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Version 4.18.0 - 09/11/2021

Version 4.18.0 - 09/11/2021

Release notes

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Confirmation of UAT Testing Completed Form

 

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EP-1133

FEATURE

Assessment Plan - Cancel external Surpass tests when cancelling the plan

We’ve updated the assessment plan cancellation process to now also check for any booked Surpass tests and attempt to cancel them. Should this fail the plan will remain active and an error message will be shown to the user indicating what went wrong, this will either be an EPAPro error message, or a response from Surpass indicating why the test was unable to be cancelled.

As part of this work some visual inconsistencies has been fixed within the assessment plan screen. This should have no affect on functionality.

N/A

EP-1477

FEATURE

Assessment Plan - More information when cancelling the plan

We’ve updated the cancel plan popup to include more information on what the action will do, and the consequences of cancelling the plan. We’ve also included a toggle that must be checked before proceeding. Following this change cancelled assessment plans cannot be reversed, which is why we’ve introduced steps to try and slow down the user performing the cancellation.

EP-1477 Assessment Plan Cancellation Message

EP-1966

FEATURE

Reporting - Gateway performance report

We have written a report to allow the tracking of forecasted gateway submissions against actual gateway submissions on a provider, standard and date basis. This report will also calculate the difference between these two values and provide the result in a column called difference. A reduced subset of date filtering options have been provided (from and to, last x months, last x years, next x months, next x years) as well as filters for both provider and standard.

Provider gateway forecasting can be managed via the provider management screen.

EP-1966 Gateway Performance Report

EP-2165

FEATURE

Gateway / Assessment Questions - Extend to allow different field types

We’ve extended the questions functionality on gateway components and assessment elements to add support for different field types. The new types are:

  • Text Area - This is what all questions has a type of before this work, and is the default used for all existing questions. It’s a large text field and will be shown on screen and in the generated PDF as a larger text field.

  • Text Input - This is a smaller text input and is shown on screen and in the generated PDF as a smaller input. It has a maximum character limit of 255 characters.

  • Number Input - Similar to a text input except it’ll be validated as a numeric value. The generated PDF will also include “number” as the required input value.

  • Date Input - In the generated PDF this is similar to a text input and will be shown as requiring the format “DD/MM/YYYY”. Within EPAPro it’ll also have a full date picker available. This field will be validated as a date and require the format DD/MM/YYYY e.g. 03/09/2021

  • Checkbox - This is a special type as it also requires a comma separated list of values. Each value will be it’s own checkbox. This will be shown on screen and in the generated PDF as checkboxes. Please note that if you’re creating your own PDF template for use with our questions system, the name of the checkboxes must be a combination of the question key and a lowercase, hyphenated version of the value. For example:

    • Given you have a question with the key my_question

    • Given you have three checkbox values Answer 1,Answer 2,Answer 3

    • Your PDF should have three checkboxes with the following names:

      • my_question-answer-1

      • my_question-answer-2

      • my_question-answer-3

As part of https://covalenttech.atlassian.net/browse/EP-2574 each of these fields will also have automated validation when importing the PDF back into EPAPro or when saving the entity in-app.

EP-2165, EP-2351, EP-2574 Question Form Validation & Field Types

EP-2351

FEATURE

Gateway / Assessment Questions - Add a mandatory flag

We’ve extended the questions functionality available to gateway components and assessment components to now have a new mandatory flag. This flag will add (required) to both the screen for gateway and results and also to the generated PDF for results.

https://covalenttech.atlassian.net/browse/EP-2574 also extends this to support validation when saving away the relevant entity and importing a PDF via the result screens.

See EP-2165

EP-2483

FEATURE

Assessment Progress - Improvements to security and processing

We’ve made some improvements to the underlying logic that handles the security and processing of the assessment progress, assessment profile, certification and QA screens.

This should not affect the functionality but improves the performance of these checks.

N/A

EP-2574

FEATURE

Gateway / Assessment Questions - In-app validation

We’ve extended our questions functionality for gateway components and assessment components to now include data validation based on the configured questions. This validation will cause a record to fail saving when saving the entity via the in-app screen.

If you’re importing a questions PDF via the assessment result import feature then the data will be validated and relevant errors shown, these errors must be resolved either in-app or by reimporting the PDF before the result can be saved.

The following validation rules will apply depending on the configuration of the question:

  • Mandatory - the answer is required

  • Text Input/Text Area - must be a combination of characters, e.g. numbers, symbols, periods or letters

  • Date Input - must be a date matching the format DD/MM/YYY e.g. 03/09/2021

  • Number Input - must be a numeric value, digits only, negative or positive and decimal. E.g. 10, 1.0, -1 are all valid

  • Checkbox Input - must match at least one of the values. E.g. a question with the possible values Answer 1, Answer 2, Answer 3 will fail validation if Answer 4 is instead provided.

See EP-2165

EP-2710

FEATURE

QA - Improve component QA calculation

The binary options for QA setting against assessment components have been replaced with a QA minimum percentage, allowing for increased customisation.

The new QA minimum percentage works in the following manner:

  • 0% will always prevent the element from being QA’d, with the other checks (such as provider/EPA etc.) not taken into consideration.

  • An empty/blank value will ignore the element check and use the other checks (such as provider/EPA etc.) to determine whether the element should be QA’d.

  • Any other value will work using the percentage & previous QA history to determine the QA status, as per functionality of the other existing rules.

Given the functionality detailed above, the existing QA settings have been converted into the following percentages, to help maintain existing functionality:

  • “Always” becomes “100%”

  • “Never” becomes “0%”

  • “Default” becomes empty/blank

EP-2710 Assessment Component QA calculation

EP-2772

FEATURE

Reporting: Planning meeting history report

We have written a planning meeting history report that details all planning meetings, including those from previous programmes.

The columns and filters have been kept consistent with the planning meeting details report.

Ep-2772 Planning Meeting History report

EP-2809

FEATURE

Reporting - Ready for certification report certification status and element QA status filters

We have introduced filter options to the Ready for Certification report so it is easier to see just the apprentices at each stage of certification. A second filter has also been introduced to allow filtering by element status: those with QA's pending and those where all QA's have been completed. This will enable filtering to find apprentices that are ready for certification immediately and those that still have outstanding actions on them. This functionality matches how the certification management screen works.

We have now deprecated the Exclude Non-QA Elements and Omit Partially Passed filters, and they will be removed at some future time.

EP-2809 Ready for Certification Report

EP-2834

FEATURE

Record of Achievement - Improve the error given if the template is invalid

We’ve adjusted the error message shown when using the record of achievement screen to now display a more helpful error if the PDF template against the schema / component is not a valid PDF Form.

N/A

EP-2835

FEATURE

EPAs/Apprentice - Addition of a Covid-19 compliant toggle to identify workplaces that require / EPAs that have Covid-19 compliance

We’ve made it easier to identify apprentice workplaces that require “Covid-19 Compliance” and EPAs that are “Covid-19 Compliant”. This data is then shown when relevant to users when assigning EPAs to elements, making it easier to identify the most suitable EPA for the element.

It’s important to note that EPAPro does not have a definition of Covid-19 Compliance this will differ from business to business and is simply a helpful indicator that can be used when assigning EPAs.

The changes include:

  • Added a new Requires Covid-19 Compliance toggle to apprentices, this can be adjusted within the Workplace Details tab when editing an apprentice.

  • Added a new Is Covid-19 Compliant toggle to EPAs and EPAMs, this can be adjusted within the EPA Details tab when editing an EPA or EPAM.

  • Added the requires_covid_compliance column to the Apprentice Details report.

  • Added the is_covid_compliant column to the EPA Information report.

  • Added a warning when assigning EPAs to elements via the Assessment PlanAssign EPA to Elements or Manage Element Sidebar screens that the apprentice’s workplace Requires Covid-19 Compliance.

  • Added a new green Covid-19 Compliant tag to EPAs when listed on the Assessment PlanAssign EPA to Elements or Manage Element Sidebar screens.

  • Adjusted the Select EPA dropdown when editing the EPA assigned to an element via the Manage Element Sidebar. This will now highlight the “tags” against an EPA much better.

  • Adjusted the Assign EPA to Elements screen to include the relevant tags similar to the Assessment Plan.

  • Adjusted the Bulk Assign EPA to Elements to include a new Covid-19 Compliance column for the elements to indicate which apprentices require a Covid-19 Compliant EPA.

  • Added requires_covid_compliance to API create apprentice and update apprentice

EP-2835 Covid Compliance

EP-2850

FEATURE

Notifications - Reduce how long notifications are kept for

We’ve adjusted how long we keep old notifications from 1 month to 2 weeks.

N/A

EP-2851

FEATURE

Notifications - Improved performance with large amounts of notifications

We’ve improved the notifications side drawer to better handle large amounts of notifications. This should drastically improve the performance for users that have large amounts of notifications. The following changes have been made:

  • The notifications will be loaded when the side drawer is opened, rather than automatically on every screen load

  • The side drawer will show the most recent 25 notifications, with a “Load more” button to load the next 25

  • The heartbeat that notifies you when you have new notifications will no longer automatically insert the notification into the side panel, as with the point above it’ll be loaded when the drawer is opened

For some users, this should provide a considerable speed improvement as we identified some pages taking upwards of 16 or more seconds to load due to the number of notifications those users had.

EP-2851 Notification Improved Performance

EP-2908

FEATURE

[UAT] Assessment Progress - Show the result details pre-QA for internal users

The Assessment Profile screen has been changed to now show the element result prior to QA completion for internal users only. Please note that the result has not been released to the provider at that point in time and would be subject to change through the QA process.

The Add/Edit QA screen has been changed so that the Element Details sidebar now shows the high level result details without needing to navigate into the Edit Result screen. This allows basic details to be glanced at whilst performing a QA.

 

EP-2909

FEATURE

[UAT] QA - Add result type filter

A new filter has been added to the QA listing screen so that the list can be filtered to only show Pass or Fail Element results. This allows certain assessments to be prioritised for QA.

 

EP-1559

BUG

Security - various updates to prevent URL manipulation.

As part of ongoing security updates, the following improvements have been made:

  • Editing an assessment schema URL from view mode to edit mode is no longer possible when the schema has apprentices associated against it.

  • Editing a gateway component URL from view mode to edit mode is no longer possible when the gateway component has apprentices associated against it.

  • When logged in as an employer with update/read provider permissions, is it not possible to edit the URL to access providers not associated with the employer.

 

EP-2324

BUG

Notifications - Create/Update QA notifications have confusing messages

We’ve updated the create / update QA notifications to have better messages to reflect what has happened.

 

EP-2373

BUG

Apprentice Notes - Added security to prevent URL manipulation.

Added security to prevent users from adding/editing apprentice notes by manipulating URLs.

 

EP-2501

BUG

Notifications - Some notifications are not taking into account user overrides

We’ve fixed a bug where some notifications were not taking into account the user’s overrides and still sending them the notification when it shouldn’t. The affected notifications are:

  • Contract Ending

  • Assessment Schema Ending

  • Assessment Schema Review

 

EP-2589

BUG

Gateway - Unable to edit further action notes once saved

We’ve fixed a bug where it was not possible to update the internal or public notes on the further action tab of a gateway once the toggle has been enabled. These two fields are now editable even after the initial save.

 

EP-2693

BUG

Support materials - Status now persists on error.

Fixed a bug that prevented the “Status” field from persisting on error when saving a support material.

 

EP-2700

BUG

Gateway Specification - Component checkbox not persisting on error

We’ve fixed a bug where newly ticked gateway specification components would not persist if an error occurs during save.

 

EP-2707

BUG

Support materials - hide support materials for deleted standards.

A bug has been fixed that will hide support materials for standards that have been deleted.

 

EP-2766

BUG

Surpass - Resit results do not link up with the previous attempts

We’ve fixed a bug where resat surpass assessments were not linking up with the previous attempts, which was causing these to be hidden within the assessment resits report. This has now been corrected.

 

EP-2767

BUG

Gateway Specification - Declaration text is lost when editing the end date of a specification in use

We’ve fixed a bug where changing the end date of a specification causes the declaration text field to be cleared.

 

EP-2776

BUG

Assign Apprentice / Record of Achievement - Employer and Specialism filters not greyed out on load

We’ve fixed a bug where the employer and specialism filters were not initially greyed out when first loading the assign apprentice or record of achievement screens.

As part of this fix we’ve brought the assign apprentice and record of achievement filters in line with our other screens, these are now making use of our shared filter system, which will ensure a consistent feature set across these two screens.

 

EP-2780

BUG

Emails - Allow table HTML elements in the email content

We’ve fixed a bug where our content cleaning security was removing table elements from the HTML of emails, pages, or news items. tabletheadtbodytrtd and th are now all allowed. Along with the attributes styleclass and colspan for the relevant elements.

 

EP-2784

BUG

Filters - updates to improve usability on smaller screen sizes.

Filters have been updated to be more mobile/tablet friendly, by displaying larger on smaller screen sizes.

 

EP-2813

BUG

Apprentice - ethnicity now persists on error.

Fixed a bug whereby the ethnicity field would not persist on error, when creating an apprentice.

 

EP-2814

BUG

API - Documentation missing tas_name for apprentices

We’ve fixed an issue with our API documentation where the tas_name field was a valid field to pass when creating / fetching an apprentice, but was missing from the documentation.

 

EP-2819

BUG

Performance - Edit users is slow

We’ve improved the performance of the permissions tab when editing a user. This was causing some slowdown for these screens. Following this change, the performance of the edit user screens should be improved.

 

EP-2828

BUG

Assessment Progress / QA - QA Created / QA Updated by QA notifications do not include the pre-filtered link

We’ve adjusted the QA Created, QA Updated By EPA and QA Updated By QA notifications to now link to the relevant assessment profile. Previously this linked to the assessment progress screen but, due to a bug, wouldn’t pre-filter the apprentice.

This will not affect existing notifications. These will naturally cycle out over time.

 

EP-2831

BUG

ESFA - Some apprentices not showing "Check for Certificate" button

We’ve fixed a bug where some apprentices would be missing the “Check for Certificate” button on the ESFA screen.

This was due to the certificate only having a created date and not a submitted date when the certificate was first fetched via this screen. If an apprentice is missing the submitted date the “Check for Certificate” button can be used again to update the missing date within EPAPro.

 

EP-2846

BUG

Gateway Component - Question field changes do not persist on error

Fixed an issue with the gateway component screen not persisting some changes if an error occurs.

Also added the required asterisk to component name and component description as they are both required fields.

 

EP-2847

BUG

Display training provider list in alphabetical order for various screens.

Have amended the following screens to display the list of available training providers in ascending alphabetical order, instead of descending created date:

  • Create employer

  • Create/update EPA(M)

  • Create contract

 

EP-2907

BUG

[UAT] Assessment Progress - Result showing to external users pre-QA

Fixed a bug where element results would show in the assessment profile prior to QA completion to external users.

 















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