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Version: v260113

Release Date: 13th January, 2026

Summary

This release contains

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

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

  • 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.

  • Proxy selection persists on dashboard

When switching between records on the dashboard, your selected proxy user is now preserved. Previously, navigating away would reset the proxy selection, requiring users to re-select their proxy each time.

  • PDF Pack opens in SharePoint web viewer

PDF Pack documents now open in the SharePoint web viewer instead of the browser's native PDF viewer. This provides a more consistent viewing experience and better integration with SharePoint's document features.

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
  • Fixed an issue where the Date Initiated filter on the dashboard did not work correctly when filtering by today's date
  • Fixed a blank screen issue that could occur while creating a new record

  • Fixed an issue where lengthy values in the "Action Required" field were not clearly visible on hover

  • 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)
  • Fixed an issue where restricted field values (e.g., Infosec classification) could revert to their default when navigating back
  • Fixed an issue where invalid values could be entered into combobox fields

  • Corrected the wording in the "Remove No Further Action" confirmation dialog

  • 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
  • Fixed a crash that could occur when clicking "Manage Docs" on certain record types

  • Fixed an issue where Azure queue message size limits could be exceeded when a record has many collaborators, causing notification delivery failures

  • 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

ADD RELEASE NOTES RE 2.5 - MONGO DB, GROUP ASSIGNMENT

Detailed bug list can be found here: Bug fixes 13/01/2026

Deployment

Package version: 2.5.0

Manual pre-deployment steps

Update environment variables

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

See the detailed instruction in Admin Guide 2.5.0 - Application Settings

Each environment should only have next required variables:

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

Include existing FeatureFlags in appSettingsJson parameters. For example, for DEV environment it will have next value (fill the gaps with actual values from Function App settings or other sources, according to the admin guide): {"AppName":"BC/Assent DEV", "AuthorizedGroupId": "put group id here", "AuthorizedGroupName":"put group name here", "EmailNotificationsServiceAccount": "account UPN here", "TopHeaderBannerText": "BC Development Environment", "FeatureFlags__EnablePluginEditor":"true", "BundleStore__BundleStoreKind": "FileShare", "BundleStore__FileShareName": "put the file share name here"}

Setup Release Pipelines

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

  2. Import Pipeline JSON and rename

  3. Import the release pipeline .json file provided (refer to: Release Pipeline Template - Deploy App).

  4. Note: This template is pre-configured for a single environment associated with a deployment stage within the release pipeline.
  5. Rename the pipeline to "Deploy Brief Connect Application".

After importing the pipeline, you need to update several settings to tailor it to your environment.

  1. Add and setup environment (first)

  2. To deploy to a new environment (e.g., DEV) rename the initial stage to the target name. Use the same environment/stage name from [OLD] Deploy Brief Connect Application pipeline.

  3. Open stage tasks
  4. Update Agent Pool specifications to the old values from [OLD] Deploy Brief Connect Application stage Agent Pool task (agent pool and specification).
  5. In the Universal Packages task Download App Package, update the service connection ('organization/collection connection' dropdown) to use the same service connection as in the old release pipeline.
  6. In the Azure CLI task Deploy App, update Azure Resource Manager connection to use the same connection from 'Azure CLI' task or 'Azure Functions Deploy' task in the old release pipeline.

  7. Go to Variables tab, select "Variable groups", click on "Link variable group" and link variable group for this environment. Make sure only 1 Variable group is linked to 1 environment (in following steps when you clone environment it will keep the link, so you need to remove it)

  8. Repeat previous step for all other environments from old release pipeline. For every new environment you need to clone and rename the initial environment from the previous step.

  9. After all configurations, save the Release Pipeline.

Pipeline deployment steps (in order)

  1. Deploy release v[Package Version] (n) (where (n) is latest number available, and Package version from the section above) for Deploy Brief Connect Application release pipeline in Azure DevOps to the target environment.
  2. Deploy Release 36 for Deploy Office Resources release pipeline in Azure DevOps to the target environment.

Manual post-deployment steps

Import config

Config file to import: DE-Config_20260108-config.zip

Role required: Brief Connect Administrator

If there is no configuration set, you have to set up Administrator user Id in the Environment variable AdminEntraId in the Azure Function App. The value should be the Object Id of the user in Entra ID (Azure AD).

  1. Log into the target Brief Connect environment as Brief Connect Admin user. Open the Admin Panel (https://[WEB_APP_URL]/#/adminPanel)
  2. Select "Import from Zip" and import a new config ZIP file.
  3. The system will process the ZIP file and import the configuration. The list of configurations will refresh, and the imported configuration can then be selected and loaded.
  4. After importing, select the newly imported configuration from the dropdown list.
  5. Click the "Apply" button to apply the imported configuration.
  6. Wait for the confirmation message indicating that the configuration has been successfully applied.
  7. Select Update SharePoint Content Types button from the menu bar. Ensure that active configuration is selected from dropdown first.

Clear the Server cache

Role required: Brief Connect Administrator 1. Log into the target Brief Connect environment as Brief Connect Admin user. Open the Admin Panel (https://[WEB_APP_URL]/#/adminPanel) 2. Open browsers Developer Tools, open Console tab and run the command window.clearCache() there. After successful execution, you should see Cache cleared. Server Result: true message in the console.

Reindex the SharePoint Site

Role required: Brief Connect Administrator 1. Go to Brief Connect SharePoint Site for the target environment 2. Go to Site settings 3. Go to Search and offline availability 4. Click Reindex site

Smoke Tests

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

Rollback steps to previous version

Execute all deployment steps for the target release from related Release Notes.