GMAS Release 1_42

August 12, 2016

 

Executive Summary

The August 2016 Grants Management Application Suite (GMAS) release will be available to users on Monday, August 15, 2016. This regularly scheduled release is the fourth official release in support of the GMAS 2.0 project. This release represents significant user-facing enhancements and major technical achievements.

Highlighted features of this release:

Document Repository Re-design:

The document repositories are the most heavily trafficked area of GMAS. The document repositories have allowed much of the research administration enterprise to go paper-less over the years by allowing for the storing and management of thousands of documents such as proposals, sponsor notices, invoices, and many more. Based on user feedback, the GMAS documents functionality has been significantly redesigned in order to enhance navigation, increase performance time, and allow for improved find-ability. In addition to the re-design, users will also notice new features such as bulk upload and in-place edits.

Converted and Retired Screens:

In keeping with the GMAS 2.0 project objectives, this release also delivers a number of screens converted to the GMAS look-and-feel and technology. The IRB, administrative salaries, and participation agreement approvals screens are among those new converted screens. Due to the major re-design of the document repositories, several screens have been retired.

GMAS will be unavailable to users from 6:00PM EST on Friday, August 12, 2016 through the start of business at 9:00AM EST on Monday, August 15, 2016. 

The next GMAS release is tentatively scheduled for the fall 2016 timeframe. Proposed features for that release include continuing conversion of screens to GMAS 2.0 and support for the major business priority of sponsored budgeting. Additional enhancements and bug fixes will also be part of the fall release.

Additional Release Details

Details regarding this release will be published in eNews; job aids supporting the new screens and features will be posted to the User Resources section of the GMAS website. To receive the latest GMAS news, subscribe to our blog. Visit this page to see more information regarding the GMAS 2.0 project. 

Please contact the GMAS help desk (email: contactgmas@harvard.edu, phone: 6-2001) with any questions or requests for assistance.

Document Repositories

 

Based on user feedback, documents were streamlined to reduce the number of clicks, increase performance time, and allow for improved find-ability. This was achieved by:

  • Placing all of the actions on one page versus being spread across 15 pages, resulting in less clicks.
  • Having the description on the same page as the document name and date helps with find-ability.
  • Optimizing our technology so "All documents" and other document repositories with large number of files load in less than a second versus multi-seconds to minutes.

Other notable optimizations and changes:

  • Bulk file upload.
  • Document naming convention now allows for spaces (this does not apply to grants.gov attachments).
  • In-place edits for document name, folders, and description.
  • Emails are view-able in pop-up modal.
  • Download documents with one click.
  • Document versioning has been removed.
  • Revise to Resubmit no longer has the option to select which documents to copy over. Instead the options are either to include or not include all documents. 

Converted screens

  • Document repositories
  • Segment documents
  • Edit IRB approval
  • View IRB approval
  • Edit Admin salaries approval
  • View Participation agreement approval
  • View Admin salaries approval
  • Participation agreement - standalone

Retired  screens

  • Document homepage
  • Delete document confirmation
  • Rename document
  • Check in document 
  • Person clipboard 
  • Add/edit document
  • View email 
  • Document version
  • Move document from clipboard
  • Create folder
  • Delete folder confirmation
  • Delete email confirmation
  • Admin salaries checklist
  • PA signature confirmation 

Bug fixes

  • Fixed fellowship application validation issue where an error would result when 'Research Strategy' or 'Training in the Responsible Conduct of Research' hyperlink was clicked on the validate screen.
  • Fixed bug on the 'edit admin team' screen where deleting records would undo edits.
  • Modified 'edit admin team' screen to allow unnamed roles.
  • Fixed Grants.gov S2S bug which prevented the submission of a zero budget application. 
  • Fixed bug caused by accounts not being properly deleted, which resulted in an error during the creation of a competing renewal or when the button 'map to proposed accounts' is clicked.
  • Fixed an issue where dashboard search results displayed 000000- instead of the project number.
  • The cost sharing hyperlink on segment home page now correctly links to the cost sharing signature form page.
  • Fixed bug which caused an error when adding a person with a long name to the research team. 

Other fixes and improvements

  • fCOI approval status can be updated at once by clicking the new "Update COI Status" button on the Approval list screen.
  • Created new framework for event management services (events, notifications, to-dos, and event history). For this release, new emails will be sent for 'Notice logged' and email reminders for 'Confirm research team'.
  • Changed default IACUC 'Event due date' from 'Submission' to 'Just in Time'.

Interfaces

  • Improved how SFE interface handles failures allowing for quicker resolution.

Administrative module

  • Added a lock-out function for Release weekends.
  • Now includes function to manage text templates for emails.
  • Includes the ability to turn the OARcreate job on/off.

Technical

  • Replaced Harvard PIN with Harvard Key CAS authentication for GMAS.
  • Moved document storage from jackrabbit to the GMAS database.
  • Consolidated PDF generation library.
  • Updated database to support UTF-8 characters.

August 26, 2016
Stabilization release 1_42_05 addressed the following bugs:

  • Mail call fix to address the HMS users inability to email into gmasdoc@camail.harvard.edu.
  • Increase the allowable file upload size from 30MB to 150MB.
  • Add back the timestamp to files uploaded.
  • Allow all users (including Central Administrators) who can upload into request repositories to be able to edit descriptions and rename documents.
  • Bug fixed where confirm research team is incorrectly associated with at-risk request instead of the initial request
September 8, 2016

Stabilization release 1_42.1 addressed the following items:

Changes to the “All documents” repository

  • The ability to hide items which do not contain documents has been added
  • Document count has been added to each section of this screen

Changes to document repositories

  • A new drag and drop upload component has been implemented
  • Second tier child folders can now be created
  • Columns are now sortable
  • Count is now included on folders that appear in the modal pop-up when user selects "Get from clipboard"
  • Label was changed from "Filename" to “Name” in the modal pop-up when a user selects "Get from clipboard" for consistency across repositories
  • A bug was fix which prevented an item from expanding when two sections were open

Technical

Upgraded to Bouncy Castle server which allows for file encryption

 

See also: Release Notes