Specify 6.8.03 Release Notes

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Specify 6

Summary

This update does not modify the Specify database schema. However, updating to 6.8.03 on one workstation (with IT User privileges) will require all other users of a database to update their copies of Specify 6 also.

Specify 6.8.03 resolves the decimal precision issues for numeric data display that were introduced when we converted floating point fields to decimal fields. This resolution was done with changes to the user interface display of BigDecimal fields (see below). The release also includes minor fixes and improvements.

Specify 6.8.03 Release Notes

Released 6 March 2023

The update includes several improvements and changes to the system. The following updates have been made to BigDecimals:

  • The display of BigDecimal fields on all forms will no longer show the trailing zeroes that could imply false precision
  • Validation for BigDecimal fields on forms has been corrected to now accept negative numbers and zero as valid values
  • BigDecimal fields in query results will no longer show trailing zeroes
  • BigDecimal fields will not be stripped in labels or reports, and a new truncateBigDecimals scriptlet has been added
  • BigDecimal fields will be stripped in Data Exports

Importantly, Latitude and Longitude fields are unaffected by any of these changes. These changes are to resolve issues with several measurement fields in Specify that may indicate false precision when trailing zeroes are present. See all affected fields.

Carry Forward support for the following tables has been added:

  • AccessionCitation
  • CollectionObjectCitation
  • DNASequencingRunCitation
  • TaxonCitation

Business rules have been updated to allow Agents of type Other and Group to have addresses.

The Specify WorldWind plugin has been disabled on macOS due to NASA retiring several required services, rendering it inaccessible (Announcement). This previously caused the Locality form to not load on Mac systems.

Updating Installations:

:specify6: Updating Specify 6:

Both the installation on the server hosting Specify 6 and all instances of Specify 6 accessing the server must be updated.

Once a user with logs into the database using the most recent version of Specify 6, all other users must update as well.

:specify7: Updating Specify 7:

Specify 7 deployments will need to have the Specify 6 installation directory updated to the latest version once a Specify 6 user upgrades to Specify 6.8.03 and logs in to the database.

For Docker deployments:

You will need to update the Specify 6 image to specify6-service:6.8.03 in the docker-compose.yml file for your docker instance.

  specify6:
    image: specifyconsortium/specify6-service:6.8.03
    volumes:
      - "specify6:/volumes/Specify"

For local installations:

Please read instructions on Installing Specify 6 contained within the Specify 7 readme.