Version 5.18.0 - 06/02/2024
Production Release Date: Feb 6, 2024 | Version: 5.18.0 |
UAT Release Date: Jan 9, 2024 |
The Release webinar is available from here (following the Friday demo meeting);
Note: you can copy and share this link with other people in your organisation
We have added a new column on the table below called “Action Required” this shows several new status labels:
SETUP_REQUIRED - some setup will be required to use this element
NEW_PERMISSIONS - new permissions have been added
RECOMMEND_TRAINING - training is recommended - usually for new major features.
screen_changes - changes have been made to existing screens
This is to help highlight to you anything you need to ensure is set up for the day of release or in advance of this. We do still recommend that all of the release notes are read.
low impact medium impact high impact We are also adding a column for Potential Impact to you our customers, this is an estimation of any impact to your businesses the work may have. This is just offered as a guideline, as we appreciate you all use EPAPro slightly differently.
We recommend you check any Comms settings with the release notes, as whilst newly introduced comms will be listed in them, we may not mention if an existing comm needs to be enabled, which we assume may be on from previous releases.
What you have enabled can be seen via the System Management → Communications .
Epic | Key | Type | Action Required | Summary | Release Notes Description | Potential Impact |
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Feature | SETUP_REQUIRED screen_changes recommend training | Apprentice Dashboard - Milestones | OverviewWe have added the ability for apprentices to upload to milestones they are assigned. Changes to functionalityThe apprentice dashboard milestone list has been updated to now show an “Upload” button to apprentices if the milestone has been assigned to the apprentice and it is not completed. The apprentice will then be able to upload new files to the milestone and unlink files they have uploaded. As this functionality hooks into the Apprentice Files system, the apprentice requires the “Upload” permission under the “Apprentice Files” heading. Impacted areas
| Medium If allowing apprentices to login | ||
| TASK |
| Front End - Removal and optimisations to front end JavaScript | OverviewAs part of optimisations to our Front End Javascript we have removed code that is no longer needed or unused. The majority of this was not being loaded by the application, however, we have also removed some Javascript that provided support for IE11. IE11 has not been supported by epaPRO for some time. Impacted areas
| low | |
| TASK |
| Reporting - Migrate remaining reports from the filters trait to the helper classes | OverviewChanged a variety of legacy reports to use the new updated report filtering. Changes to FunctionalityThe following reports have been updated to use the new report filtering that has been used in newer reports. This helps bring consistency to report filtering and also aids in report enhancements in the future.
Impacted Areas
Permissions
| low | |
| TASK |
| Front End - Reduction in usage of jQuery UI | OverviewepaPRO uses jQuery UI on the front end to offer some user interaction, this is mostly legacy, so we have completed some initial adjustments to reduce the reliance on this library and also reduce the overhead it has on each screen. The reduction in overhead provides a reduction in overall screen size and may also provide a performance improvement on some devices. We have also updated the cancel and reschedule warning popups on the planning meeting screen to better match the other modals we show within epaPRO. These dialogs were the remaining two that used jQuery UI. Impacted areas
| low | |
| FEATURE |
| Assessment Component - Consistent order of standards | OverviewWhen selecting Standards for an Assessment Component the ordering was inconsistent between the Create and Edit modes of the screen. This has been changed and the Create version now matches the Edit mode. | low | |
| FEATURE | screen_changes | Entity Management - New active filter | OverviewThe following screens have all had an ‘Active’ filter added to them to aid in managing the various entities within epaPRO. The filter defaults to ‘Active’ for ease of use. A minor change has also been completed on the Assessment Components listing screen to bring the Status column in line with the other screens. Affected Screens:
| low | |
| FEATURE |
| Heartbeat - Pausing checking for notifications when browser tab is not visible | OverviewThis is largely a backend change to pause the notification checks when a tab or window is no longer visible to the user. | low | |
| FEATURE |
| Custom Tasks - Element EPA assigning task to apprentice | OverviewWe have improved our global search and the search when assigning custom tasks to other users. Both of these now allow for EPAs and EPAMs to search for apprentices when the EPA or EPAM is assigned to one of the apprentice’s current, active elements. Impacted areas
| low | |
| FEATURE | screen_changes | Apprentice Files - Allow element EPA to preview and download apprentice files | OverviewWe have improved the apprentice files security to now consider the element EPA’s access. An EPA assigned to an element, but not the apprentice, will now be able to download and preview apprentice files to aid with their assessment process. Impacted areas
| low | |
| FEATURE | screen_changes | Assessment Booking - "Success" wording changed to "Request submitted" for external users | OverviewWe have amended the success message external users receive when using the Assessment Booking functionality. They will now receive “Request received”. Internal users will still receive a “Success” message. Impacted areas
| low | |
| FEATURE | screen_changes | Certification/QA screen - cohort id search | OverviewWe have added the cohort ID search to the certification and QA listing screens Impacted AreasCertification and QA | low | |
| FEATURE | screen_changes | Element Side drawer - milestone files | OverviewWe have made changes to the element side drawer so that it is now possible to view and download milestone files. The “Select Version” button has been replaced by a button with the name “Actions” in a similar style to the three dot menu used within other parts of epaPRO, From this menu users have the option to View the file, Download the file, or Delete the file, depending on their permissions and the state of the milestone file (for instance, if a has been selected to be used against that milestone, the option to delete the file will not be available. Impacted AreasElement side drawer | low | |
| FEATURE |
| Apprentice List - Performance improvement | OverviewPerformance improvements have been made to the Apprentices listing screen. | low | |
| FEATURE | screen_changes | Reporting - Assessment Element Milestone Report - missing filters | OverviewAdded the provider and employer filters to the Assessment Element Milestone report. Changes to FunctionalityThe Assessment → Assessment Element Milestones report has been updated to allow provider and employer filtering. Impacted Areas
Permissions
| low | |
| FEATURE |
| Assessment Plan - Performance improvement | OverviewWe have improved the logic when switching stages on the assessment plan which should help improve performance. It has been optimised to reduce the number of additional server requests. Impacted areas
| low | |
| FEATURE | new_permissions screen_changes training recommended | Ofqual - Categorised Reasonable Adjustments | OverviewWe have extended epaPRO to add a more structured entry of reasonable adjustments and special considerations. We support Ofqual’s Pre-Agreed and Post-Mark adjustments and also provide reports for each. The new functionality has been developed with Ofqual’s specification in-mind but additional fields have also been added for EPAO specific data. Changes to FunctionalityNew field against standardsWe have added a new Ofqual Qualification Number field to standards. This can be entered on the “External Details” tab. This new field has also been added to the Standards report. New fields against assessment centresWe have added two new fields; National Centre Number (NCN) and Unique Reference Number (URN) to assessment centres. Deprecation of old reasonable adjustments text fieldThe API documentation and apprentice screen have been updated to highlight the reasonable adjustment text field as deprecated. This field is no longer recommended for use, this new functionality should be used instead. The old field will be disabled in the next release. New reasonable adjustments tabA new tab on the edit/create apprentice screen has been added. This new tab allows for the creation of reasonable adjustments. These adjustments have the format of Ofqual allowing for consistent reporting across apprentices. New entries can be created and edited to adjust the status. Adjustments can also be deleted. Filters have been added to easily narrow down based on type. The active filter will allow for switching between adjustments that are currently valid based on the criteria:
If external users have permission to update or create adjustments the statuses they can choose will be restricted to just pending and withdrawn. Reasonable adjustments have restricted editing if they have been tied to a planning meeting or component booking, this means the meeting or component was booked while the apprentice had one or more reasonable adjustments. Customisable additional reasonable adjustment and special consideration fieldsTo provide additional information when there are some more fine-grained selections for internal reporting, we have added two new fields “Additional Reasonable Adjustment” and “Additional Special Consideration” fields. These are to provide extensions to Ofqual's existing Reasonable Adjustment (long-term) and Special Consideration (short-term) options. These can be customised via the Custom Dropdowns section of epaPRO. If no active values are given then the dropdown will not be shown. API Apprentice endpointsThe APIs get apprentice and get apprentice list endpoints have both been updated to include a list of reasonable adjustments via a new reasonable_adjustments_list parameter. This will only include active adjustments. Visibility of adjustments when booking meetingsThe schedule planning meeting screen has been updated to include a table of the reasonable adjustments defined against the apprentice. This table will only show the active adjustments, meaning that now is between the adjustment’s date range and it is accepted. Booking the meeting will ensure that any adjustments are automatically linked to the meeting. This means that once the meeting is in a read-only state you can still see the adjustments that applied at the time the last update or booking was made. Updating or rescheduling the meeting will update it with the currently valid adjustments, removing any that are no longer valid. A valid adjustment must be accepted and have a date range overlapping with the meeting’s scheduled date. Visibility of adjustments when booking elementsThe assessment plan has been updated so that the reasonable adjustments popup now includes a table of adjustments for the new format, similar to the planning meeting screen above. Booking an element, like the planning meeting, will tie the adjustments to the booking, if the booking is updated or rescheduled the linked adjustments will also be updated. However, once the element is in a read-only state the adjustments will remain visible for audit purposes. A valid adjustment must be accepted and have a date range overlapping with the element’s scheduled date. A new stage “Reasonable Adjustments” has been added to the element booking process so that you can see what adjustments have been tied to the element. Various warnings and alerts have also been added to indicate to the user if the apprentice has adjustments that do not match the booking or if the booking has adjustments. Unable to bulk book apprentices with adjustmentsThe assessment booking screen has been updated to no longer allow the bulk booking of apprentices with reasonable adjustments. Due to the nature of the adjustments this apprentice may likely need extra time or additional details added to the booking so they should be booked on an individual basis. New Apprentice Pre-Agreed Adjustments reportA new report called “Ofqual Pre-Agreed Adjustments” has been added to the reporting area, it’s available under the “Apprentice” category. This report will provide output in a similar structure to the requested data by Ofqual, filters are available to query for a subset of data. The Additional Reasonable Adjustment and Additional Special Consideration fields are also included in this report although these are custom values for the EPAO and may not be relevant for Ofqual. Assessment Result Post-Mark AdjustmentsWe have added the ability to enter Post-Mark Reasonable Adjustments as defined by Ofqual. These can be entered directly against a result and can also be added via a result adjustment. The process of adding these is similar to adding reasonable adjustments directly to the apprentice record. While adding, editing, or adjusting a result there is a new “Reasonable Adjustment” box, this will list the current adjustments against the result, and clicking “Add Adjustment” will allow you to add additional ones. The Additional Special Consideration dropdown is also available here if configured. Note that this section is for audit and reporting purposes and does not directly impact the grade. For example, ticking “Grade Adjusted” will require the user to also adjust the grade as they would have done normally, as epaPRO would not know what the new grade should be. New Assessment Post-Mark Adjustments ReportA new report called “Ofqual Post-Mark Adjustments” has been added to the reporting area, it is available under the “Assessment” category. This report will provide output in a similar structure to the requested data by Ofqual, filters are available to query for a subset of data. The Additional Special Consideration field is also included in this report, although these are custom values for the EPAO and may not be relevant for Ofqual. Where Ofqual are requesting fields that we are unable to populate, these will be blank. The “UnitReferenceNumber” and “AssessmentCode” fields are also blank as we do not store references for these and epaPRO does not have a concept of “Units” and so would be unable to fit this into the Assessment Component structure we currently have. New CommunicationsThree new comms have been added, these all apply to apprentice reasonable adjustments and allow for comms to be sent when an adjustment is added, accepted, or rejected. Impacted Areas
Permissions
| high New screen changes and so listing this as high from training purposes | |
| bug |
| Communication Templates - Some variables not previewing | OverviewFixed a bug where the following variables within the email templates were not showing correctly within the preview functionality:
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| bug |
| Provider - Provider user unable to change gateway forecast year selection | OverviewFixed a bug where a provider user was unable to change the year selection within the Gateway Forecasts tab. |
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| bug |
| Reporting - Date filter causes error on the Average Days in EPA report | OverviewWe have fixed a bug with the Certification → Average Days in EPA report where the date filter would cause an error. Impacted areas
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| bug | screen_changes | Apprentice - Improve provider user experience when registering apprentices with no employers configured. | OverviewFixed a bug that incorrectly showed a "Select provider first" message within the employer drop-down when logged in as a provider with no configured employers. Changes to FunctionalityA bug has been fixed within the create/update apprentice screen to correctly show “No employers associated with provider” within the employer drop-down when logged in as a provider with no configured employers. Previously this showed “Select provider first”, which was misleading. Impacted Areas
Permissions
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| bug |
| Planning Meeting - Guest date sent not updating | OverviewWe’ve fixed a bug where the date sent was not updating for guest attendees of a meeting. |
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| bug |
| Appeals - Open Element / Certification Summary not working in edit mode. | OverviewFixed a bug where the Element or Certification Summary button would not work when editing an appeal under specific circumstances. |
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| bug |
| Actions - Reassigning an EPA does not move relevant actions to the new EPA | OverviewWe have fixed a bug where reassigning an apprentice would not move any outstanding actions relating to the apprentice to the new EPA. Impacted areas
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| bug | screen_changes | Assessment Plan - Durations over 24 hours do not display correctly | OverviewWe have fixed a bug with the duration display when viewing or booking an assessment element. Durations over 24 hours would appear to have the days cut off. So a 36-hour assessment would only show as 12 hours. This has now been corrected. As part of this we have also performed a little housekeeping on the schedule stage internally, this should not affect functionality. Impacted Areas
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| bug |
| Auth - Error sometimes when refreshing/accessing epaPRO | OverviewFixed a transient bug where a user would not be redirected properly to the login page when logged out due to inactivity. |
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| bug |
| Assessment Plan - Possible to book a retake even if the resit limit has been reached | OverviewWe have fixed a bug where it would be possible to book a retake even if the resit limit had been reached. This would cause an odd outcome if the booked retake ends up getting voided. For the purposes of epaPRO a retake is a resit with additional Back into Learning logic and so the end goal of booking the retake should still consider the allowed number of resits against the component. Impacted areas
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| bug | screen_changes | Assessment Plan - EPA List no longer in alphabetical order | OverviewFixed a bug so that the EPA list within the assessment plan screen now displays in alphabetical order. Changes to FunctionalityFixed a bug so that the EPA list within the assessment plan screen now displays in alphabetical order. Impacted Areas
Permissions
| Low_Impact | |
| bug |
| Epa - Epa Model relationship `epas` is incorrect | OverviewFixed a bug that may cause an error when fetching EPAs belonging to a particular EPAM. Changes to FunctionalityFixed a bug that may cause an error when fetching EPAs belonging to a particular EPAM. Impacted Areas
Permissions
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| bug |
| Users - Standardised username/email validation | OverviewValidation of username and email for all users has been standardised to match apprentices. Changes to FunctionalityThe following screens have been updated to allow symbols within email addresses/usernames, to match the validation that is used for apprentices.
Impacted Areas
Permissions
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| bug |
| Reporting - EPA Conflict of Interest incorrectly hiding entries | OverviewWe have fixed a bug with the EPA Conflicts of Interest report where it would incorrectly hide an entity due to an ID conflict with another type. Impacted Areas
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| bug |
| Planning Meeting - Possible to cancel an in progress plan | OverviewFixed a bug which made it possible to cancel the planning meeting of an in progress plan if the plan was created in a separate tab. Changes to FunctionalityPlanning Meeting → The in progress meeting will no longer be able to be cancelled. Impacted Areas
Permissions
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| bug | screen_changes | QuestionMark - Verbose error when an assessment is no longer available | OverviewWe have improved the handling of a QuestionMark booking when the QuestionMark assessment is no longer valid. The “Assessment Name” will now display a suitable message and booking the test will result in a more descriptive error stating the assessment is invalid. |
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| bug | screen_changes | Assessment Plan - Various Exercise Stage Fixes | Assessment Plan:
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| bug |
| Change Log/Assessment Component - Removing external service does not add changelog entry | OverviewFixed removal of external assessments not adding a “deleted” entry to the assessment component changelog. |
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| bug |
| EPA Availability - Absences may not show even if the date is within visible range | OverviewWe have fixed a bug where an absence may be missed from the EPA Availability calendar if the calculated range to check did not quite cover the absence’s date even if that day was visible on the calendar. Impacted areas
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| bug |
| Notification - Fix to planning meeting updated notification | OverviewFixed a bug in which the planning meeting updated notification, available in app after updating a planning meeting, would not work correctly. Changes to FunctionalityPlanning Meeting Updated Notification → Now links the user to the relevant planning meeting. Impacted Areas
Permissions
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| bug |
| Assessment Plan - Reschedule Reason Warning Not Appearing Correctly | Assessment Plan -
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Epic Link | key | type | Action Required | Release Notes Title | Release Notes Description | Potential Impact |
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