2025.1 Update Guide

Summary

System updates are your first line of defense against security threats while also boosting performance, ensuring compatibility, and unlocking exciting new features that add value to your digital experience. Regular updates not only protect your data and keep your system running smoothly, but they also give you access to innovative tools and capabilities that can enhance your productivity and user experience.

Details

Exciting updates to our Enhancement Request Process

We are excited to announce that we are replacing our current 'Enhancement Request' process with a transparent, easy, and collaborative solution for managing suggestions from our users.

Many customers are already familiar with the 'Ideas' functionality in the Stibo Systems Communities, but for those who are not, highlights include:

• Ideas can be created by anyone in the Community and are visible to everyone (and shared between the Customer and Partner communities).

• Users are able to comment on one another’s ideas, upvote them, and collectively engage on common topics of interest.

• The Product team monitors and engages with users on the ideas, focusing on those with the broadest applicability across our customers (e.g., those with the highest upvote score).

• Users can easily see what has been solved and what remains open, as well as the level of interest across the broader user base on any topic.

The ​'Community Ideas Guide' includes an overview of the Ideas module in the Community, how the new process will work, and an FAQ. This guide is accessible from within the Communities and in the Document Repository section on the My Issues dashboard within the Stibo Systems Service Portal.

This process is already live in the Communities, so be sure to check it out. And, if not already registered for the Customer Community, sign up by clicking the Register button at https://www.stibosystems.com/our-customers/community.

Note: In mid-March, we will remove the ability to create Enhancement Request tickets in the Stibo Systems Service Portal. Previously submitted requests will continue to be reviewed and replied to, but all new suggestions will need to be submitted via the Communities, so be sure to activate your account before then.

We are looking forward to engaging with everyone in this transparent and collaborative environment. We are excited about the changes, and we hope that you are too. If you have questions or concerns that are not answered by the guide above, reach out to your Stibo Systems representative and we will be happy to speak with you further.

Default asset thumbnails updated

The default asset thumbnails that display for assets that do not have an associated image (e.g., MS Excel documents) now display updated thumbnail images. These changes went into effect for the 2024.2 update but apply to all systems updated to that or later versions.

It should also be noted that the .msg asset type will display the old thumbnail image if the old thumbnail image exists in the user's cache. To ensure display of the updated .msg thumbnail, be sure to clear your cache.

Categorize button enables expanded selections

The 'Categorize' button, found in Instrument UIs for Accelerator for Retail implementations, now displays objects in both the External and Internal Data Sources hierarchies when clicked. Previously, only objects in the Internal Data Sources hierarchy would display in the item picker as objects that could be selected and re-categorized.

Importing Instrument configurations

Users that import Instrument configurations from a 2024.4 system into a 2025.1 system will see an error display related to ConfigurationEntityReferences. This error should be disregarded as it relates to an attribute no longer relevant for Instrument that has now been removed. It does not indicate the import failed or is incomplete. It should be noted that as the attribute has been deleted for 2025.1, systems that have been upgraded to 2025.1 cannot then be downgraded to 2024.4 versions or earlier.

More audit messages

Customers should be aware that if they have an audit message business action configured for a workflow, they will begin to see more audit messages. Previously, when a workflow-wide audit message business action was configured for a workflow, audit messages would not get sent for the automatic transitions from a parallel workflow to the contained workflow clusters and to the initial states of those clusters.

STEPXML schema changes from 2024.4 to 2025.1

The STEPXML format parameter options in the Export Manager and OIEP Output Template are extended to align with the XSD (PIMOutputTemplate.xsd). Refer to the 'STEPXML options are expanded' note within Data Exchange Enhancements and Changes.

No changes have been made to PIM.xsd.

Elasticsearch reindexing

Starting with STEP 2025.1, updating to the latest STEP version may automatically reindex Elasticsearch configurations present on the system. If an Elasticsearch configuration or Elasticsearch event processor has not been active for 90 days, the related index may be removed. If an index has been removed no results will appear on the faceted search screen in Web UI or Instrument.

Enhancements discontinued

FAB-DIS exchange format: Starting with this release, FAB-DIS will no longer receive new enhancements. While it remains available and supported, this exchange format is expected to be desupported and removed in a future update.

Deprecated functionality

Syndigo integration: Syndigo is now deprecated, and the functionality is no longer supported and/or available for new installations. Customers currently using this integration should transition to an alternate syndication functionality. It will be removed with the 2025.3 update.

Functionality to be removed / discontinued

ASCII format downloads for AutoCare: AutoCare will discontinue ASCII format downloads by the end of 2025, and introduce JSON file support. Refer to the 'JSON file format support for AutoCare' section of the Data Exchange Enhancements and Changes update note.

Use of reflection in JavaScript business rules: In JavaScript business rules, reflection has been used to access non-public methods in the API. Since reflection can be a security risk and can potentially lead to performance issues and other unexpected issues during upgrade, it will be disabled with the 2025.3 update.

A scheduled healthcheck was introduced in the 2023.3 update that identifies business rules that use reflection, and a warning with the text 'Attempted to call reflection API...' is written to the step.0.log. To prepare for reflection being disabled, rewrite the reported rules to use publicly available methods. If the needed functionality is not public, create an idea in Community or reach out to your Stibo Systems representative.

For more information, refer to the General Enhancements and Changes release note.

End-of-life schedule for STEP updates

Below is a table outlining the end-of-life schedule for the STEP updates shown. Refer to the updated STEP Update and End-of-Life Information topic in the System Update and Patch Notes section for more information about quarterly update target dates and support end dates for future updates.

Update	Update Available to Customers	EOL for on-prem and other non-SaaS v2 systems	EOL for SaaS v2 systems not enrolled in continuous updates	EOL for SaaS v2 systems enrolled in continuous updates
11.0	June 8, 2022	June 8, 2025	June 8, 2025	N/A
11.1	November 30, 2022	November 30, 2025	November 30, 2025	N/A
11.2	June 7, 2023	March 7, 2026	March 7, 2026	N/A
2023.3	September 27, 2023	September 30, 2024	September 30, 2024	N/A
2023.4	December 13, 2023	June 13, 2026	June 13, 2026	N/A
2024.1	March 27, 2024	March 31, 2025	March 31, 2025	September 30, 2024
2024.2	June 12, 2024	September 30, 2026	September 30, 2026	December 31, 2024
2024.3	September 16, 2024	September 30, 2025	September 30, 2025	March 31, 2025
2024.4	December 11, 2024	December 31, 2027	December 31, 2026	June 30, 2025

Starting with the 2025.1 update, all feature updates are exclusive to SaaS customers.

Update	Update Available to SaaS Customers	EOL for SaaS v2 systems not enrolled in continuous updates	EOL for SaaS v2 systems enrolled in continuous updates
2025.1	March 26, 2025	March 31, 2026	September 30, 2025

Customers should update as soon as possible to the latest version of the Stibo Systems Enterprise Platform (STEP). Contact Stibo Systems Support if you have questions and/or to receive help and guidance on how to update to a supported version.

Software errors reported for the versions shown above may be rejected once support ends. Issues in progress for those updates will be closed on the end-of-life (EOL) date. It is not possible to extend the support services for desupported versions.

Online Help / Documentation Changes

With every update, documentation updates occur. In addition to online help that is updated as part of the projects listed in this update note set, users should be aware of the following documentation updates when updating to 2025.1:

• Since on-premises installations are no longer supported with 2025.1, the Platform and Software Support topic, previously published with each update, has been replaced with an update-specific topic that outlines the Windows and Mac client requirements for using STEP. The 2025.1 STEP Client Requirements information can be found in the System Update and Patch Notes documentation.

• Access to update videos has been expanded. They are now also available on YouTube and on our Product Updates site.

• The STEP Instrument Documentation has been moved into the Instrument User Interface section within the STEP Documentation. This change streamlines documentation access for users so that they no longer have to go to two different documentation sets to get the full information they need to work within the new UI.

• Workbench images in documentation continue to be updated to show the restyled UI. This is an ongoing project that will continue over the next several updates. We encourage you to base your evaluation of our product on its current features and functionality rather than documentation images.

• Documentation updates have been made and continue to be in progress to remove on-premises references and directions.

• The release number now displays at the bottom of each page in online help to help users easily identify what version of documentation that they are accessing.