Executive Summary

The Self-Service 2 (ESS2) 2025.1 release introduces many new features that improve ESS2's usability.

Access Groups

To better align with business process requirements in ESS2, the self-service solution can now display forms, panels, panel groups, and URLs based on the user's role. This new feature, known as role-based content, allows users to access and report only the cases that are relevant to them. The self-service administrator can easily define multiple access groups to restrict visibility for different user groups as needed.

Basic Announcements

The self-service has a location for topical announcements to reduce unnecessary contact with the service desk related to ongoing maintenance. Once announcements are configured to use, any authorized user can create and publish them to the ESS2. 

The number of active announcements is informed on the badge next to the announcement icon.

Display Names for Case Presentation

To improve single-language support, the Case Presentation is improved to have similar naming conventions as form fields currently have. This new approach helps the end user understand the case concept better when it is opened to a detailed view. The administrator can define each field name as more customer-friendly for each case presentation configuration.

Approvals Configuration

The new dedicated approvals configuration will enable administrators to set up approvals for various processes independently of catalog and order configurations. From now on, approvals are not connected to the Catalog or Order process configurations, and administrators can also configure process approvals that are not initiated by the end user's actions in the self-service.

Other Improvements

The new Matrix42 default branding has been updated to the self-service. By default, the favicon, customer logo (on the top-left corner), footer logo (on the lower-left corner), and background image are changed and follow Matrix42 branding.

Please also note that on the self-service admin page the “Form pages” configuration quick link is renamed to “General Forms”.

Release notes 2025.1

New Features

ESP-10112 Define Access Groups

Release note

In ESS2 admin, is introduced a new section “Access Groups”. The configuration of “Access group user template” determines what ESM template will be used as base for access group definitions. When creating the access group, the admin can configure any reference attribute and its value to be access group on selected template. Supported conditions are “is equal to” or “is not equal to”.

ESP-10129 Define forms an Access Group user can access or view

Release note

Administrators can define groups for their company end users, so that the content they see is limited. When creating or editing an Access Group, admin can specify what Forms are available to the Access Group.

ESP-10158 Apply permissions when accessing Forms

Release note

Administrators can define groups of company users, so that there is limit what content they see. When Access groups are enabled, when a user logs into the Self-Service Portal, the system checks if they meet the definition of any existing Access Groups. If Access groups are disabled, the system does not check permissions. When they do not meet any of the definitions, they don’t see any forms. If they do meet any of the definitions, they see all content for every Access Group they are associated with.

ESP-10210 Definition with multiple conditions

Release note

On Access Group definition, the administrator can configure up to five conditions for the group. Note, that multiple conditions will always all need to be true (as if AND operator was in use), and the same attribute cannot be used twice in one group.

ESP-10238 Define links an Access Group user can access and view

Release note

When creating or editing an Access Group, admin can specify what Links are available to the Access Group. Admin can see a hierarchy of links, starting from the Links on the Homepage Links Widget. In-determined checkboxes indicates hierarchy where not all links are selected.

ESP-11167 Apply permissions to Form search results

Release note

When 'Access groups' are enabled, when a user logs into the Self-Service Portal, the system checks if they meet the definition of any existing Access Groups. If they do not meet any of the definitions, they don’t see any forms
If they do meet any of the definitions, they see all content for every Access Group they are associated with. If an Access group definition is invalid, the Access group will no longer grant access

ESP-12610 Moving Access group settings to Platform settings

Release note

Enabling role-based access and configuring template for access groups shall happen on platform settings and visualizing the configured option here.

ESP-12728 Caching permissions for categorization elements

Release note

System will create mapping from Access Group ID to list of categorization ID’s. Cache will be populated completely when application is started and will be only populated while access group feature is enabled. Cache is also updated when access group is saved, or when any categorization entity is deleted.

ESP-12741 Applying permissions to links

Release note

In the ESS2 portal, the end user sees only panels, panels groups or URLs that they have granted access. When a user logs into the Self-Service Portal, if they meet the definition of any existing Access Group, they see all forms, panels, panel groups and URLs for every Access Group they are associated with.

ESP-10448 Approval Configuration

Release note

Administrators can specify which templates and attributes are used for showing a list of approvals, so that an approver has the information they need to make a decision. In ESS2 configuration, there is introduced a new section, entitled “Approvals”. The admin can specify one or more templates to be used for displaying an approval and the list of available templates is determined by Approval (template) /Approval For (References template). From the selected template, admin can specify an attribute for Ordered by, Requested For, Subject, Price, and Details. 

Note: All changes on the Approval Configuration page shall be configured with Save button action. 

Known issues: When the administrator configures the approval table, they must click outside to activate the save button.

Sometimes, when configuring the Approval table, the Safari browser freezes, and the only option to continue configuring is to close the browser. This freezing usually happens if the administrator first adds a new template in the approval configuration table and, immediately before saving, tries to remove the added template by clicking on the minus icon.

ESP-10448 Announcements list in ESS2

Release note

On ESS2 Settings, if Announcement template and required attributes are set (and ‘Enable Announcements’ toggle is on), the user can see all valid (published and not expired) announcements in a list of announcements, which can be navigated to from the top navigation. Announcements can be seen starting from the Date published (date&time) until the Expiry date (date&time). On the list view columns are Subject, Date Published, and Expected Resolution (per defined in ESM). If Expected resolution attribute is not defined in the attribute mapping (Settings), the column is not visible on list view. The announcements are ordered newest (published date) at the top.

ESP-11070 Settings for Announcements

Release note

New Configuration area for configuring Announcements located now in Self-service configuration tab.

ESP-11547 Details page for an Announcement

Release note

On the list view of announcements, the user can open an announcement. When accessed from this list, an announcement is presented as a page. The page displays: Subject of the announcement (as title and breadcrumb), Date published, Expected resolution (if added), Message (with rich text content).

ESP-11937 Display a notification of new comments on cases

Release note

There is a notification about new comments on the users cases on the ESS2 homepage. Clicking on the notification takes the user to My Cases. On the header, on the My Cases tab, there is also a badge present when there are any new comments that the user has not seen.

ESP-12857 Active Announcements badge counter

Release note

Introduced a badge counter on top of the announcement icon to indicate currently active announcements.

CP-8295: ESS2 UI name for the case presentation attribute

Release note

The Case Presentation administration view shall allow administrators specify the custom attribute text that will be visible on the detailed view of the case on ESS2 UI. On the Display Names tab the admin can see list of selected attributes as table view. Double-clicking on the Display Name, the admin can change text visible on the ESS2 UI.

ESP-13099 New Matrix42 branding

Release note

Updated logos and backgrounds on ESS2 UI.