Dear IPT users,
A release candidate of IPT v2.2 is now available for download [1]. Please note this release is only intended for testing, and should not be installed in production. If you don’t have time to install it, you can always try it out at http://ipt.gbif-uat.org/ [2] (just email me if you want an account).
There have been a lot of changes in this version. Below I list some of the most exciting changes that we’d appreciate your help testing:
3 new major features added: It can be configured with a DataCite or EZID account making it possible to assign DOIs to resources (if you don’t have a DataCite or EZID account, just email me for a test account) It can auto-generate a citation for a resource including the version number and DOI, which enable consistent and reliable citation. It can validate that each occurrence record has a valid basisOfRecord 3 new minor features added: Source mappings can be previewed prior to publication The resource version pending publication can be previewed prior to publication It uses a new version of the GBIF Metadata Profile (v1.1) to publish metadata allowing: i) a user ID (e.g. ORCID) to be entered for each contact, ii) a machine readable license to be stored, iii) support for multiple collections, iv) support for multiple creators, contacts, metadata providers, project personnel 3 notable bugs fixed: Cells in Excel now get written as they are displayed in Excel; previously integers were being written as decimals, and formulas were written as unevaluated strings A reverse proxy (mod_proxy) can be used regardless of the URL; previously this wouldn’t work if the URL didn’t contain the application context (e.g. /ipt) IPT can be deployed using Wildfly8 (JBoss); previously this didn't work because of a dependency incompatibility Also please be aware that starting with this version, publishers are required to publish their data under a CC0 1.0, CC-BY 4.0 or CC-BY-NC 4.0 declaration. Those who do not choose one of these licenses will not be able to register their resource with GBIF or make it globally discoverable through GBIF.org. For background on GBIF's decision, see here [3].
If no major problems are uncovered during testing, IPT v2.2 will be released in a couple weeks. In the meantime, volunteer translators are also hard at work, and the user manual is being updated.
Thank you for all your help,
Kyle, on behalf of the IPT development team and the GBIF Secretariat
[1] https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4552753/ipt-2.2-rc1.war [2] http://ipt.gbif-uat.org/ [3] http://www.gbif.org/terms/licences