Technical requirement changes for this release:

• There are no technical requirement changes from Release 2023.1 to 2023.2

Required Software

Web Server

• Windows Server 2016 or later (with latest windows updates)

• IIS 10 or later

• ASP.NET Core Runtime 7.0.x Windows Hosting Bundle (Windsor Component Server/Blazor)

• ASP.NET Core Runtime 6.0.x Windows Hosting Bundle (nSITE - upgrade to 7.0.x to remove)

• .NET Framework 4.8 Runtime (nCORE web app, nFORM, nSPECT, nVISAGE, SLEIS)

• AceOffix Server 5.8.0.1 (included with nVIRO install package)

Application Server

• Windows Server 2016 or later (with latest windows updates)

• .NET Desktop Runtime 7.0.x

Database Server

• Windows Server 2016 or later (with latest windows updates)

• SQL Server 2019 or later

Web Browser 

• AceOffix Plugin 5.8.0.2 (included with nVIRO install package)

• Modern Web Browser on latest version (Chrome, Edge, FireFox)

nCORE

Help

• Page Specific Help Links. Page level help is now available to internal users for nCORE pages. When available, the Help (?) link displays a “Help With This Page” link, which opens the Windsor Support Site to the most applicable area based on the context of the current page.  Pages that do not have specific help show only the standard Product Support help link.

Submissions

• Submission “Packages”.   New functionality has been developed to enable related forms to be grouped together as a Submission “Package”.  

• Configuration.  The submission package is defined by an administrator who configures Form Set with a type of “Submission Package”.  Multiple forms may be added included in the package and forms may be specified as required or optional.  The first form is always required.  Specific text may be configured on the package in order to provide description or instructions to the external user.

• External Submission.  External users can search for and find form packages using the current form search.  Form packages are listed with a “View Package” button rather than a “Begin” button. Clicking “View Package” displays the package text and lists the forms in the package.  Once users have completed and submitted/signed a required form it is assigned a “Staged for Submission” status.  When all required forms have been staged, the package may be submitted for processing.

• Internal Processing.  In general, submissions that are part of a submission package are processed internally in the same way as individual submissions.  However, there is additional specific processing and functionality for submission packages.

• Viewing Package Submissions. When viewing a submission that is part of a submission package, a dropdown selection field is available at the top of the submission page. This allows the user to toggle between any of the submissions that are part of the package. 

• Permit Workflow.  A workflow that creates a new Permit, may only be added to the submission that is specified as the primary (first) form in the package.

• Submission Package Status. Submission Packages have their own status.  The overall status of the submission package is listed in the right sidebar on the Details page for all submissions that are part of the submission package. When updating a submission package to “Complete” each of the submissions in the package are validated and the combined validation results are displayed in the validation results list.  If all submissions are valid, updating the submission package status to “Complete” will update all submissions in the package to “Complete”.  

• Delete Schedule Started External User.  Authorized users may now delete a schedule started by an external user if it is version 1 of the schedule and is in Draft status.  This may be needed if an external user started a schedule online, but then submitted the information on paper.  

• Geocode New Site Location from Submission Form Address.  When an nFORM application form has an address control tagged SITE_ADDR, nVIRO will create a Site Location feature from the address control if it is filled-out and the form does not have a filled-out Site Location control.  If the Site Location control has been filled, it is used.

• Allow Form Submission to Update Site Name.  A configurable setting has been added to allow a form to update a site name on submission.  When Entity Category "Site" is chosen on the form configuration, a new checkbox "Submission can result in update to Site Name" may be checked to enable this option.

Schedules

• Revised Copy Schedule Group Processing.  The system behavior when copying a Schedule Group has been revised to prevent situations where copied data is not valid or is incomplete. The copy function will now route the user to the New Schedule Group screen with data populated from to trigger creation of a new group, where the user must save the schedule group and run validation that due dates are present.

Permits

• Submission Package Permit Document Generation.  Permits initiated by a submission that is part of a submission package can populate data from any form associated with a submission in submission package.

• Workflows and Tasks

• Workflow Trigger Tasks.  Currently, when a workflow task is assigned, it is immediately available for the assigned staff to work.  The new workflow trigger task functionality provides the ability to assign a task, but to make it not available until its predecessor task has been completed.  This is achieved by defining a “trigger” task for the task in the workflow and introducing a new “Pending” status for tasks that have not yet been triggered.  Thus, Task B may be configured with a trigger task of Task A.  When Task A is in process Task B does not display on the assigned user’s “My Tasks” page.  When Task A is set to complete, Task B is made available and displays on the assigned user’s “My Tasks” page. 

• Task Document Linking.  Tasks have been enhanced to support linking of documents. This may be beneficial to indicate which documents were created by a workflow task, or to indicate documents that need review as part of a workflow task. 

• Document Task Carry-over.  The document linking works in conjunction with the new workflow trigger tasks functionality.  When a document is linked to a task that triggers another task, the linked documents are carried over to the triggered task.

• Document Access from My Tasks.  When documents have been linked on a task, links to the documents are available on the list through a new column “Next Task Documents”.  Clicking on the corresponding document link will open the document in the AceOffix editor if it is a Word document, or link to the document if is another file type.

• Task Completion from My Tasks.   A “Mark Complete” button has been added to My Tasks.  This enables the user to mark the task complete without having to open the related record. 

• Role-based Workflow Assignments.  Workflow tasks now support role-based assignments.

• Role Types and Workgroup Roles.  Users in a workgroup may be assigned a Role Type.  The list of available Role Types is configurable by the agency under the admin/lookups.

• Defining Task Roles. Within a workflow template, a new assignment method of “Selected Role” may be selected.  This enables a new “Default Role” field where a Role Type is selected. 

• Task Assignment.  When a workflow is assigned to a record, tasks with a “Selected Role” assignment method are assigned to the staff with the corresponding workgroup role.  If the workgroup does not have roles specified, the tasks are left unassigned.

• Workgroup Change.  If the workgroup is changed any incomplete role based tasks are reevaluated and assigned to the user with the corresponding role in the new workgroup.

Dashboard

• Action Buttons for Internal Users.  Agency users will now be able to act upon dashboard items. Buttons now appear on dashboard items with relevant actions for currently logged-in agency user.

Administration, Other

• Bulk User Reassignment. A new feature supports the ability to bulk reassign record processors and workflow tasks.  Authorized users may perform a search on User, Program Area, County and Functional Area.  Matching Functional Area Records, Tasks and Schedules are displayed and may be selected for reassignment to a new Workgroup and User. 

• Document Category – Multiple Program Area support.  Document Categories now support multiple program areas allowing related Document Templates to be made restricted to specific program areas. Previously, it was open to all or limited to one program area.

• Auto Deletion of “Ghost” Sites. External users may create new sites but never submit forms for the created sites. A background process has been implemented to search for sites that have no records associated and delete them so that they do not show in reports or searches.

• Document Templates. Support has been added for

  •   embedded QR images

  •   assigned processor signatures.

Evaluations

• Configurable Evaluation Type Validation Rules.  Validation rules are now configurable for each Evaluation Type.  Configuration is specified in the Evaluation type lookup. A new configuration rule is defined to make Evaluation End Date/Time required before closing an Evaluation.

• Evaluation Numbers Search.  Evaluation numbers are now supported in the nVIRO Basic Site Search.

• Sites / Regulated Entities

• Filter Site Type When Creating a New Site.  Site Types are now specific to a single Site Category (Site, Organization, Person).  When creating a new site, the Site Type is selection limited based on the selected Site Category.

• Historical Site Name Change as Alternate Name.  A new configuration option is available to add the previous name to the site alternative name as a ‘historical’ alternate name type.  Doing so makes the historical name searchable when performing a site search.

Records Retention

• Expanded Record Retention Configuration.  Record retention configuration has been expanded to enable configuration for the following additional functional areas:

  •  Permits

  • Submissions

  • Evaluations

Financials

• Add Violation to a Fee. A new Fee Category option provides the ability to to allow assessment of a Violation against the corresponding financial record.  This provides a way to create a violation, for example, if the fee has not been paid.

• Due Date on Site/Financials List.  Due Date has been added to the Site/Financials List page.

Compliance Actions

• Compliance Action/Fines now support Program Area specific fine types and fee categories.

nFORM

• Data Grid – Calculated controls and summarization. The Data Grid control now supports calculated controls.  It has also been enhanced to support summarization of data columns.

• Section and Control Formula Alerts.  Visual indictors have been added to alert for when controls are used in formulas and the source control is subsequently removed or the tag is renamed, which invalidates the formulas.

• Promote Forms from Older Versions to new Versions. Allow Import of forms from newer release versions to older release versions.  This helps clients who may have updated their Test environment to a newer release and need to promote forms to an older release in production.

• Formula Builder ‘Please Describe’ access. When the value "Other" is selected in a select list control, a "Please describe" field appears for the applicant to fill out.  The value in the Please Describe field is now exposed for use in calculated and conditional formulas. 

• Internal Users allowed to "Skip" Signing. The automatic circumvention of signing processes for internal users has been rolled back and replaced with a new flow. Internal users are now presented with an additional action that offers them the chance to skip signing. This allows internal users to skip signing for testing purposes, or if they do not need to sign the document. This change makes it clear to internal users why signing is being skipped.

• Populate Lists from Data Hub. Support the ability to populate control lists from the Data Hub through an nVISAGE report (e.g., all active Wastewater DRP Approvals, or Wastewater Specification Permits or Wastewater Land Application Permits).

• Improved Instruction Control Formatting.  Instructions now support rich text formatting.

• Repeating Sections Collapse.  When a repeating section has more than one record, the repeaters collapse by default. 

• Smart type-ahead for short text and select lists. For short text controls with dynamic lists, or any single or multi-select control, the type-ahead is enhanced to honor starting characters first. If no values meet the starting characters, the search transforms into a contains search.

nSPECT

• nSPECT changes were limited to bug fixes/patches.

nSITE Explorer

• nSITE Explorer changes were limited to bug fixes/patches.

nVIRO Data Hub and nVISAGE

• Enhancements to Data Hub and nVISAGE in the 2023.2 release included integration with nFORM and nCORE.  Integration was developed to support:

  • Population of nFORM lists from Data Hub data sources defined in nVISAGE.

  • Population of nCORE Documents from Data Hub data sources defined in nVISAGE.

SLEIS Integration

• SLEIS Equipment Inventory Review Submission From nVIRO.  This release adds the ability to add a new type of SLEIS submission, which is referred to as an “application” in SLEIS.  When started, the SLEIS application creates a snapshot of the site’s Master Equipment Inventory for the external users to update and submit.  This form type, “Equipment Inventory Review” may be configured as a stand-alone schedule or as a schedule that is part of a submission package.  A site may have one SLEIS Equipment Inventory Review application active for the site at any given point in time.

• Menu Access to SLEIS from nVIRO.  A SLEIS menu is available to external users if a given site is configured in SLEIS.  At the site level, SLEIS menus are enabled if a correspondisng record exists in SLEIS and the site has a SLEIS identifier (SLEIS_ID) alternate name configured in nVIRO.