What's New in K2 Five (5.5)

The latest release expands on the previous release with new features, enhancements, and bug fixes.

  • Installer
    • For enhancements and new prerequisites when installing or upgrading, see the K2 Five Installation and Configuration Guide's What's New topic.
  • Workflow
    • Start when any Workflow Errors start event: Use this start event to start a workflow when any workflow in your K2 environment goes into an error state. You can use a simple global "catch all" error handling workflow that sends an email when any workflow goes into an error state. Or, for more specific error handling, use a Conditional Start Rule to only start when a particular workflow (meeting the condition criteria) goes into an error state. For an example on configuring a Conditional Start Rule on the Start when any Workflow Errors event, see the Example of an error handling workflow configured with a Conditional Start Rule section in this topic. For a how to example see How to: Use the Workflow Error Event.
  • Package and deployment
    • Create K2 Packages using PowerShell: The PowerShell snap-in can be used to automate the creation and deployment of single or multiple artifact packages from source environments to target environments. This is especially useful where it is necessary to make regular or frequent package creation or deployments, or where script-based installations and updates may be preferred.
  • Smartforms
    • Table control:Background tab added, with configurations for color, background image, shadow, and rounded corners.
    • Table control: Responsive property added, allowing table rows to automatically stack vertically on smaller screens.
    • Control Name extensibility: You can now use the control Name property to identify a specific control at runtime when using custom CSS and JavaScript. This feature is currently available on specific controls, such as the Calendar control.
  • The following SmartForm control titles no longer allow injected HTML styling:
    • Form Tab control
    • Report Header control
    • All Reporting Grid controls
    • All Reporting Chart controls

    The title fields of these controls previously had an undocumented feature that may have been discovered by solution designers that allowed them to add custom styling by injecting HTML into the title fields. Use the Data Label custom CSS or javascript methods to configure your custom HTML. For more information see Change in behavior for SmartForm control titles.

  • Support for InfoPath was removed in K2 Five (5.0) and was tightly coupled with SharePoint 2010 which prevented upgrades if SharePoint 2010 components were installed, however some components of InfoPath remained installed. With K2 Five (5.5)these remaining components are being removed. Any legacy workflows built in K2 Studio or K2 for Visual Studio using InfoPath wizards will receive an error; and workflows created in the legacy Silverlight designer containing InfoPath steps will not load. Rebuild all affected workflows in the latest K2 workflow designer.

  • Internet Explorer 11 is unsupported and the K2 designer and K2 runtime functionality is blocked.

  • Microsoft is ending support for Silverlight on October 12, 2021. As a result the K2 legacy Silverlight designer has been blocked from K2 Five (5.5). If you upgraded from K2 blackpearl 4.7 to K2 Five and are still using workflows built in the designer, you must rebuild these in the K2 workflow designer (HTML) before upgrading to K2 Five (5.5) or remain on K2 Five (5.4) . A script is available to help you identify how many and which workflows were designed in the legacy designer. The scripts are available in KB003656 - Important update regarding Internet Explorer 11 and Nintex K2 Five.
  • Before upgrading to a newer version of K2, ensure there are no dependency issues in your solutions. See Dependency Checking for information about dependencies and how to resolve dependency issues.
  • If you are using K2 for SharePoint, you must update the app and run through the K2 for SharePoint registration wizard after upgrade. See the following steps:
    1. After running the K2 Setup Manager, browse and get the new K2 for SharePoint app from the SharePoint Online folder: "%ProgramFiles%\K2\Setup\SharePoint Online" or from the SharePoint On-prem folder: "%ProgramFiles%\K2\Setup\SharePoint Onprem".
    2. Manually add the new version of the K2 for SharePoint App on your App Catalog Site using the Apps for SharePoint list. If there is an existing K2 for SharePoint App in the app catalog, you must replace the existing version with the new version, do not delete the existing version of the app. You grant K2 for SharePoint permissions during this step, and it requires Global Admin (Tenant) permissions, so you must be a Global Admin.
    3. Add the K2 for SharePoint app to your app catalog. You grant K2 for SharePoint permissions during this step, and it requires Global Admin (Tenant) permissions, so you must be a Global Admin.
    4. On the Site Contents page of the app catalog, click the upgrade link for K2 for SharePoint App. (If you do not see the link, go into the Details page for the app to upgrade it.)
    5. Click the K2 for SharePoint app from the Site Contents page or Quick Launch menu of the app catalog site and run through the Registration Wizard by clicking the Registration Wizard link in the Administration section to register the app with your K2 environment's URL. (If you do not see the Registration wizard, make sure you are on the app catalog).
    6. (This step is only required if there were changes to the K2 for SharePoint app. See the K2 for SharePoint release notes for information about previous releases and the latest version.)
      Deploy the app to one or more site collections using the Manage App Deployments page in SharePoint. A link to this page is provided on the K2 for SharePoint settings page. It is recommended you do this by paths rather than individual URLs, but individual URLs give you more control regarding which site collections have K2 integration. You should deploy as a SharePoint Administrator if you are deploying to multiple site collections.
  • Microsoft is ending support for Silverlight on October 12, 2021. As a result the K2 legacy Silverlight designer has been blocked from K2 Five (5.5). If you upgraded from K2 blackpearl 4.7 to K2 Five and are still using workflows built in the designer, you must rebuild these in the K2 workflow designer (HTML) before upgrading to K2 Five (5.5) or remain on K2 Five (5.4) . A script is available to help you identify how many and which workflows were designed in the legacy designer. The scripts are available in KB003656 - Important update regarding Internet Explorer 11 and Nintex K2 Five.

  • If you have used custom themes on your forms follow the instructions in the KB003654 Understanding the impact of the new Style Profile article to import the core_legacy.less file. This will ensure that your existing forms render correctly after upgrading to K2 Five (5.5) with the new Style Profile builder. Failing to import this file, may result in custom themes rending differently.

  • Issue: When adding a Table control to the toolbar area of a view and setting the Responsive property of the Table control to true, the alignment of the toolbar area is set to Default (left align). When configuring alignment on the Table control, the alignment does not apply on a responsive device.
    Workaround:
    1. Add a parent Table control containing 1 row and 1 column to the toolbar area of the view.
    2. Add a child Table control inside the parent Table control.
    3. Apply alignment configuration settings to the parent Table control.

K2 Five (5.5) includes:

When Fix Packs are made available they will be listed here.