Archipelago 1.7.0 + 2.1.0 Release Announcement
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dp...@metro.org
Jun 18, 2026, 3:58:21 PM (6 days ago) Jun 18
to archipelago commons
Queridos Amigos, colegas, miembros de nuestra comunida ...
Dear friends, colleagues, wider members of our commmunity, near and distant observers, intersectional watchers and neighbors,
As the good people of the northern hemisphere embrace the warmer weather, the also good people of the southern one welcome the coziness of colder breezes (and gorgeous sunsets) that winter brings and anyone else (also very good people) closer to the equators decide if winter/summer, or a totally different (new - exciting) season, matches their mood, we, as a team (right now on one side of the globe), have finally managed to wrap the memories, postcards, souvenirs (also sand & train tickets) of our 6 month journey developing/testing/implementing a new Archipelago Commons dual release, and its up to you now to unwrap (wrapped in humble napkins, which were also used to doodle diagrams and wash up tears), at your convenience these gifts, trinkets, organize them and label them (you library people...) and make out of the sum, the parts, the space in between, your very own (wholesome) story.
I think it is fair to share that there is never really a "release time", in the sense of an "instant/place" in time/space. Just a steady listening to birds sing, wind blow, adding/removing/testing little pieces of code, ingesting, re-testing, putting tiny shiny cute stones we find at the beach in our pockets,
drawing mysterious landscapes, discussing far away adventures and saving recipes of coffees/coffee shops we visit between pages of a book we have read one too many times.
Then, when the proper time comes and energy permits, and there is a story to be narrated, we get all the parts, put them together and share with you, just to start wandering again. You all know, not all those who wander are lost.
We really tried to target the Pre Open Repositories 2026 Conference week, but contributed code (a.k.a. as code we did not write) that supports many of your daily needs, wanted to be patched and refused to play along, at least for a while, even at the last minute today morning.
So, what is inside the wrapper? (won't make a distiction between tangible goodies and feelings, ok?)
Two versions of Archipelago Deployment
https://github.com/esmero/archipelago-deployment/tree/1.7.0 (Drupal 10) and https://github.com/esmero/archipelago-deployment/tree/2.1.0 (Drupal 11)
Two versions of, a production ready, Archipelago Deployment Live
https://github.com/esmero/archipelago-deployment-live/tree/1.7.0 (Drupal 10) and https://github.com/esmero/archipelago-deployment-live/tree/2.1.0 (Drupal 11)
Each of those little Automatons provide the same functionality and wear proudly updated Strawberry field Modules (matching the respective version) and
new Docker Container services, built, rebuilt, many compiled manually, re-factored and re-imagined to support your security and performance needs, but also to ensure what was good before, stays good.
Configurations have been updated, even little tiny visual enhancements were added, e.g. your Default theme has now a Dark/Light mode switcher (Inspired by my Colleague Allison's prefered desktop theme) that also leads to
better accessibility and might even inspires late night Collection Browsing.
Solr is now on 10.0. Which is a fundamental change and will provide more stability and speed, but also implied some code decisions and patches to contributed code (did i mention we have been patching a lot? A LOT)
Anubis, the first face ML Bots see when trying to take ownership of all your collections, was also updated. And it is a vigilant face you don't mess with.
PHP too, Cantaloupe too, well basically everything except your (meta)data.
Code wise, just as a general gist: 6573 lines of code were written and added (humanly written, no AI was involved, that is again aprox. 12% of our total code base) and over 1000 lines removed. This does not include YAML files, images, C++, C code, Python, CSS or XML nor reflects that my hair is becoming lighter gray.
Documentation wise, one of the new features, which is a fully simulated Preview of an AMI Ingest (simulated bc it does exactly the same as actually ingesting but in realtime), was added by Allison and
we invite you to give it a look here: https://docs.archipelago.nyc/1.7.0/ami_preview/. We believe this might ease with the abstraction of that process, which is also the most popular feature: (is abtraction your fav?) Mass Ingesting. There are
other updates on the documentation too, and more to come (many missing on me, sorry) as we test (or re-narrate) more this complete wrapped release deeper in production.
In our last dual release we shared that Drupal 10 was still the choice for stability. But in 6 months, many developers (tired, burnt out or sadly Vibe Coding via Claude) have started deprecating backwards compatibility or simply forgetting to test, so its safe to say
that in this wrapper there is an unused, one way ticket - train/coach - to Drupal 11, and we will soon announce a Live/Hands on/Workshop-y session where we will guide anyone that joins us (including Vendors) into a full custom and painless update.
For many it will be a snap. For others it might require some planning, but we will be there for all of you the whole trip.
Still. Our documentation and default branches are on 1.7.0 (Drupal 10) and you are more than welcome to keep using them until you feel you want to move to the next thing.
One thing i wanted to mention (sorry) is that we release because we "should". But not because we need to. The distinction is subtle, but your current 1.6.0 is stable. It runs smooth. It does the job.
Lately modernity/post-modernism as in technocrat driven renewal (and dismissal of what is good or what could be improved with a little bit of care and effort) just "because" feels more violent, more (fake)urgent, when it is not.
In this case, there are just more things in 1.7.0 and 2.1.0 to explore, don't feel any urgency please to upgrade.
As you all know, we do not "make up" features. We code (80%) to keep what has been valid/good for 8 years so far, and what is required so you don't have to think ever of updating data, alive. The other 20% is because you have shown us
there are needs that support your work; real use cases and many of them are fun/communal/desirable/keep-able. For example. One of our dear community members, New York Public Radio, wanted to have new Audio features to support their daily work. So we have now
Waveform extraction (as JSON, attached), and BWF Metadata Processing for WAV audio. Also, through their hard working act of migrating out of another system into Archipelago, and the need of bringing large media (and thus filling up Drive space quite fast), Hydroponics has now a "Running out of space, let's pause" option.
Other features might feel like small details, but for sure might make our friends in Edinburgh happier. Annoyed by AJAX jumping Up to the top of the page? You can now opt/in out on any Drupal View. Or, do you need to report via Statistics
to Which collection(s) a ADO (Page) view - seen by a person - belongs? San Diego State university friends drove that need and now we have new Semantic Aware (computed base fields) and a little Token that can be used to send that whole trail/path of ismemberofs and areweStillFriendsOf in an instant to any external API.
And then we have improved DataCite/DOI integration, also driven by another good partner, Union College. Or a Content Search API V0 endpoint (Mark this one is for you) so Clover does not get confused. Like these, there are many. Won't spoil the unwrapping (beware of the sand though)
But there is also the space in between. I value the unspoken. The many discussions, the emojis, the long nights developing and planning, the too much coffee, the purposefully intent guided by trying to make someone's life better, the awareness that the world is shifting and loosing many of the values we live by, that time and care are precious, care received can not be taken for granted, also, concretely, the features we decided to not add to this release *(YET) and then, there are hopes/dreams of new things to come and good old things (and feelings) that are here to stay.
No release is complete without Acknowledging Allison Sherrick's work and daily contributions. In between releases, during a release process and after - being an after yet again a in between releases. Allison's wider community involvement carries warm winds (use cases and ideas) through our development windows and her constant care for our own community, and good Metadata practices are highly appreciated. Gracias Allison, colleague! And to METRO and the whole staff. But also in specific Nate and Anne (our closer Digital Services team circle) for supporting our ideas/opinions/needs and goals with Archipelago so we can keep doing this (you + us + them) for a long time.
We would also like to thank our community members, means all of you, (in any order) and in particular contributors to Archipelago’s functionality/use cases/ideas and emoji providers in Slack. Bring those emojis please. We do this all for you (ok, some of this i do for myself because i am selfish and stubborn). Because of you and we really care for you all. Also thanks to every other OSS project team (or solo coder) that do/does its very best and provides fertile soil for our own flowers to bloom.
Pre-final concrete note (a tradition introduced by our alternating release manager). Your work keeps growing (and giving fruits) and Archipelago's wider presence "en este planeta Tierra" (Facts/Data and wording brought to you by Allison!) reads like this:
Across only the first 17 Archipelagos listed on our ‘In the Wild’ page (https://docs.archipelago.nyc/1.7.0/inthewild/) under the section covering instances that Diego and I are privileged to manage directly or support as the METRO Digital Services Team alongside our institutional partners:
Total Top-Level Digital Objects: 998,780
Total Digital Objects including all subcomponents (pages, transcripts, mixed media/compound items): 5,513,191
Growth from June 2025: 140k top level objects
Across all of the Archipelagos listed on our ‘In the Wild’ page, we are humbled to share that there are now over 9.5+ million total Digital Objects including all subcomponents (pages, transcripts, mixed media/compound items) held in these repositories--representing a growth from June 2025 of over 1.5+ million Digital Objects.
Finally. We want to dedicate this release to our dear colleague Megan Tyne, that left us too soon. She was a bright light and will be missed very much. Sit tibi terra levi
Please reach out if you have any questions, needs, ideas or strong opinions. if I made a typo, don't reach out please, i can't change the past.
Have a long, happy, adventurous and colorful life. Un Abrazo
Diego & Allison
Dear friends, colleagues, wider members of our commmunity, near and distant observers, intersectional watchers and neighbors,
As the good people of the northern hemisphere embrace the warmer weather, the also good people of the southern one welcome the coziness of colder breezes (and gorgeous sunsets) that winter brings and anyone else (also very good people) closer to the equators decide if winter/summer, or a totally different (new - exciting) season, matches their mood, we, as a team (right now on one side of the globe), have finally managed to wrap the memories, postcards, souvenirs (also sand & train tickets) of our 6 month journey developing/testing/implementing a new Archipelago Commons dual release, and its up to you now to unwrap (wrapped in humble napkins, which were also used to doodle diagrams and wash up tears), at your convenience these gifts, trinkets, organize them and label them (you library people...) and make out of the sum, the parts, the space in between, your very own (wholesome) story.
I think it is fair to share that there is never really a "release time", in the sense of an "instant/place" in time/space. Just a steady listening to birds sing, wind blow, adding/removing/testing little pieces of code, ingesting, re-testing, putting tiny shiny cute stones we find at the beach in our pockets,
drawing mysterious landscapes, discussing far away adventures and saving recipes of coffees/coffee shops we visit between pages of a book we have read one too many times.
Then, when the proper time comes and energy permits, and there is a story to be narrated, we get all the parts, put them together and share with you, just to start wandering again. You all know, not all those who wander are lost.
We really tried to target the Pre Open Repositories 2026 Conference week, but contributed code (a.k.a. as code we did not write) that supports many of your daily needs, wanted to be patched and refused to play along, at least for a while, even at the last minute today morning.
So, what is inside the wrapper? (won't make a distiction between tangible goodies and feelings, ok?)
Two versions of Archipelago Deployment
https://github.com/esmero/archipelago-deployment/tree/1.7.0 (Drupal 10) and https://github.com/esmero/archipelago-deployment/tree/2.1.0 (Drupal 11)
Two versions of, a production ready, Archipelago Deployment Live
https://github.com/esmero/archipelago-deployment-live/tree/1.7.0 (Drupal 10) and https://github.com/esmero/archipelago-deployment-live/tree/2.1.0 (Drupal 11)
Each of those little Automatons provide the same functionality and wear proudly updated Strawberry field Modules (matching the respective version) and
new Docker Container services, built, rebuilt, many compiled manually, re-factored and re-imagined to support your security and performance needs, but also to ensure what was good before, stays good.
Configurations have been updated, even little tiny visual enhancements were added, e.g. your Default theme has now a Dark/Light mode switcher (Inspired by my Colleague Allison's prefered desktop theme) that also leads to
better accessibility and might even inspires late night Collection Browsing.
Solr is now on 10.0. Which is a fundamental change and will provide more stability and speed, but also implied some code decisions and patches to contributed code (did i mention we have been patching a lot? A LOT)
Anubis, the first face ML Bots see when trying to take ownership of all your collections, was also updated. And it is a vigilant face you don't mess with.
PHP too, Cantaloupe too, well basically everything except your (meta)data.
Code wise, just as a general gist: 6573 lines of code were written and added (humanly written, no AI was involved, that is again aprox. 12% of our total code base) and over 1000 lines removed. This does not include YAML files, images, C++, C code, Python, CSS or XML nor reflects that my hair is becoming lighter gray.
Documentation wise, one of the new features, which is a fully simulated Preview of an AMI Ingest (simulated bc it does exactly the same as actually ingesting but in realtime), was added by Allison and
we invite you to give it a look here: https://docs.archipelago.nyc/1.7.0/ami_preview/. We believe this might ease with the abstraction of that process, which is also the most popular feature: (is abtraction your fav?) Mass Ingesting. There are
other updates on the documentation too, and more to come (many missing on me, sorry) as we test (or re-narrate) more this complete wrapped release deeper in production.
In our last dual release we shared that Drupal 10 was still the choice for stability. But in 6 months, many developers (tired, burnt out or sadly Vibe Coding via Claude) have started deprecating backwards compatibility or simply forgetting to test, so its safe to say
that in this wrapper there is an unused, one way ticket - train/coach - to Drupal 11, and we will soon announce a Live/Hands on/Workshop-y session where we will guide anyone that joins us (including Vendors) into a full custom and painless update.
For many it will be a snap. For others it might require some planning, but we will be there for all of you the whole trip.
Still. Our documentation and default branches are on 1.7.0 (Drupal 10) and you are more than welcome to keep using them until you feel you want to move to the next thing.
One thing i wanted to mention (sorry) is that we release because we "should". But not because we need to. The distinction is subtle, but your current 1.6.0 is stable. It runs smooth. It does the job.
Lately modernity/post-modernism as in technocrat driven renewal (and dismissal of what is good or what could be improved with a little bit of care and effort) just "because" feels more violent, more (fake)urgent, when it is not.
In this case, there are just more things in 1.7.0 and 2.1.0 to explore, don't feel any urgency please to upgrade.
As you all know, we do not "make up" features. We code (80%) to keep what has been valid/good for 8 years so far, and what is required so you don't have to think ever of updating data, alive. The other 20% is because you have shown us
there are needs that support your work; real use cases and many of them are fun/communal/desirable/keep-able. For example. One of our dear community members, New York Public Radio, wanted to have new Audio features to support their daily work. So we have now
Waveform extraction (as JSON, attached), and BWF Metadata Processing for WAV audio. Also, through their hard working act of migrating out of another system into Archipelago, and the need of bringing large media (and thus filling up Drive space quite fast), Hydroponics has now a "Running out of space, let's pause" option.
Other features might feel like small details, but for sure might make our friends in Edinburgh happier. Annoyed by AJAX jumping Up to the top of the page? You can now opt/in out on any Drupal View. Or, do you need to report via Statistics
to Which collection(s) a ADO (Page) view - seen by a person - belongs? San Diego State university friends drove that need and now we have new Semantic Aware (computed base fields) and a little Token that can be used to send that whole trail/path of ismemberofs and areweStillFriendsOf in an instant to any external API.
And then we have improved DataCite/DOI integration, also driven by another good partner, Union College. Or a Content Search API V0 endpoint (Mark this one is for you) so Clover does not get confused. Like these, there are many. Won't spoil the unwrapping (beware of the sand though)
But there is also the space in between. I value the unspoken. The many discussions, the emojis, the long nights developing and planning, the too much coffee, the purposefully intent guided by trying to make someone's life better, the awareness that the world is shifting and loosing many of the values we live by, that time and care are precious, care received can not be taken for granted, also, concretely, the features we decided to not add to this release *(YET) and then, there are hopes/dreams of new things to come and good old things (and feelings) that are here to stay.
No release is complete without Acknowledging Allison Sherrick's work and daily contributions. In between releases, during a release process and after - being an after yet again a in between releases. Allison's wider community involvement carries warm winds (use cases and ideas) through our development windows and her constant care for our own community, and good Metadata practices are highly appreciated. Gracias Allison, colleague! And to METRO and the whole staff. But also in specific Nate and Anne (our closer Digital Services team circle) for supporting our ideas/opinions/needs and goals with Archipelago so we can keep doing this (you + us + them) for a long time.
We would also like to thank our community members, means all of you, (in any order) and in particular contributors to Archipelago’s functionality/use cases/ideas and emoji providers in Slack. Bring those emojis please. We do this all for you (ok, some of this i do for myself because i am selfish and stubborn). Because of you and we really care for you all. Also thanks to every other OSS project team (or solo coder) that do/does its very best and provides fertile soil for our own flowers to bloom.
Pre-final concrete note (a tradition introduced by our alternating release manager). Your work keeps growing (and giving fruits) and Archipelago's wider presence "en este planeta Tierra" (Facts/Data and wording brought to you by Allison!) reads like this:
Across only the first 17 Archipelagos listed on our ‘In the Wild’ page (https://docs.archipelago.nyc/1.7.0/inthewild/) under the section covering instances that Diego and I are privileged to manage directly or support as the METRO Digital Services Team alongside our institutional partners:
Total Top-Level Digital Objects: 998,780
Total Digital Objects including all subcomponents (pages, transcripts, mixed media/compound items): 5,513,191
Growth from June 2025: 140k top level objects
Across all of the Archipelagos listed on our ‘In the Wild’ page, we are humbled to share that there are now over 9.5+ million total Digital Objects including all subcomponents (pages, transcripts, mixed media/compound items) held in these repositories--representing a growth from June 2025 of over 1.5+ million Digital Objects.
Finally. We want to dedicate this release to our dear colleague Megan Tyne, that left us too soon. She was a bright light and will be missed very much. Sit tibi terra levi
Please reach out if you have any questions, needs, ideas or strong opinions. if I made a typo, don't reach out please, i can't change the past.
Have a long, happy, adventurous and colorful life. Un Abrazo
Diego & Allison
PS: I, Diego, take full responsibility of anything written here that you don't like.
Allison Sherrick
Jun 18, 2026, 4:27:33 PM (6 days ago) Jun 18
to archipelago commons
Hello Diego and Archipelago community,
Hope you're all having a great day!
Diego, bravissimo to you for another successful and well-prepared Archipelago release! 1.7 & 2.1 pack powerful punches that address a variety of important updates and community needs, thanks to the very good work you put in steadily over the past several months since the also-jam-packed midwinter release. Thank you for all of your dedication and colorful manifold contributions to Archipelago's ongoing development and longer term platform stewardship.
Thank you also to everyone in the wider community for your continued great repository and project work. It's a delight to see everyone's unique collections and materials come to life, and a privilege to work alongside so many wonderful professionals in the library and cultural heritage fields.
Take good care and have a happy rest of your June all,Allison
Hope you're all having a great day!
Diego, bravissimo to you for another successful and well-prepared Archipelago release! 1.7 & 2.1 pack powerful punches that address a variety of important updates and community needs, thanks to the very good work you put in steadily over the past several months since the also-jam-packed midwinter release. Thank you for all of your dedication and colorful manifold contributions to Archipelago's ongoing development and longer term platform stewardship.
Thank you also to everyone in the wider community for your continued great repository and project work. It's a delight to see everyone's unique collections and materials come to life, and a privilege to work alongside so many wonderful professionals in the library and cultural heritage fields.
Take good care and have a happy rest of your June all,Allison
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