What's new in eLabFTW 4.8.0

Introduction

This release contains at least a dozen bugfixes and many new features and improvements, all users should update.

You can see the complete changelog on the release page. This blog post is more about going into details for some of the changes.

How to update (for Sysadmins)

Update like usual: see documentation.

New features

Users features

Improvements for extra fields

Extra fields can now have units (for input of type “number”). You can define a list of possible units and it will look like this:

extra fields units

See the documentation here: Units for extra fields

There is also a better synchroinzation between the extra fields and the JSON editor. The JSON editor save button will also indicate more clearly if you have unsaved changes, and extra fields can be deleted directly!

You’ll also find new types such as “Time” or “DateTime” or “Email”, with a conveniant button to set it to “Now”.

Archiving entries and files

  • Experiments and database entries can now be Archived. An archived entry will be masked from the listing and locked, unless it is explicitely asked to include archived content. This action is available from the menu with three vertical dots in the top right of the view or edit mode.
archive menu experiment is archived
  • You can do the same with uploaded files, and click the box icon on the right to toggle the display of archived attachments!

  • When a User is archived, their experiments will get locked AND archived.

Improvements of the revisions system

The “revisions page” of an entry will now display revisions with a button to toggle the content. It is also possible to select two revisions and compare them!

new revisions

Changes in the booking system

The booking system has been improved. For instance, it is now possible to define something as bookable directly on the resource, not on the category (items types). You can see how it works in the new documentation page: Booking resources.

Suggested tags

The most used tags will now be displayed right under the tag input in edit mode so you can simply click on them to add them.

Multiple fixes

Multiple minor fixes are also part of this release, they are reported by users and it is very useful to have these reports, so if you find an issue, make sure to make it known so it can be fixed!

Admin features

User deletion

An Admin can now delete an unvalidated user:

delete unvalidated user

Sysadmins features

Sysadmins can also validate or delete users, provided that they don’t own anything at all. An unvalidated user will appear as unvalidated in the user listing:

sysadmin validate user
  • Allow filtering only Admins from the Users tab
  • Allow sending emails to only Admins or only Sysadmins from the Communications tab
sysadmin mass email
  • Allow setting a custom error message if a user successfully logged in with an external auth service but their local account was not created beforehand (setting present in Server tab of Sysconfig panel, in Registration and authentication configuration section)

Conclusion

There are still many other changes that are not described here (see full changelog), so make sure to update as soon as possible!

Thanks to everyone who contributed directly or not to this release. Reporting issues on the bug tracker or in the chat is very valuable! Make sure to report any bug you might find, even the most minor one, it’s always appreciated!

To report a bug, select “Submit feedback” from the top right help menu:

report bug

The adventure continues!