PINES Post-2.1.1-Upgrade Issues
During and after the PINES upgrade from Evergreen 1.6.1.8 to Evergreen 2.1.1, there were several issues that caused some problems for the libraries that we would like to document for future reference. This is not meant to be a comprehensive list of all problems that occurred - just the ones that may potentially have repercussions later on.
Issue #1: Circulation Policy Configuration Problems
Background: In Evergreen 1.6.1.8 and before, circulation and hold policies were governed by server-side scripts that required a knowledge of JavaScript to alter. In Evergreen 2.1.1 and forward, Evergreen uses a circulation and hold policies framework that can be more easily be created and altered from within the staff client.
The Problem: Two weeks after the upgrade, it was discovered that some of the circulation policies that were transferred from the pre-upgrade test server were not correctly configured to PINES' circulation policies, so patrons' items were accruing fines at the wrong rate and some items' circulation periods were incorrect. This potentially affected any item that circulated between 1/12/2012 and 2/1/2012 when the policies were corrected.
The Resolution: The circulation policy problem has discovered and corrected on 2/1/2012. On the night of 2/2/2012, the PINES system administration staff updated the rules on all active circulations so that they would have the proper circulation rules applied for each type of item. This means that any overdue item that was returned on 2/2/2012 or after should not have been affected by the issue.
Expected Residual Problems: Any item that was checked out on or after 1/12/2012 and returned after the due date, but before 2/1/2012, would have potentially been affected by the misconfigured rules. PINES staff have identified 442 patron accounts that were potentially affected by the problem, and we are working with individual library systems to get them cleaned up individually.
Issue #2: Wrongly Grouped Patrons
Background: After the PINES upgrade to Evergreen 1.6.1.8 in April 2011, there were multiple reports of patrons who were being grouped with people with whom they had no relationship. This was determined to be caused by a configuration setting within the PINES user database table that was set too low, meaning that user group IDs were being recycled, causing new patrons to be grouped with existing patrons. These were manually fixed on an individual basis as they were discovered.
The Problem: The new Groups window within the checkout interface calculates a fine total for all members of a group and generally makes group members more visible to staff. Patrons who were wrongly grouped after the 1.6.1.8 upgrade were seeing fines associated with their accounts via these incorrect groupings.
The Resolution: PINES staff identified groups for patron accounts created between 4/12/2011 (the date of the 1.6.1.8 upgrade) and 5/10/2011 (the date when the problem creating the mis-grouping was fixed) who shared a group with patron accounts created before 4/12/2011. We then updated the group ID for all of the older patrons so they would no longer be associated with the newer patrons.
Expected Residual Problems: There may be older patron accounts that were legitimately grouped with other patron accounts that have lost that group link. However, since most, if not all, of the accounts to which we reassigned group IDs were created before Evergreen (and therefore, before patron groups existed), we do not anticipate problems.
Issue #3: Out of Balance Patron Billings Display Issue
Background: In Evergreen 1.6.1.8 and before, it was possible for billings to be paid and for the transaction not to be closed properly, which created a problem with the billing display, making the total amount owed not match the total of the listed billings. In the past, PINES staff have corrected these manually, one at a time.
The Problem: With the billing structure change in the upgrade to Evergreen 2.1.1, more of these types of billings were resurrected in the display, again causing the patron bills to appear out of balance. Please note that these are bills that would have already been paid, but Evergreen was displaying them in such a way that it appeared that the patron owed more than they actually did.
The Resolution: Equinox Software identified the billings that were affected by this issue and performed a batch "forgive" of these billings at the request of PINES staff. Each affected billing appears in the patron payment history with the note "Forgive payment to clear balances on closed transactions after upgrade to 2.1.1".
Expected Residual Problems: An unintended consequence of this problem is that for libraries who use Unique Management Services, the bills that were forgiven were automatically detected by Unique and were appearing on account statements. PINES staff have provided Unique Management Services with a list of accounts affected by this batch process, and Unique has assured us that these actions will be excluded from any charges to the libraries.