September 2018 Release Notes

Published: October 16, 2018

Release Notes

Linked FR documents to CFR details pages, new and updated finding aids, fixes, and enhancements

About govinfo Release Notes - Changes to govinfo components are made through code deployments on a quarterly release cycle. Release Notes are published after each deployment to highlight the changes. This includes updates about content, features, enhancements, bug fixes, and much more. Read past Release Notes

FDsys Retirement and Transition to govinfo

In December 2018, GPO's Federal Digital System (FDsys) website will be retired and replaced with govinfo.

What do I need to know about the transition?

govinfo provides access to the same publications and search functionality as FDsys, but has a new look and new features.
Both FDsys and govinfo are websites that provide access to the same repository of content. See below for a guide to finding certain FDsys resources on govinfo.
Upon the retirement of FDsys in December, links to FDsys, including PURLs, will automatically be redirected by GPO to govinfo.
These other GPO websites will not be affected by the FDsys retirement: eCFR.gov, GPO.gov, U.S. Government Bookstore, Catalog of U.S. Government Publications, FDLP.gov, Ben’s Guide to the U.S. Government.

Read FAQs for more information.

Links from CFR Details Pages to Related FR Documents

Code of Federal Regulations documents now link to related Federal Register rulemaking documents from CFR details pages. See an example. Search for: white chocolate, click details for the result titled “21 CFR § 163.124 – White chocolate.” Then click the Related Documents tab.

To see links to other related documents on govinfo, simply navigate to the Details page of an applicable publication and click the Related Documents tab. Learn more about finding related documents on govinfo or download the quick reference guide (PDF).

Important Note: The Federal Register citation displayed may be the first page of the document that includes the exact citation referenced in that CFR document.

For example, 21 CFR § 135.110 references the following Federal Register citations from Volume 63: 63 FR 14035, Mar. 24, 1998; 63 FR 14818, and Mar. 27, 1998.

On the Related Documents tab for 21 CFR § 135.110, the first linked Federal Register citation is 63 FR 14817. As you can see above, 63 FR 14817 is not referenced in 21 CFR § 135.110, but the linked document starts with page 14817 and includes page 14818 as well.

Also, some Federal Register documents may be listed on the related documents tab but do not necessarily reference the noted CFR document, as Federal Register document page number ranges for citations can overlap. Verification of the related documents displayed may be required.

Other than scrolling through the Federal Register document to confirm the citation in question is within that document, you can also confirm by checking the page number range of a given document on the summary tab metadata on the details pages.

See example. How to get there: Search for ice cream and frozen custard, click details for the result titled "21 CFR § 135.110 - Ice cream and frozen custard." then click the Related Documents tab.

Screenshot of Related Documents tab on a Code of Federal Regulations details page

Find related documents by navigating to the details page of an applicable document and clicking the Related Documents tab

New and Updated Finding Aids

Several finding aids are available in the govinfo help:

A new resource list is now available to aid you in locating a wealth of resources on govinfo as well as other Federal websites with helpful resources. Send us feedback on how we can improve the list.
The alphabetical resource list includes help topics, links to content, and external resources
Congressional Record Index Corrections are available to inform readers of the printed version of the Congressional Record of corrections made to the online version of the Congressional Record.
A Numerical List of Documents and Reports and Schedule of Set of Volumes are made available as finding aids for the Congressional Serial Set. GPO recently added these finding aids for the 113th Congress.

Fixes and Enhancements

Several fixes and enhancements were made to the govinfo API:

Fix for House Rules and Manual granule xml links
Fix for errors returned for some granule MODS links and thumbnails links (GitHub Issue #7)
Fix to allow full set of HOB and CRI granule results to be returned (GitHub Issue #8)
Addition of dcpdCategory, location, subject, name, and notes fields for Compilation of Presidential Documents summaries

Certain fixes and enhancements listed below may require content to be re-processed or re-published for the updates to take effect. This will be completed over a period of time. Content made available after these fixes and enhancements have been implemented will reflect the updates.

Deployed code to support new content including the new Statute Compilations collection and digitized historical content
Added more help tools and resources
Updated sort order of publications on certain browse pages to display with most recent first
Updated process for managing Congressional Committee browse pages
Began initial development of an automated testing framework
Continued efforts to streamline the build and deployment processes
Continued backend work to support the FDsys website retirement including continued testing of FDsys to govinfo redirects
Implemented software and security updates
Continued work on API
Continued work on USLM integration
Made performance improvements for certain components
Implemented numerous minor bug fixes and enhancements including parser updates, improvements to submission process, fix for advanced date search bookmarkable links, minor updates to site display to improve usability, and addition of authors to government author authority file