Plans for working with the new interface in Alma?

[daniels]

With the August release Ex Libris introduced an improved interface to letter customization (and "component customization"), where the labels and template for a letter are accessed in tabs on the same page. According to the release notes the old pages will be replaced in the near future.

While the new pages probably are better from a user perspective, they also seem harder to script as the complete list of letters is no longer accessible from a single page, and at least I can't find information on when a template was last updated.

Do you plan to continue development of slipsomat to work with the new pages?

[danmichaelo]

I will probably give it a try.

The new table format is a bit worrying indeed. Dealing with pagination is probably not horribly difficult, but not having the update date in the table anymore will make the pull command very, very slow, since it will have to check every single letter for changes. But why, oh why did they remove that? Perhaps because the update date only reflected the XSL, not the labels, but it's quite frustrating as a user as well to not be able to see which letters were recently updated, isn't it?

[daniels]

Thanks for the answer, @danmichaelo

I agree that the missing update date is a poor user experience even for those who only edit the templates directly inside Alma. I've opened a support case asking for getting the dates back in the new letter configuration pages (ideally both in the list and on the templates tab), but it seems there is a long way from a support ticket to actually influencing such decisions ... Maybe it would be (slightly) better to try to raise the concern on Ideas Exchange, or even try to get someone to speak directly with a product manager at IGeLU 2019?

[danmichaelo]

Thanks @daniels. I also tried requesting through our consortium that the old view should not be removed before update dates have been added to the new view. One of my colleagues also brought it up at a Basecamp instance for NERS. But I haven't heard anything back yet. I'm not going to IGeLU this year, but it's great if you can look for opportunities to bringing up this issue.

[daniels]

Oh, I'm sorry but neither I nor anyone else from my library will be going to IGeLU.

So far I've had no response on my support case, and none on the mailing list (where I buried it in an existing thread in the hope of getting the attention of an Ex Libris staff member who had replied earlier).

[mnhampl]

It has happend: With the November release Ex Libris removed the old letter configuration and the script doesn't work any more.

This really is a pity as I was using this script all the time :( Our library also asked in a salesforce case to bring back the update date. Judging from the way Ex Libris handles other cases I'm not too optimistic.

If I find the time I'll certainly try my luck with restoring at least some of the script's functionality.

[danmichaelo]

Ouch... I haven't been able to set aside time to work on this unfortunately, and I also had a small hope (or wishful thinking) that they would add back an update date for the letters.

Update: Checked with our consortium and they did get the following reply to their SalesForce case on 28 October, indicating that the addition of an update date might happen:

I would like to update you that we have attached this case to an open defect currently being handled by the development team. We will continue to update this case as new information becomes available.

[danmichaelo]

And now we heard back that they plan to add update dates… in December 2020

[Reedyn]

So this is coming in 4 days. Hopefully we can get this working again soon :D

[th122]

... it really did arrive, hooray! Now I'm hopeful, too :)

[danmichaelo]

Sorry that we never found time to work on this. I moved to a new position in 2020 right after this, and there was noone else that could take over the project. I'm archiving the repo now, but hopefully https://ideas.exlibrisgroup.com/forums/308173-alma/suggestions/12471084-synchronizing-xsl-templates-with-external-systems will be implemented some day, and then perhaps someone else will make a simpler sync tool 🙏