VuFind® Community Call Minutes: March 5, 2024

Attending: Tobias Groth, Demian Katz, Maccabee Levine, Ere Maijala, Peter Murray, Alexander Prüfling, Mario Trojan, Susan Turkel, Thomas Wagener

The February, 2024 Newsletter was discussed.

Version 9.1.1 was released on time. Some subsequent bug fixes mean that a 9.1.2 is likely to close out the 9.x line at some point.

It is obviously not possible to release 10.0 in April with all scheduled features completed. Discussion is needed about whether to take extra time on the release, or make a release with fewer changes and features.

Main outstanding feature is Bootstrap5 theme.

Bootstrap5 PR has been on hold for a while, but some related work is in progres - e.g. #3453 to better standardize tabs. Ere plans to work on updating the Bootstrap5 PR (merge latest dev, etc.) this week. After that, we can do more testing, and we will probably find it is nearly done. The question is “how perfect does this need to be?” It is likely some issues – especially related to compatibility with local custom themes – that we cannot discover until after the release. Best solution is likely to release bootstrap5 theme in 10.0 as “beta” but keep sandal as default for now.

We can aim to make bootstrap5 theme non-beta in release 10.1, and then we can change default in 11.0.

We might also need something like sandal5 to demonstrate applying custom styles on top of bootstrap5 (or maybe call it sandal-test so it doesn't become a permanent part of the project). It may be valuable to be able to compare the legacy sandal and the new sandal side-by-side, at least for a time.

Doctrine is the other major piece, but Demian wants to delay that to 11.0 to maximize time for testing it before it goes out in a release. He hopes to establish a dev-11 branch with Doctrine merged into it as soon as possible so people can start trying it out.

After discussion, the 10.0 release seems possible in either May or June – we will revisit our status next month to make a final decision.

The following pull requests are scheduled for inclusion in release 10:

• #1680 - Display flash message on login
  • Status: Complex issue; on hold until #3361 is resolved to provide required underlying functionality.
• #2233 / VUFIND-1480 - Convert from Laminas\Db to Doctrine
  • Status: Work in progress continues; still much to do.
    • ACTION: Demian proposes moving to 11.0. There were no objections.
• #2612 / VUFIND-1588 - Add support for WorldCat Search v2 API
  • Status: Early work in progress; still needs somebody to take the lead on moving it forward.
    • ACTION: Demian proposes moving to 10.1. There were no objections.
• #2624 / VUFIND-1514 - Replace grunt with NPM scripts
  • Status: We should discuss how to finish this work after the Bootstrap 5 upgrade is complete.
• #2723 - Component: confirmation menu
  • Status: Needs conflict resolution; many outstanding TODO items.
• #2814 - Replace jumpMenu controls with menu-button components
  • Status: In review
    • ACTION ITEM: Chris should look at style/accessibility improvements and fix test failures
• #2934 - Switch to Splide Carousel Library
  • Status: In review
    • ACTION ITEM: Chris should continue work on latest review comments.
• #3039 - Accessibility: Moravian Library Report
  • Status: Work in progress; some checks were unsuccessful. This PR is an umbrella covering a number of topics, some of which have been split out as separate PRs.
    • ACTION ITEM: We should capture outstanding work in JIRA tickets and close this PR, since there is no pending code here.
• #3222 - Add bootstrap5 theme
  • Status: In progress.
    • ACTION ITEM: Ere should continue work; others should test as time permits.
• #3361 - Convert DOM events to stored functions
  • Status: In progress.
    • ACTION ITEM: Chris should work on Ere's latest review

• #3103 - Add Notifications CMS functionality
  • Status: Currently in review.
    • ACTION ITEM: Johannes should continue working on review comments.
• #3226 - Adding the option to make html elements sticky
  • Status: Previously on hold due to autocomplete problems, which have now been fixed.
    • ACTION ITEM: Thomas can resume work now.

• #2642 - Create view helper for translating EDS labels
  • Status: Early proof of concept; needs to be revised following recent discussion.
    • ACTION ITEM: Discussion on this PR recently led to some generic enhancements to the translation system that eliminate the need for a specialized view helper; Demian should rename and revise this PR to reflect the new situation.
• #3279 - Small enhancements to the DefaultRecord class
  • Status: In review.
    • ACTION ITEM: Waiting for progress from @dmj.
• #3458 / VUFIND-1583 - Any action using ILS credentials fails to display the account menu if credentials missing
  • Status: Needs review
    • ACTION ITEM: Review needed!

ACTION ITEM: as the section heading indicates, all of the PRs listed below currently await review resolution or comment responses from the users who created them.

• #2060 - makes the DAIA services which should be accepted configurable (etc.)
  • Status: In review/under discussion.
• #2688 - Announce number of search results in title
  • Status: Under discussion.
• #2763 - SetupThemeResources: Ensure 'Content-Type' is never escaped
  • Status: Discussion underway on GitHub; awaiting response from @mtrojan-ub.
• #2850 - Change route type for Help/Home from Static to Segment
  • Status: Work in progress; all checks have passed. PR needs review by @mtrojan-ub.
• #2999 - Get unique html element id from record view helper
  • Status: Only a bit more work is needed, now that PR 2982 has been merged. Ready for @elsenhans and @RLangeUni to revisit.
• #3025 - Add new Overdrive features
  • Status: Work in progress; @bpalme is in the process of making updates.

• VUFIND-1210 - Use Solr JSON APIs
  • ACTION: Demian proposes moving to 11.0. No objections.
• VUFIND-1547 - Normalize search event namespace
• VUFIND-1601 - Improve CSS configuration in themes
  • ACTION: Demian proposes moving to 10.1. No objections.
• VUFIND-1614 - Modernize PubDateVisAjax recommendation module
• VUFIND-1618 - Investigate the need for setlocale in Bootstrapper
• VUFIND-1628 - Clean up record collection factories
• VUFIND-1633 - Replace email library
  • ACTION: Demian proposes moving to 11.0. No objections.
• VUFIND-1640 - Eliminate submit inputs named “submit”
• VUFIND-1652 - Add database support for storing session-specific data
• VUFIND-1653 - schema.org markup causes trouble when there are no holdings or reviews
• VUFIND-1657 - Disabling cache fails with EDS backend

• VUFIND-1521 - Add id validation to ILL requests and storage retrieval requests
• VUFIND-1592 - Clarify labeling of list menu
• VUFIND-1594 - Provide a direct link to an ILS login form when using ChoiceAuth plus Shibboleth
• VUFIND-1607 - Embedded records (in results list) have invalid aria and/or role attributes
• VUFIND-1632 - Improve install.php existing file handling
• VUFIND-1639 - Improve ILS error handling during installation process
• VUFIND-1651 - Address Java deprecation of finalize() method in UpdateDateTracker.java
• VUFIND-1658 - Sandal theme: applied filter contrast is too low on home page

• VUFIND-1351 - Create Mink tests for email verification functionality
• VUFIND-1560 - DeduplicationListener: Add tests and clean up

• VUFIND-1625 - Document access to advanced search capabilities through API
• VUFIND-1629 - Investigate changes in OpenAPI 3.1; implement for API if appropriate.

• VUFIND-1645 - Update dependencies for release 10.0
• VUFIND-1659 - Update GitHub branch protection rules when creating release-10.0 branch
• VUFIND-1649 - Update language translation files for release 10.0

See above for discussion of bootstrap5 theme progress.

Mario asked about the status of jQuery. Demian clarified that we don't have a hard deadline for removing all jQuery; we're just beginning to replace jQuery code with equivalent native Javascript where practical to reduce our dependency upon external libraries as a future-proofing step. Ere noted that Bootstrap5 has a jQuery compatibility layer but may still require some changes when we upgrade (e.g. the lightbox.js may need a bootstrap5-specific version to work around jQuery-related issues).

Demian will open a JIRA ticket to track this task.

No updates this month.

There will be a time change from Standard to Daylight time in many regions between this call and next month's call. Be sure to adjust your calendar if necessary.

Planning is underway for the 2024 Summit, which will coincide with either WOLFcon 2024 (9/24-9/26) or a subsequent German meeting (scheduled for 9/30-10/1 – formal announcement coming soon); details are under discussion.

The WOLFcon call for sessions is already open; the German announcement will be made soon. Some attendees are likely to attend just one event or the other rather than both. Demian suggested that WOLFcon sessions focusing on the overlap between VuFind® and other OLF projects like FOLIO may draw the broadest audience, and more specialized VuFind®-specific sessions might fit better at the subsequent German event. It is likely that both events will be streamed online, but WOLFcon streaming requires a (non-free) registration. Demian is hoping to make the official VuFind® Summit streaming free if at all possible.

As soon as more details are available (probably after the March Project Management Committee meeting), Demian will make announcements to the mailing lists and Slack.

The next call will be Tuesday, April 2, 2024 at 9am Eastern Daylight Time (13:00 GMT).