FOIAXpress Release Notes 26.5.1.0

1. Product Enhancements

1.1 Restrict non-admin users to change the non-admin roles to Admin role

When you create or edit a user, the System Administrator role is now available only if you belong to the Admin group. Users outside the Admin group, including those with the User Management permission, no longer see this role and cannot assign it, which helps prevent unauthorized access to elevated privileges.

To assign the System Administrator role:

1. Navigate to Administration > Organization Setup > Users.

2. Create a new user, or search for and open an existing user.

3. Select the System Administrator role. This role is listed only if you belong to the Admin group.

4. Save the user.

Admin group users can assign the System Administrator role to any user, whether or not that user belongs to the Admin group.

1.2 Faster Document Availability and Failed Job Recovery in EDR

Electronic Document Review (EDR) processing is now split into a sequence of separate jobs, so documents become available for review as soon as indexing completes instead of after all background processing finishes. You can search, review, and code documents on the All Documents tab, and add them to a Review List, the Review Log, or the Request Folder, while the remaining jobs continue in the background. Document text is now prepared for clustering in a new job, EDR - Extract Document Text, and clustering starts only after that job completes successfully.

Each data source now runs through the following jobs, listed separately on the EDR Jobs tab with their own status:

• EDR - Load documents to EDR indexes the documents of the data source and makes them available on the All Documents tab

• EDR - Extract Document Text prepares the indexed documents for clustering and updates the Dup column

• EDR- Request Populate Page Counts fills the page count of each document

• EDR - Identify Containment builds the clusters of the data source, for data sources added with Enable Clustering selected

Processing failures are also easier to recover from. A data source is no longer deleted when an EDR job fails. The data source and its documents are kept, the job shows the status Failed, and the reason for the failure is recorded in the job log, so you can decide whether to process the data source again or delete it.

NOTE: If the EDR - Load documents to EDR job fails, the jobs that follow it are not queued. Resolve the cause recorded in the job log before indexing the data source again.

1.3 Skipped Attachment Handling for Collaboration Portal Messages

Attachments received from the Collaboration Portal are now processed more reliably when you add them to the Review Log or to Document Management. Previously, a single corrupted or password-protected attachment caused the entire job to fail, and none of the remaining valid attachments were added. FOIAXpress now skips the invalid attachment, continues to process every valid attachment, and completes the job with the status Completed with Error.

Details of the skipped attachments are recorded in the Mail Log, and a downloadable Excel list of the skipped files is available from the job, so you can follow up with the Program Office for replacement files.

To review any skipped file, navigate to Administration > Jobs > All Jobs and locate the job. Confirm that the Status column shows Completed with Error if any attachment was skipped. Click the download icon in the Actions column to download the Excel list of skipped attachments.

1.4 Review Flag Changes on Fully Redacted Pages

You can now change the review flag of a fully redacted page without first removing the full redaction. Previously, FOIAXpress prompted you to undo the full redaction before the review flag could be changed. With this update, the review flag changes directly and the full redaction on the page is preserved. The change applies at the page, section, and folder level.

This behavior is controlled by a new configuration option, Allow changing the page review flag without removing full redaction, which is enabled by default.

To change the review flag of fully redacted pages:

1. Navigate to Document Management and select the document.

2. Select the fully redacted pages, the section, or the folder.

3. Right-click the selection and select Assign Review Flags.

4. Select the review flag to apply and confirm the change. The review flag is updated and the full redaction remains in place.

An administrator can turn this option off in the Document Management configuration settings.

NOTE: Clearing the option restores the previous behavior, in which the full redaction must be removed before the review flag of the page can be changed.

1.5 Hide Review Flags for Consultations by Role

Administrators can now hide Review Flags from consultation package creation for selected File Cabinet Drawer Roles.

To hide Review Flags for a role:

1. Navigate to Administration, then Document Management and select File Cabinet Drawer Roles.

2. Click the name of the role you want to change under Role Permissions

3. select Hide Review Flags for Consultations.

4. Click Save.

For users in that role, the Review Flags column no longer appears on the Create Consultation Package screen, and pages cannot be filtered by Review Flag in the Page Range window. This also applies when adding to an existing consultation or editing one. The other page range options (All Pages, Selection, Pages List, and Only Marked Pages) are unchanged.

The setting is off by default, so Review Flags work as before until you turn it on. Consultations that have already been sent are not affected. While the setting is on, prepared consultations show the pages that were selected directly, without Review Flag filtering. Review Flag selections are kept and apply again if the setting is turned off.

1.6 Locked Page Selection and Refresh Consultation

A consultation's page selection is now locked when the consultation is saved, so later changes to Review Flags, page ranges, annotations, or redactions on the source documents no longer change the pages it includes.

To update a consultation with the latest marked pages:

1. Open the request and select Consultations from the left navigation.

2. Click the Ellipsis menu for the consultation and then select Refresh Consultation. Review the pages to be added and removed for each document and section.

3. Click Refresh Consultation.

A change indicator appears beside a consultation when the pages marked for its Program Office no longer match the pages it contains, whoever made the change. Hover over the indicator to see why it is shown. After a refresh, the indicator is cleared, the page counts are recalculated, and the consultation status changes to Updated.

Only documents that use the Only Marked Pages page range are refreshed. Other documents show Not Applicable and keep their pages. If a Review Flag was selected when the consultation was created, only marked pages with that flag are added.

Refresh Consultation is available for consultations in Prepared or Updated status, and for Withdrawn consultations delivered via the Collaboration Portal. It is not available for Sent consultations, for Withdrawn consultations delivered by email, or when no document in the consultation uses Only Marked Pages. Consultations created before this release keep their previous behavior.

2. Security Updates

We’ve made the following security updates in this version of FOIAXpress:

3. Bug Fixes

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