Version 1.8.0

DSpace 1.8.0 can be downloaded immediately at either of the following locations:

Online Documentation is available at: DSpace 1.8 Documentation.

DSpace 1.8.0 is a scheduled, "time-based" release. In order to decrease delays in releasing new features and increase transparency, the DSpace Developers have scheduled 1.8.0 in advance and are basing its features on what we are able to complete within that timeframe.

Scheduling releases benefits us all as it should decrease the delays in releasing new features, and increase the transparency of the development process. The DSpace Developers feel that these benefits will far outweigh the cost of potentially having fewer major features in a given DSpace release. We hope the DSpace Community will also realize the immediate benefits, which should allow them to receive new features more quickly, rather than potentially waiting years for the next major release of the software. The DSpace Developers hope to continue this trend of "time based" releases with all future releases. 

Changes to the DSpace 1.8 Upgrade / Configuration Process

In DSpace 1.8.0, there have been a few significant changes to how you upgrade and configure DSpace. Notably:

New features in DSpace 1.8 

DS-982, DS-939 More Curation Tools/Plugins

Provided by MIT & Others.

 

DS-968 Configurable Reviewer Workflow
A project that makes Reviewer Workflow more configurable,orthogonal to Curation Tooling.
To illustrate the power of the framework, two optional workflows are included:

DS-602 SWORD Client for DSpace
Enables DSpace to push/submit content to other SWORD enabled repositories

Provided by Robin Taylor of EDINA, University of Edinburgh.

 

DS-1005 SWORDv2 Server Module

Provided by Richard Jones and Stuart Lewis.

DS-528 RSS feeds will support richer features, such as iTunes podcast and publishing to iTunesU (see new "webui.feed.podcast.*" settings).

Provided by Peter Dietz.

Discovery Enhancements

  • DSCR-22 Discovery back end rewrite to support other back end implementations beside solr for discovery.
  • DS-971 Improved discovery configuration which utilizes spring & a config file that is located in the modules dir.
  • DSCR-25 New Discovery user interface.

    Provided by Kevin Van de Velde of @mire.

DS-964 Rewrite of Creative Commons licensing for XMLUI

  • Better integrates the Creative Commons licence selection into the submission process
  • 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.
    Provided by MIT.

DS-749 Reordering of bitstreams.

Provided by Kevin Van de Velde of @mire.

 

DS-638 Enable virus checking during submission.

 

DS-811 Ability to Withdraw/Reinstate/Delete Items in Bulk, via Batch Metadata Editing

Provided by Stuart Lewis.

 

DS-941 One for the techies. Split up dspace.cfg into smaller more easily managed files. For more info see Upgrading From 1.7.x to 1.8.x

For a list of all features/improvement/bugs released in 1.8.0, see the 1.8.0 Version History.

Released as Addons

These addons will be "compatible with 1.8.0", but will require a separate, optional installation.

Postponed for a Future Release

Organizational Details

Release Coordination

Timeline and Proceeding

It has been decided that DSpace 1.8.0 will be released in Oct 2011. The exact date is still being worked out. What follows is a tentative release timeline - it has changed slightly from its original state, but the final release will still come out sometime in Oct 2011.

Release Process needs to proceed according to the following Maven release process: Release Procedure