Files/EPrints 3.0 Beta 3

EPrints 3.0 3rd Beta Release

Released 5th December 2006.

Download

http://files.eprints.org/125/

Requires

• Apache 2
• mod_perl 2
• Perl
• Some perl modules
• UNIX like operating system

Release Notes

EPrints 3 does not need to be the same user as the webserver, but it does need to be a user which is in the same UNIX group.

If there is any bug which is a showstopper, let us know and we'll try and get another beta out ASAP.

DO NOT try to install over the top of EPrints 2, it will just make a mess!

There is currently no way to upgrade from 2.3 to 3.0 but that will be a side development project over the next few months, released sometime after, or maybe even before, 3.0 in January.

To get started run "epadmin" this has taken over many of the other scripts (create tables, erase archives, create user etc.)

Bugs

Feedback and bug reports may be sent to cjg@ecs.soton.ac.uk (The Lead Developer). I suggest that an initial bug report is kept quite short as we already have a big list. If I don't already know about it, I'll ask for more info.

Things added since beta 2

• Improvements to the look of email sent by the system.
• METS export plugin
• MODS export plugin
• Atom Feeds (similar to RSS)
• RSS2.0 Feeds
• Global Feeds, in addition to Atom/RSS feeds for search results.
• Thumbnails for images
• Pop-up previews for images and PDFs
• View user history (changes they have made to eprints)
• Added built-in lat/long values for users + eprints to support geodata.
• Improvements to autocomplete system
• Added "feed" icons to search results page.
• Added option to reorder a search without going back to the form.
• Redesigned all icons to look more professional.
• Redesigned file upload to be more straight forward.
• "Unrolling" javascript elements now scroll the screen if they were about to disappear off the bottom.
• Simplified the logged-in toolbar.
• Better debug messages for embedded scripts.
• New configuration options to disable plugins.
• Option to change where action links appear.
• All POST requests redirect after completion to eliminate errors caused by browser "back" buttons.
• Added web-based import tool.
• Bug fixes
• UI tweaks
• Minor changes to default configuration
• Clone EPrint
• Use EPrint as Template

Things planned for Release Candidate 1

This is a list of things we plan to add which aren't in beta-1:

This does not include the many minor user interface tweaks on our list, or bugs.

• Subject Add/Edit
• A way to control the reply-to address of email
• Google scholar friendly data in pages, to assist crawling.

Other than that we've still got a bunch of (minor!) bugs to fix, documentation to write, and we've got a few people working on some additional auto-complete tools and plugins.

Mostly the next two weeks will be spent testing and bugfixing. After RC1 no new features will be added to 3.0, although we'll start planning 3.1!

EPrints 3 logs all hits on documents and abstracts but does not yet do anything smart with that data. We're working on that as a separate project.

Upgrading from EPrints 3.0 beta 2

If you already have a repository set up with beta-2 you need to do the following:

(see also the Files/EPrints 3.0 Beta 2 notes)

Things to do (per repository) after 3.0 beta-2 to 3.0 beta-3 upgrade

• The database has changed a tiny bit (again) so run

bin/epadmin upgrade ARCHIVEID

• In cfg/cfg.d/eprint_render.pl change this line:

   $doctd->appendChild(
       $session->get_repository->call( "render_fileicon",
           $session, $doc->get_type, $doc->get_url ) );

to this:

   $doctd->appendChild( $doc->render_icon_link );

• remove cfg/cfg.d/fileinfo_render.pl

• remove fileinfo from cfg/cfg.d/eprints_fields.pl

• replace cfg/cfg.d/dynamic_template.pl with the copy in /opt/eprints3/defaultcfg/cfg.d/
• replace cfg/cfg.d/dynamic_template.pl with the copy in /opt/eprints3/lib/defaultcfg/cfg.d/

• You may also wish to remove the "user home" link from the site template.

The reason for these changes are an improved way to show the logged-in user options which we feel is clearer and neater, and that the fileinfo feature has become part of the core, rather than the config-area hack that was introduced in EPrints 2.

Plugins

You may notice the powerful new plugin system for EPrints 3. If you're interested in writing a plugin, get in touch! Or just upload them to files.eprints.org

If there's a plugin you really need and don't have the time or skills to write yourself, why not hire EPrints Services to write it for you!