System Administration

Owned by Julie Wetherill
Last updated: Jun 08, 2022
3 min read

ASpace Environments at Harvard Library

Production

Test/QA

Sandbox

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** Access requires Harvard network or VPN

Known Issues

This page lists known issues/problems that may occur when you interact with the Harvard instance of ArchivesSpace in either the public interface (PUI) or staff mode. If you have a question about an issue or want to suggest an addition to the known issues list, please contact LTS Support. 

PUI known issues
Staff mode known issues

PUI known issues

  1. Collection inventory pane is hard to scroll using Firefox.
    In Firefox, the vertical scroll bar in the collection inventory frame may not be fully functional. Dragging the scroll bar or clicking the scroll arrows at top and bottom may not work. It helps to click somewhere in the inventory pane before trying to scroll. Try using the mouse scroll wheel and the page up/page down options on your keyboard instead. Or switch to another browser. (4/16/2018; in JIRA as ARCSPC-361)

  2. Missing containers in PUI PDF.
    In the PUI, multiple containers in a single archival object display correctly, but in the PUI PDF, only one of those containers (usually the last one listed) displays. (1/29/2019; in JIRA as ARCSPC-643)

  3. Container type not displaying correctly.
    In the PUI, the description of the top and child containers is present in Collection Inventory and on each individual archival object, but when you click on the Top Container (under Physical Storage Information) you get an error. The cause is usually an invalid container type value in the top container record. Fix this value and the PUI display should work.

  4. Text from "Conditions Governing Access" note text sometimes displays in the wrong place – text is generated with Page Action buttons at top of screen. 
    In a few finding aids, a display error is seen where text from an access note is erroneously floating at the top of the finding aid, next to the page action buttons (Citation, Request, View PDF, etc.). This behavior is seen in production only; the same finding aid in QA does not produce error. (8/1/2019; in JIRA as ARCSPC-804.)

Staff Mode known issues

  1. Opening a component in Edit mode produces a “server error” and record does not display.
    This error is usually caused by an invalid attribute value somewhere in that component. The most common cases are an invalid Date Type, Instance Type, or Archival Record Level. These values leak into the system during EAD xml import (ASpace does not validate incoming xml imports against the EAD schema.) To fix, you must identify the invalid value, then delete/recreate the component and assign the correct value.

  2. Spreadsheet import fails to add some components.
    During spreadsheet import, the loader fails to add some or all components. Errors in the processing report are generic or might refer to a list of attribute values. This failure usually indicates that the target component (the parent or sibling at the insertion point) contains an invalid attribute. A common case is an invalid Date Uncertainty value. The solution is to find and fix the invalid value then retry the import. If the problem component can’t be opened in Edit view, you will need to delete and recreate it.

  3. EAD updates not available in LibraryCloud 
    ArchivesSpace exports new and updated EADs to LibraryCloud (a hub of Harvard Library bibliographic metadata) on a nightly basis. If recent EAD changes do not appear in LibraryCloud on this schedule, there are a few possible reasons:

    1. The EAD is somehow invalid. Best practice is to export the resource record and validate it, then locate the issue in ASpace staff mode and fix it. If a component can’t be edited because of an invalid attribute, you must delete and recreate the component with a valid attribute.

    2. If updates at the digital object level are not visible in LibraryCloud, the resource record may need to be Saved. ASpace export of an EAD is triggered by a change in the “Last Modified” date stamp of the top level resource record. ASpace has a known bug in which updating a digital object record does not change the resource-level modification date. To trigger an export, in staff mode open the resource in Edit mode and click the top level Save option.

Software Updates


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