enaio® 11.0 release
E-mail management and hosting, mobile working and collaboration
In summer 2023, the new version 11.0 of enaio® will be available.
With the release of the latest version, our market-leading ECM product enaio® offers a wide range of new features and optimizations that make working with documents and e-mails more convenient. The release also makes things easier for admins and developers. The optimizations and new features include:
- E-mail management: Reorganization and extension of the enaio® mail-archive-services
- Internationalization: Multilingualism in catalogs and desktop objects
- enaio® hosting: gateway integration, expansion of the search services and service manager setup
- Mobile working: Hit list design and accessibility
- Collaboration: Innovations in enaio® coLab
- Interfaces and services: Office NG extension, DMS service, new endpoints as well as new features in the clients and technical improvement
All new features of enaio® 11.0
1. E-mail management: extension of mail-archive-services
The microservice enaio® mail-archive-service has been available since enaio® 10.10. The previous focus was on the compliance-compliant transfer of e-mails from Exchange Online – the so-called journaling, which ensures a complete and traceable storage of all journal reports within a Microsoft Exchange Online client.
In enaio® 11.0, the functional scope of enaio® mail-archive-service has been expanded to include mailbox-based mail archiving. Mailboxes for archiving are selected by configuration. These mailboxes can be user mailboxes and/or shared mailboxes and/or group mailboxes. enaio® mail-archive-service checks these mailboxes and transfers the existing mails to enaio®. By means of a white- and blacklist it can be defined more precisely from which folders the mails are taken over.
As with journaling, the e-mails including all attachments are stored in EML format. The e-mails contain the typical mail information such as “From”, “To”, “Subject” and the mail text. Unlike journaling, mailbox-dependent information – mailbox, folder, categories – is available.
The mails are stored in a folder that is assigned to the respective mailbox. Thus, the enaio® rights concept ensures that users have access to exactly the mails they need for their work. Within the mailbox, the transferred mails are marked so that the user is always informed about the status of the mail archiving.
Technically, three microservices work together – for SMTP reception, for mailbox access and for storage in enaio®. Like all other microservices, these microservices are also managed in the “Servicemanager”.
Overview of enaio® microservices
Linking of Microsoft Exchange and enaio®
2. multilingual catalogs: from search masks to hit lists
enaio® 11.0 introduces – starting with the DMS side – multilingual catalogs. These multilingual catalogs provide a new user experience for working with different language users in enaio®. Central catalog-based index data fields like status fields (e. g. “product delivered”, “invoice open”, “invoice paid”, “1st reminder” etc.) can be displayed in a user’s native language. In this way, enaio® improves collaborative working across a group of companies with branches in different countries.
In these multilingual catalogs, in contrast to simple free text fields or even existing monolingual catalogs, a distinction is introduced between the interface representation of a catalog value and the technical catalog value stored in the system. In the GUI of the client, the user sees only the representation of the field values, matching his/her set object definition language. The input of index data, the search for index data and the overview in hit lists is always done in the language set by the user.
Fuzzy search queries (with specification of a *) and the distribution of stored queries (e.g. via a public desktop or via profile distribution) are of course possible across languages. At the level of business logic (in scripts, self-implemented enaio® extensions, etc.), work continues on the technical value stored in the system. Equally, legal system (clauses) and import/export scenarios of documents/index data continue to be based on the technical value.
These multilingual catalogs are available in enaio® 11.0 for the enaio® client and the enaio® webclient in all variants (browser, desktop app, mobile). Conversion of existing monolingual catalogs into multilingual ones is supported. Multiple selection of catalog items is not supported for multilingual catalogs.
The integration of the multilingual catalogs into the full text and into the data transfer will partly be done via service release in enaio® 11.0 or in following enaio® versions. In enaio® 11.10, these catalogs will also be made available in the workflow.
Creating a multilingual catalog in the editor
Hit list in enaio® from a multilingual catalog
3. Hit list design – alternative card view
On the way to a contemporary design and usability: against this background, we are gradually redesigning elementary parts of the current user interface of the enaio® webclient. We have already taken a first step with the hit lists from version 10.10, and we are now taking a further step to 11.0, where additional functions have now been added.
In general, hit lists contain an incredible amount of information, and they look quite uniform in the process. This can be an advantage for power users, but it makes working with hit lists much more difficult for newer or less visually savvy users.
The goal of the new, alternative card view is to provide a clearer, more intuitive, and more comprehensive user interface that makes it easier to find the documents you’re looking for at a glance. It uses space efficiently, displays only the most important information, and has a responsive design.
Alternative hit list display in tile design
Any views to choose from
Globally (i. e. as a basic setting for the entire system), it is defined if the familiar table view or the card view is displayed by default to users. It can be defined and decided individually – per object type and working method – which of the two views is best suited for daily work. enaio® keeps the selected setting user-specific.
In addition to the object hit lists and the history view, users can also choose between a map or table view at the location or for the result of a full text search.
The result cards at object hit lists and in the location include a title and some customizable relevant data to differentiate between similar documents, and important status information. In the history, the action is provided with a date. In addition to the object type as the title, the result of a full-text search also displays a text excerpt with the search term found and the quality (i.e., the accuracy of the hit). This means that users always receive important information that matches the context.
With the mouse movement, an “action button” becomes visible on each map, which executes the default action configured by the administrator with a single click. Simple filtering and sorting options round off the current scope of the card view in version 11.0 and at the same time provide the basis for subsequent functions.
Further optimizations in planning
In general, there will always be changes to the design with the new versions and the service releases for the latest version in order to give the enaio® webclient a more modern look and feel and to sustainably improve the “User Experience (UX)”. This “agile” approach with its step-by-step procedure makes it possible to provide the first improvements promptly, to receive quick feedback from users, and to incorporate this feedback directly into all further design considerations.
4. Accessibility – for easier operation
Identifying user needs, taking them seriously and preparing the way for digital inclusion – this is one of our long-term goals in the field of UX design. Accordingly, we meet the demands placed on our software by people with disabilities. We are working on the barrier-free design of our enaio® webclient to meet these demands and thus enable unrestricted work as much as possible.
As a basis, we use the Barrier-Free Information Technology Ordinance (BITV 2.0) based on the Disability Equality Act. In a first step, we are working on achieving a declaration of conformity and at the same time we are participating in a study as part of a project of iDESkmu – IT workplaces without barriers.
Readability, recognizability of controls (contrasts) and keyboard operation are in focus here, as is the use of screen readers (read-aloud applications). We have already made the first UX design changes available with version 10.0: the “High contrast” color scheme, accent colors, and the “Zoom factor up to 400%” for users with visual disabilities.
Operation via keyboard
In the following, we have focused on the operation of the software via keyboard. This is generally possible for most people, with a real keyboard or with emulated keystrokes. The importance of this topic is accordingly high and will be implemented by us step by step. The goal is that all functions and contents can be operated via keyboard and the control/navigation is not unnecessarily complicated.
After the main menu and the user menu, the object search, the inboxes, the external filing, hit lists and, in some cases, index data masks can be operated with the keyboard (see overview on the right). During navigation, screen readers provide all necessary information.
In the coming service releases and versions, the topic of “accessibility” will continue to be on the agenda and pushed forward in order to make a further great progress in the topic of accessibility.
Overview of keystrokes
- Tab or Shift+Tab – to navigate forward or backward between elements
- Arrow keys up/down – to navigate within option entries or hit list cells
- Arrow keys right/left – to navigate to the function icons at option entries or within hit list columns
- Enter or spacebar – to open options or select hit list rows
- Enter for a selected hit list line – to select the default action
- Menu or Shift+F10 – to open the context menu
- ESC – to close expanded elements, modal dialogs or context menus
- Index data masks – Tab or Shift+Tab to navigate according to the configured tab order
- AddOns – Enter or spacebar to open the AddOns
- Radio buttons – Up/down arrow keys to navigate within group fields
- Buttons – Enter or spacebar to execute the function
- Tables – Arrow keys up/down to navigate within tables (also POS 1 and end) | Space bar to edit cell contents – Enter adds new row
Other innovations
- Version 11.0 introduces the new enaio® USERS service. This service is a microservice that provides information about users, user groups and individual settings such as system roles and search configurations. This information can be used in other enaio® applications like enaio® coLab. Through the documented interfaces, this data can also be used in project-specific solutions.
- In addition to the already known server-side data transfer for Microsoft Office applications such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, OPTIMAL SYSTEMS offers a new data transfer option. This new function is initially available in Microsoft Word and supports users in creating Word templates with a powerful editor. In contrast to the previous complex syntax-based data transfer, users can now simply select the available metadata fields via a menu and insert them into the Word document. Both methods of data transfer can be used in parallel, allowing users to gradually convert their templates to the new format.
- The security of data exchange and document transfer with enaio® coLab has been significantly improved. When documents are uploaded to a coLab project space, it is now possible to scan them for viruses. Administrators can include various antivirus programs via webhook HTTP requests. Antivirus webhook can be enabled via configuration settings in colab-prod.yml. Users receive information about possible viruses or virus scanning problems via notification windows.
- Information about other new features will be available soon in our Technical Release Notes on our help page.
Questions about the release? Contact us!
OPTIMAL SYSTEMS is a
Group company of
Kyocera Document Solutions.