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Brief Connect v2.5.2 Release Notes

Release date - 12th January, 2026

Package version: 2.5.2

This release introduces Group Assignment, allowing teams to collaborate on roles and workflow tasks without relying on individual-only assignments. It also delivers a broad set of usability and platform improvements across document handling, notifications, People and Roles visibility, upload safeguards, and dashboard behavior. In addition, this release includes a substantial set of stability fixes across workflows, record creation/editing, authentication, SharePoint integration, email notifications, and UI consistency.

New features

Group Assignment - Assign Roles and Tasks to Groups

Brief Connect now supports assigning roles and workflow tasks to User Groups, enabling teams to collaborate on assignments without individual task management overhead.

Key capabilities:

  • Team-based assignment: Assign a User Group to any single-select Role field configured with "Groups Enabled"
  • Flexible task completion: Any member or owner of a group can complete tasks assigned to the group
  • Clear accountability: Activity logs show which group member completed each task on behalf of the group
  • Proxy support: Proxies to group members can also complete group-assigned tasks
  • Business-level control: User Groups are managed within Brief Connect (not Entra ID), giving business administrators control over team membership
  • Shared ownership: User Groups can have multiple owners to share management responsibilities

Please note:

  • Group assignment is opt-in and not enabled by default
  • It works with single-select Role fields only - not all roles and tasks are compatible
  • If you're interested in enabling group assignment for specific roles or workflows, contact the Brief Connect team and we can help with the configuration

Limitations:

  • Groups are limited to 15 users (owners + members combined)
  • Only single-select Role fields support group assignment (not Role Multi Select)
  • Nested groups are not supported

For setup and usage instructions, see:

  • Proxy selection persists on dashboard

Your selected proxy now persists across page navigations on the dashboard, so you don't need to re-select your proxy when moving between tabs.

  • Fixed dashboard date filter not working with today's date - The "Date Initiated" filter on the dashboard now correctly filters records when selecting today's date

  • Fixed delayed dashboard updates - Resolved an issue where the dashboard could take weeks to reflect updates by improving SharePoint sync behavior

Changes and improvements

  • Proxy selection persists on dashboard

Your selected proxy now persists across page navigations on the dashboard, so you don't need to re-select your proxy when moving between tabs.

  • Simplified signed document management

Documents now follow a simpler two-state model (signed vs unsigned). Uploading a signed copy replaces the displayed version while preserving the original unsigned document. Users can remove a signed copy to restore the original.

  • File size limit for uploads

A 150MB limit has been applied to file uploads to prevent failures caused by excessively large payloads.

  • Key Dates included in the People and Roles tab

Key Dates are visible in the People and Roles tab aligned with the roles they correspond to.

  • Record documents tab changes

Ability to move documents between different document sections within a record (i.e., Primary, Supporting, Attachments).

Ability for a user to download a document from the documents tab directly, without having to go into the document first.

  • Record type tokens supported in notifications

Notifications can now include the record type, improving clarity for recipients.

  • Improved document handling

Document sections now keep a consistent ordering, and document filenames keep their original casing when moving between sections.

  • Security hardening

Added secure response headers to strengthen the security posture for internal responses.

Bug fixes

  • Fixed invalid values being accepted in combobox fields - Combobox fields on the UI now properly validate input and reject invalid values

  • Fixed dashboard date filter not working with today's date - The "Date Initiated" filter on the dashboard now correctly filters records when selecting today's date

  • Fixed lengthy values not visible in combobox hover - When lengthy values are selected for fields like "Action Required", the full value is now clearly visible on mouse hover

  • Fixed blank screen when creating records - Resolved an issue where the screen could go blank while creating a record

  • Fixed restricted values reverting in combobox - Resolved an issue where restricting a classification value and navigating away would cause it to reset

  • Fixed PDF Pack generating blank pages - Resolved an issue where PDF Packs could generate blank pages for certain uploaded documents

  • Fixed "No further action" dialog wording - Corrected the wording in the "Remove No Further Action" dialog box

  • Fixed activity log display issue - Resolved an issue with activity log entries not displaying correctly

  • Fixed incorrect emails for role assignment notifications - Resolved an issue where "You've been assigned a role" emails could be sent to incorrect recipients

  • Fixed column reordering and width issues - Users can now reliably change the order of columns, with column widths adjusting correctly after reordering

  • Fixed delayed dashboard updates - Resolved an issue where the dashboard could take weeks to reflect updates by improving SharePoint sync behavior

  • Fixed missing email notifications in DFFH TEST environment - Email notifications now send correctly in the DFFH TEST environment with a fallback configuration in place

  • Fixed correspondence actions being removed when deleting collaborators - Removing a collaborator no longer incorrectly removes correspondence actions due to improved role checks

  • Fixed Time Only field not saving values - The Time Only field now correctly sets and persists its value, with backend cleanup applied

  • Fixed inability to unassign optional roles - Users can now successfully unassign optional roles in the People and Roles tab, with changes persisting as expected

  • Fixed Workflow Builder tabs disappearing - The Workflow Builder (Workflows / Main Blocks) tabs no longer disappear briefly after first use

  • Fixed opening password-protected snapshots - Password-protected snapshots now open in SharePoint file viewer and no longer show blank pages for images

  • Fixed role tile Add/Edit button naming inconsistency - The Add/Edit button labels in Role Tiles are now consistent across the UI

  • Fixed combobox hover tooltip behavior - Resolved an issue where combobox hover tooltips behaved incorrectly when the value was empty

  • Fixed switch account not working - Users can now reliably switch accounts

  • Fixed intermittent "record modified by another user" workflow errors - Reduced intermittent workflow failures by validating workflow actions server-side

  • Fixed background SharePoint authentication failures - Resolved intermittent background function failures caused by SharePoint context authentication errors

  • Fixed access denied in Teams app - Resolved an issue where users could receive access denied errors when using Brief Connect in Microsoft Teams

  • Fixed signed document rename edge cases - Resolved issues where renaming signed documents could fail in specific scenarios

  • Fixed clearing date fields not saving correctly - Cleared date values now persist correctly and no longer cause access-related issues on some records

  • Fixed admin users unable to create records - Resolved an issue where some admin accounts could not create records even when "Can create records" was enabled

  • Fixed SharePoint content type propagation issues - Resolved intermittent issues where SharePoint content types did not propagate correctly

Upgrade instructions

Manual pre-deployment steps

Review release pipeline variables

It's important to apply any changes to pipeline variables before a release is created, because every release creates a snapshot of pipeline variables at the moment of creation. The only way to redeploy the application with updated variables is by creating a new release.

  1. Go to Azure DevOps, open your Brief Connect project
  2. In the left panel navigation, go to Pipelines → Library → Variable groups
  3. Review variables for all environments included in this release and update values where required
  4. Save any changes

Create a new release

  1. Go to Azure DevOps, open your Brief Connect project, go to Pipelines → Releases
  2. Find the Deploy Brief Connect Application release pipeline and click on it to open
  3. If there is no release with version 2.5.2, click Create Release
  4. Set the Package Version variable to 2.5.2
  5. Add a description (optional)
  6. Click Create
  7. The release v2.5.2 (n) will be created and available in the list of releases after you refresh the page

Pipeline deployment steps

  1. Deploy release v2.5.2 (n) (where (n) is the latest number available) from the Deploy Brief Connect Application release pipeline in Azure DevOps to the target environment

Manual post-deployment steps

Clear the server cache

Role required: Brief Connect Administrator

  1. Log into the target Brief Connect environment as the Brief Connect Admin user
  2. Open the Admin Panel (https://[WEB_APP_URL]/#/adminPanel)
  3. Open the browser's Developer Tools, go to the Console tab, and run the command:

javascript window.clearCache();

  1. After successful execution, you should 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

Release-specific tests for v2.5.2

Group Assignment:

  • Create a User Group with at least one owner and one member
  • On a role field configured with "Groups Enabled", search for and assign the group - confirm the group appears in search results and can be selected
  • As a group member, verify the record appears in "My Records"
  • Assign a workflow task to a group - confirm all group members see the task in "Active Tasks"
  • Complete a group-assigned task as a group member - confirm the activity log shows the task was completed on behalf of the group
  • Verify proxy users to group members can also complete group-assigned tasks