Upgrades

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Contents

General Information

Next Upgrade Date

The next upgrade is scheduled for July 20 2023.

Upgrade Schedule

Upgrade Key Release Date Global Release Date
March 2024 Thu, March 14 2024 Thu, March 28 2024
July 2024 Thu, July 18 2024 Thu, July 25 2024
November 2024 Thu, November 14 2024 Thu, November 28 2024
March 2025 Thu, Mar 13 2025 Thu, Mar 27 2025
July 2025 Thu, July 10 2025 Thu, July 24 2025
November 2025 Thu, November 13 2025 Thu, November 27 2025

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.

Current Upgrade Package: February 2017

The production environments for the Public Cloud were last upgraded on May 24th 2018.

Important: The upgrade will be applied to your 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.

If your organization is subscribed to Private Cloud hosting, the upgrade will be made available to you two weeks after the Public Cloud release.

General Details

Upgrade Dates

Public Cloud Production release date: February 23rd 2017
Public Cloud Backup release date: February 9th 2017

Private Cloud Production (Managed Upgrades) release date: March 9th 2017
Private Cloud Backup (Managed Upgrades) release date: February 23rd 2017

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:

Enhanced Interface of List Views

Enhanced the interface of list views within the UTA, organization, and contact screens with improved layout for greater usability and consistency throughout the system. Specifically the search panel has been moved from the left side of the screen to the right. The access to the advanced search interface has been simplified and made easier to access. Also, the action buttons that pertain to the list view have been moved from the menu at the top of the screen down to the list header for a more intuitive feel. The saving and editing of filters has also been made easier and more intuitive by being moved within the advanced search area. The function to sort list views has been moved to allow you to sort a column by clicking the column header directly.


Pre-Upgrade List View

Pre-Upgrade List View


Post-Upgrade List View

Post-Upgrade List View


New Fixed Headers for List Views

Enhanced the interface of list views within the UTA, organization, and contact screens with a fixed header. The column headers will now always be visible as you scroll through the list views.

Enhanced Interface of File Upload Fields

Enhanced the interface of the file upload field to display action buttons in-line with the screen for ease of use, which also allows you to delete files without having to go to the upload screen.

Updated Interface of UTA Level 2/3 Look Up Fields

Updated the interface of look up fields on the UTA Level 2 and Level 3 screens for better look and feel as well as consistency with the Level 1 record. These look up boxes have been updated to the latest system styles.


Pre-Upgrade Look Up

Pre-Upgrade Look Up



Post-Upgrade Look Up

Post-Upgrade Look Up


Enhanced Interface Styling

Enhanced interface for better look and feel. Some affected areas include title bar styling that have been updated for a more contemporary style. Added icon images to header menu options.


Pre-Upgrade Title Bar

Pre-Upgrade Title Bar


Post-Upgrade Title Bar

Post-Upgrade Title Bar


Enhanced Interface of Transactions

Enhanced the interface of transaction pages by extending the Arcadia styling to transaction pages for improved look and feel as well as greater consistency with the rest of the system.

Enhanced Validation for Sign Up Pages

Extended SmartCheck server-side validation functionality to also run on sign up pages now. This improves the look and feel as well as security of sign up page field validations.

Enhanced Validation for Internet Enabled Templates

Extended SmartCheck server-side validation functionality to also run on UTA template pages now.

Updated Email Templates Role Access for Multiple Roles

Updated the configuration of email templates to allow the selection of multiple access roles. Previously this was limited to one role. You can now also copy existing email templates with the 'save as' option to easily create new templates.

Updated Contact List Views with Account Type and Access

Updated list views of contacts with the ability to search and display the type and access level of contact accounts. You can now choose to list the standard fields for the type and access level of a contact.

Enhanced Message Queue to Display Full Email Contents

Enhanced the Message Queue list of emails to allow you the ability to see the full email content now instead of just a snippet.

Updated Security Audit Logs for Contacts

Updated the contact security audit to now also include entries for contacts that have been merged as these were not previously being logged.

Extended Status History Chart to Further Areas

Extended the status history visual chart to UTA Level 2 and Level 3 screens as well as organizations and contacts. This was previously only made available to UTA Level 1 screens.

New Recycle Bin for Reports

New recycle bin for reports. Deleted reports will now be flagged as deleted instead of being instantly deleted. Reports flagged for deletion will automatically be purged if older than one year.

Enhanced Logging Option for Primary Authentication Controller

New ability to enforce additional logging when using the primary authentication controller to log in to another instance. You can now enforce that users enter a reason when logging into another instance using this feature.

Enhanced System Design Document

Enhanced the System Design Summary document to include more details and allow you the ability to select what specific areas of configuration to include in the generated document.

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:

New User Emulation Mode

New ability for administrators to temporarily log in as another user to replicate and experience their access and view of the system. This can be enabled through Roles & Permissions -> System Permissions -> Enable Emulation Mode to allow specific user roles this ability.

Enhanced Arcadia X Shortcut Section Styling

Enhanced Arcadia X shortcut section with more contemporary styling for an improved look and feel. For backwards compatibility there is no change to your existing portals, however you can enable this new shortcut section by disabling the Classic Shortcut Panel option in your Global Settings.

Enhanced File Upload Custom Fields with Mandatory Validation

Enhanced file upload custom fields with the ability to configure them as mandatory ensuring that a file is uploaded to them. This allows you to enforce the upload of file attachments without having to create submit logic or SmartCheck validation to enforce this as was the case previously.

New OData Integration

New ability to enable OData integration within reports. This allows for outbound integration from SmartSimple by building reports that you can then extract information from in a standard OData format.

New Visualizations Screen for US Census Data

New screen with pre-defined set of US census data statistics is now available on user or company profiles whose address is within the US. This tab can also be displayed on a UTA Level 1 object in context to the address of its customer organization. This simplifies the configuration for the display of US census data and manifests on the user or company profile as a new tab to show you a pre-defined set of useful fields.


Census Data Tab

Census Data Tab


New Arcadia X Section Type for Media Files

New Arcadia X section type for Media Files in order to list and search on media files that have been uploaded to file upload fields configured as media libraries.

New Two-Factor Authentication

New two-factor authentication protocol that can be enforced per user role. This uses the standard time-based one-time password algorithm supported by many applications such as Google Authenticator. This allows you to enable two-factor authentication without having to subscribe to our current VASCO solution. This can be enabled through Roles & Permissions -> User Roles -> and the Two Factor Authentication option within a user role.

Enhanced Anonymous Record Lock Setting

New setting to hide the display of the contact that has a company or contact record checked out with the record lock feature. Currently if a record is locked the message will display the name of the contact that has it locked. This is in addition to the existing setting to hide the record lock details within a UTA record. This setting can be found in the Global Settings -> Security settings.

Beta Previews

New Integration with Salesforce CRM

New built-in integration with Salesforce CRM system. You will be able to upload or download organizations and contacts to and from your Salesforce account as well as create custom fields in either system. This requires that you have an enterprise level Salesforce account in order to access their API.

Notes for Admins

Updated jQuery Library

Updated the version of jQuery library used by the platform from version 1.8.3 to 3.1.1. Please note that there may have been some function changes including some functions being deprecated between those versions. This is only relevant if you have configured custom HTML pages or areas and leveraged the platform's jQuery functions. In order to improve backwards compatibility for the new jQuery library we now also include the jQuery Migrate library v1.3.0. This library contains the deprecated functions from the previous jQuery library that will mitigate any issues but we cannot guarantee that custom configurations will not be impacted.

Bug Fix for Workflow Create New Activity Task

Fixed a bug with workflow task type Create New Activity when using the Create for Users in UTA Role option. Previously this would create new activities for each UTA role configured even when there were no users assigned to those roles. This has been updated to only create activities when a user is assigned to the specified role.

Updated Default Display Order Interval to 100

Updated the default display order interval for custom fields, this has been increased from 10 to 100 which allows for easier configuration and expansion of fields if needed. This affects any new fields created whose display orders will default by increments of 100 over the current largest display order.

Bug Fix for Company Security Matrix Setting

Updated the company/user security matrix to now ignore and hide the configuration within a company category that defines the user role view/edit permission. This was done because this setting is redundant and duplicated within the company/user security matrix and has caused some confusion.

New Own Profile Scoping Option for User Security Matrix

New scoping option within the user security matrix for just a user's own profile. Previously the smallest user scope in the security matrix was all users within your company.

Enhanced Settings Pages Interface

Enhanced the interface of configuration settings pages for improved look and feel of the settings controls. Certain settings have had their input style changed from a check box to a more contemporary toggle input.

Enhanced Custom Field Configuration List View to Display Sub-Dynamic Control Fields

Enhanced the interface for custom field configuration list view to also show the sub fields underneath dynamic control fields.

Enhancements for Workflow Configuration

New preview functionality for acknowledgement workflow task types lets you preview what an email template will look like. Also, enhanced the interface of the workflow task list view to include the connector conditions for greater ease of configuration.

Enhancements for In-Line Data Grid Custom Field

Enhanced the In-Line Data Grid custom field with the ability for greater customization similar to the XML Data custom field. It now supports dynamic rows (setting the number of rows to 0), totaling of columns, and defining CSS styles.

Enhancements for XML Data Custom Field

Enhanced XML Data custom fields that utilize a section mapped to activities that now allows them to also filter the activities by custom fields. Also, updated the XML Data custom field with the ability to label the total row within a section. Lastly, updated the Variable Processor to allow you to call the .length attribute of an XML node within an XML Data custom field.

New Setting to Control Default Owner of UTA Level 1/2/3

New setting to explicitly control whether you wish to default the owner field of a UTA Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 to the original creator. Previously this was always enabled, however an enable option will be introduced and all existing instances will have this setting set to enabled after the upgrade so that there is no change to current behaviour.

New Setting to Control Creation of UTA Level 1 from Contact Profile

New role permission to further configure the existing option for the ability to create a UTA Level 1 from a contact profile.

New Setting to Configure Activity List Views for Organizations and Contacts

New setting to configure the list view of activities displayed on an organization or contact profile.

Enhanced Autoloader to Support JSON Format

Enhanced the autoloader with ability to process JSON format files now.

New SmartConnect API Multiple Address Function

New SmartConnect API functions for interacting with the multiple address records of organizations and contacts.

New Setting to Disable Concurrent Login Restriction

New setting to disable the restriction on concurrent logins. Using this setting will allow for the same user to be logged in concurrently from different locations, useful for load testing situations. Note that this option will only appear for the root instance of a server and thus is effectively only available for clients on a dedicated cloud offering.

Updated Custom Field Configuration to Warn of Duplicate Field Names

Enhanced custom field configuration page to warn you when editing a field with a duplicate name of another field.


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.