Chapter 128. Introduction

The Evergreen Web Staff Client is in the early stages of development and is being provided as a "preview" version beginning in Evergreen version 2.7. If you are an early adopter, thank you! Please keep in mind:

  1. We want your feedback! Please report any errors, bugs, strange behavior, etc. using Launchpad. And please send requested features or design improvements to the Evergreen Developers email list.
  2. It is changing rapidly. Features are being added in "sprints" grouped by workflow. Read the development wiki page and watch the general email list for updates. (However, these changes will only appear on your client when your version of Evergreen is upgraded. Ask your server administrator for details.)
  3. The design may change significantly. Initially, it will follow the design of the current XUL-based staff client. But the browser framework provides more flexibility for design choices. Also, Evergreen hired an intern from December 2014 through March 2015 to create a User Interface Style Guide. Watch IRC and the general email list to follow the progress.

The following rationale was published in the Release Notes for Evergreen 2.7:

The 2.7 release will contain a preview of web client circulation features. Circulation is the first step in moving all staff functions from the existing XULRunner-based client to a web application that will be based on AngularJS.

Evergreen is moving away from the existing client because XULRunner no longer supports features critical to the Evergreen software, including remote XUL, multi-part streaming, and XML JavaScript. The new web client is expected to show some speed improvements, to provide comprehensive support for internationalization/localization, to provide good support for assistive technologies, to be easier to customize locally, and to be more mobile friendly.

The intent of the preview is to make it easier for end users at Evergreen sites to try the new client, become familiar with its features, and to discover/report bugs that are found. Instructions to implement the web client can be found in the code in Open-ILS/web/js/ui/default/staff/README.install. These will be revised and moved to the full README for 2.7.1.

Evergreen 2.9 includes the following improvements to the web client preview:

The web staff client now includes additional functionality to support cataloging and item maintenance, including:

  • a new MARC editor
  • the service backing the authority headings chooser now has the ability to filter the browse by subject thesaurus
  • Z39.50 search and record import
  • improvements to copy and record bucket functionality
  • embedding the link checker interface
  • embedding the MARC batch import/export interface
  • the web staff volume/copy editor

Nearly all of the cataloging functionality available in the XUL staff client is now present in the web staff client with the exception of printing spine labels. Nonetheless, the web staff client remains a preview and is not recommended for production use.