June 2023 Release Notes

The Kahua 2023.3 release will be deployed to our Production environments on June 17, 2023.  A preview of this functionality can be accessed at https://earlyaccesslaunch.kahua.com  beginning on June 4, 2023. Please click here for more information on the Early Access program. The release notes below are subject to change. For any changes to these notes, please see the change log at the bottom of the article.

In addition to various performance improvements, user interface updates and error corrections, this release will also include:

Desktop

LOCATIONS APP UPDATES

The Locations App has been updated with the following enhancements:

• Locations created at the root of your Kahua domain can now be included in any project throughout your domain.   This acts as a master library of locations that can be re-used in the event multiple projects occur in the same space and provides significant time savings when starting up a new project.   To add one or more of these the locations on a project, navigate to the project and open the Locations app. Click the USE DOMAIN LOCATIONS action, select the Locations to use for the project and click update.
  
  Along with the locations created directly in the project, the domain locations will be available for selection in any app that has a Locations attribute.
  
  Note: Updating locations at the domain root will also update the location within any project it has been included
  
  
• Attributes for "Status" and "ID" have been added to the location record. The status is a lookup that can be configured and defaults to the value of Active. The ID attribute is optional and null by default. The ID can be configured to prevent duplicates by checking the option in the Settings tab of App Configuration.   This is particularly useful for tracking specific locations, buildings, spaces, rooms, etc. across a wide range of facilities.

CUSTOM TOUR OF KAHUA URL

Admins are now able to direct their users to custom content for the “Tour of Kahua” widget in the Getting Started application.  The “Custom Tour of Kahua URL” setting can be found in Domain Settings>Domain Defaults App.  By default, this setting is disabled.  To specify a custom URL, enable the “Custom Tour of Kahua URL” setting, enter the URL and click Save.  After the setting has been enabled, any user clicking the “Tour of Kahua” link in the Getting Started app will be directed to desired URL.

Custom Tour of Kahua URL Setting:

IMPORT/EXPORT

When using the Export action from a Log View, there’s now a new option to include only ‘Referenced Companies and Contacts’.

This option will be checked by default, which will only export those Companies and Contacts that are associated with (or referenced by) the documents being exported.  For example, if I’m exporting the 107 RFIs as indicated below and those RFIs are only associated with 10 different people, only those 10 Contact records will be exported with the RFIs, instead of all the Contacts in the Domain (which could easily be in the thousands or more).

The primary driver of this change was to significantly reduce the time necessary to perform an export when an entire export of Companies/Contacts isn’t necessary.

Just note if this option is checked, then when making changes in the export file you won’t be able to assign contacts that aren’t also in the export file.  But unless you’re using the export file to make People/Company assignments, this isn’t an issue.  If you ever need to access all contacts in an export, you simply run the export with this option unchecked. 

TIP: If you do want to assign new contacts, but you don’t want to download your entire lists of Contacts, one ‘trick’ is to create a ‘dummy document’ that includes all potential contacts that you like to pick from (e.g., if there are 30 people on your project, put all 30 people on this ‘dummy document’, and then those 30 people will be in the export file so that you can assign them as needed).  You can then delete the ‘dummy document’ after you imported your data back into Kahua.

 Export Dialog:

FILE MANAGER – DRAWING HYPERLINKS (BETA)

When Drawings are added to a Controlled Folder, hyperlinks will be automatically generated.  These hyperlinks will enable users to navigate to Section Callouts, Detail Callouts, and other types of Drawings references, with the ability to easily return back to the document where the hyperlink was initiated.  There is also a new tool in the markup panel that will enable users to manually create new hyperlinks and modify existing hyperlinks.

This new Hyperlink feature is currently limited to single-page Drawings that reside in Controlled Folders.  The Sheet Number attribute must be populated on the destination file for the link to be generated. The capability will be expanded to multi-page documents and standard Files folders in a subsequent release.

 Link Toggle:

Summary: 

• Drawing callouts are auto-generated upon upload (Controlled Folders only)
• Hyperlinks provide easy navigation to other Drawings, and follow breadcrumb back
• Ability to Manually Create New Links, to files in any folder type (including standard Files Folders)
• Ability to Modify Existing Links (double-click to invoke)
• Hyperlinks may be manually created and used for any File Type, not just Drawings!

NOTE: Because this is still a BETA feature, if you’re interested in having this capability enabled in your Domain, please contact your Kahua representative.  As a Beta user of this feature, you’ll be expected to provide input when requested regarding the usability and the quality of the feature.  

FILE MANAGER – SEND LINK

New multi-select ‘SEND LINK’ action enables the ability to individually select multiple files, which will generate a Message/Notification with an anonymous file link to each selected file.  

Sending Multiple File Links:

This new capability also generates a new ‘Open All Files’ link in the Message/Notification, enabling you to download any/all of these files from a single web page:

Webpage:

This feature is supported for all File Manager folder types, and also is supported in both the ‘Current Folder’ and ‘All Subfolders’ modes.

NOTE: In Domain Settings, if “Allow anonymous file access” is toggled off, the new multi-select ‘SEND LINK’ feature will still work, but instead of the Message/Notification containing links to the files via a webpage, the links instead will be to the files within Kahua (requiring the message recipient to log into Kahua):

MEETINGS

The "Responsible Contact" attribute has been added to Meetings Items in the Meetings app. This field allows users to select select a contact as a responsible party for that Meeting Item. Responsible Companies allow the user to select multiple companies in each meeting item. The Responsible Contact field will be limited to contacts for the selected Responsible Company. If a contact is selected before the company, Kahua will autopopulate the company associated with the selected contact.

Meeting Item Edit:

MILESTONES

Two enhancements have been made to the Milestones app.

• A new attribute, "Percent Complete", has been added to help facilitate Milestone tracking. This attribute allows you to monitor the progress of your milestones. It's important to note that the percent complete attribute does not update automatically when actual dates are modified, nor do the actual dates update when the percent complete is adjusted.
• The Gantt view has been added to the webhost.  This functionality aligns with the existing behavior in our Windows host. To utilize this feature, simply choose the Milestones you wish to display and then select the Visualize option from the multi-select menu.

SNAPSHOT

The Kahua Snapshot tool allows you to preserve all data within an application at any point in time and save the data outside of Kahua.  This can then be used to provide the data and PDFs to other project stakeholders.  The following apps now support Snapshot:

• Bid Proposals

• Bid QA

• Bid Solicitations

• Budget Changes

• Design Review Sets
• Funding Budget
• Invoices

• Milestones

• Notice To Comply

• Purchase Order Change Orders

• Purchase Orders

• Risk Register

WEBDAV

Effective with this 2023.3 Release, Kahua’s support of WebDAV will be undergoing its first phase of deprecation.

What is WebDAV?

WebDAV stands for "Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning". It is a set of extensions to the HTTP protocol which allows users to collaboratively edit and manage files on remote web servers.   In Kahua, WebDAV has provided Users the ability to add, edit, delete, and move folders and files in Kahua’s File Manager app using Windows Explorer. 

Why is Kahua deprecating WebDAV?

The primary reasons for discontinuing this service include:

• Performance and the local storage considerations – On several platforms WebDAV copies the entire File Manager content to the user’s local storage  
• Security risks associated with the WebDAV protocol 
• Lack of support for two factor authentication or single sign-on
• Poor Client Support on Windows & Mac's – The built-in WebDAV client on Windows by default limits file sizes to 30 MB. 
• Lack of Integration into Windows Active Directory and NTFS Permissions on File Shares.

Is Kahua planning to offer some alternative to WebDAV?

Kahua already offers a much more flexible, and performant capability known as “Local Files”.  In addition to being more secure, Kahua’s “Local Files” capability enables specific folders to be selected, as opposed to WebDAV which downloads the entire File Manager content.  The following table provides a comparison of the two technologies:

How will this change affect me?

The first phase of the WebDAV deprecation process, going into effect with this 2023.3 Release, may or may not affect you:

• if you’re currently using WebDAV (or have used it in the last 30 days), expect no change – WebDAV will continue to be available to you
• if you’ve never used WebDAV, WebDAV will be removed as an option 
• if you’ve tried out WebDAV in the past, but it’s been more than 30 days, WebDAV will be removed as an option
• WebDAV will no longer be an option for any new Domains

What’s the future of WebDAV support by Kahua?

Over the next several months, Kahua will be engaging with the relatively small numbers of clients who are currently using WebDAV and will help them transition to “Local Files”.  Once this transition is complete, the final phase of Kahua’s deprecation process will be finalized. 

Mobile

LOCATIONS APP UPDATES

The Locations app will no longer be available on our mobile hosts. However, users can still select locations on any document. To set up and manage Locations, use the Kahua desktop host. 

QR Code Scan

The QR Code Scan application has been disabled on the mobile hosts. All QR Code scanning functionality within applications is still available.

Kahua Provided Extensions

To continuously improve our best-in-class Kahua provided extensions, we will be updating offerings to include the following features:

Kahua for General Contractors, Kahua for Owners, and Kahua for Program Managers

Kahua Packaged Submittals Enhancements

The following updates are being added to Kahua’s Packaged Submittals extension and base app:

Submittal Packages and Items – Standard Workflow – Configure Default Value for "Include References on New Revisions"

Kahua is adding new default settings in submittal package and submittal item configuration for selecting the default value of the “Include References on New Revisions” checkbox in the Revise modal of submittal packages and items in the standard workflow (Note: This checkbox is not currently in the Owner Directed Workflow, so the default value will not affect behavior in Owner Directed packages and items. Kahua will add this checkbox to the Owner Directed workflows in a future release.).

Submittal Packages and Items – Both Workflows – Notify Response Distribution on Completed Review

Kahua has added a new field "Notify Response Distribution on Completed Review” to packages and items in both the standard and owner directed workflows. When this checkbox is checked, contacts listed in the Response Distribution field will be notified when the review of the package/item has completed (When the official reviewer responds to their task in standard package and item workflows, and when the owner’s rep/official reviewer if there is no owner’s rep responds in the owner directed package and item workflows).

This field is visible and false by default but can be configured in submittal package and submittal item configuration.

Submittal Packages – Both Workflows – Add Submittal Items Subpanel to Easily View Consultant Responses

Kahua is adding a sub-panel to the submittal items grid in the Official Reviewer tasks of both the Standard and Owner Directed Workflows for Submittal Packages. Click the arrow icons to expand the subpanel for the submittal items within the package.


The sub-panel expands to conveniently display all consultant reviewer response data for that submittal item.

This sub-panel is always available on the Official Reviewer’s task and is also available on the main document of the submittal package if one of the “Display Consultant Response” fields are set to yes.

Note that while the “Display Consultant Response” fields are currently not visible on package records in the Owner Directed Workflow, their default values still control whether this sub-panel (and the consultant response data it contains) appears on the main document of owner directed submittal package records.

If the default values of either of these fields are set to “True” (by default they are both “False”),


Then the main document of owner directed submittal package records displays the sub-panel and all consultant response data.

Submittal Items – Both Workflows – Add Country of Origin Lookup Field

Kahua is adding a new “Country of Origin” lookup field in submittal items that can be used as an alternative to the pre-existing text field.

This field is hidden by default and must be made visible in Submittal Items configuration.

Swapping the new Country of Origin Field for the previously existing field enables users to select a country of origin from a pre-populated list of countries rather than typing in text. This new field is available for submittal items in both the Standard and Owner Directed workflows.

EXPENSE PAY REQUESTS – Change Order Summary Data available

Kahua Expense Pay Requests now provide the underlying attributes to add the following to your Pay Request Portable Views and Kahua Data Store Reports:

• Summary Change Order information - allowing for summarizing prior approved change orders, newly added change orders starting on the current pay request, all optionally separating net Addition vs net Deduction Change Orders
• Simple list of newly added change orders on the current request (Portable Views only)

NOTE: if your typical business process updates change order values after pay requests include those change orders, these summary attributes may get out of sync with other pay request information. 

Summary Change Order information on Pay Request 

List of Change Orders on Pay Request:

Kahua Host Updates  

All Kahua hosts have been updated with various enhancements and bug fixes. The Windows host will automatically update upon first launch after the release. 

Download the appropriate app for your device: 

• Kahua Mobile for iOS on iTunes

• Kahua Mobile for Android on Google Play

Release Note Changes