Highlighted nCORE Changes

• General User Interface Improvements

  • Hide Site menu items that do not apply to the current site. When viewing a selected site, navigation menu items that are not applicable Site Context - Only show Site navigation menu items that apply to current site
  • Audit History Consolidation. Audit history items are now consolidated based on user / transaction for improved readability.
  • Restyled validation warnings. Validation warnings have been revised to make it easier to visually distinguish them from errors.
• My Account
  • Type ahead search for External Site Selector. When the list of sites on the external (My Account) page exceeds nine sites, a type-ahead search field appears to filter the list of sites.
• Document Management
  • Support for PDF of email message files. nVIRO will now automatically convert emails uploaded in “.msg” format to PDF format for viewing in the application.
  • Print and Download Large Document Sets Added the ability for users to Print (as a combined PDF) or Download document sets in bulk. These functions now execute asynchronously, allowing users to continue other work (vs waiting for the download to complete). Please note that documents are only available for batch printing as a combined PDF if they have been designated as "PDF-able" files in nVIRO.
• Site and Site Plan
  • Site Plan - Link to Permitted Features. On the Site Plan, features that are associated with active permits will now provide information about, as well as links to, each of those permits in the "feature detail" panel. Inactive permits are viewable as well, but hidden behind a single button-click by default.
  • Feature ID Numbering Schemes. Features may now be configured to automatically generate Feature ID/Numbers at time of creation.  Feature numbering schemes and their prefixes, are stored in and only accessible in database. The schemes are related to feature types on the Feature Type lookup screen. When a new feature is added to a site with a type where a scheme is specified, the feature number will automatically be populated, but can be overridden by the user.
  • Search for Alternate name on Change Site function
  • Base Map update in Site Plan and Site Explorer
• Permits
  • Permitted Feature Program Component Support. Extensive new capabilities have been added related to Permitted Features, providing support for program component sections related to features and linkage between the permits and permitted features.  Highlights of the change include
    • New Permitted Features link to Feature Details in Site Plan
    • Support of Permit Features in Program Components
    • Add Details and Program Component support to Permitted Features
    • Split Features and Limit tab on Permit record
  • Issue Coverages under a Master General Permit when the MGP goes into effect. Implementedthe ability to automatically issue all pending coverages associated with an In Process Master General Permit when that MGP goes into effect. When the MGP is "In Process", coverages associated with the MGP will have their status set to "Ready to Be Issued". When the MGP is "Issued", all associated coverages are transitioned to "In Effect" status.This capability is configurable on or off in the application deployment settings.
  • Cross-Site Permit to Permit links. When specifying a new related permit on the Related Permits tab, users may now search for any permit in the system – not just permits within the current site.
• Program Components
  • Multiple Inheritance in to a Component Form. Component Forms may now be configured to support data population from multiple forms in the following scenarios:
    • Form inherits from many form types (e.g. from both a Permit Application and the Permit Renewal).
    • Initiation of a new permit version – can set up to inherit data from the application for the new version into the new version component.
  • Provide Configuration to Make Permit Program Components Read-Only Before and/or After Issuance. A program component may be configured to be set to read-only upon issuance of the related record. This is configurable in the Component Type Lookup when Permit Functional Area is selected.
  • Program components configured to be set to read-only upon issuance of the related permit are read-only on issuance.
• Financials
  • Apply check payments to multiple invoices from the Financial List. Internal users now have the ability to apply check payments to multiple invoices. This capability is configurable in the application deploy settings. When enabled, checkboxes appear on invoices that have outstanding balances. The user may searches invoices, selecting multiple invoices to include in the payment. The payment is applied in based on order selected and the process applies for partial payment or overpayment to the last payable invoice selected.
  • Add ability to search on Fee Category. The financial list now support search on Fee Category.
  • Support Multiple Line Items on a Receivable. Annual Invoice Fee have been moved from receivable to receivable item.  This allows multiple line items to be added to a single receivable. Each line item is represented as a separate record in the Receivable Item table.  Receivable items may be represented as separate line items on an invoice.
  • Create a Financial Adjustment if Application Withdrawn and No Payment Made. A new form setting exists to automatically add a fee adjustment to set fee amount to $0 if a submission is withdrawn. If an application is set to a "CLOSED" status that is not status "COMPLETE", and payments have been received, the user is warned that fees have been received against the application. If an application is set to a "CLOSED" status that is not status "COMPLETE", and a balance exists, the user is provided the option to either adjust the balance to $0 or adjust the fee to $0.
• Help
  • Removal of older built-in help. As the support Wiki has supplanted the older online page help, the menu link to the old page help has been removed from nCORE. Custom menu links to custom agency support pages are still available.
• My Tasks
  • Draft and Recently Received Revision Information. TheMy Tasks Item Name column to include a “Draft” indicator and revision creation information (“revision X created on [Date] by [Name]”).
  • New selectable columns for My Tasks. The following new columns have been added to the selectable columns in the My Tasks list:
    • DMR Period
    • Schedule Due Date
    • Latest Version Received Date
  • nFORM / nCORE Integration
    • Revised nFORM Integration related to completing/withdrawing a submission when draft revision exists. The integration between nFORM and nCORE has been reworked to address synchronizing statuses and behavior in specific scenarios
    • Enhance Submission Status Change validation logic to support validating different target statuses. Validation logic and services were reworked to support the ability to return specific messages based on the target status selected by the user. The rework also prevents certain batch processing issues that were occasionally being encountered. In addition, if a user is closing a submission (complete, withdrawn, rejected, or withdrawn) and a draft submission revision exists for the submission, a warning is displayed stating the draft will be deleted, and upon proceeding the draft is deleted.
    • Status sync between nCORE/nFORM on submissions that switch to 'In Process' When an nCORE submission needs to be reverted to "In Process" from Complete, Withdrawn, Rejected, Denied or Cancelled status, the nFORM status will now be set to "Reinstated". This status will enable the assigned processor to continue reviewing, creating correction requests etc. while opening up the submission for the applicant to revise (and whatever else they typically do on a submitted form).
    • Automatically import alternate site name from application. Site Alternate Names will now be imported from applications with tagged controls. The control's tag is used to indicate which alternative name type to create (e.g. SITE_ALT_NAME_TYPE.XXXX, where XXXX is the alternate name type code).
    • Pre-populate Data about Schedule into Schedule Provide the ability for a schedule form to populate the form with data about the schedule, including the schedule due date and name.
  • nSITE / nSITE Integration
    • Request to Join a Site – Additional information. To improve the functionality of the Request to Join a Site (a.k.a. "Claim a Site") functionality, users will be required to indicate a reason for requesting site access and what level of account they are requesting (Viewer, Editor, or Administrator). Also, active permit numbers associated with the site have been added to the internal request view. 
  • Projects
    • New Master Project fields. Lead Workgroup/Project Manager and Lead Program Area have been added to Master Projects.
    • Enhanced Project List. Master Project Number and Master Project Name are now displayed on the Environmental Project list.
  • DMRs
    • Allow Excel upload of DMR Summary values. Summary DMR values may now be uploaded to DMRS using an excel spreadsheet.  The spreadsheet must conform to a standard format.
    • Download entered data before the DMR is submitted. Any DMR can now be downloaded as PDF from the DMR List, whether it is draft or submitted (official COR)
    • Allow multiple limit set templates to be added to one limit set / monitoring point. Removed validation that required a target feature/limit set combination to be unique and replaced it with a warning stating that limits from the selected limit set template will be appended to the target limit set and may create duplicate and/or overlapping limits.  Upon proceeding, the limits in the selected source limit set/template are appended to the target limit set. The system will not merge any limits from the source limit set where the parameter and monitoring location combination already exist in the target limit set.
    • Add watermark/digital stamp to Externally-submitted DMR CORs. The same digital certification used by nFORM submissions is now used to digitally sign a DMR Copy of Record. The watermark is also added to the DMR PDF.
    • Auto-update limit set initial monitoring dates based on permit effective date. If an in-process Permit has Limit Sets with one or more invalid initial monitoring dates (defined as having monitoring periods before the permit effective date), a "Fix Initial Monitoring Dates" button will appear. Clicking the button will adjust the initial monitoring dates forward to be valid.
  • Reports
    • New Standard Site Summary Report. A new document template was created in support of FOIA requests.  The report is created using document generation and will be saved on the site. It includes all key records for the site including: Site, Submissions/Complaints, Permits, Evaluations, Compliance Actions, Violations, Environmental Projects, Documents
    • New nVISAGE Report Datasource – A new report datasource has been created to support reporting on various daily counts such as the number of new users, verification codes redeemed, submissions received, DMRs received, and unique successful internal or external logins.
  • Schedules
    • New “Suspended” Permit status features.
      • New option to “Suspend” a permit when a schedule is not received. A newfeature has been introduced allowing a permit to automatically be set to “Suspended” status when a schedule is not received by the due date.  This is based on the schedule type via a new configuration option in the Schedule Type definition.
      • Schedules of Compliance hidden. When a permit has been set to “Suspended” status, all future schedules of compliance will be hidden.  Permit change forms - hide the SOCs; enable permit change forms for external users
    • Automatically Set Decision on Schedule via nFORM integration tag. Schedule forms can now be configured to automatically set a schedule decision based on information provided by the submitter in the form.  A new decision "Requires Resubmission" to convey a schedule that is not “Not Approved", but requires revision. This is useful for high-volume submissions that the agency does not want to review one by one or if an initial and subsequent final report are required (e.g., sewer overflow reports).
  • Trigger next Schedule with a calculated due date. A new Due Date type “Calculated by Prior Submission” is available for recurring schedules, allowing the next schedule due date on a triggered schedule to be calculated based on a date in the triggering submission.  
    • Ability to transfer schedules between permits. This adds the ability to allow a schedule to be transferred to the new registration (permit) record that is in process.
      • This is enabled via configuration option in the Permit Category.
      • If enabled, on an In-Process Permit’s Schedules tab, a new "Transfer Schedules" button is available. When clicked, user is presented with a list of active or in process permits on the same site. The user may select permits from which to transfer schedules, and then select related schedule groups to transfer.
    • Open Multiple Drafts of an As-Needed (recurring) Schedule. Enhanced 'As Needed' schedules to allow external users to draft multiple "as needed" schedule instances at the same time. Now, when a new as-needed schedule is begun, another as-needed schedule becomes immediately available.
  • Administration
    • Enhancements to Forms to support multiple inheritance (move with forms section)
  • Submissions
    • New Submission Summary Name Formula. Support has been added to specify a formula used to calculate a Summary Name for the submission.  The summary name is displayed in the following pages: My Tasks Dashboard, Submissions – All, Submissions – Inbox, Forms Draft and Submitted, Schedules Draft and Submitted,  Submission Detail
    • Schedule List Enhancements. Several enhancements have been made to the  Schedule List to improve efficiency
      • The Group/List options are now "sticky". For example, if the schedule List view is the last view selected, after navigating away from the list, upon return the view will default to List rather than Group
      • Open Schedule Group from the List. A new menu option has been added to the list that enables the user to open and update the schedule group associated with item.
      • Schedule Detail Back button. The back button now returns to the functional area record "Schedules" tab.
      • Submission Reference Number. The Submission Reference Number has been added to the Schedule Details Screen
    • System Actions
      • Ability to send ad-hoc "batch" system notifications. This new feature provides the ability to create and send a 'one off' scheduled notification to a body of users. This is accomplished by creating a System Action using a new trigger type of 'Scheduled'. When the Scheduled trigger is selected, a date and time can be set for the notifications to be sent. A new Preview screen is added providing the ability to preview the recipients who will be sent the notification.
      • Form Data Sources added to Notification Templates. The 'Notification Template' detail screen now includes the ability to select from a list of form data sources relating to the selected functional area and/or program area. When a form data source is selected, the 'Notification Template' text editor screen will display the selected form's insertable fields in the insertable fields list.
      • "Submission Assigned/Reassigned" Notifications expanded to include to Schedules and DMRs. Schedule submissions are now included for all Submission-related user notifications.
      • System Actions filter by Form for Application/Request. System Actions now support specification of a specific form(s) for a system action that is related to an Application/Request.

nFORM (Release 4.12) changes were primarily focused on new integrations related to standalone nFORM implementations. Some minor changes have bene made as noted below

Highlighted nFORM Changes

• Allow users to preview published forms. Added ability to import data into a submission via a compliant XML document.
• Refinements to the CROMERR Signature to strengthen the electronic signature. Refinements were made to the CROMERR process to strengthen electronic signature. This refinement included adding the "Electronic Signature Device" to the PDF and COR. When a user signs the submission, the system digitally signs the concatenated, clear text, values including the username (i.e., Principal ID), password (at the time), challenge question asked and challenge question response provided.
• Added ability to designate a control in a Repeater as a unique key. Added the ability to designate a control in a repeater as the unique identifier for the data set. This can be useful in situations where a unique identifier (e.g., Tank #) exists and/or needs to exist to uniquely identify an item in a list (e.g., list of tanks). This feature is enabled by selecting the "Enforce Uniqueness" option on the Section and then selecting the control in the section which houses the unique identifier.
• Added ability to populate/update Program Component attributes based on data from multiple source forms (e.g., new permit, annual renewal, change form, etc.). Added the ability for form data inheritance to support multiple form data sources. The submission of multiple form types can now provide data to a Program Component in nVIRO, where this was previously limited to one form type.  
• Refined the Fees panel of the Submission Overview.  Adjusted the display of the fees panel to breakup adjustments, refunds, and offline payments and to provide a direct link to the nCORE fees and payment area.
• Added ability to access additional User / Submission properties for use in the formula builder.
• Added ability to access Contact Control and Address Control properties in the formula builder.
• Added ability to open and edit an individual section of a form primarily in support of permitted features.
• Added ability to import data into a submission via a compliant XML document. Added the ability for a user to upload the data for a submission into the system using a specifically formed/formatted XML file. The format of the XML file is driven based on the form design. This can be helpful for large organizations that have to regularly submit the same form to the agency (e.g., DMRs, SSOs, monthly reports, daily reports, etc.).

Please see the nFORM v4.12 Release Notes – nVIRO Version for more information.

nSPECT changes for Release 2021.1 were limited to enhancements to the downloadable app, and bug fixes.

Highlighted nSPECT Changes

nSPECT changes for Release 2021.2 were limited to enhancements to the downloadable app, and bug fixes.

Highlighted changes include:

• Form Designer Control Design page usability improvements. The form designer has been refined for improved usability when Design forms.
• Calculated Field Control. A new control type is available that allows the use of a mathematical equation / function to calculate values either on its own or by referencing other controls.
• New Advanced Table Control. A new Advanced Table control has been introduced, which supports the use of calculated fields, single select controls within the table, calculation of values across columns of the table and the ability to display a summary row with calculated average, max, min values for number controls in the table
• Ability to Uncheck Yes / No / NA controls in the Browser Application. Added the ability to uncheck the Yes/No or Yes/No/NA questions in browser version. Unchecking is done by clicking on the previously selected value.
• Allow Reviewer to be Required on Inspection based on Inspection Type. Added the ability to configure inspection types to require a reviewer and the inspection to be reviewed before marking it as complete.
• Ability to hide site key in form headers. Added a global configuration that allows to toggle showing or hiding of the site key value in the form headers.

Please see the nSPECT v2021.2 Release Notes for more information.