Soprano has developed a lot over this past year, with many new features and functional areas being added to the application. We’ve been very successful in adding these new features in without impacting the existing Alto application (the one on your desktop). We have done this through releasing new content in the Local Data Services (LDS) in a manner which does not break existing applications.

Each new Soprano feature is typically dependent upon features released in preceding LDS versions, so many of the new Soprano features can simple be enabled where LDS is already up-to-date. The following table shows the LMS/LDS version dependency and the related Soprano features.

Alto / LMS Version	LDS Version	Soprano Feature Area
5.8	2.4	Item request, Rotation plans, Circulation defect fixes, Till defect fixes
5.8	2.3	Acquisitions improvements, Cataloguing improvements, Reservation Shelf Support, Borrower Notifications
5.8	2.2	Tills, ILLs, Acquisitions improvements
5.8	2.1	Subscriptions, Acquisitions, Receipting, ILLs
5.7	2.0	Operator Audit Trail, Operator Password Update, Borrower Messages, Transiting, Circulation defect fixes, Cataloguing defect fixes.
5.6.1	1.10	Cataloguing.

Capita have pledged to support the current and previous versions of our applications, and have done this to help encourage all our customers to receive all the latest software fixes, patches and new features, and also ensure application development is efficient through deprecation of old code that is no longer required.

One new feature within Soprano that is being developed at the moment is the ability to see and override exceptional circumstances while issuing, renewing or returning library stock. At present, all customer’s versions (known as tenancies) are configured with a default set of overrides, and if the operator has permission to apply these overrides, they are automatically applied. This is changing, so that the operator is asked to approve any override, giving visibility of the overrides being applied and assisting the librarian’s choice of whether applying the override is the right thing to do.

The complexity of this change means it is time to remove support for LDS 1.x – that’s any version of LDS 1 – from the issue, renew and return features of Soprano.

If you are using Soprano and have LMS version 5.7 or LMS version 5.8, you will be unaffected by this change and do not need to take any action. Soprano will continue to support LDS versions appropriate for the supported LMS releases.

If you are running LMS version 5.6.1 or older, you will need to upgrade to at least LMS 5.7 in order to retain the functionality in Soprano to issue, renew and return library stock.

If you are unsure which version of the LMS you are running, this can be seen at the top of the Alto application, as shown here:

We intend to release the version of Soprano which no longer supports LDS 1.x near the beginning of September 2016. Please ensure that you are running a minimum of LMS 5.7 and LDS 2.0 before September 2016. If you have any questions, please raise a support case through the support portal or contact your account manager.

We’re pleased to announce that the next release of Soprano is now available for preview.

This release includes:

• Item Query
• Search for borrower by institution ID
• Inter-library loans lists most recent first
• Reservations Pick List sort order
• Funds fixes
• Performance improvements

 

Item Query

This feature becomes available with LDS version 2.4 and higher. LDS version 2.4 is now available – please open a Support case to request your upgrade.

You can now open, view, edit and close queries on items, subject to appropriate enablements.

To open a new query on an item a new button OPEN QUERY is provided in the Item header. It opens a form enabling you to select the query type and optionally enter a note.

When the query is saved the item status is automatically changed to Query.  The query is displayed as the item state in the item header, with the option (pencil control) to edit it. If you have the environment variable (in Alto SetConfig) TAL_QUERY_FINESTOP=YES then any potential fine is fixed by storing it with the query details.

In the work holdings list the STATUS and AVAILABILITY columns indicate the presence of the query.

When an Item with a query is not on loan you can close the query with a CLOSE QUERY button.

In Return Items when you return an item with a query the transaction outcome displays an action button CLOSE QUERY, indicating the presence of the query and taking you to the Item Detail page where you can view more detail about the query and close it. The message in the return item transaction outcome tells you of any fine due, including a fine that has been stored with the query.

 

Search for borrower by institution ID

You can now retrieve a borrower’s details by searching with their institution ID. This is in addition to the existing ways of searching  for a borrower, by name, barcode, postcode, date of birth and email address.

 

Inter-library loans lists most recent first

In the Inter-library loans module, accessed via Tasks, lists of ILLs (all, or filtered) are now sorted with the most recent first.

 

Reservations Pick List sort order

We’ve overhauled the sorting of items by shelfmark in the Reservations Pick List and this fixes an issue with the sorting of a shelfmark with a class number that has no decimal places relative to those with the same number with decimal places.

 

Funds fixes

Some issues with funds are fixed in this release:

• Action buttons (Add Money, Transfer Money, View Orders, View Open Orders) now display when the Transfers tab is selected on a fund
  
• When transferring money between funds the Allocation amounts now always show two decimal places.

• When you press the button to Add Money to a fund, the fund you were viewing is now automatically selected from the drop down list of funds.

 

Performance improvements

We’ve made some performance improvements in loading the Orders page under Purchasing, and in the Tills area.

 

Local Data Services (LDS)

To benefit from the features in this and the previous release you will need the latest version of the Local Data Services (LDS), which is now 2.4. That, in turn, requires that you have Alto 5.8. If you need to upgrade, please open a Support case. Please note that Soprano will cease support for LDS 1.x soon.

 

To preview this release

You can preview this release by inserting ‘-demo’ into your tenancy URL after the word ‘soprano’: https://soprano-demo.librarymanagementcloud.co.uk/{your tenancy name}. Please remember that it accesses your live data.

 

Release to the live service

This version of Soprano will be released to the live service on Thursday 21st July 2016.

 

Comments and contact

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions please get in touch. You can comment here on the blog, in the Soprano Forum, or contact your Account Manager. To suggest and discuss additional features there is the Soprano Ideas Forum.

 

 

We’re pleased to announce that the next release of Soprano is now available for preview.

This release includes:

• Transit in Return Items
• Add a miscellaneous charge to a borrower
• Borrower Charges details
• View Borrower Notifications
• Borrower exception alerts separated
• Borrower Reservations queue position
• Managing reservation shelves
• Item Messages
• RFID scanning for Issue and Return
• Issue In Stock Items only
• Link to newly created borrower
• Inter-library loans
• Link to Open Orders from Fund
• Listing base funds and base suppliers only
• Receipt items at branch
• Edit Supplier
• Circulation fixes
• Acquisitions fixes

 

Transit in Return Items

This applies, in Return Items, to items whose home site is elsewhere and those that are due for stock rotation to a site other than the current site. It does not apply to reserved items – for them, the Process Reservations button is given, regardless of the collection site of the first reservation in the queue; transiting, if required, is managed within the Process Reservations page.

A new check-box option, Auto-transit, in the Admin Console > {tenancy} > Interface, is set on by default. It controls the automatic setting of an item to in-transit when it is returned. When you return an item whose home site is elsewhere, the item is automatically put in transit in the database, a message send to home site {name of home site} is given and a button RE-HOME AT THIS SITE is given, allowing you to counter the automatic action if required. It takes you to the Item detail page where you can press the CANCEL TRANSIT button which removes the transit and changes the item’s home site to the current site.

When you return an item that is due for stock rotation to a site other than your current site, the item is automatically put in transit for stock rotation in the database, a message send to {name of home site} for stock rotation is given and the button RE-HOME AT THIS SITE is given.

When the Auto-transit option in the Admin Console is set off, the behaviour is neutral – the operator must choose whether to re-home or transit an item that belongs elsewhere. The CHANGE HOME SITE button is given, indicating that your current site is not the item’s home site. You can go to the item by either pressing the button or clicking on the item description, and then you can either transit the item with the TRANSIT button, or edit the home site.

 

Add a miscellaneous charge to a borrower

Soprano now allows miscellaneous charges to be added to borrower accounts. To add a charge, on the borrower detail page select the Current Charges tab. A new button appears at the top of the list of charges: Add Charge.

When you select the Add Charge button, a pop-up displays prompting you to enter the amount of the charge and a note explaining what the charge is for.

Both the Charge Amount and the Charge Note fields are mandatory. Once you click the Add Charge button the form closes and the charge appears in the list of current charges and a confirmation message is displayed in the borrower header.

 

Borrower Charges details

More detail about a borrower’s current charges has been provided to help the operator explain a fine to a user. The action that triggered the fine is now given more precisely (Returned or Renewed) below the date the fine was accrued. The time has been added to the date. Under the type of charge, where it is a Fine, the due date and time is now provided in addition to the number of days overdue.

 

View borrower notifications

A new tab for a borrower, Notifications, allows you to see the list of notifications for that borrower. You can filter the list by Status (All, Active, Sent, Failed) and by Type (All, Routine, Marketing, Ad hoc).

Selecting a notification from the list displays the detailed view of that notification, in place of the list under the tab. A breadcrumb trail or the browser Back button allows you to return to the list. The detailed view includes a Content Preview, and a button enables you to open the full document.

 

Borrower exception alerts separated

Alerts to exceptions on a borrower are now displayed separately in the borrower header rather than in a stack on the borrower image. The illustration shows, from left to right: borrower account expires soon; owes £3.50; has one forced message; has two other messages; has 2 reservations ready to be collected; and has one overdue loan. The alert to expiring soon is new.

 

Borrower reservations queue position

The queue position is now shown in a borrower’s reservations list. It also indicates when the item is waiting collection.

 

Managing reservation shelves

Soprano now presents a reservation shelf as a reservation shelf rather than as a borrower (it remains a borrower in the database).

In Tasks, a new option allows you to open the reservation shelf for the site where you are signed in.

By default it is filtered to items that are due to be removed: those where the expiry date or last useful date is in the past, or whose status is Cancelled or Uncollected. In the Filter option at the top of the page you can opt to view all items on the reservation shelf.

The Expires column shows the soonest of either the date the item is due to expire from the reservation shelf or the last useful date of the reservation.

The Remove button on each item allows you to update the data to reflect the physical action of removing the item from the reservation shelf. It returns the item from loan to the reservation shelf and, if the  reservation status is Waiting collection, changes that to Uncollected. You can remove any item from the reservation shelf, not only those where removal is due. On pressing Remove, the item is removed from the list and a success message is displayed at the top of the page giving the title, author and item barcode, which has a link to the Item page.

The Item page for an item on a reservation shelf has an alert to that fact, and an alert linking to the reservation on the reserving borrower’s page.

 

Item Messages

Standard item messages can now be viewed, added and deleted from the Item detail Notes tab in the same way that borrower messages can.

Ad-hoc messages can be added, edited (using the pencil control) or deleted (using the bin control).

 

RFID scanning for Issue and Return

Soprano communicates with RFID scanners via the Soprano Wrapper for Windows, which you can download together with the release notes from the Customer Support Portal.

In this release we’ve added:

• Support for 2CQR RFID scanners
• Interacting with the security header on tags that use AFI/AES security (including 3M and 2CQR) to unlock and lock them in Issue and Return respectively
• Handling of multi-tag item sets: detecting that an RFID tag represents an item that is part of a set.

If an incomplete set is present Soprano continues with the transaction, displaying information about how many items were found and alerting to the missing items.

 

Issue In stock items only

The Issue button now appears on the Item page only when the Item Status is In Stock.

 

Link to newly created borrower

When a new borrower is created the success message pop-up now includes a link to the borrower’s detail page, making it easy to go to the new record to perform updates and transactions.

 

Inter-library loans

The Tasks page can now include Inter Library Loans options. To activate it, please refer to the Local data Services (LDS) section below, and contact your Account Manager.

The two options, Manage ILL Requests and Manage Prism ILL Requests both take you to the list of your Inter-Library Loans, the second option filtered to unverified i.e. Pending status requests, enabling you to focus on requests submitted via Prism.

You can search by Request number, filter to only verified requests or only unverified requests, and you can filter to requests with specific statuses – select one or more statuses from the drop-down menu in the Filter By Status box. The Requester and Work for each request are linked to the Borrower and Work pages respectively. The Request Number opens the new ILL Request detail page, which currently allows you to view the details, navigate to the Work or Requester, or cancel the request.

The Supplier in the ILL list links to the new ILL Supplier detail page, which currently allows you to view the details and to list your ILLs filtered to that supplier.

A new tab, ILLs, lists the ILL requests for a Borrower and a Work, with links to the ILL Request detail, the Work or Requester, and the Supplier. The list can show all ILL requests or be filtered to active requests.

 

Link to Open Orders from Fund

In addition to a View Orders button, The Fund Detail page now includes a View Open Orders button, giving you a list of Open Orders filtered by the fund.

 

Listing Base Funds and Base Suppliers only

When you filter by Supplier in Orders and Subscriptions, and when you filter by Fund in Orders, the list gives base suppliers or base funds only. Similarly, only base funds or base suppliers are listed in the relevant drop-down menus in Create Order.

 

Receipt items at branch

To enable receipting new stock at the home library, a Receipt button now displays on the Item detail page when Item Status is either Order Sent, Order Pending or Part Complete, the Item has a barcode and the Operator is signed in to the Item Home Site.

Edit Supplier

With appropriate enablements, you can now edit the details in the supplier header and addresses.

 

Circulation fixes

• The borrower charges alert is now displayed when a hire item with a hire charge is issued
• Performance in loading parts of the borrower page and tabs has been improved
• The focus in Process Reservations is now in the input box, which means that you no longer have to select the input box each time before you can enter the next barcode.

 

Acquisitions fixes

• The View Orders button on Funds and Suppliers now gives all related orders rather than only active orders
• In Create Supplier a number of fields are no longer mandatory. You can now quickly create a supplier with just a Code and Order Type, and complete it later. The form also now includes Contact Name and Account Code
• Supplier postal address, Email, Phone and Order method fields now display data correctly.

 

Local Data Services (LDS)

To benefit from most of the features in this release notice, including all the new ones, you will need the latest version of the Local Data Services (LDS): version 2.3. That, in turn, requires that you have Alto 5.8. If you need to upgrade, please open a Support case.

 

To preview this release

You can preview this release by inserting ‘-demo’ into your tenancy URL after the word ‘soprano’: https://soprano-demo.librarymanagementcloud.co.uk/{your tenancy name}. Please remember that it accesses you live data.

 

Release to the live service

This version of Soprano will be released to the live service on Wednesday 6th July 2016.

 

Comments and contact

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions please get in touch. You can comment here on the blog, in the Soprano Forum, or contact your Account Manager. To suggest and discuss additional features there is the Soprano Ideas Forum.

We’re pleased to announce that the version of Soprano that has been in preview recently has now been released to the live service. Details of the inclusions are described in the preview release notice.

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions please get in touch. You can comment here on the Soprano blog, on the Soprano forum and Soprano Ideas or contact your Account Manager or the Soprano team directly.

We’re pleased to announce that the next release of Soprano is now available for preview.

This release includes:

• Till functionality
• Serial holdings enhancements
• Create Supplier
• Acquisitions fixes
• Recently viewed Borrowers and Works
• Process Reservations focus in the input box
• Search information display in the browser tab
• More exception alerts

 

Till functionality

The Till functionality is an integrated till interface which records the amounts and methods of payment used to pay for library charges and products. To have the Till functionality enabled, please open a Support case.

To connect to a till and receipt printer you’ll need to have the Soprano Wrapper for Windows installed on the relevant machines. The Wrapper provides the hardware link to enable the printing of receipts and the opening of the till drawer. You can download the Wrapper and the release notes from the Customer Support Portal.

Access to different aspects of the till, such as Banking, Cash up, Define float and Refunding, are controlled through the enablements.

This new feature includes:

• Accessing the till
• Recording an audit trail
• Paying library charges
• Paying for products
• Carrying out a refund by till transaction id or product
• Setting the float
• Viewing the till roll
• Cashing up and reconciling the contents of the till
• Generating an X report

Accessing the till

To use the till requires:

• The LDS has to be at version 2.2, which requires you have Alto 5.8
• Parameters relating to the till need to be configured in SetConfig
• The till functionality has to have been enabled by Capita in the tenancy
• A printer to be accessible by the PC being used, set up in Windows printers and faxes
• The setup program TillSetup.exe has to have been run on the PC to record in the database the detail of the till configuration and the site it belongs to
• To open the till drawer and print the receipts without going through a Windows dialog, the Soprano windows wrapper has to have been installed.

The first time you access the till, the system it will ask you to choose the till you wish to access. Only tills for the location you are logged in at will display. You can re-access this configuration at any time using the CONFIGURE button. Access to this can be switched off using the operator’s Utilities enablement in Alto SetConfig.

Recording an audit trail

The environment variable TILL_ OPERATOR_PROMPT = YES requires till users to authenticate before the till can be opened. These logins need to be defined in SetConfig: Names > Operators > Operator, and the passwords created in the Operators tab. This is to ensure that the passwords are secure. The operator needs to be associated with the appropriate site profile and a set of enablements which can access the till interface in SetConfig > Enablements Link.
Paying library charges

Under the Borrower > Current Charges tab, when a till is enabled, you can waive but not pay individual charges. Clicking on the PAY button beside the Current Outstanding Total carries all the charges into the till interface. (The operator may need to authenticate at this point if the TILL_OPERATOR_PROMPT environment variable is set.) From here individual charges may be removed if they are not to be paid.

If a part payment is to be made then the Price field can be amended to reflect this on specific charges.
Click the Pay button to proceed to the Make Payment page.

The Till option in the blue navigation bar shows the number of items in the till. The amount buttons (now with fixed values on i.e. not matching the parameters in SetConfig) or the keypad on the right are used to record the amount tendered. Then choose the method of payment from the list on the left – it will default to cash (reflecting the parameters in SetConfig). Click the tick button when you are ready to proceed. It will not proceed unless the amount you entered is equal to or higher than the Amount Due.

The system opens the till draw, where configured, displays the Change due and provides the option to print a receipt.

Clicking or tapping the DONE button returns the user to the till or requests authentication. The user can navigate away to another area of Soprano or authenticate again if needed to use the till.

Paying for products

Where someone wants to purchase something, you can click/tap the Till option in the navigation bar to bring up the till. (You may need to authenticate if the TILL_OPERATOR_PROMPT environment variable is set.) The quick products buttons on the left will reflect those set up in the parameters except for products that prompt for information. Other products can be found using the search box. For products where details need to be entered, fields are displayed.

Once the fields have been populated, click/tap the ADD button to move the item into the till for payment.

Carrying out a refund by till transaction id or product

In the till page if you select the Refund button, you can either search for a product or enter a Transaction till receipt id to access an existing receipt.

You need to select a refund reason from the drop down and then choose how the refund is to be carried out, such as cash or credit card, before clicking the REFUND button. The system will display the amount of refund due and open the till and offer an option to print a receipt.

Setting the float

When the till is accessed for the first time and after cashing up you are prompted to enter the amount of the float. You will not be able to access the till functionality until the float has been entered.

Viewing the till roll

At the foot of the Till page there is a button for accessing and printing the till roll for the current session.

Cashing up and reconciling the contents of the till

Only people who are enabled to access this functionality will see the CASH UP button. Where the till is shared by a number of users, the person cashing up needs to check that other users have finished with it and then click on the CASH UP button. This records the expected amounts in the database and locks the till.

The system shows the Z report, which can be printed and lists the methods of payment that are enabled in the system showing the EXPECTED totals. At this point you might count the money, check/amend the ACTUAL amount and then click/tap SAVE COUNTED TOTALS to save the actual amounts in the database. Alternatively, if someone else is due to count the money then click/tap the COUNT LATER button.

When you are ready to count the money, where the counting has been deferred you need to access the till and click/tap the Z-REPORTS button. The system displays a list of incomplete reports for the location you are logged in at.

Click or tap on the required Z report to check/amend the expected amounts. Click or tap on SAVE COUNTED TOTALS when you’ve finished.

Generating an X report

You need to have enablements set to see the X-REPORT button. Provided you have access, clicking on it displays the X report and a button to print it.

 

Serial holdings enhancements

Serial issues displayed under the Holdings tab of a Work can now be filtered by Location (i.e. delivery site), Year, Volume and/or Issue.
Expected issues now appear, if they exist. You can use the new Receipt Issues button to check in issues if you have the necessary enablement. You can also add new issues by specifying a year, volume, issue and/or number and clicking Create Issue.
The Issue column now displays between Volume and Number rather than before Year.

Create Supplier

The Suppliers page now has a Create Supplier button next to the search box. This gives you a form for entering the supplier’s name and address, default discount and service etc. There are buttons for selecting how orders are sent to this supplier. The options are Post, EDI or Do Not Send. Clicking EDI brings up a field for entering the supplier’s Global Location Number (GLN, formerly known as an ANA number).

Acquisitions fixes

Various corrections have been made to terminology in the Purchasing area. For example, the buttons on the Fund page for adding money to a fund and transferring money between funds have been changed from Add Funds and Transfer Funds to Add Money and Transfer Money to avoid confusion. Some of the text on the pages for these functions has been amended.
On the Supplier detail page the Orders and Open Orders buttons are now View Orders and View Open Orders for consistency.
Please note: changes to existing text is already live as well as in preview

Recently Viewed Borrowers and Works

We’ve improved the performance of fetching recently viewed Borrowers and Works. Alongside that, we’ve changed the behaviour of the display. Soprano now displays only the latest 12 recently viewed borrowers and works. The paging has been removed and the number of items shown is no longer governed by the Maximum Search Results Per Page parameter in the Admin Console. We’ve also fixed issues involving duplicate or missing entries.

Process Reservations focus in the input box

The cursor focus is now automatically in the input box when you are on the Process Reservations input page, either arriving from selecting the option in Tasks, or after processing the previous reserved item. This means you can simply scan the next item to get its reservations without having to select the input box each time.

Search information display in browser tab

The search query is now displayed in the browser tab for a page of search results. This allows you to see at a glance which browser tab you want when you have multiple tabs open with different Soprano pages.

More exception alerts

In Issue, the Borrow record now shows alerts to both reservations waiting collection  and forced messages  . Previously if there was a reservation waiting collection alert, the forced message one was suppressed. The alerts also now show in Return items.

 

To preview this release

You can preview this release by inserting ‘-demo’ into your tenancy URL after the word ‘soprano’: https://soprano-demo.librarymanagementcloud.co.uk/{your tenancy name}. Please remember that it accesses you live data.

Release to the live service

This version of Soprano will be released to the live service on Monday 25th April 2016.

Comments and contact

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions please get in touch. You can comment here on the blog, in the Soprano Forum, or contact your Account Manager. To suggest and discuss additional features there is the Soprano Ideas Forum.

We’re pleased to announce that the version of Soprano that has been in preview recently has now been released to the live service. Details of the inclusions are described in the preview release notice.

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions please get in touch. You can comment here on the Soprano blog, on the Soprano forum and Soprano Ideas or contact your Account Manager or the Soprano team directly.

We’re pleased to announce that the next release of Soprano is now available for preview.

This release delivers some Circulation features and further development of the Acquisitions module, which we are currently testing and refining in collaboration with a few libraries prior to making it generally available.

This release includes:

Acquisitions

• Receipting Orders
• Filter the Orders list by more Types
• Create an Order from scratch
• Invoice totals
• Pay an Invoice
• Open Order Subscriptions – Add new, and Edit
• View and Create Open Orders from Work
• Add money to a fund and Transfer money between funds
• Supplier detail page
• Acquisitions display and enablements fixes

Circulation

• Borrower analysis, interest and courses
• Editable borrower name style
• Reservation last useful date display
• Offline duration extended
• Miscellaneous fixes

Receipting Orders
In Tasks a new option, Receive, is available to operators who are enabled to receipt items either in Circulate Item or in Acquisitions Order Item. So it can be used for receipting stock that has been delivered either direct to branch or to a central location.
<Image: Tasks – Receive option>

It stays on the same page allowing you to scan multiple items to receipt them quickly. An outcome row is displayed for each item including any action required, such as when the Item Home Site is not the current site. Outcome rows remain on the page with the latest at the top, so that you can refer back and take action as needed. The status of Items is changed to the value defined in the environment variable  TAL_RECEIPT_STATUS in SetConfig, giving the same behaviour as in Alto.

There is also a new button, Receive, against items at Order sent status in the Items list for an Order in Purchasing > Orders. This performs the same receipting action.

Filter the Orders list by more Types
Two more Order Types have been added to the filter options in the Orders list. All allows you to list Orders of all types. Part Complete allows you to list Orders where some but not all copies have been received.

Create an Order from scratch
The Orders page now has a Create Order button next to the search box so that you can create an order without having to find the Work under Resources first. The new button gives you a form where you can search for a Work in a similar way to the Create Work form – it searches both the local catalogue and Base by ISBN or other identifier.  If a record is found, the Create Order form is displayed with the Work at the top. Alternatively, a Create Work button is also provided, giving you the Create Work form to add a new Work prior to creating your Order.

Invoice totals
The Invoice detail page has two new fields in the header: Total value and Total paid, allowing you to see at a glance whether the the invoice has been fully paid.

Pay an invoice
The Invoice detail page now includes a button allowing you to Pay the invoice when appropriate. When an invoice is paid you can undo it with an Undo Pay button. A Completed button is also provided, allowing you to indicate the end of the invoice process.

Open Order Subscriptions – Add new, and Edit
The list of Subscriptions under an Open Order now has a pencil edit control on each row, which opens an edit form in situ. This allows you to edit any of the fields, selecting from menus where appropriate, including the ability to add or remove funds and to adjust the percentage distribution to each fund. An alert is given when you try to save a subscription where the fund distributions do not add up to 100%. You can also change the status of the Subscription to Cancelled or Closed.

At the foot of the list is a new button, Add New Subscription. This adds a new row to the list as an empty edit form for you to fill in.

View and Create Open Orders from Work
For serial Works there is a new tab, Open Orders, giving  a list of the Open Orders for the serial. You can click/tap the order number in any row to navigate to the detail page of the selected Open Order. You can also click/tap a fund to navigate to the detail page of the selected Fund.
<Image: Open Orders tab under Work>

At the top of the list is a button to Create a new Open Order for the Work. This gives a new page with a form to enter core details for an Open Order. After pressing the Create button the Open Order is created with a single Subscription;  the Work is re-displayed at the Open Orders tab and the new Open Order at the top of the list. select the Open Order number to go to the Open Order detail page where you can edit the Subscription and add more.

Add money to a fund and Transfer money between funds
Two new buttons on the right of the Fund header open forms enabling you to add money to a fund or to transfer money between funds.

In the form to add money you specify the amount to be added and select the fund from a menu. The before and after allocation on the fund is dynamically displayed. After successfully adding money to a fund the empty form is displayed enabling you to make another addition.

In the form to transfer money between funds, you can specify both the source and destination funds. When you enter the amount to transfer a warning is displayed if it takes the source fund below the currently committed level. After a successful transfer the empty form is displayed enabling you to make another transfer.

Supplier detail page
In Purchasing, you can now select a row from the list of suppliers to view the detail of a supplier. It includes buttons allowing you to view the Orders and Open Orders that have been placed with the supplier.

Acquisitions display and enablements fixes
Various terminology corrections and improvements have been made throughout the Purchasing area of Soprano. Two of the more noticeable ones are:

In the Funds column of the Orders list funds are now displayed in the same colour as the rest of the row rather than in blue, to avoid drawing undue attention.

The name Supplier Quotes on the button to Filter by Type and in the list heading has been replaced by Proposed Orders on the button and Orders in the heading.

Please note: changes to existing texts are already live as well as in preview.

Acquisitions features have been reviewed to ensure they are available only when the operator has appropriate enablements (configured in SetConfig).

Borrower analysis, interest and courses
In Borrower > Information > Membership there are four new fields: Primary Course, Other Courses, Interests and Analyses.

Primary Course has been moved from the Borrower Header. Other Courses allows you to select multiple other courses that the borrower is on. In both fields you select from a menu of course names as defined by the library in Alto SetConfig > Parameter Management > Names > Circulation > Course Types.

The Interests and Analyses fields each allow you to select multiple values from menus of interest and analysis names as defined by the library in Alto SetConfig > Parameter Management > Names > Circulation > Borrower Interest / Borrower Analysis.

In the multi-select fields you click/tap in the field to open the menu. The list is filtered as you type to matches on any word in a name. An ‘x’ control allows individual selections to be removed.

Editable borrower name style
The edit form for the borrower header information now includes a Title field where you select from a menu of name styles as defined by the library in Alto SetConfig > Parameter Management > Names > Circulation > Borrower Styles.

Reservation last useful date display
Lists of reservations under Borrower, Work and Item now have a Last Useful column and the date is emphasised when it is in the past.

Offline duration extended
Soprano Offline has a time-out after which it must be refreshed by an online connection. This period has been seven hours. It has now been extended to 24 hours, which means that  you could  pick up at the start of the day a device that has Soprano Offline in a browser that was last online at the end of the previous day and start using it, for example on a mobile library, or on housebound user visits, or at an event signing up new users.

Miscellaneous fixes
* The Borrower Joined Date is no longer changed when you change the Expiry date
* The Manual return date setting now remains in place as items are returned until the operator leaves the page

 

To preview this release
You can preview this release by inserting ‘-demo’ into your tenancy URL after the word ‘soprano’: https://soprano-demo.librarymanagementcloud.co.uk/{your tenancy name}. Please remember that it accesses you live data.

Release to the live service
This version of Soprano will be released to the live service on Wednesday 23rd March 2016.

Comments and contact
If you have any comments, questions or suggestions please get in touch. You can comment here on the blog, in the Soprano Forum, or contact your Account Manager. To suggest and discuss additional features there is the Soprano Ideas Forum.

 

We’re pleased to announce that the version of Soprano that has been in preview recently has now been released to the live service. Details of the inclusions are described in the preview release notice.

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions please get in touch. You can comment on the Soprano blog, on the Soprano forum and Soprano Ideas or contact your Account Manager or the Soprano team directly.