Atlanta, GA – March 5, 2020 – Version 7.0 Beta 1 of DSpace, one of the leading open source repositories used in more than 2500 installations globally, is now available for download and testing. Beta 1 is the first of several scheduled Beta releases provided for community feedback and to introduce the new features of the 7.0 platform. This new release is thanks to the work of The DSpace Leadership Group, the DSpace Committers and LYRASIS, the DSpace Organizational Home. 

DSpace 7.0 Beta 1 can be tested on our demo sites, installed manually or via a Docker “quick install”. See https://wiki.lyrasis.org/display/DSPACE/Try+out+DSpace+7

New features to look for

  • A completely new User Interface. This is the new Javascript-based frontend, built on Angular.io (with support for SEO provided by Angular Universal). This new interface is themable via HTML and CSS (SCSS). For early theme building training, see the “Getting Started with DSpace 7 Workshop” from the North American User Group meeting: slides or video recording.
  • A completely new, fully featured REST API (provided via a single webapp backend). This new backend is not only a REST API, but also still supports OAI-PMH, SWORD (v1 or v2) and RDF.
  • A newly designed search box. Search from the header of any page (click the magnifying glass). The search results page now features automatic search highlight, expandable and searchable filters, and optional thumbnail-based results (click on the “grid” view).
  • A new MyDSpace area, including a new, one-page, drag and drop submission form, a new workflow approval process, and searchable past submissions. (Login, click on the profile icon, click “MyDSpace”). Find workflow tasks to claim by selecting “All tasks” in the “Show” dropdown.
  • Dynamic user interface translations (Click the globe, and select a language)
  • A new Admin sidebar. Login as an Administrator for an administrative sidebar to appear. Use this to create a new Community/Collection/Item, edit existing ones and manage registries. (NOTE: A number of Administrative tools are still missing or greyed out. They will be added in future Beta releases.)
  • Optional, Configurable Entities feature. DSpace now supports “entities”, which are Items of a specific ‘type’ which may have relationships to other entities. These entity types and relationships are configurable, with two examples coming out-of-the-box: a set of Journal hierarchy entities (Journal, Volume, Issue, Publication) and a set of Research entities (Publication, Project, Person, OrgUnit). For more information see “The Power of Configurable Entities” from OR2019: slides or video recording. Additionally, a test data set featuring both out-of-the-box examples can be used when trying out DSpace 7 via Docker.

The 7.0 Beta 1 Release Notes are available at https://wiki.lyrasis.org/display/DSDOC7x/Release+Notes

Coming soon

In the coming months, we will be launching a number of Beta releases with each introducing new (or currently missing) features. The tentative release goals are as follows:

  • Beta 2 (goal: March 2020): Beta release focusing on Authentication / Authorization enhancements/fixes, enhanced Administrative Editing and Item Versioning.
  • Beta 3 (goal: April 2020): Beta release focusing on Account Profiles, Submission/Workflow enhancements, additional Administrative tools.
  • Beta 4 (goal: May 2020): Beta release focusing on SEO enhancements, Theming enhancements, Batch processing tools, Solr-based Statistics views, improved GDPR alignment.
  • Beta 5 (goal: June 2020): Optional Beta release to cleanup any bugs or issues found in previous Betas, or complete any incomplete features.
  • 7.0 Final Release: The final, production-ready release of 7.0 will be released as soon as all the above Betas have been completed and any outstanding major bugs have been resolved. Roughly estimated at 1-2 months after the last Beta.

More information on these release goals can be found athttps://wiki.lyrasis.org/display/DSPACE/DSpace+7+Release+Goals

Learn more

At this time, the DSpace 7 documentation is still in progress, but can be found at https://wiki.lyrasis.org/display/DSDOC7x/. 

As a Beta release, we ask that you consider installing it in a test environment, try it out, and report back any issues or bugs you notice. 

There are also a number of recorded presentations and workshops available providing an overview of all the new 7.0 features:

  • Additional DSpace 7 presentations/workshops/webinars are planned for 2020, including at the OR2020 conference

Thanks to major code contributors!

The following organizations have been major code contributors to DSpace 7.

  • Atmire 
  • 4Science
  • FCT / RCAAP