2025 Release One (1) Expere Engine and Tools Changelog

Expere Engine Release: 2025 Release One (1)External release date is March 2025. Expere Engine build number is: 25.1.0.6119.

Note: Users may notice that the 2025.1 Expere Engine release contains updates that reference the eOriginal SmartSign®+ solution. The Expere Engine is used to support both our Hosted and Self-Hosted ("On-Prem") customers, however, the updates made to support SmartSign®+ were implemented solely for our Hosted customers at this time.
Expere: ability to return document instance information
Summary: as part of our feature to integrate additional properties into a document instance, Expere now returns a new InstanceProperty element and Name and Value child elements in the Expere response when authoring Dynamic or EmbeddedPDF REQ document. For example, these elements can be authored to return non-signing entity information in the response.
Note:
  • There is a WSDL and simultaneous code change required for this feature.
  • Static documents are out of scope for this feature.
Expere: Overflow pages on Embedded PDF documents
Summary: Expere now supports Overflow Pages with EmbeddedPDF documents. See Feature page > Using Overflow pages with EmbeddedPDF REQ documents for more information.
Expere: XPath 1.0 Compatibility Mode updates
Summary: In preparation of our feature to disable XPath 1.0 Compatibility Mode, we have made the following updates:
  • Add New Parameter to APIs (PBI 843914): SelectAndGenerate and Generate APIs have been updated to accept an optional boolean parameter XPath_1_0_Compatibility. This parameter will overwrite the value set in BSI.Properties' com.bankerssystems.expere.xPath_1_0_Compatibility. Currently the default value for com.bankerssystems.expere.xPath_1_0_Compatibility is true.
    Note: In an upcoming release, the BSI.Properties' com.bankerssystems.expere.xPath_1_0_Compatibility default value will be changed to "false", which has the potential of causing transactions to fail. See the Feature page for more details.
  • Logging support increased (PBI 822858): we have increased our logging support when a transaction falls into XPath 1.0 Compatibility Mode, to include document information. An example log message would contain portions of the following (including the document name):
    2024-11-25 10:34:19,087 ERROR [com.pingdynasty] [][acf5e72fac194775bb9c27d8cf362c4d][PKG.Mortgage2Closing][INS.UniformResidentialLoanApplication-M2]
  • WARN log message added (PBI 859504): Expere log files have been updated to a WARN status when transactions fall into XPath1.0 Compatibility Mode but do not fail. Additional details, such as the XPath in question, are now displayed in the exception.
Expere: Expanding merging PDF options
Summary: we have completed the work to support merged PDF documents by Discrete Parties. The following functionality is supported:
  • Expere supports generating multiple merged PDF documents based on the discrete party or parties specified for each document through the use of new MergedCopyPDFDiscreteParty and PdfMergeDiscreteParty options.
  • Expere has been enhanced so that when either a MergedCopyPdfDiscreteParty or PdfMergeDiscreteParty ancillary output is passed the merged PDF files' Document Title is set to the original PacketName.
  • Both MergedCopyPDFDiscreteParty and PdfMergeDiscreteParty ancillary outputs are supported when Packets are authored as part of the PKG file in the content library.
WCAG: Expere Engine enhanced to support embedded and Tagged .PDF's
  • Type: Enhancement
  • Reference: PBI 855580, 840417, 833078, 837807, 845069, 846766, 849713, 851484, 852050, 813755
Summary: As a part of our continued effort to create WCAG compatible documents we have updated the Expere Engine to now support the generation of Tagged .PDF documents. We will continue making enhancements to the Expere Engine for Tagged .PDF support, so check back for items being identified and corrected. As part of our continued work to support Tagged .PDF's, we have implemented enhancements to resolve the following WCAG-related changes in Expere 2025 Release One:
  • Bookmark behavior enhanced (PBI 855580): users reported that bookmarks starting with the word "Initials" did not appear in the Bookmarks section of a tagged EmbeddedPDF document. In the example below, the bookmark for "Step 1 - Title Transaction Type" highlights "Initial Title" in the Bookmarks section of the tagged PDF document, however "Initial Title" does not appear in the Bookmarks section.

    This behavior has been enhanced so that bookmarks starting with the word "Initial" or "Signature" appear in the Bookmarks section for Tagged and standard EmbeddedPDF documents and Tagged Dynamic documents.

  • Tagged PDF document behavior enhanced when using eSignatures with XY Coordinates (PBI 813755): Tagged PDF documents have been enhanced to remove empty <P> tags in the Signature area when ESignatureAndFieldSupport ancillary option is not specified
  • "Characters in a text object cannot be mapped to Unicode" behavior addressed (PBI 840417): users reported that the PAC 24 WCAG validation tool was displaying a "Characters in a text object cannot be mapped to Unicode" error on merged, tagged PDF documents. Internal analysis determined that the issue occurred when a text form field contained an empty, flattened string value. Flattening the text form field creates a text object on the pdf, and since it is empty, it cannot be mapped to Unicode.

    This behavior has been addressed; merged, tagged PDF documents no longer produce the "Characters in text object cannot be mapped to Unicode" error in PAC 24.

  • Tagline field behavior enhanced (PBI 833078): it was reported that tagline "Form" fields in the source REQ file are appearing in the Adobe Acrobat Tag Tree for a tagged PDF document, despite not being authored.

    This behavior has been enhanced; when generating a tagged Embedded PDF document, tagline "Form" fields no longer appear in the Adobe Acrobat Tag Tree.

  • Assembled PDF Form field tag behavior enhanced (PBI 837807); users reported that Embedded PDF documents generated as tagged PDF's contained empty <Form> fields with the expectation that these fields contain a value extracted from the request transaction. This behavior has been enhanced: form fields are tagged correctly for Embedded PDF documents so that the value for the field is present in the tag tree.
  • <Form> tags replaced with <P> tags in certain situations (PBI 845069): a user reported that <Form> tags were incorrectly present in the Adobe Acrobat tag tree instead of a more appropriate <P> tag. This behavior has been enhanced to use <P> tags rather than the <Form> tag when populating the document with conditional data.
  • <Form> tags replaced with <Figure> tags in certain situations (PBI 846766): a user reported that <Form> tags were incorrectly present in the Adobe Acrobat tag tree instead of a more appropriate <Figure> tag when using checkboxes and radio buttons. This behavior has been enhanced to use <Figure> tags rather than the <Form> tag for checkboxes and radio buttons when these options are not fillable fields.
  • Table behavior enhanced when empty <TH> cells are present (PBI 849713): a user reported that empty heading cells in a table were being tagged as a <TH>. This behavior has been enhanced to now tag empty table heading cells as <TD>.
  • List tagging behavior updated (PBI 851484): it was reported that lists that did not contain a "marker" (in other words: a numerical value or a bullet) displayed a tag for a nonexistent marker in the Adobe Acrobat tag tree. This behavior has been updated so that these nonexistent markers no longer appear as tags in the Adobe Acrobat tag tree.
  • Alternate Text for Spanish Checkboxes (PBI 852050): it was reported that the alternate text for checkboxes in Spanish on documents generated from EmbeddedPDF REQ were in English. This behavior has been updated so that the alternate text for checkboxes indicated as Spanish (i.e. entire document is in Spanish or a section is in Spanish) reads in Spanish
Expere: Enhance ListAllOrganizations and ListOrganizations
  • Type: Enhancement
  • Reference: PBI 852317
Summary: users reported that ListAllOrganizations did not return 'OrganizationDescription' when using a File System like it does when using the database to store content.

Expere's ListAllOrganizations and ListOrganizations APIs have been updated to return 'OrganizationDescription' as specified in the Organization.xml for 'OrganizationDescription' in both responses when using the File System to store content. If Organization.xml does not specify an 'OrganizationDescription', then 'org name' will be returned for 'OrganizationDescription' in the response.
Expere: FooterNotice’s MiddlePages attribute update
  • Type: Enhancement
  • Reference: PBI 860750
Summary: users reported that initial fields in the FooterNotice were not fillable for all middle pages when MiddlePages=yes was specified in the .REQ file. This behavior has been enhanced so that when MiddlePages=yes is specified in the FooterNotice, all middle pages will have fillable initial fields in the FooterNotice for standard and Tagged PDF documents.
Expere: Embedded PDF updated to support a SignatureType of "Initials"
  • Type: Enhancement
  • Reference: PBI 823346
Summary: users requested that the Expere Engine be updated so that the SignatureType element can be set to "Initials" for an Embedded PDF document, resulting in a <SignaturePoint> element containing a <Type> value of "Initials". This is done in the Product Technical Rule (PTR) in the native REQ file; see Modifying the PTR for the Signature Areas - Static/PDF > Step Two (2) in the Requirements Editor (RE4) User Guide for more information.

Expere is updated so that when "SignatureType:Initials" is authored for a field on an EmbeddedPDF, the Expere Response includes a <SignaturePoint> with <Type> value of "Initials".
Expere: PDF behavior enhanced when attempting to digitally sign multi-signature document
  • Type: Enhancement
  • Reference: PBI 843273
Summary: users reported that when digitally signing a multi-signature PDF document would result in an error when saving the document. Users were forced to close Adobe Acrobat and reopen it in order to digitally sign and then save the document. Expere has been enhanced so that users are not required to exit Adobe Acrobat and reopen a document in order to sign it multiple times.
Expere: Embedded PDF - Conditioning Fillable Field
  • Type: Enhancement
  • Reference: PBI 823345
Summary: currently fillable fields on Embedded PDF documents do not honor conditional logic on when the field appears as a fillable field. Expere has been enhanced so that conditional logic can be added to FieldFields of all types (i.e. ‘Initial’, ‘Text’) to allow users to electronically enter data.
Expere: Internal Code Optimization when using Expere EZ Config Packages and Packets logos
  • Type: Enhancement
  • Reference: PBI 850491, 850662
Summary: as part of a regular cadence to review and upgrade any items used with our Expere application, the Engine has been undergone a code optimization to better support logos used with Expere EZ Config Packages and Packets.
Expere: Logging enhanced
  • Type: Enhancement
  • Reference: PBI 848421
Summary: we have enhanced logging to provide more details about how long it takes to complete a transaction.
Note: No user action is required. Integrators may notice an increase in the size of Expere log files; if noticing a slight performance issue, additional logging can be turned off through the following line in the log4j2.xml file:
<Logger name="performance.com.bankerssystems.framework.services.Microflow" 
additivity="false" level="info"> <AppenderRef ref="CONSOLE"/></Logger>
Guidance provided when multiple instances of Expere.NET are installed on the same virtual machine (VM)
Summary: the Expere Implementation Guide has been updated to instruct users on how to update their configuration setting to generate Log messages when multiple instances of Expere .NET are installed on the same VM. See Expere Implementation Guide > Before Installing > Installing multiple Expere .NET or WildFly versions on the same server for more information.
Expere: Logging enhanced when more than one eNote is autoselected
  • Type: Enhancement
  • Reference: PBI 852175
Summary: we have enhanced logging when more than one eNote gets autoselected.
Note: Transactions attempting to generate multiple eNotes will still fail.
Expere: Logging enhanced for packet-level ancillary output options
  • Type: Enhancement
  • Reference: PBI 851089, 848145
Summary: we have enhanced logging regarding packet-level ancillary output options. Additional details, including the stack trace, are provided about whether or not packet-level ancillary output options are being used.
Expere: installation enhanced to use JRE
  • Type: Enhancement
  • Reference: PBI 864409
Summary: the Expere Installation with WildFly has been updated to use a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) instead of a Java Developer Kit (JDK) in order to reduce the installation size.
Expere: SmartDoc/eNote ARC validation updated
  • Type: Enhancement
  • Reference: PBI 851965
Summary: when the mask $#,###.## was being passed, the DataLinkDescription value was not appending the cents to the dollar amount. Expere has been updated so that the correct number of zeroes are now appended in order to match the format of the mask; for example: "1000" becomes "1000.00".
SMARTDoc user documentation enhancements
Summary: the SMART Doc validation tables in the Using SMART Doc functionality / dynamic Expere eNotes online help topic has been updated to include a comprehensive list of defined Output Format selections and their corresponding SMART Doc Mask options.
Expere: Security Issue and Component Upgrades
  • Type: Maintenance
  • Reference: PBI 853704, 844857, 826968, 840186, 848185, 840187, 840188, 846840, 858126, 864522
Summary: As part of a regular cadence to review and upgrade any items used with Expere Engine for security issue and component upgrades, we have upgraded the following:
  • Security Issue Upgrades:
    • WildFly 35.0.1
    • FOP 2.10
  • Upgrades:
    • Amazon Corretto 21.0.6.7.1
    • Apache Commons IO, version 2.17.0
Note: No user action is required.
Expere: large XML request optimization
  • Type: Maintenance
  • Reference: PBI 850716
Summary: As part of a regular cadence to review and upgrade any items used with our Expere applications, our code was optimized to better handle how our microservices handle large XML requests; no user impact is expected.
Expere: Sequencing issue of Signature / Signature Date fields for WKES
  • Type: Defect
  • Reference: PBI 840807
Issue: it was reported that the signature date field was being sequenced higher than the signature field when using Wolters Kluwer E-Sign (WKES) ancillary output; this sequencing value is part of the signature date field naming convention (for example: WKES_Signdate_firstname_lastname@domain.com_10028-28). WKES has a requirement that signature fields are the highest sequenced field for our signers. As a result, the signature date field did not display a value on the signed document.
Solution: This behavior has been enhanced so that signature date fields once again display a value on the signed document by modifying the sequencing so that signature fields contain the highest sequenced number in its naming convention.