Improvements to authentication error messages

In this release, we worked on improving authentication error messages. This should allow users to better understand why they cannot log in. In previous versions, using an expired login link resulted in a blank page. We now handle this more gracefully and invite the user to log in again.

Supporting Japanese

We are happy to share that the groundwork has been done so that Graasp can be used in Japanese. We are still missing complete translations in the user interface but will be adding them shortly. If you would like to contribute to the translations in Japanese or any other currently supported language, please reach out to us by email: translations@graasp.org

Self-hosting improvements

If you are self-hosting Graasp, this release of the client fixes issues with building and running the project on your own machines.

Automatic trash cleanup

As announced in our banner in January, we are starting to permanently delete elements that have been in the trash for more than 3 months. This process will run in the background. No action is required on your part. The affected documents are no longer displayed in the trash view. You can still restore recently deleted documents from your Trash.

Misc. improvements

When reloading the page in Analytics, it now correctly reloads the analytics view.

Fix an ordering issue when creating a folder with a thumbnail, all new elements should be added after the last element.

We warmly welcome and encourage feedback from our users to continuously improve our platform. You can contact us by email admin@graasp.org or by submitting an issue in this Github repository.

Performance and Accessibility improvements for the landing page

We have made small changes to improve the performance and accessibility of the landing page. These include font fetching optimizations and link accessibility enhancements.

We also improved some technical aspects of our news feed. If you want to keep up to date with these update announcments you can subscribe to our RSS feed using your reader. Do not hesitate to reach out if you notice some issues with your reader.

These are related to our efforts to make our landing page faster and more accessible (also to search engines).

We are interested to get your opinion on the recent changes we made, if you want to share your thoughts with us, please contact us by email at: feedback@graasp.org.

Bug fixes

We fixed a bug that was affecting the home of some users. If you had access to an element with permission lower than admin in your home we would show you administrative features on this element enven though you could not permorm these. For example, deleting the element. These actions were not autorized but it made it look like you could perform them. We have fixed this and you should no longer see actions you are not authorized to perform.

We warmly welcome and encourage feedback from our users to continuously improve our platform. You can contact us by email admin@graasp.org or by submitting an issue in this Github repository.

Blog and Support pages

In addition to a revamp of the homepage, the Blog and Support pages are now fully integrated within Graasp. Previously hosted on separate websites, these resources are now part of the main platform, providing a more consistent and streamlined user experience. Users can stay up to date with the latest news and updates and easily access help and documentation without leaving the application.

If you are interested in specific support documentation or would like us to cover a particular topic, please let us know.

Interface Improvements

• Users can now subscribe to and unsubscribe from marketing email notifications directly from their preferences.
• Document items can be exported in HTML format (instead of .graasp files), providing greater flexibility for sharing and integration with other platforms.
• Based on a user’s request, the chatbot app now features conversations, allowing users to start over interactions with the bot without loosing data. In addition, the analytics dashboard’s height has been increased to improve readability and overall usability.
• Based on a user’s request, internal shortcuts are hidden from the sidebar navigation. You can find more information on the items’ documentation.

Server Improvements

• The codebase has been improved by synchronizing types across the application, increasing development accuracy and overall reliability.
• The thumbnail upload process has been enhanced by teeing the input stream to ensure more robust file handling and memory usage.
• The saving process for H5P files has been improved, particularly when uploading files with custom filenames, fixing later problems on copy. Thanks for reporting the bug!

We warmly welcome and encourage feedback from our users to continuously improve our platform. You can contact us by email admin@graasp.org or by submitting an issue in this Github repository.

Automatic Clean Up of your Trash

From now on, items trashed more than 3 months ago are now automatically deleted. This will save you storage and nicely clear your trash.

Various Fixes & Improvements

• Prevent an error when creating a tag with trailing spaces
• Display a clear error message when a password is incorrect
• Optimized the left-hand side item navigation
• Fixed a validation issue affecting thumbnails during publication
• Updated the Library translations, allowing the interface to correctly display more than 1,000 collections
• Resolved a crash that could occur when an item had a short link. Thanks to one of our active users for reporting this! 🙌
  As always, if you run into anything unexpected, don’t hesitate to report it. Your feedback helps us make Graasp better for everyone.

We warmly welcome and encourage feedback from our users to continuously improve our platform. You can contact us by email admin@graasp.org or by submitting an issue in this Github repository.

Deleting old items in your Trash

Starting mid-January, items in the Trash that are older than 3 months will be permanently deleted. Please review or restore any important items before then.

Read on for the full list of changes.

Changes

• Improved mobile experience by showing authentication buttons in the landing page menu
• Added notices for previously deleted items on home and trash pages
• Optimized item deletion performance with new database indexes

Library

• Fixed OER reference links on the OER page
• Resolved a rare glitch when changing languages that could leave an incorrect language cookie

We warmly welcome and encourage feedback from our users to continuously improve our platform. You can contact us by email admin@graasp.org or by submitting an issue in this Github repository.

🤖 Chatbot 2.0 — A Major Upgrade

Our chatbot has received a full layout redesign along with powerful new features:

• Add a custom avatar
• Provide conversation suggestions to guide users
• Overall cleaner and more intuitive interface

Want to learn more? Check out the full documentation here.

🏠 A Fresh New Homepage

We’ve rolled out a major update to the Graasp homepage.
While more refinements are coming soon, we believe this new version better reflects our mission and offers a clearer experience for our audience.

🌐 Single Origin Improvements

The backend API now operates under a single origin: graasp.org/api. This simplifies development and improves overall platform consistency. It shouldn’t have break anything. If you notice any problem, please contact us.

We plan to move the Library to graasp.org/library as well.

⚙️ Backend Optimizations

We’ve implemented several performance and stability improvements:

• Better environment variable handling for H5P and shortlinks
• Faster app data and parents endpoints
• More reliable membership updates

These updates ensure smoother and faster interactions across the platform.

🛠️ Admin Enhancements

For administrators, we’ve added:

• Support for HTML emails
• Minor fixes for publications
• Maintenance setup improvements
• Various other refinements

Thanks for being part of the Graasp community! More updates are on the way—stay tuned.

We warmly welcome and encourage feedback from our users to continuously improve our platform. You can contact us by email admin@graasp.org or by submitting an issue in this Github repository.

Library home page

The home page of the library has been revamped to offer more diverse sections to help users find what they are looking for.

Let us know what you think about it!

User survey

We are currently running a user survey to gather feedback on our platform. Your input is valuable to us and will help us improve our services. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScSSD8oPlpvLvX1YPDfvfDGQzV7zqqPoSEhkItIZ8pIAPCpTw/viewform.

Bug fixes and improvements

In this release we have fixed a few bugs and made some improvements.

Returning thumbnails with search results

Previously when searching for items, the thumbnails were fetched after the results were available, creating a slight delay and unnecessary waterfall queries. Now we provide thumbnails alongside the search results. This should improve the speed feeling when searching the library as well as improve performance.

Responsiveness/design improvements

We have made some small changes to improve responsiveness of the menus on the landing page.

The language switch design has been upgraded to improve its appearance.

Performance improvements

We have made some performance improvements to resource heavy requests in the backend.

Please let us know if you encounter any lags or recurring performance issues. We are always looking to provide the best experience to our users.

We warmly welcome and encourage feedback from our users to continuously improve our platform. You can contact us by email admin@graasp.org or by submitting an issue in this Github repository.

Bug fixes

In this release we have fixed a few bugs.

Adding specific tags when there are some other matches

Previously when adding tags to an item, for example when publishing it or in the settings view, it was not possible to add a new tag if there were some partial matches on already existing tags. We have fixed this issue and you should now be able to add any tag you desire. Start typing in the filed and pick it from the list!

In case you notice any issues, let us know by email: admin@graasp.org

Guests users should not see the language setting

Guest users (logged in via pseudo) should use the language of the item, thus showing them the language switch did not make sens. We improved the application header for guests, so that it is tailored to their use-case.

Content moderation update

We made some improvements to the content moderation engine we use to check published material. It should now provide us with more insights to help users when their content raises alarms. Let us know if you face any issues when publishing content. We would be glad to assist you.

Architecture change

This one is a bit more technical, so no worries if it does not make a lot of sens. We have moved our workloads to the ARM processor architecture. This should make our energy consumption lower and enable future proofing our service. Contact us if you would like to know more.

We warmly welcome and encourage feedback from our users to continuously improve our platform. You can contact us by email admin@graasp.org or by submitting an issue in this Github repository.

Workflow improvement to copy from the library

The copy mechanism has been relocated to Builder, enabling dynamic feedback if the user is not currently logged in. This change helps provide immediate guidance and improves the overall user experience. A tutorial explaining how to use this feature is available here.

Builder folder layout

The layout of a folder in Builder has been slightly changed for a more responsive layout, showcasing the thumbnail for a more appealing view. The layout is based on the Player’s layout.

Pages (Beta)

We are developing a new interactive interface to enhance the user experience. Instead of designing each element individually, the goal is to create entire pages as a whole, and as previewed by the readers. The interface will continuously expand with new element types to fully support all Graasp features. The implementation embedded collaboration by default, allowing multiple writers to edit the content. If you’d like to test this feature, please email us at beta@graasp.org. Your feedback is greatly appreciated!

New page feature

The new “Page” interface is currently in beta. Please note that any data saved may be lost in the future. We recommend using this feature only for testing purposes or keeping a backup of your work, either by saving your text locally or in a separate document within Graasp.

Other changes

As always we are committed to making the platform faster and more reliable for all our users. With this update we improved on the following:

• Improve error messages for apps
• Simplify implementation for shortlinks (frontend)
• Various code refactor for client (frontend)

We warmly welcome and encourage feedback from our users to continuously improve our platform. You can contact us by email admin@graasp.org or by submitting an issue in this Github repository.

Update to the available AI models

The Graasp platform has a few integration with conversational agents (through OpenAI). In this update we have upgraded the models we support to make them faster and more efficient. We now default to GPT 4o-mini (previously this was GPT 3.5 turbo). Other available options are:

• GPT 4.1 nano: allows for a larger context window (up to 1M) and benefits of a later knowledge cut-off (model was trained with data up to June 01 2024)

Update to the chatbot app

The chatbot app available inside Graasp has been updated to support a simple and user-friendly interface for defining example interactions.

Library

• When searching across different criteria (discipline, level, resource-type), the selected language will be taken into account. This will narrow down the choices and present more relevant suggestions to the user.
• Fix an issue where the /all-collections page of the library would not forward the search parameters to the new /search page. This affected mostly search engine results that would not display the expected result due to missing URL Search parameters.
• Improve spacial awareness in the library by displaying the currently active page in the header. The styling of the links in the header was also updated.
• Fix an issue in the collection page. The “copy link” feature copied an invalid link to the clipboard. It will now copy the correct link to view the collection in the player interface.
• Improve the display of collection title. Titles will now be displayed in full without truncation or ellipsis.
• Update the library favicon to make it consistent with the brand image. The favicon is back to its blue-purple glory !
• Fix a compatibility issue on older devices. We reverted to use a wider available function, so all our users can experience the library.
• Fix a small layout issue in the library collection cards where a collection with a particularly long title could grow to an unwanted width.

Other changes

As always we are committed to making the platform faster and more reliable for all our users. With this update we improved on the following:

• Update French and German language translations
• Allow embedded applications to choose from more sizing options, so they can display their content as best as possible
• Update login button background color to ensure consistent visibility in the app header
• Improve item indexing mechanism: using a dedicated worker and more efficient data-fetching
• Fix a bug where email addresses could be saved with a mixed case. This affected the email update mechanism, where users could be locked out of the platform if they provided an email with mixed case. We now ensure saved emails are in lowercase when requesting an email change to prevent case sensitivity issues.
• Improve the password login workflow. The backend codebase is simpler and the client handles the redirection mechanism.
• Remove deprecated mobile sign in processes from the client.
• Manually set secure: true for smtp to comply with NodeJS warning (smtps is deprecated).
• Fix deleting items (permission check is fixed). Deleting items from the recycle bin is possible again.
• Optimize getting recycled items. Displaying the trash should be faster.

We warmly welcome and encourage feedback from our users to continuously improve our platform. You can contact us by email admin@graasp.org or by submitting an issue in this Github repository.

Improvements to Export ZIP

Exporting items and member data to zip files is now handled by a new zip library and dedicated background workers. This means exports are less likely to fail, and can handle larger data sets without slowing Graasp down. If you want to know more about technical details, check this page.

Library is now built with Tanstack-start

The Graasp team changed Graasp Library’s primary dependency to tanstack-start for a more modern development stack and better suit the other dependencies.

We’ve upgraded the internals without altering the user experience.

The testing framework was also changed.

Fixes

• Cleaner Item Copies: When you copy items, the original order is now checked and cleaned up automatically to prevent issues caused by bad data.
• Whenever changes are made to the search index, all settings are automatically rebuilt so that filters and attributes stay up to date.
• The system now checks that app origin URLs are formatted correctly, reducing the chance of configuration errors.
• Some internal streaming processes now use more modern and reliable methods, which improves error handling and overall stability.
• Several core libraries have been updated to their latest versions.

We warmly welcome and encourage feedback from our users to continuously improve our platform. You can contact us by email admin@graasp.org or by submitting an issue in this Github repository.

Frontend

• Complete Contact Page: Implemented the full contact page UI and logic.
• Show Download Options: Enabled “Download as ZIP” for folders and “Download” for single files. Downloading a ZIP will send an email to download the archive instead of direct download.
• Contact Info in Maintenance Banner: Added contact information display in the site-wide maintenance banner.
• File Upload Error Notifications: Added error messages when file uploads fail, improving user feedback.

Apps

• Quiz: The navigation is located below instead of above the question.

Backend

• App Handling in export and import: Backend logic added to handle both import and export of APP-specific items.
• Thumbnails Handling in export and import: Enabled export and import of thumbnails for items, improving media consistency.
• Move Membership Endpoints: Refactored routes related to memberships for better structure and maintainability.
• Send Export Notification Emails: Added functionality to send email notifications when a raw export is completed.
• Featured Collections Endpoint: Created an endpoint to manage and retrieve featured collections more efficiently.
• Allow transparent double like on items: Resolved issue allowing users to like an item more than once.

We warmly welcome and encourage feedback from our users to continuously improve our platform. You can contact us by email admin@graasp.org or by submitting an issue in this Github repository.

A backend refactor has been implemented, focused on file handling, app data files and app setting files, improving the overall architecture. These updates are reflected in the File Drop app, Excalidraw app, and the client frontend, enhancing the efficiency and stability across all components. The changes should be transparent, but let us know if you notice anything!

Backend (details)

• Unified file handling for consistency: replace the value “s3File” from the item’s type options with generic “file”.
• Updated dependencies for improved security and performance

We warmly welcome and encourage feedback from our users to continuously improve our platform. You can contact us by email admin@graasp.org or by submitting an issue in this Github repository.

Maintenance notice

To keep you informed and avoid surprises, the app now displays a clear message delivering maintenance dates when the system will undergo updates or temporarily be unavailable. This ensures that you’re aware of any planned downtime or disruptions before they affect your workflow, helping you plan accordingly and stay in control. It’s a small but important step toward improving transparency and communication with our users.

Interface (details)

• A message will now appear when the system is under maintenance.
• Bookmarks on the home page can be removed by clicking on the “Manage” button.
• You can now download items directly from the item menu.
• Some missing translations were added to make actions clearer.
• developer: The documentation (instructions for using the app) has been updated.

Backend (details)

• A new feature was added so the system can report when it’s in maintenance mode.
• Improved recovery during item reordering.
• Updates dependencies.

We warmly welcome and encourage feedback from our users to continuously improve our platform. You can contact us by email admin@graasp.org or by submitting an issue in this Github repository.

Backend: consequent upgrade with Drizzle

Over the past few weeks, the Graasp team has been working to make Graasp faster, more stable, and easier to maintain. We’ve completed a major upgrade to the backend — the part of the platform that works behind the curtain to make everything run by moving our system to a new technology called Drizzle.js alongside an automated delivery process. While you don’t need to know the technical details, think of it like upgrading the engine of a car — the outside might look the same, but it runs smoother and is easier to work on in the future. The change should be transparent to you!

Feedback is welcome!

Even though we’ve tested this upgrade thoroughly, real-world usage is the best test of all. If you notice anything not working quite right — like something behaving differently than expected, slowing down, or breaking — please let us know.

Your feedback helps us keep Graasp running smoothly for everyone.

We warmly welcome and encourage feedback from our users to continuously improve our platform. You can contact us by email admin@graasp.org or by submitting an issue in this Github repository.

Fixed an issue with PDF files auto-downloading as soon as element is opened

Thanks to the feedback of a user, an annoying bug was detected. The bug affected PDF items created by copy. The copied PDF files would automatically download when opened (in the builder and player view) instead of displaying as usual causing inconveniences and readability issues.

We deployed a fix that will ensure future copies are not affected. So, if you copy a PDF file starting today, you should not be affected by the bug. Please let us know if it still happens to you.

How do I stop my PDF files from automatically downloading when I open them?

If you have PDF files that exhibit the faulty behavior, you should download them, then delete the faulty copy. You should create them again by uploading the downloaded PDF or creating it from a fresh copy of the known good file. Once done, the PDF file should not download automatically anymore.

Fixed an issue affecting sub-elements not displaying in the Trash

When deleting an element with a parent (sub-element), under particular conditions, it would not appear in the Trash. As this issue affected users that were afraid of having lost content, it was quickly fixed by the team. Users should now be able to see and restore sub-elements from the Trash to retrieve wrongfully removed content. Important to note that the displayed total count of deleted items could be incorrect (the displayed number can be higher than expected). A fix to correct this error will follow soon.

Others

Library (details)

• Fix card thumbnail sizing in Safari
• Fix card padding on mobile screens

Backend (details)

• Add backend implementation for deleting and uploading many files at once
• Fix erroneous copy of files (path, remove automatic content disposition to attachment and cache-control)
• Recycle bin shows deleted children (whose membership are inherited). Total count can be over-shooting.
• Fix link URL in membership request notification email

We warmly welcome and encourage feedback from our users to continuously improve our platform. You can contact us by email admin@graasp.org or by submitting an issue in this Github repository.

Home Page & Navigation

With this update, we’ve redesigned the interface of your personal homepage for a more streamlined experience. It now displays, just like before, the items shared with you and your bookmarked content, but with enhanced accessibility. We hope this update makes it even easier to access the items you use most frequently!

Additionally, we’ve revamped the side menu of the Builder view. It now features the same navigation tree as in the Player, providing a clear view of your item’s structure and a better understanding of the hierarchy of your content.

Bullet list of the improvements:

• Display accessible items and bookmarks directly on the home page for easy access.
• Transform the drawer content into tabs in the right-hand side corner of the home page for a clearer navigation.
• Include settings and tutorials within the member drop-down menu for easier access. Replace the “Profile” option with “Home” in the user menu popup for clearer options.
• Show item tree navigation in the builder to enhance the user experience when working with complex items.

Don’t hesitate to share your feedback with us, so we can improve even more your experience with Graasp!

In addition, note those major new features:

• A new option allows reader to write within an etherpad document (you can find the option when creating or editing an etherpad).
• Links can have their URL changed.

Bug Fixes & Updates

• Resolve app resizing issues.
• Prevent membership requests from being made for hidden items.
• Update some French translations to improve clarity and inclusivity.
• Address issues with notifications and login errors to ensure users are notified correctly and can log in without problems.
• Fix websockets-related issues to maintain stable real-time communication and connectivity.
• Ensure the player interface is scrolled to the top of the page on navigation to improve the user’s ability to find new content after navigating.
• Fix the app and link description update process, ensuring changes to descriptions are applied and displayed correctly.

We warmly welcome and encourage feedback from our users to continuously improve our platform. You can contact us by email admin@graasp.org or by submitting an issue in this Github repository.

Interfaces

• Flicker caused by suspense when loading translations: Fix a flicker issue when translations load asynchronously to improve user experience.
• Logo display on Safari: Resolve logo display issues in Safari browsers for consistent rendering across platforms.
• Fill FAQ content: Replace mock data in the FAQ section with real content for a polished experience.
• Update the user profile link in user drop down: Modify the user profile link in the user switcher to ensure correct redirection.
• Optimise Library home page content: Retrieve content faster for the Library homepage
• Use endpoints with generated API
• Fix country selection in the map view

Backend

• Add app and shortcuts endpoints: Create new API endpoints for app and shortcut-specific functionalities.
• Add likes and creator functionality in Meilisearch: Integrate “likes” into Meilisearch indexing to allow users search for liked items and filter by creator. Specific endpoints have been created of recent and liked collections.
• Allow readers to edit Etherpad: Enable readers to edit Etherpad documents, expanding collaboration capabilities.
• Optimise retrieval of thumbnails: Update the system to return null for items lacking a thumbnail, rather than an error.
• Replace non-breaking spaces in link metadata titles: Replace non-breaking spaces with regular spaces for better title compatibility.
• Improve and fix schemas for item validation
• Clean up and remove obsolete host variables to reduce complexity and improve maintainability.

We warmly welcome and encourage feedback from our users to continuously improve our platform. You can contact us by email admin@graasp.org or by submitting an issue in this Github repository.

Library Cards

We improved our collection cards in Library to include tags and bigger space for the description. For those that didn’t chose a thumbnail for their collections, we added some hint of colors! Let us know what you think of this new design.

Unique domain: graasp.org

For a better management of our platform, we moved our links to a unique domain: graasp.org. You can discover our new landing page with more details about us and the complete Graasp ecosystem! You can also learn more about specific features with our tutorials page. Let us know if you wish other tutorials to help you get started!

Compatibility with previous links

All previous links are still valid, but should be updated for better compatibility.

Apps

• Quiz:
  • update german translations
  • fix weird spacing in Fill In the Blanks questions
  • allow break lines in Fill In the Blanks questions
  • remove automatic uppercase in multiple choices questions

Backend

• Add endpoints for creating and modifying links, allowing to update a link in-place.
• Add endpoints for creating and modifying documents
• Add an endpoint to get collections by most likes
• Fix analytics endpoint

We warmly welcome and encourage feedback from our users to continuously improve our platform. You can contact us by email admin@graasp.org or by submitting an issue in this Github repository.

Personalized Tags and Filters

We improved our categories system by using personalized categories, that we call tags. Those are split into 3 categories: discipline, level and resource type. You can find the tags in Builder (library page) and Library.

If your items already had tags, most of them have been migrated to this new system safely in the discipline category. Don’t hesitate to tweak your tags to better fit the available categories!

You can find detailed information about tags here.

Below you can find our usual update breakdown for each platform:

Builder

• Update translations: Update translations for Arabic, Italian, Spanish and French language.
• Introduce a new folder button: Add a button that allows users to create new folders for organizing their items or content.
• Replace categories with tags: Transition from using categories to tags for more flexible and granular content classification.

Library

• Implement the new tag system: Enable the use of tags for organizing and filtering content, with resource types integrated into search to improve discoverability.

Apps

• Quiz: Prevent infinite loop for readers and network errors on legacy data

Backend

• Enable POST and PATCH methods for item folders: Allow the creation and updating of item folders via specific backend API endpoints.
• Integrate tags with Meilisearch: Replace category-based indexing with tag-based indexing in Meilisearch and perform necessary data migration.
• Add item in app action: Include item data in an app action on export.
• Remove deprecated Creative Commons license values: Remove outdated Creative Commons license options from the backend to maintain compliance and accuracy.
• Return no content when no avatar is available: Modify the backend to return an empty valid response when there is no avatar associated with a user.

Client (work in progress)

• Add landing page: Create a new landing page for the application with small adjustments, with dedicated pages for the Terms of Service, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and Features.
• Add language detector: Implement a feature to automatically detect and set the user’s language preference.
• Add preview mode: Introduce a preview mode for users to see changes before applying them.
• UI: Add Storybook: Integrate Storybook for building and testing UI components in isolation.
• Enhance login and registration forms: Add new form headers and integrate react-hook-form for handling validation.
• Resolve integration and authentication issues: Fix client-side authentication, proxy configuration, and integration-related problems.
• Fix reCAPTCHA issues: Add reCAPTCHA environment variables, move reCAPTCHA to the auth layout, and fix script loading in HTML.
• Optimize CI and deployment setup: Implement permissions in CI, update build scripts, and adjust deployments to follow proper installation steps.

As we step into 2025, the team wishes you a year filled with new opportunities, growth, and happiness!

We warmly welcome and encourage feedback from our users to continuously improve our platform. You can contact us by email admin@graasp.org or by submitting an issue in this Github repository.