's minor 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:
| Release Number | Build Number |
|---|---|
10.4 | Release-2019_01 |
You can find the latest 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.
Two new field types give you more options for storing and displaying your data.
Make numeric data easier to read at a glance by showing them in a Heat Bar. Heat bar fields show data as colored segments of one bar, useful for showing proportions, progress, and more.
Heat Bars are built using either a Related Table or using multiple Numeric fields. For detailed instructions on creating a Heat Bar field, see Heat Bars.
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Use the new Singleton Check Fields field type to represent simple binary data. The Singleton Checkbox is a checkbox without choices, so users can select or clear the box to represent a value of True or False. You can configure a default value for the checkbox, and it can be used to show or hide other fields and to trigger rules.
You can also add a Singleton Checkbox to table views for reference, and set them up for quick edit if desired.
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Show more information and make simple updates from the table view with these new features.
Make it easier to check common record details and make simple edits from the table view with new Summary layout popovers. Simply configure a Summary layout for the table and add View or Edit Popover to the table view to make the Summary layout accessible to users.
Popovers are available in both the power user interface and the EUI, and they can also be used in dashboards and widgets. All popovers include a link at the bottom to the full record.
You can use links or icons to open popovers, and you can customize the display of the header and body of the popover in the Look and Feel wizard.
For detailed configuration steps, see Layouts.
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Include images in table views to make them more visual and easier to read. for example, you can include ID photos in the table view for the Employees table.
To update an Image with Versioning field to display in the table view, edit the field, go to the Options tab, and change the new "Display as image in table view" setting to Yes. You also have the option to limit or specify the size of the image in the table view, and to crop images into circles.
For more information, see Image with Versioning Fields.
The default selection is No, so unless you change the settings for a field, images still appear as links in the table view. Note that this feature doesn't work for old Image fields; it works only for the new Image with Versioning field type, even if you don't use versioning.
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When you Mass Edit multiple records and choose to update a File with Versioning field, you now have access to the "Remove the latest version" option. Previously, this was only available when editing a File with Versioning field in an individual record.
For more information about mass editing records, see Mass Editing Records.
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When you include action buttons in a table view, the system evaluates the user's permissions for each record to determine whether to show the action button. This can take a long time and affect performance. To improve performance in these scenarios, a new global variable, Always Show Action Button in Views, now controls whether the system evaluates permissions before showing the action button. The default setting for this new variable is Yes, meaning action buttons are shown in the table view whenever the user has View permission for the button, even if the user doesn't have Edit permission for the record.
This default setting improves performance when a table view includes an action button and many records or complex permissions. However, it means that if a user has View permission for the button and therefore sees it in the table view, but they don't have permission to edit the record, they receive an error message if they click the button.
If you want to return to the previous behavior and fully evaluate user permissions before showing action buttons, go to Setup > System, click Manage Global Variables, and set Always Show Action Button in Views to No. When you set it to No, buttons are only shown when at least one of the following are true:
Available in 2018_02-r191304 |
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Use these new options to customize your forms.
Table layouts have become even more flexible with a new option to display the common area in a sidebar. In addition to the default position across the top of the record, now it's possible to display the common area in a bar to the left or to the right of the other tabs. For example, you might move the common area to the left side of the Employee table so you can show user pictures.
To change the position of the common area, open the Layout tab of the table wizard and click the new Common Area button. This opens a pop-up window that allows you to set the common area's position, maximum percent of the window, and field alignment independent of the record layout's field alignment.
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Use the Heading Text settings in the Look and Feel wizard to determine the appearance of text headers in record forms. The settings are not new, but they were not respected by the collapsible text headers. Now, the headers appear according to your Look and Feel scheme while also allowing users to expand or collapse them.
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To improve record form navigation, the Save and Cancel buttons and the record form tabs no longer move when the user scrolls down. This means even at the bottom of a long form with lots of fields, users can easily switch tabs and use Save or Cancel options.
Note that the Common Area is still subject to scrolling when placed at the top of the form, but if you move the Common Area to the right or left side of the record, it does not move when the user scrolls down.
Because the top Save and Cancel buttons are now always visible, the Save and Cancel buttons at the bottom of the record form have been removed. If you need to add them back, you can do so at Setup > System by clicking Manage Global Variables and setting the "Show action buttons at the bottom of the record" variable to Yes.
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Add graphics to your relationship diagrams with a new configuration option. This option allows you to select an image field from the record and display that image in a specified size as an icon alongside the item name in the diagram. For an example, consider the diagram below.
To add icons to a Relationship Diagram field, first create or identify an image field in the table to hold the icon images. You might want to add an icon to one or two of the records to make it easier to test your results. Then, create or edit a Relationship Diagram field and specify the image field and image size on the Display tab.
For more information, see Relationship Diagram Fields.
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Explore the new Report Action type and take advantage of new options to fine-tune your existing actions.
Use the new Report Action to run reports directly from records, using the information from the record as a run-time input. For example, you could add a Report Action to an action button in the Service Requests table that runs a report on the service request's associated tasks. When a user clicks Run Report, the service request is passed in automatically and the user doesn't see the run-time input at all.
Report actions are compatible with table-specific and combined reports. You can choose to show the report in a new window or browser tab, or attach the report to a field as a file. You also have the option to use the permissions of the user triggering the action, or to use the permissions of a specific user every time.
When you use a report action in an Action Button, it's recommended to use reports with run-time filters. The system automatically passes field values from the current record in to the run-time filter, so the user sees the correct result for the current record without needing to manually enter any run-time inputs. In the example shown above, the Tasks by Status report is filtered by a saved search with a run-time filter for the Service Request ID.
For more information, see Report Actions.
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Make action buttons support more seamless workflows by placing the user in a specific form location after the actions are executed. In the Action Button field wizard, the "After executing actions" field now has new navigation options, broken down by power users and end users.
To implement this feature for an action button, create or edit the action button field and scroll down to "After executing actions." Select the Navigate option and simply select the tab and text heading or field you want to show. Now, when a user clicks the action button, they are brought to the location you specified after the actions are complete.
If the field or text heading you select isn't available for a user due to visibility dependency or missing permissions, the user is redirected to the first tab of the record.
For more information, see Action Buttons.
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Action buttons now offer a third display option: display the button as a hyperlink. Showing action buttons as text hyperlinks can make records look more uniform, save space, and align directly with field text. For example, these action buttons align cleanly with the fields above them and create a compact, neat layout:
You can find the new display option in the field wizard for Action Button fields. The option to display action buttons as buttons has been renamed to Button with text for clarity.
For more information, see Action Buttons.
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If an action bar drop-down menu has no items available to the user, that drop-down is no longer shown in the action bar. For example, if Import and Export are the only items in the Actions drop-down menu, but a user doesn't have permission to use Import or Export, the Actions drop-down menu no longer appears for that user.
Previously, Actions would have appeared, but no items would have appeared in the drop-down menu.
For more information about action bars, see Action Bars.
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Use new Ephesoft Intelligent OCR integration to parse documents and map the information to fields, enjoy expanded support for Salesforce, and review new options for e-signature.
Ephesoft now provides intelligent, AI-based Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for PDF files within Agiloft. You can customize batch classes of field definitions for various PDF document types that they need to extract data from, and train the system to improve accuracy and the confidence level of the extracted field data. The data from OCR documents can be mapped to fields in a knowledgebase, converted into records, and more.
Ephesoft allows you to upload sets of documents and create detailed mappings of the key fields in that document type. For example, a W-2 payment form uses a pro forma layout with fields such as Employee Identification Number, Wages, First and Last Name, Employer, and Social Security Number, which can all be trained for extracting as metadata.
For more information about Ephesoft integration, see Ephesoft Integration for Intelligent OCR and Using Ephesoft Intelligent OCR.
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Salesforce ESA object mapping now supports custom Salesforce objects as well as standard ones. This offers increased flexibility and better support for syncing between Agiloft and Salesforce.
Additionally, Salesforce ESA syncs no longer fails due to missed mappings or empty values for external system required fields. When no value is provided, a default value is used to avoid failure. Previously, missing these values caused the sync to fail.
For more information, see Salesforce Integration.
Custom Salesforce object sync available in 2018_02-r186002 |
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Use a new choice field in the Adobe Sign Envelope table to automatically retrieve the Adobe Sign Audit Report with the signed document. The Audit Report is generated by Adobe Sign and includes details about the document, its creation, its signing status, and transaction information. For more information about the Audit Report, see the Adobe Sign documentation.
To use this feature, add the new Include Audit Report with Signed Document field onto the Adobe Sign Envelopes table layout. Then, select Yes in the field for an Adobe Sign Envelope record.
For more information, see Adobe Sign Integration.
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When DocuSign envelopes are created outside of Agiloft under an account set up for Agiloft integration, those envelopes and their updates are shared with Agiloft. You can now choose whether to create corresponding records for these envelopes in the DocuSign Envelopes table, or to ignore those updates when they don't correspond to an existing Envelope record.
To check or adjust this setting, go to Setup > Integration > Configure DocuSign Extension and edit the "Create external envelopes" field.
For more information, see DocuSign Integration.
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Take advantage of new features to make direct file editing work best for your needs.
Direct file editing now supports concurrent editing by multiple users at the same time. Concurrent editing can make review faster and more efficient by allowing reviewers to respond to each other in real time, and by removing the need to wait for each reviewer to finish completely before passing the file along. Note that an individual user must click Save to sync the changes to the file and make them appear for other users.
Concurrent editing is not turned on for any fields by default, and concurrent editing works only in combination with direct file editing with MS Office. To enable concurrent editing, edit a File with Versioning field and select the Allow concurrent editing check box.
For more information, see File with Versioning Fields and Direct File Edit.
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A new option gives you control over when rules are triggered during direct file editing. When you create or edit a File with Versioning field where "Enable Versioning" is Yes and "Allow direct editing..." is selected, you now have the option to determine when rules are triggered: on every save by a user, or on the last save by a user. If you choose "On every save by a user," rules are triggered every time the user clicks Save. If you choose "On the last save by a user," rules are only triggered by the final update to the file, when the last open Word editing session is closed.
When concurrent editing is enabled, you have different choices: on every save by every user, on the final save of any user, or on the last save by the last user. If you choose "On every save by every user," rules are triggered every time any user clicks Save. If you choose "On the final save of any user," rules are triggered when any user finishes editing and closes the Word editing session, even if other users continue editing. If you choose "On the last save by the last user," rules are triggered only when the last user closes the Word editing session and no other editing sessions are active.
For more information, see File with Versioning Fields.
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Your power over the EUI continues to grow with support for dashboards, granular control over labels, and intelligent record form display.
For more information about any of these features, see EUI Macro Reference.
Give dashboards a home on your EUI using a new macro: #ew_dashboard($dashboardName $showMenu)
This macro forms the URL to show the dashboard with the given name, as shown in the Dashboards list. Note that this forms only the URL, not the full HTML expression, so you need to place it in a frame, such as: <iframe src='#ew_dashboard("" "")' name="content_frame" id="frameres" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0"></iframe>
If the $dashboardName value is empty, the most recently selected dashboard is shown; if no dashboard has been selected, the default dashboard is shown. Use $showMenu to specify whether to show the Dashboards drop-down list at the top. If the $showMenu value is empty, the default setting is True, which shows the list.
Usage examples:
#ew_dashboard("" "")
#ew_dashboard("" "false")
#ew_dashboard("Sales Home Page" "")
#ew_dashboard("Sales Home Page" "false")
The EUI respects permissions set on the dashboard, so only users with appropriate permission can see the dashboard in any interface. Dashboards can appear in full for users in power user groups, and users in end user groups can be shown Hotlink, Table, URL, Image and Text widgets depending on their permissions.
For more information, see EUI Macro Reference.
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Fine-tune your EUI displays with the new showLabel visualization parameter for the #ew_table, #ew_searches_list, #ew_query, and #ew_new_search macros. When showLabel is set to "true", the table label is shown in the frame; if set to "false", the label is hidden. This makes it easier to control labels on a case-by-case basis in the EUI.
For a full list of visualization parameters and the macros that use them, see EUI Macro Reference.
Note that if the group permissions for the table label are configured to hide the label from a group, users from that group will not see the table label even if showLabel is set to "true".
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When power users access records through the EUI, they usually see the end user record layout, which might not include all the fields they need. If power users frequently use the EUI to access records, you can automatically show them the power user record layout using the new "Layouts in EUI" global variable.
The default value, End user layouts, always shows all users the end user layout when they access a record through the EUI. You can change this variable to "Based on user group" to automatically show the full power user layout to any user who is part of at least one power user group.
To use this new option, go to Setup > System and click Manage Global Variables. On the Variables with Default Values tab, locate the new Layouts in EUI variable and set it to "Based on user group."
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These additional improvements contribute to the navigation experience and options.
Extend your hotlink widgets with new links that take the user directly to a specific record. You can use these links to bring the user to their own profile, team, company, and more, and make it easy for the user to open a record with a run-time search and edit it.
To create a hotlink to a record, create or edit a Hotlink Widget and click New on the Options tab. In the What should the link do? field, select View/Edit record. Then, select the table for the record and select or create a search.
You can use multiple run-time criteria in the search if needed. Try to design the search to return only one result, so the hotlink will always open the record the user expects. If the search returns more than one result, the first result in the sort order is opened. If the search doesn't return any results, or the user doesn't have permission to view the result, the system shows an error.
After you select the search to use, choose whether to view or edit the record. You also have the option to choose a specific tab or field to focus on when the record opens, so the user can immediately edit that field without having to select it.
For more information, see Hotlink Widgets.
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An optimized algorithm has made complex Multiple Linked Field saved searches much faster. This change also improves performance by about 10% when such saved searches are used to restrict permissions.
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Hop right into your left pane shortcuts by pressing Alt+M for My Assigned or Alt+L for Last Opened, without expanding the list to see the searches below. Previously, these shortcuts only worked when the lists were expanded.
Note that if the My Assigned or Last Opened section isn't shown in the Left Pane at all, the keyboard shortcuts won't open them.
For more information about shortcuts, see Keyboard Shortcuts.
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When an administrator makes a change to the Left Pane and chooses to notify users about the change, users see a notification icon. When a user clicks the icon, they now see a new option to keep their existing settings and clear the notification. Previously, they had to reset their Left Pane to their team's settings to clear the notification.
For more information, see Navigation Menu Setup.
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A new global variable, "Deprecate Old File Options," allows you to hide the following deprecated field options that still appear on the Options tab of the File with Versioning field wizard:
These options have already been replaced by Document Comparison and OCR actions, but they had not been hidden in the wizard. By default, the new global variable is set to No, and the deprecated fields still appear in the wizard. To hide these fields, go to Setup > System, click Manage Global Variables, and set "Deprecate Old File Options" to Yes.
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Stay on top of sync processes with these new features.
Check the status of a system sync without the admin console. The status of all sync processes is now available in Setup > Sync as a new Sync Status button in the toolbar.
When you click Sync Status, you can review all currently active sync processes that involve the current KB. For example, if a sync is running between KB A and KB B, it appears in the Sync Status for both A and B, but not KB C. When the sync is completed, it disappears from the list. This list includes external sync processes, Agiloft sync processes, and ESA connections.
Previously, a more limited sync status page was available in the admin console only. The admin console status page (Debugging > Sync) has also been expanded to include external sync processes, Agiloft sync processes, and ESA connections, where it previously showed only ESA connections. When a process is finalized, it disappears from the list.
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Sync processes now have additional protection against interruption. Previously, if someone tried to log in with the same credentials as the user who initiated a sync, a concurrent login notification interrupted the sync process. Now, this notification doesn't appear, so the sync process can continue running.
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These updates will still improve your experience, even though they didn't fit in an earlier category.
Working with global variables has been improved by automating the tab organization so that variables are automatically added to the Customized Variables tab when their value is changed from the default, and those variables are automatically removed when the value is changed back to the default.
Additionally, when you edit a global variable, the variable's description now appears above the Variable Notes input window, and the default value now appears in the section where you update the variable value, where applicable.
For more information, see Variables.
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The option to propagate field changes to subtables is now selected by default in the Field wizard. It's generally easier to remove changes from subtables than to duplicate changes in each subtable.
This option was also added to the wizard for linked fields.
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To more accurately distinguish the group from end users, "staff" terms are now replaced by "power user." You might have already noticed this replacement in some areas, such as the Power User Interface button in the Look and Feel menu. Now, this change has been made in additional places in the system, including the license request screen, layout editor, login page, and more.
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Excel reports now accept files with macros as templates. For example, you might include macros to manipulate the system data for application in a chart, to automatically redo formatting, and more. For more information, see Excel Reports.
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When fields aren't tracked by history, the history snapshot now shows "Not tracked" or, for multiple linked fields, "No records." Previously, the history snapshot showed the current value in these cases.
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Performance has been improved for conversions that create multiple records, and incorrect field mappings are now handled as an exception with a warning message.
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Full text searching now supports Japanese text and documents, including morphological parsing and equivalent Kanji and Kana search capabilities. When enabled, this allows Japanese search results for equivalent Japanese words even when different characters are used.
To enable this feature, go to Setup > System and click Manage Global Variables. On the Variables with Default Settings tab, edit the Enable Japanese Word Segmenter variable and set it to Yes.
Available in 2018_02-r187727 |
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The Web Services (REST and SOAP) engine was refactored completely, so anyone using SOAP must reactivate Web Services, download the new WSDL and update your implementation according with it.
If your system uses SOAP Web Services, first reactivate Web Services:
Next, download the new WSDL.
Finally, note the new WSDL endpoint and update your system with it as needed: https://server/ewws/KBNAME/EWWSv2Service?wsdl
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