21.5 Release delivers self-serve SAML SSO as an out of the box core product feature, instead of a plugin-based approach. This release also includes enhancements around Events, Group Hubs and Community Analytics, and API updates.
Content
Remove the restriction on the number of Events node within a category
Increase in the date range limit in Community Analytics reports
Specify the default sort order for Group Hub List component
Set the avatar size in a Group Hub card
New FreeMarker sequence builder method
Get node IDs of nodes displayed in the Group Hubs Listing Page
Features
Self-serve SAML SSO
With this release, we’ve redesigned our existing SAML 2.0 integration to enable Community Admins to configure authentication for their Communities and integrate with their SAML IDP by themselves.
SAML SSO is now available out of the box as a core product feature, instead of a plugin-based approach used earlier. This simplifies setting up SAML SSO in Communities and helps reduce the total cost of ownership.
The key features in Self- serve SAML SSO include:
- Dynamic metadata: Supports up to three identity providers. Admins can integrate a maximum of three IDPs (that are XML strings) in the Admin panel instead of maintaining it in a config file.
- Dynamic entity identification: Admins can add the attribute name for the SSOID for their community. If this value changes, Admins can change the value and save it without restarting the Community.
- Dynamic assertion mapping: Admins can add all the attribute names in the SAML assertion in the Assertion Mapping tab in the Community Admin panel. This eliminates the need for maintaining a config file for Assertion mapping.
Note:
- Communities launching post Community version 21.5 can opt to configure Self-serve SAML SSO while launching.
- Existing customers who want to switch to using self-serve SAML SSO must contact their Customer Success Manager or Account Executive. This process involves Professional Services (PS) engagement for user/SSO ID migration and may need to address other customisations such as user authentication workflows, custom user profile fields, and other customisations or integrations relying on user data.
You can find the settings for Self-serve SAML SSO under Community Admin > Admin > SYSTEM > SAML SSO.
- Learn more about SAML SSO
- Learn more on how you can configure SAML SSO from the Admin panel
- Learn more about the SAML SSO tabs and settings in the Admin panel
In the 21.4 release, we introduced the Feature Logs framework. This framework helps generate and view feature specific logs in components and endpoints. Developers and administrators can use these logs to monitor and debug during Community customisation.
We are happy to announce that we are now explicitly providing you with status and error logs to help with monitoring and debugging issues when you configure Self-serve SAML SSO for your community.
Learn more about Feature Logging in the Developer Documentation Portal.
Note: Along with enabling Self serve SAML SSO, the PS/Support team can also enable Feature Logs in your Community so that you can access the logs from the ToolBox while setting up SAML SSO.
Enhancements
Remove the restriction on the number of Events node within a category
With this release, we have removed the limit on the number of Event nodes/boards you can create within a category or Community.
Removing this limit allows you to host events specific to a product or exclusive to a particular set of members at the community level or within the same category instead of creating another category to create a new event board.
However, you can have only one Event board within a Group Hub.
Increase in the date range limit in Community Analytics reports
Earlier Community Managers had to stitch together multiple reports to build Year to date(YTD) reports since the maximum time range for Community Analytics reports was six months. With this release, the date range is increased to one year making it possible to easily view and download YTD reports.
Note: You might experience a slight delay when the system fetches or downloads a year’s worth of data. There are no other changes to the way the Community Analytics report works. The look-back period remains two years, and 2000 is still the maximum number of rows available in all CSV exports(except the Bulk Download Member Data Report).
Specify the default sort order for Group Hub List component
You can now specify the default sort order for the grouphubs.widget.grid component, which displays Group Hub cards in the Group Hub Listing Page.
You define the default sort order using a new initialSort parameter in the quilt XML. If the initialSort parameter is not included in the quilt XML for the component, the component is sorted by Member Count.
Example: <component id="grouphubs.widget.grid" initialSort="alpha" />
Learn more about setting the initialSort parameter.
Set the avatar size in a Group Hub card
You can now control the image size of the group hub avatar displayed in a group hub card displayed in the Group Hub Listing Page.
Set the default avatar size using the size XML parameter for the node.widget.avatar-limurs component in the Group Hub Card quilt. Supported options are tiny (the default), small, medium, and large.
Example: <component id="nodes.widget.avatar-limuirs" size="small" />
Learn more about setting the avatar size in a group hub card.
API Updates
New FreeMarker sequence builder method
We have added the utils.sequence.builder() method to the utils FreeMarker context object to create a sequence builder and build a sequence using a large number of items. Using a builder instead of concatenation improves performance and stability.
Get node IDs of nodes displayed in the Group Hubs Listing Page
We have exposed a new node subobject on env.context in the FreeMarker API.
Returns a node context object. Chain calls from the node context object to get the node ID of the node in context.
env.context.node has a single method, .displayId. and is supported only on the GroupHubCard (GroupHubCard.quilt.xml), which is used to format the grouphubs.widget.grid component on the Group Hub Listing Page.
You found it! We fixed it!
- We have fixed the issue in Forums v5 where the HTML option was not available to members with the Allow user to use advanced HTML in posts and signatures permission grant and the Use full HTML in posts and signatures permission denied.
- We have fixed the issue where the solution count on the leaderboard did not match the user's actual number of solutions.
- We have fixed the issue that the preview of the avatar did not match the cropped image.
- We have fixed the issue where deleting the labels of a TKB article via API deletes the list of contributors along with the labels. Now, the list of contributors stays intact after deleting the labels.
- We have fixed the issue when members with periods or spaces in their usernames receive an error message while uploading or copy/pasting images.
- We have fixed the issue where the toolbar options in the message editor did not support keyboard shortcuts. Now, you can also access these options without the mouse and only with the keyboard keys.
- We have fixed the issue where the + sign to open the Community’s Tree Structure in the Admin panel was not available.
- We have fixed the issue where the Community structure in the Admin panel breaks after the Communities that use the Accessibility feature restart their Community.
- We have fixed the issue in Forum v5 where opening any post marked as spam did not display that post is marked as spam.
- We have fixed an SEO issue where the Open Graph URL did not match the Canonical URL. Now, they will be same, thus benefiting SEO.
