Remote Office Hours Queue Release Notes

This is regular maintenance release updates for ROHQ Release 2026.01.01

What’s being fixed

This release delivers enhancements for users, improved accessibility, increased backend stability, and key infrastructure upgrades.

What’s included

• New “What’s New” feature improves transparency around updates.
• Active Announcement feature enables hosts to communicate with attendees efficiently.
• Meeting join details now support in-person location information.
• Queue export functionality has been improved for administrators.
• Multiple security and dependency updates strengthen platform stability.
• Several bug fixes and infrastructure upgrades are in final QA.

New Features

• “What’s New” Button: Allows users to quickly see recent platform updates and improvements.
• Active Announcement: Improved notifications and messaging for queue participants and hosts by adding Active Announcements (Only host who posted can manage). NOTE: Announcements must be manually deleted by the host who posted them once the queue time frame ends.

Bug Fixes

• Resolved internal server errors in the Announcements feature.
• Fixed occasional startup issues related to backend dependencies.
• Addressed broken unit tests affecting email settings and meeting export functionality.
• Corrected host menu focus issues to ensure proper navigation after selection.

Enhancements

• Join Info Enhancement: Meeting join links now include location details for in-person meetings, making it easier for attendees to find meeting locations.
• Queue Reporting Enhancements: Added Deleted status to queue download reports and improved deleted queue export reliability.

Infrastructure & Technical Updates

• Upgraded backend framework to Django 5 for improved maintainability and performance.
• Updated multiple Python and JavaScript dependencies to improve security, stability, and compatibility.
• Established Jest testing framework and updated testing dependencies to support reliable automated tests.

Accessibility Updates

• Screen reader enhancements across the platform, including announcements, General/Managed views, User Preferences, and navigation panels.
• Focus indicators and usability improvements for better accessibility and compliance.

New Contributors

🎉@PraveshKunwar! Thank you for your first contribution and for helping improve the project.

This is regular dependency updates for ROHQ Release 2025.02.02

What’s being fixed
This update resolves three critical security vulnerabilities that affect most of our applications.

What’s included

• Fixes for three critical security vulnerabilities
• An update to Django from version 4.2.18 to 4.2.27, which includes the latest security patches

This is regular dependency updates for ROHQ Release 2025.02.01

Front End (User Interface)

New Features

• Dynamic Page Titles: Page titles now update automatically, making it easier to know where you are in the app. 

Bug Fixes

• Zoom Meeting Access: Fixed an issue where Chromebook users running Linux were asked for a passcode when joining Zoom meetings in a web browser without the Zoom app installed.

Enhancements

• Meeting Reports: Meeting report downloads now include the queue name and current status.
• Improved Notifications:
  • Added a UMich identifier to notifications to make messages clearer and easier to recognize. 

Back End

New Features

• Improved Monitoring: Added Watchman monitoring to help detect and address issues earlier.
• Queue Email Search: You can now search queues by email for faster lookups.
• WebSocket Upgrade: Migrated to Partysocket to improve real-time connection reliability.
• Testing Setup: Added a basic testing framework using Jest, including an initial queue sorting test.

Bug Fixes

• Queue Data Export: Fixed an issue that prevented queue data from exporting correctly.
• Security Improvements: Added trusted origin settings to better protect against CSRF attacks. 

Improvements

• Clearer Code Titles: Updated internal titles to be more descriptive for easier maintenance.
• Faster Meeting Logs: Optimized meeting log queries for better performance.
• System Updates: Updated base system images to newer versions (Bookworm and Node 20).
• Queue Admin Interface:
  • Now shows only active queues and hosts.
  • Improved filtering options for easier management. 

Maintenance

• Dependency Updates:
  • Updated NPM packages across the project for better stability and security.
  • Upgraded Python dependencies, including requests.
  • Updated the Twilio library from version 9.6.2 to 9.6.3. 

New Contributors

• 🎉 Welcome @PraveshKunwar! Thank you for your first contribution and for helping improve the project.