June was another active month for VuFind development, with a lot of effort focused on ILS functionality, including expanding VuFind's holds capabilities to include editing, adding support for call number prefixes, and enhancing a number of ILS drivers. Other significant changes include a revision of the low-level search service to use the Command Pattern, an update to EBSCO URLs to support HTTPS (reflecting upcoming changes in EBSCO access policies), improvements to some of the project's automated testing processes, and a number of bug fixes.

June also saw the free online WOLFcon event, which included several VuFind-related sessions. If you missed it, you can find video in the WOLFcon 2021 VuFind Playlist.

The next bug fix release, 7.1.1, will be issued on Monday, July 5th. The next major release, 8.0, is expected later in the summer; a more precise date will be determined soon.

The Project Management Committee continues to meet monthly; their next tasks include final planning for the 8.0 release, organizing the 2021 VuFind Summit, and preparing for future training activities.

The following items were completed in the past month:

• Add call number prefixes to templates: #1951
• Add support for checking selected holds for different pick up locations: #1987
• Add support for getting JS translations statelessly: #1981
• Add support for hold start date. Validate dates: #1963
• Add support for modifying holds: #1974, #1988, #1998, #2001, #2004
• Add support for updating holds to the KohaRest driver: #1985
• Add the ability to use a custom query for Channels/Home: #1969
• Aleph driver: parsing of duedate in getHolding: #1989
• Aleph driver: return isbn as string instead of single value array: #1990
• Aleph driver: send user's language with REST DLF requests: #1996
• Alma: Fix and improve retrieval of holds, add modify support: #1991
• Avoid error in MultiBackend driver when a hold has no id field: #1999
• Better validation of limit parameter: #1971
• debian: simplify JDK version requirements (depend on virtual package): VUFIND-1487, #2003
• Disambiguate 'expires' translation: #1976
• Fix ApiTrait jsonPrettyPrint value: #1995
• Fix visual facets to enable faceting: #1982
• FOLIO: show open fines/fees instead of closed: #1978
• Ignore RecordMissing exceptions in Whoops: #1993
• Improve phing build script and related scripts for improved cross-platform support and error handling: VUFIND-1478 / #1970
• Improved search params/results factories: #1997
• Improvements to AlphabrowseController: #1972, #1977
• Make EBSCO URLs configurable; fix for HTTPS compatibility: #1983
• Reduce logging severity of RecordMissing to debug: #1975
• Refactor OAuth2 authorization and use it in XCNCIP2 ILS driver: #1973, #1980, #1984
• Reset ChoiceAuth state when any exception occurs: #1992
• Set preferred MARC field by configuration as well in getMarcReader(): #2000
• SierraRest: Add support for modifying holds: #1986
• Split holds tests into their own class: #1979
• Update dev tools and CI workflow for various VuFind support libraries: vufindcode#7, vufinddate#1, vufindharvest#5, vufindhttp#17
• Use Command Pattern in search system: VUFIND-924 / #1967
• VuFindHarvest: Improved error handling: vufindharvest#6

Additionally, #1880 was closed without action because it had become outdated and will not be needed for quite some time. The work can be reproduced when the time comes.

The following items were reported / begun in the past month, but are not yet completed:

• Aleph driver: z304 mapping of address can be overriden for REST DLF API: #1994
• Fix format and record-versions commas: #2002

• Do not circumvent search service: VUFIND-1483
• Improve Javascript translation system: VUFIND-1484
• Improve web crawler file retrieval: VUFIND-1486
• lint_marc console tool broken under PHP 8: VUFIND-1479
• Replace database abstraction layer: VUFIND-1480
• Replace HTTP library: VUFIND-1481
• Review/improve abstract plugin factory behavior: VUFIND-1485
• Use standard Oauth2 library: VUFIND-1482

The following items saw significant progress / activity during the past month:

• CSV import tool: #1761
• FOLIO: Add callnumber_prefix to the output of getHolding: #1934
• XCNCIP ILS driver agency and patron id handling improvement: #1835