October 2023 Release Notes

Legacy Desktop Application

We are extending the availability of our legacy WPF desktop application through to our December release. Any existing organization that has used the WPF host in the past will be eligible to continue using the WPF host until the December release.  In line with the eventual sunsetting of the legacy host, you can pre-emptively enable the new desktop host via Domain Settings.  This new host offers a more modern and user-friendly interface, designed to enhance your experience with Kahua.  Note that most new functionality is not supported in the legacy desktop application.  

For more information, visit our New Host page.

Host Launching

We've heard your feedback and are making changes to improve your experience. Starting soon, accessing launch.kahua.com will no longer automatically launch the desktop host. This change is designed to give you more control over your Kahua experience. Instead, we'll be introducing a new feature that allows you to open the desktop host directly from the webhost. This will provide a seamless transition between the two, making it easier for you to access the tools and features you need.  Once logged in to the webhost, users will be able to quickly open the Windows desktop application from the Window icon in the lower right corner.  Additionally, users can pin a shortcut to their taskbar or desktop to bypass the sign in page from kahua.com altogether.

Opening desktop application:

Open Record in Full Screen

We're enhancing your viewing experience by offering a clean and uncluttered interface. We understand that simplicity is key, especially for non-power users. After selecting a record in the log, the log will be hidden and seamlessly transitioned to the detail mode for that specific record, allowing you to delve into the details without any distractions. Opening the record in full screen is a user preference determined by each user.  Upon release, existing users will continue to open records in split screen mode while new user that register after this release will use the new full screen mode.

View of record when selected from the log:

Location of preference toggle to switch between split view (log and records display side-by-side) and single panel view:

Kahua has updated the Subject fields for new Messages for the following apps:  

• Bid Proposals 

• Bid Q&A  

• Daily Reports  

• Field Observations 

• Issues 

• Punchlists  

• Sub RFIs  

• Submittal Packages

• Submittal Items

Kahua has also updated the default TO field for new Messages in the following apps: 

• Daily Reports

• My RFIs

• Change Order Requests 

Now when using the Send action, Kahua will prepopulate the Message with the Recipients and Subject based on the content of the record being sent. These changes only apply when the Send action is used by a Kahua user, the workflow/task notifications will not be affected. 

Default Message:

Drag and Drop

Uses now have the ability to drag files from Windows Explorer to the References control when editing a Kahua record.

Compiled with References

The VIEW action now provides the option of generating your Portable View (PV) with or without its Reference Files (the files listed in the document’s Reference section).  When the “with References” option is selected, the PV will be generated with all associated Reference Files into a single PDF.

Documents which don’t have any Reference Files won’t have the “with References” option (the VIEW action will behave as it always has).  But, as soon as at least one Reference File is associated and saved with the document, the new “VIEW w/REFERENCES” option becomes available for that document:

Documents which have 2 or more associated PVs (e.g., Issues), will have the “with References” option for each PV whenever there are associated Reference documents.

Depending on the quantity and size of the References files, the "With References" view may not be immediately available after the record has been initially saved.  In these cases, the view will include a watermarked placeholder page containing "Not Available" and the name of the Reference file that is being rendered.  Kahua recommends waiting a few minutes to allow the render to finish and then attempting to view again.

Notifications have been added to Project Share invitations to supplement the Project Share Tasks that are generated.  

The image on the left represents the Project Share Task that has already been sent out with a Share Invitation.  The image on the right represents the new Project Share Notification that now supplements the Task.

Folder Permissions

In File Manager, it’s now possible for a user with a Contributor or Moderator role for a particular folder to view the Permission tab. This makes it possible for users with these roles to validate that everyone who’s supposed to have access to certain files does, and vice versa.
Permissions Tab:

Pinned Folders

Users now have the ability to pin any folder from File Manager to their app bar, providing the ability to easily access specific folders quickly.  To set up a pinned folder, right click on the folder in File Manager and select "Pin/Unpin".  Once one or more folders are pinned, a new "Pinned Folders" entry is created in the app bar.  Expand the flyout and select the desired folder to navigate directly to that folder.  

File Manager Controlled Folders - Quick Filters

In File Manager, the ‘Quick Filter’ feature has been added for Controlled Folders.  This feature makes it easy to apply add hoc filters to your ‘Drawing Log’ (a common use case for Controlled Folders).  In the example below, the log is filtered to only display ‘Current Set’ Architectural Drawings that have been Released. 

Quick Filter selection:

The following attributes are available Quick Filter options:

• Discipline, Current Rev, Rev Status, Workflow Step, Type, Batch Name, Batch Date, Work Package, Contributor Company, Area, Location, and Sheet Number

File Manager Controlled Folders - Removed File from Draft

In File Manager, when new document revisions are uploaded to a Controlled Folder, sometimes there’s a desire to remove the file without deleting the Revision record itself.  The reason may be anything, but most commonly it’s because the user didn’t intend to upload the file that was added.   As long as the revision record is still in draft (e.g., it hasn’t been Submitted for a QA Check, hasn’t been processed into a Design Review, hasn’t been Released, etc.), the user who uploaded the file will now have the ability to remove that file.

The file can be removed by editing the Revision record, then navigating down to the Versions section, selecting the file that you want to remove and then selecting the DELETE action:

Selecting ‘OK’ when presented with the following prompt will ‘delete’ the file, but will leave the Revision record intact, making it easy to reupload the correct file to the revision record

Hiding General Comments

For the ‘Design Review Sets’ app, a new configuration option has been added that enables the entire 'General Comments' section to be hidden by unchecking the ‘Is Visible’ flag.

Design Review Sets Configuration:

Q&A

There is a new configuration option for the “Bid Q & A” app that can control whether or not the “Publish to Originator Only” action is available on a Bid Q&A item.  The reason for this, is that some organization want to ensure that all Q&A responses are shared with all Bidders, and that they aren’t accidentally just shared with the Bidder who asked the question.

Configuration Setting:

Q&A Preview:

A new "Q&A Admin" attribute was added in the previous release (see August 2023 Release Notes) to the Bid Soliciation, that when set to 'IsVisible', will be displayed on the 'Bid Team' tab of the Bid Solicitation app.

There’s now a new configuration option as well in Bid Solicitations | Settings, that when checked (set to 'True') will restrict Q&A contact information from being shared with anyone but the "QA Admin".

The intent is to provide a way for you to minimize even an unintentional bias in your Bid Q&A process by ‘hiding’ the identity of which Bidders asked which questions.  Only the new “QA Admin” role will be privy to the identity of the question author, and the intent is that they don’t play any role in evaluating the question or in formulating the Q&A response.

When this option is enabled, except for the 'Q&A Admin' and your KDA (Kahua Domain Administrator), these fields will be hidden from all Q&A-related Tasks, Notifications, Messages, and Views:

• CreatedBy (the person who asked the question)

• From (typically the same as CreatedBy, but someone else could have submitted the question)

• Company (the company associated with the person who asked the question)

• Email (the email address associated with the person who asked the question)

• Phone (the phone number associated with the person who asked the question)

Configuration Setting:

With Configuration option ‘unchecked’ (default behavior where Q&A contact-related information is exposed):

With Configuration option 'checked’ (new behavior, where Q&A contact-related information is obscured):

Docusign Notifications

An option has been added to send a Kahua Message to a user whenever a DocuSign signature request has been initiated for an Approval document.  

Domain Setting: 

When this has been enabled, users will receive a Message instructing them to check their email to access the document that is ready for DocuSign signing.

Notification Message:

Total in Log

The Total is now available to be included on the General Invoices Log for user defined Views. 

View Configuration:

User Licenses

A new Extract, User License Report, is available that lists all active licenses for domain users.  This is accessed from the Extracts application in Kahua and can be downloaded in PDF and CSV formats.
The output contains the following columns:

• Contact Id

• First Name

•  Last Name

• Email Address

• Company

• Licenses

• Last Access Time

•  User Created Time

Extract selection and output:

Submittal Packages and Items - Assign to Coordinator

Kahua has updated the Kahua Submittal Package and Kahua Submittal Item Workflows to respect the "Hide Assign to Coordinator" setting in "Packaged Submittals" configuration. Previously, this setting was only respected in the Owners Directed workflows for both submittal packages and items. Now, if this setting is enabled, the "Assign to Coordinator" action will not appear in either workflow of the submittal package or submittal item Kahua extensions.