April 2002 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Release Notes for the General Release of ERL Server v5.03 for Windows =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ========================= About these Release Notes ========================= These Release Notes should be read together with the Beta Draft of the ERL Administrator's Manual, which is available in PDF format on the ftp site: ftp.silverplatter.com/secured/nt/erl5mn.pdf and the LinkWizard User's Guide, which is available at: ftp.silverplatter.com/secured/nt/linkwizard.pdf The ERL Administrator's Manual contains full details of how to install and configure ERL Server 5.03. These Release Notes contain the following additional information (along with other items listed in the Contents): * Information that is specific to the Windows platform, but has not yet been included in the ERL Server Administrator's Manual. * Any other, late-breaking information about ERL Server 5.03 that has not yet been included in the ERL Server Administrator's Manual. * Details of features that are new or are changed in this release. * Details of known issues in this release. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Contents =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 1. System Requirements 2. Downloading the software and the ERL Server Administrator's Manual 3. Installing and Running ERL Server 5.03: Additional information for NT 4. Late-breaking information about ERL Server 5.03 5. New Features and Changes in this release 6. Known Issues and Points to Note on Windows 7. Contacting SilverPlatter Technical Support =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 1. System Requirements =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- The following is a summary of the requirements: * Pentium II 300MHz IBM-compatible PC * 128MB memory and an additional 4MB per user. If the memory is between 64MB and 128MB the installed ERL Server is supported in single-user mode. * Windows 2000 or Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 6. * 2GB hard disk space. * Additional SCSI hard disk space is requires for loading databases to hard disk. * ISO 9660, 680MB CD-ROM drive. * TCP/IP required, Fast Ethernet (100Mbs or faster) recommended. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 2. Downloading the software and the ERL 5 Administrator's Manual =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- If you have not yet got a copy of the ERL Server 5.03 software, and ERL Server Administrator's Manual, this is how you download them: Downloading using ftp: ---------------------- 1. Connect to SilverPlatter's site: ftp.silverplatter.com 2. Login with the username and password supplied by SilverPlatter. Note: These will be sent to you after you have completed the form on the SilverPlatter website. 3. Change to the /secured/ERL5NT directory. (To do this, enter cd/secured/ERL5NT) 4. Change to the directory for the platform you will use for the ERL Server. 5. Make sure you will download the files as binary files. (To do this, enter bin) 6. Download all the files from the directory. (To do this, enter mget *. You are prompted to enter y to download each file.) The files will download into whatever is your local directory. The files are: The compressed software (erlsrvr.exe.) The release notes (win_relnotes.txt) (this document) The ERL Administrator's Manual (erl5mn.pdf) Note: Before you install the ERL Server 5.03 software, contact your local distributor or SilverPlatter Information to obtain the ERL Server ID and database license sheets that you need. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 3. Installing and Running ERL Server 5.03: Additional information for Windows =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Full details of the hardware requirements for installing and running ERL Server 5 are given on the SilverPlatter web site: http://www.silverplatter.com/erl/erlserverreq.htm Full details of how to install the ERL v5.03 software are given in Chapter 2 of the ERL Administrator's Manual (erl5mn.pdf), but you should also note the following points: Upgrading to ERL 5.03 --------------------- * The ERL Server 5.03 software only supports upgrading from ERL 4.11 and 5.0 Alpha or later. * Instructions for uninstalling software, and making a system backup are included in Chapter 2 of the ERL v5.03 Administrator's Manual. Untarring Tapes --------------- The programs tar.exe and mt.exe are located in the \sproot\bin directory. You can use them to extract the contents of tar tapes. Included is the how2tar.txt file that provides more information about the tar command. Listing the Contents of a Tar Tape ------------------------------------- To list the contents of a tar tape type the following: tar -L \\.\tape0 The -L (Long Listing) option displays the contents in detail. In Windows NT, the tape device is \\.\tape0. If you have more than one tape device, the others are called \\.\tape1, \\.\tape2, etc. Untarring the Tape Contents ------------------------------ If you can list the contents of the tar tape, you can extract it with the following command, adding the -x (Extract) option: tar -Lx \\.\tape0 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 4. Late-breaking information about ERL 5.03 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Not in this release. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 5. New Features and Changes in this release =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ----------------------- Changes in the software ----------------------- ERL Server 5.03 has the following new features: * You install the server software and the administration utilities from one package, which now contains the following items: * The ERL server software. * The WebAdmin software, and its associated Administration Server. The ERL Administration Server is a web server configured to allow you to run WebAdmin from a supported web browser from any location, over the Internet, by logging onto the server where ERL and WebAdmin are installed. * brladmin, the SilverPlatter tool that lets you make changes to ERL in batch mode. (For more information about brladmin, see the documentation (brlman) which is put into the brladmin destination directory when you install the software.) * QUIKdata, a SilverPlatter service that allows you to automatically electronically transfer weekly updated databases and ERL Authorization sheets to users’ sites. * A test database (TEST0001) that you can use to test the dbserver installation. * Deduplication and filtering for availability are now functional. * ERL Server 5.03 supports LinkWizard links. These allow you to insert any elements contained within a bibliographic record into a URL for linking. You can create and configure LinkWizard links using WebAdmin 5.03. * ERL Server 5.03 supports Metadata. SilverPlatter is issuing metadata-enabling files with its databases. This lets ERL Server 5.03 produce a universal set of fields that can be used across metadata-enabled databases. LinkWizard makes extensive use of metadata. * ERL Server 5.03 supports personal users. Personal users can store their own SDIs and Search Histories. * ERL Server 5.03 supports new SilverLinker functionality, the latest release of SilverPlatter's solution for linking to electronic full-text articles. These articles could be available remotely, hosted at the site of a service provider (a publisher or subscription agent); but an additional feature of SilverLinker is that it can link to articles that are available locally, in the form of a locally-hosted collection supplied by the service provider. We also support links to E-journal collections hosted locally on Elsevier's ScienceDirect OnSite (using ScienceServer 3.1 or above), platform. (Please note that you should contact your local ScienceServer technical support representative for assistance with ScienceServer.) SilverLinker now includes mechanisms for linking to publishers outside of the SilverLinker database. * WebAdmin users can be given permission to: * They can create and run statistical reports, save these to their account, and edit or delete the reports that they create. * Set up and edit SilverLinker filters. This means you can share the responsibility for creating and maintaining filters by giving several members of staff the necessary permissions. * Set up LinkWizard links. * Configure database menus * Configure deduplication and filtering by availability. * Configure WebSPIRS 5 * Configurable automatic notification of imminent database expiry. The ERL administrator can specify the period prior to expiry and the e-mail address of the recipient of the expiry notice. * Key bug fixes. * ERL Server 5.03 provides large site performance optimizations and fixes some minor bugs. To make full use of the new features you need to run WebSPIRS 5.0 or later as your client. --------------------------------- Changes to the User Documentation --------------------------------- General ------- The ERL Administrator's Manual has been revised for this release. The structure remains the same, but it includes more information, particularly about installation, QUIKdata, administration tools, and SilverLinker. Document Delivery is now documented. This is available as a PDF file (to read it you will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader). You can use the Reader's search facility for full text searching, and the Table of Contents entries are links to the relevant sections of the Manual. WebAdmin -------- WebAdmin has fully context-sensitive online help, which has been revised for this release. It now includes an overview of the tasks you can carry out in WebAdmin (accessed through the Help Table of Contents) and “pop-up” definitions of glossary terms (available by clicking on text in green). =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 6. Known Issues and Points to Note =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- General ======= If you start the server or mount or unmount a database when the network drive containing the installed databases is unavailable for any reason, and you have the SilverLinker database installed on that drive, the dblbuild process may fail to complete. This means one or more databases may not be visible to users. The solution is to shut down dbserver, make sure that the drive is available, and then restart dbserver. (10773) dblbuild can now be configured to email the administrator if it fails to run for any reason such as if a SilverLinker database is unavailable. See Chapter 4 of the ERL Server Administrator's Manual for further details. Athens shared library is not functional. @LPASERVER links do not work on Netscape ---------------------------------------- Links containing the pseudo element @LPASERVER do not work when using Netscape. The work around is as follows: 1. Stop the ERL Server 2. Copy the patch weblinks.dll into c:\sproot\bin 3. Restart the ERL Server (13268) Incorrect warning message when changing paging file size -------------------------------------------------------- During installation, when setting the server information an incorrect message is displayed stating that the current size of the paging file would support -140 users and suggests increasing it by 1440 MB. This happens regardless of the maximum users setting. Increasing the page size and rebooting still results in the same warning message. Continuing the installation leads to a successful installation. (12809) Platform Specific Points to Note ================================ Problems opening databases with "incomplete instances" ------------------------------------------------------ Attempting to open databases with "incomplete instances" on Windows machines that do not have a c:\temp directory can cause problems. A workaround is to create a c:\temp directory before opening the databases. (13249) Apache service not installed if install dirctory contains space --------------------------------------------------------------- The Apache service is not installed if you install ERL server in a directory that contains a space. (13040) Incorrect warning message when installing databases --------------------------------------------------- When installing databases a warning message informs the user that some databases are ignored even though the databases are installed succesfully. (13007) QUIKdata config info not asked for during installation ------------------------------------------------------ The ERLsrvr installation does not ask for the QUIKdata configuration information. In order to set the download directory it is necessary to edit the /sproot/QuikData/perscripts/quikdata.cfg file. Solaris and Linux installs ask for this information whilst installing the ERLsrvr package. (11984) Running from domain account --------------------------- To run ERL as a service using a domain user account when ERL is not located on a domain controller: 1. As an administrator on the machine where ERL is located, add the user \ to the administrator's group on that local machine. 2. Click on the Services icon in the Control Panel folder and select the ERL ERL Server 5.03. 3. Then select the Startup button and change the logon account to \, and enter this account's password where indicated. Click OK. 4. Back in the Services Menu, select the Start button. (9201) WebSPIRS slow when loading databases on server ---------------------------------------------- Installing databases on an ERL v5.0 server on Windows may consume system resources such that client response can be very slow. We recommend that you only load databases during low usage periods. (8685) Databases installed on Windows ------------------------------ If you install databases on Windows magnetically, or by magnetic link, remove the CD from the CDROM drive before you mount the database. Display hangs when enabling multiple databases ---------------------------------------------- Win2000 advanced: After enabling multiple databases the display froze whilst displaying SDI information. The workaround is to press Ctrl+c to interrupt the session and return to the command line. (11941) Points to note when carrying out administrative tasks: ====================================================== Mounting databases ------------------ When mounting databases installed as CDROM, the ERL server software will prompt you to place the database (CDROM or DVD) in the first available drive. If you are mounting a DVD disc, the software may prompt you to place the DVD in a CDROM Drive. This situation can be avoided by making the first available drive be a DVD drive. You may also place the DVD in the appropriate drive and then use "auto" mount option to mount the disc. (8389) Licenses with blank site names cannot be entered manually --------------------------------------------------------- If a license contains a blank site name it cannot be entered manually, it must be entered as a file. (9343) Verify Database Integrity doesn't work for magnetic links --------------------------------------------------------- If you install a database as a magnetic link, Verify Database Integrity doesn't accurately report problems with the database. (8077) Verify Database Integrity doesn't fix bad files ----------------------------------------------- If you magnetically install a database and then delete or rename a file in the \nodes directory, when you verify database integrity (#5 on the Install Menu), it reports the missing file but does not offer a way to correct it. (8564) "unknown" connections left behind --------------------------------- We are aware of a problem that can occur with multiple servers. If you have two or more ERL servers listed in the erlclnt.cfg file, logging on to one of the servers from a client can create an "unknown" connection on the other server. That connection remains until the user logs out. However, if the server times the user out, the connection remains until the server is restarted. (9903) Statistics: Points To Note ========================== Most statistics reports are CPU intensive and should generally be run when your server is not busy. Stats report admin user name connection problem ----------------------------------------------- Our testing of statistics showed erroneous connection times for the admin user name. The statistics report suggested an admin user was connected for 24 hours from 04 Apr 01 00.00 to 05 Apr 01 00.00. This was surprising because dbserver was shut down from 18.30 on one day. Note: Our testing only showed this problem with the admin user name. (11896) WebAdmin: Points To Note ======================== Icons may not display correctly ------------------------------- WebAdmin icons have changed and browsers may cache the old icons, if the display looks strange either refresh the page or clear your cache. No warning messages when executing BRL sripts --------------------------------------------- If an error occurs when you are executing a BRL script, WebAdmin does not provide user friendly information about why the error occured. (12804) Deduplication global overide problems ------------------------------------- Global user metadata element weightings are inconsistent in overriding individual user settings to let the client set the the deduplication defaults. (12803) Edit Database screen displays a line of question marks ------------------------------------------------------ After creating a Database Menu and entering saved headings for Medline and Medline Advanced. The Edit Menu screen (Database Menu>Edit Menu) display a line of question marks above the 'Save','Preview Menu' and 'Cancel' buttons. (11859) Editing a downloaded list of publications ----------------------------------------- When you download a list of publications from the SilverLinker administration tool in WebAdmin, the list is formatted according to the operating system that the WebAdmin server is running on, not the operating system your browser is running on. This means that if you use a browser on NT to download a publication list from a Linux system, you will get UNIX-style line feeds, which Notepad does not recognize. You should therefore open and edit the list in a text editor other than Notepad (such as WordPad). (10771) Using vertical bars (|) in user accounts ---------------------------------------- WebAdmin uses a vertical bar | (pipe symbol) as a field delimiter. This means there is a problem if you use accounts that include the | in the description or reference fields, and try to edit those accounts in WebAdmin. If you intend to edit user accounts in WebAdmin, we recommend you amend them so that they no longer contain the |. (10770) EC_BADKEY error --------------- If a WebAdmin user attempts to connect to the server before any databases have been installed, the dbserver reports an EC_BADKEY error. (9323) Database Menu headings cannot contain certain characters -------------------------------------------------------- Currently WebAdmin does not allow you to use the characters, * (asterisk), + (plus sign) or | (pipe symbol) when defining a database menu heading. In addition, you should not use HTML markup in the heading name as this can cause unexpected results and may even cause WebAdmin to stop functioning. (9258) Session timeout may not always work ----------------------------------- Session timeout may not consistently disconnect a WebAdmin connection that has been inactive for the time specified. If the session timeout is set to the default of 30 minutes, the timeout is consistent. (8845) Problem using WebAdmin to change the database menu -------------------------------------------------- If you have edited your dbmenu.cfg file manually in the past, you may have problems saving the file when you edit it in WebAdmin. The solution is to start with a new dbmenu.cfg file that has not been edited manually: 1. Make a clean copy of dbmenu.cfg by copying /sproot/cfiles/dbmenu.eg to /sproot/cfiles/dbmenu.cfg 2. In WebAdmin, create 1 new heading with WebAdmin. 3. Remove all the redundant default headers that are by default in dbmenu.eg. 4. Continue to build the dbmenu.cfg file as you wish. Empty Statistical Report window ------------------------------- Minimizing a Statistical Report window may cause it to display no content when it is restored. In this case, reload or refresh the screen. (8155) SilverLinker: Points To Note ============================ Problems with WinSPIRS and SilverLinker links --------------------------------------------- Using WinSPIRS with Order this Item (ORDER) links and Internet (ILINK) links enabled, performing a search and then clicking on the ALL FIELDS button causes WinSPIRS to crash. As a workaround we recommend that you do not enable Item links and Internet links. (13109) ERL v5.0 requires SilverLinker 2 databases ------------------------------------------- You cannot use SilverLinker 1 databases with ERL v5.0, you must use SilverLinker 2 databases. The first databases that contained SilverLinker 2 links have the following volume IDs: weekly: SLNK068W monthly: SLNK0017 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 7. Contacting SilverPlatter Technical Support =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= If you need further assistance with the ERL Server 5.03 software, please send an e-mail to support@ovid.com or contact one of Ovid's regional offices: UNITED STATES: Ovid Technologies, Inc. 100 River Ridge Drive Norwood, MA 02062 Tel: 800-343-0064 781-769-2599 Fax: 781-769-8763 ---------------------------------- LONDON: Ovid Technologies Ltd Merlin House, 20 Belmont Terrace, Chiswick, London W4 5UG England Tel: +44 (0) 20-8585 6400 Fax: +44 (0) 20-8585 6640 ---------------------------------- AMSTERDAM: Ovid Technologies BV Nieuwe Herengracht 49 1011 RN Amsterdam The Netherlands Tel: +31 (0)20-625 96 50 Fax: +31 (0)20-623 74 08 ---------------------------------- BERLIN: Ovid Technologies GmbH Guentzelstrasse 63 D-10717 Berlin Germany Tel: +49 (0)30-857799-0 Fax: +49 (0)30-857799-99 ---------------------------------- =-=-=-=