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Release 21.5

Breaking Changes

A version change for an internal dependency requires the installer to be re-run and the "repair" option selected to correctly update the package.
After the initial installation the management center will fail to load until this step is taken.
Apologies for any inconvenience


New Features:

MCE Standalone
MCE Supports standalone deployments, without relying on the UCMA connector.
MCE Standalone in 21.5 allows the core functionality of group chat with MCE groups.

Users must authenticate with Pre-authenticate HTTP Headers.
Support for other authentication mechanisms is on the roadmap for future releases.

For more information, see MCE Standalone

Multiple Security Contexts
Administrators can now provision a MindLink MCE deployment to allow group creation with multiple security contexts.
Leveraging the following debug key, an administrator can optionally enable multiple security context functionality.

debug.connector.mce.multiplesecuritycontexts.enabled = true

When set to true, users creating groups through in-app group management will be able to select more than one security context for the group.
When multiple security contexts are provisioned, users must have all security contexts to participate.

Enable/Disable MCA and UCMA Group Management independently
21.5 provides further control over MindLink environments, with the ability to enable or disable group management for MCE and UCMA using separate debug keys.

debug.connector.ucma.management.enableinappgroupmanagement = false
debug.mce.enableinappmcegroupmanagement = true

This ensures administrators have full control over group management availability, determining which environment(s) users may create and manage groups in-application for.

MCE Duplicate Group Name Configuration
21.5 offers administrators control over the duplicate name enforcement of a MCE environment.
With the following debug key, administrators can determine what criteria will be used to check for duplicate group names.

debug.mce.management.group.name.duplicationscope

The value of this key may be

  • Global : Any groups with the same name
  • SecurityContext : Groups with the same name and Security Context
  • SecurityContextAndClassification : Groups with the same name, Security Context and Classification

Case sensitivity or whitespace padding will not make names unique.
Groups created in previous versions with duplicate names will not be impacted, but the duplicate naming scope will be enforced when editing the name.

MCE Group Full Members List
MCE Groups now allow users to see a list of all possible members of the group.
The list filters all users who meet the group's Security Context(s) and classification.

Disable MCE Group
MCE Group Management Administrators can now disable MCE groups using in-app group management.
Disabled groups will be removed from managed groups and cannot be found/interacted with.

MceAdmin : Get-MceGroup
PowerShell Administrators now have access to Get-MceGroup commands, allowing them to get group information through MceAdmin.

Search terms can be utilised to get specific groups
Get-MceGroup -SearchTerm groupId
Get-MceGroup -IsEnabled $true/$false
More information can be found here : Get-MceGroup

Browser Notification Permissions
MLA now provides users with a banner if they haven't enabled browser notification permissions, ensuring users aren't missing critical notifications due to browser settings.
User may dismiss this banner if they do not wish to enable this permission.
The notification settings will also inform users about their browser permissions to ensure users are aware of their notification capabilities.

Improved Code Block Editor
The MLA Code Block Editor has been improved with a new interface, along with enhanced functionality.

Chunk-loading application assets
For low-bandwidth environments, MLA will load application assets in small chunks, which will be cached to ensure retrying a failed connection with limited connection will progress incrementally.

For extreme cases, a failure will retry 3 times by default before requiring a page refresh.
Users can leverage two URL flags to retry more times or never stop trying.

?retries=5 / ?retries=50 : set any integer value to retry that number of times before failing. A retry will be attempted each second until the integer is reach.
?retryForever=true : Continually retry until successful. This flag takes priority over any integer retries configured in the previous flag.

Users may configure either flag by adding it to the end of their MLA URL , like so : https://MindLink.domain:port/?retries=50

Mandatory Security Contexts for MCE Groups
MCE Security Contexts are now required for MCE groups by design.
Administrators can no longer optionally disable Security Contexts for MCE group creation.
Classification (if enabled) may still be configured to be optional.


Improvements

21.5 includes the following improvements:

IDDetailsProduct
FCF-9274Increase efficiency of chunked application assets loadingMindLink Anywhere
FCF-9238Improve the "No emoji" messageMindLink Anywhere
FCF-9182Show a happy day message when desktop notifications are allowedMindLink Anywhere
FCF-9148Show the names of joining groups and don't remove groups that failed to join due to infrastructureMindLink Anywhere
FCF-9108Current encryption key should show as invalid when it becomes staleMindLink Anywhere
FCF-9107Consolidate encryption key views around the clientMindLink Anywhere
FCF-9086Rename UserSynchronizationState -> UserAttributesSynchronizationStateMCE
FCF-9082Show message decryption indicator while history messages are decryptingMindLink Anywhere
FCF-9081Serialize EDH labels for messages in MCEMindLink Anywhere
FCF-9080Serialize EDH labels for group creation in MCEMindLink Anywhere
FCF-9076Create more granular and informative error banners when encryption failsMindLink Anywhere
FCF-9073Reject message encryption key when the key is unwrapped as not "current"MindLink Anywhere
FCF-9023Chunk application assetsMindLink Anywhere
FCF-9015Make contact card popups more consistent across the UIMindLink Anywhere
FCF-8988Add padlock icons for encrypted groups in group management modalMindLink Anywhere
FCF-8944Saving classification should focus message inputMindLink Anywhere
FCF-8938Support being able to manage only MCE groups when connected to SfB and MCEMindLink Anywhere
FCF-8937Show encryption key creation context Manual or Automatic in key historyMindLink Anywhere
FCF-8893Add an explicit, validable MCE configuration modelMCE
FCF-8682Attempting to send message without classification when classification required in MCE Group should show popup notifcation hint messageMindLink Anywhere
FCF-8632Update graph node data loading of security contexts to properly batchMindLink Anywhere
FCF-8587Allow minimize whitespace alongside profile picturesMindLink Anywhere

Bug Fixes

21.5 includes the following bug fixes:

IDDetailsProduct
FCF-9272EndpointWriteModel sometimes does not subscribe to the user or host eventsMCE
FCF-9258Unhandled exception when message metadata cannot be convertedMCE
FCF-9253Group participants list is not scrollableMindLink Anywhere
FCF-9239Setting Exchange user photo doesn't always update MLA photoMindLink Anywhere
FCF-9220Creating MCE User with multi-space gaps in name gets stuck as pending eventMCE
FCF-9195Opening group with duplicate name in different environment from search results opens existing room insteadMindLink Anywhere
FCF-9129Pressing "Esc" when using classification builder in group management modal closes the modalMindLink Anywhere
FCF-9117IMs display as pending when they are actually sentMindLink Anywhere
FCF-9112Mce(Admin)ConfigurationReader still reads debug keys if MCE is disabledMCE
FCF-9094Typing "#" followed by a character clears the inputMindLink Anywhere
FCF-9089Multiparties are created with no expiration timeMindLink Anywhere
FCF-9088'Paste' option not appearing when right clicking on "Type message" in message inputMindLink Anywhere
FCF-9062Get-MceSecurityContext uses incorrect parameter typeMceAdmin
FCF-9058Storage exceptions saving user sync state are uncaughtMCE
FCF-9043pretty links are persisted incorrectlyMindLink Anywhere
FCF-9035AbstractAuthenticationController logs do not use the right argumentsMindLink Anywhere
FCF-9034Online/Offline Indicator Persists as online even after Logging out of accountMindLink Anywhere
FCF-9011Group Management Banner/Create group button doesn't load automatically in Internet ExplorerMindLink Anywhere
FCF-8985Error when creating MCE group even though MCE group gets created successfullyMindLink Anywhere
FCF-8974MceCommunitiesOfInterestPlatform is not thread safeMindLink Anywhere
FCF-8970Historical messages appear with previous colours after changing MCE Security Context coloursMindLink Anywhere
FCF-8963Encrypted group looses its padlock icon after failing to joinMindLink Anywhere
FCF-8962Whitespace between sender name and message content links to private chatMindLink Anywhere
FCF-8950Accepting message with only MLA endpoint open causes missed conversation notificationMindLink Anywhere
FCF-8932Principal search create new group security configuration applies to existing groupsMindLink Anywhere
FCF-8894Conversation in unified view with long COIs can have width distorted in IEMindLink Anywhere
FCF-8892Multiple file system custom preferences for the same userMindLink Anywhere
FCF-8848Match exact security context searches should match on both display name and attributeMindLink Anywhere
FCF-8797Can't search MCE User using MceAdmin PS Module by their linked identity ObjectGUIDMindLink Anywhere
FCF-8763The first message from an external contact is lostMindLink Anywhere
FCF-8707Sending a group link for MCE groups in SfB PChat conversations failsMindLink Anywhere
FCF-8584Unhandled exception cleaning up failed logon sessionMindLink Anywhere

Known limitations

Audio calling between the MindLink client and the Skype Mobile app is currently not supported