Updates

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April 1, 2024

We're excited to announce the Assembly App Store (including 4 new apps), a new developer platform, and an Experts Marketplace where you find agencies to build your own custom features. For everything that's new, we recommend reading our full blog post here.

Client Home

With Client Home you can design a dynamic home page that clients see in your portal. You can use it to share announcements, introduce your firm, set expectations about what it’s like to work with you, and more. You can use properties and custom fields from the Assembly CRM to greet clients by name, surface client-specific information, and more. If you enable the tasks widget, the client home will also surface unread client notifications with links to the relevant pages.

Profile manager

With Profile Manager, you can selectively show custom fields to clients and make them client-viewable or client-editable. That means clients can self-serve update their address, phone number, and any other custom fields you set as client-editable. Internal users also see a feed of client-initiated updates, so you know exactly when custom field updates happen and by whom. We hope that this app lets you reimagine how you think about client data collection. For example, instead of sending the same long form to clients every year, you can instead prompt clients to self-serve update only the information that has actually changed.

Autoresponder

You want to be highly responsive to your clients, but you can’t be available at all hours. Autoresponder lets you set up auto-responses to clients outside of business hours or when you’re on vacation.

Exporter

It should be easy to get data into Assembly, but we also want it to be as easy as possible to get data out for backup, legal reasons, and even if you decide to migrate away from us. Exporter lets you export full message histories in CSV or PDF format. In follow-up improvements, we’ll incrementally add other data to export.

Resources for developers

We have a new developer home. In it you can find guides to build Custom Apps (for private use), submit Marketplace Apps (which are listed in our App Store), updated API reference docs, a developer changelog, and a developer-centric forum.

Assembly Experts to help you build Custom Apps

Almost every business on Assembly that grows beyond a certain point eventually wants to build custom experiences — this could be an internal analytics tool, a bespoke Salesforce integration, a multi-step automation, or a fully-fledged app.

Now you can work with qualified Assembly Experts to turn your custom software ideas into reality. To get started, just head on over to the Experts Directory and either contact an agency that fits your requirements directly or select the “Get matched” option.

March 25, 2024

Notifications API

We added a Notifications resource and a notification.created webhook to our API. See our API docs for details about how the notification resource works. The new resource has the following endpoints: List Notifications, Create Notification, Delete Notification, Mark Notification Read/Unread

Note that the notification.created webhook and the List Notifications endpoint can be used in any workspace. At this time the other endpoints can only be used by Custom Apps.

Previous Attributes

Some webhooks will now include a previousAttributes map that allows you to see what has changed about a resource. With this release, the client.updated webhook now includes previousAttributes.

Improvements & Updates

• [API] Fixed several webhook naming inconsistencies.

March 19, 2024

One-off eSignature requests

The Contracts App we released two months ago came with support for reusable contract templates, but not one-off eSignature requests. You can now create one-off requests that don't clutter up the templates you have by switching off the template toggle when creating a contract.

Improvements & Updates

• Embeds and Custom Apps now refresh when you click on them in the sidebar. This makes it easier to navigate back to the root URL.
• If you have companies enabled and you create a client, we improved how we match companies based on email domain.
• In the Contracts App, you can now add longer multi-line variable inputs.
• Improved the loading behavior on invoices and subscriptions pages.
• Improved the default sorting order for the Contracts App submissions and requests page.
• Various UI improvements on the Settings > API page.
• Fixed a bug that prevented Helpdesk articles from updating in some rare scenarios.
• Fixed a bug where for one-off eSignature requests PDFs were not being included in email notifications.
• Fixed a client import bug where blank custom fields weren't handled correctly.
• [API] Improved our API rate limiting infrastructure to protect against bad actors.
• [API] Fixed a bug that prevented the creation of individual file channels.
• [API] You can now send an uninvited client an email invite with the Update client endpoint.

March 6, 2024

File search

Two weeks ago we announced search for messages and now we're following up with search in the Files App. File search is available for both you and your clients.

Improvements & Updates

• Clients can now search messages. Previously message search was only available for internal users.
• On the Settings > General page, you can now configure if uninvited clients should receive email notifications. You will want to turn this on if you want the client journey to start with a new invoice, contract request, or other email notification that is not "Accept your invite".
• Dropdowns with clients and/or companies are now sorted by creation date.
• Dropdowns can now be navigated with up/down arrows.
• Fixed a bug that previously let you create unanswerable forms with just title sections.
• Fixed a bug in the Messages App where entering "/" cleared the input.
• [API] For Files, Forms, and FormResponses we previously nested some properties inside of a fields object. These properties are now present at the root level of the resource. The fields object is still present for backwards compatibility but will be deprecated in the future.
• [API] Fixed a bug where previously Update Client didn't let you unset custom fields.
• [API] Fixed a bug with phone number custom fields where incorrect phone number formats were saved. Now you'll receive a descriptive error if the input is malformed.

February 27, 2024

API enhancements

See our API docs for details about the new endpoints and updates.

• Added file.updated and file.deleted webhooks.
• Added a contract.requested webhook.
• Added a creationMethodproperty to the client resource. This property is especially useful if you want to set up different workflows depending on how a client was created. creationMethod method can be internalUser, client, & directSignUp:
  • internalUser indicates that the client was created individually in Assembly by an internal user, created via import by an internal user, or created via API, Zapier, or Make connected with an internal user's API key.
  • client indicated that the client was invited by another client. This is only possible if the ability for clients to invite other clients is enabled in Settings > General.
  • directSignUp indicates that the client signed up directly via the direct sign-up link. This is only available if client direct sign-up is enabled in Settings > General.
• Query params in API calls are now case-insensitive. This improvement was made for all List endpoints.
• Implemented e164 validation for phone number custom fields. This makes phone number inputs much more flexible than before.
• We previously used a createdBy property on many resources. We've replaced it with creatorId which represents the unique identifier of the creator of the resource.
• Removed portalName for the /me endpoint.

Improvements & Updates

• In the Contracts App settings, you can now disable PDF attachments in email notifications. By default attachments are enabled (they are a nice convenience for clients), but in some industries it is a best practice to disable attachments for improved security.
• After a form is shared with a client, you can now share that same form with the client again if the client has submitted a response to the first form request.
• When previewing a pending contract as an internal user, you can now see all the blocks that have been added. Previously we showed the original pdf file.
• File upload notifications in the notification center also now show a timeline of when files were uploaded.
• You can now click Escape to exit search experiences.
• Partner Apps are now called Embeds. On the sidebar, "Partner and Custom Apps" was renamed to 'More' which now holds all embeds and Custom Apps. In the future the 'More' section will be more flexible and you can move any app into or out of this section.
• The settings pages now saves changes more seamlessly without needing full refreshes.
• Improved column spacing on various pages so that the most useful information is visible by default.
• Added a more useful error when trying to initiate a contract request with a PDF that is too long or too large.
• Fixed a bug where pdf documents of a specific format could not be signed by clients.
• Fixed a bug that caused issues when scrolling down in the Messages App and Files App on mobile.
• Fixed a bug that caused internal user avatars to not be shown on some surfaces like the Files App.

January 19, 2024

The Winter 2024 Release is out and you can read a detailed blog post here and watch a full product walkthrough here.

Contracts App

With our new Contracts App you can create reusable contract templates, assign them to clients, and track submissions and requests in a consolidated view.

• Ability to create reusable contract templates. You can create a template once and reuse it for clients as needed.
• Consolidated view of submissions and outstanding requests. This makes it easy to quickly know who you’re still waiting for.
• Comprehensive API coverage for contracts. Specifically you can Retrieve, Send, and List Contract Templates and you can utilize a contract.completed webhook. You’ll be able to set up automations with our API, Zapier, or Make.
• Autofill fields. These are fields that automatically get set when a contract is shared with a client. For example, if you have an “address” custom field set to “123 Main Street” for John Doe, if you use the {{client.address}} autofill block, when you share the contract with John Doe, the {{client.address}} will resolve to “123 Main Street”.
• Variable fields. After you create a contract template you can assign it to clients. Variable fields are set at the time of contract sharing, not at the time of contract template creation. This is helpful, for example, if you have a standard sales agreement with a “Total cost” field where you want to set a different value every time you share the contract.
• Dozens of improvements to design and performance, including better block sizes and resize behavior, crisper PDF generation, and more streamlined mobile signing.
• With this update, we’re deprecating our old eSignature request feature that was part of the Files App. Client users now have a dedicated Contracts tab in the sidebar where they can see all of their requests. If you’d still like signed contracts to show in a Files Channel, you can move them there manually or set up an automation on Zapier or Make.

Notification Center

The Notification Center is the new home for internal user notifications.

• New consolidated notification experience that you can access by clicking on Notifications on your sidebar. The notification center now houses notifications about new file uploads, contract submissions, form submissions, and invoice payments. All notifications except for Messaging App notifications are now in the notification center.
• Notification details. Depending on the type of notification you view, we now surface relevant information and actions that we think will be most helpful. For example, if you view a ‘files uploaded’ notification we show you exactly where the client uploaded files.
• Mark read and delete actions. You can mark notifications as read by clicking on them, or you can go a step further and delete them permanently.

Client Access

• We’re deprecating “Leads and assignees” with a new client access paradigm called Client Access.
• Now, if you’re an admin you can give a team member “Limited access” on the Settings > Team page and then specify the clients or companies they should have access to. If a team member doesn’t have access to a particular client, they won’t see the client or their data across any of the apps you have enabled.

Performance

• 30% faster loading speeds in workspaces with 10 internal users and 1,000 clients
• Support for large Assembly deployments (up to 10,000 clients and 50 internal users).

January 18, 2024

Improvements and Updates

• In the Messages App settings, you can now disable automatic welcome messages. This makes it possible to set up customized welcome messages via API/Zapier/Make. For example, if you set up a custom sign up page with additional fields (industry, company size, etc.) you can send different welcome messages to clients depending on their profile.
• In the Messages App, as an internal user you can now remove URL previews of messages by clicking on the x in the top-right of the URL preview area.
• To make the distinction between clients and companies clear and consistent, clients are now represented by circular avatars and companies are represented by square icons everywhere.
• Previously we used 'm' to refer to both minutes and months in the Messages App and other surfaces. We now use 'mo' to refer to months to make the distinction clear.

January 9, 2024

Improvements and Updates

• On the Messaging App settings you can now select the sender of the welcome message.
• Improved the workflow for adding new apps on the App Setup page.
• Improved the rankings of results on the Command Bar. We now surface actions that you're more likely to use at the top.
• Improved the behavior of the client details sidebar on mobile.
• Improved the layout of various settings pages.
• Fixed a bug where if you delete a files channel no other channel gets selected.
• [API] Updated the name of profile picture property on client objects to avatarImageUrl.