6.6.0 SR1 release notes

Adlib Information Systems

Copyright © 2012 Adlib Information Systems B.V. ® All rights reserved. Adlib® is a product of Adlib Information Systems B.V. ®

The information in this document is subject to change without notice and should not be construed as a commitment by Adlib Information Systems. Adlib 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.

3-2-2012

Contents

Introduction

1 Changed functionality

1.1 The – and + operators in the search language

2 Improvements

2.1 Display

2.2 Editing

2.3 Searching

2.4 Printing

2.5 Designer

2.6 ADAPL

2.7 Adloan

3-2-2012

Adlib 6.6.0 SR1Improvements

Introduction

These release notes describe a number of improvements in the Adlib executables, which are implemented in Adlib 6.6.0 service pack 1 (build 669). This release is available fromFebruary 2012 to all customers with a support contract, and can be downloaded from the Adlib website.

You may be able to choose between the standard 32-bit version of the executables (which you can use on both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows versions), and a 64-bit version (which only runs on 64-bit Windows versions). There are no functional differences between the two, but on 64-bit Windows versions it is good practice to run 64-bit software as much as possible.

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 6.6.0for SQL Server and Oracle databases makes records that you change with this version 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 6.6.0 SR1 before making the definitive upgrade. See chapter 1.22 in the release notes with Adlib 6.6.0 for more information about the relevant new functionality. This limitation does not apply to CBF databases.

This means that you have to update wwwopac.exe to 6.6.0 SR1too. 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 a lot of the functionality introduced in 6.6.0. 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.

13-2-2012

Adlib 6.6.0 SR1Improvements

1Changed functionality

1.1The – and + operators in the search language

From Adlib 6.6.0 build 557 (an earlier build than this service release), the possibilities for using + and – in search statements in the expert search language have changed.

The minus (-) and plus (+) operators in the expert search language have always worked as follows, when surrounded by spaces: when searching on more than one value in a single field, you can abbreviate a search statement like:

author.name = bak* AND author.name = be*

to

author.name = bak* + be*

and a search statement like:

author.name = bak* AND NOT author.name = be*

to

author.name = bak* - be*

In this application, + and – can only be used in between two or more values on the right side of an = operator to search the values in the same field. If the field you search is a term indexed field like author.name, then a search statement like this applies to values in different occurrences of the field, so in this example be* and bak* are never searched in the same field occurrence. With a similar search in long text fields (not term-indexed) however. you will also search within a single field occurrence.

Specific to the use of + or – in this way, was that you had to surround them by spaces, as in the examples above. If you omitted the spaces, the + or – would, in this example, not be used as an operator but just as one of the characters in the value to search for.
A deviating use of + and – is as a mathematical operator in combination with today. With this it is possible to search on the date of today, minus or plus a number of days, for example:

input.date > today-30

Although this was not the recommended syntax (since quotes are missing around today-30), the syntax was permitted and in this case no spaces were allowed around the minus or plus sign too.

With version 6.6.0.557 this has changed: the + and – now always function as substitute for Boolean operators if the value to search has no quotes around it, even if the + or - is not surrounded by spaces. So author.name = bak*-be* now executes the same as author.name = bak* - be*, namely: (author.name = bak* and not author.name = be*). And input.date > today-30 executes the same as input.date > today – 30, namely: input.date > today and not input.date > 30 (which is not what you want). This may have consequences for your existing pointer files and any SDI profiles linked to those pointer files.

When you now execute a search statement like author.name = bak*-be*or its equivalent with spaces around the – operator, you’ll see that Adlib always translates your query to the full syntax, namely: (author.name = bak* and not author.name = be*). So if you store this search statement as a pointer file, it will be stored in the long version: no problems there.
However, if you have existing pointer files that search for a value containing a + or – character (not intended as a Boolean operator, but as a hyphen or mathematical operator), while that value is not enclosed by (preferably double) quotes, then the next time you profile such a pointer file (or when the SDI profile is executed), the meaning of the executed search statement will be different! For example, if you have a pointer file based on a search statement like BE = dove-hawk, to search the Description field for the value dove-hawk, then from now on Adlib will interpret this search statement as BE = dove AND NOT BE = hawk, which is not what you want. So you’ll have to delete such a pointer file and make a new one with the value enclosed in double quotes. In this example that would be BE = "dove-hawk". Any SDI settings for the pointer file must be made again as well: so write down the current settings before you remove a pointer file which no longer contains the correct search statement.
The same applies to pointer files based on queries like: input.date > today-30. You’ll have to replace those by a search statement comparable to: input.date > "today-30" or input.date > "today-30". And queries with which you search on a fixed date, like dm > 2010-01-01 must also be changed to dm > "2010-01-01".

2Improvements

In 6.6.0 SR1 the following functionality has been improved:

2.1Display

  1. No buttons visible in QBF under Window XP or when working viaa remote desktop connection. When you opened a Query by form in an Adlib application running under Windows XP, no buttons were initially visible in its toolbar. They only became visible when you moved the mouse cursor over the toolbar. The same happened when you accessed a QBF in an Adlib application through a remote desktop connection. (Ref.no: 4274, 4411)
  2. OK button in “Find data for the field” window was sometimes too large and without label. When you opened the Find data for the field window (Shift+F4) for a linked field, it could sometimes occur that the OK button was displayed incorrectly: too large and without text on it. This problem occurred when the linked database contained a lot of pointer files.These are loaded into memory for possible display on the View lists tab in the current window, and during loading a progress bar can appear. The removal of this progress bar after loading was not handled correctly, causing the strange OK button. (Ref.no: 5204)
  3. A multilingual field wasn’t displayed when there was no language code in its data.When there was no language code present fora value in a multilingual field, the field was not displayed in the search result nor in the detailed display. (Ref.no: 5177)
  4. Images were sometimes not visible in the Image Viewer. Image linked to records were sometimes not visible in the Image Viewer anymore, if a retrieval and storage path had been set for the image field. (Ref.no: 5230)
  5. Linked images with IPTC metadata could make Adlib crash.Adlib crashed after opening (in edit mode) a Visual documentationrecord with a linked image containing IPTC metadata.(Ref.no: 5228)
  6. A QBF window did sometimes not display any buttons in the toolbar. When you opened a Query-by-form from the Search menu, the buttons in the toolbar of the window were sometimes not visible at first. Only when you moved the mouse pointer over the toolbar, the buttons appeared. (Ref.no: 5154)
  7. Web browser boxes only contained data in the current data language. The web browser boxes introduced in 6.6. only contained record data in the current data language, while the intention was to have them contain record data from all available data languages.
  8. Sometimes Adlib would crash due to hidden fields. If you opened a detail screen on which fields were hidden due to access restrictions, Adlib sometimes crashed.
  9. Adlwin.exe applications wouldn’t close silently when ending your Windows session. When you ended your Windows session while Adlib was still running, it wouldn’t close silently. Now it will, even when you have a record in edit mode, but the changes won’t be saved.
  10. The Media Viewer sometimes showed the second linked image by default, instead of the first. When two images were linked to an object record, and the file extension of the first image was written in capitals while the file extension of the second image was written in lower case, then by default the second image was displayed first in the Media Viewer. (Ref.no: 5239)
  11. With the Media Viewer pinned down, only one linked image per record could be seen. If you pinned down () the Media Viewer so that it became visible on every tab, and switched from the detailed display of one record to another, then from the second record the Media Viewer would only display one linked image per record, even if multiple images were linked to the record. Releasing the Media Viewer would display all linked images again. (Ref.no: 4329)
  12. Screens could get distorted if they contained fields to which the user or the application had no access rights. If a screen contained fields for which access rights had been set, and the current user or application had no rights to these fields, then the screen was not displayed correctly anymore: the position of boxes around fields became inconsistent, and the first box could overlap the title. (Ref.no: 5272)
  13. Boxes in read-only screens could get distorted.If the read-only option had been enabled in the properties of a screen, some boxes around fields were displayed without any labels and/or with many empty lines. (Ref.no: 5233)
  14. Conditional fields no longer worked. If you had set up a conditional field to be suppressed (hidden) when another field contained a certain value, then the field was never actually suppressed. (Ref.no: 5273)
  15. A pointer file with deleted records sometimes generated incorrect status bar information. When you opened a pointerfile which included records which had been deleted from the (Adlib SQL) database, sometimes an incorrect number of records retrieved was displayed in the status bar, namely the original number of records, if the number of records was very large. (Ref.no: 4574)
  16. Switching data language in a zoom screen caused displayed record to be reset. When e.g. a thesaurus record was being displayed in a zoom screen and you clicked an underlined broader term, the record of the broader term was then correctly displayed. However, if you then switched data language, the zoom screen went back to displaying the first opened record. (Ref.no: 5135)
  17. The space bar acted as arestart function.When you tried to opena record from the search result by usingthe space bar, it would take you back to Step 1 in the Search wizard instead. (Ref.no: 5310)

2.2Editing

  1. “Replace in record” function not available in brief display. When you had marked records in the list screen of a search result, you could not execute the Replace in record function because it was greyed out in the Edit menu. (Ref.no: 5196)
  2. An empty occurrence of a multilingual linked field could sometimes not be deleted. The first time you put the cursor in a particular empty occurrence of a multilingual field and tried removing that occurrence by clicking the Delete occurrence button, the occurrence would not be deleted. However, by leaving the field and then putting the cursor back in the relevant field, you could still delete the empty occurrence. (Ref.no: 5206)
  3. Sometimes an incorrect circular reference error could appear for the 'Related object' field. When you had opened a Museum object record, added a third, filled occurrence to an existing second filled occurrence and empty first occurrence ofthe Related object field on the Numbers | Relationships tab and saved the record, then an incorrect Circular reference error could appear. (Ref.no: 5209)
  4. After adding an image, it sometimes did not not appear in the object record. When you entered an image reference and identifier (URL) in an object record in an old Museum application (e.g. 2.1.2) and saved it, the image did not appear on the Reproductions tab, but it did appear in the Media Viewer. After reopening the record the image wasn’t visible anywhere, although it was indeed stored in the Visual documentation database. (Ref.no: 5211)
  5. The contents of a field linked on term disappeared after saving the record. When you entered an existing term in a field linked on term (instead of on a link reference) any merged-in values were retrieved, but after saving the record the contents of the linked field and its merged-in fields disappeared, and wasn’t stored. (Ref.no: 5212)
  6. Integer fields allowed too large numbers to be entered.Integer fields are limited to the value range of -2147483648 to 2147483647, but they were not validated, allowing larger numbers to be entered. You could never find or retrieve the relevant record by means of such a large number. From now on, integer fields are validated, so that you can’t enter numbers outside the value range anymore. (Ref.no: 5022)
  7. Preferred terms were sometimes incorrectly replaced by other preferred terms.Substituting one preferred term by another preferred term in the non-preferred term record, while both preferred terms have a broader/narrower relation to each other, replaced the first preferred term in catalogue records by the second.
    Also, when a non-preferred term got a new preferrerd term, the original preferred term in a catalogue record was replaced by the new preferred term. (Ref.no: 5152, 5155)
  8. Changes to an SDI schedule in a pointer file could not be saved. When you created a pointer file in an Adlib SQL database, and on the SDI Schedule tab of the pointer file properties you changed something, like the Frequency, and clicked OK, and error 189 appeared. (Ref.no: 5180)
  9. Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V did not work in fields of data type ISBN or ISSN. It was impossible to copy and paste the contents of an ISBN or ISSN field using the Windows Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V shortcuts. (Ref.no: 5219)
  10. European and American date presentation formats gavea wrong presentation in edit mode.When you had set the presentation format of an ISO date field to European or American, the presentation of a date in that field in a record in display mode would indeed be European or American, but when switching to edit mode the month in the date notation was set to double zero (e.g. 12/10/2011 would become 12/00/2011 in edit mode). (Ref.no: 5224)
  11. Setting the occurrence order for a linked field with existing data could lead to data corruption. When you set the occurrence sort order of a linked field to Ascending in an already filled database, the editing or deletion of records could lead to empty occurrences and data saved in merged-in fields.(Ref.no: 4839)
  12. Browsing to a folder using Find image file started one level to high.When browsing for an image to link, using theFind image filefunction, the browse window opened one level higher than the path that was stored in the Windows registry. (Ref.no: 5226)
  13. In SQL applications it was possible to overwrite existing pointer files without a warning.An already used pointer file number from another dataset was not shown in the list of existing pointer files in the current dataset, and could be overwritten without a warning. (Ref.no: 4848)
  14. When deleting a copied record just after creating it, the original record was deleted instead. When, after copying a record from the detailed display and saving it, you immediately deleted the copied record, the original would be deleted instead. The bug did not appear after searching for the new record by priref first. (Ref.no: 5221)
  15. HTML fields could not be repeated. New occurrences of repeatable HTML fields couldn’t yet be added correctly.
  16. The Change locations procedure for objects sometimes tried to change the wrong record. When you first executed theEditChange locations procedure for a record x from the search result and then selected another record via the Hierachy browser and executed the procedure again, then you received the message Rejected record x; no future movement found. However, 'x' was not the record number of the record that you wanted to change in that second procedure.