Release notes

Axiell ALM Netherlands B.V.

Copyright © 2015Axiell ALM Netherlands B.V.® All rights reserved. Adlib® is a product of Axiell ALM Netherlands B.V.®

The information in this document is subject to change without notice and should not be construed as a commitment by Axiell ALM Netherlands B.V. Axiell assumes no responsibility for any errors that may appear in this document. The software described in this document is furnished under a licence and may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of such a licence. While making every effort to ensure the accuracy of this document, products are continually being improved.

As a result of continuous improvements, later versions of the products may vary from those described here. Under no circumstances may this document be regarded as a part of any contractual obligation to supply software, or as a definitive product description.

12-1-2015

Contents

Introduction

1 New functionality

1.1 Quick searching anywhere in Adlib

1.2 Continue searching on equal field contents

1.3 Selecting another data source from anywhere in Adlib

1.4 Rearranging sorting fields

1.5 Managing your favorites

1.6 Renamed and relocated functions

1.7 Import image in Media menu

1.8 Relational searching optional in Advanced search

1.9 Currently active data language with icon

1.10 Pinning or unpinning the Pointer files window

1.11 Write set to assign the lowest free pointer file number

1.12 New display of absent multilingual data

1.13 New interface languages for Adlib

1.14 Locally viewing your records in The Collection Cloud

1.15 Images with colour profiles supported in Adlib

1.16 Designer Help in new format

1.17 Sorting in the Hierarchy browser

1.18 Create .inf documentation in a custom format

1.19 Uploading data to Europeana

1.19.1 Uploading and pushing data, the quick way

1.19.2 Uploading and pushing data, your own way

1.19.3 Configuration

1.20 Forcing identical terms in different domains

1.21 External translation of application texts

1.22 Adapl data preprocessing for label printing

1.23 ADAPL function for locking fields

1.24 After-read adapl option for import jobs

1.25 New reserved ADAPL variable &6[7]

1.26 Adlib startup option for data language

2 Other improvements

2.1 Display

2.2 Searching

2.3 Editing

2.4 Printing

2.5 Pointer files

2.6 Adloan

2.7 Import and export

2.8 Designer

2.9 ADAPL

2.10 SDI.exe

2.11 Registry

12-1-2015

Adlib 7.2Other improvements

Introduction

These release notes describe a number of improvements in the Adlib executables, which are implemented in Adlib 7.2. This release is available frommid-November2014 to all customers with a support contract and can be downloaded from the Adlib website.

You can simply install this software on top of your existing Adlibsystem (for versions 4.4 and higher). So you do not need to uninstall anything, but please make a backup of your databases and applications first.

From Adlib 5.0 a new license file is used: adlib.lic. If you are already using 5.0 or higher, you can use this upgrade immediately after installing; your license file has already been renewed, is in the right place and will not be overwritten by the upgrade. When you install this upgrade over an Adlib version that is older than 5.0, then the following applies: if you receive this release on CD, then on it you’ll find the proper license file; if you downloaded this release, then e-mail our helpdesk () for the necessary password and your license file. Place this file (you can make copies of it) after installation of the upgrade in your Adlib \bin and \tools or \executables folders (if present).The point is that the license file should be located in the same folders as your Adlib .exe files. How these folders are named is not important.

The release notes of previous major releases and service releases can be found on the Adlib website.

Backwards compatibility warning

New functionality in Adlib 6.6 for SQL Server and Oracle databases makes records that you change with this version or newer versions inaccessible to older versions of Adlib (adlwin.exe as well as wwwopac.exe). Please, keep this in mind if you would first like to try Adlib 7.2 before making the definitive upgrade. This limitation does not apply to CBF databases.

This means that you have to update wwwopac.exe to 7.2too (this requirement does not apply to wwwopac.ashx). This may have consequences for your web application though because of some changes in the structuredXML-format: previously, empty fields from field groups did not appear in the record XML, while from 6.6 they do.

You also need the latest version of Adlib Designer to implement functionality described in these release notes. However, when you modify your application in the new version of Designer, you won’t be able to edit that application anymore, of parts thereof, in older versions of Adlib Designer.

Because of changes in the .inf format due to the addition of new interface languages in Adlib 7.2, the following limitations apply when you edit your Adlib database structures using Designer 7.2:

  • Afterwards you’ll no longer be able to adjust your database structures using an older version of Designer. You’ll have to use Designer 7.2 from now on.
  • Afterwards you can no longer use Adlib versions (adlwin.exe and adloan.exe) older than version 7.2.
  • Afterwards you’ll have to update wwwopac (.exe or .ashx) to version 7.2. The update of the .ashx version in itself may have consequences too:
  • From wwwopac.ashx 3.7.14028, field names specified in the briefFields, detailFields, searchFields and authenticationConfiguration sections of adlibweb.xml will be validated to the requirements for XML element names on application start. If a field name doesn’t meet the requirements, the API will throw an exception (AdlibWebException) with details about the field name, section and the database. If you encounter the exception after your upgrade to wwwopac.ashx3.7.14028 or higher,you’ll have to correct the problematic field names in the data dictionary (.inf file) and subsequently in adlibweb.xml.
    The XML element name requirements are as follows: names may contain letters, numbers and other characters but they cannot start with a number or punctuation character or with the string ‘xml’. And names are not allowed to contain spaces.
  • The Adlib API as used by the current version of wwwopac.ashximplements a strict policy concerning the definition of field tags: all tags used in records that you read or write using the API, must have been defined in the data dictionary. So when you’re about to start using the new version of wwwopac.ashx for your website, you may encounter errors because of this, since it is not uncommon in Adlib applications for tags to have been defined on the screen only or to have ended up in records via an import or adapl procedure. Axiell ALM has several tools in development (currently called ValidateDatabase and RemoveTagsFromData) which you can use to track down any undefined tags in your records (amongst other functionality), after which you can still define them in the relevant .inf to solve the issue. Ask our helpdesk for the status of these tools and the accompanying documentation.

112-1-2015

Adlib 7.2Other improvements

1New functionality

1.1Quick searching anywhere in Adlib

From Adlib 7.2 you’ll be able to quickly start a new search from anywhere in Adlib, like from the detailed or list display, by selecting the desired access point from the new Quick search drop-down list in the Adlib Start menu. The function becomes active as soon as you’ve selected a data source to work with, in Step 1 of the Search wizard.

The list contains the same access points as Step 2 of the Search wizard, for the currently opened data source.

After your selection, the active display will close and the Search wizard will open directly with the chosen access point in Step 3.

This works a lot faster than having to click the Back button from record display repeatedly to return to Step 2 in the Search wizard to be able to select a new access point.

1.2Continue searching on equal field contents

Adlib 7.2 introduces an extra way of searching: from within every indexed field in detailed display of a record you can search directly for all records with the same field contents, simply via the pop-up menu.

In detailed display of a record, suppose you encounter the value ‘canvas’ in the Material field. If you decide you’d like to see all records with the material ‘canvas’, just right-click the relevant field and in the pop-up menu select the Find records for … option (Find records for ‘material=canvas’ in this example). The search will be performed untruncated and without relations. The search result will be presented in the brief or detailed display, as usual.

When the option is greyed out, the field will have no index so you won’t be able to continue with this search option.

1.3Selecting another data source from anywhere in Adlib

From 7.2, you can open a different data source from anywhere in Adlib (except while editing a record), using the FileSelect database menu. It doesn’t matter if you’re currently searching, viewing a record in detailed display of are working with pointer files: simply click FileSelect database and select the desired data source in the submenu. Move the mouse pointer over the thin bar with the arrow at the top or bottom of the submenu to have the list scroll up or down and show you more data sources. (The databases and their datasets won’t be displayed in a hierarchical structure here.) Immediately after your choice, Step 2 in the Search wizard will open, for the relevant data source.

1.4Rearranging sorting fields

De brief display of a search result can be sorted on multiple fields. Click the Sort button in the Start menu to open the Sort window and then double-click the fields on which you’d like to sort.

New in 7.2 is that the order of the selected fields in the list on the right (and consequently the sorting order) can now easily be changed: in the Sort field properties list, select the name of the field that you’d like to move and use the key combination Ctrl+(the Ctrl-key combined with the arrow-up key) or Ctrl+to move the sorting field up or down.

1.5Managing your favorites

If you often fill in the same texts, but you don’t want to have to type them each time, then you can label such texts as favorites for that field, so that you’ll be able to select that text directly from the right-click pop-up menu for that field next time.

In 7.2 you have the added option to manage the favorites you collected earlier: it is now possible to delete selected favorites or to change the order of the favorites in the pop-up menu.

Right-click the field for which to want to manage the favorites and in the pop-up menu select the Manage favorites option.

In the Manage favorites window you can move a selected text up or down using the blue arrows or remove it with the red cross. Click OK to store the changes.

1.6Renamed and relocated functions

New Publish menu

The Collection Cloud buttons have been moved from the Start menu to the new, persistent Publish menu. In it you’ll also find the new Europeana buttons (see chapter 1.16 for more about that).

Expert search renamed to Advanced search

The Expert search window where you can put together any desired search statement, will be called Advanced search from now on. You can open the window from the Adlib Start menu, for example, after you’ve selected a data source in Step 1 of the Search wizard.
Further, the Query by form option has been renamed to Search by form.

Show invariant data has been removed

The Show/Hide invariant data button has been removed. If a multilingual field has no value in the current data language while there exists an invariant value in a different data language, then that value will be displayed (greyed out) by default, from now on. (Also see chapter 1.10.)

Find image file renamed to Import image

The Find image file button in the Edit menu and the Explorer window it opens, have been renamed to Import image.

1.7Import image in Media menu

The Import image function, to link an image file to a record, was already available in the Edit menu but has now also been added to the Media menu in which all Media Viewer functions can be found. It doesn’t matter from which menu you start the function.

1.8Relational searching optional in Advanced search

Previously, searching a linked field in a SQL database on a non-preferred term via a search statement in the Advanced search would always replace that term in the background by the preferred term which would then be used in the actual search. So it made no difference if you searched on the preferred term or on (one of) the non-preferred term(s) associated with it.
From 7.2 this non-preferred term substitution only takes place if the new Use relations checkbox has been marked (which is the case by default). The setting will be stored for next time.

Searching with relations enables Adlib to actually search on the preferred term when you’ve entered a non-preferred term. Adlib will also retrieve records with narrower terms and terms that are equivalent to the search key. This means that you can find more records than you may have expected. (Note that the search will not include any related terms.) However, hierarchical searching does influence the speed of searching: non-hierarchical searching is just faster because you’ll only be searching on the entered term, nothing else.

The new option doesn’t apply to CBF databases.

(Ref.no: 6560)

1.9Currently active data language with icon

To make it more noticeable to users that they’re working in a multilingual application and to draw their attention to the currently set data language, a flag icon is now present in front of the code for the current data language in the status bar and this information has more space on either side. If your application is not multilingual, the data language box in the status bar will remain empty.

1.10Pinning or unpinning the Pointer files window

In 7.2 the possibility has been added to decide for yourself if the Pointer files window must remain open after you’ve opened a pointer file (as was the default case in 7.1) or if it should close automatically (as was the case in even older versions). To this end, a pushpin icon has been added to the lower left corner of the window. Click the pushpin to switch between the two modes: blue means pinned down, grey means unpinned (and this has become the default setting again). Adlib remembers your setting for next time.

A pinnedPointer files window remains opened after you’ve chosen a pointer file and remains opened until you close it manually or until you start editing or outputting marked records in some way. The window closes automatically as well when you return to Step 1 of the Search wizard. Still, in detailed or brief display, amongst others, you can leave the window open, for instance to be able to quickly view several pointer files, one after the other. A pinned window can be closed manually via the Cancel button or via the white-red cross in the upper right corner of the window.

1.11Write set to assign the lowest free pointer file number

The Write set function in Adlib did always assign a number to a new pointer file which was 1 higher than the previously assigned number, even if lower numbers were available (when earlier created pointer files had been removed since then, for example). This has changed in 7.2: now when you let Adlib assign the new pointer file number it’ll become the lowest free pointer file number. (Ref.no: 6550, 4622)

1.12New display of absent multilingual data

In Adlib 7.2, the Show/Hide invariant data button has been removed. If a multilingual field has no value in the current data language while there exists an invariant value in a different data language, then that value will be displayed (greyed out) by default, from now on. This makes translation of the relevant data more comfortable.

Such an invariant field value will also be displayed in a different colour: light grey. The distinction clarifies that it concerns invariant data and that the relevant field value(s) haven’t yet been stored in the current data language in the record. However, as soon as you place the cursor in such a field with light grey text, the text colour will return to normal and that means that the value, unaltered or edited, will indeed be stored in the current data language in the relevant field as soon as you save the changes in the record. As long as field values are displayed in light grey, they won’t be stored.

If a multilingual field hasn’t got a value in the current data language while it does in one of the other languages and no invariant value exists for the field in this record, then in display mode light grey suspension points will be displayed in the field (underlined if it concerns a linked field).