announcements 

🎉 Centercode's 20th Anniversary 🎉 

As of May 2021, Centercode has existed for 20 years. This continues to be a journey we’re incredibly proud of, highlighted by the hundreds of amazing companies and thousands of incredible people and products that we’ve had the opportunity to work with, and driven by the fierce passion we maintain to this day.

Along with this release we've produced the new ebook, The Definitive Guide to Delta Testing which you can download here. This is a comprehensive resource intended to not only explain delta testing to the uninitiated, but also to serve as a ”buy-in guide” to be shared within your organization.

delta  improvements new features fixes mobile 

Delta Testing: The Answer to Alpha, Beta, Field, and Everything

By literally any measure, this is our largest release to date. It spans the entire platform, and operates as a cohesive means to deliver on our vision.

New User Interface

For the first time since the inception of our platform, we’ve refreshed our entire user interface. For admins, this means easier access to virtually all functionality. For testers, it means a more focused and accessible experience that's aligned with our new mobile app. For everyone, it means a fresh look and feel (which will likely take platform veterans a bit of time to get used to!).

Delta Planning and Dynamic Surveys

The heart of the new release is a centralized suite of tools to plan and manage a delta test, including first-class incorporation of features, phases, and activities. Delta tests may be planned within the platform or imported, and easily adjusted at any time.

Introducing: Ted Adams

An intelligent virtual agent of Centercode who manages tester engagement on your behalf. Ted continuously learns from your project, testers, and feedback. Ted takes a huge load off your back by communicating the most important information at the right moment, through the most ideal channels.

Furthermore, Ted continuously provides test managers with insightful updates in classic Scrum format: What just happened? What's happening next? What are the blockers?

Dynamic Dashboards

Centercode now automatically generates beautiful data-rich dashboards that summarize your project, phases, features, and much more. The dashboards are highly interactive, may be filtered in real-time, and allow for both direct presentation and sharing. No more decks.

Centercode Mobile App

A native Centercode app allows your testers to engage with all aspects of your test, including providing and collaborating on feedback directly from their iOS or Android devices.

The Everything

Beyond these key features, literally hundreds of other small enhancements cover virtually every corner of the platform. This truly is a monumental release, and one we couldn't be more excited to share with you.

📈  Improvements 📈 

Avatar Icons

• Empty avatar images are now auto-generated based on Full Name (or Username if this project setting is used instead).

🐞  Bug Fixes 🐞 

Platform Interface/UX

• New Feedback and Star Rating icons have been implemented on the Project Homepage.
• Browse icons on Project Homepage added for Feedback types.
• Planning page now uses clearer dates for Phases (no times, midnight based on project timezone, interface improvements).
• Lot's of UI polish and Bug fixes!

For the sixth installment on the C16 Release Track, we’re providing an amazing new tool for any customer dedicated to supporting agile software or firmware development in their program. In addition, we’re providing a bit more organization to your Community and Project Reporting, and replacing the existing in-site chat support tool with… a different in-site chat support tool! 🎉🥳🎉

Click here to download a detailed PDF guide for this release.

 new features 

✨ New Features ✨  

Automated Releases via API

Does your software or firmware development process follow an intricate and highly-automated series of automated steps or look like an OK GO music video? What about your Centercode testing - Does pushing your pre-release build to Centercode fit within that automation? Probably not as well as well as you’d like - until now!

Once configured, posting to this new Release Automation endpoint lets you:

• Automate the creation of your Release within your Centercode Project
• Set the components of your Release (e.g. Title, Body, Availability, etc.)
• Attach files from your Centercode FTP 
• Link to externally-available files

To implement your own Release Automation using Enhanced Integrations and Centercode’s new Release API, check out a comprehensive Implementing Release Automation via API support article and our fully-detailed API & Technical documentation.

improvements

📈  Improvements 📈 

Setting Content & Release Defaults

We’ve implemented additional new features to Release and Content Type groupings in order to simultaneously provide admins with additional group controls and make the new Release API functionality seamless and truly first-class.

Single Active Release

Single Active Release prevents tester confusion by limiting access to the most current Release by automatically Archiving all other Releases within that Type when a new Release is posted. 

Single Notice

Single Notice ensures that only the most recent Release of that Release Type can be set as a Notice. If you want to preserve access to previous Releases but ensure that only the newest one pops up for accounts with access, you’ll want to check this box.

Type-wide Team Access Defaults

Team Access set at the Content Type or Release Type level will automatically impose those access settings for any new Content or Release within that Type. Set the Team Access at the Type level and you’ll never have to worry about the resources being shown to the wrong teams by default.

Archive Functionality for Reporting

We’ve introduced the Archive to tons of features across our platform, from Surveys and Content to Onboarding Opportunities and whole Projects. One place we haven’t implemented the Archive was in Reporting. So, to provide administrators with the ability to better disable and hide unused Reports without losing them completely, we’ve developed an Archive function for your Community and Project Reports.

CC Support: Out/In with the Old/New

For many months, Centercode has dedicated resources to enabling new administrative and organizational tools across all our functional departments. From Marketing to Sales to Post-Sales Service Delivery, our new infrastructure has touched every member of our team. Included in this tooling is a new back-end for our in-site chat support functions. 

Updated Knowledge Base

If you frequent our Knowledge Base at https://help.centercode.com, you’ve probably already seen that we’ve made some major updates.

In-Site Chat-Support Back-End

While consolidating and updating our internal tooling, we’ve also brought in-site chat under the single unified umbrella. The Chat Support tool we were previously using has been replaced with one that’s connected to the new Knowledge Base as well as our Credit Service ticketing system and CRM.

fixes  

🐞  Bug Fixes 🐞 

The 16-6 release includes a small handful of bug fixes that align with the delivery of this release, but did you know we’ve deployed more than forty patches since C16-5?! That a loooot of fixing and improving, wouldn’t you agree? Instead of listing a bajillion fixes in this document, the full list of patch notes and deployment dates for every patch in Centercode’s 16th version can be found in the C16 Complete Patch Notes.

For the fifth installment on the C16 Release Track, we focused on delivering highly requested feature improvements instead of completely new features. These improvements enrich the functionality already present in the platform and help administrators solve common challenges without using fragile workarounds.

📈 Improvements 📈

Easily Organize Your Choices 

It’s just like it sounds - lists of items in any Choices element can easily be sorted Alpha-numerically or set to randomize. The Choices elements’ interface has two new components which blend in seamlessly - check out the screenshots below.

Alpha-Numeric Sort is perfect for long lists of choices like product names, brands, commonly recognized features, or any other list requiring that respondents “search” for their choice in the list.  

Randomizing response options is a universal, long-accepted best practice when surveying testers as a means of eliminating “response order bias” in your results and encourage truthful responses from your testers. With this release, Centercode’s Choices elements now support randomization by way of a simple checkbox:

Important Notes:

• You should be deliberately applying a sorting method to every Choices element.
• In addition to sorting via deliberate drag-and-drop, you can use the Internal Label field, you can apply your own unique Ascending or Descending sort based on Choice Labels that are hidden from the respondent. This is easiest when adding choices en masse via copy-paste (note the pipe: Choice1|Label1).

Optional Button-Clicking for Greater Notice Flexibility

Have you ever wanted to allow the user to choose their own destination by offering multiple links within a Notice? Using Click-Through Notices was sometimes awkward because the user couldn’t proceed unless they specifically clicked Continue. By adding seemingly small functionality to Click-Through Notices, we’ve dramatically enhanced their capability. While the change might seem nuanced, the implications are wide-reaching and apply to many user stories I’ve  heard over the years. 

With the default settings (click not required), Click-Through Notices are considered “completed” as they’re viewed, meaning they can be subsequently bypassed by additional clicks. Now your Notices can look like this, and function exactly like you’d hope they would:

Customize Invites for that Personal Feel

“Hi there!” Ugh… boring, right?
Customizing Onboarding emails is an essential component of building interest in your emails - it makes them feel far more personal and “for you.” Following this best practice, you should be using Dynamic Tags to personalize your emails sent from your Centercode implementation. 

In this release, we’ve extended the ability to personalize email communication to Onboarding by building a special Dynamic Tag that lives in Onboarding Emails. If your implementation has a First Name for the intended recipient (they already have an account), the system will fill in their name. Otherwise, your fallback, or “Default Value,” takes the lead. 

Using this new tag, %%firstname|Default Value%%, you can connect a little more closely to your users in your project invites.

Opt-Outs via Aupt-Omation

A common request we’ve received for user account removal done within the Centercode platform to be flagged as an Opt-Out instead of a standard account deletion. 

Ensuring your CV environment is clear of opt-out accounts and that their data appropriately removed or marked as opted-out can be a critical distinction considering recent evolution of data privacy regulations. Keeping close track of user accounts between multiple systems (including properly flagging removals as opt-outs) is often a key component of account administration, especially in the case of communities using Single Sign-On or when incorporating marketing engagement or user research into your customer validation network.

Check the box to count these user account removals as Opt-Outs

As a bonus to treating these user removals as opt-outs, you can leverage this automation to further build your Opt-Out Dashboard! Not sure what the Opt-Out Dashboard is? Check out the documentation on Centercode.help!

Choose the Format of Report Distributions

We’ve been hearing for a while now that some customers need to omit or specifically select which files are included in your standard Report Distributions. If you’re one of these customers, then your wait is over! Whether you’re stuck behind file-size limitations of your company’s email network, or you just want to minimize any superfluous data leaving your Centercode platform, you can now specifically choose which standard file attachments are included in your automated distributions.

A subheading under Additional Options, checkboxes for distributed files default on but can be checked off at-will

Clone a Feedback Type. Yes, All of It.

This one seems like a simple improvement, and for the most part it is, but we’ve extended the capabilities of Feedback Type Cloning (creating a new Feedback Type and using an existing one as a Template) to incorporate every component of the source Template. Resolving a gap around Workflow and Advanced Destinations, this means that cloning a Feedback Type now includes:

• Basic Properties and Collaboration Settings - From the Name and Prefix to Public-by-Default settings
• The Feedback Form - Every form element and their individual settings
• Access Control - Access to collaborative discussions, administrative tools, and every element via Roles
• Workflow and Statuses - Every preconfigured step in the submission and administrative process
• Advanced Destinations - Any outbound integration connections triggered by Workflow stages
• Resources - Filters, Views, and Macros reassociated to the new Feedback Type 
• Automation and Integrations - Automation schedules and triggers, plus enhanced integration configs

Resurface the Project Introduction Massage

Many customers have indicated that their Project Introduction Messages (configured under the Project Template tool in Project Tools) hold crucial information for administrators, guiding them through major milestones in their projects or to essential tools used for managing their projects. That sounds suuuuuuper handy! It would be a shame if someone accidentally hid the Message when they actually still needed the information!

To resolve this potential challenge, we’ve added a button to the Layout Mode interface, allowing anyone with Project Tools access to re-open their Project Template Message if they’ve happened to close it.

fixes

🐞 Bug Fixes 🐞

The 16-5 release includes two specific bug fixes that align with the delivery of this release, but we’ve also thrown in four patches since C16-4 in August. That’s a patch per week, and the platform just keeps getting better and better. The list below provides customer-submitted bugs and minor feature improvements we’ve deployed since then.

Improvements / Feature Changes

• Continued UI refinements focused primarily on Filter and View pages and the Feedback interfaces.
• Scheduled Reports will no longer automatically adjust their schedules if they fail to complete within the hour they're scheduled (due to the generation queue) - they'll attempt to execute at the time you originally selected instead of when they were last successfully completed.
• Unlink functionality added for End-user Visual Editor created Links.

Filters & Views

• A momentary redirect was removed when modifying Filters or Views in Chrome browsers.
• Team-Type Filters will once again apply to User Management filtered lists.

Form Engine

• Matrix form element cells will now consistently match one another in size regardless of text length.
• Matrix form element textual column headings will now wrap and break on available word spacing.

Notices

• Content and Release Availability will now respect Time added to the Date field.
• The use-cases for Click-Through Notices are now waaaay more comprehensive than they used to be - make sure you think about how you can use the new functionality!

Reporting

• The PDF generation process was adjusted to increase resiliency and prevent nasty File Server Errors.
• Report Elements within Feedback Macro Reports can once again be modified after their initial creation.
• Building a Complete Task Report will no longer lead to an error.
• User Scores below zero are now sorted properly when viewed in User Management and Reporting.
• Scheduled Macros and Reports will now return to their originally scheduled time as opposed to auto-adjusting as processing queues stack up.
• Emailed Reports will once again include PDF and Excel files as Distributions do.
• Jira links in Reporting spreadsheets will now link off to the matching Jira ticket.
• NPS Reporting element style with "Show Details" on will once again function as expected.

User Interface

• For sites with no API Keys visible, a Javascript error was corrected on the Project Settings page.
• Distributed Values with multiple values per user allowed will now display as intended on that User's summary page.
• A visual issue affecting the header bar in archived projects (encountered after a Chrome update) was fixed. 

Onboarding

•  Referral Onboarding Source limits are now respected properly when only 1 invite remains.
• Are you actually reading these bug-fix notes? That’s awesome! Let your CSM know!

WYSIWYG

• Corrected a cache issue with the Centercode Visual Editor that could occur until browser cache was cleared or refreshed.
• The right-click menu in Admin and End-user Visual Editors are now presented appropriately to their use.

Miscellaneous / Performance

• We've improved linking to multiple files attached in Legacy Forums via BBCode.
• Tony got a new keyboard, so he types faster but with a few more errors than usual.

The C16-4 Release offers you two choices: You take the blue pill - your Centercode implementation gets updated with Matrix Elements, Stacked Rank Elements, and data engine functionality to support it. You take the red pill - well, they’re the same. It turns out the pills were Fruit Gushers and this is a feature-rich product release for Centercode!

new features 

✨ New Features ✨ 

Jack into Matrix Elements

Determining the best way to collect customer feedback on a survey or profile form can be a daunting ask. To better support the whole gamut of methods out there, Centercode now supports Matrix Elements. A question matrix is a common method of presenting multiple topics to collect sentiment responses. It’s usually considered a “single” highly structured survey element despite actually being multiple questions piled into one. 

Matrix Elements come as a dedicated element type in the Form Engine, giving you a full set of configuration options. You’ll set the Choices (column labels which default to 1 - 5) as well as the Items being rated (the rows); making configuring a Matrix Element flexible and intuitive. Like all our similar form elements, Choices and Items also allow for a front-end Label and internal Value so you can present something tester-facing on the form, but report the results in a language your stakeholders, data analysts, or integrated tools can easily understand. 

Important Notes:

• Don’t forget to update your Question Banks with some Matrix Element defaults for your surveys. Make sure folks are using accepted formatting or just give yourself a shortcut to dropping matrices in your forms!
• There may or may not be a spoon.

Top the Charts with Stacked Rank

As is the case with Matrix Elements, the visual presentation of a question can significantly influence the responses you get from your testers. In order to facilitate the most appropriate response from your respondents, Centercode has implemented a new Stacked Rank element type. This element uses an intuitive drag-and-drop interface that automatically randomizes the listed items and requires interaction to ensure you’re capturing the respondent’s prioritized list (and not lazy non- or half-answers).

Technically, I can’t submit my response as-is, but I’m sure you’d agree with that one at the top. ;)

We’ve taken the liberty of enforcing randomization in the source column because many administrators forget how seeding a response set can skew your data. By requiring the respondent to actively move items from one column to another, we’re ensuring they aren’t being lazy about their selections - they can’t just leave them there and still submit a response. Finally, the new Stacked Rank element is mobile-responsive (oriented vertically instead of side-by-side) meaning they can rank stuff on the go! 

Important Notes:

• With too many items to order, respondents typically only focus on tops and bottoms, meaning your “middle” rankings blur together, quickly losing their value. Avoid having more than about 7 items per stack.
• Easy prioritization is a HUUUUUGE time- and effort-saver. Now your testers can rank features, product concepts, their own priorities or interests, and their favorite jelly bean flavors.
• Don’t forget that we’ve built tools that automagically prioritize Feedback (issues, ideas, etc.), too!

New Question Types = Data Hypes

Are you ready for your new Element Types!? We sure are! 

Data collection for Matrix and Stacked Rank questions requires the Centercode platform to look at rating scales in a whole new way. Each Matrix and Stacked Rank element you create corresponds to multiple Rating Scale elements behind the scenes, meaning that a 5x5 matrix or 5-item stack is actually five independent rating scales magically stitched together in the UI. To facilitate easier data visibility and reporting, Filter and View interfaces will group corresponding Matrix or Stack items together under an appropriate heading:

In addition, the Reporting Engine includes a new Report Element Style which shows dynamically whenever you’ve selected items contained within the same Matrix or Stacked Rank Element. 

But wait! There’s more! When generating a new Macro Report, your Matrix and Stacked Rank Elements are automatically detected and the new style (shown below) will be available and selected by default. 

Also, note that since Matrices and Stacks consist of multiple Rating Scales, the Rating Scale option is still available when selecting individual data items.

Puttin’ On Our Marigolds

While some team members are plugging away at developing these incredible new features, others are ensuring that the existing platform components and capabilities perform to the highest standard and continually receive modernization adjustments. 

• Interface and Experience - Nathan’s developed rugged calluses on his hands from all the UI scrubbing. Interface performance and consistency continues to improve, and he’s lookin’ buff.
• URL Security - as a part of our ongoing security reviews, we've added even more protections against Cross Site Scripting attacks. 
• Platform Scaling - we’ve removed another speed-bump to implementing auto-scaling!

fixes 

🐞 Bug Fixes 🐞

The 16-4 release doesn’t have a specific list of bug fixes, but we’ve released seven patches since C16-3 in June. The list below provides customer-submitted bugs and minor feature improvements we’ve deployed since then.

Improvements / Feature Changes

• A new icon has been added signifying toggling from Simple and Advanced View in Feedback Management
• Feedback Workflows and Advanced Destination settings will now be included when using Copy Access while creating a new team

Access Control

• Users on an "Internal Member" level team can now access files appropriately within archived projects
• Non-admin accounts can no longer access Archived Projects even when following direct links
• Teams can no longer have their Team Type settings adjusted after initial creation process (preventing dangerously misconfigured Teams)

Filters & Views

• The "Submitter Assigned Test Platform" data engine criteria will once again return results as expected
• Filters containing Completed or Answered states of Paragraph Text elements will once again return appropriate results
• Corrected a partial fix for "Answered=Yes" Filter/View criteria in both User and Feedback management

Form Engine

• Paragraph form elements set as Conditional now display properly when maximized or minimized via tester-facing text editor
• Form element choices that contain specific international characters will now submit properly without error
• Modifying a form containing certain special characters no longer results in a bomb error in areas like Surveys, Workflow, Test Platforms, etc.

Integrations

• JIRA External Destinations failing with "The request was aborted: Could not create SSL/TLS secure channel" error now work as expected

Reporting

• Existing Report Elements using the "Answered = Yes" filter criteria targeting Paragraph text will now see proper results once they’ve been refreshed
• Paragraph textual form elements will once again match "Answered = Yes" correctly

User Interface

• User Summary links to containing Projects will now link to the matching Project User Summary page instead of Project Homepage
• A new icon was implemented for the Simple List toggle and returning to Simple List from Feedback view
• Email Template Preview viewed in-site more accurately matches the actual results observed when creating and receiving the email

WYSIWYG

• Note from Development regarding the Tester-Facing Text Editor:
  In an effort to protect you, your testers, and your site from nefarious activity (ex: XSS, CSRF, etc.) even if unintentional, the end-user WYSIWYG formatting capabilities are limited. We've had some clever testers attempt to paste HTML formatted copy from other sites, and it didn't go well. We now automatically paste plain text, which is much safer but will require manual formatting.
  It's important to note that this change only affects the Tester-Facing editor - We continue to allow admins (in admin-only areas like Content, Element Descriptions, etc.) to do weird stuff.
• The Link functionality seen when adding or modifying the description of a Text Entry form element no longer shows unintended settings

Miscellaneous / Performance

• Resolved occasional error for Feedback Roles page submission
• Some static text in Feedback Reply Notification emails have been converted to strings, allowing them to be edited or localized
• File Uploads with certain special characters will now properly complete and download