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SOPAC Virtual Server released

» Submitted by jblyberg on Thu, 03/11/2010 - 5:49pm

Over the past few months, I've been chatting with various individuals about the possibility of releasing a VMWare linux server, pre-configured and set up with SOPAC, Locum, Insurge, and Drupal ready to go. Well, I finally got around to doing it, and you can deploy it now.

I've created a turnkey, out-of-the-box SOPAC install and exported it using Open Virtualization Format (OVF). This should make deploying to your VMWare farm a snap. Simply select your host and click File > Deploy OVF Template. You can then Deploy from URL: using the following URL:

http://dobby.darienlibrary.org/sopac_ovf/SOPAC Demo.ovf

Follow the on-screen directions, and in a few minutes, you'll have a fully functioning SOPAC deployment.

A Few Notes

The Virtual server is running Debian Linux (Etch) and is pre-configured with VMWare tools, so once you boot it up, you should be able to see its new IP.

In order to log in and use your new server, you'll need to know the following passwords:

  • Linux:
    • root / sopacroot
    • sopac / sopac
  • Mysql:
    • root / sopac
    • scasuser / scasuser
  • Drupal:
    • sopacadmin / sopacadmin

Once your server it booted up, you'll want to modify your PC's host file so that the hostname "sopac" (no domain name) points to the virtual server's IP address. Once you've done that, go check out your new SOPAC site by visiting:

http://sopac/catalog

This VM has been pre-loaded with data from Darien Library's catalog, and is pointing to our server for availability, so please become familiar with locum and reconfigure it to use your ILS, thanks!

Finally, while you can certainly use this VM as the basis of a production server, I would urge you to consider the fact that it's fairly untested and you might want to stress it a little first. I'm providing this, primarily, as a way to get SOPAC in your hands quickly and give you the opportunity to back-fill your knowledge of the project and how it's installed. I will certainly update this image as issues arise and new software versions are rolled out.

Have fun!

SOPAC 2.1-rc2 released

» Submitted by jblyberg on Wed, 03/10/2010 - 2:00pm

SOPAC 2.1-rc2 fixes a problem with how 2.1-rc1 was packaged. Two key sub-directories were missing from the previous release candidate. In addition, several small bug-fixes are included in rc2. It's recommended that you download 2.1-rc2 if you're already using 2.1.

Release Day! SOPAC 2.1 Release Candidate & More!

» Submitted by jblyberg on Mon, 03/01/2010 - 1:41pm

At long last, we're able to put an official SOPAC 2.1 release candidate in your hands.

SOPAC 2.1 includes a number of very significant "under-the-hood" enhancements as well as a number of new features that vastly improve the search experience for the end user. 2.1 also sets the stage for a host of forthcoming SOPAC modules that will position SOPAC to start allowing patron-to-patron engagement. In many ways, 2.1 is the release where we can say that we go "toe-to-toe" on a feature-by-feature basis with most commercial third-party discovery platforms while adding some functionality that most do not have.

One small note: Checkout history is about 70% complete, but is disabled by default in RC1 because it's not quite ready. Expect it to be fully functional in RC2.

In addition to today's release of SOPAC 2.1-rc1, we're also releasing Locum 1.1.0-rc3 and Insurge 1.0.0 Final

About upgrading:

SOPAC 2.1-rc1 requires that you be running Locum 1.1.0-rc3 and Insurge 1.0.0 Final. The SOPAC upgrade should be as simple as dropping in the new code, however, if you are upgrading Locum, you will need to consult the file in tools/upgrades/1.1/

We, of course, recommend that you back up all of your databases before the upgrade.
Once you've copied in the new locum files, run the .sql schema updates in tools/upgrades/1.1/

Once you've done that, reconcile config/locum.ini.sample with your version.

At this time, only the 1.1.0-rc2 III connector works with Locum 1.1.0, so you will also need to upgrade that as well. Please note the config/ directory in the connector, as you'll need to configure your connector as well.

Once you're comfortable with your configuration settings, go ahead and run the upgrade script (tools/upgrades/1.1/upgrade.php) from the command line. This will migrate your data, and you will be up and running.

The Files

You can always grab the latest versions from the downloads page.

Enjoy, and many thanks to our development partners who have contributed to this release:

And be sure to check out 2.1 in action at darienlibrary.org and aadl.org.

Locum 1.1 RC2 Released

» Submitted by jblyberg on Wed, 02/24/2010 - 10:59pm

The SOPAC development team is proud to announce the second release candidate for Locum 1.1. Locum is the software library that allows SOPAC to interface with the underlying ILS. It also maintains an external index of all of your library's holdings so that it can provide a set of optimized search tools.

We are literally days away from a SOPAC 2.1 release candidate and expect very few, if any, changes to Locum between now and that time. Therefore, it is highly reccomended that current users become familiar with locum-1.1.0-rc2.

This release does not include an upgrade script, so be sure to process tools/upgrades/1.1/upgrade.sql set bib_lastupdate back a few decades (UPDATE locum_bib_items SET bib_lastupdate = '1970-01-01'), restart MySQL (to update the facet heap), and re-run the maintenance script (tools/maint.php).

Download:

Locum 1.1 RC1 Released

» Submitted by jblyberg on Mon, 12/28/2009 - 1:27pm

The SOPAC development team is proud to announce the first release candidate for Locum 1.1. Locum is the software library that allows SOPAC to interface with the underlying ILS. It also maintains an external index of all of your library's holdings so that it can provide a set of optimized search tools.

1.1 is a significant improvement over 1.0 and paves the way for an imminent SOPAC 2.1 release candidate.

Significant developments include:

  • Multi-branch support
  • Checkout history
  • Diacritics support
  • Speed optimizations
  • Support for plug-ins

There are a number of significant architectural changes in Locum 2.1, so we are releasing it before SOPAC 2.1 in order that users can become familiar with it. It is not backward-compatible with SOPAC 2.0, however, so do not replace your current 1.0 implementations.

Many thanks go out to the SOPAC development team for their contributions to this milestone release.

Download:

SOPAC 2.0 Stable Released

» Submitted by jblyberg on Thu, 09/24/2009 - 11:48pm

In an effort to clear the deck for a forthcoming SOPAC 2.1 release candidate, SOPAC 2.0-beta2 has been released with several very minor changes as 2.0 stable. If you have been running 2.0-beta2, you can safely upgrade to 2.0.

The SOPAC module is available for download from the SOPAC project page on drupal.org.

It's safe to say, at this point, that we'll be able to have a 2.1 release candidate ready soon. Significant changes will also be included in Locum which will skip a stable 1.0 release in favor of its own 1.1 beta. Additionally, Insurge will move from alpha to beta.

Stay tuned!

AADL.org on SOPAC2

» Submitted by jblyberg on Fri, 09/18/2009 - 1:14pm

Last month, Ann Arbor District Library went live with SOPAC2. After the herculean effort of upgrading from Drupal 4.7 to Drupal 6, they soft-launched with v2.

AADL developers Eric Klooster and Ryan Eby are both active members of the SOPAC development group and have contributed a great deal of their work back to the project. A number of their enhancements will make their way into the forthcoming 2.1 release.

Congratulations to Ann Arbor for a job well done!

SOPAC 2.1: The Road Ahead

» Submitted by jblyberg on Mon, 07/20/2009 - 6:24pm

As the summer rolls on, I thought I would post a quick update on the status of SOPAC 2.1. We have a lot of irons in the fire right now, but to give you an idea of what's coming, here is a rundown of what you can expect to see when 2.1 is release, sometime in the next two months:

Enhancements

- Multi-branch support
- Incorporation of 3rd-party data into discovery index (Syndetics, Amazon, etc)
- Destination login links within the catalog
- "X of Y copies" availability in the hitlist and record view
- Limit searches to available items
- Links for downloadable items
- Vacation holds (pause your holds)
- Internationalization
- Native support for diacritics

Modules

- Support for shared/no email address
- RSS everything
- Wish lists
- Twitter broadcasting
- Saved searches as a separate module
- Summer Reading module
- Checkout History
- Recommendation engine
- Search statistics
- SMS notifications / support
- "Recommend to a friend"
- Auto-renew items

What are your thoughts? What would you like to see featured in SOPAC?

PVLD Goes Live with SOPAC

» Submitted by jblyberg on Wed, 07/15/2009 - 12:30pm

I knew it was coming, but it wasn't until I got back from ALA that I was able to head over to pvld.org and see for myself that SOPAC2 was live on the Palos Verdes Library District web site.

Palos Verdes, working with CraftySpace, has moved to SOPAC2 and in the process contributed back to the project some much-needed multi-branch support which will be included in the forthcoming 2.1 release, later this summer.

This launch comes right on the heels of receiving the 2009 LITA Brett Butler Award for the SOPAC project. So I'm feeling really good about SOPAC right now and especially about the community that is beginning to spring up around it--its users, the libraries, and a solid group of about nine people who are part of its active development group.

Be sure to visit the PVLD site and tag a few books for them.

Support for Koha and SOPAC

» Submitted by jblyberg on Wed, 04/29/2009 - 11:14am

BibLibre's Nicolas Morin gave a presentation last week called "SOPAC: Connecting Drupal and Koha" where he talks about BibLibre's experience with SOPAC and getting a Locum conector to work with Koha. Check it out:

sopac : connecting koha and drupal
View more presentations from nicomo.
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