Skip to main content
OCLC Support

WorldShare Circulation release notes, July 2021

 

Release Date: July 24, 2021

Introduction

This release of WorldShare Circulation provides new features and enhancements:

  • Enhancements to the WMS Patron System Bill Connector to add job details and file summary information to export files and to improve the experience of the Scheduled Jobs configuration.
  • Bug fixes and performance improvements

Many of these enhancements are the direct result of your feedback.

Recommended actions

There are no recommended actions related to this release.

We encourage you to review all of the items in the release ntoes to determine whether there are items that might require additional action or follow up by your institution.

New features and enhancements

Enhancements to the WMS Patron System Bill Connector

The WMS Patron System Bill Connector is an optional set of features that allows your library to share information about patron fees and fines with systems outside of WMS such as a campus bursar system or a debt collection agency. This release includes small enhancements to the bill connector.

 Caution: Some restrictions apply. A one-time implementation fee is required to enable the patron bill connector. Your library or institution may also need to work with your local IT support to automate any system-to-system processing. Contact OCLC Library Services or your OCLC Library Services Consultant to learn more.

Metadata header and footer added to export files

Data about an export file is now provided in header and footer sections of billing data files exported by WMS. This file metadata will help your campus system or other recipient of billing data to validate and audit files from WMS.

The file header includes information about the job that created the file:

  • FILE_FORMAT_VERSION: The export file format version. Current file format is version 1.0.
  • JOB_NAME: The name of the job when the export process produced the file.
  • JOB_EXECUTION_ID: The job reference ID when the export process produced the file.
  • JOB_EXECUTION_DATETIME: The date and time when the export process ran.
  • OUTSTANDING_AMOUNT: The minimum amount outstanding configured in the job's bill criteria when the export process produced the file.
  • BILL_REASON: The bill reasons selected in the job's bill criteria when the export process produced the file. Repeatable for each selected bill reason.
  • PATRON_TYPE: The patron types selected in the job's bill criteria when the export process produced the file. Repeatable for each selected patron type.

The file footer includes summary information about the bills in the file:

  • FILE_BILL_COUNT: The number of bills included in the export files.
  • SKIPPED_BILL_COUNT: The number of bills that failed to be exported by WMS. Please contact OCLC Customer Support for assistance with skipped bills.
Click here to see an example
# FILE_FORMAT_VERSION=1.0
# JOB_NAME=SW 10781 EDIT Recone
# JOB_EXECUTION_ID=35184372174058
# JOB_EXECUTION_DATETIME=2021-06-17T09:45-0400
# OUTSTANDING_AMOUNT=20.00
# BILL_REASON=Overdue Fee
# BILL_REASON=Processing Fee
# BILL_REASON=Replacement Cost
# PATRON_TYPE=Graduate
# PATRON_TYPE=Undergraduate
BILL_ID,ROW_TYPE,PATRON_ID,CHARGING_INSTITUTION,CURRENCY,ORIGINAL_AMOUNT,OUTSTANDING_AMOUNT,BILLED_TITLE,BILLED_ITEM,ASSESSED_DATETIME,LAST_MODIFIED_DATETIME
"2d2ca0a6-bec8-4497-97e9-9d45c226b6b7",NEW,user1,91475,USD,70.00,70.00,,,"2021-06-16T10:32:57-04:00","2021-06-16T10:32:57-04:00"
"96888eda-ca32-4ed3-90eb-824baedb348a",NEW,user2,91475,USD,56.78,56.78,"Buffalo Bill's America : William Cody and the Wild West Show /",573918992,"2021-06-17T04:03:30-04:00","2021-06-17T04:03:30-04:00"
# FILE_BILL_COUNT=2
# SKIPPED_BILL_COUNT=0

Interface improvements to job configuration

This release includes several usability improvements to the job configuration page including:

  • Updated the dropdown list of bill reasons and patron types to sort in alphabetical order
  • Improved spacing between fields and the style of helper text
  • Improved the sizing of dropdown menus to better support long lists

Bug fixes

Pickup locations look invalid when editing a hold on an unbarcoded item

The Edit Existing Hold Request dialog was displaying the 'Not available due to policy' message for all pickup locations for unfulfilled holds on unbarcoded items. Patrons attempting to edit these holds in My Account would see no valid pickup options.

This release fixes the display of pickup options in the staff interface and in My Account to include all available pickup options for the item's location at the time that the hold was created.

VDX integration not creating temporary items and patron holds

The resource sharing integration with VDX was not creating temporary items and patron holds for borrowed materials. This issue has been resolved in this release.

Item cost qualifier limited to fifty characters

The LHR text editor in WorldShare did not support item cost qualifier values (parenthetical value from 876-878 $c) to be longer than fifty characters. Longer values were truncated to fifty characters when the record was saved, or, in some cases, an error was thrown when attempting to save the item record.

As of this release, the character limit on the cost qualifier field has been removed.

Error when adding an unbarcoded item to a container

The system was throwing an error when attempting to add an unbarcoded item to a container.

As of this release, this action will work as expected: a system-generated barcode is assigned to the item before it is bound to the container.

Performance improvements

To improve system performance, your library's branch locations are now cached by the system. Changes that you make to your branch location configuration may not be visible in WorldCat Discovery, My Account, WorldShare Circulation, etc. for up to 20 minutes.

We will monitor and adjust system behavior as needed to balance system performance and user experience.

Known issues

See the Known Issues page.

WorldCat indexing changes

On 7 July 2021, WorldShare Acquisitions and WorldShare Circulation migrated to a new indexing service for searching WorldCat.

Searches against data type Bibliographic Records will now search only shared bibliographic records. At this time, local bibliographic data and local holdings records are not included in bibliographic searches in Acquisitions and Circulation.

Issues have been resolved with call number browsing, searching local holdings records by branch and shelving location, and searching by standard numbers in the keyword index. In some cases, the 'My Library Holdings' or 'My Group Holdings' search scopes for bibliographic records may return unexpected results. A fix has been identified and impacted records will be reindexed as quickly as possible.

Please report any issues with WorldCat searching to OCLC Support.

Internet Explorer 11 support ends in August 2021

Please note that support for Internet Explorer 11 (IE 11) will end in August 2021. Some features will continue to work in IE 11, but new features and existing issues will not be fixed. See the Browser compatibility chart for a list of supported browsers. Contact OCLC Support as soon as possible if this poses any concern for your institution.

Important links

Support website(s)

Support information for this product and related products can be found at: