2021 R3 Release Notes

Meridian Enterprise 2021 R3 was released in November 2021. Major improvements in this release include:

We've eliminated the need for local admin and SQL admin rights for Meridian service accounts
We've added subscription/user pass licensing for on-premises
We've added the ability to create confirmation pages for release as master events
We've added e-Signature via Site Cache Client

Additional minor enhancements, third-party application support, and bug fixes are also included. The following sections describe the specific changes and improvements in this release.

Administration Improvements

We've made these improvements to Meridian Enterprise administration:

Administration improvements
Reference	Description
MPS-35464	You now have the option to use an On-Premises License Server or a Cloud Server for Subscription Licenses.
MPS-38787 MPS-35612	The permissions required in SQL Server for a Meridian Server have changed. Refer to our documentation for the current requirements.
MPS-36263	A new Match in setting has been added for import profiles that are not used for Meridian Portal. This setting tells Meridian to check whether the document number for a document is unique within the target project or within the entire vault.
MPS-36853	A new Release new documents by default setting has been added for import profiles. This setting specifies that if the workflow status is not set for a document in the metadata worksheet, then Meridian will: (disabled) Leave document in its current workflow state For example, if the document was Under Change, it stays in the Under Change state. (enabled) Release the document from the workflow entirely The document is no longer in a workflow, and becomes a new version.
MPS-39809	You can now enable access to the SiteCache options in Cloud Connector after setup. There are two ways to do this: Use the command line to install the Cloud Connector with a new parameter. For example: msiexec.exe /i %PACKAGE% /qf /PROMPTRESTART /log %MYLOG% REINSTALL=ALL REMOTEONLY=0 Install the Cloud Connector in GUI-mode using the parameter REMOTEONLY=0 in the Meridian Cloud Connector.ini file.
MPS-38854	We've resolved a synchronization issue with ActiveDirectory where if the list of user email addresses had too many email addresses, the synchronization failed. The system now truncates the list so that the synchronization will succeed, and then starts a new synchronization job.
MPS-38628	Previously, when you attempted to create a folder using an import package, the order of events was different than what it was in the user interface. Now, the order of events when a folder is being created via import is the same as when you create a folder manually in PowerWeb.
MPS-37783	To improve your system security, we recommend that you update your web.config file in the following ways: <httpRuntime enableVersionHeader="false"> should be set to remove the X-AspNet Version header — works for all IIS versions <security><requestFiltering removeServerHeader="true"/> should be set to remove the Server header — works only for IIS10 only

Application Link Improvements

We've made these improvements to application links:

Application link improvements
Reference	Description
MPS-24686	The layout of the Edit Properties dialog in remote mode when using SAML has been fixed.
MPS-39552	If a user attempts to open a document where the version in the vault is newer than the version in their local workspace, the Application Integration now warns the user that the document may contain updates from other users, and that any local changes may be lost after synchronization. The user can then abort the operation. This behavior only occurs if Site Cache mode is enabled.
MPS-39030	We no longer support the 2017-2018 versions of the AutoCAD family.
MPS-34747	We fixed an issue that caused users to be unable to create content center parts in Inventor if the vault setting for the workflow state of imported documents was set to Unchanged.

Client Improvements

We've made these improvements to Meridian clients. Improvements apply to the PowerWeb client application unless otherwise stated.

Client improvements
Reference	Description
MPS-34307	If a user attempts to open a document where the version in the vault is newer than the version in their local workspace, PowerWeb now warns the user that the document may contain updates from other users, and that any local changes may be lost after synchronization. The user can then abort the operation. If the user chooses to abort the operation, nothing is changed in the local workspace or the vault. This behavior only occurs if Site Cache mode is enabled.
MPS-35657	If a user attempts to synchronize their local workspace when a document has a version in the vault newer than the version in their local workspace, the local workspace client now warns the user that the document may contain updates from other users, and that any local changes may be lost after synchronization. The user can then abort the operation. This behavior only occurs if Site Cache mode is enabled.
MPS-24058	The SkipSyncForOpen setting now functions as expected when Site Cache mode is enabled and a CAD link is working in remote mode.
MPS-34829	The Audit Log export file is now filtered to only contain data for the current vault.
MPS-38164	The Transfer to Project command is available for document types where the Merge Workflow option is selected.
MPS-38457	When Site Cache mode is enabled and the Site Cache Client is configured to trigger authentication, Windows authentication is now triggered. Learn more about this enhancement in our Configuration Improvements section below.
MPS-33812	The Aspose rendering engine in PowerWeb no longer distorts images when the orientation and aspect ratio do not match between the image and the page size. Images are also now centered on the page. Additionally, you can now configure the default page size and orientation for Aspose renderings of images.
MPS-36989	You can now import packages directly to Retired status.
MPS-38022	You can now upload files larger than 100 MB to the Local Workspace with the same upload speed as smaller files.
MPS-39309	Renditions now generate as expected for documents whose names contain an "&" character.
MPS-39084	Users can no longer continue working if they fail e-signature authentication. They are now logged out automatically.
MPS-39058	An error message now displays if XOD files are not generated.
MPS-28473	The Unlock Documents commands are no longer disabled if the Unlock from Briefcase setting is disabled for the scope.
MPS-32255	Import package information now appears as expected on the Import Package tab when importing a package from Portal to PowerWeb.
MPS-35241	We've improved performance for customers who have multiple commands assigned to a document type.
MPS-38062	We've resolved an issue which caused references for the current revision to display when viewing a previous revision in remote mode or when downloading in online mode.

Configuration Improvements

We've made these improvements to Meridian Enterprise configuration.

Configuration improvements
Reference	Description
MPS-38517 MPS-38457 MPS-38458	You can now configure your vault settings so that the user must authenticate via Windows before their electronic signature will be applied. If the user has disabled site cache mode, they will be unable to complete the workflow transition.
MPS-38302	The Apply to entire batch setting allows the settings from the first instance of the wizard page to be applied to each document that is selected in the batch. This functionality is almost always desired by our customers, so the setting is now enabled by default.
MPS-38053	There is now a new Merge Workflow without Transfer option available in the concurrent engineering properties of document types. When this option is selected for a document type, the Transfer to Project option in PowerWeb is disabled.
MPS-34933	You can now import MET files to create or update Quick Change configurable workflow definitions.
MPS-35193	Column collections can be successfully exported and then re-imported.

Customization Improvements

We've made these improvements to Meridian Enterprise VBScript customization:

Customization improvements
Reference	Description
MPS-38069 MPS-38074 MPS-38081 MPS-38077	You can now add confirmation pages at several points in the release as master event sequence. These new events are: PreInitializeReleaseToMaster PreBeforeReleaseToMaster These events can be used in wizards relating to releasing a document as master.
MPS-37725	You can now create a static collection using the StaticCollection property of the Vault object. You can also add or remove documents from a StaticCollection object using the add, remove, and removeall methods.
MPS-30094	If a script exists to configure user profile settings for a new user via VBScript, these settings are applied as expected.

Viewer Improvements

Viewer improvements
Reference	Description
MPS-38739	When the Viewer is undocked and a new document is selected, the Viewer refreshes as expected.

Explorer Improvements

We've made these improvements to Meridian Explorer:

What’s new in 2021 R3
Reference	Description
MPS-34956	You can now see the validation results and messages for both the scan and the import in the metadata spreadsheet of an import package.
MPS-32878	You no longer encounter an access denied error when viewing PDF files or manually added renditions if the Enable XOD viewing and Enable PDFTron viewer for PDF documents settings are enabled in Enterprise Server.

Publisher Improvements

The new features and improvements of Publisher include:

What’s new in 2021 R3
Reference	Description
MPS-38776 MPS-33812	Two new Aspose rendering profile settings, Default page size and Default orientation, are available for Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Image files.
MPS-40337	We’ve added a new setting that allows Meridian to recover from attempting to render a corrupt or invalid document. If you use the Teigha rendering engine and a third-party rendering component fails, we remove the document from the rendering queue. We’ve also added a message to the process log that informs the user that the process has failed, and then Meridian proceeds to the next document in the queue. To enable this functionality, you must set the ExternalUpdateProperties setting in the PublishingCapability.dat file to true. Learn more about the settings in the PublishingCapability.dat file.