These release notes provide information on the new features, enhancements, resolved escalations, and bug fixes completed in each release for Appspace Cloud and On-Prem.

Appspace 8.0 is a major release that is built on a new microservices architecture and includes various new features and enhancements, an improved user interface, platform optimizations, and bug fixes.

8.0-ac.20

Release Date: 15 Jan 2021

This build is focused on improvements, and escalation fixes.

Support for Zoom Meeting Integrations

Appspace expands its integration capabilities by adding support for the Zoom Meetings on the Appspace platform, for the recent addition of the Zoom Recordings card and Twitter card.

The Zoom Recordings card allows organizations to easily stream recorded Zoom Meetings via the Appspace App.

Location Improvements

The following improvements have been made to the Locations module:

• Existing Points of Interest (POI) can now be linked to an Appspace Reservations resource, when a user creates a floorplan or space using the floorplan editor.
• The Locations floorplan editor now allows batch operations on Point of Interest (POI), such as deletion, changing the type or subtype, and linking to the Reservation resource.

Resolved Bugs

• AP-23064 – Locked card base templates should not be displayed in the content creation page.

Resolved Escalations

• AE-6160 – Error retrieving content when viewing folders in Library.
• AE-6408 – User with Manage Widget permissions unable to reorder content within the widget.
• AE-6425 – Incomplete functionality for RetrieveLinkedMediaZones API.
• AE-6467 – Notification for content approvals are still displayed even after it has been approved in channels.
• AE-6476 – Corrupted XML due to special characters in the channels caption field.
• AE-6479 – User remains on same Overview page even after changing Locations.

8.0-ac.19

Release Date: 17 Dec 2020

This build is focused on bugs and escalation fixes.

Resolved Bugs

• AP-22847 – Error 403 is returned when a Publisher views user or user group details from the Publish tab in a channel.
• AP-22996 – Editing a user group in Users assigned with “Can View” passport permissions, automatically updates the passport permission to “Can Manage”.
• AP-23021 – When adding attendees in the reservations system in the Content Portal, the label displays “Current Capacity” instead of “Resource Capacity”.
• AP-23031 – Page requires to be refreshed each time content is enabled or disabled in a playlist channel.
• AP-23043 – Unable to invite users via new user sign-up account on the public cloud.
• AP-23044 – Unable to download multiple content at once.

Resolved Escalations

• AE-6412 – Content added to an advanced channel is auto-approved although the “Manage Content” permissions have been set.

8.0-ac.18

Release Date: 11 Dec 2020

This build is focused on a new feature and escalation fixes.

Reservations Service

We’ve added a new feature, the Reservations module, available in the Appspace console, for building, visitor, workspace, and desk reservations. The Reservations module includes the following two tabs:

• The Reservations – to view every reservation that has been made on the Appspace platform (this tab will initially be empty).
• The Resources – for creating, configuring, and managing all resources such as buildings, meeting rooms, huddle spaces, and hot-desking spaces within an organization.

While the Reservations module supports Office 365 and G Suite integrations, allowing previously created resources to be imported and mapped, without having to re-create these resources from scratch again, it also allows the creation and reserving of resources within Appspace, as a provider.

The Reservations service is supported on Appspace App 2.20.2, and the limited release version of the Room Schedule and Schedule Board cards.

Resolved Escalations

• AE-6430 – The Create content page in the Library or a playlist channel is displayed out of view, and requires users to scroll all the way to the bottom to view it, on Windows-based devices.

8.0-ac.17

Release Date: 4 Dec 2020

This build is focused on UI improvements, bugs, and escalation fixes.

Redesigned Users Module

The Users module in the Appspace menu has been updated with a new user interface and workflows that streamline managing user invitations, user roles, and user groups all in a single location. The following is a list of what the new Users module offers, the changes and improvements made that would be welcomed by Appspace Admins.

• A new redesigned Users dashboard that provides administrators with a quick way to view and search users within Appspace.
• User listings now display more information on the dashboard, allowing administrators to quickly identify users based on user name, email address, roles, user groups, and status.
• User listings can be displayed in a grid or listing view.
• Apart from the usual user details on the User Profile page, administrators now can view the roles, channels, and channel group permissions the user has been granted with.
• Support for bulk user invitations through Appspace, or via an excel spreadsheet imported to Appspace.
• Common Library permissions are now configured from the All Users option.
• The User Group Library is enabled from the User Group profile page and can be configured for automatic content deletion.
• All user roles and permissions are now assigned via the Users module.
• User roles have also been given an uplift to make it easier for new users to easily assign roles based on functions. We have renamed some old roles:
  • Portal Administrator –> Portal Admin
  • Account Administrator –> Account Admin
  • Account Owner
  • Network Administrator –> Location Admin
  • Content Administrator –> Publisher
  • Content Producer –> Author
  • Standard user –> Viewer

Improvements to Appspace Menu

As part of our on-going UI improvements exercise, the following interfaces have been renamed and changed:

• The “network” terminology has been replaced with “locations” throughout the Appspace platform, to aptly personify how we now would like users to categorize and group devices according to their physical location in a geographical location, campus location, or building. The Networks tab in the Devices module is now renamed to Locations. See Add and Manage Locations in Devices for more information.
• With the above change, the Maps module, previously housed under Admin > Maps in the Appspace menu, which allowed users to create floor plans and maps according to a geographical location, campus location, or building (previously tied to the network structure) has been aptly moved to Locations, which is housed in the main Appspace menu sidebar.
• The Device Tasks module, used only by device administrators, is now moved to the Admin section on the Appspace menu.

Resolved Escalations

• AE-6190 – Unable to delete user in private cloud.
• AE-6330 – Unable to edit and save Device Tasks task template.
• AE-6376 – Unable to delete or withdraw user with an expired invitation.
• AE-6389 – User is logged out when trying to assign a channel to a device via the Assign Channel icon in Devices.
• AE-6394 – Unable to use more than 255 characters for parameter values in device tasks.
• AE-6399 – User is logged out when trying to add content in an advanced channel.

8.0-ac.16

Release Date: 18 Nov 2020

This build is focused on improvements, bugs, and escalation fixes.

Social Media Card Support

This release adds support for creating passports for social media account integration in the Appspace console. This integration is necessary to support the newly introduced Social card by Appspace. The Social card theme consists of the Facebook card and the Instagram card, and is available in the Appspace Library. The cards allow organizations to display the respective social media posts from either a corporate account or page, together with other corporate communications content in the playlist.

Resolved Escalations

• AE-6321 – Performance issues on private cloud server when navigating to Devices and Channels on the Appspace menu, or when switching between different networks.
• AE-6371 – Unable to add a logo to the App Theme settings.
• AE-6374 – Unable to configure the Dayparting schedule from folder settings.

8.0-ac.15

Release Date: 11 Nov 2020

This build is focused on improvements, bugs, and escalation fixes.

Support for Converting Documents

This new feature allows users to simply upload external content such as word documents, spreadsheets, presentation slides, or PDF documents into the Library, which will be automatically converted into an Appspace card.  The conversion service currently supports the following content file formats, containing not more than 10 pages each:

• .docx – Word document file format
• .doc – Word document file format
• .xlsx – Excel document file format
• .xls – Excel document file format
• .pptx – PowerPoint file format
• .ppt – PowerPoint file format
• .pdf – Portable Document File format

Features:

• Any of the supported file formats above are automatically converted into the Appspace Content Conversion card, with multiple pages.
• The card can be added to either a playlist channel or advanced channels.
• The thumbnail of the Content Conversion card is automatically generated by taking the first page of the content by default, but users are able to change this in the content thumbnail section.
• The converted content in the Content Conversion card is not editable.
• Only file names that are alphanumeric can be successfully uploaded as a security measure, thus file names containing any form of special characters will automatically fail to upload.

Known Issues:

• In the current release, we are unable to convert files that have Unicode filenames, found mainly in Arabic and Asian fonts. We are currently working on a fix, which shall be released in our upcoming update. As a workaround, we recommend renaming files containing Unicode, to non-Unicode characters for the conversion service to convert files successfully.
• This feature is not supported on legacy devices. Organizations that are still using legacy devices may disable this by contacting Appspace Support, as legacy devices do not support Cards.

Resolved Escalations

• AE-6353 – Unable to create HDMI Input on BrightSign external content in Library.
• AE-6357 – Unable to create HDMI Input on BrightSign external content in Library.

8.0-ac.14

Release Date: 6 Nov 2020

This build is focused on improvements, bugs, and escalation fixes.

Improved UI for Adding Content Folders to Channels

When adding content folders to playlist channels, users will notice the checkmark when hovering over the folders in the folder tree. This checkmark, previously removed in Appspace 8, has been added upon requests from customers. This UI feature not only indicates the selected folders, but also allows users to click the checkmark to add the folder to the playlist channel.

Resolved Escalations

• AE-6321 – Performance issues on private cloud server when navigating to Devices and Channels on the Appspace menu, or when switching between different networks.
• AE-6328 – Content is not deleted despite having the expiry date set, due to time zone differences.
• AE-6339 – Performance issue on private cloud server causes loss of functionality in Channels when trying to edit the permissions in playlist channels.

8.0-ac.13

Release Date: 31 Oct 2020

This build is focused on improvements, bugs, and escalation fixes.

Updated Channel Publishing Permissions

The following channel publishing settings have now been limited to Account Owners or Content Administrators only:

• “Publish to network and subnetworks” check-box when publishing a channel to a device(s) or device group(s).
• “Publish to all users” check-box when publishing a user(s) or user group(s).

This setting is being restricted to administrators who primarily have access to all content in the network they are administrators of, preventing incorrect publishing by other users.

The above settings will now only be available to Account Owners or Content Administrators, and to users who had already checked the box prior to this release.

Resolved Bugs

• AP-22123 – Event name from map service is fixed to append “map” when displayed in Analytics.

Resolved Escalations

• AE-6279 – Old Seenspire card thumbnail is still displayed when creating a new Seenspire card from the Library.
• AE-6321 – Performance issues on private cloud server when navigating to Devices and Channels on the Appspace menu, or when switching between different networks.

8.0-ac.12

Release Date: 16 Oct 2020

This build is focused on improvements, bugs, and escalation fixes.

UI Updates for Content Portal

The Content Portal UI has been updated with the following changes:

• The View button that linked to the Content Portal, which was originally on the top menu bar in the Appspace console, has now been moved to the main Appspace menu on the side panel, for improved user experience and is now known as the Switch to Content Portal button.

  

• Similarly, the ADMIN button on the content portal’s top menu bar that linked to the Appspace console, has now been moved to the portal’s side panel, and is now known as the Switch to Admin Console button.
• On the content portal, a landing page is displayed when there are no channels published.
• The content portal side panel now displays shortcuts for Feeds, Videos, and Channels, while the list of Channel Groups is now displayed on the right.
• All content, except video, are displayed in a tile view, displaying the channel listing with title and summary.
• Video content is displayed in a thumbnail tiled view, displaying the channel listing with title, and duration of the video.
• When viewing selected content, the channel name, content title, and published date and time, are displayed above the featured image.
• Users can now customize the portal’s theme and logo according to the organization’s branding guidelines.

Enterprise Messaging Apps Update

An additional configuration option when posting content to Enterprise Messaging Apps, includes the option to hide the channel name in the post. Users can enable or disable posting the channel name in the Post Format drop-down menu.

Resolved Bugs

• AP-22302 – SSO login for mobile devices does not redirect to the correct mobile authentication URL.
• AP-22281 – Playlist channel content metadata (total number of items and total duration) does not refresh when content is removed from the playlist.

Resolved Escalations

• AE-6279 – Unable to import channel due to invalid export channel URL error message.
• AE-6287 – Unable to create the YouTube 2.0 card.
• AE-6297 – Card content missing when imported to the selected library.
• AE-6299 – Unable to transcode video from a shared folder.
• AE-6326 – Unable to export device properties.

8.0-ac.11

Release Date: 25 Sept 2020

This build is focused on improvements, bugs, and escalation fixes.

Improvements to Maps

With the growing interest in our Maps feature, we’re adding the following Point of Interest (POI) options:

• Front Porch
• Quiet Space
• Social Lounge
• Training

Integrations Menu

As a standardization measure, the Passports feature available via the Appspace menu Admin > Passports will now be available as a separate tab via Admin > Integrations instead. The Integrations page will also be hosting all future integration features that are planned in our roadmap.

Resolved Bugs

• AP-21439 – The Calendar Resource drop-down menu in Maps only displays up to 20 passports, and does not display the entire list of active passports available.
• AP-21820 – Channels can still be imported into libraries with read-only permissions.
• AP-22162 – Images and cards without natural duration are displayed with the “Infinite” icon in the Appspace Content Portal.

Resolved Escalations

• AE-6270 – The resolution for 2K in a card editor is displayed as 1920 x 1080 instead of 2048 x 1080 (1080p).