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	See the [[Previous Upgrades]] page for a list of previously-implemented upgrade features.		See the [[Previous Upgrades]] page for a list of previously-implemented upgrade features.
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−	The production environments for the Public Cloud were last upgraded on {{LastUpgradeDate}}.
−	'''Important:''' The upgrade will be applied to your [[Backup Server and Testing Instances|backup environment]] two weeks prior to the scheduled upgrade date for your production environment. You are encouraged to log into your backup environment during this period to test the changes against your most recent data and configuration.	+	{{November2018Upgrade}}
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−	If your organization is subscribed to Private Cloud hosting, the upgrade will be made available to you two weeks after the Public Cloud release.
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	=Future Upgrades=		=Future Upgrades=

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Revision as of 15:01, 7 November 2018

General Information

Next Upgrade Date

The next upgrade is scheduled for July 20 2023.

Upgrade Schedule

Upgrade	Key Release Date	Global Release Date
November 2024	Thu, Nov 14 2024	Thu, Nov 28 2024
February 2025	Thu, Feb 13 2025	Thu, Feb 27 2025
June 2025	Thu, Jun 12 2025	Thu, Jun 26 2025
October 2025	Thu, Oct 9 2025	Thu, Oct 23 2025
February 2026	Thu, Feb 12 2026	Thu, Feb 26 2026
June 2026	Thu, Jun 11 2026	Thu, Jun 25 2026
October 2026	Thu, Oct 8 2026	Thu, Oct 22 2026

We regularly update the list of upgrade features and schedule for both the backup and production environments on this Wiki page.

This page will provide a general overview of each upgrade, with links to the Wiki articles describing the new or updated features and how to use them. You can also subscribe to the Technical Journal that is sent out prior to each upgrade on the Newsletter Signup Page. (Unsubscribe here).

System Upgrade Process

The objective of the System Upgrade Process is to ensure that customers have a chance to review, without compromising the integrity of their production system, how their applications and information will work following the upgrade. In order to take advantage of this you will need to know how to access your backup instance of SmartSimple. If you need assistance with this either refer to the Backup Server and Testing Instances Wiki article, or contact the SmartSimple support desk.

For clients on a Private Cloud enviornment, please review the SmartSimple Upgrade Process – Dedicated Server page.

Upgrade Schedule Details

The following tables outline the detailed upgrade release cycle.

If you are part of our Key Release your SmartSimple Cloud system will be automatically upgraded according to the following schedule. Generally North American Clients are on the Key release.

Hosting	Environment	Date	Maintenance Window	Typical Downtime
Key Release	Production	Second Thursday of an upgrade month	22:00 - 23:59 EST	5 minutes
Key Release	Backup	Two weeks prior to the production upgrade	22:00 - 23:59 EST	5 minutes

If you are part of our Global Release your SmartSimple Cloud system will be automatically upgraded according to the following schedule. Generally clients in Europe, Middle East and Asia as well as Managed Dedicated clients are on the Global release.

Hosting	Environment	Date	Maintenance Window	Typical Downtime
Global Release	Production	Fourth Thursday of an upgrade month	22:00 - 23:59 local time	5 minutes
Global Release	Development/Test	Fourth Thursday of an upgrade month	22:00 - 23:59 local time	5 minutes
Global Release	Backup	Second Thursday of an upgrade month	22:00 - 23:59 local time	5 minutes

If you are on dedicated environment that is client-managed your SmartSimple Cloud system is only upgraded manually by your system administrator or by submitting a request to SmartSimple. The upgrade package is made available for you according to the following schedule.

Hosting	Environment	Date	Maintenance Window	Typical Downtime
Global Release	All	Fourth Thursday of an upgrade month	client-managed	5 minutes

Backup Environment Update

• Each backup environment will be updated to the "release candidate" prior to the upgrade date.
• This update will provide for instance specific testing of release candidate, as you can log into your respective backup environment and test the changes against your most current data and configuration.
• Internal staff will also be using these environments to perform instance specific testing.

Update Go/No-Go

• Subject to satisfactory testing on both the pre-production environments and the backup environments, the Go/No-Go decision will be made on the Wednesday prior to an upgrade release.

Upgrade Feedback

We'd love to hear your thoughts on our upgrade releases. Sign up to our feedback mailing list, and provide us your feedback after each upgrade. Your feedback will be shared directly with our development team and help shape our future development.

Give Feedback

Previous Upgrades

See the Previous Upgrades page for a list of previously-implemented upgrade features.

Current Upgrade Package

General Details

Upgrade Dates

Public Cloud Production release date: November 15th 2018
Public Cloud Backup release date: October 30th 2018

Private Cloud Production (Managed Upgrades) release date: November 29th 2018
Private Cloud Backup (Managed Upgrades) release date: November 15th 2018

Overview

Watch this video to get a general overview of the new features in this release.

To watch this video in full screen, please click on the full screen button on the bottom right.

Global System Upgrades

The new features listed below are enhancements to the SmartSimple system and will be immediately available to SmartSimple users upon the application of the upgrade to their server:

Major Updates

New Notifications Area

New notifications icon in the header menu that can be used. Administrators can now setup notifications to display for all users or specific user roles, and designate the time frame in which to display these notifications.

Changes to GuideStar Integration

With GuideStar retiring their currently used API in the spring of 2019, we have updated our integration to utilize their new API. If you are currently using a GuideStar integration point, you may be affected by changes in this upgrade.

This upgrade will automatically convert your GuideStar Search integration to instead begin using the new API. Functionally, there will be no change, however the connection will be updated from using a client owned account and license instead to using a SmartSimple built-in API license.

Your GuideStar For Grant Applications integration won't be automatically changed. However, you will need to update your integration version before spring of 2019 when GuideStar retires the current API. To do this, you simply need to navigate to your Global Settings -> Integrations -> GuideStar Search -> GuideStar For Grant Applications -> Use New GuideStar API. Functionally, the only change will be the end of support for the GuideStar ID data column which would previously return a GuideStar identifier in the search screen. This connection will also be updated from using a client owned account and license instead to using a SmartSimple built-in API license.

Please contact your account manager for further information regarding the billable nature of this feature and the cost.

Changes to Shared Dashboards

Updated the way that Dashboards are shared with other users. In the initial release, Dashboards were shared via links in a SmartCard. We've changed this instead to have shared Dashboards available right in the same Dashboard screen.

Changes to User Interface

Minor changes have been made to the user interface in a couple of areas. For end users, the portal selectors for switching user role or company association has been updated slightly. Where the selector previously read 'Portals', it will not instead display the role name of the portal that you're currently viewing. Where the selector previously read 'Switch Account', it will now instead display the company name that you're currently acting within. The menu will now behave as an easy to use drop-down menu. The other interface changes involve administrative configuration pages. You may notice some buttons have shifted location from the very top action bar, down into the list action bar in some settings pages for greater consistency and clarity.

Minor Updates

Deprecation of Ecuadorian Spanish Language Option

Removed the language option for specifically Ecuadorian Spanish. You'll now only have the language selection option for Spanish.

Added Select All Option for File Upload Fields

New option to select all files from a file upload field in order to easily download all.

Enhanced Playback of Media with Fixed Position

Enhanced the playback of Media Library custom fields to fix the media player on your screen as you scroll up and down and navigate through the rest of the record. This allows you to review uploaded media while filling out the rest of the form. You may also drag the media player to anywhere you wish on the screen and fix it there.

Enhanced Annotation Entry Screen to Show Previous Comments

Enhanced the annotations feature to display previous comments as you edit a comment. This is for an improved user experience as you add annotations to be able to review past ones at the same time.

Updated Rich Text Field Hyperlink to Target New Window

Updated the default behaviour of creating hyper links in rich text custom fields to instead target a new window instead of the current working window.

On-Demand System Upgrades

The following features are available immediately with the application of the upgrade, but must first be enabled or configured by a System Administrator:

Major Updates

New Excel Parser

New ability to import Excel formatted files into SmartSimple. New option introduced within the Upload File custom field types to Enable Excel Parsing. This will then produce a Field Mappings box at the top of the configuration screen allowing you to map the imported Excel data into a variety of fields.

You may import the data into Text Box fields, in which case you may import just a single cell, or into Basic Data Table fields, in which case you may import entire tables.

The following syntax may be used in the Field Mapping, and multiple fields may be specified after a semi-colon delimiter.

Format	Description	Example
[DataTableFieldName]=areaname	References a Named area within Excel, and stores this to a Basic Data Table custom field.	[My_Table_Custom_Field]=My_Excel_Area_Name
[DataTableFieldName]=sheetname!cellrange	References a cell range within Excel, and stores this to a Basic Data Table custom field.	[My_Table_Custom_Field]=Sheet1!$A$1:$D$20
[TextBoxFieldName]=areaname	References a Named area within Excel, e.g. a single cell in this case, and stores this to a Text Box custom field.	[My_Textbox_Custom_Field]=My_Excel_Cell_Name
[TextBoxFieldName]=sheetname!cell	References a Named area within Excel, e.g. a single cell in this case, and stores this to a Text Box custom field.	[My_Textbox_Custom_Field]=Sheet1!$A$1

Enhanced Email Broadcast with Built-in Unsubscribe Functionality

New option within Email Broadcast for recipient to unsubscribe. Previously it took some configuration to create a separate subscribe/unsubscribe page and link that into an Email Broadcast. However, now it's an easy option to include an unsubscribe link that adds and removes user roles from any users that click it.

Added Support for Granular Permission Options for User and Company Associations

New option to configure restrictions and granular permissions around role assignments of user and company associations. You can now define which users are allowed to edit specific user associations, as well as who can add or delete these associations. E.g. define which users may edit which user roles associated to companies, and if they can only add and not delete. This is limited to just user/company associations to user and company records and will not apply to UTA records, although we plan on introducing this for UTA records in the future.

Minor Updates

New Tile View for List Views

New option for list views to be able to display their records in a tiled view rather than the current text rows. This allows for a different visual experience for your users, and an easier mobile experience.

New Compact Header Mode

New compact header mode can be enabled in order to reduce the header menu to a single row. This will increase your usable screen real estate for all your users. This is an easy to enable setting, and can be found in Global Settings -> Branding -> Enable Compact Header.

Added Support for Standard Field Batch Update Permissions

Added support for batch update permissions on standard fields now.

Enhanced Web Page View with Ability to Exclude Fields from Print

New ability to configure a Web Page View custom field to allow the end user to select which fields they wish to populate the Web Page View and form export. This lets them exclude fields from printing if they wish.

Added Support for Track Changes for Record Association Changes

Updated association standard fields with the ability to track changes. You can now configure fields such as the UTA Level 1 contacts field with track changes to keep the change history of users associated to the Level 1.

Added Option for Minimum Character and Word Count on Text Fields

New option for text fields to have validation for minimum character and word count.

Enhanced Invitations Feature with Ability to Bulk Cancel and Resend

Enhanced the invitations feature with some new functionality. Introduced a new Workflow task type that allows you to cancel all pending invitations on a record. You will now be able to cancel pending invitations in bulk and specify which user roles to do this for. Also introduced an option within this Workflow task type that allows you to re-send the invitation to all pending invitations on a record.

Added Recordset for Archived Session Log within Report Builder

New record set available in the report builder that allows you to report on the user Session Log (Archived). SmartSimple clears user login sessions older than 1 year, so now you can access those archived logs with this new record set.

Notes for Admins

Deprecated Duplicate Integer and Decimal Options for Custom Fields

Deprecated the custom field option for the Number Formats of Integer and Decimal. But don't worry, these validations can be achieved with the already existing option for Number Precision instead. This change is intended to simplify the configuration of number rounding. This won't affect already existing fields with the Number Formats set, but you will no longer be able to set the Integer or Decimal option for any other fields going forward.

Enhanced Data Table Custom Field with Column Specific Edit Conditions

New option to configure an edit condition along with view condition for columns within the Advanced Data Table custom field. We previously introduced a way to show and hide columns with view conditions, but now you can also specify when and who can edit columns within a Data Table.

Added Support for Moving Sections within Portal Builder

Added the ability to easily copy and move sections within the portal builder now.

Added Support for UTA Consumer Provider restrictions

New option to specify which provider UTAs are available for a consumer UTA. As your systems are becoming more interconnected, you now have more control over the connectivity between provider and consumer UTAs and which ones are available to which.

Added Option to Restrict IRS Verification to Only US-based Organizations

New option to restrict IRS verification on Organization sign up pages to just US-based organizations. The IRS database of organizations contains organizations from around the world, but you can now restrict the lookup on a sign up page to only return US-based organizations.

Added Support for UTA Only User Roles to be Included in UTA Security Matrix

Added the ability to include UTA Only user roles in the security matrix of a UTA. This will allow you to configure the permissions within a UTA with respect to contacts associated to records in those roles.

Added Support for Restriction of Organization and User Submit Buttons Based on Role

New option to restrict Organization and User submit buttons based on the category or user roles that they possess.

Added more SmartConnect API Functionality to Retrieve Instance Metadata

Added SmartConnect API functions to get metadata for various record types. Added support for get metadata of UTA Level 2 and 3, users, and organizations.

Added Option on Organization Sign Up to Enforce Organization Assignment

New option on Organization sign up pages to enforce the Organization assignment for all matching users. By default, when registering Organizations and Users through sign up pages existing users will not have their organization updated. Enable this option if you wish to always move matching users under the newly registered or matched organization.

Future Upgrades

View future upgrade dates.