FOIAXpress Release Notes 26.3.1.0

Product Enhancements

Background Generation of Custom Reports

#ID 1514091

FOIAXpress now generates Custom Reports as a background job instead of building them inside your active session. Reports that span multiple years or include a large number of fields previously took significant time to process, tied up your session, and slowed down other operations across the application. Report generation now runs asynchronously, so you can continue working while a large report is prepared.

When you generate a Custom Report, you can choose the output format you need (such as Word or Excel) and decide whether to run the report immediately or schedule it for a later date and time. You can then track the status of each report — Queued, In Progress, Completed, or Failed — from the Job Monitoring window and download the finished report once it is ready.

Moving report generation to a background job reduces load on the application server and improves overall system responsiveness, especially for large, data-heavy reports.

Faster Annual Report Generation

#ID 1512904

We have substantially improved the performance and stability of the Annual Report. Running the Annual Report during business hours previously placed heavy load on the application server and could fail for customers with large data volumes. The Annual Report now runs as an asynchronous background job, removing that load from the application server so the report no longer affects other users while it is being prepared.

Once processing completes, you can download the finished report in PDF format. Behind the scenes, we have also refined the report generation logic and optimized the underlying database queries to deliver faster, more reliable results, while keeping the report data fully consistent with previous versions.  

Faster Documents Report Generation

#ID 1511482

We have improved the performance of the Documents Report, so that generating it no longer slows down the rest of the application. On environments with large data volumes, the report's underlying queries could block other operations and lead to timeout errors for concurrent users. We have optimized those database queries to reduce contention and minimize timeouts, so the Documents Report runs more reliably without impacting other activity in FOIAXpress.

Unified Debug Logs for Request Management

#ID 1437760

FOIAXpress now provides unified debug logging for Request Management as part of our ongoing logging improvements. This gives administrators and support teams a single, consistent record of request-related activity, making it easier and faster to trace what happened on a request and to diagnose issues.

Improved Certificate Validation for SAML SSO Configuration

#ID 1518900

We have improved the SAML SSO Configuration experience so that administrators can only upload supported certificate files when setting up single sign-on. Previously, selecting an unsupported file type could return a misleading "saved successfully" message, and some valid certificates were incorrectly shown as invalid even though they worked correctly.

The SAML SSO Configuration page now accepts only supported certificate file types (.cer, .pfx, .crt, and .pem). If you select any other file type, the page immediately displays a clear validation message — "Selected file extension is not allowed. Only the following extensions are allowed: .cer, .pfx, .crt, .pem." — instead of appearing to save successfully. Valid certificates are also now displayed correctly, so you can configure SSO with confidence.

Reliable Pay.gov Certificate Handling on Install and Upgrade

#ID 1544012

We have enhanced the FOIAXpress installation and upgrade deployment scripts to automatically enable Load User Profile on the IIS application pool. Pay.gov and CCPay load a PFX certificate (with its private key) when processing payments and refunds, which requires the application pool's Load User Profile setting to be enabled. Because Windows leaves this setting disabled by default, freshly created or migrated application pools could fail to load the certificate, causing payment and refund operations to error out.

The install and upgrade scripts now set this configuration automatically, so the required setting is applied on every new installation and on each upgrade without any manual intervention. This ensures Pay.gov/CCPay certificate processing works correctly out of the box and prevents payment or refund failures after a new installation or a server migration.

Date Validation for Locked Annual Reporting Periods

#ID 1437760

FOIAXpress now blocks any date edit that would move a request into or out of a locked fiscal year (FY), thus strengthening the Annual Report data integrity and ensuring the live database stays aligned with the certified DOJ filing.

The check runs server-side at save and covers eight date fields: Received Date, Date Closed, Stop-the-Clock Start, Stop-the-Clock End, Appeal Received Date, Appeal Closed Date, Transfer Date, and Original Received Date. A save is rejected whenever the old or new date falls before any FY lock date, covering all cases (moving out of, into, between, or within locked fiscal years), and a message notifies you of the same. The save is all-or-nothing: if any in-scope field violates the rule, nothing in the transaction is committed.

To make a blocked edit, a user with the Annual Report-Edit permission must first unlock the affected reporting period from the Annual Report configuration; lock state is re-evaluated at each save.

For mass actions (such as Mass Stop the Clock, Mass Start the Clock, or Mass Close), the rule is applied per request: violating requests are skipped and the rest are processed, and FOIAXpress reports how many were applied and how many were skipped.

Mandatory Client Secret Expiry for GraphAPI Configurations

#ID 1516434

GraphAPI configurations now enforce expiry date validation, rejecting past or empty values with clear messaging. This update enables better visibility into credential lifecycles, helping administrators prevent unexpected outages and maintain secure, uninterrupted authentication across all integrated components.

1. Open Mail Server Configuration in the application.

2. Locate the Client Secret Expiry Date field. This field is mandatory.

3. Use the date picker to enter the same expiration date that was selected for the client secret in the Azure Portal.

4. Click Save to apply the changes.

Consultation Documents Instructions

#ID 1501802

This update introduces a new option for collab users to open task Instructions in a separate browser tab, allowing them to keep instructions visible while completing RFD or Consultation tasks. Users can access this via the new “Open in new tab” button or the updated Show menu → Instructions action.

Open Task Instructions in a New Browser Tab

Collab users can now open the task Instructions in a new browser tab from two entry points in the document viewer:

   • Instructions pop-up footer — a new Open in new tab button has been added to the footer of the existing Instructions pop-up. Clicking it opens the standalone Instructions page in a new tab and closes the pop-up, leaving the document viewer tab and active workflow unaffected.

   • Show menu → Instructions — selecting Instructions from the Show menu now opens the standalone page directly in a new tab with no popup, whether or not the auto-popup was shown or dismissed earlier in the session. This is the primary way returning users reach instructions when the auto-popup no longer appears.

Standalone Instructions Page

The instructions open as a standalone page titled Instructions — Collaboration Portal. It contains a Request For Documents tab and a Consultations tab — with Request For Documents active by default — that the user can switch between freely. Each tab shows the content configured by the administrator (under Administration → Organization Setup → Enterprise); if the administrator has saved blank content for a tab, that tab renders empty.

Each time the user clicks Open in new tab or Show menu → Instructions, a new, independent Instructions tab opens — existing Instructions tabs are unaffected. The standalone page is fully independent of the document viewer (navigating or scrolling in the viewer does not affect it) and loads within 3 seconds under normal conditions.

Bug Fixes

We’ve addressed the following bugs in this version of FOIAXpress: