CARA Version 5.11 comes packed with 54 new features and enhancements, including a number of major features and plenty of efficiency and quality-of-life changes sure to make an impact. Below, we’ll cover some of the most significant updates found in the latest version of CARA. To see the features mentioned below in action, you can watch our CARA 5.11 release webinar on-demand here.

Where Used

Likely the most anticipated update in this version is the enhancement to our ‘Where Used’ functionality. The latest additions to ‘Where Used’ allow users to store all of the related documents and records within a document, and easily query this information with a new CQL function, as well as display the related information in out-of-the-box widgets.

For example, let’s imagine that we have a system where we store the information about the World Cup; storing information about players, teams, goals, and so on. All of this information, with the help of object ID attributes, is connected to one another. So, if you opened a record corresponding to an individual player, you will see which tournaments they participated in, how many goals they scored, and all sorts of other connected data. Users can now also configure widgets to quickly pull up all the relevant connected data to any object in just one click.

This feature will be automatically available for all documents created in 5.11. In order for it to work on existing documents created prior to 5.11, these documents will have to be re-saved.

Updates to Widgets

Widget Types

As touched upon briefly in the updates to Where Used, we have added new widget types to display related items. The widget connected directly to the Where Used functionality is a new ‘Related Documents & Records’ widget, which includes a ‘Related Type’ field that can be specified or not specified depending on the desired goal, as shown below:

Alongside this, a new ‘Objects Stored in Attribute’ widget has been added. Users can configure this widget to display all objects that are stored in an object list you may have within a form.

Widget Display

In addition to the new widget types, we have also implemented a widget panel that is available at the bottom of the page. In previous versions, widget panels were only available on the right hand side of the display. Now for each widget, users can specify the location they want it to display, and can even have two widget panels.

Plus, we have also added a widgets panel to the Inbox, displaying standard widgets for when users are working within the Task / Attachments view.

Workflow Diagrams

Task recipients will now be able to see the workflow diagram attached to its associated task via a new tab in Workflow Details. This addition makes it easier for the task recipient to gain an overview of the workflow and which stage they are at by seeing which steps have already been executed, which steps are still to be complete, and through the diagram highlighting the current step in the workflow.

Quick Search – Search Only in Selected Node

Now added is the ability to search within only a specific folder or dimension, rather than across all content in the platform. This can be performed by selecting the folder you wish to search in, and selecting a new check-box in the main search bar when you go to perform a search, as shown below. This search functionality is available for any node of the navigation tree.

This feature is perfect for organisations with large amounts of content in CARA; when you only know of a specific keyword in the file title, you can narrow your search down to specific folders and dimensions to limit the amount of results.

Dimensions

In CARA 5.11 it is now possible to build Dimensions based on ID attributes:

Structure Dialogue – Quick Check-in

Another efficiency-enhancing feature is the new Quick Check-in feature in Structure dialogue which allows one-click change saving. This feature means that a user can perform a check-in without adding any details.

Export to Excel Improvements

Our next feature is a highly requested one; in addition to adding easy column selection, and settings stored in user preferences, we have also added the ability to adjust the time zone to either local or UTC. So, when performing an export, users will be able to select their desired time zone, and the created excel file will be created with this time zone applied.

Additionally, we have added the ability to disable exports entirely for some Views or Reports. This feature adds an extra level of security for the occasion where some users should not have the ability to export data. Views can be configured to apply this option for these instances.

Form Fields Enhancements

Dual List

In CARA 5.11 we have simplified the User Interface of the form for Dual List, and added support for users to set restrictions and choose just one item when needed.

Object List

The way object list is displayed has been simplified, and users can now work with Object List in the same way as with Dual List. The original option still exists, and users who want to work with Object List as a grid still have the ability to do so, but if users want to make it simpler to handle, it is now possible to choose a dual list option for Object List.

‘Minor’, but Still Significant, Enhancements

Control Panel Redesign & Permissions Change

We have significantly redesigned the Control Panel, and have performed some small adjustments to Permissions. The changes to the Control Panel were made to give a more granular split of the configurations, grouping them in a more convenient way. This was done to simplify working with Configuration Export.

New Type of Collaboration Service

We have added a new type of collaboration service: Office 365 Graph API. This service provides the same features for our end users, but doesn’t require the setting up of a cloud based account when creating the integration between CARA and SharePoint, making it a lot more secure.

Configurable SharePoint Notifications

While working on collaboration improvements, we also added a new variable to control whether a SharePoint notification is sent or not: “trigger_sp_notification”. Importantly, these SharePoint notifications previously contained a link to the associated document, but now we have support for this link in CARA notifications instead.

Renderer Enhancements

• Added support for PCL files in the renderer
• “Tagged PDF” is automatically set to yes for PDF Files converted from Word
• Added an option to block generation of renditions if the required fonts are missing on the server. The renderer will provide options such as proceeding and replacing the missing font, or blocking the generation of the rendition entirely.
• Ability to set the page layout in the renderer (7 different options available)

Auditing of Manually Executed Scripts and Queries

We have now made it so manually executed scripts and queries can be audited. In addition to adding corresponding records to the audit trail, we have also added particular details to these events. For example, for execution of the script, users can see a tab titled Script Content where the script that was executed will be displayed, as well as an equivalent tab for Execute Query (Select Query won’t be captured here).

Auditing of Workflow Related Events

• Workflow-related audit trails are now available for workflow managers
• Automatically executed events are recorded with _worker username, manually executed events are recorded with username of the actual user who performed them
• Original recipient and change method are recorded for task delegation and reassignment

Ability to Edit Properties via Dump

Properties can now be edited via Dump. This option is only available for super admins, and only editable properties can be changed – any changes to system attributes will be ignored.

Type Definitions Enhancements

• Updated the available columns in the list
• Added a System Attributes tab in the type definition dialogue
• Ability to choose Replica Strategy

Side by Side Comparison of Versions

To benefit configuration users, we have added a side by side comparison of versions to make it visually clearer what has been changed, added, or removed in each version.

And that brings us to the end! This is not an exhaustive list of all changes made in CARA version 5.11, to see the full list of updates and for more information on any of the updates mentioned above, please see our release notes. To see the changes mentioned in this blog in action, you can watch our CARA 5.11 release webinar on-demand here.