Release Overview
About FOIAXpress 11.7.0
Welcome to FOIAXpress v11.7.0, our spring release for 2024. Several exciting enhancements have arrived for FOIAXpress, including expanded application integrations. We’re also continuing to refine our existing features and have added several usability enhancements in this latest version. Some of the release highlights include:
Integration with the RelativityOne cloud eDiscovery tool.
Enhancing EDR with improvements to how we handle documents that fail ingestion.
Introducing auto-save to the Rich Text Editor for correspondence letters and templates, and supporting template files for import.
Expanded the functionality of custom fields, including the ability to add attachments.
Improvements to Multi-Factor Authentication, like allowing for PIV card-based MFA.
Continued enhancements to our API.
We’ve also issued several bug fixes in this latest release, including fixes for customer-reported issues around request processing, application administration, document management, and reports.
Finally, we provide guidance on how to work around a known issue that we were not able to resolve in this release. This issue impacts users searching in French within Document Management. We’ll continue to work to fully address this issue in a future release.
Important Notes for v11.7.0
SAML SSO
NOTE: If you use SAML SSO and are upgrading the v11.7.0, see this important note about extra action required during the upgrade process.
For this latest release, we’ve updated SAML Configuration with a new Assertion Service URL. If you are upgrading to v11.7.0, you must update the value for the Assertion Service Provider URL in the SAML Configuration tool:
You must also inform your Identity Provider about this change so they can record the updated assertion URL.
NOTE: If you do not update this URL with your identity provider SAML SSO will not function as expected.
The Assertion Service URL reads “https://DNS/FOIAXpress/AssertionConsumerService.aspx”
For example. if your FOIAXpress’s home page URL is “https://myDns/FOIAXpress/OfficerHome.aspx” then you would enter “https://myDns/FOIAXpress/AssertionConsumerService.aspx”
FOIAXpress API
The FOIAXpress API is required as part of v11.7.0. Because the API is now required, steps to install the API were moved from a standalone document into the Deployment Manual. See the updated Deployment Manual for details (included in the Version History table).
AI Assistant
For 11.7.0, the process and requirements for installing our AI Assistant feature has changed. This change also impacts existing customers using AI, and extra steps are required when upgrading to v11.7.0. The AI Assistant now requires installing both the FOIAXpress API, and the Stanford CoreNLP application, as well as adding both these URLs to FOIAXpress configuration. The AI Assistant feature will not function without completing this integration. See the Deployment Manual for all steps to configure the AI Assistant for 11.7.0.
Default User Manual Link
An important note when upgrading to FX or AX 11.7.2: you must manually update the User Manual URL in the General Settings. The incorrect link was provided as a default value in the setup files, so these must be corrected manually. Follow the steps in the Deployment Manual to correct the manual link.
We introduced an integration with the Relativity Server eDiscovery platform in v11.5.0. For this latest release, we’re excited to expand this integration to support the cloud-based RelativityOne.
In addition to expanding our integrations, we want to ensure they’re as simple as possible to use. RelativityOne maintains the same configuration and workflow from Relativity Server when integrating with FOIAXpress.
ID# 62119, 63753, 62122, 62124, 62125
We’ve updated the way EDR handles files that fail ingestion due to known issues such as unsupported file type or password protection. If documents fail ingestion, you are notified of this failure immediately from the EDR Document Upload screen, as shown below:
The notification includes the (A) number of items that failed ingestion. You’ll also see a (B) list of the failed files, along with the (C) reason for the failure. You can click any of the documents in the list to download that file directly.
From EDR, you’ll also note a new Failed Documents button on the EDR Home tab. Click this button to view the list of failed items.
All failed documents are (D) listed in this pop-up. Click documents in this list to download that file. You can also (E) Export All Items to export these to a designated folder using a system job or click (F) Download Filenames to download the full list of files to your downloads folder.
Improving EDR: Failed Document Handling
Request Processing Updates
Proof of Identity/Consent Requirements
We’ve added a Proof of Identity/Consent not provided checkbox to the Close Request screen. This allows users to close requests when proof of identity was not provided by the Requester. Selecting this checkbox bypasses the requirement for the Proof of Identity/Consent Received Date field:
Custom Field Functionality Enhancements
ID# 64684
We’ve enhanced the functionality of custom fields, including both the ability to attach files
directly to these fields, and increasing the character limit on these fields to 2000 characters.
Requester Country Advanced Filter
ID# 6963
To aid in sorting and filtering international requests, we’ve added a new “Requester Country” filter to the Advanced search and reporting screen. Using this filter allows you to sort by Requester country in search and report outputs.
Rich Text Editor Auto-Save Feature
ID# 59924, 63907
We’ve added auto-save to the rich text editor. Now, changes to correspondence letters and templates are saved automatically while you’re working in the rich text editor.
To celebrate this addition, we’ve removed the note on the System Settings Administration page indicating that auto-save was unavailable when using the rich text editor.
Import .DOT and .DOTX Files
ID# 60193
You can now import Microsoft Word Template files (.DOT and .DOTX) as Correspondence Templates. For the best experience we do recommend converting these files to .DOC or .DOCX format before importing, however template files are now supported for importing templates.
For organizations using Forms authentication to access FOIAXpress, we now offer multi-factor authentication using a PIV card. MFA via PIV works by validating the subject of the user's certificate against a pre-configured value.
You can enable PIV based authentication from the Security Configuration screen (Administration > Security > Security Configuration). Select the Enable Multi-factor Authentication checkbox to show the available options:
Select PIV from the MFA Type drop-down.
To link each user to the PIV, we added a new Certificate Subject field to the Edit User screen called. Use this field to populate PIV Subject values for your users. This field is only available if the application is configured to use Forms authentication.
Note: PIV based MFA is only supported for Windows Server 2016, but we’re continuing to test in additional configurations to expand availability of this feature.
Media Redaction Proxy Enabled
ID# 69785
We’ve enabled a new Proxy field in Media Redaction Settings (Administration > Document Management > Media Redaction Settings) that allows for proxy server integration. Redacted Videos Sent from Veritone to FX can now go through a proxy server without issue provided you’ve entered the proxy server IP in the Media Redaction settings.
Note: There’s a known issue where a second Proxy field is present on this screen. Please use the bottom Proxy field as highlighted in the sample above. Data entered in the top field is not retained by the system
IDs # 32960, 32966, 32968, 33026
We introduced a new API for v11.5.0, and we’re continuing to build on the API’s capabilities in
this latest release. For 11.7.0, we’ve updated our API with additional methods including:
Request Methods – Requests Count, update request, and create request
Requesters Methods – Create requester, update requester, locale ID
Email Service – Search inbox and return content
Media Redaction – Obtain signed URLs for media files
We’ve corrected numerous bugs and issues in v11.7.0, as outlined in the following sections.
Request Processing
ID | Description |
|---|---|
23339 | Addressed a bug in which a Grace Period would be applied multiple times if a request was transferred more than once. The Grace Period now only applies once, and Remaining Days do not change on subsequent transfers after the first transfer. |
57911 | Addressed a bug causing the Request Age calculation to fail for every Request when there is a single request failure. |
59732 | Addressed a bug in which the Proof of Identity requirement was still displaying after it was disabled at the Request level. |
60623 | Resolved an issue where dashboard counts and charts were not displaying on user’s dashboards. All dashboard charts now display the expected results. |
61455 | Fixed a bug in the Merge Requester History function where profiles were not successfully merged. These profiles can now be merged as expected. |
55914 | Fixed an issue with the drag and drop file upload feature on the Create Request screen where the file would upload in multiple locations. Using drag and drop to upload files on this form now only adds the file in the targeted location. |
58782 | Addressed an issue causing the Document Delivery job to fail while encrypting the delivery .zip file. |
56139 | When attempting to upload a file with a file name that is too long an alert will be shown that says "An error occurred while uploading the file: The file has exceeded the maximum allowed file name length please rename the file and try again." This applies to all file uploads in the application. |
57693 | Fixed an application error which occurred during a Requester search, when attempting to sort the results by the requester’s last name. |
59731 | Fixed an issue on the Add/Search/View Documents tab where the drag and drop attachment feature was not correctly attaching emails. |
62700 | Resolved an issue when sending a Request for Documents where the backspace key did not function correctly within the message body field. |
64170 | Fixed a bug where using the Add Documents button automatically defaulted to the Review Log rather than the Request Folder. |
49212 | Corrected a dashboard issue where Action Office Managers were not seeing the Overdue Request count on their dashboard. |
57747 | Resolved an issue causing a timeout error when attempting to delete the failed Delivery Log for a large number of pages. |
62568 | Fixed a bug where the Backspace key did not function correctly when editing a Correspondence Template. |
Document Management
ID | Description |
|---|---|
59640 | We’ve added a 180-character limit to Folder and Section names. If a user tries to save a Folder or Section name over this limit, an error message appears prompting the user to rename the item. |
61833 | Section names with an ampersand “&” were causing a Save to Disk job failure. We’ve resolved the issue and Section names with ampersands can now be saved. |
63919 | Addressed a bug in which uploading editable PDF forms during an Add Documents job caused a memory spike. |
69202 | Fixed a bug that caused redactions to be removed from a specific page during the document delivery process. |
69206 | Fixed a bug that caused full page redactions to be incorrectly applied in portrait mode despite the page being in landscape format. |
62213 | Fixed an issue where redaction codes created containing single quotes cause the find and replace feature to not functional correctly. |
59577 | Fixed an issue with the AI Assistant where statute codes applied using the AI Assistant were missing from the redaction code menu. |
EDR
ID | Description |
|---|---|
32679 | Corrected an issue in which filters on a Request Report changed after the Report criteria was saved. |
58831 | Fixed a dashboard bug which caused some elements of the EDR Home tab to not display correctly. |
61776 | After updating the EDR paths in EDR Configuration, users can now access both the existing and new EDR data sources without any issue, provided the newly configured paths are accessible. |
62170 | Resolved an issue where duplicate EDR statuses triggered an exception error. |
Reports
ID | Description |
|---|---|
60613 | Corrected an issue in which filters on a Request Report changed after the Report criteria was saved. |
62734 | Corrected an issue in which User filter criteria for Custom Reports would not be applied and the Report would display results for all users. |
57728 | Fixed an issue where a report output did not include the report name. |
50013 | Resolved an issue where documents including multiple sections with pages were not being counted correctly in custom Request Reports. |
Security
ID | Description |
|---|---|
63897 | Fixed an error where users were not automatically logged out of the application after the configured session expiration period. |
Administration
ID | Description |
|---|---|
57471 | Fixed a bug in which custom configured application pool accounts were switched to Network Service configuration. |
59729 | Fixed a bug encountered after an update to the repository file path made on the System Settings page was not updated in the file cabinet table in the database, causing an error to occur when uploading documents. |
60558 | Addressed a bug in which extra whitespace in the Program Office email address caused these email addresses to incorrectly auto-populate. This field now automatically accounts for additional whitespace. |
27884 | Fixed a SAML authentication bug that caused continuous writing to the error log, causing issues within the application. |
59687 | Resolved an issue in the Retention Module where the Delete Documents function did not work as expected. |
Known Issues
French Apostrophe OCR Issue
There is a known Optical Character Recognition (OCR) issue in this version of FOIAXpress. Our OCR engine does not recognize the French apostrophe (') and instead reads this as an English apostrophe (‘). Therefore, users who enter the French apostrophe when using the Find and Redact feature in Document Management are not seeing the expected search results, as the system only recognizes the English apostrophe.
We are working to improve our OCR capabilities to recognize both the English and French apostrophe. As a workaround, when using the Find and Redact feature to locate words or phrases which include a French apostrophe, please instead search using the English apostrophe, as this will locate any matching text which includes the French apostrophe.
EDR Search Limitation
Due to a third-party limitation, email subjects cannot be used as file names in EDR. These cannot be properly filtered and are not included in search results. Because this issue originates with a third party, we are unable to offer a prospective timeline on a resolution.