24 Nov 2021
Koha is the first free and open source software library automation package (ILS). Development is sponsored by libraries of varying types and sizes, volunteers, and support companies from around the world. The website for the Koha project is:
Koha 21.05.06 can be downloaded from:
Installation instructions can be found at:
Koha 21.05.06 is a bugfix/maintenance release.
It includes 3 enhancements, 63 bugfixes.
You can learn about the system components (like OS and database) needed for running Koha here: https://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/System_requirements_and_recommendations
[27173] Add plugin hooks for authority record changes
This enhancement allows plugin authors to implement an
after_authority_action
method in order to act upon authority create, modify and delete.
[28474] Pass process_message_queue.pl params to before_send_messages plugin hooks
This enhancement passes the parameters received by process_message_queue.pl through to the before_send_messages plugin calls. This allows plugins to respect calls that should only affect certain letter codes etc.
[29416] Regression: information from existing bib no longer populating on suggest for purchase
This restores the behaviour for purchase suggestions for an existing title, so that the suggestion form is pre-filled with the details from the existing record.
[28585] Cannot search on date fields
This patch fixes the date handling for query parsing from the API. We use dt_from_string to convert out RFC3339 formatted date strings to DateTime objects with an associated timezone and then user the native datetime formatted provided by the SQL connection library to convert to an appropriately formated date time string.
[26871] L1 cache still too long in SIP Server
This fixes SIP connections so that when system preference and configuration changes are made (for example: enabling or disabling logging of issues and returns) they are picked up automatically with the next message, rather than requiring the SIP connection to be closed and reopened.
SIP connections typically tend to be long lived - weeks if not months. Basically the connection per SIP machine is initiated once when the SIP machine boots and then never closed until maintenance is required. Therefore we need to reset Koha's caches on every SIP request to get the latest system preference and configuration changes from the memcached cache that is shared between all the Koha programs (staff interface, OPAC, SIP, cronjobs, etc).
[29264] SIP config allows use of non-branchcode institution ids causes workers to die without responding
This adds a warning to the logs where a SIP login uses an institution id that is not a valid library code.
If a SIP login uses an institution with an id that doesn't match a valid branchcode, everything will appear to work, but the SIP worker will die anywhere that Koha gets the branch from the userenv and assumes it is valid.
The repercussions of this are that actions such as the checkout message simply die and do not return a response message to the requestor.
[29408] The datatables api wrapper is ambiguously named
This patch 1) renames the Koha REST JS dataTables wrapper from the ambiguous 'api' to the clearer 'kohaTable' 2) goes through the codebase and updates existing relevant calls to .api referencing the Koha REST dataTables wrapper to use the name 'kohaTable', and 3) adds JSDoc formatted parameter documentation for the kohaTable function.
[29319] Errors when doing a cataloging search which starts with a number + letter
This fixes an error that occurs in cataloging search when entering a search term with ten characters (like "7th Heaven" or "2nd editio") - Koha thinks you are entering an ISBN10 number, gets confused and delivers an error page. Searching now works as expected for ISBN13/ISBN10 (without the '-'s), title and author searches.
[29405] The patron spec for date_renewed is missing it's format definition
This fix adds the date format string to the date_renewed field. This is to ensure that the date_renewed field can be correctly validated.
[21105] oai.pl returns invalid earliestDatestamp
Sponsored by Reformational Study Centre
This fixes the date format in OAI-PMH for Identify.earliestDatestamp so that it uses "YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssZ" and is in UTC, instead of the SQL formsat "YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss" currently used. For OAI-PMH all date and time values must be in the format "YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssZ" and in UTC.
The Koha manual is maintained in Sphinx. The home page for Koha documentation is
As of the date of these release notes, the Koha manual is available in the following languages:
The Git repository for the Koha manual can be found at
Complete or near-complete translations of the OPAC and staff interface are available in this release for the following languages:
Partial translations are available for various other languages.
The Koha team welcomes additional translations; please see
For information about translating Koha, and join the koha-translate list to volunteer:
The most up-to-date translations can be found at:
The release team for Koha 21.05.06 is
Release Manager: Jonathan Druart
Release Manager assistants:
QA Manager: Katrin Fischer
QA Team:
Topic Experts:
Bug Wranglers:
Packaging Manager:
Documentation Manager: David Nind
Documentation Team:
Translation Managers:
Wiki curators:
Release Maintainers:
Release Maintainer assistants:
Release Maintainer mentors:
We thank the following libraries, companies, and other institutions who are known to have sponsored new features in Koha 21.05.06
We thank the following individuals who contributed patches to Koha 21.05.06
We thank the following libraries, companies, and other institutions who contributed patches to Koha 21.05.06
We also especially thank the following individuals who tested patches for Koha
We regret any omissions. If a contributor has been inadvertently missed, please send a patch against these release notes to koha-devel@lists.koha-community.org.
The Koha project uses Git for version control. The current development version of Koha can be retrieved by checking out the master branch of:
The branch for this version of Koha and future bugfixes in this release line is 21.05.x.
Bug reports and feature requests can be filed at the Koha bug tracker at:
He rau ringa e oti ai. (Many hands finish the work)
Autogenerated release notes updated last on 24 Nov 2021 19:32:31.