Dear AODocs Users,
We’re pleased to announce the release of AODocs version 61.
This release focuses on security and adds new options and features:
- a new, more secure sign-in flow
- support of Microsoft Azure Blob storage as a storage option, allowing for a full-Microsoft implementation of AODocs
- new features for Microsoft users and libraries using Google Cloud Storage
- settings to better adapt AODocs features to your needs
Find out about the new release:
Automatically generated table of contents
Launch details
Rollout pace: From 1 to 3 March 2023.
New sign-in flow
The security of your data is a major concern for us. To ensure access to our platform is in line with the latest authentication APIs and best practices from Google and Microsoft, we revamped the sign-in mechanism in AODocs.
Although this change is mostly technical and seamless for users, you may notice a few differences in how you sign into AODocs:
- There’s a new sign-in interface (the options depend on your subscription plan).
- Users with a Microsoft account can now switch between AODocs domains.
- A pop-up appears when you sign in and also periodically when using AODocs.
Important: This pop-up is transient, doesn’t require any action on your side, and won’t disrupt the action you’re undertaking in AODocs.
Consequently, you must allow pop-ups from AODocs in your browser.
The Sign in to AODocs page contains a message to remind you about about this one-time operation:
Learn more:
For which users?
All users, either with a Google or a Microsoft account.
Why it’s important
These minor changes to the user experience are a consequence of a major upgrade: AODocs now implements the latest best practices for signing in to AODocs from either a Google or a Microsoft account.
Availability
All AODocs customers.
Microsoft Azure Blob storage as a new storage option
Customers with an AODocs Content Services subscription can now use Microsoft Azure Blob storage to save their attachments.
This can be used as an alternative to Google Drive or Google Cloud Storage, for customers wanting to integrate AODocs in a full-Microsoft ecosystem.
For which users?
All users, either with a Google or a Microsoft account.
Why it’s important
AODocs adapts to you, not the other way around. You can keep using your preferred worksuite and storage system, and AODocs will provide its advanced document management features on top of it.
Additional details
The storage system is chosen at the library level. Libraries using Azure Blob storage support the same features as those using Google Cloud Storage, including File templating.
If you’re already using AODocs, you can move your existing libraries from Google Drive or Google Cloud Storage to Azure. Contact our sales team: sales@aodocs.com.
Availability
An active AODocs Content Services subscription is required. In addition, Azure support must be activated for your domain.
Copy Google Cloud Storage and Azure libraries
You can now copy the configuration of libraries using Google Cloud Storage or Microsoft Azure Blob storage. Learn more: Create a library by copy.
For which users?
All users, either with a Google or a Microsoft account.
Why it’s important
Libraries in a domain often share the same settings and permissions. Creating a library by copying the setup of an existing one is a time-saving alternative to creating it from scratch.
Additional details
You can also create copies of libraries including their documents, via the AODocs API. Contact the AODocs Support team by email at support@aodocs.com or open a ticket.
Availability
An active AODocs Content Services subscription is required.
For more information, contact our sales team: sales@aodocs.com.
Enjoy an enhanced search experience and other features with revamped views (beta)
We’re continuing to rebuild AODocs views, and the new version includes extensive visual enhancements and additional features. In release 61, new views are still available as a beta version, but you can activate the new views by default for your users.
The R61 beta version brings you the ability to:
- rename a folder
- upload a new version of an attachment
Upload an attachment
Learn more: Use views (beta version) in your AODocs libraries.
For which users?
All users.
Why it’s important
Views help users organize and browse their documents, so it’s important for these functionalities to be efficient. Our aim with the revamp is to:
- improve the user experience
- enhance performance and search capabilities
- provide end users with customization options so they no longer have to fully rely on library administrators to configure views
- improve the overall display of views to fit with the revamped AODocs interface in previous releases
Additional details
Each user can switch between the legacy and beta versions of views. Your feedback is always welcome, the feedback form is still available next to the button to switch versions!
Availability
All AODocs customers.
Note: To activate the new views by default for your users, or to opt out of deploying the beta version of views on your domain, contact our support team at: support@aodocs.com.
New features for Microsoft users and Office files
Since release 58, users with a Microsoft account have been able to sign into AODocs and enjoy its features.
Note: This applies only on domains with an active AODocs Content Services subscription.
With this release, we’re bridging the few remaining gaps in the features accessible to Microsoft users. Microsoft users can now:
- compare versions of Word attachments (but not yet save the comparison results)
- view and open attachments from notification emails
- perform workflow actions from notification emails
For which users?
Users with a Microsoft account.
Availability
An active AODocs Content Services subscription is required.
For more information, contact our sales team: sales@aodocs.com.
Updated requirements on browsers to access AODocs
We upgraded the AODocs infrastructure to be in line with the latest security standards regarding data protection when accessing AODocs.
Older browsers don't support these new standards, so you need to make sure you have upgraded your browser to a version supported by AODocs. Otherwise, you won’t be able to access AODocs.
As long as you’re using one of the supported browsers, you’re covered!
For which users?
All users, either with a Google or a Microsoft account.
This applies to:
- the main AODocs user interface, as well as all our other applications, such as Folio, Gmail add-on, Outlook add-in, and so on
- your browsers
- any system integrated with AODocs (and communicating via APIs)
Why it’s important
To ensure your data is constantly protected when passing through the Internet, we increased the level of security applied to data transfer.
This is hidden behind the 🔒https protocol you can see in any AODocs URL. The minimal required version is now Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2.
Availability
All AODocs customers.
New options
We added several options to the platform:
- Readers can be given permission to copy documents to another library. For example, you can define a library of model documents as read-only and let users create new documents from them in their work libraries.
Learn more: - Formulas for calculated property values and settings can be expanded to up to 100,000 characters. Learn more: What's the maximum number of characters that formulas can contain?
- The Open with UFO and Edit with Microsoft Office options can be disabled for Office files, leaving only the option to edit Word documents with Google Docs.
- Google documents can be automatically converted to Microsoft Word in past versions of documents.
For which users?
All users.
Why it’s important
These settings add more flexibility in how to setup your document workflows, to tailor them to your particular use cases and ways of working.
Availability
All AODocs customers.
Improvements and bug fixes
End user interface
- The last modification date appears for each version of a document in the version history.
- An explicit message is displayed when a workflow transition fails because a document is locked by another user.
- Library shortcuts in My Drive are no longer duplicated.
- Improved performance in documents when there are more than 50 properties in a document.
- You can now add many more related items to a document than before.
- When opening a document from a view, you can easily navigate back to the view.
Administration interface
Storage accounts no longer use licenses under any circumstances.
And there’s so much more brewing…
We’re working on a new search engine that will improve responsiveness and relevance of results, as well as allowing for new ways of searching for documents and attachments.
The new views are getting closer to being fully released.
Would you like to meet our product team to discuss your needs? Join the AODocs research group! Join the AODocs research group!