Create cases on receipt of an SMS or WhatsApp Message

SMS or WhatsApp numbers can be registered with Vonage. Then messages sent to these numbers will create a new case. Subsequent messages from the same number will be added to the existing case creating a conversation. Once the case has been closed the next message will open a new case.

This features supports greater access by remote communities to services. For example a beneficiary of an aid program could submit a complaint via SMS without needing to see a representative of the Aid program in person. In a justice scenario a member of a remote community could submit a crime report via WhatsApp or SMS. The police could then respond to that report and ask follow up questions using the same channel. The case can then be closed or progressed through to the courts. For both of these scenarios, at every stage of the complaint process the community member can be kept informed and asked follow up questions.

Record conversations with third parties within a case

Conversations over SMS and WhatsApp with the person who opened a case using a message or anyone else involved in the case can be recorded inside a “conversation” question. There is also partial support for including email conversations which will be expanded on in the next release.

Other

1. Performance improvements to the processing of submissions. Multiple processors can now be started in parallel to apply updates to the database. This can deliver performance improvements on high volume servers.
2. Allow fieldTask to use tokens, scanned by a QR code, in order to logon to the server.
3. Added support for AWS SES email services. These are accessed using the AWS API and AWS credentials rather than SMTP.
4. Send email tasks at the time they are scheduled instead of immediately.
5. Fixed issues with login timing out just before an API request to the backend. These timeouts have to be explicitly handled whereas requests for a new HTML page are handled automatically be the session manager.
6. Removed blank choices from choice lists in oversight forms.
7. Removed feedback that a valid email address has been found when performing a password reset.
8. Added authorisation check to presentation of API page.
9. Removed compressed files from the list of valid shared resource files.
10. Converted export to spreadsheet requests from the console to use multipart mime formats. The previous form encoded approach was causing problems with Web Application Firewalls when there was a lot of data.