2026 Release One (1) Expere Engine and Tools Changelog

Expere Engine Release: 2026 Release One (1)External release date is February 2026. Expere Engine build number is: 2026.1.0.1600.

Note: Users may notice that the 2026.1 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 but have Engine changes that Self-Hosted users will notice. See Changelog entries below for more information.
Expere: SmartSign Plus® integration
Summary: as part of our ongoing work to integrate SmartSign Plus® with Expere, the following functionality has been implemented in the 2026.1 release:
  • Document delivery suppression for unmatched participants (PBI 908239): document package generation was enhanced to suppress delivery of document instances when their discrete party IDs or signature sections are not found in the participant collection. This prevents unmatched documents from being delivered or reassigned to other participants.
    What's Changed?
    • When a document instance has a discrete party ID or signature section not found in the participant collection, it is now completely suppressed from delivery
    • Documents with at least one matching participant ID are now only assigned to those specific participants
    • eSign documents without all required signers are automatically converted to paper format
    • Status messages now provide clear warnings about undelivered documents or conversion to paper format

    Impact: this change ensures that only valid participants receive their intended documents, improving document delivery accuracy and preventing potential errors from unmatched document instances.

  • EOriginalVaultName and EOriginalTransactionTypeName noted as optional elements (PBI 875061): the SmartSign Plus Feature Guide has been updated to note that the following XPaths should be considered optional when passing these in a request:
    • /Txn/EOriginalVaultName
    • /Txn/EOriginalTransactionTypeName
  • Improved Handling of Package Destruction Requests (PBI 906301): the SmartSign Plus integration was enhanced to handle package IDs more gracefully in redraw requests.

    What’s Changed:

    • Ignored Unknown Package IDs: if a package ID is not found in the database, the system will ignore it without error.
    • Skip Destruction Without Package ID: when destruction is requested but no package ID is provided, the destruction process will be skipped.
    • Logging Verification: system logs now clearly indicate that destruction was not executed in these cases, ensuring transparency and traceability.

    Impact:

    This update prevents unnecessary errors and ensures that destruction operations only occur when valid package IDs are provided, improving system reliability and audit compliance. For more information, see SmartSign Plus Feature Guide > eNote Destruction Workflow Outline > Nonexistent Package ID's.

  • Multiple RembrandID values now result in a single Participant (PBI 885502): Expere has been enhanced so that when multiple unique RembrandID values are present for the same person responsible for multiple roles, only one Participant ID is created in SmartSign Plus. See SmartSign+ Feature Guide: Print fulfillment workflow > Participant-level > NOTE > First Bullet and SmartSign+ Feature Guide: Expere Transaction XPaths for eOriginal > Participants collection > ...RembrandtIDRefs for more information.
  • Support for Credential Passing Added (PBI 901255, 901254): integrators can now pass credentials directly within the request. Credentials and the appropriate Package ID* can be included as a base64-encoded JSON string in a custom http header (X-SmartSignPlus-Configuration) within the following fields of the request.
    • Login ID
    • API Key
    • Client ID
    • Client Secret
    • Organization ID
    • Lender Name
    • Package ID (used for redraws)
    Sample JSON string:
    
{
  "loginId": "xxxxxxxxxxx",
  "apiKey": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
  "clientId": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
  "clientSecret": "xxxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx-xxxxx",
  "organizationId": "123456789",
  "lenderName": "xxxxxxxxxx",
  "packageId": "" 
}
WCAG: Expere Engine enhanced to support embedded and Tagged .PDF's
  • Type: Enhancement
  • Reference: PBI 845003, 884956
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 the 2026.1 release:
  • Reference symbols / notes tagging behavior enhanced (PBI 845003): reference symbols (for example: "SM" or "*") and their related notes are now tagged using the <Reference> and <Note>tags, respectively, in the Adobe Acrobat tag tree for dynamic and Embedded PDF documents. This provides the user with proper context and allows them to navigate and interact with the data at their discretion.
  • <Lbl> tagging behavior enhanced (PBI 884956): the Expere Engine has been enhanced so that <P> tags are no longer present as child tags of <Lbl> tags in a tagged dynamic or Embedded PDF document.
Expere: Improved Embedded PDF Overflow Handling
  • Type: Enhancement
  • Reference: PBI 879531
Summary: Embedded PDF generation behavior has been enhanced so that when text fits within the original field and does not require an overflow page, no forwarding messages are necessary (such as "See Attached").
What's Changed?
  • Embedded PDF generation now matches Static PDF behavior when handling fields with ContinueOnOverflowPage behavior
  • Forwarding messages no longer appear when text fits entirely within the source field
Impact: This change improves consistency between Static and Embedded PDF output and prevents unnecessary forwarding messages from appearing in documents.
Expere: Improved PDF Tag Structure for Overflow Field Descriptions
  • Type: Enhancement
  • Reference: 895760
Summary: the tagging and bookmark logic has been enhanced for embedded PDF documents to align with accessibility standards and provide a better user experience.
What's Changed?
  • Heading-Based Bookmarks: Bookmarks are now authored with appropriate heading tags when applicable; for example: H1 - <HeadingText>.
  • Overflow Page Tagging: Overflow pages are displayed as <P> tags in the tag tree, ensuring proper semantic structure.
  • Bookmark Exclusions: Overflow page descriptions are no longer added as bookmarks, reducing clutter and improving navigation.
Impact: these updates enhance document accessibility and ensure compliance with tagging best practices, making navigation clearer for assistive technologies.
Expere Engine: File extension handling corrected for mixed document packages
  • Type: Defect Correction
  • Reference: PBI 916542
Summary: it was reported that commercial packages containing a mix of static and dynamic documents displayed an RTF extension for these documents, regardless of the actual file type generated. Now, appropriate file extensions (RTF or PDF) are correctly displayed based on document type.
What's Changed?
  • The InstanceFileName in the XML response and document package now correctly reflects whether a document is RTF or PDF format.
  • Static documents properly maintain their PDF format when included in commercial packages.
  • Mixed document packages containing both RTF and PDF files now display the accurate file extensions.
Impact: This correction ensures that when you generate commercial packages containing mixed document types, the file extensions accurately reflect the actual document format, improving document handling in downstream processes.
Expere Engine: Improved filesystem-only configuration
  • Type: Enhancement
  • Reference: 903121
Summary: Expere will no longer attempt to connect to a database if it is not configured to do so in its properties, thus avoiding extraneous error messages from being printed to the log files.
Impact: Expere Engine
Expere Engine: Saxon-HE Library Updated
  • Type: Maintenance
  • Reference: PBI 891886
Summary: The Saxon-HE library utilized by Expere has been updated to the latest available version, ensuring the system operates with the latest XML processing capabilities.
What's Changed? The underlying Saxon-HE XML processing update applies to the Expere Engine, Hosted Expere environment, and Document Generation Services. Comprehensive regression testing and content comparison validation were performed to ensure system stability.
Impact: there is no discernable impact to the end user.
Expere Engine: Monthly Component Updates
  • Type: Maintenance
  • Reference: PBI 909766, 904315, 837965, 881041, 836365, 917866, 914302, 895847
Summary: As part of a regular cadence to review and upgrade any items used with the Expere Engine for security issue and monthly component upgrades, we have upgraded the following:
  • Security Issue Upgrades:
    • WireMock.Net
    • ASP.NET / ASP.NET Core
    • azure-sdk-for-net
    • System.Formats.Asn1
    • Log4j2
  • Maintenance Upgrades:
    • Amazon Corretto Java was updated to the latest available version.
    • WildFly was updated to the latest available version.
Note: No user action is required.