Upgrades
Contents
General Information
Next Upgrade Dates
The next upgrade is scheduled for Sept 24th.
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: July 2015
The server upgrade is scheduled for June 23rd, 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 August 13th.
Watch this video to get a general overview of the new features in our July 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:
New. Interactive Report view
- The Interactive View for reports is a new engine for rendering reports and allows the end user to modify the grouping, criteria, and aggregate the report results on the fly. This allows you to use a single report template but allow users to run different metrics on the data on demand all within their browser. Users may also save their interactive views to easily display and switch between interactive views.
New. Allocation Chart
- The Allocation chart is available for Budget Allocation UTAs to show you a graphic of the distribution of your funds. The funds to be viewed can be controlled via selection of the items in your list view search similar to batch update.
Updated. External Service Lookup Now Enforced During Sign Up
- Integrated signup pages (i.e IRS/CRA lookup pages) to have the company information fields set to read-only so that registrants can't change the information from what is listed and extracted from the external sources
Updated. Custom Field Page Layout
- Updated the layout of the custom field edit page in line with the Arcadia framework for look and feel, and greater usability. The options have also been re-organized for greater ease of use.
Updated. Workflow Configuration Interface
- Updated the layout of the workflow list and configuration pages in line with the Arcadia framework for look and feel, and greater usability. Also introduced a new list view for all workflow tasks to be able to easily see all tasks from all workflows.
Updated. SmartFolder Interface
- Updated the layout of the SmartFolder pages in line with the Arcadia framework for look and feel, and greater usability.
Updated. Login Messaging
- Updated the messaging for incorrect logins and password resets to be consistent. Also removed the ability to customize the account lockout message when a user has locked their account after a number of failed logins.
Updated. File Download Behaviour
- Updated the behaviour of files within SmartSimple to not open directly in the browser for security reasons. When clicking the link to uploaded files, your browser will instead prompt you to download the file instead of serving it directly.
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:
Enhanced. Conditional Versioning
- Enhanced SmartVersioning to allow the conditional assignment of field versions to objects dynamically as you create them. Previously the system only allowed for one active version at a time that applied to all new objects. Now you can effectively have multiple active versions and dynamically assign them to create different types and classes of objects (i.e. you can have multiple versions of a grant application depending on the region of the individual applying).
Enhanced. Customize SmartFields
- Enhanced the SmartFields functionality with the variable processor to allow you to customize a view of a subset of the fields generated by the regular SmartFields function. This acts as a filtered and limited view of the standard SmartFields for you to create a variety of forms for different purposes.
Enhanced. Organization Sign Up With New Update Option
- Enhanced the company signup pages with the ability to match but not update existing companies if found. This can be used during user registration to sign up users to an existing company by matching the company but not allowing the registrant the ability to update the company details.
Enhanced. XML - Data Field With Ability to Shift Rows
- Enhanced the XML data field type with ability to shift rows up and down as well as updated icons for add and remove row buttons to be more intuitive.
Enhanced. Arcadia X Interface With Customizable Header Menus
- Enhanced Arcadia X interface to allow the ability to customize the portal header links (i.e. the options under your name menu), and ability to customize the styling of header row of tables and lists for improved look and feel and user experience.
Beta Preview
This feature is available for beta preview. For a sneak peek, please contact your SmartSimple administrator for more information.
Company and User Security Matrix
- New security matrix for company and user permissions introduced. This will centralize and simplify the current configuration methodology of user access and permissions towards company and user profiles.
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.