What version of DSpace will our repository be upgraded to?

Version 8.1

When will my repository be upgraded?

Visit DSpace 8.1 Updates Schedule to view the order of upgrades for Member Repositories. Please note that any dates listed are highly tentative. TDL will notify institutions as much in advance as possible of their proposed upgrade dates, and will keep members updated if postponement is necessary.

What is the upgrade process?

• On the morning of your scheduled upgrade, TDL will generate a helpdesk ticket to track work and communicate with you throughout the upgrade.

• Around noon on the scheduled day of your upgrade, TDL will restrict sessions on your DSpace repository, meaning nobody will be able to log in and add or change content. There will be a brief (<5 minutes) downtime when this happens. After that, anonymous users will still be able to browse the site and download unrestricted files while the remainder of the upgrade takes place, but Administrators will not be able to log in or make changes.

  • Before and after the brief downtime, TDL will add a site-wide message to your DSpace advising users of the upgrade and that they will be logged out of their sessions at noon.

  • During the 5-minute downtime, any users who come to the site will be redirected to a message indicating that the repository is undergoing maintenance and will be up again in a few minutes.

• TDL will migrate all of content over to a new DSpace 8.1 staging instance set up prior to the scheduled upgrade date that include theme and other customizations for your repository. TDL will point your production URL to the new DSpace 8 site. That process will be done sometime in the morning on the following day.

• TDL will contact you and ask you to test login via Shibboleth and to test/review the new site.

What should I test in our new DSpace 8?

We do not have a formal testing plan, but want you to make sure you can log in, that all your content appears to be there, and nothing is obviously broken.

When we give you the go-ahead following the migration into your DSpace 8 repository, please do the following at minimum:

As an Anonymous user (without logging in):

• Review the Communities & Collections list in the new repository to make sure everything looks as expected.

• Browse anonymously in the new repository.

• View and download items anonymously.

• Check that any known restricted collections or items remain restricted to anonymous users.

• Review the repository theme and let us know if you would like to see changes or see anything amiss.

As an Administrator user:

• Log in via your institutional credentials. If you are unable to log in with your institutional credentials, please notify TDL asap.

• Test the submission workflow far enough to make sure your Deposit License is correct (you don't need to actually complete the submission).

• Check any known customized submission forms, customized Simple Item View pages, or customized Browsing facets to make sure that customizations are appearing correctly.

Did the OAI endpoint URL or the SWORD deposit location URL change?

No. You may remember that the URL path for these changed when we upgraded from DSpace 6 to 7. With this upgrade that stays the same, and you do not need to update external harvesters or your Vireo depoist locations. Please contact the TDL helpdesk (support@tdl.org) if you experience any issues with this.

Where can I learn more about DSpace 8?

You can read the DSpace 8.0 and 8.1 release notes for more information about new improvements and features in DSpace 8, or view this presentation by TDL DSpace Tech Lead Nick Woodward.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1cs0ODrB4UGaf8192cnq8RSJV0gPyYLT-dbeI3BHygK4/edit?usp=sharing

Additionally, the global DSpace Program housed at Lyrasis has developed technical documentation for DSpace 8:

DSpace 8.x Documentation - DSpace 8.x Documentation - LYRASIS Wiki

Where can I test DSpace 8 outside of my production repository?

TDL members can use TDL’s DSpace 8 demo site for testing and training.

https://training-ir8.tdl.org/

Contact the TDL Helpdesk at support@tdl.org to set up an Administrator user account.