Dev Blog Update – June 2022 R7

sharedo on June 30, 2022

Release 7 is available now

The last quarter has been focused on stabilisation and housekeeping in preparation for the upcoming major release -R7.

We’ve spent the month closing out the QA on the last few features, working through our defect and change request backlog to decide what’s in and what’s not, and we performed a new independent security test of the platform to ensure we’ve got that covered.

The other area of activity we’ve been focussing on since our last update is our new branding and alongside this, how we can better provide help and guidance to our customers. Many of you will have regular communications with us to ask for advice on configuring sharedo and we want to make this more accessible.

To achieve this, we’ve settled on a new knowledge base tool to help us communicate information on product configuration. In this tool we will publish videos, guides and tutorials on configuring sharedo and crucially, get feedback on this content. We’re well on the way to getting this content out there and will be communicating to you as soon as we have it ready.

That said, we’ve not been completely idle on the feature front, as there were some key ones we wanted to ensure made the R7 cut. The following features have been released as part of the final R7 feature set.

Features Depreciated in R7

We are depreciating the legacy ShareDo Autodoc word plugin as of 1st July 2022. Document template users should now be using the new word plugin which is available on the Office Store.

Features Released in Q2

Visual Workflow Designer

We were holding back on this while we proved out the use cases that could be achieved using our snippets style workflow editor; but now it is here. The ability to design ShareDo workflows on a visual canvas will be shipped with the R7 release. This feature adds a capability that many customers had been asking for, we hope you like it.
This feature is currently tagged as “beta” and whilst we are satisfied that it meets the minimum feature set required for modelling the most common workflow scenarios it is still someway off where we want it to be. In release 7.1 we will be adding additional functionality to this modeller together with aligning the two workflow canvasses in terms of their feature sets.

Work Item Merge

In many use cases, work items can be created under the wrong parent item or created accidentally. Previously the only option was to create new items and delete the items created in error. We heard your feedback that there is often captured data or history that is difficult to re-produce on new items. The work item merge feature handles this, doing what it says it does and merging two work-types before removing one.

Finance Payment Plans

Following the Finance V2 release last quarter, we are have begun the process of rolling out advanced features using the new model. The first of these is Invoice Payment Plans. The Payment Plans feature allows us to define multi-step schedules for collecting payments on an invoice. This includes events that confirm payments made on time, and those that are missed.

Enhanced 360 Degree Connections Configurability

When viewing a given person, organisation or user; or their related participant you will often see the “Connections” nav bar.

This is now configurable enabling your to specify different connection types in different circumstances

Inactivity Tracking

Within the global features you can now configure the concept of Inactivity

For a given work item you can specify:

  • For what period of time it should be considered to be inactive
  • Whether the concept of inactive should, for example, include the update of child items such as tasks

When a work item, such as a matter is “flagged” as being inactive by the system an event is raised and you can your own custom workflow logic onto this.

Finance Public API

Another addition to the Finance V2 feature set has been made available. The Public API allows organisations to integrate with the financial information being generated and stored by ShareDo. This can be used to maintain and enquire on the status of budgets, invoices or payment plans.

Word Plugin Enhancements

A set of enhancements to the Word Plugin has been delivered this quarter, responding to requests for the support of calculated fields, the ability to insert key dates as a list of items, date and currency formatting and many other user experience enhancements. We’ve also taken the opportunity to align the plugin with our new product branding.

Time Recording

We have extensively reworked the way in which you define the time codes that are captured against a given work item.

Within the Admin interface you will see a new section “Time” through which you can define:

  • Time Code Sets – these are the individual sets of codes that can be used for time classifications;
  • Time Classifications – these are groupings of time code sets;
  • Time Categories – within time categories you define the rules that determine which time classification should be shown for specific case or matter types

We have also taken the opportunity to enhance the UX for time capture together with a refresh of the public API operations, providing the opportunity for enhanced integration with ShareDo Time Recording.

People and Organisations data loaders

We have been expanding the list of Excel / CSV data loaders that we provide. These can be used to bulk upload lists of people or organisations into ShareDo using a template Excel format.

User synchronisation

ShareDo has had a feature for a while to synchronise users with your Azure Active Directory. This is achieved through AAD provisioning users using the SCIM protocol. We enhanced this feature so that it can set a default user type. This can then be used to drive the teams and permissions that users get when they are initially created.

What's coming in early Release 8?

Alongside this release we are also changing our overall release cadence; moving away from the 2 weekly release cycle to one based on feature sets. The first of these feature releases, is scheduled to be available in Autumn 2022. Within this the following features are planned

Documents

  • Data Composer – at the completion of the R7.1 release we are aiming to remove any need for legacy tag libraries; together with some performance improvements.
  • Document Assembly – Enable Configuration to specify whether locations are required for document templates
  • Document Template Admin – We will be introducing a new set of usage reports into the Document Admin portal
  • Document Templates – Enable users to favourite their own templates
  • Document Templates – enable users to preview a template and its description prior to opening it.

Word Plugin

  • Content Blocks – Enable Template and Document Author Content Blocks to be displayed and managed separately
  • Content Blocks – Introduce publishing workflow for content blocks
  • Document Author – Enable Easy Changing of a tag from the Document Browser
  • Document Author – Enable User to record time including stop watches from the Word Plugin
  • Template Author – New template author setting to enable the default boundary box setting

Finance

  • Budgets – Enable configurators to specify thresholds together with associated alerts
  • Time – Automatic recording of internal and time costs to better track case profitability
  • Time – New End User Management Views

List Views

  • List Views – Ability to configure multiple list views in a single widget and support List View Switching
  • List Views – Ability for End Users to Saved Queries

Modeller

  • Matching Rules – enhanced support for Business Rules Expressions
  • Optionsets – we will be replacing the current “codes” with system names to avoid import/export overwrites in some circumstances
  • Portal Modeller – Allow portal widgets to be targeted by work type category
  • Scorecards – New Modeller Screens
  • Modeller – Enhanced Navigation for Modeler
  • Modeller – new Home Page

Core Case

  • Participant Picker – we are rewriting this component to address various usability issues and make it more configurable
  • Reworking of the Radar widgets into a consistent set based on our list views
  • Work Items – Enable easy management of priority and make management by priority a default in all solutions

Admin

  • Enhanced Navigation for Admin Portal
  • New admin level screen to diagnose and fix permission related issues

Workflow

  • Workflow – New toolbox item to facilitate export of data to repositories
  • Workflow – Upgrade assistant for legacy smartplans
  • Workflow – UX Enhancements and additional toolbox items
  • Workflow – Enhanced Versioning of Workflows and handling of in-flight processes version management

Bugs fixed in R7

As you’d expect for a bug focussed quarter, there’s a few of them. We appreciate the context is difficult from just the title, if there is more information on any of the below items then do get in touch.

[97278] Matter (dispute/proceedings) – Excess key date entries can be created on save in the court timetable

[98034] [Allocation Rules] Error thrown when deleting an allocation rule for one example

[98035] [Allocation Rules] Should be sorted by name not system name

[83626] [Approvals Requested] – Blade does not display correct approvals

[98095] [Approvals] – Change of retract connection settings in modeller throws an unhandled error of ‘retraction transition not found’ when viewing the associated invoice

[99029] [Blade UX] Due date lag colour gets “stuck”

[97396] [Budget Phase Modeller] Roll-up segments not required

[97403] [Budget Phase Modeller] Warning required and cannot delete phases

[98195] [Budgets] Order of Categories / Codes is in the opposite order of of what is configured

[98964] [CASE KEY FACTS] – An error of ‘The insert statement conflicted with the foreign key constraint …’ is thrown on save

[98960] [chronology] – An ‘invalid date’ is displayed for the chronology records

[98114] [Comments] Drop down options are limited by the size of the comments field

[98216] [Connections] Organisation name containing ampersand displays incorrectly

[98747] [Data Composer] – Add missing document pack support

[96876] [DMS] Flat DMS Page – The hover-over tooltip does not work although the ‘show file location tooltip’ flag has been set to true

[98211] [Document Generation] Unable to select Participants as a Recipient to a letter

[98090] [Documents] Display Rule doesn’t respect List tags within Repeating Sections

[98931] [Documents] [Tag Browser] Missing address Tags from Selected Recipient

[97786] [Documents] Matter (Prepare document from a deleted template errors

[97610] [EE Plans – Plan Editor] Plan editor freezes and loses all changes

[95472] [EE] Resubmitting and errored plan when the stream is incorrectly configured is not recoverable

[98656] [Emails] Document Questionnaires. Form Builder “Required” flag is ignored by Phase guard

[97539] [Excel Uploads] Should present the user with the ability to download a sample from the blade

[97285] [Finance V2.0 Migration] Throws error when running migration utility

[97763] [Finance] – Matter (invoice list): The invoice amounts are shown as zero

[97433] [Finance] – Matter home page (financial summary and payment summary): The financial figures are not displayed

[99075] [Finance] – Payment Plans – Saving an Invoice Payment throws an error

[98553] [Finance] – Time Codes – The external reference is not updated

[98185] [Finance] [Chart of Accounts] Add segment value should allow you to search on the code and name when entering a parent in

[98183] [Finance] [Chart of Accounts] Segment Code screen not handling “long strings” gracefully

[98616] [Finance] [Import Export] Chart of Accounts import fails due to work type config (same issue with budgets)

[98455] [Finance] Data Composer Support (Budgets transaction amount formatting) – An object reference error is thrown

[95531] [Finance] Fees – Versioning / Check in: Unlinking an attachment throws an error of ‘The DELETE statement conflicted with the REFERENCE constraint “fk_relatedDocumentId’

[98993] [Finance][Fee structure versioning] – It is possible to submit a new version for matter actual fees without completing the check-in requirements

[97609] [Finance][Fee structure versioning] – New Instruction / change template – A ‘container element not found’ causes a non-stop progress wheel to be thrown

[95681] [Finance][Fee structure versioning] – When drag&drop more than one file an error of ‘A connection that was expected to be kept alive was closed by the server’ was thrown

[98905] [Finance][Fee Structure] – Creation of a new version after a change of template throws a non-stop progress wheel

[99040] [Finance][Invoice] – Matter invoices list view does not display the actual amount of an invoice

[98844] [Finance V2] – Enter New Matter Details Action Plan CTA is opening old world Finance menu

[98253] [My cases] – Changing Provider Ownership and Grouping config returns unexpected results

[96292] Chronology Card entry not being created on formbuilder field when chronology card set to true

[97985] [Import/Export] Errors on decision work type (FK_sharedoBulkPhaseTransitionActions_phaseSystemName)

[96448] [Import/Export] Exporting participant role aspects does not include matching rules

[99155] [ImportExport] Importing a work type with a null phase plan throws an error

[98886] [Instruction] – Submission: An error of ‘Invalid phase transition from ‘instruction-b2b-new’ to ‘instruction-b2b-new’.’ is thrown

[97582] [Invoices] Invoice widget is looking at the top level Invoice type config for its participant role config and not at the derived type [97824] [Invoices] List view amount column not showing amounts

[96863] [Invoices] Missing a journey of allocating an existing payment to an invoice from the invoice

[98048] [Legacy Work Type Features] Remove feature “Allows someone with the delegated approver.. “

[98056] [Legacy Work Type Features] Remove the “Allows access to Scorecard and Assessment features for this type”

[98031] [Matching Rules] Non standard matching rules control in use on allocation rules

[97302] [Menu Providers] Missing a command for Change Work Type + needs to be added to “seeded” menus

[97601] [Menus] Recent Items Menu – should be configured as part of the default menus

[98065] [Modeller] – Work type (key dates) – The attribute setting for the ‘prevent future dates’ is not honoured

[94853] [Modeller] Phase Plan Editor – does not check for instance of work items on child items

[96375] [Modeller][Service Portfolio Modeller] Mandatory field indicator does not remain when user completes fields

[98889] [Modeller][Work types] – Offer: Activating the open option throws a 404 contents not found error

[97604] [Multi-Currency] Currency code doesn’t look correct based on config

[97602] [Multi-Currency] Fees not picking up multi currency support

[97753] [Notifications] In settings, checkboxes can be shown under the wrong column heading

[98708] [Offers] – The value of the offer rational is not submitted to the database

[97020] [Page View Analytics] Split Page view out into a separate feature so we can limit display of widgets based on this

[98712] [Participant Role Modeller] – Inconsistent Roles – Unexpected Error message when trying to add multiple roles to a participant (and confusing config)

[96933] [Participants] – On a dispute Matter with multiple Claimants/Defendants the Matter title is ‘1st Claimant alphabetically vs 1st Defendant alphabetically’

[98283] [Party Types] Add quick search link does more than just add a link but stops search as well

[98575] [Payments] “Sequence contains no matching element” (PaymentDataEnricher)

[98605] [Phase Change] Transitioning a sharedo with phase guards/comment does not close blade

[98735] [Public API] – (Finance / POST Invoice) – The invoice amount is not displayed in the invoice blade

[98645] [Public API] – (Financial work types / POST / Invoice) – The transaction description is missing

[98643] [Public API] – (Financial work types / POST Invoice) – The transaction item type validation is case sensitive hence a 406 response is returned

[98644] [Public API] – (Financial work types / POST) – A 500 internal server error is returned – Object reference not set to an instance of an object

[98894] [Public API] (Finance / Invoice / Post) – The chronology records display an ‘Error in POI handler’ … invalid widget [NULL]

[98568] [Public API] (Time / POST method) – The returned Id cannot be found in the database, despite the new record gets created

[98550] [Public API] (Time / PUT method) – A response state of 200 is returned for a non-existing Id

[98552] [Public API] (Time / PUT method) – The external reference is not updated

[99004] [Public API] Team ownership query in work item search API doesn’t work

[98642] [Public API] Work item search should always respect AncestorIds config

[98902] [Public API][Organisation / GET] – The Get Method does not retrieve the bank details in the body of its response

[98842] [Public APIs] – chartOfAccountsCodeId is missing an ‘s’ at the end in Account Adjustments JSON

[98653] [Rich Text Editor] – Matter (Wiki) – The list of styles need a vertical scroll-bar

[98707] [Rich text editor] – Some of the styling options are not displayed within their container

[98849] [SMS] [Notifications] Mentions notification sent out via SMS contains HTML

[96194] [User Profile] Location Nav throws error when permission not present

[97294] [User Types] User Types cannot be deleted

[99074] [Visual Workflow] – Error on collection within for block in separate step

[98648] [Wiki Widget] – Identifier should be mandatory

[98714] [Documents]{Urgent] Participants selected from Doc Questionnaire return empty lines when using a Calculated Field to return a list.

[97954] Display Rule using Doc Questionnaire Participant Picker doesn’t work

[98180] Document Generating. Save and Close causes Document Questionnaires to be replicated.

[93883] Participant Locations: DX fields cleared down when an address lookup search is undertaken

[98598] Phase guard for delivery channels – wording isn’t clear to end users [98214] Syntax Error on Email Generation when using HTML Content Blocks

[96234] User unable to see the call to action for an email

[98092] [Word Plugin] Prepare Document Refresh function causes issues in docs with multiple repeating Sections

[98087] [Word Plugin] Tag Browser does not present the Tags relevant to the Context of the Repeating Section.

[97758] [Word Plugin] Content Blocks in ShareDo not presented within the Word Add-in

[96925] [Word Plugin] Issues logging into Word Add-in using DUO 2 step authentication

[98715] [Word Plugin] Tag Browser doesn’t display Document Tags within a Participant List within a Document Questionnaire.

[97035] [Work Type Change Rules] Needs to be updated to use the new budgets model

[97505] [Work Type Modeller] Feature page should hide features where parent is disabled

[99078] [Workflow] Execution engine processing role is crashing on environments upgraded to internal config server

[99020] [Workflow] It is not clear from the workflow list views what “style” of workflow you have (Visual/Script)

[99128] [Workflow] Plans may potentially not show in the new plan list view

[97598] Admin (Dashboard / work type – page views) – When the length of time changes the associated graphs do not seem to change

[97420] Admin (dashboard) – The ‘No reporting data available’ message is displayed unexpectedly for the worktype and workbench widgets

[98967] B2B Portal – ‘404 content not found’ error when accessing B2B Portal

[98921] EE plan list view provider – edit button disabled when in legacy EE mode.

[91433] Emails breaking reporting

[99036] Emails don’t get participants copied from parent (sync rules)

[90138] Execution Engine – Issue using the “create-sharedo” command and saving the Aspect

[96479] HTML Emails. Toolbar goes missing if scroll down body of email.

[96417] iManage Repistory – using a rootPath in the configuration causes problems in repo explorer and elsewhere

[94686] Inbound emails containing the ‘base’ tag can change the base URL and break subsequent AJAX calls

[99144] Maintenance plan is needed to clear up internal config service console logs

[96959] Matter (Fee structure widget): Non-stop progress wheel after submitting a new version

[97760] Matter (participants / defendant role) – The associated participant was duplicated so that one of them also had a missing role

[86342] Modeller(approvals model / new model) – A newly created model is not displayed for all document templates

[98558] Multi Party Document Generation – Sending out emails via delivery channel can cause conflicts due to concurrency

[98811] Payment Plans – Cancelled Invoice – repayments calculation and amounts still show the original 4000 due

[98815] Payment Plans – Change Payor on Invoice – Able to Unlink and add a new Payor

[98816] Payment Plans – Fixed Time Period – +1 year – Start Today – Unexpected Repayment calculation behaviour