Required Software

• Microsoft SQL Server 2019 will be required for Release 2020.04.

Browser Support – IE11 

• Beginning with this release Internet Explorer 11 will no longer be supported. While IE 11 may continue to function for many/most users, there will no longer be active testing or bug fix support.

This section provides highlights of the release.  Please see release notes for complete information on completed stories and bug fixes.

nCORE

Highlighted changes to nCORE include:

• System Actions / Notifications
  • Notification Templates moved from CK Editor to MS Word/AceOffix. Previously, notification templates used an HTML editor to maintain the notification content and data source merge field tags. CK Editor has been replaced with full MS Word editing capability, making them consistent with document management template functionality.  Template conversion is include with the release deployment.
  • Notification priorities. Certain notifications may be designated as always priority (e.g., forgot password) and will go to the front of the line for processing by the notification processing service.
• Sites / Regulated Entities
  • Site to Site relationships display bi-directional relationships. When selecting or viewing a Site to Site relationship, directional relationship options (for example, Owner / Owned by) are now displayed in the selection dropdown and in the list page.
• Evaluations
  • Add existing Evaluations as Site Evaluation Events. In the scenario where an evaluation should have been created as a linked Site Evaluation Event, the evaluation may be linked after the fact. This is done from the Event page by selecting the Link Existing Site Inspection Event
• DMRs
  • Bulk Import from Excel. DMRs may now import one or more DMRs using a formatted Excel spreadsheet. This is available only for Daily DMRs and will not be available for configurations that only support Summary DMRs.
  • Automatic calculation of Total Nitrogen. Total Nitrogen (T.N2) mg/L can be configured to be automatically calculated. The calculation is based on simple addition (A + B) or (A + B + C), specifically:
    • (Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen) TKN (00625) + Nitrate+Nitrite (NO3NO2) (00630), or
    • (Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen) TKN (00625) + Nitrite (NO2) (00615) + Nitrate (NO3) (00620)
  • New ‘Warning’ labels. A new ‘Warning’ label style (orange color) has been created to distinguish between ‘Errors’ or ‘Violations’.
• Exchange Network Integration
  • ICIS-NPDES Submission Management. Brand new screens have been developed for management of ICIS-NPDES Submissions.  User may select permits to be submitted, preview the staged data prior to sending to EPA, or audit data and processing messages from past submissions.
• My Tasks
  • Refined display of active Compliance Actions in My Tasks. The option to include or exclude Active Compliance Actions in the My Tasks was developed in 2020.02, but was not granular enough for certain agencies.  This option has been moved to the Compliance Action Type level as a new "Show Active Compliance Actions in My Tasks" configuration setting.
• Schedules
  • Schedule form data inheritance is now supported. Inheritance can be set to or from a schedule, or between schedule forms.
• Financials
  • Invoice Set Groups. Invoice sets may now be subdivided into groups for individual processing. This provides more granular control for invoicing by allowing the subset of invoices defined within the group to be generated independently of any other invoices in the invoice set.  The system automatically tracks which invoices have / have not been generated.
  • Payment Remitter Comments. A comments field has been added to the Payment page to provide a place to designate remitter information.
• Projects
  • Project Activity End Date. End dates may now be recorded for Project Activities.
• Administration
  • Email alerts for failed scheduled server tasks.  This is provided via a new system notification available for configuration. In the event of a task failure, the notification will be sent to designated recipient emails.
  • Complaint “Part” Lookup maintenance. List and edit pages were created to maintain Complaint Part values. Parts are a multiselect list of values that can be used to classify a complaint by statute, rule, or other category designation

nFORM

nFORM (Release 4.10) changes were primarily focused on new integrations related to standalone nFORM implementations. Some minor changes have bene made as noted below

Highlighted changes include:

• Multiple contact control mapping. Users may map multiple contact controls in a form to the same Affiliation Type. Since tags must be unique, contact controls are supporting this through tag extensions, for example, REF_AFFIL_TYPE_CODE-1, REF_AFFIL_TYPE_CODE-1.

Please see the nFORM v4.10 Release Notes – nVIRO Version for more information.

nSITE Explorer

Minor enhancements have been made to nSITE Explorer

Highlighted changes include:

• Inclusion of DMR submission data (PDF Documents). DMR PDFs may now be made available nSITE Explorer as downloadable documents.
• Explorer batch population performance improvements. The nightly process to populate nSITE Explorer from nCORE had a tendency to time out at times.  The batch process has been tuned significantly improving its performance. 

There are no separate nSITE release notes for this release.  

nVIRO Data Hub and nVISAGE

Updates to the Data Hub and nVISAGE Release 2020.03 has been integrated into nVIRO.  

Highlighted changes include:

• Multiple role support. nVISAGE has been configured to support two roles—Administrator and Report User.
  • The Administrator may create a shared report and save it in the Shared or API folders. Administrator rights are provided via the Reports - nVISAGE Administrator security role in nVISAGE.
  • The Report User may not create shared reports but may create a personal report and perform all other filtering, sorting, exporting of their own or shared reports.

There are no separate Data Hub / nVISAGE release notes for this release.  

nSPECT

nSPECT changes for Release 2020.03 were limited to enhancements to the downloadable app, and bug fixes.

Highlighted changes include:

• Downloadable nSPECT App
  • Sign out warning. A confirmation warning has been added on sign-out to ensure the user understands that upon signing out, all un-synched data in the application will be deleted. Synchronization should always be performed before sign-out.
  • Improved Logging. The nSPECT App has incorporated offline logging (disconnected mode) to assist with troubleshooting.   
  • Data Backup. A manual data back-up function has been added. Data and logs are backed up to a Windsor cloud space to support troubleshooting.
  • iOS authentication patch. Resolved an issue with the authentication cookie tied to iOS versions.

There are no separate nSPECT release notes for this release.  

coming soon...

Specific demonstration topics may be accessed at the corresponding times listed below

Demo Recording Zoom Link: nVIRO Release 2020.03 Demo Recording

Required Web Server Software

• Microsoft .NET Framework 4.8

• Microsoft .Net Core Hosting Bundle 2.1

Required App Server Software

• Microsoft .NET Framework 4.8

Required Server / Browser Software Updates

• AceOffix is upgraded to Version 5.8.0.1 (This is both a server and a plug-in upgrade) (NOTE: this installation may invalidate the AceOffix .lic file, requiring that the Licence Key is re-entered).

Browser Support – IE11 

• This is the final nVIRO release intended to support Internet Explorer 11. While IE 11 may continue to function for many/most users, there will no longer be active testing or bug fix support.

This latest version nVIRO--Release 2020.02--includes enhancements and fixes to the following products and components:

• nCORE

• nFORM

• nSPECT

• nSITE Explorer

• nVIRO Data Hub and nVISAGE

nCORE

Highlighted changes to nCORE include:

• Submissions

  • The Submission Certification process has been enhanced to support bulk signing of multiple submissions with a single user signature. Submissions ready to sign appear in a new Signature tab on the user dashboard. Multiple role signing is also supported.

  • Support for Restricted Forms, where a user (Certifier) must be granted explicit access to either prepare or certify and submit the form. External Site administrators must request access to restricted forms for themselves or other users.  Requests appear in the Certifier Requests screen for internal user approval.

  • Display of Priority fields is now configurable on or off by Form Type in the lookup screen. In addition, priority may be configured as required or optional.

• Discharge Monitoring Reports (DMRs)

Discharge Monitoring Reports have been significantly enhanced and expanded with this release to accommodate a wide number of configuration options and validation, as well as user interface changes.

• Column header visibility – Previously, when scrolling down in the DMR entry, column headings would roll off the page making it difficult to tell which entry field the user was entering. Now, when the cursor is in an entry field, a ‘tool tip’ will display providing the column header information for that field.

• Up/Down field navigation – Users may now navigate DMR entry column fields using the up/down arrow keys.

• PDF Copy of Record - A standard formatted copy of record document is now generated for submitted DMRs as a PDF document. This includes (as applicable) a) Raw, daily values, b) Summary DMR values, c) Submission metadata (e.g., submitter, date/time submitted). The PDF copy of record is also attached to the generated DMR submission receipt notification / email.

• PDF Preview Before Submission – Prior to submitting the DMR, users may preview the DMR PDF document at the "Certify and Submit" step.

• Users may now upload of multiple XML DMR files at the same time (vs previous 1 at a time).

• Improved External Visibility of upcoming/priority DMRs – Previously, DMRs were not showing in the Dashboard Priority list until they were late. This has been changed to display DMRs and schedules as priority items when they are 7 days from due.

• DMRs are included in the new multiple submission bulk signing capability.

• Viewing DMRs in multi-site mode – External users are now able to view DMRs in multi-site mode (vs. having to select a site first.)

• Configurable warning thresholds for DMR Parameters - Parameter Ranges may now be configured with a % over/under warning threshold. If the user enters a DMR value for the parameter that falls over/under the specified % warning threshold (based on sufficient historical data), then a warning is displayed on the validations page.  As this is a warning, it will not prevent submission.

• A new warning is displayed if DMR data is not entered at expected frequency.

• New alternate DMR configuration option for explanations/comments – As an alternate to requiring an explanation for each exceedance or NODI code entered, a new configuration option provides for up to four written explanations to be supplied for the overall submission. An explanation field is available for each exceedance: Effluent Limit Exceedances, Out-of-range warnings, Missing Values, or Special Entries (NODI Codes).

• New "Ready to Submit" Status – A new DMR Status "Ready to Submit" has been added to signify that a DMR has been explicitly marked as ready for submission.

• Lab ID and Number of Exceedances were added to the XML Schema for DMR Reporting.

• Routing of DMRs for Review and Approval – A new configuration option has been implemented that supports internal review and approval of DMRs. The configuration is system wide (review is either enabled or disabled). DMR screens were enhanced to present and treat DMR submissions more similarly to Schedule submissions.

• New DMR validation rules have been added including

  • Prevent submittal of a DMR prior to the monitoring period end date.

  • Prevent negative numbers form being entered in a DMR.

  • Require quarterly/semi-annual/annual DMR monitoring to fall on corresponding calendar dates.

• Site and Site Plan

  • Added the ability to create a 'manual' alert on a site. They may be used for example, to indicate a hazard at the site.

Multiple new features have been added to the Site Plan. 

• Automatic length calculation has been added for "line" features and for the perimeter of "polygon" features.

• Feature data label annotations may be toggled on/off to display metadata (e.g. feature id, feature name) associated with the map features.

• Features that are line shapes may now show direction. Direction is shown as an arrow that may be added at the endpoint of the line.

• When selecting a feature in the map, the selected feature will be highlighted in a different color.

• A new feature was implemented for users to be able to print the site plan map as a formatted PDF document.

• Added ability to center the map based on user supplied entries. For example, township/range/section (TRS). Note: This capability requires agency provided GIS layer data to support the search.

• Schedules

  • Improved External Visibility of upcoming/priority schedules – Previously, schedules were not showing in the Dashboard Priority list until they were late. This has been changed to display schedules as priority items when they are 7 days from due. Schedules with due dates are now hidden from the Upcoming list until their due date is within 1 year from the current date.

  • A Workgroup Routing tab is now available to configure routing of schedule form submissions.

• Document Management

  • A new Document Category column has been added to the document list tab so that now documents can be filtered by document category. The existing Name and Description were consolidated into a single column for better space efficiency.

  • Added the ability to configure default document security class in two areas:

    • Added the ability to specify the security class for submitted form documents (form and attachment). This may be specified for each form.

    • Added the ability to configure the default selection (e.g., Internal or Public) for uploaded documents. This is a system wide configuration.

  • Added the ability to generate documents for Project Payables.

  • Added the ability for users to Print (as a PDF) or Download Document Sets in bulk.

  • Added a prompt the user to save if they attempt to close a document that has unsaved changes.

• Permits

  • Users may now designate status on defined Limit Sets - Proposed, Active, or Closed. Active Limit Sets are included in DMRs based on the Limit Set Status date.

  • The ability to automatically link a coverage with a specific master general permit at time of creation has been implemented via workflow configuration.

  • Added ability to configure Permit Category to automatically set a permit Effective Date based number of days from the Issued Date.

  • Added configuration to control which data the Permit Features page displays,g., limit data specific to Wastewater or Groundwater, or generic feature display.

  • Provided support to maintain a separate, alternate permit number for permits, for example, a state permit number and a separate federal (NPDES) permit number.

• Public Notice

  • Added the ability to track an external reference number on a public notice as an optional field that will appear on public notices if entered.

• Projects

  • Added ability to configure whether payment records may be manually added to a payable (fs. Interfaced)

  • Master Projects:

    • Master project security has been refined

    • Ability to manage status has been added to Master Projects

  • Schedules

    • Default Schedule templates may now be set at the Permit Type level.

    • Added ability to delete unstarted schedules.

    • Schedule versions may now be deleted under certain circumstances (based on schedule processing that has occurred).

    • Schedules with violations now display the count of the number of associated violations

  • My Tasks

    • New selectable compliance columns have been added (Evaluation Start / End Date, Evaluation Schedule Date / Compliance Action Date)

  • Events

    • Events may be configured to support a Start / End Time. This provides the ability to track the sequence of events during the same day.

    • Event comment length expanded. There is no longer a limit.

  • Contact

    • A new enhanced copy contact function revises contact selection from a dropdown-list to a multi-column selection table. This provides additional information to help ensure the correct contact is being selected for copy.

  • System Actions / Notifications

    • DMR receipt notifications are now managed as system actions providing configurable distribution options.

    • A new system action was created for the Compliance Action Closed event.

    • A link has been added enabling download of any notification attachments from the User's Notifications List.

    • New Notification Recipients "Site Owner Contact" and "Site External Administrators" have been added as to the App/Request functional area.

  • Administration

    • To aid management of user records, Security Groups have a new tab providing a list of all Users assigned to the security group.

  • Security

    • The Access Requests screen now lists related Program Areas.

    • A new user security event audit log has been created (displayed under system log menu). In addition, a new system action has been created which will send a notification containing the counts of the user security events from the prior day.

    • A configuration option has been created for automatically setting certifier status on new sites that an external user creates.

    • When a new external user is invited to join a Site, if configuration is set, the user creating the invite may be allowed to request certifier access for the new user, rather than waiting until after the user creates their account.

    • New "Financials - Payables - Global" has been created enabling edit of any purchase order or payable.

    • Security scan changes. Multiple changes were made to address low priority issues identified by vulnerability scan software.

nFORM

These are supported by new and revised configuration options in the form designer.

Highlighted changes include:

• Multiple Sign and Submit

  • nFORM now supports the ability for multiple users to sign a submission. This includes defining the personas (roles) that must sign a form, as well as the ability for applicants to invite users to sign and for multiple users to sign the submission.

• New Signature Options

  • Users now have the option to select hardcopy signature (i.e., wet ink signature) or electronic signature during signing process.

  • nFORM now supports the ability to auto-generate the form for hardcopy signature (i.e., wet ink signature) during the signing process.

  • Users may also reprint the hardcopy signature form after the initial signing process.

  • The signature/agreement language is configurable and may display data from the form. Users may define a common base template containing the language for all forms, or override that agreement for a particular forms if "custom" language is desired.

Please see the nFORM v4.9 Release Notes – nVIRO Version for more information.

nSITE Explorer

Release 3.3 of nSITE Explorer has been integrated into nVIRO. 

Highlighted changes include:

• Support for Internal / External nVIRO Configurations

  • nSITE Explorer has been modified to support separate internal and external versions. The new configuration accesses the same database and sites but provides the ability to configure differences between the sites, attribute values displayed, filters, search criteria and layer selections. 

  • Note: Implementation requires configuration of separate internal and external web servers.

There are no separate nSITE release notes for this release.  

nVIRO Data Hub and nVISAGE

Updates to the Data Hub and nVISAGE Release 2020.02 has been integrated into nVIRO.  

Highlighted changes include:

• Data Hub

  • Refined the Core DMR Data Sources and relationships. There are now three Core - DMR reports: Core – DMR, Core – DMR Daily Values, and Core – DMR Summary Values.

There are no separate nVIRO/nVISAGE release notes for this release.  

nSPECT

There are no new features or updates to nSPECT for Release 2020.02.

Demo Recording 1- Sites

Demo Recording 2 - Site Plan

Demo Recording 3 - 8 - Permits, Tasks, Events, Docs, Public Notice, Projects

Demo Recording 9 - Contacts

Demo Recording 10 - Submissions

Demo Recording 11 - Form Design

Demo Recording 12 - Schedules

Demo Recording 13 - DMRs.

Demo Recording 14 - System Actions and Notifications

Demo Recording 15 - Admin and Security

Demo Recording 16 - Site Explorer

This latest version nVIRO--Release 2020.01--includes enhancements and fixes to the following products and components:

• nCORE

• nFORM

• nSPECT

• nSITE Explorer

• nVIRO Data Hub and nVISAGE

nCORE

Highlighted changes to nCORE include:

• My Account

  • The ‘Welcome’ screen has been updated to provide improved guidance to new users

  • A new capability has been added to allow external users to create an online request for access to a Site (aka “Claim a Site”).

    • This capability is performed by routing the external users to search for a site using Site Explorer. Once the site has been found, the user can submit an online access request from the site summary. 

    • The access requests are queued for approval or denial, which may be performed either by internal administrators or by an external user who has Admin authority for the site.

  • Document Management

    • Document Security Classifications - Document management has been significantly reworked introducing a new mechanism to classify document security levels – Document Security Classifications. The security classification now also drives document visibility and access, replacing the previous ‘publish’ function and ‘confidential indicators’.  Key changes include:

      • By default, four classifications are added: Public, Internal, Confidential, and Restricted.

        • Documents classified as Public will be made available to external users based on previous rules for finalized/published documents.

        • Documents classified as Internal are not available to external users.

        • Documents classified as Confidential are treated the same as documents previously tagged as confidential.

        • Documents classified as Restricted are treated the same as Confidential. This classification option may be removed if desired.

        • Other classifications may be configured if desired. Functionally they would map to behave the same as Public, Internal, or Confidential

      • Publishing of documents is removed as this function is no longer relevant with the Public document classification.

      • The Do Not Publish Reason field has been renamed as Restrict Public Access Reason

      • Users may specify classification of Public or Internal when uploading a document.

      • Imported document attachments will default to Public unless requested to be confidential by the submitter, in which case they initially default to Internal

      • Document Templates have been updated to support a default document security class on generation.

    • Document Name was moved above the show/hide details so that it is always visible.

    • Document Templates were ‘refactored’ splitting the document metadata from the document content editing (Ace Browser). This was a technical driven change to make the screens easier to maintain, but allows users to edit the document metadata and status without having to open the document content in Ace Browser. 

    • New standard data sources are available which have been refined providing core data fields, consistent data naming standards, and improved performance.Data sources included are:

      • Application Request Standard for Documents

      • Compliance Action Standard for Documents

      • Evaluation Standard for Documents

      • Permit Standard for Documents

      • Project Standard for Documents

    • Permits

      • A new Permit Limit Details List view has been added to the Features and Limits tab. Users can now toggle between Summary and Detailed limit views. The new detailed view allows the user to more easily see permit limit details without having to open / drill down into the individual limits.

    • DMRs

      • Default date ranges for DMR search/list screens are not configurable at the system level.

      • DMR Violation ‘grace periods’ may be configured to allow additional time between the DMR due date and generation of late DMR violations.

    • Evaluations

      • The ability to map selected sites and export the site list to Excel has been added to the Evaluation Plan.

    • Complaints

      • Support has been added to enable complaint event notifications in system actions.

      • Complainants will automatically be assigned a Notification Recipient role on complaint submissions.

    • Contacts

      • A new Contact History Screen has been developed. This provides history of changes to the contact data or roles for an entity.  The screen may be accessed from the Contact List Tab or the Contact Detail Screen

    • System Actions

      • System Actions have been enhanced to support multiple System Action steps, including document generation for batch system actions

    • CSO / SSO

      • The Public CSO/SSO event search now provides the ability to export listed CSO or SSO events as a .CSV file.

    • Projects

      • Project activity categories now have a relationship to project activity types. This was added to limit the available items in Project Activity Category based on the selected Project Activity Type.

      • Project Activity Name is no longer required for project activities.

      • Project activity numbers are required and must be unique across the system.

    • Submissions

      • The Submission – All List now shows “Late” labels if the schedule is overdue and has not been submitted

    • Form Management

      • The form tag list has been enhanced to display as a grouped list by Form Section. In addition, conditionally displayed fields are indicated with an ellipsis icon and repeating sections are indicated by a loop icon.

      • New form validation checks have been created to indicate when

        • Permit change forms do not have autofill enabled for the section tagged PRMT

        • Permit change forms do not have a read only control tagged PRMT_NUM in the section tagged PRMT

        • A section prefill or autofill is enabled but the section tag is not valid for prefill or autofill

      • Help

        • External Help links are now configurable to support linking to multiple custom URLs for help support (e.g., linking to a custom client URL)

        • Help pass through to support Wiki – no password required if link used

nFORM

nFORM has several updates and new features.

Highlighted changes include:

• Contact auto-fill

  • nFORM contact controls now have the ability to auto-fill information in the Contact control from on other contacts entered in the same form.

• Subtotal Formatting

  • Added the ability to format Number controls and Table control subtotals. This allows the designer to specify whether a comma will be displayed for thousands separator and the number of decimals to display.

• Print Blank Forms

  • Users working with a form now have an option to print an unpopulated form for reference purposes. The blank form contains all controls designed in the form including controls that are conditionally displayed. Conditionally displayed controls are noted as such in the printout.

• Other

  • Improved nVIRO route management to ensure users do not find themselves in unfamiliar areas of nFORM by accident.

Please the nFORM v4.8 Release Notes – nVIRO Version for more information.

nSPECT

nSPECT Release 4.0.3 has been integrated into nVIRO

• This release of nSPECT was limited to bug fixes only.

Please the nSPECT v4.0.3 Release Notes for more information.

nSITE Explorer

Release 3.3 of nSITE Explorer has been integrated into nVIRO. 

Highlighted changes include:

• Changes for new “Claim a Site” functionality

• bug fixes

Please see the nSITE 3.3 Release Notes for more information.

nVIRO Data Hub and nVISAGE

Updates to the Data Hub and nVISAGE Release 2020.01 has been integrated into nVIRO.  

Highlighted changes include:

• Optional Data Sources

  • Users may now specify a data source as "Optional". When this is done, the data source is not required to have data in it for other data sources to display in the query. This is similar to an outer join in SQL.

• New Aggregation Options

  • Users may now specify “Most Recent” record selection to get the most recent record based upon a specified date or creation date.

  • Users may now specify “Count” to obtain a count of the unique records.

• New Data sources were established for:

  • Site Alternate Names

  • Site to Site Relationships

  • Project Activities and Master Projects

  • Users and Roles

Please see the nVIRO Data Hub and nVISAGE v2020.01 Release Notes for more information.