v3.2.1 iChannel December 2021

Request Module

• Introducing the Brand New Request Module, which comes with latest features and functionalities allowing to manage requests between the iChannel internal system and the client Portal. Below mentioned features are facilitated via phase 1 of this new module.

  • Create Request lists with any number of request items for multiple users.

  • Manage Request Lists via templates, which allows to utilize the same template for multiple sites and users

  • Visibility to all the relevant details of the existing Request Lists and items on the dashboard

  • Multiple search criteria facilitating the easy search for existing Request Lists and Items

  • Accept/Reject/Edit/Delete Request Lists/Items with a single-click

Portal

• New options are provided to Delete and Rename folders in the Portal, which are created by clients.

  Open

  

• ‘Underline Number of Requests That Need Attention’ banner on the Portal is incorporated with a hover-over help text message, which informs the first-time users that the banner is clickable and navigate to the 'Files requested from you’ page from any other areas of the Portal.

• SMB file transfers between the Portal server and iChannel server is updated to be done only via port 21688. This enhancement enforces tighter security over both the Channel system and Portal, as the port 445 can be closed.

• Displaying Portal video below the portal login section, is made optional using a True/False flag in configurations. Thus, any clients, who do not want to display video are facilitated to remove that without any further customizations.

• A Cancel button is introduced to My Profile page in the Portal. This allows the users to cancel any changes done in the page.

  Open

  

File Area

• Publish and Link, Publish Only, Link Only options in file area are properly named on the respective pages and unnecessary redundant texts are removed.

• When a file is opened, edited, checked-in/out in Direct Mode, the Last User field of the respective file gets updated with the action performed user’s username.

• New feature is introduced to sort files by Star in File Area and a toggle button ‘Turn Starred On/Off’ is added on top of the file area to Turn On/Off getting Starred Files to the top. (Starred files get prioritized over pinned files when both options are on)

• New feature is introduced to sort files by Pin option in File Area and a toggle button ‘Turn Pinned On/Off’ is added on top of the file area to Turn On/Off getting Pinned Files to the top. (Starred files get prioritized over pinned files when both options are on)

• An enhancement is incorporated to properly update the modified date of the file when changing the File Name via File Properties or when moving Files between file areas.

• The Create New Contacts page is rearranged to easily navigate. Please watch the video.
  
  

   

• When you auto-publish a file, the file history of that file will also be updated with useful information about the file like Category of the file, Date-Time and Publisher user.

CRM

• CRM Security Feature is now a free service, if you wish to activate it - please inform the support team prior to the update.
  Please watch the video to understand about CRM Security feature

• Descriptive popup messages are displayed when trying to Delete sites in respective locations (Site Details page & Site Settings page).

• From the v3.2 onwards system does not allow to have duplicate contacts with exact first name, last name and email address within the same root site.

  • Merging the contacts or creating a linked contact choices are provided for the identified duplicate contacts

• New option is incorporated to export the search results of Contacts into an Excel file.

• With v3.2.1 release, a new field named Doing Business As is now available for you to add dba information when creating a new Site via System -> Settings.

General

• File uploading is enhanced in both Internal system and Portal, when a user tries to upload a single file or multiple files where the total file size is larger than 2GB, the File upload is not allowed and an alert message appears at the top right corner as “Total size of all files cannot exceed 2 gig bytes”

• Contacts icon is enhanced matching with the new iChannel theme icon and pages have been enhanced to ichannel theme

• All the Pages and Icons are enhanced matching with the new ichannel theme.

• ‘Projects’ is renamed as 'Workflows' in Edit Dashboard Function, matching with new iChannel terms.

• Records of SystemChangeLog, SystemLog and tEvents tables are properly archived, ensuring the history of respective records are compromised and to increase iChannel performance.

  • Default retention period for SystemchangeLog and SystemLog records is 18 months and retention period for records of tEvents table is 36 months.

  • Options are available to change the retention period of tEvents and SystemChangeLog tables via appsettings as the client desires.

• Lesser amount of data are stored in Foxpro database, as most of older dbf files are removed via new autocleanup functionality.

• The AD authentication on/off option is enabled to be controlled for each root site individually with the new iChannel version. .

  • Reset subscriber password button is disabled in this scenario since its handled by AD authentication.

• New parameter is introduced to use Truncated Client Name for File Naming, via adding a new parameter to the cadoc.ini ‘TCPX-Truncated Company name’

  • "X" is the number of characters (from the left) to be used from the client name to the file name.

• With v3.2.1 release , a new help text is available for TCPx for STANDARD_FILE_NAME_FORMAT and STANDARD_FILE_TITLE_FORMAT settings under Advanced Setting of a selected Site. The TCPx setting allows the company name to be truncated either in the Title or Filename
  
  Example
  Y:TCP6:T
  2022-ABC Co-Tax Returns
  vs
  Y:CP:T
  2022-ABC Company-Tax Returns
  
  

Security

• New enhanced functionality is incorporated to manage Security Groups for Subscribers, where there are additional sites in a Group Membership of a subscriber (linked sites). Now the users get the luxury to quickly add or remove the security groups to assign to the respective subscriber for each linked site without moving back and forth between security groups and subscriber detail pages.

  • Additionally when there are security groups match between the linked site and the native site, those are automatically checked by default.  

  • New search option is also provided, which helps to search for the sites in the ‘Add Sites’ page itself.

Routing Module

• Site search option in the Routing pop-up and the column sorting features are enhanced to improve the user-friendliness. Now the respective sites can be easily identified through the ‘Lookup Site’ button functionality and the sort column is sticky for the respective user via a cookie.

  • Additionally, the Title of the file is updated to display only the title portion of the file for more clarity.

• New SSRS report is available with the iChannel v3.2, which shows the Successfully Routed files via the Routing module.

  • The new report comes with many filters to search the respective files, which are successfully routed completed.

• A meaningful default preview icon is introduced for files that have un-supported file types, in the File grid.

Retention Module

• The search functionality of Retention Module is enhanced, that the search can be performed with 'Site ID' (FEIN value)

• Retention Module functionality is improved by introducing two buttons “Home” and “Back“ and the enhanced functionality as follows;

  • BACK button navigates the user back to the Retention Module Home page

  • HOME button navigates the user back to the iChannel internal Dashboard

Workflow Module

• UI/UX of the workflow module is enhanced, that all popups are opened in a new tab instead of independent new windows, which was the functionality in previous iChannel versions. The new change helps the users to conveniently keep track on the flow of activities.

Retention Module

• The Retention Module Navigation has been updated to open the page in the same tab and the Retention Progression Window includes a new Back button which redirects to the Retention Home.

• ‘Archive’ button in the Retention Module is renamed as ‘Backup' and informative tooltip message and other respective details (Caution and File Path) are properly displayed for both ‘Backup' button and 'Archive and Delete’ button, allowing users to clearly understand the exact behavior of each button action.

  • New Excel file is added to the root of the path, 'iChannel Archived files on mm/dd/yyyy’ to display the list of archived files when the ‘Export to Excel’ button is clicked.

Security

• Security Modules section is midfield by hiding obsolete/not in use Security Modules, Sub-modules and Security permissions from both Modules page and Security Group Details Page.

• Many UI/UX enhancements are incorporated to Security Modules including renaming Modules and Sub-modules with more meaningful names and organizing the order of modules on the page.

• Proper, meaningful descriptions are added for each Security Module and Security Module Component, clearly explaining the exact functionality of each module and component.

• Change Password option (Reset Password button) in Subscriber details is disabled for the users, who are using AD Authentication via the respective Rootsite setting (CA_OSAUTHENTICATE).

General

• 'Show on Portal' checkbox option in the Activity Page is removed when creating Portal Requests via Activity page. Any Portal Request created in this page is displayed on the Portal and Request Module as well.

• Few enhancements are introduced to email templates functionality, making the subject of the emails customizable. Now users can customize the subject of emails that they are sending as required via a simple JSON template.

  • Two new JSON template files are introduced for this function as follows;

    • documentLinkAttachment.json

    • documentLinkAttachmentSecureKey.json

• Active Subscribers and Groups section in the Subscribers page is enhanced to display the correct details for the number of subscribers and licensing.

• When the 6 digit code is entered or copy-pasted on 2FA promote, it is auto validated and if valid, user is automatically login to both Internal iChannel system and Portal. Thus, it is not necessary for users to click on the 'OK' button when a valid code is entered.

• Images in the iChannel Internal system and Portal login pages are upgraded to be matched with the Channel theme.

• iChannel System Quick Links are updated to be displayed only for Administrator users, allowing them to access the manage sites through Maintsite permissions without any additional Quick access to modify the Root Site details.

• All the relevant Pages and Icons are enhanced matching with the ichannel theme.

• With v3.2.1 release, the CasewareCustomLinks hyperlink allows Custom Caseware Link Paths on the File Options page. The Default setting for CasewareCustomLinks will not show the link demonstrated in the screenshot below.

• When the setting CasewareCustomLinks is enabled, Custom Caseware Link paths will display under the File option links as below. This setting is located in the Appsetting.config file.

• From v3.2.1 onwards, a new Checkup program is introduced to run and determine if the VFP tables are reaching their allowed limit of 2GB which will help to take actions before any possible errors. Please see the screenshots below.

• The above program will be applicable for client v2.16 and up.

• With v3.2.1 release, when an Email message file is uploaded to the File Area by drag and drop, meta data information like “From, To, and CC” are captured and displayed in the File area underneath the uploaded Email message file.

Routing Module

• The functionality of Routing Sheets is enhanced to auto-select the correct target subfolder for routing sheets at the point of creating. Respective target subfolder is auto-selected based on the selected parent and child categories, when the ‘Override Subfolder’ check box is ticked.

• An enhancement is incorporated to the Routing functionality, when a file is routed and completed, the respective record is updated in the "Complete" & "Completed" columns of the jobqueue.dbf table.

  • 'Successfully Routed' report should be executed, to view the list of successful routed files via auto-routing or manual routing.

• The routing grid functionality is upgraded to display the files sorted in the descending order of created date. With this enhancement users are able to easily view the latest records added to the dppquepath, that are to be routed. (Special Note: This enhancement applies only for the clients who are on Channel versions 3.0 and 3.1)

File Area

• Gear Dropdown menu items in the file area are updated/renamed to be matched with new iChannel naming conventions.

• Validations in File uploading functionality is enhanced that, when trying to upload prevented file types or multiple files with prevented file types (file extension that defined as prevented in appsettings.config), the system displays an informative error message and allow users to re-upload the correct files.

• With v3.2.1 release, when you assign files from 'File Assign To' function, the Expiration Date field will be optional.

• There will be a new button named Change Title in the File Properties view, to rename the title of the documents. The changes to the title will be reflected in the respective files in the File Area as well as in downloaded files.

Workflow Module

• Now the access permissions for ‘Workflow Rollover functionality can be controlled user group wise, as new security component is added in order to control the permission for the ‘Workflow Rollover' button in the workflow module.

CRM

• In the Contacts module, the actions that were previously under More Options dropdown are now presented as buttons.

  • Add Site - This will create the Site with File Area.

  • Add Site (CRM Only) - This will create only the Site, without File Area.

  • Add Contact

  • Export to Excel

  • Mail Merge

  • Advanced Query

iCD

• iFetch installer is upgraded to be installed with Wix Toolset, facilitating an easier and convenient installation process.

• The label of ‘Publish’ checkbox is updated as ‘Publish/Link’ on the iChannel Desk. Thus the users are properly informed, this function allows to link files internally via iCD.

• Expire Date section of the iCD UI is changed, that it displays the correct dates as the Publish Expire Date.

• With the v3.2.1 release, once the connection is established with iChannelDesk via VPN, a successful message as below will show.

• If not connected, it will retry for 2 more minutes to connect to iChannelDesk while showing the below message.

Request Module

• The two new buttons, Accept \ File and Accept \ Download are introduced for the files in the Request Module grid.

  • Accept \ File - one or more files can be accepted in to the iChannel area

  • Accept \ Download - accept and download files

• Additionally, the accepted files will also be shown in the portal. Please watch the videos.

Portal

• With the release of v3.2.1, if the total uploading file size exceeds 2GB for portal/file area uploads, a warning message will be displayed. Video Provided below.

Integrations/API

• When a reviewer declines an e-sign request for a document, the declined action will be shown in the File History of that document.

• Additionally, in the File Area, above document will now be shown in Declined Status. Please watch the video and attached screenshot.

General

• When uploading files to an entity, the filename appends with the entity name adhering to the File Title Standard formats defined in the system. However, when a file is uploaded to an entity, which contains illegal special characters in the entity name, such characters should be hashed when appending to the respective file name. Earlier there was an bug, where the illegal characters in the file name were not hashed, thus the file was displayed as moved or deleted. Now this issue is fixed, by hashing all the illegal characters in the entity name when appending to the file name. Therefore, the files are displayed properly in the file area.

• In previous iChannel versions Non-admin users were able to modify root site settings via Site search, now this option is blocked by hiding the advanced Setting button for non-admin users on the Root Site details page and this feature is available only for Admin Users.

• Resolved the issue, that duplicate subscribers were not allowed to be deactivated via web. From this iChannel version onwards, duplicate subscriber records can be successfully deactivated in web.

• Fixed the issues in Subscriber Details Page, where it didn’t display proper informative error messages when user tries to save subscriber records without filling the mandatory fields. Now users are displayed with proper error messages when trying to save details with empty mandatory fields.

• Functionality of ‘Email Selected Contacts’ and ‘Create Activity’ buttons on Entity search results page is resolved to work as expected.

  • Email Selected Contacts Button: Opens the System configured email application allowing to compose emails

  • Create Activity Button: Opens the Activity page allowing to create a new activity

• Enhanced the Help section in System, Advanced Settings page, which now properly shows the help details.

• With v3.2.1 release, a validation message will be shown, if you try to enter a password exceeding 50 characters in the following places.

  • My Profile page > Update password

  • System > Subscriber > Reset password

  • System > Subscriber > Creation ( Create contact > Subscriber )

  • Portal >

  • Change Password option ( for newly login subscriber )

  • Login from a temporary password (which generated from forgot password)

  • My Profile page

  • Portal Admin user > Admin page> Subscriber > Reset password

File Area

• Fixed the issue with file name when recategorizing a file, now both the File Name and File Title are displayed as expected according to the Advanced Settings definitions.

• File Properties window is redesigned fixing few issues, such as labels are renamed to provide more clarity on the details and accurate timestamps are attached with the respective labels.

• Blocked publishing same file to the same category more than once, but it’s allowed to publish the same file to a different category.

• Date pickers are now working properly with the Created/Modified Date dropdown in the file search section.

• In the previous versions of the system, it showed an error message when Open and Restore buttons are clicked in File History page, after a file versioning function is performed. These issues are properly addressed with version 3.2, that 'Open’ and ‘Restore’ buttons in the File History window are now working as expected after versioning a file.

• Resolved the issues with not filtering Files/Sites based on the Industry field in File Search section. Now the respective Files/Sites are properly searched according to the respective Industry field value.

• File history related issues are fixed in Move action and Link action, now the correct actions and respective site details are properly shown in the file history records.

• File Area UI is updated that, the Submitted Files grid and Requested Files grid are collapsed during the initial load of the File Area and these 2 grids remains expanded when an action is performed within the relevant grid.

• The issue of not setting Final/Locked files in to Read-only status is resolved. Now the Final/Locked files are not allowed to be edited and a descriptive error message is displayed if any user tries to edit a locked file.

  • This validation is applicable in file downloading, via check-out and check-in options, in Stream mode and in direct mode.

• Fixed the issue occurred when updating a file into the permanent state through recategorize function. Now the files can be updated to permanent by checking the ‘Permanent’ box in recategorize.

• Fixed the issue with the Common file watcher background service, now it properly updates the IsFileAvailable column status when files are newly added or when file statues is updated.

• Resolved the issue of duplicating content in the "Request Docs" notification email, which is sent automatically to internal assigned subscribers, when a request is responded by uploading documents.

• History option in File Properties section is updated to display accurate file history records with all necessary details of the respective files.

• Rename File option in file properties is disabled for Final/Locked files, where the files in Final/Locked statues are not allowed to be renamed.

• Resolved the issues with Unpublish and Unlink features, now both the functions work properly as expected for multiple documents and Autosweep uploaded documents as well.

• Option to add files via Plus Icon in File Area is deprecated, and files can be added to the file area by drag and drop to the respective folder location.

• Fixed the error occurred when saving non-permanent files without an expiration date. The Expiration Date field is mandatory when adding non-permanent files to the system.

• Enhanced informative confirmation message is displayed when a file is successfully Published and Linked, Published or Linked in the system.

• The tags in the File Area of a selected Site are now sorted alphabetically to allow easy usage of inside the function.

• The Sorting function on the File Search has been repaired. This will sort the results page by the selected parameter in the File Search results page.

   

• Changed the functionality of the open/restore buttons in the File History as follows.

  • Open button: will open the particular version of the document that is associated with that action in the history.

  • Restore button: will replace the latest document with the particular version of the document that is associated with that action in the history.

• Fixed the search feature located in the Link Files via iChannel and Publish and Link Files in the File Area. Please watch the video.

Dashboard

• The "Assigned" dropdown in the My Assigned Documents widget is updated to be populated only with the Active Subscribers of the respective root site.

• Resolved the issues with ‘My Calendar Activities Widget’ on the Dashboard, now it displays the accurate data according to the filtered user and activities.

  • Additionally the Manage Dashboard functionality is enhanced, where it is blocked adding the same widget more than once to the dashboard.

• Editable Dashboards are made sticky trough-out the login when there is no specified default dashboard for the respective user. However, if there is any specified default dashboard, then it will be the selected dashboard throughout the login.

• Sorting features for widgets on the Dashboard have been fixed.

CRM

• Resolved the bug, that allowed to create new Sites with an existing site ID. Now, the system validates the SIte IDs within the Rootsite for uniqueness and throws an error message mentioning that there is an existing Site ID. Duplicate and Empty Site IDs are not allowed.

• Fixed the UI issues with Contact Details page, where Email section is now properly displayed in Activity tab.

• Previously, Activity count was not properly updated on the Activity Page when Add/Edit/Delete Activities. Now the functionality is fixed to update and display the correct activity count when an activity is added/updated/deleted on Activity Page.

• Fixed the issue of not properly showing new contacts in Linked Contact page. Once a new contact is added, now the linked contacts are properly displayed in the ‘Linked’ tab after adding a new linked contact to an existing contact.

• Security permissions are revised, now the Subscriber button will be visible to non-admin users when the add permission is enabled in “CRMContacts“ section for respective security group.

• Contact and Site Search page is updated to facilitate easy and faster performance by clear out all text fields and greyed out the other section (Contact/Site) when clicking on any radio button (contact) or (site), preventing unnecessary information being filled out.

• Resolved the inconsistencies occurred when creating Client records through Contacts Page and Site Page. Now the Site ID value is mandatory when creating clients from both the locations.

• Email Validation is incorporated on Contact creation and Contact update functions, where the system shows a warning message when entering an invalid email address.

• The global Search function for sites and the Site Search in the Contacts module are now consistent. Please watch the video.

Portal

• When trying to downloads secure files with a Key value from iChannel via a link in an email, it caused the browser window to close on clicking on the ‘Enter' key and only worked properly when the ‘Download’ button is clicked. Now, this issue is fixed to work properly as expected on the 'Enter’ key as well.

• When a Portal user tries to change/update any information or security question answers in the portal, system required to change the password as well. Now this issue is resolved that, portal users are allowed to change/update other details without changing the password.

Routing Module

• iChannel versions 3.0 and 3.1 versions had an issue with re-routing the auto routed files again, where is displayed File does not exist message. Now this issue is fixed, which allows to successfully re-route the auto-routed files.

• Fixed the issues with iChannel Cloud server, where users were unable to open files from Routing queue, as they did not have access to the backend UNC path and the direct mode was defaulted to open the files, which didn’t work properly.

  • Subscriber advanced setting CA_STREAM is used to fix the issue, where the viewing mode will be switched based on this value. Default value for routing queue view is Direct Mode (S - Stream Mode and D - Direct Mode).

• Fixed the issues with File manual routing & Scanned sheet auto routing, when a new Sub-folder is given as the for target file path. Now the file is successfully routed to the respective selected file area with applied file properties.

  • The new subfolder will be created if it is not already exist.

• Quick search features in Routing module are updated that, showing default selected values for ‘Recently Routed', ‘My Site’ and 'My contacts File Area’ drop downs are kept blank. These default values were confusing the users.

• Resolved the inconsistencies when auto-routing scanned sheets. When the scanned sheet is generated, a tooltip message will be shown in the generated view, that the same scanned document cannot be auto-routed more than once. Once auto-routed, it will be shown in the File Area.

• Incase if the same scanned sheet dropped to DPPQueue to route more than once, then it will be shown as a Not Routed and Duplicate Record. While it will not be auto-routed, you are able to route the file manually.

• Resolved the bug where an error came when you try to edit a document that is successfully routed. With v3.2.1 release, you will be navigated to the Document Profile page when the user clicks on the file name hyperlink of a file that is manually/auto routed. Please watch the video(for manually routed file).

Workflow Module

• Resolved the issues with showing incorrect values for ‘Tasks Status’ dropdown in Workflow Rollover functionality. Now the dropdown shows below options for users to pick as desired.

  • Not Started

  • Copy from Template

  • First task In Process

• Fixed the issue in Workflow search functionality that it didn’t return proper output when searches are performed. Now, the system works fine to return expected correct results with the respective search criteria.

• Two non-performing buttons ‘Save Criteria’ and ‘Clear Saved Criteria’ are removed from the Workflow Search screen.

• Resolved issues related to filtering in Workflow Rollover function, now the workflows can be filtered according to selected date periods, period ends, completion month and few more criteria are facilitated.

• On the Workflow Search page, Workflow Subtypes and Task status drop-down are updated to get filtered based on the selected value for the Workflow Type dropdown.

• Fixed the error occurred when trying to Create Portal Requests through Files tab in Workflow module. Now the feature works properly as expected allowing to create portal requests with or without attached files.

• When there are two subscriber records for the same person in the same root site, you can merge the two Subscriber records together and make one native Subscriber. After merging, the tasks that were previously assigned to the inactive Subscriber continued to show the inactive Subscriber as the assignee. This bug now fixed to show both native and inactive Subscribers in the tasks.

Reports Module

• Resolved the issues in Files to be scanned Report, now the report displays the correct records as expected.

• Modify Site Configuration Button is removed in the Global document file area permissions section in Reports page.

iFetch

• When trying to install iFetch on an incompatible OS, it installed the pre-conditions and displayed the installation incomplete message. This misleads the users, as it didn’t show that the OS is not supported. With this version, it’s fixed to display a warning message mentioning that ‘iFetch is not compatible with the current OS'

• Resolved the issue occurred when trying to open files through iFetch from Dashboard, Version and Open, Routing page and from the File Search, Now the files can be successfully opened through iFetch as expected from all the respective locations.

iCD

• In previous iCD versions, it showed the UNC path for some files in the PATH column in the grid for all the users (both Admin and Non-Admin users). Now this is fixed that, UNC Path is displayed only for Admin users and it’s blank for Non-Admin users.

• In previous iChannel versions, when an email with the same name as previous email from a separate client is dragged and dropped to the upload area, and it overwrote the previous emails. With v3.2.1 release, this bug is now fixed.

Retention Module

• Retention module functionality is enhanced, where .msg files can be archived or deleted without any issue.

• When trying to archive/delete a file that doesn't exist, the Retention Module showed an error earlier. Now, this issue is fixed, that the respective file record in the database will be deleted and the event is logged properly. Respective details are stored in retention document table with the file information for further reference.

• Resolved issues in deleting Caseware files, where all the files that were uploaded with the respective caseware file is removed from the server location. Relevant database records and File area records get cleared at the point of deleting.