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Brief Connect v2.4.1 Release Notes

Release date - 12th December, 2025

Package version: 2.4.1

New features requiring configuration

  • Maintenance mode

Brief Connect can now be placed into a maintenance mode to support activities like migrations and upgrades.

When enabled:

  • Normal users will see a maintenance message and be prevented from using the application
  • Super Admins can still access the application and will see a prominent maintenance banner
  • Background jobs and queue processing are paused to reduce the risk of data loss during maintenance windows

For setup and operational steps, see the Admin Guide: Maintenance mode.

Changes and improvements

  • Simplified signed document management (signed vs unsigned)

Documents now follow a simpler two-state model:

  • Uploading a signed copy replaces the displayed version while preserving the original unsigned document
  • Users can remove a signed copy to restore the original

  • Signature-enabled documents are shown as a single entry to reduce confusion

  • More control over who can create (and copy) records

Administrators can restrict record creation to specific users (or Entra ID groups) and optionally scope that permission to specific record types via Permission Sets. Record copying now also respects these same creation permissions.

For configuration steps, see: Controlling record creation permissions.

  • Task notification emails now include the sender’s comment

The “Record sent to me for action” email notification now includes the comment entered by the sender, giving recipients more context without needing to open the record.

Note

This change will only apply if you haven't already configured a custom notification template for the "Record sent to me for action" notification. Please speak with the Brief Connect team if you are using a custom template and would like to incorporate this change.

  • Improved frontend update reliability (automatic cache busting)

Client deployments now include automated cache busting and a client-side version check, reducing the likelihood that users will load stale UI bundles after an upgrade.

Bug fixes

Dashboard, search, and record header

  • Dashboard columns are now more reliable (pinned core fields, enforced key columns, and column reordering works as expected)
  • Fixed cases where saved search swapping could cause columns to appear blank until re-applied
  • Global search terms are now applied more reliably on the search page
  • Record header dates now display in a user-friendly, localised format

Workflow, access, and exporting

  • The "Send" button no longer stays disabled when due date/time is prefilled from Key Dates
  • The "View access is restricted to" field now supports multiple people
  • "Export record documents" now sends the expected email with documents
  • Fixed an issue where a workflow could break when a proxy user completed a Recommend-stage task on behalf of the original user (Recommenders role)

Documents and SharePoint

  • Fixed signed document classification getting stuck in a loading state
  • Improved Add/remove documents layout so action buttons no longer wrap unexpectedly
  • Fixed SharePoint file picker not loading sites due to Microsoft Graph Toolkit provider initialisation
  • Improved reliability of the "Original Correspondence" document lifecycle (upload/delete/display) and related user feedback
  • Improved SharePoint sync/upload error handling in some environments
  • Fixed an issue where non-admin users could receive a 500 error during correspondence upload/parsing

Plugins and security

  • Plugins are now compatible with strict Content Security Policy (CSP) configurations
  • The Admin panel now respects the Plugins feature flag

Platform reliability and data correctness

  • Reduced noise in the activity log (removed redundant entries and irrelevant SharePoint health alerts)
  • Improved stability of the HealthCheckAndFix function (avoids failures due to the 30-minute timeout in some environments)
  • Server-side token replacement now respects the configured server timezone (rather than always rendering AEST)
  • Supplementary Area reporting now stores "Due Date and Time" values correctly, and the people-search input is cleared after selection
  • PPQ Bulk Set Extraction / bulk update now applies changes as expected

Upgrade instructions (from v2.3.x or v2.4.0)

The following instructions apply to environments running Brief Connect v2.3.x or v2.4.0.

1. Update environment variables

Update environment variables for all environments in Libraries → Variable Groups in Azure DevOps.

Note

Do not delete any existing variables — only add missing variables.

Each environment should have the following required variables:

Name Required
appSettingsJson Yes
applicationDomainName Yes
azureFunctionAppName Yes
azureFunctionDomainName Yes
azureResourceGroupName Yes
azureStorageAccountWebName Yes
azureWebApiWebAppName Yes
clientAppRegistrationClientId Yes
devOpsAppRegistrationClientId Yes
serverAppRegistrationClientId Yes
sharePointSiteUrl Yes
tenantId Yes

Variable descriptions:

  • applicationDomainName: Public domain name for the Brief Connect application (UI). Example: briefconnect.contoso.com
  • azureFunctionAppName: Brief Connect Backend API Azure Function App name. Example: BC-PROD-PFA
  • azureFunctionDomainName: Domain name mapped to Brief Connect Backend API. Example: briefconnect.contoso.com
  • azureResourceGroupName: Azure Resource Group name that hosts Brief Connect resources. Example: rg-briefconnect-prod
  • azureStorageAccountWebName: Azure Storage account name for UI web assets. Example: bcprodwsa
  • azureWebApiWebAppName: Brief Connect Integration API Azure Web App name. Example: BC-PROD-API
  • clientAppRegistrationClientId: 'Client' App registration Application (client) ID
  • devOpsAppRegistrationClientId: 'DevOps' App registration Application (client) ID
  • serverAppRegistrationClientId: 'Server' App registration Application (client) ID
  • sharePointSiteUrl: SharePoint site URL for Brief Connect documents. Example: https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/BriefConnect
  • tenantId: Entra ID (Azure AD) tenant GUID
  • appSettingsJson: JSON object containing application settings (see below)

appSettingsJson format

This variable contains a JSON object with application settings. Example: {"Key1":"Value1", "Key2":"Value2"}

Required settings:

Setting Example Description
AppName "Brief Connect" Application name displayed in the UI
AuthorizedGroupId "140fa905-..." Entra ID group Object ID for authorized users
AuthorizedGroupName "BriefConnect-Users" Entra ID group name for authorized users
EmailNotificationsServiceAccount "bc-admin@contoso.com" Service account UPN for sending notifications
TopHeaderBannerText "" Header banner text (empty string if not required)
WEBSITE_TIME_ZONE "AUS Eastern Standard Time" Server timezone (only required if not AEST)

Include existing feature flags

If your environment has feature flags or custom settings configured in the Function App's environment variables from previous deployments, you must include these in the appSettingsJson variable.

Check your Function App's Configuration → Application settings in the Azure Portal for any settings prefixed with FeatureFlags__ or other custom configuration, and add them to the JSON object.

2. Setup release pipeline

  1. Rename the existing Deploy Brief Connect Application release pipeline in Azure DevOps to [OLD] Deploy Brief Connect Application

  2. Import the new pipeline:

    Note

    This template is pre-configured for a single environment. You will need to clone the stage for each additional environment.

  3. Configure each environment stage:

    1. Rename the initial stage to match your environment name (use the same name from the old pipeline)
    2. Open stage tasks
    3. Update Agent Pool specifications to match the old pipeline's Agent Pool settings
    4. In the Download App Package task (Universal Packages), update the service connection to match the old pipeline
    5. In the Deploy App task (Azure CLI), update the Azure Resource Manager connection to match the old pipeline
    6. Go to Variables → Variable groups, click Link variable group, and link the variable group for this environment

  4. Repeat step 3 for all other environments (clone and rename the stage for each)

  5. Save the release pipeline

3. Deploy the release

  1. Go to Azure DevOps → Pipelines → Releases
  2. Open the Deploy Brief Connect Application pipeline
  3. Click Create release
  4. Set the Package Version variable to 2.4.1
  5. Click Create
  6. Deploy the release to the target environment

4. Post-deployment steps

Update SharePoint Content Types

  1. Log into Brief Connect as a System Administrator
  2. Open the Admin Panel (https://[WEB_APP_URL]/#/adminPanel)
  3. Ensure the active configuration is selected
  4. Click Update SharePoint Content Types in the menu bar
  5. Tick Clean up unused fields from content type and click Confirm
  6. Wait approximately 20 minutes for the process to complete
  7. Click Cleanup Unused Fields from SP Lists and confirm
  8. Wait approximately 10 minutes for the process to complete

Clear the server cache

  1. Open the Admin Panel (https://[WEB_APP_URL]/#/adminPanel)
  2. Open browser Developer Tools → Console tab
  3. Run the command: window.clearCache()
  4. Verify you see the message: Cache cleared. Server Result: true

Smoke tests

We recommend following our basic testing guide after this release: Basic testing of Brief Connect