Release notes for v4.2.1

This patch release contains a small number of bug fixes and improvements. It addresses several issues introduced in 4.2.0, mainly failures when trying to load records that have many linked records of specific types and the inability to start ArchivesSpace when using the embedded Derby database.

Please note that, while resolved for this release, version 4.2.1 will be the last to support this embedded database. The embedded database has always been intended only for testing purposes and not for production. Running with docker is now the supported way to get ArchivesSpace up and running with minimal requirements

Additionally, there are some very small locale file updates, a bug fix to a button color, replacements for two keyboard shortcuts that clashed with common shortcuts on Windows machines, and the addition of log rotation for Docker installs.

There are two community contributions in this release. Though MySQL is our only officially supported database, thanks to a community contribution by Will Martin, this release also restores full functionality for the bulk spreadsheet importers when using MariaDB. A community contribution from Mark Cooper updates the initialize plugin script to fix an issue that was preventing dependencies from installing upgraded versions of ArchivesSpace’s bundled gems.

Configurations and Migrations

This release includes no modifications to the configuration defaults file.

This release includes 0 new database migrations. The schema number for this release is UNCHANGED.

Other considerations (plugins etc.):

Derby based embedded Demo database deprecation

The upcoming major version 4.2.1 will be the last to support the embedded derby database. The embedded database has always been intended only for testing purposes and not for production. Running with docker is now the supported way to get ArchivesSpace up and running with minimal requirements.

Plugin initializer updates

The plugin initializer has been updated to address the issue of plugins dragging newer copies of shared gems than those bundled in the core application. The updated mechanism discovers each installed plugin's transitive dependencies and bundle installs within constraints determined by versions embedded in the application war packages. The process fails if a dependency lands that isn't aligned with what core and the wars support. See [#4054] for more details.

Community Contributions

Our thanks go out to these members of the community for their code contributions:

• Will Martin:
  • MariaDB bulk import [#4044]
• Mark Cooper:
  • New jruby initialize plugin script [#4054]

Total community contributions accepted: 2

JIRA Tickets and Pull Requests Completed

• PR: 4097, 4158 - ANW-2759: ANW-2759 release notes generation improvements.
• PR: 4148 - ANW-2717: ANW-2717 fix linking agents to resources on derby embedded demo db
• PR: 4155 - ANW-2816: downloading Bulk AO updater spreadsheet times out for large resources
• PR: 4127 - ANW-2706: ANW-2706 Fix Softserv-related button color bug when reorder mode auto-expand all is enabled
• PR: 4126 - ANW-2740: don't override Windows & Linux browser keyboard commands for "cut text" and "save page"
• PR: 4117: agent contact typo
• PR: 4115, 4076 - ANW-2717: fix errors on embedded demo db (derby)
• PR: 4113 - ANW-652: ANW-652 fix performance of classification show action on SUI
• PR: 4110 - ANW-2762: Classification with 400+ Linked Records Can Cause Errors "total query size exceeds limit"
• PR: 4071 - ANW-2727: ANW-2727 add docker log rotation for all services in docker
• PR: 4054: Add new jruby initialize plugin script
• PR: 4048: Update to repository processing note tool tip
• PR: 4044 - ANW-2647: ANW-2647 maria db bulk import

Total Pull Requests accepted: 11
Total Jira Tickets closed: 9