lib-ir: dspace bugs

["JQ Johnson" <jqj@darkwing.uoregon.edu>]

Here's a useful summary message of one sysadmin's experiences with the
current dspace.  A couple of his bugs have been fixed in our version.  The
rest are still outstanding.

From: "Richard Jones" <rjones@SRV4.LIB.ED.AC.UK>
Organization: Library Server
To: dspace-tech@lists.sourceforge.net
Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2003 15:05:36 +0100
Reply-to: r.d.jones@ed.ac.uk
Subject: [Dspace-tech] Bug reports and Feature suggestions for v1.1

Dear All,

After some testing I have compiled a list of problems that I have
encountered using DSpace v1.1 - some are quite big problems,
others are just little things that would be nice to have fixed.  I have
also added a list of features that I would be interested in people's
opinions on.

Bugs (in no particular order):

1.	At the moment you can't submit anything to any collection,
except if you're the administrator, even if you have explicitly set the
permissions (I believe this has been noted already).

2.	If you don't fill in the Introductory text when creating
communities or collections, it is assigned to "null", which then
appears on the front page when you view that collection.

3.	There are no warnings generated when you fail to fill in a
required field (eg Author or Title), the page simply doesn't submit.

4.	DSpace administrators may set up workflows such that they
can submit and approve their own work.

5.	In DSpace v1.0.1 it was possible to alter permissions whilst a
submission was in progress such that write permission was
granted at the start, but is denied at the end.

6.	It is not possible to delete collections.

7.	Create Item Template in Create Collections does not work - an
error is generated, but something is written into the database as
the collection will then claim that it has an item template.

8.	Adding an EPerson with the same email address as a current
EPerson creates a new account with the name newuser(x) (x =
number).  It does not alert the user to a problem.

9.	It is possible to bypass the restriction on creating multiple
accounts for yourself if you are the DSpace administrator, by
making up email addresses that will bounce the token email back
to you, which you can then use to login as someone else.


Features:

1.	A good way of using the advanced policy administration tool is
desperately needed.  Currently there is no way to see what policies
you have applied (without going direct to the database via a
terminal).

2.	Being able to search groups for epersons would make
administration of larger systems much easier.

3.	It would be good to see the entire item record before accepting
a task from the pool at any workflow step.

4.	Group names that are autoassigned are done so with unhelpful
names (eg COLLECTION_23_WFSTEP_2), it would be better if
their name pertained to their purpose (eg <Community
Name>/<Collection Name>/<workflow step>) automatically.

5.	It would be better if collections that you are not permitted to
submit to do not appear in the select box of collections at the start
of the submission process, rather than one's you are not permitted
to use rejecting you on selection.

6.	It would be very nice if we could choose the number of levels of
the heirarchy we use, rather than being forced to use just
communities and collections.

7.	A workspace for collaboration on items would be excellent.


Hope this is useful/informative.

It has gone very quiet on this list recently - has everyone gone on
holiday? ;)

Cheers

Richard


Richard Jones
-------------------------------------
Systems Developer (Online Services)
Theses Alive! - www.thesesalive.ac.uk
Edinburgh University Library
r.d.jones@ed.ac.uk
0131 651 1611