Vanilla Release Notes

Release 2024.017

Schedule

Release 2024.017 will hit staging the week of August 26th.
Release 2024.017 will hit public (non-Enterprise) the week of September 2nd.
Release 2024.017 will hit Enterprise the week of September 9th.

Automation Rules

Now that our advocate beta testers have had a chance to check this out, we’re opening the beta to everyone!

If you haven’t heard about our Automation Rules they are powerful if this then that statements that allow you more easily manage your communities by automating actions such as:

If a user has a certain email domain,
- then give them a certain role (and optionally remove another)
- OR then have them follow a certain category
If a user has a certain profile field set,
- then give them a certain role (and optionally remove another)
- OR then have them follow a certain category
If it’s been a certain length of time since a user has registered for community,
- then give them a certain role (and optionally remove another)
- OR then have them follow a certain category
If a post (option to filter by post type) receives a certain threshold of points,
- then add the post to a certain collection
- OR then add a certain tag to it
- OR then bump the post
- OR then move it to a certain category
If a post has been a certain collection for a certain length of time, remove it from that collection
If a post (option to filter by post type) has not had any activity (new comments) for a certain length of time:
- then add the post to a certain collection
- OR then add a certain tag to it
- OR then bump the post
- OR then move it to a certain category
- OR close the post
- OR remove it from a collection
- OR escalate it to Zendesk, Github, Jira or Salesforce
If a post (option to filter by post type, category and/or tag) has not received any comments at all for a certain length of time:
- then add the post to a certain collection
- OR then add a certain tag to it
- OR then bump the post
- OR then move it to a certain category
- OR close the post
- OR remove it from a collection
- OR escalate it to Zendesk, Github, Jira or Salesforce
If a question has been unanswered (option to filter by category and/or tag) for a certain length of time:
- then add the post to a certain collection
- OR then bump the post
- OR escalate it to Zendesk, Github, Jira or Salesforce
If an idea receives a certain number of votes
- Update the ideation status to a certain status

If you'd like to test out Automation Rules and learn more, check out this thread:

https://success.vanillaforums.com/discussion/2814/automation-rules-available-to-beta-test

Bonus rules for advocates beta testing the CMD

Plus, for our advocates with an exclusive invite to beta test the new Community Management Dashboard, you’ll have access to a few more rules:

If a post certain receives a certain number of reports,
- Optional: you can tailor this to a certain report reason, or create flows specific to certain categories
- then escalate to the CMD,
  - and optionally assign a certain moderator
If a post (option to filter by post type) has not had any activity (new comments) for a certain length of time:
- Escalate it to the CMD
  - and optionally assign a certain moderator
If a post (option to filter by post type, category and/or tag) has not received any comments at all for a certain length of time:
- Escalate it to the CMD
  - and optionally assign a certain moderator
If a question has been unanswered (option to filter by category and/or tag) for a certain length of time:
- Escalate it to the CMD
  - and optionally assign a certain moderator

We plan to add additional rules in the coming months, so don’t hesitate to post, comment and vote in our ideation section!

Zendesk Escalation Automation Rule Action

With release 2024.016 for customers the ability to escalate tickets automatically using automation rules, so if a post hasn’t been answered in a certain length of time, optionally with a certain tag or within a certain category it can go to Zendesk automatically without manual intervention:

Zendesk Two Way Communication

To help encourage your staff to become more engaged in community, we wanted to meet them where they are and allow Zendesk agents to optionally reply to tickets from community right from Zendesk to help make it easier to engage with community.

Convert Community Post to Zendesk KB Article

You can also now turn vanilla posts into draft Zendesk kb articles so you can easily preserve the great content that community generates. This feature comes complete with its own permission so you can easily control who can convert posts into KB Articles.

If you want to learn more about these Zendesk features you watch or read more:

Webinar recording with more details:

https://success.vanillaforums.com/discussion/2809/community-cx-elevating-self-service-with-higher-logic-vanilla-and-zendesk-recording

WIP - Community Management Dashboard Beta

Not yet available for general release

With this release, the CMD is now available to advocate beta testers:

VNLA-6128: Added Default Automation Rules for the CMD.
VNLA-6129: Created Escalation Rules View for CMD.
VNLA-6261: Created recipe to escalate posts with no comments after a specified time.
VNLA-6262: Created recipe to escalate unanswered questions after a specified time.
VNLA-6287: Updated preview states for no comments after a specified time.
VNLA-6288: Updated preview states for unanswered posts after a specified time.
VNLA-6349: Prevented rules from having duplicate names.
VNLA-6358: Added hover-over descriptions for icons on Automation Rules page.
VNLA-6371: Added clarification on usable Profile Fields for Automation Rules.
VNLA-6397: Addressed handling of Move Category Rule for invalid categories.

New Automation Rule Action: Salesforce Cases & Leads

With release 2024.017, we’ve added 2 new Automation Rules Actions: the ability to escalate automatically to a Salesforce Case or Lead:

These actions can be triggered by:

Reports received
Points (upvotes/likes/reactions) received
Time since the post has received a new comment
Time since the post has existed without receiving any comments

Additional Spam Protections: Verify Browsers of New Members

When you’re in the middle of a wave of spam, you sometimes need to take quick action to block bots and bad actors from creating accounts and posting on your community:

With our new Cloudflare browser verification option, you can keep you community safe from bots and spam. This feature adds an extra layer of security for communities facing spam attacks by prompting unverified new members to complete a Cloudflare challenge (Captcha or Checkbox) within a configurable time frame. Admins can define how long members need to be in the community before they are exempt from this verification, helping to balance user experience and security needs. It is recommended to enable this feature only during active spam threats or high-risk periods to avoid unnecessary disruptions for new, legitimate members.

Bug Fixes & Improvements

VNLA-6520: Improved synonym search handling with quotations and hyphens for Some customers.
VNLA-5502: Fixed issue where long role names could overwrite other entries on the new Manage User page.
VNLA-6350: Corrected the Bump action affecting more posts than indicated in the preview in Automation Rules
VNLA-6430: Added date/time display for failed automation runs on the history page.
VNLA-6462: Fixed issue where 'Back' browser button took users to the bottom of the page for Some customers.
VNLA-6519: Resolved issue with search date filter not checking dateUpdated for Some customers.
VNLA-6647: Alphabetized the Rule Trigger dropdown options.
VNLA-6711: Addressed CF error reports for Some customers since 26 June 2024.
VNLA-6754: Resolved issue where only 23 categories were available in the Replacement Category dropdown.
VNLA-6776: Added asterisk to required API Name field.
VNLA-6777: Fixed roles dropdown not showing the currently selected roles.
VNLA-6800: Changed the name in the Content Settings page.
VNLA-6818: Fixed SEO issue with posts appearing on multiple sitemaps for Some customers.
VNLA-6827: Corrected incorrect registration totals displayed in UI for Some customers Events.
VNLA-6837: Fixed 2024.013 default followed category button being greyed out.
VNLA-6841: Corrected special characters in breadcrumbs not displaying correctly for Some customers.
VNLA-6842: Fixed 'Force check' in new ranks not being effective for Some customers.
VNLA-6848: Respected email verification when toggled.
VNLA-6857: Fixed frontend error related to resolved discussions for Some customers after 2024.014 deploy.
VNLA-6861: Addressed 400 error being thrown by Jira Integration during ticket creation for Some customers.
VNLA-6877: Resolved issue with user profile being amiss and sign-in failure for Some customers.
VNLA-6878: Fixed category notification preferences getting reversed when applied through Automation Rules.
VNLA-6533: Minified legacy CSS/JS.
VNLA-6037: Fixed issue where users trying to follow more than 100 categories encountered an uncaught error.
VNLA-6099: Corrected group applicant description overflow into Approve/Deny buttons.
VNLA-6143: Addressed issues with 'Flair' legacy plugin no longer functioning as expected for Some customers.
VNLA-6407: Fixed issue where users without Garden.Moderation.Manage permission were able to update ideation statuses in Post UI.
VNLA-6547: Resolved error preventing SSO users from successfully logging into embedded communities for Some customers (Stage).
VNLA-6592: Corrected issue where switching an automation rule on or off should not update the Last Updated value.
VNLA-6710: Fixed URL Slug field for tags allowing capitals when added via POST /tags API.
VNLA-6785: Fixed layout editor issue where custom layout reverted to legacy after saving settings for Some customers.
VNLA-6804: Prevented users without correct permissions from being assigned to an escalation.
VNLA-6829: Resolved issue where the three dots button was not fully clickable after a post was reported with the new CMD
VNLA-6855: Fixed locale strings not connecting in UI.
VNLA-6856: Addressed missing strings in locale for Some customers.
VNLA-6870: Corrected synonym set not returning all expected results for Some customers.
VNLA-6876: Fixed issue where idea posts were moved to non-idea categories with rules.
VNLA-6892: Resolved delays with comments posting in the frontend for Some customers.
VNLA-6912: Fixed issue where escalating questions from the triage list or detail view did not work.
VNLA-6914: Corrected issue where posts.manage permission showed report and escalations links but threw an error on click.
VNLA-6918: Addressed API profile visibility security issue - "What is a profile".
VNLA-6920: Fixed Argument 1 error when posting and verified users' posts self-flagged for moderation intermittently for Some customers.
VNLA-6935: Resolved discussion pages not loading for Some customers.
VNLA-6947: Fixed KB rich editor format menu collapsing when interacted with (2024.015).
VNLA-6965: Addressed notification emails not firing off as configured for Some customers.
VNLA-6740: Added new category selection dropdown.
VNLA-6748: Fixed issue with raw HTML showing on ideation status page.
VNLA-6826: Updated "Members" section to "Manage Users".