Version 1.7.0

We invite developers to help with the next major release of DSpace, version 1.7.0, which is planned for release in December 2010.

Contributors are strongly encouraged to obtain the source code using Subversion (SVN). This is very straightforward, and we've published a guide to doing so here: ContributionGuidelines

Repository managers and others wishing to test the new features can visit demo.dspace.org during Testathon (Nov 8-19) or any time after then to provide feedback.

Organizational

Release Coordination

• Release Coordinator: Peter Dietz, Ohio State University Libraries

Timeline and Proceeding

Proposed Release Timeline (all dates are tentative):

• August 13, 2010 : Milestone 1 - "Feature Decision Day"
• October 22, 2010 : Feature Freeze
• October 29, 2010 : Final Documentation "Due Date"
• November 5, 2010 : Release Candidate 1
• November 8-12, 2010 : 1.7 Testathon Week
• December 3, 2010 : Release Candidate 2 (if necessary), or Final Release
• December 6-15, 2010 : Final Testing / Bug Fixing (if necessary)
• December 17, 2010 : Final Release

Release Process needs to proceed according to the following Maven release process ReleaseProcedure

New Features

• AIP Backup / Restore (Tim Donohue/DuraSpace) – Allows for a more complete backup of DSpace into generic METS-based packages known as Archival Information Packages (AIP's). These AIPs could also be used to migrate DSpace content (Communities/Collections/Items) between DSpace and non-DSpace instances that support AIP.
• DSpace Discovery, (contributed by @mire, NV.) A Solr based, faceted search layer to provide a deeper, and more intuitive look at repository contents.
  • Watch the DSpace Discovery introduction video.
• Unit Testing, which will allow each code component to be able to be tested so that it does what it intends to do.
• Most Used Items list, which can replace or complement the existing Recently Submitted Items list.
• PowerPoint Text Extraction Media Filter - Allows for full-text searching of PowerPoint bitstreams
• Curation System (Richard Rodgers/MIT) – Allows curation tools into the system so that the repository admin can perform the tasks as needed from the UI, or on a schedule from the commandline. The initial tasks available are: Profile Bitstream Formats, and Check for Required Metadata. Ideas are welcome on what kind of tasks should exist: Virus checker, onDemand Checksum Checker.
• Google Scholar citation metadata tags.

New Features in XMLUI

• Two XMLUI themes (contributed by @mire, NV.)
  • A function library to aid xmlui theme development which refactors the existing dri2xhtml.
  • Mirage, a theme which is another new look utilizing the new xmlui function library

New Features in JSPUI

• Added the ability to redirect to the current page after authentication

Improvements

Graham Triggs has launched a Code Quality crusade and has dug into deep and dark corners of the DSpace source code armed with nothing more than a torch, machete, and a fancy plugin called QAplug to systematically drive out evil spirits haunting the DSpace code. See: https://jira.duraspace.org/browse/DS-707

In addition to that, the rest of the general improvements are:

• Reducing the cost of browse prunes
• SOLR has received some best practices improvements:
  • Switched to using autoCommit to reduce resource exhaustion
  • Added solr.optimize which can called via command line to essentially "defragment" the solr index, resulting in less degradation of performance over time
• Item bitstream sorting/ordering can be specified according to sequence or name
• Moving the documentation into the Confluence wiki so that workload can be divided, and that the documentation is improved.

Bug Fixes

• Batch Metadata Import will now validate metadata fields in CSV's
• Restricted items / metadata is better protected from exposure via web services: OAI
• File handle leak in ItemImporter closed.  Fixes issues when max_files_open exceeded on some systems.
• Database connections released when no longer needed in xmlui BitstreamReader.  Fixes problem getting connections from the database pool while simultaneously downloading multiple large files.

Changes

See the DSpace 1.7.0 JIRA Page for a list of all currently proposed changes.

Removed / Deprecated

Most command line scripts that have historically resided in [dspace]/bin/ were deprecated in 1.6, and are now removed in 1.7. They have been replaced with the configurable command launcher, which eases the cross platform development of scripts. Discussion at: http://jira.dspace.org/jira/browse/DS-646 .

The old way will no longer work, as the task scripts have been removed:

[dspace]/bin/create-administrator

The functionality is all performed by the centralized DSpace launcher:

[dspace]/bin/dspace create-administrator

Calling a command by its full classname still works by adding dsrun before the classname.

[dspace]/bin/dspace dsrun org.dspace.administer.CreateAdministrator

Postponed for Next Release

There are a few projects that are strongly desired to make it into the standard DSpace release, however they need further development before they are suitable for widespread use, they may be considered for a future release of DSpace.

• REST API - Using standard web services to CRUD DSpace Objects. A product of previous GSOC.

In Progress

Features that will receive more work before the final release of 1.7

• *New localization - *We have made localization for Serbian language, need several days to finish quality evaluation..
  • Bojan Suzic 10/27 -- according to documentation in Release Procedure it can be accepted before final release?
  • Peter Dietz 11/07 -- Correct, language packs can be updated between releases, it is best to get it finished before the final release in December though.
    

Unsure of Status

Developers of these features need to send a message let others know the progress of these features.

• SWORD Client for DSpace? (Robin Taylor – may be ready, Richard Jones & Stuart Lewis are interested in helping) – would allow DSpace to push/submit content to other SWORD enabled repositories
  • For closed & open access repositories – add a button to transfer content from a closed to an open repository.

• CGIProposal (Richard Rodgers/MIT – Interface & XML serialization implementation should be ready), based on the [Item type based submission patch|http://jira.dspace.org/jira/browse/DS-464] picked up by Robin Taylor (initially a GSoC project) – would allow for type-based submission processes (e.g. Theses/Dissertations could have different submission steps than articles/papers).

• Context Guided Ingest – define an interface, where any submission code can write "attributes" and can retrieve those again later on. Can add any new attributes/values that you want for your submission code. Could be serialized to XML (using input-forms.xml) OR have an implementation of that service that stores in DB (recommended). JPA2?
  • seems similar to SimpleStorage Service (user centered storage of state info) – Mark Diggory.

• Rewrite of Creative Commons licensing (MIT - ready to go) – would improve upon the features of the current CC licensing submission step
  • Currently only against XMLUI from MIT
  • Legacy problem – do we update old license to new or not? Currently MIT runs 'split version' with old licenses looking like old, and new look like new.