8.4.0

release date july 2, 2026 this release delivers a modernised installer experience, migrates mailbox polling to microsoft graph api, refreshes the platform branding, and promotes 60 feature flags to enabled by default all improvements introduced during the 8 3 release series are now the standard experience new installer experience the activate installer has been rebuilt with a modern web based interface, providing a smoother and more reliable installation and upgrade experience a modern, visually consistent installation ui replacing the legacy dialogs automatic prerequisite detection for asp net core runtime, iis, and webview2 runtime, with guided installation prompts if any are missing improved upgrade workflow package discovery with a browse button, preserved configuration files during upgrade, and optional post upgrade service restart better handling when activate is already running during an update clear display logic distinguishing upgrade from version change scenarios graph api mailbox polling feature flagged this feature is disabled by default enable via the pr4215 usegraphapiformailboxpolling feature flag when ready activate's orchestrator polls a configured mailbox to support email based approvals when a task requires approval, activate sends the approver a notification email containing action commands (e g , "approve", "decline") the approver replies directly from their email client, and activate's mailbox polling picks up the reply, parses the command, and progresses the workflow automatically this is a core capability for organisations where approvers need to act quickly without logging into the web portal until now, this mailbox polling used exchange web services (ews) microsoft is retiring ews in exchange online blocking begins october 1, 2026 and full shutdown follows april 1, 2027 this release introduces a graph api alternative that replaces the ews transport layer while preserving the same approval workflow behavior uses modern oauth 2 0 authentication via azure ad app registration (replacing ews basic/oauth credentials) supports graph hooks, allowing custom activate studio scripts to intercept and handle email reply operations during polling improved auto response suppression using mapi properties, reducing noise from out of office and delivery receipts this feature ships behind a feature flag and is disabled by default enable it when ready and after configuring graph api credentials customers using exchange online for mailbox polling should plan to enable this flag before october 2026 to avoid service disruption for more detail on the ews retirement, see microsoft's official announcements deprecation of exchange web services in exchange online retirement of exchange web services in exchange online note the ews deprecation applies only to exchange online (microsoft 365) on premises exchange server environments are not affected by this timeline and can continue to use ews based polling platform branding refresh activate's visual identity has been updated across the platform fresh colour palette and updated assets for the desktop and web experiences new theming infrastructure with the ability to build and test custom themes desktop launcher the activate desktop launcher has been migrated to webview2 for a faster, more modern startup experience with improved visual consistency datepicker enhancements added support for disabling weekends on datepicker controls, useful for scheduling workflows that should only target business days alertpanel improvements the alertpanel control's alerttype property now uses a dropdown in the designer with well defined accepted values and a sensible default, making form configuration more intuitive activate anywhere an installation reminder is now displayed to prompt administrators about activate anywhere configuration cloud distribution lists fixed an issue where view members for cloud distribution lists returned empty results feature flags now enabled by default all 60 feature flags introduced during the 8 3 release train are now enabled by default these enhancements were previously available as opt in features and have been validated across 15 patch releases key highlights now on by default security & access control role based impersonation controls and enhanced admin authorisation checks (pr 40168) encrypted session ids for anywhere password reset workflows (pr 40453) correct access checks preventing users from viewing other users' data (pr 40167, pr 40627) fixed password answer retry counter (pr 41412) hides job details when user lacks access (pr 40178) enforces role based impersonation controls (pr 36304) checkaccess on passed in user for self service ordering (pr 36466) user experience new unified error pages (404/500) with helpful guidance (pr 36213) configurable user menu in the navigation bar (pr 40023) real time auto refresh on my requests page (pr 4774) tooltips on disabled ribbon buttons explaining why they are unavailable (pr 40270) clickable user and ticket links in workflow summaries (pr 34006) configurable sort order for tree views (pr 934) improved service overview on approver screen (pr 36708) consistent label alignment on daterange control (pr 40435) per user form customisation and child form events (pr 35676) overflow handling for long card titles (pr 34218) azure & cloud integration full pagination for microsoft graph api reads (pr 40161) multi valued business phone synchronisation from azure (pr 40056) cloud only manager sync support with none/ignore options (pr 35879) extended attributes re applied on each cache sync (pr 40197) corrected usn filter for deleted objects in ad compliance cache (pr 41282) data quality & reliability whitespace trimming on ldap queries and object names (pr 34309, pr 34185) workflow recursion and max job depth protection (pr 33837, pr 33593) invariant culture date time parsing (pr 36411) safe xml character handling during loadxml operations (pr 33913) correct email approval parsing for full email body content (pr 40469) correct time zone handling for dates (pr 40429) upn clean up for invalid characters in name generator (pr 3878) null check for evaluator trim function (pr 4331) treats empty innerxml as null service instance (pr 33878) correct variable check in sql utilities (pr 34863) developer & admin tools idatabase interface available in provisioning scripts (pr 40752) log file rotation and configurable size overrides (pr 40156) search in desktop studio controls toolbox (pr 41536) multi version exchange online powershell module support (pr 41370) multiple join clauses in common properties configuration (pr 34099) improved custom api responses for incorrect calls (pr 40264) getinternaldbpath methods on provisioning objects (pr 41331) supports encrypted credential storage on master site (pr 36472) better error when auth scheme not configured (pr 38680) clears stale data in desktop studio user property dialog (pr 34066) fixes grid filter for object type cells (pr 33867) fixed csv grid date/time export (pr 41739) error handling for recipient lookups (pr 40471) search & navigation multi field search with encrypted options on select object (pr 33769) fixes folder search path resolution (pr 35059) correctly displays id when displayid is set on service instances (pr 35292) support != operator in ldap to sql translation (pr 40123) improved search for shared mailboxes (pr 36970) services & workflows hides unpublished mailboxes from non editors (pr 34167) validates email addresses before digest send (pr 34197) removes editing for nested distribution list view members (pr 36221) shows service instances on completed jobs (pr 37327) editable by default only for submit user on update services (pr 35833) role based notification email address for digests (pr 36242) template refreshes on role change (pr 40216) fixed reading for metadata on folders (pr 35800) prevents undefined icon display on object cards (pr 35241) existing feature flag parameters can still be overridden per environment if needed to disable any individual behavior new feature flags (disabled by default) the following enhancements are delivered in this release but are not active by default they must be explicitly enabled via their feature flag parameter they will be enabled by default in a future release once validated across patch releases clear button on dropdowns (pr 3111) adds a clear button to dropdownlist controls for easy selection reset datepicker label tooltip (pr 4536) automatically shows a tooltip for long labels on datepicker controls that would otherwise be truncated favourites cleanup (pr 40372) automatically removes orphaned favourites when their target object is deleted file download filename (pr 4128) filedownload controls now respect the configured filename property instead of always using "export csv" optional panel checkbox alignment (pr 41499) consistent checkbox alignment across optional panel and standard checkbox controls textbox date label fix (pr 735) prevents label/placeholder overlap on date mode textbox controls html editor on approval screen (pr 4892) prevents javascript errors when service approval tiles contain htmleditor controls email log override info (pr 4412) shows the effective override recipient in email error logs for easier troubleshooting graph api mailbox polling (pr 4215) full migration of mailbox polling from ews to microsoft graph api (see above) page header scrolling (pr 42012) the page header now scrolls naturally with content instead of staying fixed, giving more vertical space import user empty data handling (pr 3314) empty or incomplete import records are skipped gracefully instead of failing the batch general bug fixes & maintenance small formatting, spelling, and visual enhancements upgrade notes webview2 runtime is now detected and installed as part of the installer itself previously, webview2 was installed on first launch via the configuration wizard in activate studio existing installations will already have it present this change primarily affects new installs, where the installer now handles webview2 setup directly rather than deferring it to first launch all other prerequisites remain the same as 8 3 x ( net 8 asp net core runtime windows hosting bundle and desktop runtime)