March 2017 Release Notes

Published: April 4, 2017

Release Notes
Enhancements include CFR Parts Affected Tool and Bulk Data Repository on govinfo

The govinfo team has continued to focus efforts on migrating functionality from GPO's Federal Digital System (FDsys) in preparation to bring govinfo out of beta. This release included several of these transition tasks along with the usual fixes and maintenance activities as we continually work to improve how we're managing the information you have access to through govinfo. Here are some highlights from this release.


Request features, report issues, or provide general feedback on the govinfo beta site by clicking "Feedback" at the top of any page across the site.


CFR Parts Affected Tool

Browse CFR Parts Affected from the Federal Register to find final and proposed rules that affect the CFR and have been published in the Federal Register within the past 24 hours, week, month, or within a specific date range. This tool has been migrated to govinfo from FDsys.

CFR Parts Affected tool on govinfo

Bulk Data Repository

GPO's Bulk Data Repository provides for a “one-click” download of sets of XML data. Bulk data enables third-party developers to more easily reuse and repurpose our data for mobile web applications, data mashups, and other analytical tools, thereby contributing to openness and transparency. This repository has been migrated to govinfo from FDsys.

XML data sets available for bulk download include Congressional Bills, Bill Status, Bill Summaries, Code of Federal Regulations, and the Federal Register.

GPO's Bulk Data Repository on govinfo

New in govinfo, bulk data files are also available via xml and json endpoints. Add "xml" or "json" after "bulkdata" in the URL to access these new formats.

Examples:

This is equivalent to the current UI presentation, but should be easier for third-party developers to consume.


Updated MODS and PREMIS Metadata Templates

On govinfo you can download MODS and PREMIS XML metadata files for each piece of content from the Content Details page. The URLs in these metadata files previously referenced FDsys but now they reference govinfo. Note: For search purposes, govinfo will still be referencing the FDsys MODS, but the files you can download from Content Details pages will include the updated references.

Sample of a MODS file highlighting the reference to a govinfo URL

Did you know you can perform a search over any field in the MODS metadata?

For example, a search for mods:presidentialDoc:@type:execord will result in a list of documents that have the attribute type:execord in the presidentialDoc field in the MODS and are therefore Executive Orders.

A search for mods:dateIngested:(2012-04-13) will result in a list of documents that have the value 2012-04-13 in the dateIngested field in the MODS and were therefore ingested into the system on April 13, 2012.


Changes to Help Information

The Help section has been reorganized and expanded to include content-specific information. For example, read about the Code of Federal Regulations or the Federal Register. Until this information is completely migrated from FDsys to govinfo, refer to the FDsys Help to see all available help information.


Minor Search and Display Fixes

  • Incorrect display of CFR Parts Affected for the November 2, 2015 issue of the Federal Register
  • Browse display issue in the 1996 edition of the Economic Report of the President
  • Bug in the display of the short title of a bill
  • Fix for cosponsors and amendment elements in Bill Status XML (reported via GitHub Issue #34 and Issue #44 )
  • Citation search bug for digitized Federal Register content
  • Advanced searches for certain CFR sections resulting in an error
  • Error when using nested parentheses in a complex search query; for example: ((Interior OR “Forest Service” OR endangered) AND (California OR “ CA”)) OR wilderness
  • Truncated titles of certain Congressional Reports in search results and content detail pages
  • Incorrect display of special characters in certain U.S. Code title fields

Key New Content

Since our last release in December, here are some notable content additions.

America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again

America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again

President Trump's Budget Blueprint made available March 17, 2017.
President Obama Public Papers, 2012, Book I

President Obama Public Papers, 2012, Book I

Made available January 19, 2017.
Digitized Federal Register Volumes, 1990-1994

Digitized Federal Register Volumes, 1990-1994

Made available January 11, 2017.
New Edition of the GPO Style Manual

New Edition of the GPO Style Manual

GPO released the 31st edition, first revision since 2008, on January 12, 2017.

Feature Articles

Since the last release in December 2016, we highlighted 11 feature articles; here are a couple of our favorites.

Presidential Executive Orders

Presidential Executive Orders

Available on govinfo for Presidents Trump through Clinton (back to 1995).
100th Anniversary of the First Woman to Serve in the United States Congress

100th Anniversary of the First Woman to Serve in the United States Congress

Featured on March 4, 2017.
Happy Birthday govinfo

Happy Birthday govinfo

Highlights from the past year as govinfo turned one on February 3, 2017.

See all Features


Behind the Scenes

GPO's govinfo is more than a website with advanced search capabilities; it's also a content management system and preservation repository. There are many smaller components within these three main components that work together to process, preserve, manage, and make content available on the website for searching and browsing.

For example, there are several components involved when content is submitted to the system, including a processor that manages the automated workflow, a parser that generates metadata, and a publisher that sends content to be displayed on the website after processing.

Many activities go on behind the scenes as GPO maintains all system components, provides daily operational support, and continually works to improve how we're managing the information you have access to through govinfo.

Here are some of those activities we worked on for this release.

  • Enhancement to the content processing framework digital signing workflow
  • Fix for parser logging functions
  • Additional alert generation for certain types of files uploaded to the system
  • Parser updates to correct frontmatter element for the Economic Report of the President collection, president field in the Federal Register collection, and subGranuleField element for Congressional Record granules
  • Fix for inconsistent publishing of embargoed content
  • Modifications to the Congressional Hearings collection in preparation to receive digitized content
  • Initial work for enabling govinfo sitemaps
  • Implementation of an automated process for optimizing PDF files before upload to the system
  • Update to parsing of date field in MARC.xml metadata
  • Addition of a new event to PREMIS metadata and fix for processing failure when the PREMIS file name contains special characters
  • Fix to publishing of the contentLocationValue element in PREMIS files
  • Modifications to hot folder email notifications
  • Replacement of development environment

Coming Soon

What we're working on next.

  • Sitemaps for govinfo
  • Navigation, back button, and search improvement
  • In-context Help information
  • Performance optimization
  • Links between select related documents within the system
  • Improved browse structure to accommodate large amounts of content
  • Additional minor enhancements and fixes