Revision as of 14:33, 2 October 2015

General Information

Next Upgrade Dates

The next upgrade is scheduled for Nov 19th.

Bi-Monthly Upgrades

Upgrades are released on a bi-monthly basis.

The benefits of this approach are as follows:

• The upgrades will be performed in smaller batches.
• New features will come on-stream faster, as we can fast track key enhancements into early updates.

A list of planned upgrade dates is available here: Future Upgrades.

We regularly update the list of upgrade features and schedule for both the backup and production servers 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 Dedicated Server, please review the SmartSimple Upgrade Process – Dedicated Server page.

Backup Server Update

• Each backup server 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 server and test the changes against your most current data and configuration.
• Internal staff will also be using these servers to perform instance specific testing.

Update Go/No-Go

• Subject to satisfactory testing on both the pre-production server and the production backup servers, the go/no go decision will be made on Wednesday at 12:00pm.

Current Upgrade Package: September 2015

The server upgrade is scheduled for September 17th, 2015 between 10pm - 10:15pm EST.

Important: The upgrade will be applied to your backup server one week prior to the scheduled upgrade date for your production server.
You are encouraged to log into your backup server during this period to test the changes against your most recent data and configuration. 

If your organization has a dedicated SmartSimple server or you host in-house, SmartSimple will be in contact with your system administrator to schedule the upgrade of your server after October 15th.

Watch this video to get a general overview of the new features in our September 2015 upgrade.

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 your server:

Updated Layout of Sign Up Configuration Page

• Updated and reorganized the layout of the company and user sign up configuration pages for greater ease of use. You can now more easily select the company and user fields that you want on your registration page and reorder them as you see fit.

Updated Layout of Global Settings Configuration Page

• Updated and reorganized the Global Settings configuration pages in line with the Arcadia framework for improved look and feel.

Updated Layout of User Role Configuration Page

• Updated and reorganized the user role configuration list view in line with the Arcadia framework for improved look and feel. The user menu and portal has been combined into the same configuration area for ease of use.

Enhanced Arcadia Portal Colours and Styles

• Enhanced Arcadia portal with the ability to control more colour and style settings. The menu bar and the window background colour can now be controlled and by default will inherit your system's current branding.

On-Demand System Upgrades

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

New Report Builder Neo released

• The report builder Neo has been released from beta testing and is now available. You won't be able to convert existing reports between the Classic builder and Neo, however new reports will default to the Neo builder. This new builder is easier to use and will improve the runtime performance of your reports greatly!

Why? | How

New Company/User Security Matrix released

• The company/user security matrix has been released from beta testing and is now available. This new security matrix will allow you to specify permissions for companies and users much more easily and with more granularity than you previously could.

Why? | How

Beta Previews

The following features are available for beta preview. For a sneak peek, please contact your SmartSimple administrator for more information.

New Payment Scheduler

• New page for generating multiple payments in batch to make payment scheduling easier. This is typically seen within the GMS360 philanthropic solution for grant payments.

Why? | How

New JSON-based API

• Our new JSON-based API is coming soon and is now available for beta testing, please ask your account manager for details.

Why? | Interactive Demonstration Page

Previous Upgrades

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

Future Upgrades

Click here for a listing of future upgrade dates.