In March 2022 we quietly launched the first version of the OASIS REST API, which provides access to information about OASIS Projects via a RESTful API.

It is designed to provide programmatic access to OASIS Project information and its output is very similar to that of the existing “Export” function that can be found on the OASIS Projects list. Links to the API and documentation are below.

https://api.oasis.ac.uk/

https://docs.oasis.ac.uk/api/

The API is available to all registered OASIS users, and gives you access to the records you can normally acccess in the system. So for example, an HER has access to all their HER records, a Unit has access to all their records and so on.

This is new territory for OASIS, but something that was specified as essential for increasing machine interoperability of OASIS metadata. We hope to be working with some partners to identify case studies of how and why the API has been used, and publicise these more widely. In the interim, if you are interested in using the API have a look at the documentation page linked above. Any problems or questions, then please contact the OASIS Helpdesk oasis@oasis

Since the launch of the new system the OASIS Helpdesk has received plenty of feedback from users. This has been a mixture of pointing out small bugs or glitches, or else requests for tweaks or additional features to help people with their workflows.

The most recent version of OASIS (deployed 16th May 2022) inlcudes a number of updates we hope that all users will find helpful. These include:

1 More features on the Search page

a)Ability to search on: Museum Accession ID, HER Event ID, HER monument number, Site code, Project Identifier.

b) Ability for HERs to search by review date, to help prioritise records that require more immediate attention.

c) Ability to filter out just records awaiting transfer to the ADS Library, or just those in the ADS Library.

d) Ability to filter on event type.

2 Archive messages bug

The link to this feature had a bug, which has now been fixed. You can now contact your local Archive or Museum whenever you want!

3 Notification email link bug

The link to the user profile section that was creating a 500 error has been fixed.

4 Cancelling on Activity page bug

A strange bug on the Activity page has been fixed. This was where where a user clicked cancel and the page either gave an error or saved the values within that session. This button should now clear any changes made in that session, return to the previous values entered, and not generate an error. This new code has been replicated on most other pages to deal with any other instances of ‘cancel’ causing issues.

5 Watched projects export with no selection causes error bug

This has been resolved, a user is now informed that they have not selected any projects to export.

6 Ability to batch unwatch

On the watched projects page, there is now a button at the bottom of the project list that allows you to batch unwatch seleccted projects.

7 Improvements to notifications + watches

Some major improvements have been made to the notifications: automatic notifications should now be sent for:

• Reports transferred to ADS Library (with DOI link)
• Digital Archive transferred to the ADS (with DOI link)

In addition, there has been some re-working of the “watch” function that determined who receives updates. Watches are now removed 40 days after the report has been transferred to the ADS library, or if no report exists 40 days after the review. However, the watch is re-established if additional reports are uploaded, or extra information is entered into the archives section. This is an attempt to keep people in the loop where they would need to know about important extra information, but not small things like typos.

8 Improvements to report page

Users have reported some problems with the status of the report page not reflecting a most recent action: for example the deletion of a report not resetting the core fields to incomplete. These were rare, but frustrating cases often caused by the form becoming out of sync with user actions. The code has been re-worked, and this page should be working much better!

9 File uploads (archives and reviewers page)

Users on the Archive page and the Reviewers Information page should now be able to upload a wider variuety of files: PDF, DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX

10 Results page

Frequent users will have already spotted that this has changed slightly over the last few months, with users asked if their project contributes to a Research Framework. Some extra work has gone into the page to better guide users on how to fill in if they answer “yes”. We’re still working with the relevant parties from the Research Frameworks to populate the questions.

11 Organisation details page

The ‘malformed XML’ alerts when users updated details has been fixed.