator to enable a notification about the number of draft records available in AtoM when authenticated users log in. The notification includes a link to the Description updates page, which can be used to search for recent changes and/or draft records.
Related issue tickets
Sponsored by the City of Winnipeg Archives
- #10378 - Add configurable alert on login indicating number of draft records
Related documentation
Archival description enhancements
Summary
A number of changes to how archival descriptions and related digital objects can be managed have been included in 2.4, including more options for how slugs are automatically generated when creating new descriptions; the ability to add geolocation information to digital objects and generate dynamic maps from assigned latitude and longitude values; as well as several display and usability enhancements to the full-width treeview.
Related issue tickets
Sponsored by the United Nations Archives and Records Management Section
- #9950 - Include the ability to set if slugs are generated from title, identifier, or reference code (with or without country and repo code included)
- Documentation: https://www.accesstomemory.org/docs/2.4/user-manual/administer/settings/#generate-description-permalinks-from
Sponsored by the Hamilton Public Library
- #10330 - Add ability to assign latitude/longitude values to digital object metadata and generate dynamic Google maps from assigned values
- Documentation: https://www.accesstomemory.org/docs/2.4/user-manual/import-export/upload-digital-object/#digital-object-map
Sponsored by Simon Fraser University Archives
- #10909 - Allow administrators to select which metadata elements appear in full-width treeview
- Documentation: https://www.accesstomemory.org/docs/2.4/user-manual/administer/settings/#full-width-treeview-settings
Sponsored by the National Library of Wales
- #10973 - Add support for drag-and-drop to the full-width treeview
- Documentation: https://www.accesstomemory.org/docs/2.4/user-manual/add-edit-content/archival-descriptions/#change-sort-order
Sponsored by Queen's University Archives
- #11162 - Add options to automatically generate identifiers based on mask in settings
- Documentation: https://www.accesstomemory.org/docs/2.4/user-manual/administer/settings/#enable-identifier-mask
Authority record enhancements
Summary
In 2.4, you can now link an authority record directly with a repository to indicate which repository is responsible for maintaining the record. The context menus showing relations to other resources on the authority record view page have all been given pagers and browse links, and a new repeatable access point field for capturing information about the occupation(s) of actors has been added to the authority record template.
Related issues
Sponsored by the Royal British Columbia Museum
- #10048 - Provide pagination and "show all" links in authority records linked descriptions list
- Documentation: https://www.accesstomemory.org/docs/2.4/user-manual/add-edit-content/authority-records/
Sponsored by the Canadian Council on Archives and partners
- #8642 - Add relation rows to the database schema to associate actors with maintaining repositories
- Documentation: https://www.accesstomemory.org/docs/2.4/user-manual/add-edit-content/authority-records/#link-an-authority-record-to-a-repository-as-its-maintainer
Sponsored by the National Library of Sweden
- #11081 - Add new occupation access point with notes field to authority records, supported by an Actor occupations taxonomy
- Documentation: https://www.accesstomemory.org/docs/2.4/user-manual/add-edit-content/authority-records/#add-access-points-to-your-authority-record
Clipboard
Summary
The clipboard now supports authority records and repository records in addition to archival descriptions, and clipboard links have been added to the Inventory list and the Description updates page. Additionally, the clipboard has become the central place to manage exports (see also the Import/Export section below), and public users can now export clipboard results.
Related issue tickets
Sponsored by the Canadian Council on Archives and partners
- #10007 - Add clipboard links to the description updates page
- #10011 - Add support for other entities on the clipboard page (authority records, repository records)
Sponsored by the World Bank Group Archives
- #11119 - Add clipboard links to the Inventory list
- #11118 - Add the ability for public users to export archival description clipboard results to CSV
Related documentation
Command-line tools
Summary
We've improved several existing command-line tasks (such as the digital object derivatives task), fixed bugs found in others, and added a few new tools to better support management from the command-line.
Relate issue tickets
- #10333 - Log and report problematic records instead of halting task when repopulating the search index
- #10334 - Add CLI tool to delete users
- Documentation:
- #10581 - Add an option to exclude certain document types when repopulating the search index
- #11385 - Improve slug regeneration task to cover more entities
Sponsored by the Royal British Columbia Museum
- #9964 - Add a type flag to the digital object derivative regeneration task to limit regeneration to thumbnails or reference display copies
- Documentation:
Sponsored by the World Bank Group Archives
- #10055 - Add a flag to the digital object derivative regeneration task to prevent overwriting existing derivatives
- Documentation:
Sponsored by the City of Vancouver Archives and Gaia Resources
- #9960 - Add a DIP object import task to allow Archivematica DIPs to be uploaded to existing descriptions in AtoM
- Documentation:
Community pull request collaboratively created by Clara Rosales and Darryl Friesen
- #11207 - Enhance the HTML scrub script to apply to more entities and escaped HTML characters
- Documentation: https://www.accesstomemory.org/docs/2.4/admin-manual/maintenance/cli-tools/#remove-html-content-from-archival-description-fields
Sponsored by the Halifax Municipal Archives
- #11404 - Add an option to delete descriptions of a particular institution
- Documentation:
Description updates
Summary
The Description updates page has received a redesign and enhancements to improve scalability and performance. A configurable date range search has been added (allowing users to query beyond the 30-day default result set) as well as a repository filter.
Related issue tickets
Sponsored by Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa and MoreData
- #10458 - Improve scalability of the Description updates module by using the search index for all queries
- #10459 - Add date range search to the Description updates module
- #10462 - Update the Description updates page layout
Sponsored by the Archives Society of Alberta
- #11221 - Add repository filter to the Description updates page
Related documentation
Finding aids
Summary
Users can now choose whether they prefer to generate a finding aid from the archival description hierarchy or upload a locally created one. The finding aid link has been made more prominent, and is available at all descriptive levels in a hierarchy now, and new search options have been added to the Advanced search panel to better support finding aid discovery.
Related issue tickets
Sponsored by the University of Saskatchewan Library
- #9627 - Allow users to upload a PDF finding aid instead of generating one from AtoM's descriptions
- #9699 - Improve usability and user interface elements of finding aid management and download options
- #9700 - Show finding aid links at all levels of description in the hierarchy, instead of just the parent level
Related documentation
- Finding aids: https://www.accesstomemory.org/docs/2.4/user-manual/reports-printing/print-finding-aid/
- Advanced search: https://www.accesstomemory.org/docs/2.4/user-manual/access-content/advanced-search/
Import and export
Summary
Possibly the biggest change in the 2.4 release! Import and export via the user interface (for both XML and CSV) is now supported by the job scheduler, meaning no more timeouts when attempting to work with large records! A new repository CSV import/export has been added, and methods to perform imports as an update to existing record have also been included. On export, users can configure precisely what levels of description should be included with archival description exports. Additionally, a new library has been used to vastly improve the SKOS import functionality, which is also supported by the job scheduler. Finally, the OAI Repository module now supports exposing EAD 2002 XML!
Related issue tickets
Sponsored by the Canadian Council on Archives and partners, and the United Nations Archives and Records Management Section
Import
- #10137 - Add support for large imports via the user interface, using the job scheduler
- #9992 - Enhance import matching behaviors: use cascading logic to improve matching during imports
- #10150 - Add new options for update behavior during import when existing matches are found
- #9995 - Enhance import matching behaviors: add a digital object checksum column to CSV import/export templates and use it on import for first match when importing updates
- #10016 - Enhance import matching behaviors: add and enhance matching logic for imports of authority records
- #10017 - Enhance import matching behaviors: add and enhance matching logic for imports of repository records
- #10054 - Enhance import matching behaviors: add option to skip unmatched records and report in console instead of creating new records when no match is found
- #10144 - Enhance import matching behaviors: add ability to limit matching to a specific repository or top-level description
- #10138 - Add ability to include a python transformation script as part of a CSV upload via the user interface
- #10193 - Add source-name field to archival description Admin area in edit template
Sponsored by the UNESCO Archives
- #10621 - Import SKOS files asynchronously in multiple formats using EasyRDF
Sponsored by the World Bank Group Archives
- #11209 - Improve the performance of large EAD document imports
Export
Sponsored by the Canadian Council on Archives and partners
- #9998 - Add support for large/bulk export of descriptions via the user interface, using the job scheduler
- #10000 - Add ability to limit archival description export to specific levels of description
- #10006 - Add ability to exclude draft archival descriptions during export
- #10013 - Add support for large/bulk export of authority records via the clipboard page, using the job scheduler
- #8591 - Create an export:repositories task
- #10015 - Add support for large/bulk export of repository records via the clipboard page, using the job scheduler
- #10009 - Include help text next to certain export options for better end-user context
Sponsored collaboratively by the Borthwick Institute at the University of York, Strathclyde University Archives, Mills Archives, the National Library of Wales, the University of Gloucestershire, and Glasgow Caledonian University
- #10797 - Add EAD support in OAI responses and generate XML metadata asynchronously
Related documentation
- CSV import: https://www.accesstomemory.org/docs/2.4/user-manual/import-export/csv-import/
- CSV export: https://www.accesstomemory.org/docs/2.4/user-manual/import-export/csv-export/
- XML import: https://www.accesstomemory.org/docs/2.4/user-manual/import-export/import-xml/
- XML export: https://www.accesstomemory.org/docs/2.4/user-manual/import-export/export-xml/
- SKOS import: https://www.accesstomemory.org/docs/2.4/user-manual/import-export/import-export-skos/
- OAI-PMH: https://www.accesstomemory.org/docs/2.4/user-manual/import-export/oai-pmh/
Job scheduling
Summary
In addition to all of the Import/Export functionality being managed by the job scheduler, Move operations are also now using the atom-worker to avoid timeouts for large moves. A new Job details page, which provides access to the console output for every job, has also been added to the user interface.
Sponsored by les Archives de Montreal and the Archives Society of Alberta
- #9945 - Perform all Move operations via the job scheduler
- Documentation: https://www.accesstomemory.org/docs/2.4/user-manual/add-edit-content/archival-descriptions/#method-2-move-a-description-to-a-different-level
Sponsored by the United Nations Archives and Records Management Section
- #9986 - Log console output for atom-worker jobs and make it available to the end-user via the Jobs page
- Documentation: https://www.accesstomemory.org/docs/2.4/user-manual/administer/manage-jobs/#the-job-details-page
Search and browse
Summary
The search index for archival descriptions has been greatly improved, which should lead to improved results for all users. Digital object search now supports all facets and filters. New filters for searching finding aids and digital objects have been added, as well as more granular sort options for archival description results. Administrators can configure special characters to be escaped in searching, allowing reference codes with slashes to be better supported in AtoM. Finally, a new enhancement for multi-repository AtoM instances allows users to better limit the scope of searching and browsing to a particular institution and then maintain that scoping throughout the site.
Related issue tickets
Sponsored by the United Nations Archives and Records Management Section
- #6681 - Add field weighting to archival description searches
- #9949 - Merge digital object browse page into general search/browse page to allow users to apply facets and advanced search filters on digital objects
- #9952 - Include advance search panel option to target search to text extracted from digital objects
- #9953 - Supplement sort options on archival descriptions - add separate sort options for start date and end date
- #10082 - Improve Elasticsearch mappings for archival descriptions
Sponsored by the University of Saskatchewan Library
- #9655 - Add new search options to better support searching indexed finding aid text
- #10733 - Add basic support for virtual institutions - ability to limit scope of search/browse to a single institution and maintain state
Sponsored by the NATO Archives
- #5850 - Add setting to allow admins to configure special characters to be escaped during searching
Related documentation
- Advanced search options: https://www.accesstomemory.org/docs/2.4/user-manual/access-content/advanced-search/
- Escape special characters:
- Virtual institutions:
Security
Summary
Basic support for integration with LDAP has been added.
Related issue ticket
Sponsored by the Art Center College of Design
- #9765 - Add basic support for LDAP integration
Related documentation
Bug fixes
We have also fixed a number of bugs found in previous releases - many of them reported by our user community! Here are a few examples:
- #10278 - Adding a second date in the ISAD/DACS etc template removes the first date on save
- #6802 - Language and Script notes cannot be deleted
- #8400 - Editing notes or alternative IDs in a duplicated record overwrites the original
- #5945 - EAD lower levels publication status ignored on import, defaults to global default status
- #10469 - i18n tasks attempt to translate QubitSetting fixtures
- #9803 - User uploaded derivatives are blurry
- #10173 - Treeview Quick Search does not support i18n culture fallback
- #9798 - Country code not importing in Accessions CSV
- #10949 - Adding a "Use For" Alternative title for a taxonomy term causes duplicate 'Untitled' to display in search/browse results
- #10077 - Add new storage location Cancel button redirects incorrectly
- #10075 - Can't edit form first time if serialized property value invalid
- #10473 - missing site BaseURL warning cannot be translated
- #11121 - Repository contact area does not support culture fallback, Region filter and facet does not return results when created in a different culture
- #10698 - Normalize task is not merging terms correctly
- #10295 - "All matching" links in global search autocomplete drop down do not work as expected
- #10473 - Missing Site BaseURL notification cannot be translated
- #11350 - Authority record view page does not show multiple linked descriptions properly
Seealso
For a full list of issues related to the 2.4 release, see the following links to our issue tracker: