<div dir="ltr">And just a reminder that the 3.0 manual is available to all at: <a href="http://sites.google.com/a/liblime.com/koha-manual/">http://sites.google.com/a/liblime.com/koha-manual/</a> and will continually be updated as I get suggestions and notice new features.<br clear="all">
<br><br>---<br><br>Nicole C. Engard<br>Open Source Evangelist, LibLime<br>(888) Koha ILS (564-2457) ext. 714<br><a href="mailto:nce@liblime.com">nce@liblime.com</a><br>AIM/Y!/Skype: nengard<br><br><a href="http://liblime.com">http://liblime.com</a><br>
<a href="http://blogs.liblime.com/open-sesame/">http://blogs.liblime.com/open-sesame/</a><br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Aug 10, 2008 at 6:15 PM, Joshua Ferraro <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jmf@liblime.com">jmf@liblime.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Hi folks,<br>
<br>
I'm happy to announce that a packaged release of Koha 3.00.00<br>
is now available. You can download from the usual location:<br>
<br>
<a href="http://download.koha.org/koha-3.00.00.tar.gz" target="_blank">http://download.koha.org/koha-3.00.00.tar.gz</a><br>
<a href="http://download.koha.org/koha-3.00.00.tar.gz.sig" target="_blank">http://download.koha.org/koha-3.00.00.tar.gz.sig</a><br>
<br>
You can check the integrity of the package; either by verifying<br>
the provided GPG signature (.sig) or by comparing the MD5<br>
checksum:<br>
<br>
0008f53d22333f7f2beb55d9a23b792a koha-3.00.00.tar.gz<br>
<br>
I've also tagged this in Git as "version 3.00.00" v3.00.00<br>
<br>
The main difference between the packaged release and the Git tree<br>
is the existence of fully-built translations (over 31) and a<br>
statically defined VERSION string in the Makefile.PL of the<br>
packaged release.<br>
<br>
This is the fifth packaged release of Koha 3. Subsequent<br>
releases of 3.00 will be bugfix releases, and won't include<br>
any new features.<br>
<br>
New features will be available in Koha 3.2 and beyond.<br>
<br>
A list of current bugs are documented on Koha's Bugzilla:<br>
<br>
<a href="http://bugs.koha.org" target="_blank">http://bugs.koha.org</a><br>
<br>
The release notes for this 3.00.00 version are pasted in<br>
below, and will also appear on the <a href="http://koha.org" target="_blank">koha.org</a> website sometime<br>
soon.<br>
<br>
Cheers,<br>
<br>
Joshua Ferraro<br>
Koha 3.0 Release Manager<br>
<br>
==============================================================================<br>
RELEASE NOTES FOR KOHA 3.0<br>
==============================================================================<br>
Koha 3 is the next-generation release of the award-winning Koha open-source<br>
integrated library system.<br>
<br>
You can obtain Koha 3.0 from the following URL:<br>
<br>
<a href="http://download.koha.org/koha-3.00.00.tar.gz" target="_blank">http://download.koha.org/koha-3.00.00.tar.gz</a><br>
<br>
These Release Notes cover What's New in Koha 3, information about the new<br>
Revision control system (Git), and Version-release process, pointers to<br>
Download, Installation, and Upgrade documentation, a brief introduction to the<br>
new Templates, a call to Translation and Documentation writers, and finally,<br>
Known Issues with this version.<br>
<br>
==============================================================================<br>
WHAT'S NEW IN KOHA 3?<br>
==============================================================================<br>
<br>
1. Zebra plugin - Zebra is a high-performance, general-purpose structured<br>
text indexing and retrieval engine. It supports large data sets (tens of<br>
millions of records) and includes support for SRU, Z39.50 and several query<br>
languages: CCL, CQL, and PQF. For more information about Zebra, please see:<br>
<br>
<a href="http://indexdata.dk/zebra" target="_blank">http://indexdata.dk/zebra</a><br>
<br>
Koha's new search engine, built on top of Zebra, supports features such as<br>
relevance ranking, field weighting, truncation, stemming, use of fuzzy<br>
operators, language-specific indexing, sorting, etc.<br>
<br>
Indexes are updated in real-time with circulation transactions, enabling<br>
limits by availability and statuses.<br>
<br>
Faceted refine-by limits are available from both staff and opac interfaces.<br>
<br>
For libraries that don't want the overhead of maintaing Zebra, Koha 3 ships<br>
with a NoZebra option, in which bibliographic and authority data is indexed<br>
in the RDBMS.<br>
<br>
2. New installer - based on the common Perl module ExtUtils::MakeMaker, the<br>
new installer makes it a snap to get Koha running on just about any platform.<br>
<br>
The installer comes complete with a Developer's Toolkit target ('dev') that<br>
can be used to get a development environment linked directly to revision<br>
control, to support rapid prototyping and an agile development process.<br>
<br>
3. Standard APIs - Koha 3 supports a number of important library search and<br>
retrieval standards and microformats, such as SRU/W, Z39.50<br>
(<a href="http://www.loc.gov/standards/sru/" target="_blank">http://www.loc.gov/standards/sru/</a>), UnAPI (<a href="http://unapi.info/" target="_blank">http://unapi.info/</a>) and<br>
COinS/OpenURL<br>
(<a href="http://ocoins.info" target="_blank">http://ocoins.info</a>; <a href="http://www.niso.org/committees/committee_ax.html" target="_blank">http://www.niso.org/committees/committee_ax.html</a>).<br>
<br>
Also supported is the popular Internet standard: OpenSearch<br>
(<a href="http://opensearch.a9.com/" target="_blank">http://opensearch.a9.com/</a>) created by Amazon's A9.<br>
<br>
Records are stored internally in an SGML-like format and can be retrieved in<br>
MARCXML, Dublin Core, MODS, RSS, Atom, RDF-DC, SRW-DC, OAI-DC, and EndNote;<br>
and the OPAC can be used by citation tools such as Zotero. Creating new<br>
export formats is a trivial exercise in writing XSLT; records can be passed<br>
through XSLT transformations either directly out of the index, or via a<br>
separate parsing function.<br>
<br>
To retrieve and interact with Circulation and Patron data, Koha 3 includes<br>
support for 3M's Standard Interchange Protocol (SIP2), using the OpenNCIP<br>
libraries (<a href="http://openncip.org" target="_blank">http://openncip.org</a>).<br>
<br>
There are also an ever-expanding set of native REST APIs to handle<br>
interoperability with external tools such as third-party cataloging clients.<br>
These APIs provide authentication as well as add/edit/delete control over<br>
bibliographic data within a Koha system. For more information, see:<br>
<br>
<a href="http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?id=en:development:web_services" target="_blank">http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?id=en:development:web_services</a><br>
<br>
Koha 3 also includes pluggable authentication - easy integration with LDAP and<br>
Active Directory via the Auth_with_ldap module.<br>
<br>
Enriched content web services, such as those offered by Amazon.com, Baker and<br>
Taylor's Content Cafe, and the Google Book API can be enabled to enrich<br>
bibliographic content with jacket covers, professional reviews, ratings and<br>
comments from users, as well as point to 'Similar Items' within the catalog.<br>
OCLC's xISBN, and LibraryThing's ThingISBN an likewise be enabled to provide<br>
an 'Editions' tab, pulling together all the formats, languages, and editions<br>
of a work into the item detail pages. New with Koha 3 is service throttling<br>
for these services, to keep within subscription limits.<br>
<br>
4. Cross-platform, multi-RDBMS, Web-server agnostic - Run Koha on the platform<br>
of your choice: Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, Solaris. Koha 3 also<br>
includes better support for multi-RDBMS (MySQL 5.0 and PostgreSQL), and runs<br>
under Apache2, IIS, or the web server of your choosing.<br>
<br>
5. Multi-lingual support - Koha was designed from the ground up for multilingual<br>
libraries. Koha 3 can handle Chinese, Japanese, and even right-to-left languages<br>
such as Arabic and Hebrew with ease (BiDi).<br>
<br>
Koha's index engine (Zebra) can handle record formats containing any UNICODE<br>
compliant script, such as Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Japanese and Korean. Zebra<br>
has this support via the ICU libraries created and maintained by IBM.<br>
<br>
You can translate Koha into your language using the built-in translation tools,<br>
or by visiting <a href="http://translate.koha.org" target="_blank">http://translate.koha.org</a>.<br>
<br>
6. New templates - Koha's staff and patron interfaces are developed with a<br>
template system that's easy to theme. The default templates are composed of 100%<br>
valid XHTML and CSS. Koha aims to meet or exceed U.S. Government Section 508 and<br>
W3C's WAI-AA standards for sight and motor impaired individuals. All<br>
Javascript usage comes with fallback modes that work in any web browser.<br>
<br>
7. Koha 3 has quite a few new modules, as well as enhancements to existing<br>
modules, including: news writer, label creator, calendar, OPAC comments, MARC<br>
staging and overlay, notices, transaction logs, guided reports with a data<br>
dictionary and task scheduler, classification sources/filing rules, and more!<br>
<br>
==============================================================================<br>
REVISION CONTROL<br>
==============================================================================<br>
<br>
With Koha 3, we've started using a new distributed revision control system<br>
called Git; it's the same system in use by many other projects, including the<br>
Linux Kernel. To learn more about how to develop Koha using Git, please see<br>
the Wiki page:<br>
<br>
<a href="http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?id=en:development:git_usage" target="_blank">http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?id=en:development:git_usage</a><br>
<br>
==============================================================================<br>
VERSION NUMBERING<br>
==============================================================================<br>
<br>
With Koha 3, version numbering has been changed to use a method similar to<br>
Perl's:<br>
<br>
major.minor[.revision[.build]]<br>
<br>
* major: one digit<br>
* minor: two-digit<br>
* revision: two-digit<br>
* build: three-digit<br>
<br>
This release of Koha 3.0 is versioned <a href="http://3.00.00.107" target="_blank">3.00.00.107</a>. Every database change<br>
or significant enough code change requires an update to the 'build' number,<br>
and developers will be able to easily upgrade their systems using the built-in<br>
updater.<br>
<br>
Koha 3.0 Release Schedule:<br>
<br>
This release of Koha 3.0 includes the following general improvements over<br>
the beta release:<br>
<br>
* General Bugfixing (over 150 bugs fixed since RC1!)<br>
* Nomenclature cleanup<br>
* Additional translations<br>
* Lots more, consult <a href="http://git.koha.org" target="_blank">git.koha.org</a> for the complete changelog<br>
<br>
Subsequent releases of 3.0 will be bugfix releases, and won't include any new<br>
features.<br>
<br>
New features will be available in Koha 3.2 and subsequent releases.<br>
<br>
==============================================================================<br>
UPGRADING FROM A PREVIOUS VERSION OF KOHA<br>
==============================================================================<br>
<br>
The upgrade process from a previous version of Koha is documented on the Wiki<br>
at the following page:<br>
<br>
Upgrading from 2.2 or earlier version:<br>
<br>
<a href="http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?id=22_to_30" target="_blank">http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?id=22_to_30</a><br>
<br>
Upgrading from a previous version of 3.0:<br>
<br>
Please consult INSTALL files for details on how to upgrade<br>
<br>
==============================================================================<br>
TEMPLATES<br>
==============================================================================<br>
<br>
You may have heard that the templates for Koha 3 have been re-skinned; there<br>
is also the start of a template style guide on the Wiki:<br>
<br>
<a href="http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?id=en:documentation:templates_style_guide" target="_blank">http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?id=en:documentation:templates_style_guide</a><br>
<br>
Kudos to Owen Leonard and the Nelsonville Public Library for their<br>
contributions!<br>
<br>
==============================================================================<br>
TRANSLATIONS<br>
==============================================================================<br>
<br>
Koha 3.0 (this release) currently has complete translations for the following<br>
languages:<br>
<br>
OPAC: de-DE (German), el-GR (Greek), es-ES (Spanish), en (English),<br>
fr-FR (French)<br>
hu-HU (Hungarian), it-IT (Italian), pt-PT (Portuguese), tr-TR (Turkish),<br>
ru-RU (Russian), uk-UA (Ukranian)<br>
zh-Hans-CN (Simplified Chinese in China), zh-Hans-TW (Simplified<br>
Chinese in Taiwan)<br>
<br>
Staff Client fr-FR (French), en (English), hy-Armn (Armenian),<br>
ru-RU (Russian), uk-UA (Ukranian)<br>
zh-Hans-CN (Simplified Chinese in China), zh-Hans-TW (Simplified<br>
Chinese in Taiwan)<br>
<br>
Additionally, Koha 3 (this release) has partial translations for the following<br>
languages:<br>
<br>
OPAC: am-Ethi (Amharic), bg-Cyrl (Bulgarian), fa-Arab (Persian), fi-FI (Finnish)<br>
gl (Galego), he-Hebr (Hebrew), id-ID (Indonesian), ja-Japn (Japanese),<br>
kn-Knda (kannada), ko-Kore (Korean), mi-NZ (Maori), pl-PL (Polish),<br>
tet (Tetum)<br>
<br>
Staff Client: de-DE (German), el-EL (Greek), es-ES (Spanish), hu-HU (Hungarian),<br>
ja-Japn (Japanese), tr-TR (Turkish),<br>
<br>
The Koha Team welcomes additional translations; please see<br>
<a href="http://www.kohadocs.org/usersguide/apb.html" target="_blank">http://www.kohadocs.org/usersguide/apb.html</a> for information about<br>
translating Koha, and join the koha-translate list to volunteer:<br>
<br>
<a href="http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/koha-translate" target="_blank">http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/koha-translate</a><br>
<br>
==============================================================================<br>
DOCUMENTATION<br>
==============================================================================<br>
<br>
User-contributed documentation for Koha 3 is available on the Koha Wiki<br>
(<a href="http://wiki.koha.org" target="_blank">http://wiki.koha.org</a>). The Koha Team welcomes documentation contributions;<br>
please join the Koha-devel list to volunteer:<br>
<br>
<a href="http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/koha-devel" target="_blank">http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/koha-devel</a><br>
<br>
==============================================================================<br>
KNOWN ISSUES<br>
==============================================================================<br>
<br>
Known bugs are documented on the Koha wiki: <a href="http://bugs.koha.org" target="_blank">http://bugs.koha.org</a> and at the<br>
3.0 RM's QA notes Wiki page:<br>
<br>
<a href="http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?id=en:development:qanotes3.0" target="_blank">http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?id=en:development:qanotes3.0</a><br>
_______________________________________________<br>
Koha-devel mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:Koha-devel@lists.koha.org">Koha-devel@lists.koha.org</a><br>
<a href="http://lists.koha.org/mailman/listinfo/koha-devel" target="_blank">http://lists.koha.org/mailman/listinfo/koha-devel</a><br>
</blockquote></div><br></div>