For information on current and previous versions of Avalon, please see the Releases page on Github.
Upcoming 6.x Releases
The current release of Avalon 6 is: Avalon 6.4.3
- Enhanced structural metadata editing—edit structure for a section visually (core)
- Import of structure within media files (such as WAV cue points) upon ingest (depending on amount of effort, core or IU)
- Performance improvements for objects and playlists with large numbers of items (investigate to decide whether core or IU)
- IIIF Manifest generation from media objects (IU)
Release 7
Our goal with Avalon 7.0 is to offer a full-featured media streaming application based on the modern Samvera stack. To this end, Avalon 7 will be built using Hyrax as a base, offering developers an environment they know and understand, and offering administrators the flexibility to run stand-alone streaming solutions or integrate scalable streaming into existing Hyrax-based applications. As we work toward full-feature parity with Avalon 6, we will continue development and support. Each dot release milestone is estimated to be an 8-week work cycle.
Github Milestone
IIIF gem used in Hyrax updated to generate IIIF Presentation API 3.0 manifests (possible collaboration with community)
- Order of masterfiles is necessary metadata
- Order of multi-valued pieces of metadata will wait until later
- Player c
- Time can be navigated via structural metadata
- Port Structural metadata (structure within) as current XML
- Dynamically generated IIIF compliant manifest generated from Media Work type
- We intend for the manifest to be a central point of interoperability
- The manifest will be based on the current IIIF-AV 3.0 standard
- Manifests will be generated based on technical and descriptive metadata
- Manifests should ideally use the same endpoints as Hyku (possibly the same generation tool)
- The manifest contains the structural information, The display should exercise the manifest.
- Structural metadata will be stored in XML and crosswalked to the manifest
- Metadata experts talk through what metadata (descriptive or any other kind) to include. There is already an issue for the recommended descriptive metadata. Need to take a deeper look for technical metadata. (https://gist.github.com/jlhardes/1e3adada7410591f46b170e65dce20af
- Investigate Matterhorn alternatives
- Matterhorn gives us the nice interface for monitoring
- Hyrax may suggest a monitoring interface for job queues
- Exploring how from a collection manager/depositor perspective: if there are issues, how does that get resolved?
0.3
0.4 – 9/17 - 11/10/18
The goal of this cycle is to build out critical feature endpoints. We will initially focus on building out playlist endpoints as a decoupled service (create, read, update, delete). The service will return an IIIF compliant manifest that can be consumed by Avalon's Standalone Player. The team will also work on an initial POC of our batch ingestion. The team will also take an initial pass at UI/UX designs for Avalon on Hyrax.
Core Feature work
- Re-evaluating IIIF 3 manifest generation as the spec nears completion
- Expanded streaming server support
Batch Ingest
- Possible Hyrax import gem (or generic base with per-app modifications)
- Developing in collaboration with WGBH/AVP using Donut work
- Ensure batch ingest spreadsheet and documentation are updated
UI/UX work - mockups / Initial design work
- Create designs for Home/list/item and playlist pages
- Structural metadata rendering
- Avalon look and feel defined, with mockups for evaluation
- Start of style guide
- Wireframes generated
- Hi-fidelity (HTML) mockups?
Transcoding pipeline work — ActiveEncode
Continued metadata work
Model refinement
Docker and Local Install instructions
0.5 – 11/26/18 - 1/11/19
- Bibliographic import functionality with improved error handling compared to Avalon 6
- IIIF Authentication
- Defining the scope for a transcoding dashboard within the application
- Refinement of installation instructions, including Docker and local
- Batch Ingest Functionality Finished
- Investigation of Universal Viewer - Contributing/ adopting parts
0.6 – 1/28 - 3/22
- Start of development on playlist functionality
- Embedded player
- Permissions working group (Samvera PAWG) check in
- UI Design and skinning
- Automation scripts (Ansible)
0.7 – 4/8 - 5/31
- Possible Permissions work
- Playlist cont.
- Publish/ Unpublish (save issue)
- Autoscripts/ Deployments Scripts cont'd
- Grant Extension work
0.8 – 6/17 - 8/9
- Structural Metadata Editor - porting from Avalon 6
- Ingest API
- Continued UI Work
- LTI Functionality
0.9 – 8/26 - 9/18/19
- Instructions - Plugin/ Component Docs
- Bag content for Archivematica