Release Date:
Summary
Stack-595 is a wide-ranging release touching user account management, data access governance, search infrastructure, platform reliability, and Curator tooling. A total of 15 tickets were completed.
The most visible user-facing addition is a new account expiry notification: Synapse users whose accounts are approaching automatic deactivation will now receive an email warning 15 days in advance, giving them time to take action and avoid losing access. This is part of an ongoing initiative to make account lifecycle management more transparent and user-controlled.
A significant block of work this cycle lays the groundwork for electronic Data Use Certificates (eDUCs) — a new mechanism that will eventually allow data access requests to be paired with digitally signed data use commitments via DocuSign. The platform now supports listing available DocuSign templates (accessible to ACT only), linking eDUC templates to Access Requirements, and capturing additional structured fields on Data Access Request submissions. These are backend building blocks; the end-to-end eDUC experience for users will come in future releases.
On the search side, portal search facets gain a major behavioral improvement: when a user filters by a facet value, the search can now optionally return all available filter options for that column — not just the ones that match — enabling the kind of checkbox-style filter panels that researchers expect in modern data portals. Two critical reliability fixes are also included: new user account creation was broken following the stack-594 deployment (now resolved), and intermittent platform errors causing search index and view refresh failures have been addressed.
No breaking changes or required user actions are included in this release.
Affected Users & Systems
|
Who / What |
Impact |
|---|---|
|
All Synapse users with accounts approaching expiry |
Will now receive an email notification 15 days before their account is deactivated, giving them time to sign in and keep their account active. |
|
New Synapse users registering accounts |
A critical bug introduced in stack-594 that prevented new account creation from completing has been resolved. |
|
ACT (Access Control Team) |
Can now retrieve a list of available DocuSign templates via a new internal API endpoint, supporting future eDUC workflows. |
|
Data Access Committees and access request submitters |
The Data Access Request object now captures additional structured fields in support of electronic Data Use Certificates, enabling richer tracking and future digital signature workflows. |
|
Portal developers and search users |
Search facets can now optionally return all available filter options for a column even when a filter is applied — enabling full checkbox-style filter panels. Search indexes on production have also been investigated and remediated. |
|
Curator AI assistant users |
Persistent connection errors affecting AI chat in the Curator have been resolved. |
|
Data curators using the column model editor |
The column model editor now correctly enforces the updated (expanded) limits for string list columns introduced in stack-590. |
|
Platform infrastructure / DevOps |
Multiple deployment and startup failures from the stack-594 cycle have been resolved. |
Deprecated or Breaking Changes
There are no deprecated or breaking changes in this release.
New Features
Account Expiry Warning Emails — 15-Day Advance Notice New
Synapse accounts that have been inactive for 370 days are deactivated automatically. Starting with this release, users will receive an email notification 15 days before their account reaches the deactivation threshold, explaining what it means for their account to be disabled and giving them the opportunity to sign in and reset the inactivity clock. This is a meaningful improvement to account lifecycle transparency for all Synapse users.
Who benefits: Any Synapse user whose account is approaching automatic deactivation due to inactivity — particularly researchers who may not log in frequently but need to maintain access to their data and projects.
Search Facets: Full Option Lists for Checkbox-Style Filters New
When a user filters portal search results by a facet value (for example, selecting "cancer" under a "diagnosis" column), search has historically returned only the selected value in the facet panel — collapsing away the other options. This makes it impossible to build a checkbox-style filter UI where users can see all available options, check and uncheck freely, and broaden their selection without losing context. Portals can now opt into a new mode where all available facet values for a column are returned alongside results, even when a filter on that column is active. Each option is marked as selected or unselected, and the hit count reflects the full active filter state.
Who benefits: Portal users navigating faceted search interfaces that support checkbox-style filtering, and portal developers building richer data exploration experiences on top of Synapse search.
Electronic Data Use Certificate (eDUC) — Platform Foundation New
This release delivers the first backend components needed to support electronic Data Use Certificates — a forthcoming workflow that will allow data access requests to be paired with digitally signed data use commitments. Three specific changes are included: ACT can now retrieve a list of available DocuSign signature templates through a new internal service; Access Requirements can now reference a specific eDUC template, linking the signing requirement to the access gate; and the Data Access Request object now carries additional structured fields to support the full eDUC workflow. The user-facing end-to-end eDUC experience — including the DocuSign signing flow — is planned for a future release.
Who benefits: ACT and data governance teams preparing for eDUC rollout. End users will benefit once the full workflow is complete in a future release.
Fixes & Improvements
Critical: New User Account Creation Restored
Following the stack-594 deployment, new users who completed the registration email flow and attempted to finalize their account were shown an error and could not proceed. This was a critical regression affecting all new Synapse sign-ups. The underlying platform bug has been identified and resolved, and new account creation works correctly again.
Platform Stability: Intermittent Change Message Errors Resolved
A database-level conflict was intermittently causing a range of platform operations to fail — including search index builds and view refresh triggers — when two processes attempted to record the same internal change event simultaneously. This produced silent failures that could leave search indexes or views in a stale state without any visible user-facing error. The conflict has been resolved, restoring reliable event processing across the platform.
Search Indexes on Production Investigated and Remediated
Several portal search indexes were found to be in an unbuilt or broken state on production following the stack-592 and stack-593 deployments. The affected indexes — including those powering tool browse pages on dHealth Synapse — have been investigated and rebuilt. The root causes relate to bugs addressed in recent stacks; no further user action is needed.
Curator AI Assistant: Connection Errors Resolved
Users of the Curator's AI chat assistant were experiencing persistent errors that prevented the assistant from responding. The errors stemmed from HTTP connection failures in the backend service that powers the AI. The root cause has been identified and fixed, and the Curator AI assistant is now operating reliably.
Column Model Editor: Respects Updated String List Limits
When stack-590 expanded the maximum size and length limits for string list columns, the column model editor in the Synapse UI was not updated to reflect these new limits — meaning users who tried to configure lists with more values or longer entries than the old limits would see unnecessary validation errors in the UI even though the backend would have accepted the values. The editor now correctly reflects and enforces the current, expanded limits.