Enhancements for the Search Expansion Service

This service was first introduced in the August 2017 release. It expands searches with words and phrases that constitute variations of the search term with the same meaning and thereby increases the accuracy of the user’s search. With this release, we are extending the service to also work with local data that institutions index in Primo, such as from local catalogs. Previously, it only expanded the search to Primo Central. We also enhanced the display to highlight search terms coming from the expansion service in the user’s search results. Furthermore, we added the expansion to the classic Primo UI, which will be available after February 6, 2018. Previously, it was only available for the new Primo UI.

Title Search Enhancement

The title search was changed to treat the ampersand character (&) and the word and the same in phrase searches. Previously, the ampersand was parsed out as a special character, which could lead to issues with known item searches-for example, short journal title searches such as Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Import Saved Searches to New Primo UI

This enhancement supports the automatic migration of searches saved in the classic Primo UI to the new Primo UI.

Support for User Data Deletion in Multitenant Environments

This enhancement enables multitenant customers with Admin permissions to delete inactive or expired users' data at the institution level. To support this functionality, the Cleanup Expired/Inactive Users' Data page (Primo Home > Primo Utilities > Cleanup Procedures > Cleanup Expired/Inactive Users' Data) page has been enabled. For more information, see Cleaning Up User Data.

Disable Classic UI

To help in the migration to the new Primo Ui, the following options have been added under the New Ui Migration section in the Institution Wizard (Primo Home > Ongoing Configuration Wizards > Institution Wizard):

• Disable the classic interface – When selected, this option prevents users from accessing the classic UI and the system redirects URLs used in the classic UI (except for URLs to deep links and the Services page) to the home page of the new UI.

• Display new UI link in classic UI – When selected, this option displays a link to the new Primo UI from the classic UI to allow users to try the new UI during the migration from the classic UI.

Enhanced Primo REST API Suite

The Primo REST API Suite provides access to Primo search capabilities and enriched results as used by new Primo interface and enables library developers to extend the search experience and functionalities. The following APIs have been added to support the new Primo UI:

• Primo Search

• Primo Configuration

• Primo Translations

• Primo JWT

API Documentation can be found in Primo Developer Network  with the option to use "Try it now" to call the API and get started using code samples.

Ongoing Accessibility Improvements in the New UI

With this release we focused on improving product accessibility to make it comply with the standard of WCAG 2.0 AA level. With the consultation of an external accessibility company, we resolved more than 40 issues. The following highlight the types of changes we made for this release:

• Removed all of the unnecessary alternate text and unsupported ARIA label attributes that are not announced by the screen reader.

• Ensured that a hierarchical heading structure is used on all pages and that there is consistent navigation throughout the site by using “skip to” links.

• Fixed element focus issues by placing the focus on the last interactive element upon opening and closing objects. For example:

  • When closing the Full Display dialog for a specific record, the focus will remain on the last record clicked in the brief results.

  • When closing a dialog box that was opened by clicking more in the Main Menu, the focus will remain on the more element.

• In the following cases, we added indications for patrons using screen readers: 

  • Provided indication when users were logged in or out, and provided alerts for incorrect passwords/user names in the Login dialog box.

  • Provided indication on buttons for external links to ensure that users know that links open in a new window (for example, “Online Access, opens in a new window").

  • Provided indication for Expandable/collapsible sections (such as facets in “Tweak my results” and tabs in the Action List panel).

• Fixed issues with insufficient color contrast for text and aligned the contrast of the foreground and background colors to AA levels for the following elements: buttons, links, and descriptions. These changes occurred in Main menu buttons, Show more link, Save query link, Personalize link, Check holdings link, and so forth.

• Fixed keyboard behavior for the Actions List panel and allowed navigation using tabs instead of arrows. Each action is now a correctly-labeled button, which provides an indication that it expands/collapses or opens in a new window.

We are continuously working to improve the product's accessibility and adhere to the WCAG accessibility standards.

Feedback Messages

This enhancement provides informational messages to indicate when system limits have been reached and also includes suggestions to resolve these limits. The following messages have been added to the Error Messages code table. For more details and up to date information, see Feedback Messages in the New UI.

Peer Review Icons

This enhancement increases the visibility and accessibility of peer-reviewed documents by replacing the text-only indication with a more visible icon.

Tag Management in Multitenant Environments

The Tags and Reviews page (Primo Home > Advanced Configuration > Tags Management) is now accessible at the institution level, allowing staff users in multitenant environments to view and manage the tags that have been created by Primo users. If a tag is inappropriate, staff users (Admin role) have the ability to remove it from the system. In addition, staff users can now search for tags based on creation date. For more details, see Tags and Reviews.

Support for UDC Call Numbers

This enhancement to the browse functionality returns a list of records based on the specified UDC call number.

The following figure shows an example of the alphabetical list returned from a UDC call number browse. Users can then click an item in the list to open the record's full display.

Session Timeout for Signed-In Users

Previously, session timeouts were made configurable for guest users at the view level. This enhancement adds the ability to configure session timeouts at the view level for signed-in users. The default value is 30 minutes. If the session times out due to inactivity, the system will continue to display the current page and upon the user's next action, the system will sign the user out, refresh and display Primo's home page, and prompt the user to sign in.