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What's New in the 2021.3 Release

Meridian Cloud is software as a service (SaaS) that is continuously improved. We deploy these improvements to your account (tenancy) as soon as they are completed and tested.

Some of the improvements are minor and are immediately available to you to use. These typically have little to no impact on your data and processes and do not require configuration.

Some of the improvements are part of a major feature that has not yet been completed. These typically can have an impact on your data or processes and might require configuration.

Partial improvements are typically disabled in your account until the entire feature has been completed and tested. Each quarter, we enable the completed major features either for all Meridian Cloud accounts or for specific accounts after consulting with you.

ClosedRelease Schedule

Here are the scheduled dates of when the release will be made available to your tenancy.

Meridian Portal

  • Not for Production: November 22 (US), November 23 (EU)

  • Production: December 23 (US), December 24 (EU)

Meridian Cloud Business*

  • Not for Production: November 24 - November 30

  • Production: December 28 - December 30

*Exact dates will be communicated for each tenancy individually by email and inside the software.

ClosedRelease Toggles And Feature Toggles

A release toggle is a temporary switch used while a feature is being developed and tested on Accruent-only tenancies. It hides the feature from production releases until the feature is ready for release. We enable all release toggles as part of the release process first for Accruent-only tenants, second for customer non-production tenants, and finally for customer production tenants. There is 3 to 4 week gap between each step. The functionality enabled by a particular release toggle is noted below.

A feature toggle is used to configure an application depending on a customer's subscription level or unique needs. These can be changed per customer via a Support request. Learn more about feature toggles.

ClosedImprovements In This Release

The following tables list improvements in specific application or functional areas.

ClosedAdministration Improvements

The following enhancements have been made to system administration.

Reference Description

MPS-36224

If you delete a custom document property, Meridian Cloud now removes the property from all column views and pages in Portal and PowerWeb. If you delete a custom property that is in use, it will no longer be possible to access the property data. The Tenant Administrator must track these actions. To prevent data loss, the property data is not removed from PowerWeb. Once a custom property is deleted, a message is added to the audit trail.

If the custom property is used in a document number naming convention, the delete action is disabled, and the reason is given.

The property usage check only occurs in the Portal configuration, not in PowerWeb.

MPS-37335

 You can now delete custom document types. You cannot delete system document types. You cannot delete document types that are still assigned to documents in Portal—the delete button is disabled. The document type is deleted from Portal. The document type might not be deleted from PowerWeb if it is still in use.

MPS-35906

 The Audit Trail now creates an event when a person attempts to login to an account that does not exist. This enhancement allows Tenant Administrators to identify unauthorized access attempts to the system.

MPS-36234

MPS-37701

MPS-37704

 You can now configure which properties should be included when generating a sequence number for a document.

MPS-38057

 Audit messages now display correctly after the project type name has been edited.

MPS-35541

 Memo properties are now properly exported using our Data Extraction tool.

MPS-37401

 Portal Custom properties are now included in the Excel file generated by the Data Extraction tool.

MPS-37569

 The Excel sheet generated by the Data Extraction tool now includes additional sheets for each document type in the vault.

MPS-37274

 Meridian Cloud now uses the most recent version of PDFTron for Microsoft Office rendering to improve the layout quality of renditions.

MPS-37428

 When a custom property is deleted from Portal, the property is now removed from the Document Service database and from the search index.

MPS-38628

 Previously, when you attempted to create a folder using an import package, the order of events was different than what it was in the user interface. Now, the order of events when a folder is being created via import is the same as when you create a folder manually in PowerWeb.

MPS-38228

 You can no longer change a user's role from a contractor to an internal role or vice versa.

MPS-36643

 We've improved the performance of rendition processing in PowerWeb by processing renditions in groups.

MPS-37314

 You can now customize what file extensions are mapped to each document type, and also specify the main file extension for hybrid document types.

ClosedPortal Improvements

The following enhancements have been made to Portal.

Reference Description

MPS-35304

Depending on your organization's reference rules, there are now three possible outcomes when sending packages:

  • The package is sent regardless of whether the referenced document is also included.

  • If a referenced document is not included, you will be asked to confirm whether you want to send the package. You can then choose to send the package without including the referenced documents, or to cancel so that you can include the referenced documents.

  • If a referenced document is not included, you will not be allowed to send the package until you include the referenced document. All referenced documents should be included in the same upload to the Portal for XRef scanning.

This functionality is configurable by the Tenant Administrator, and is applicable to Project Owners or Document Controllers.

MPS-35305

Depending on your organization's reference rules, there are now three possible outcomes when releasing documents:

  • The document is released regardless of whether the referenced document is also released.

  • If a referenced document is not released, you will be asked to confirm whether you want to release the current document. You can then choose to release the current document without releasing the referenced documents, or to cancel the release so that you can release the referenced documents.

  • If a referenced document is not released, you will not be allowed to release the document until you release the referenced document. All referenced documents should be included in the same upload to the Portal for XRef scanning.

This functionality is configurable by the Tenant Administrator, and is applicable to Project Owners or Document Controllers.

MPS-32716

Depending on your organization's reference rules, there are now three possible outcomes when submitting packages as a contractor:

  • The package is submitted regardless of whether the referenced document is also included.

  • If a referenced document is not included, you will be asked to confirm whether you want to submit the package. You can then choose to submit the package without including the referenced documents, or to cancel so that you can include the referenced documents.

  • If a referenced document is not included, you will not be allowed to submit the package until you include the referenced document. All referenced documents should be included in the same upload to the Portal for XRef scanning.

This functionality is configurable by the Tenant Administrator, and is applicable to Contractors.

MPS-37309

 The Begin of Project option for the Major number incremental moment setting now increments the revision number at the beginning of the project for facility and transmission documents, as expected.

MPS-37739

 If the GenerateRepositoryRendition feature toggle and the 2021_Q3_Upload_Improved_Rendition release toggle are both enabled, Portal will generate PDFs on uploaded source documents. Documents are combined as source and rendition automatically when the source doc and the rendition file are uploaded with the same filename.

MPS-37703

 If the LookupValueCreation feature toggle is enabled, when project copies or documents are sent from PowerWeb to Portal with properties that do not exist in Portal, the properties will be added to the appropriate lookup list.

ClosedPowerWeb Improvements

The following enhancements have been made to PowerWeb.

Reference Description

MPS-38750

 Switching to Portuguese no longer causes an error.

MPS-32322

 The system no longer times out and generates a duplicate rendition when you take too long when applying an e-signature on a batch of documents and site cache mode is enabled.

MPS-36637

 The system no longer adds a duplicate document to the Publisher Queue when a user triggers a manual rendition via a workflow transition or release of a document.

MPS-34561

MPS-38045

 If a user fails the e-signature authentication process, PowerWeb now logs out the user.

MPS-36989

 You can now import packages directly to Retired status.

MPS-37459

You can now access the audit log for a document by clicking the Audit link next to the document number. The audit log will open in Portal in a separate window.

This update resolves a known issue in the 2021.2 release.

MPS-39430

 You can now restart failed tasks in the publish queue. Only users with Administrative rights or the owner of a document can restart a failed task.

MPS-35717

A new ESignature column has been added to our import profile spreadsheets. This enhancement allows you to set an e-signature for migrated or legacy data. If an e-signature is mapped in the spreadsheet, one of two things will happen:

  • If a rendition is not provided with the import, the e-signature text will be imported from the spreadsheet and used in the rendition generation.

  • If a rendition is provided with the import, the e-signature text will not be used in rendition generation.

MPS-38691

MPS-34764

You can now override an automatically generated sequence number for a new document if you have the Document Controller role (or higher permissions).

This can be useful if you have imported documents that already have sequence numbers, causing Meridian to be out of sync with the proper sequence number. Other use cases include when you need to reserve a specific range of sequence numbers, or if you have deleted documents but still want to use the sequence numbers for the documents that were deleted.

ClosedExplorer Improvements

The following enhancements have been made to Explorer.

Reference Description

MPS-37824

 You can now use the Saved Search field as a type-ahead field. When you type the name or part of the name of a saved search, results matching your search criteria will appear in a list.

MPS-34956

 You can now see the validation results and messages for both the scan and the import in the metadata spreadsheet of an import package.

MPS-38056

 Several small user interface fixes have been implemented.

MPS-33168

 In the Cloud Explorer, you can now filter documents by their Created On and Modified On dates.

MPS-39558

 In the Cloud Explorer, the end date for date range filters default to today's date, and the begin date defaults to one year ago.

MPS-38046

 We made some small adjustments to the formatting of the Saved Search dialog in the Cloud Explorer.