Release Notes

Version

• Backend: 2.2.50
• Frontend: 1.5.7

FRONTEND:

Feature: The copy Icon appears in the Name/Title field in the table when the user copies content from the Preview opened in a new tab

This feature is now also available when the Preview is opened in a new tab:  The copy icon appears in the Name/Title field in the table when the user selects using “Ctrl+ A and Ctrl +C” or selects a part of the text and Ctrl +C on the keyboard.

Bug: Empty Preview when a user clicks on an already selected story and the preview is closed

When a user selects a story, the preview is opened. If the preview was closed again and the user clicked on the already selected story, the preview was empty. This was fixed.

Bug: The story name was not shown in the edit meta

The story name wasn’t shown in the edit meta window. This was fixed.

BACKEND:

Feature: New dpa Format: Digital Wires now integrated in BrixWire

The dpa is transitioning its news format from XML to the modern JSON-based format, “Digital Wires.” This innovative format enables seamless integration of multimedia elements into news articles. At BrixWire, we’ve successfully integrated the jsonfeed API. This ensures that all BrixWire users are well-prepared for the transition.

Available APIs

jsonfeed

• Allows retrieval of current articles of a profile, including metadata and image links, via an HTTP request.
• Structurally similar to Atom-XML or RSS feeds but uses JSON as the data format.

s3push

• Transfers new or updated articles directly to a customer’s S3 bucket.
• Articles can be regularly fetched or converted into custom formats via cloud functions (e.g., AWS Lambda) and automatically imported into the CMS.

wireq

• Displays current articles of a profile, including metadata and image links, via a queue-based delivery.
• Articles can be retrieved with a RESTful request and removed from the queue after successful import.

Feature: Integration of IPTC Genres

We successfully integrated the IPTC Genres into BrixWire, indicating a news item’s nature, journalistic, or intellectual characteristics.

Feature: Monitoring on all input/output plugins

Our monitoring now shows RSS check error handling, FileSystemInputPlugin, FileSystemPollingInputPlugin and AWSS3InputPlugin.

Bug: RemoveChannel revise

Remove Channel works for both inputs and outputs via the same ID. A publication may only be deleted if both the input and the output are to disappear. Otherwise, the substructure must be retained. This was fixed.

Bug: Meta display: Person collection contains duplicates

The person’s meta display was often full of duplicates. This was fixed.

Bug: Concatenation of Priorities with DPA Digital Wires

The new JSON format does provide more than one priority. If a story contains multiple priorities (by subject code), the priorities were concatenated, ending in priorities like 41 or alike. This was fixed.

Version

• Backend: 2.2.46
• Frontend: 1.5.3

FRONTEND:

Feature: Editor Integration

It is now possible to edit the Content of a Story and save it back to BrixWire. The editor is accessible over the sidebar and opens instead of the preview window. You can use the editor to edit the content of a story or enhance it after creating a variant with the help of artificial intelligence. As of now, the editor supports the following formats:

• Headlines (h1-h4)
• Inline styles like bold, italic, underline
• Images
• Links

Through transformations, an edited story will remain in the same format, so the story can be used effortlessly in your workflow after editing it.

The editor is in early development. Other features and formats will come soon.

Feature: BrixWire runs on a Tablet

Brixwire now can be used on tablets (Android and iOS). On the tablet, the preview is positioned above the table. This can be resized vertically by pressing between the table and the preview and dragging up/down. To display the full-text search and departments in the navigation bar, click on the search icon. To display the context menu (options) for a news item in the table, press and hold it. Otherwise, the operation does not differ from the desktop version.

Feature: Feedback Option to BrixWire

We integrated a feedback button under the icon where you manage your user account. If you click on the button, you are directed to a feedback form, where you can choose your request, e.g. new requirement, error, etc. In the comment box, you can leave a message and then send it directly to BrixWire. The feedback button can be shown or hidden via the Mandator Config.

Feature: The copy Icon appears in the Name/Title field in the table when the user copies content from the Preview

The copy icon appears in the Name/Title field in the table when the user selects using “Ctrl+ A and Ctrl +C” or selects a part of the text and Ctrl +C on the keyboard.

Bug: After Re-logon the wrong column is selected

When ordering by the column ImportDate (descending), after logging out and logging in, the database selected according to StoryDate (descending). This was fixed.

Bug: Message „Configuration change has been adjusted“ appears too often

The message „Configuration change has been adjusted“ appeared several times in quick succession. This was fixed.

Version

• Backend: 2.2.45
• Frontend: 1.5.2

BACKEND:

Feature: RSS Content Scraping (AI-based Scraping Extension) for permitted Pages

Previously, integrated RSS feeds from official sites, such as police reports or court reports, only displayed the headline of the report and a link to the page in the Preview. As a result of scraping, the entire message is now displayed with a note at the end Scraped from.

You can use this to integrate RSS feeds directly into BrixWire and receive important reports from the police etc. in full length and in real time.

Feature: Bloomberg Integration

We successfully integrated Bloomberg as a news source to BrixWire.

Feature: Use of default publication if no publication is selected on export

If no publication is selected on export, the default publication is used.

Version

• Backend: 2.2.42
• Frontend: 1.4.8

FRONTEND:

Additional feature: Dictionary links for additional background information

This feature is included in our AI package: We have integrated Wiki-Links for persons, locations, and organizations. The links enable direct background research and make journalistic work easier.

Wiki is just a sample for Integration. Any public or internal information system for background links can be installed.

Additional feature: Map display: Color scheme for drawing pins

This feature is included in our AI package: For a better overview, the drawing pins have now different colors. If you click on a drawing pin, the color changes from blue to green and the corresponding preview of the story opens. All drawing pins with priority 1 of the corresponding stories are now red. All the other drawing pins are blue.

BACKEND:

Feature: Private RSS Output for customers

It is now possible to publish stories from a BrixWire Server to an RSS Output. This feature can be used as a collaboration tool, to inform absent users, if something important has changed with the current news situation. A use case would require an RSS Reader on a Smartphone or Computer.

Feature: Monitoring Extension SSO

SSO is now part of the monitoring integration.

Feature: DPA Subject Code to add Media topics to XSL

DPA changed its subject code format from IPTC to Media topics. This change was configured and mapped in BrixWire. It is possible to support sources that deliver IPTC subject codes and media topics in parallel.

Bug: DPA Stories deliver incomplete links

Links without a protocol did not lead to the correct target page. This was fixed by prefixing them with https://, making them clickable for the users.

Version

• Backend: 2.2.39
• Frontend: 1.4.5

FRONTEND:

Changed: New Frontend version

The frontend supports now Angular Version 16.

Additional feature: Map display

This feature is included in our AI package:  Integration of map display. You can switch between the news display and the map display. The map display shows you all location drawing pins for all the stories and gives you a detailed view of where all the stories take place. If you click on a drawing pin, the correspondent preview of the story opens. You can also zoom in and out on the map.

You can set filters in either display, and the filtered stories are shown on the map. It is possible to differentiate the news in three categories depending on the colour: red for news with priority type 1, blue as the default colour and green for the news selected for preview.

Feature: Marked or stamped stories not deleted

It is now possible, that marked or stamped stories are not deleted (by configuration), if desired.

Feature: Stories in folders not deleted

It is now possible, that stories in folders are not deleted (by configuration), if desired.

Feature: Priority reason and Breaking news Prio in Preview

Now you can see why the story has the shown priority and if the news are breaking news or not.

Feature: Test of UI for tablets (Android and iPad)

We are testing our User Interface for tablets and are developing an appropriate UI in the future.

Bug: Selecting a story stored in a folder doesn’t show a preview

When a user stored a story in a folder and selected it, the preview was not displayed. It is fixed now.

Bug: Synchronization between top-level search bar and filter dialog not working

A filter, i.e. for the language German, was preselected in the filter dialog, but the language in the top-level bar was empty. This was fixed.

Bug: Tooltips remain visible

In certain circumstances, the tooltips remained visible and only disappeared again after pressing the Alt key. This was fixed.

Bug: The corresponding filter to a deleted search profile is still active

After deleting a search profile, the corresponding filter is still active, now fixed.

Bug: Extended departments cannot be saved in the quick filter

Extended departments (e.g. politics/diplomacy) cannot be saved in the quick filter, it is now fixed.

Bug: CSS for h1, h2 and h3 tags is wrong in creating variants

The formatting for headers (h1, h2 and h3) in creating variants was not set appropriately. It is fixed now.

Bug: Navigation with arrow keys to the next/previous page shows no preview update

If you navigate beyond the paging area (i.e. from 100 to 101), the preview will no longer be updated. It is now fixed.

Bug: Search term no longer exists in full-text search, but filter is still displayed

A search term, i.e. “Business” is entered in the full-text search and is also displayed in the quick filter and advanced filter and then filtered (current session). After logging out and logging in after several hours the filters are still present, but the search term „Business“ no longer appears in the full-text search. Now fixed.

BACKEND:

Changed: New Backend version

The backend supports now .net 8.

Changed: New column “Displayed name” for Publications

Administration/Publications: the new column “Displayed name” was introduced to rename publications and provide reasonable names. This was formerly possible over the publication name but must be changed since the update of the imports overwrites the Publication name and the inherited name has to be saved.

Feature: Max age (days) is now available for publications

Administration/Publications: It is now possible to edit how long incoming stories from a publication are kept in the News Browser. This feature was formerly only supported by channels.

Feature: Integration Xinhua feeds

We successfully integrated Xinhua feeds for one of our customers.

Feature: Monitoring

Scraping Prometheus Metrics is now possible without authentication (by configuration).

Bug: Empty story causes problems

When an empty story is delivered via Filesystem / FTP etc., the lock isn’t being released. Now fixed.

Version

• Backend: 2.2.36
• Frontend: 1.4.4

Feature: Purple integration

Plugins for importing and exporting stories via Purple (https://www.purplepublish.com/en/purplepublish, provided by SpryLab) have been created and can be used for BrixWire.

Feature: Facebook integration

Similar to our Telegram plugins, we can access Facebook for input and output of content.

Feature: Display for active filters

The UI shows whether a filter is currently active on the right above the table. The filter can also be deleted via this display. The icon will be replaced with a filter icon, but this can only be done after the Angular version has been updated.

Changed: Cardinality of the prompts is taken into account

When defining a prompt, you can specify whether it is applicable for one, for one + any number or for 2+ stories. The selection in the output is adjusted accordingly.

Changed: Variant date

If a variant of a story is created, the story date of the original story is retained. If several stories are used to create a variant, the story date is set to the most recent of the stories contained.

Changed: Search with followed by

The search has been extended by a „followed-by“ masking to solve the Update 6 problem.

Example: „South Korea“ as a search term finds all articles in which Korea follows South. If it is entered without masking, both South and Korea must be present in the article, a valid hit would also be: South of North Korea.

Limitation: the search works exactly, the highlighting in the preview and in the table is problematic due to performance. In individual cases, too much is highlighted here.

Feature: New column Hist

Shows the previous processing steps in the story, abbreviations are:

• Translations (Translate): T
• Speech to text (Speech2Text): S2T
• Internet analysis with link enrichment (Research): R
• Conversion, for example inverted commas in De-de to Ch-de: IC
• Variant generated via AI (AI Variant): AIV
• AI-based metaextraction: ME
• Verification analysis (VerificationProcessing): VP
• Text to speech (Speech2Text): T2S

If the column is empty, the story is unchanged.

Changed: Content for AI-Integration

In contrast to social media channels, agency reports often have editorial notes. These are excluded for AI integration. Reuters, for example, includes the EdNotes directly in the body and separation is not possible here.

Changed: Display metadata in the preview

The display of metas is now more clearly organised.

You can see this particularly clearly on the Spotlight servers

Changed: Import date and story date in preview

Previously, Created and Updated were displayed in the preview for the story. Now the import date and story date relevant to the story are displayed.

Changed: Shortcuts in the table context menu

Shortcuts for the table were improved (shift instead of alt as they were intercepting with other shortcuts), to visualize all of them you can click on alt while in the News Browser and all the shortcuts will appear.

Changed: Search profile mask has been extended

For the search profile mask, there are now new buttons at the top.

Version

BrixWire Spotlight

Version

Bug: Preselected value of Source select gets lost

On Browser Configuration change, the preselected value still stays selected

Changed: Alternating rows

Works now also for priority rows, where the background color is not configured

Feature: Closing dialogs with “ESC”

In order to extend the coverage of keyboard functionality, all dialogs can be closed with the escape key.

Feature: Export from the preview in new tab

The export functionality is also available from the preview in a new tab. The preview in a new tab can be opened by double-clicking a row, pressing the key “o” while a row is focused, by the context menu or the icon in the preview.

Changed: Usability improvements in creating variant dialog

Through the preselection of default options or the selection of the only option, the user requires fewer clicks when creating a variant.

Feature: Generic publishing

The export dialog is built with generic options, which allows a provider-specific configuration. The selection can be saved in a publishing profile.

Feature: Locations and parties in meta display

The specific locations and parties (persons) of a story are shown in the meta display.

Bug: The export profile is not synchronized in the new tab

The selected publishing profile in the news browser was not synchronized with the publishing profile in the new tab. This is resolved, and the profiles are synchronized.

Version

Feature: Plugin RSS Output

It is now possible to publish to RSS feeds. UC for this is collaboration. The publisher can define publications and subject codes for the RSS Output and the team can connect (offline as well) via smartphone to the RSS Feeds of the configured publications / subject codes

Feature: Plugin Mail Output

It is possible to attach mail accounts as output (export) possibilities. At the time of writing, no sender list or alike can be used. Mails can be sent either in plain text or in HTML (formatting remains, and links do work). This depends on the Use case of the receiver

Feature: Text2Speech ElevenLabs

The Eleven Labs speech synthetization has been integrated into a workflow extension. By this, it is possible to create a spoken version of the selected article. If this is interesting, get in contact with us for details.

Changed: Configuration Change

The configuration within MandatorConfig for FilterPublications4StoryLanguage was removed. Reason: it touches all publications, and you could not mix, e.g. if the mail or RSS plugin is installed. Now it can be done publication-wise within publication maintenance. If You want to have language-specific behaviours for a publication, uncheck the “language agnostic” checkbox for the publication.

Changed: AI compliance tracking

if a story was modified or created as a variant by a workflow extension, this is stored in the DB. The following attributes are stored

• what type of extension, e.g. Translation, Variant generator, etc

• what extension plugin was used to execute the desired step

• when did it happen

• what were the parameters controlling the task

The assigned metadata can be viewed in the metadata section of the story preview.

Bug: select different prompt, options from the previous one remain visible

Enables changing between different models/prompts with a list of various length options.

Feature: Speech to Text

Audio files can be transcribed into text.

Feature: Help document in English

The help document is now available in English.

Bug: Display of Sources according to user permissions in News Browser

Sources are now displayed according to the logged-in user’s permission to view the articles from different sources.

Version

Feature: Monitoring system with Grafana

• Implementation is based on Prometheus as data target and source
• Add metrics collector for system and network metrics
• Add metrics collector for BrixWire components (The part is currently under development and not all metrics are available)
  • • Input plugins (RSS, FileSystem, RemoteFileSystem)
    • Output plugins
    • Disk capacity
    • Number of users currently logged in
• Grafana dashboards
  • • Process overview
    • Application overview

Feature: remove Story Variant Controller

Technical issue: implementation is not needed any longer, so checking and removing it. Does not have an impact on anything.

Feature: several stories can be chosen as input for AI-based variants

It is now possible to select several stories for the creation of an AI-based variant. To-Do: work required for prompt engineering.

Bug: select a different prompt, options from the previous one remain visible

Enables changing between different models/prompts with a list of options of various lengths.

Feature: Variant Generation via ChatGPT

Variant Generation of one or more stories is possible, using the UI. Click one or more stories and select a prompt. The prerequisite for this is

• Access to ChatGPT API (Token is required)

• At least one preconfigured prompt to tell the API what to do

• it is currently enabled on UA.brixspotlight.com

We follow the approach to offer preconfigured prompts which can be made context-sensitive by embedding variables. By this, the publisher can, but is not forced to, restrict the use cases for AI-based text operations.

Feature: Translation via ChatGPT

An alternative translation plugin was provided, which is based on ChatGPT. It works comparable to DeepL or the other commercial translation APIs, it works far better than the open source-based Libre translate plugin.

Feature: Story names should be editable

When reading an input channel, one or more publications are created for that channel. It is possible to rename them in the admin UI and provide reasonable names. This may be useful for:

• Agency feeds: Provider / Service / Product fields often contain abbreviations, which are hard to decipher. Pass in a speaking name, this will appear in NewsBrowser

• Import of foreign publications with e.g. Cyrillic or Chinese letters: Though you got the possibility to translate all incoming content by the use of workflow extensions, publication names remain not understandable.

Bug: search for dash leads to wrong results

Not a 100% solution, so should be watched. It is replaced by the followed by as PostgreSQL does not support character escapes.

Bug: user was able to delete shared search profiles

This bug could lead to destroyed profile handling and is fixed.

Feature: publications can be renamed

This supports two different use cases:

• if imports of foreign sources with different alphabets are imported (like Cyrillic) a Latin or translated name will help

• agencies deliver several “products”, i.e. special sports or regional topics, grouped by a product. Those products do carry names, which are not mnemonic.

Feature: view of versions and variants

Versions of a story are popular with agency imports, variants start their life with some kind of transformation, e.g. a translation. Both can be viewed in the UI (Preview pane). They are only visible if either a variant or a version is existing.

Feature: new columns StoryDate and ImportDate

New columns are inserted, they will replace existing ones (Created and Updated) in the future.

• StoryDate: tells, when the story did happen

• ImportDate: either when the story was created or updated. Time information is from the server

Sorting for both makes sense:

ImportDate descending: the latest imported (unread) story is displayed on the Top

StoryDate descending: the latest story (when did it happen) is displayed on the Top

Feature: configurable search fields

Within Mandator Config it is possible to configure the search fields, i.e. their visibility, sequence, and area can be configured. Areas are regions, where search fields are offered.

Changed: additional links for publisher-specific help files

It is possible to extend the links for help by the mandator config. The provided help files can be either replaced or added.

Feature: Support for Unity Tenant Group (TXG)

Users are now allowed to select Publication Group in the Export dialog under Publication, and a list of tenants is exported as metadata to Unity.

Feature: Open a confirm dialog for saving a standard profile

When saving a standard GUI profile, a warning dialog will pop up to confirm the saving of a standard profile.

Bug: “author” meta was not mapped when exporting from BrixWire to Unity (TXG)

The user who exported the article to Unity (author) was not visible in Unity, now fixed.

Bug: Choices not kept in the export window

When a publishing profile is saved and exported, the next time the user tries to export a different article, the last used publish profile is now saved in the database, so that users can use it on a different browser or a device.

Bug: Changing the dropdown in the advanced filter will clear all the text fields

Changing any dropdown list was clearing already filled text fields is now fixed.

Changed: Added correct French translations for News Browser and Help document

Added correct French translations.