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Overview

DSpace 7 brings to DSpace a single, modern user interface and REST API and integrates current technological standards and best practices. This new UI combines with the existing core backend of DSpace 6, resulting in a lean, responsive, next-generation repository.

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• New Angular UI that is modern, responsive, and built using a Bootstrap theme for easy customization. See demo site at https://dspace7-demo.atmire.com/
• A completely redesigned REST API that is self-documenting and human browsable. See demo site at https://dspace7.4science.cloud/server/ 
• Redesigned submissions and workflows featuring a one page submission process with a drag-and-drop interface, and automatic metadata extraction from common formats like PDFs.
• Configurable entities, an optional new item type inspired by the DSpace-CRIS project that allows for complex linked relationships between items. DSpace 7 will include the option to implement this feature for two use cases popular with the DSpace community:
• Journal Hierarchy: create and link objects for a Journal, Volume, Issue, Article, and Author
• Faculty & Organizational Units: a lightweight, CRIS-like option to represent Projects, Faculty, Department/Unit, Publication, etc.
• A deep-dive into Configurable Entities can be found in the DSpace 7 Configurable Entities early documentation (Google Doc)
• Configurable entities help to better align DSpace with Next Generation Repository recommendations related to Identifiers as well as alignment with OpenAIRE v4.

DSpace 7 builds on DSpace 6 to create a modern and future-focused repository. The backend restructuring from DSpace 6 is retained and combined with the features above to create a powerful repository designed to address current user needs and plan for future standards.  

DSpace 7 is the first version of DSpace to be developed using test-driven development practices designed to identify and address issues earlier in the development process and lead to more stable releases. It is also the first release to use a working group model for decisions related to design and development.

See the DSpace 7 Release Notes for more information on this release.

Try it out using the Demo Site

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Install the User Interface only

Running only the DSpace 7 user interface can be done quickly & easily on any operating system (Windows, Mac OS, or Linux).  By default, the installed user interface will use the DSpace 7 REST API Demo (https://dspace7.4science.cloud/server/) as its backend.  This means that you will immediately see test data (from that demo site) and be able to interact with it.  However, you will need to authenticate using the REST API Demo account. Any changes you make will also obviously appear on that shared REST API Demo site.

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Install both the User Interface and REST API locally

This The DSpace 7 installation process describes manually installing both the frontend (User Interface) and backend (REST API) of DSpace 7 on a local machine. The frontend and backend need not be installed on the same machine.
Keep in mind the installation process here may change prior to DSpace 7.0 final. This should be considered an early version of the installation process.

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1. Required Prerequisites for the DSpace 7 REST API are listed at Installing DSpace (OLD - to be removed).  These include:
   1. Java JDK 11 (OpenJDK or Oracle). OpenJDK is recommended. (Note: Java 7 or 8 are no longer supported.)
   2. Apache Maven 3.3.x or above.
   3. Apache Ant 1.8 or above.
   4. Relational Database. Either PostgreSQL 9.4 (or above) or Oracle 10g (or above)
   5. Servlet Engine. Apache Tomcat 8 (or above) is recommended.
   6. Apache Solr 7.2.1 or above.  (NOTE: This is a new requirement for DSpace 7. You MUST install Solr separately from DSpace as it is no longer provided out-of-the-box.)
2. Installation is very similar to that of DSpace 6.x.  Draft installation instructions for the DSpace 7 REST API are available at Installing DSpace (OLD - to be removed)
   1. Pay close attention to a new installation step (#11 in that list).  Because Solr is now a separate install, you need to copy the DSpace Solr core configurations into your Apache Solr installation location.
3. If you have an existing test/demo version of DSpace 6.x locally, you can optionally choose to upgrade it to the DSpace 7 Preview Release.  DO NOT DO THIS IN PRODUCTION AS THE UPGRADE IS EXPERIMENTAL AT THIS TIME.
   1. Keep in mind, your old UI changes will not be upgraded as the XMLUI and JSPUI no longer exist in DSpace 7.  Therefore, only your data (in your database and assetstore) will be upgraded.
   2. To upgrade your data, Install the DSpace 7 REST API (as noted above) on top of a copy of your existing DSpace 6.x test/demo instance. We highly recommend doing this upgrade on a copy of your DSpace 6.x instance, as you cannot "undo" it. (NOTE: Make sure you are running a valid version of all prerequisites, and have installed Solr separately) 
   3. You will also need to perform step #11 in the Installation instructions (see above) in order to configure your Apache Solr installation properly.
   4. After you start up the DSpace 7 REST API, you will need to reindex all your content by running:  [dspace]/bin/dspace index-discovery -b 
      1. NOTE: At this time we are NOT yet able to upgrade DSpace 6.x (or below) Solr statistics.  A procedure for that upgrade will be coming in the future.
4. Once it is running locally, your REST API should be available at: http://localhost:8080/server
   1. This assumes you are running Tomcat on port 8080 (which is its default port)

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In the locally installed dspace-angular project folder, modify the [dspace-angular]/config/environment.default.js configuration to point at your local REST API.  The below settings assume your REST API is available at http://localhost:8080/server 

// The REST API server settings.
rest: {
   ssl: false,
   host: 'localhost',
   port: 8080,
   // NOTE: Space is capitalized because 'namespace' is a reserved string in TypeScript
   nameSpace: '/server/api'
}

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, and we welcome feedback or improvements to this documentation.

Reporting Issues

As you try out DSpace 7, you may run across a bug, issue or oddity (afterall, it's still under active development).  Here's how to report those so they get resolved before the final 7.0 release:

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