Minor Agiloft software releases happen continuously throughout the year, while major releases happen about twice per year. This page highlights some of the most important recent enhancements to the software. Enhancements that were released to the prior version are marked as such.

This page covers updates for:

You can find the latest  Agiloft downloadable installer at  https://www.agiloft.com/ewdownload/, or contact Support to request an upgrade if your knowledgebase is hosted in the cloud. The most recent release notes from the last major release can be found here:  Release Notes.

New Integrations

Check out exciting new ways to integrate  Agiloft with third-party features and software.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities added to  Agiloft

With new AI integration, Agiloft can analyze documents to extract metadata and clauses and assign risk scores to new contracts. Enjoy pre-built AI Capabilities to process data directly from your  Agiloft system.

• Connect to clause extraction and named entity recognition (NER) AI Capabilities hosted by Agiloft, or host your own machine learning models on Amazon SageMaker and connect them directly to your  Agiloft system. For more information, see Setting Up AI and Available AI Capabilities.
• Extract content from documents with AI Capabilities, including both discrete data points and whole clauses. After you extract the data, configure risk assessment to automatically flag documents that differ noticeably from your standard contract language, length, value, and more. For more information, see Extracting Data with AI and Risk Scoring with AI.

For more information, take a look at a demonstration of AI in  Agiloft below. For best results, view this video in full screen.

Add Alexa integration and skills to your KB

You can integrate your KB with private Alexa for Business skills to allow your users to ask their Alexa devices for updates on content in your KB. Custom skills can be designed for most basic operations, such as creating, updating, and deleting records, searching and reading data from existing records, counting records, and running actions.

To integrate with Alexa, first develop an Alexa skill for your business needs and then connect it to your KB in the Alexa Extension wizard. After you connect a skill to your KB, you can map system contacts with individual users to integrate their Alexa devices with the KB. Actions taken by an Alexa device are attributed to these users, or to the default user assigned in the integration settings, as a backup.

For details on setting up this integration, see Alexa Integration.

Use Google Translate to create and maintain KB localization

Offer multi-lingual support with less time and expense by using Google Translate machine translation to localize the text in your system. You can use Google Translate to perform an initial translation of your system to a new language, and you can also perform live translation when new KB entities are created.

For example, when you create a new table, you can set your Google Translate integration to automatically prompt suggested machine translations for the table name in each selected language. You can easily adjust the Google Translate suggestions to make sure the translation correctly represents your meaning. If you're only familiar with one of the other supported languages, you can approve just those translations and leave the others for someone else to review in the translation approval workflow.

You can also silently apply machine translation in the background and save those translations for review in a dedicated approval workflow, all at once. This option is useful if the admins who build system entities aren't the same people who review translation content.

This feature requires a Google Cloud account and API key.

For details about configuring this feature, see Google Translate Integration and Localization.

Added Integration with Microsoft Dynamics

You can now send real-time, event-driven updates between your knowledgebase and Microsoft Dynamics with new integration options. Changes in Agiloft are posted to Dynamics using Dynamics ODATA and ADAL frameworks, and any changes on the Dynamics side are posted to Agiloft using REST APIs.

This feature makes use of REST APIs, so it requires an Enterprise or Extended Enterprise Agiloft license.

For details, see Microsoft Dynamics Integration.

UI and Usability Improvements

These small tweaks can make a big difference in user experience. Check out new features and options in the UI this release.

Users can now resize and rearrange dashboards while viewing them

Users are now empowered to resize, rearrange, and remove widgets on their own dashboards in real time, without going through an administrator. These temporary changes are kept until the user logs out or clicks Reset in the top right corner.

User changes to dashboards don't change the base sizing and arrangement of widgets, which is still determined by the dashboard setup wizard.

For more information about dashboard functionality, see Dashboards.

Activity Log can now be included in dashboard widgets

The Activity Log table is now available for selection when building dashboard widgets, so dashboards may include login and other such data.

For more information, see Dashboard Widgets.

Rounding has been added for Numerical Result widgets, resulting in cleaner display

Make Numerical Result widgets on dashboards look neat and tidy by controlling the maximum number of decimal places. You can set the maximum decimal digits for each Numerical Result widget using the new "Round data" option.

For more information, see Numerical Result Widgets.

Usability improvements in Combined Reports

Design and use Combined Reports more easily with improved naming conventions.

• When you create or edit a Combined Report, each selected report name also shows the name of its source table. Seeing the table names makes it easier to tell the reports apart and place them in the right order.
  
• In the finished report, the worksheets for the report in Excel format are now titled with the table name, index value, and report name. These titles are more intuitive than the previous format, where each tab was named Data1, Data2, etc.

Combined reports are found in the Home Menu.

Improvements to JavaScript charts

Interactive JavaScript charts are now more user-friendly:

• The Y axis now shows the total number of items, like non-JavaScript charts.
• Drill-down levels have improved display by eliminating blank space, adding the drill-down X value to the header, and filtering the legend to relevant categories only. Segmented drill-downs now include the segment value.
• Inside a segmented drill-down, hover over a category to see details, including which field was used to segment the data.

Drill-downs also offer a new type of display to show the records in a segment when that segment is clicked, using the view defined for the HTML report. If you choose this display option, the drill-down data is shown as an HTML report instead of a chart. This option is available on the Drill Down tab of the Charts wizard.

For more information about JavaScript charts and drill-down options, see Create and Edit Charts and Reports.

Heat Bars now show better labels and tooltips on mouseover

Give users more information by adding tooltips to your heat bars, which show up when users hover over a bar segment with the cursor. You can show a custom text label that describes the segment, the numerical value represented, or both.

To set up a mouseover tooltip, edit the Heat Bar field and go to the Display tab. In the Mouseover section, choose what you want to show. If you want to show a label, define the label at the top, next to the color settings.

For more information, see Heat Bars.

Smoother selection of dates and times

Date and time popups have been replaced with modal menus, leading to a smoother user experience.

Easily preview Summary layouts

When you create or edit a Summary layout for a table, the Preview button now shows a preview of the Summary layout. To try it out, go to Setup [Table] > Layout, select Summary from the options at the top, create a layout or make any necessary adjustments, and then click Preview at the bottom.

For more information, see Layouts.

Show input boxes below field labels in more places

To allow more flexibility when setting up table layouts, the option to place the input box below and in line with the field label is now available for all data types. With this option selected, the content appears directly below the field label, and the existing settings are used to place the input instruction and other elements.

Previously, this option was only available for some data types, and in the Common Area.

Drag and drop Outlook attachments to  Agiloft fields directly

Files attached to open emails in Outlook can be dragged directly from Outlook to File with Versioning fields in Agiloft to easily attach documents without saving them in an intermediary location. For example, if a client sends supplementary documents in an email, you can open the relevant record in Agiloft and drag the documents directly from Outlook to the appropriate File with Versioning field. Attachments, contacts, meetings, and calendar events can all be dragged from Outlook.

This feature is natively available in the latest version of the Chrome and Edge browsers. If you use another browser, there are free Outlook plug-ins that provide the same capability.

For more information, see File with Versioning Fields.

Resend DocuSign envelopes to recipients from  Agiloft

Easily resend DocuSign envelopes from  Agiloft by clicking the Send button again, even if the envelope status is Sent or Delivered. Previously, this function was blocked, and now the send envelope function works to send emails regardless of the status. This is useful if the recipient is taking too long to sign the envelope, or if you want to place it at the top of the signer's inbox by sending it again.

Searches now include content in attached PowerPoint files

Full text searches now find term matches in attached PowerPoint documents and file names, just as they do for attached PDF and Word documents. Keep in mind that this is still subject to the limit set in the max_file_size_to_fts_index global variable, so if your PowerPoint documents are larger than your setting for that variable, they won't be indexed for searching.

EUI search macros can now be assigned their own view for the results

You can now specify the View you want to use in #ew_query and #ew_searches_list EUI macros, so the search results are shown with the best View for the content.

To include a View in these macros, add the view label in quotation marks as the last parameter. For example, to apply a View named Mobile View in an #ew_searches_list macro, you might use this code: #ew_searches_list("contract" "my_table" "searchselect" "input" "showToolBar=false&showNavigation=true&showfastsearch=false" $mysearch "Mobile View")

For more information about EUI macros, see EUI Macro Reference.

Maintain bookmarks in MS Word files with new custom variable

You can now include bookmarks in the final output of Microsoft Word-format print templates, so readers can use the bookmarks to navigate in the finished document. To preserve bookmarks in the print template output, add a custom variable called print_template_remove_bookmark and set it to No. This setting applies only to print templates using Microsoft Word formatting.

This change also resolved a previous issue that sometimes caused a "Section not found" error when documents generated by print templates are attached to a DocuSign envelope. This error is fixed automatically, so you do not need to add the custom variable unless you want to use it to preserve bookmarks for Word-format print templates.

For more information, see Creating Print Templates.

New Email Options

These new options support configuration in emails and email templates.

New option to resolve field variables in text fields sent via email

If you ever need to include variables in email templates that might themselves contain variables, you can now resolve the variables on both levels by setting a new global variable.

For example, if you use an Email Texts table to preconfigure a set of email messages that are selectable by users to send from within a contract record, these preconfigured email texts can now contain variables from the contract from which they are sent, such as the start date, end date, contract title, and so on.

With the new feature turned on, the text in the email message is first resolved, and then checked a second time to resolve the value of any variables in that text field.

If the user sending the email doesn't have permission to view a field, the variable is removed and no value is displayed. In the example above, a user with permission to see the Email Message but not the start date or end date would receive an email without the content of those fields.

To turn this option on, go to Setup > System and click Manage Global Variables. Locate the "Iterative resolving variables and formulas in the email body" global variable and set it to Yes.

For more information, see Sending Emails  and the Global Variables List.

Use any compound field in To User email fields

The "To User" list of fields in an email template was previously filtered to linked fields from the people table whose source field was either Login or Full Name. With this enhancement, linked fields based on a compound field from the people table will also be included on the list. For instance, if you create a compound field with "Salutation + Full Name" or "Rank + Full Name", and pull these fields into a linked user set in another table, an email template may be addressed based on the value in these fields.

To select a compound field, open a new email or email template and check the User Fields option in the To: section. Click the magnifying glass next to User Fields and select the compound field you want to use.

For more information about email, see Sending Email.

Email sending to a selected Email field uses the system's default email field in the contact record

Previously, if an email template was addressed to a particular email field, the system's selection of the correct contact to send to was unreliable if a table had multiple email fields, and the selected email address was found in multiple contacts in different fields.

Now, the system uses the Contacts.Email field as the person to send to, if it exists, and if that field has been deleted, the system uses the first non-linked field with the Email data type.

Security Updates

These changes make various improvements to security for your system.

Manage the main security settings from one convenient location

The most important security settings and security-related global variables have been consolidated into one new Security wizard, available at Setup > System > Security. The global variables that are now managed in the Security wizard no longer appear in the global variables list, so admins will go to the Security wizard to review or edit them.

Most of the global variables are listed on the General tab. The wizard includes the global variable name in case you need to search for one. The General tab offers the following settings, which no longer appear in the global variables manager:

• Restrict Standard Login / Password based access to Agiloft users authenticated by SSO
• SSO Endpoint 
• Security: Trusted Zones 
• Security: Allowed Referrers
• Security: Hotlink Master Password 
• JavaScript Injections in UI
• Security: Permit Javascript in print templates
• Security: Allow scripts in dashboard widgets
• Security: Allowed External Hosts
• Security: Check Session Match
• Security: Check client IP
• Security: Informative Password Messages
• Security: Custom message for "Reset Password" error
• Security: Show Stack Trace on SoD
• Security: Web Services Anti SQL Injection
• Security: Web Services Verbose Errors
• Security: Days to continue support of old key

On the Web Services tab, set groups, whitelists, and blacklists for SOAP and REST services.

On the IP Restrictions tab, set IP restrictions and whitelists.

For more information, see Security.

Improve security with restricted file types for File with Versioning fields

Improve security in your KB by restricting the allowed attachment file types for File with Versioning fields. By default, the new Restrict Attachments option is set to prevent attachment of executable files and .bat files to improve security for your system. This feature prevents file attachment even if an executable file is renamed with a new extension, such as "malware.exe" being manually renamed "malware.txt".

You can change this setting to No restrictions if you want to allow all types of files to be attached, or you can use the Allow attachments of only these types option to specify a finite list of file types allowed in the field. To edit the setting, edit a File with Versioning field and go to the Options tab.

With the default setting, if a user tries to attach an executable file to the field, they will see an error message and the file won't be attached.

For more information, see File with Versioning Fields.

New security control restricts JavaScript in Look and Feel and field labels

To protect your system from potential attacks, JavaScript is now restricted by default in Look & Feel controls and in field labels. For example, if a bad actor edits a field label to add a malicious script, this feature prevents that script from being added when the record is saved.

For optimal security, we recommend you leave this new restriction active. However, if you permit JavaScript usage in these locations, such as to extend the capabilities of the page header, you can go to Setup > System, click Security, and set "JavaScript Injections in UI" to Yes to allow JavaScript.

If you already have JavaScript saved in any of these locations, that data is not overwritten or deleted until someone edits the field or scheme and saves it again. To preserve existing JavaScript, set "JavaScript Injections in UI" to "Yes" immediately, before anyone makes edits.

For more information, see Security.

New Options for Imports and Exports

New options allow increased flexibility for importing data.

Save time during imports by skipping records with no updates

Data imports now offer an option to skip records when all the import fields exactly match the current field data. For example, if you are importing company data on a scheduled basis from a company master system, and you are mapping company name, tax ID, parent company, and type of company fields, during an update or import (match existing records on a unique field) the system checks for a full match of those fields before importing, and if it finds a record matching on all fields, the system skips importing that record entirely. Skipping such records can save significant time during large imports.

If you set the new option to "Import record," the system sets the current date as the Date Updated and adds a history entry, even if all the field data is identical and the import makes no material change.

To use this option during an import, go to the Records tab and select "Replace matching records" or "Update imported fields only in matching records" in the Act on Existing Records section. This makes the new "If matching record is found" option active. If you set this option to "Skip record if all mapped fields match current data," the system skips records when all the import fields match the data in the record fields exactly. Otherwise, if a record matches only in the Match records field you selected, the record is replaced or updated according to your selection.

For more information about imports, see  Importing Record Data.

Import additional data for multi-value linked fields

Imports now offer a new feature for multi-value linked fields, allowing you to append the new values instead of replacing them. For example, if a record already has "Marketing" selected in a multi-value Departments field, you can import "Sales" and "Legal" as additional values so that all three are selected in the record when the import is complete.

To use this new option during an import, go to the Records tab. Under Act on Existing Records, choose to "Update imported fields only in matching records." This makes the Multi-Value Linked Fields option active, where you can choose whether to append or overwrite the data.

For more information about imports, see  Importing Record Data.

Compress attached files during KB export

When you export a KB in a non- Agiloft output format, you can now easily include attached files in your export and compress everything into a .zip file using a new feature on the Options tab. With the "Zip downloaded files" option selected, the export produces a .zip file for download, which contains the export in your selected format as well as a Files folder with all the attachments inside.

For more information, see Transferring Knowledgebases Across Servers.

Auto-sized columns in Excel exports improve readability

Exports in Excel 2007+ format (.xlsx) now create cleaner, more readable columns that are automatically sized according to the length of the field values. It makes files legible and easier to use, and it requires less manual adjustment by the user.

Admin Improvements

Review new features specifically for admins to make troubleshooting easier.

Easily analyze system performance from the admin console

Troubleshoot performance issues quickly and easily by starting with the new Run Performance Analysis button, available to administrators with access to the admin console. This button generates a report on all system activities that might have caused performance issues since 12 AM that morning. The report includes sections for main activities, top CPU processes, and VMStat output. Previously, this function was available only as a script.

To access the new option, log in to the admin console, go to Debugging > Performance, and click Run Performance Analysis.

For more information on performance optimization, see Diagnosing Server Performance Issues.

Print Field Documentation now includes all useful information

Several changes make the system-generated field documentation more useful:

• The Data Type column includes more details. For example, for Related Table fields, the documentation now includes the name of the corresponding Saved Search.
• Choice and Multi-Choice fields now also list the contents of the associated choice list.
• The Maximum Size column has been replaced with a new Size/Display column, which includes the input field width, display of formatted text, input instructions, pop-up text, input aids for Linked Fields, and Action Bar usage, if applicable.
• The Required/Dependent/Unique column has been renamed Special Conditions. It now also includes details about visibility conditions, if the field has any defined.
• Action Buttons include additional information about the actions that are triggered by the buttons, and the options selected for before and after the button is clicked.

With these changes, you can use system field printout to excel to provide complete documentation about your system fields.

To print field documentation for a table, go to Setup [Table], open the Fields tab, and click Print Field Documentation. For more information, see Table Wizard.

Repair corrupted personal GUI preferences from Admin Console

Administrators can easily solve issues with users' personal GUI preferences, such as an incomplete or missing Left Pane, with an option to simply reset those preferences from the Admin Console. To reset a user's preferences, log in to the Admin Console, edit the knowledgebase, click Reset User GUI Preferences, and enter the user's login.

Set separate timeout for background rules with new global variable

Previously, background rules used the default session timeout setting and could time out before completing if that timeout was too low.  This is correct with the new global variable Timeout: Run Rule in Background, which you can use to set a longer timeout period for background rules. If you run rules that take over four hours to complete, such as running an import on hundreds of thousands of records, you should consider adjusting the timeout period. If the timeout period is too short, rules that take too long might return an error message or fail to complete the defined actions.

By default, the new variable is set to 14400 seconds, or four hours. To adjust this variable, go to Setup > System > Manage Global Variables. Select the Variables with Default Values tab, and edit the Timeout: Run Rule in Background global variable.

For more information, see the Global Variables List.

New warning when memory allocation is set too low

Memory allocation problems are now easier to avoid, with Agiloft providing a warning after a system upgrade if the memory allocation settings for JBoss or MySQL are below 50% of the recommended amount. For information on changing the memory allocation settings, see the Settings section of Using the Setup Assistant.

Prevent performance slowdowns by removing automatic String searches

Previously, if a full-text search (a search using the -TEXT- option without the String checkbox selected) didn't return any results, the system automatically ran the search again with the String checkbox selected. String searches run very slowly on large tables, and they impact performance for other users on the server.

To prevent these unintended performance draws, full-text searches with no results no longer automatically initiate a String search. Users can still manually run a String search on their query as desired.

Other Updates

The rest of the updates didn't fit into obvious categories, but that doesn't make them less valuable.

Control when History fields track an update

A new option in History fields allows you to fine-tune when a history entry is created, to make the entries more meaningful and save space in large tables.

You can choose to create an entry:

• Only when at least one field tracked by history is changed. If the Date Updated and Updated By fields are tracked, you can choose to exclude one or both of those fields, so updates to only those fields won't create a history entry.
• Whenever a record is saved. This is the default value matching previous behavior. With this option selected, a history entry is created every time the record is saved, even if there is no actual change to any field.

The new option is designed to help you minimize history entries that don't provide valuable information, while still allowing flexibility for retaining history entries based on commonly tracked fields. Keep in mind that for history entries made by rules, this option works in concert with the options in the Rule Wizard.

For more information, see History Fields.

General performance improvements

There have been several general changes to improve system performance. Specifically:

• Faster Search menu load time for table views
• Improved handling of data changes for Text fields
• Optimized JDBC connection settings for better DML performance

Localize Left Pane grouping names

Left Pane groups are now represented in the KB localization properties and available for translation. For more information about localizing a KB, see Localization.

Improved localization for Chart Collections and Views

Localization for Chart Collections and Views is now based on a unique identifier that does not change when a Collection or View is renamed, or when a KB is imported, re-imported, or moved. Previously, the localization would be lost under these circumstances.

Formula help now includes the secureHotlink function for encrypting URLs

The secureHotlink(url) function is now available on the Functions tab of Formula Help, making it easier to enter the syntax and to find the function when browsing. The function treats a URL as a hotlink, retrieves the project name from it, retrieves the public key for it, and encrypts the URL as secured hotlink.