Sonia: 2026 Release Notes

New image form field type, new sorting, added document metadata, Google Maps backup, PDF form conversion, new placeholders, timesheet columns, stronger passwords, API updates, bug fixes.

Oct 6, 2026
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Release: September 2026

Client: 2022.4.1.386 | Online: 2022.4.1.182

Dashboard: 2022.4.1.45 | Check Manager: 2022.4.1.88 | API: 2022.4.1.72

Feature	Description	Benefit
University-level custom fields	Student profiles now hold a single, correct value for each university-level custom field, removing a data-integrity issue that could cause confusion in reports, exports, and day-to-day profile management.	University-level custom fields no longer create duplicate records in student profiles.
Form actions on completed forms	Staff can once again see and use form actions on completed forms, restoring the ability to trigger downstream steps (such as PDFs and workflows) after submission.	Form actions are now visible on completed forms.
Date-type custom field searches	Date-range searches on custom fields now return the correct records across all affected modules, so users can rely on search results when filtering by date without needing manual workarounds.	Date-type custom field searches across the Site, Site Contact, Supervisor, Placement Group, Invoice, and Offer modules now respect the "To" date correctly, instead of treating it as the "From" date.
Create PDF form action	Added a "Create PDF" special action for form action buttons, so a form PDF can be generated the moment a specific button is committed. Previously, PDF-on-completion only fired once every button on a form was committed.	Schools can now generate the PDF at the exact point in the process they need it, even on forms with many action buttons.

Bugs Fixed

The "Send to Me" progress indicator in the Student, Supervisor, and Site Contact modules now fills correctly, confirming the email was sent to the Placement Officer.
Placement requests created via the Sonia API now use the current date for the Shift date component, matching the Sonia Client, instead of 1/1/1900, which caused date out-of-range errors in Sonia Online.
Check Manager users with notification permissions now only see their own school's notifications, instead of notifications for all schools.
Student ID now displays alongside the student name when expanding a Placement Request in a Placement Group.
Form respondents now display first and last name when that display format is set in School Options, instead of showing the preferred name.
Filters in a Placement Group are now retained when the group is closed and reopened.
Forms marked "Show in Check Manager" are now accessible when the Sonia Online URL is defined only at University level, without requiring a School-level override.

Sonia Central

Editing "Health Service accommodation available?" on a vacancy's Location details in Sonia Central now saves and displays correctly.
University notification emails in Sonia Central now include clear detail about what changed in a placement (e.g. cancellation), matching the content Sites receive.

Release: August 2026

Client: 2022.4.1.365 | Online: 2022.4.1.163

Report: 2022.4.1.62 | Check Manager: 2022.4.1.83 | API: 2022.4.1.69

Feature	Description	Benefit
Sonia Online Performance	Optimized the Students, Placements, and Forms tabs to deliver significantly faster load times and improved stability when managing large student populations (2,000+).	Coordinators at high-volume schools can now use these tabs reliably, with queries optimized to handle large student cohorts instead of timing out or erroring.
Placements export in Sonia Central	The Placements export in Sonia Central now includes the additional columns recently added to reports.	Users exporting placement data via Placements > Export now get the same enriched column set available in reports, without needing to run a separate report to access that data.
Student import via the in-client importer	Fixed an issue where workflows triggered on the creation of a new student would sometimes fire twice when students were added via the in-client importer.	New-student workflows now trigger exactly once, so students and staff no longer receive duplicate emails or duplicate form assignments during student imports.

Description

Bugs Fixed

Copying a placement group with the "Documents" checkbox selected no longer fails with an "Object reference not set to an instance of an object" error.
Filtering the Timesheet page in a placement group by student name now finds students on any page, instead of only matching records on the current page.
The "Export Responses Unless Form Owned" form setting now correctly restricts access to respondent results, instead of letting all users view them.
Custom fields no longer display the previous record's values when creating a new site record, fields on a new record now start blank.
Sonia API endpoint filters now return records matching any of the supplied filter parameters (OR logic), instead of only records matching all parameters.
Copying a Placement Group with Placement Requests now correctly copies preference dates across to the new group.
Column filters in a Placement Group are now retained when the group is closed and reopened.
Check statuses with customized terminology (e.g. "Missing Information") now display consistently in Sonia Online, matching the Sonia Client and Check Manager.
Sorting by Name and by Date Changed in Check Manager now return the same, correct number of results.

Release: July, 2026

Client: 2022.4.1.344 | Online: 2022.4.1.160 | Dashboard: 2022.4.1.43

Check Manager: 2022.4.1.80

Feature	Description	Benefit
Student Import Improvement	Student imports now complete reliably. Every valid row with a proper Date of Birth is imported and processed correctly.	Resolves missing student records and errors.
Sonia Online integration	Universities can now enable their integration in Sonia Central without a blocking error, removing a setup barrier that previously prevented onboarding.	Resolves the "website URL invalid" error.
Check Manager Exports Timeout	You can now export (CSV and document) large check datasets successfully, instead of hitting a timeout with no usable file.	Resolves a workflow blocker for schools with high check volumes.

Bugs Fixed

Email placeholder for allocated student/topic information now includes the student's email address when used in the Supervisor module, matching what's shown in the Site Contact module.
Ad-hoc report for University Placement no longer displays a generic error when viewing saved report results.
Role filter on the Placement Group Forms page now clears properly when reset instead of continuing to show "Student" after the filter is cleared.
Placement Officers now receive a notification when a Site Contact creates an interview through Sonia Online.
Workflows assigned to a specific mentor now trigger only for that mentor, instead of notifying and assigning forms to every mentor linked to the student.
Clearing a culture-specific text field in School Options > Online > Text now correctly falls back to the default English text instead of retaining stale data.
Workflow terminate conditions now include "Student check not met" and "Supervisor check not met," matching the other available met/not met condition pairs.
Workflow hour offsets now trigger communications at the correct, configured time instead of being ignored.
Copying a Student Code in Check Manager no longer includes a trailing space.
Tooltips near the right edge of the screen in Sonia Online now display in full instead of running off screen.
Filtering form respondents by Date Updated or Due Date now correctly returns matching records instead of showing zero results
The PlacementDocuments placeholder is now available when communicating from a Placement Group, matching what's already available in workflow email actions.
Document Category now displays alongside documents in Placement Group document lists in Sonia Online, consistent with other areas of the product.
Emails to Sites with the "cc mentor" checkbox selected now send successfully instead of failing silently.
Editing shift start/end times from the Placement Request "view" icon now saves correctly, matching the behavior already working from the edit screen.
Customized Header and Footer sections in Sonia Online now display correctly on mobile devices.

Release: June, 2026

Client: 2022.4.1.318 | Online: 2022.4.1.140 | Dashboard: 2022.4.1.43

Check Manager: 2022.4.1.67

Feature	Description	Benefit
Sonia Client Startup	Improved startup reliability for the Sonia Client, eliminating intermittent credential errors and launch failures after restarting or reopening the application.	Resolves Sonia Client restart failures, eliminating manual cache clearing.

Bugs Fixed

Forms permissions for the Placement Officer role now work correctly and no longer mirror Admin role behavior.
Sonia Online URL can now be added successfully in Sonia Central without triggering an invalid URL error.
Sub-activity breakdown now displays correctly for site contacts and supervisors when viewing student timesheet records.
Sonia no longer crashes when editing School Options > Online > Text content.
Check Manager now correctly saves user permission combinations without requiring all three checkboxes to be selected.
Users are now warned when attempting to send a communication via SendGrid without a subject line.
Next of Kin phone numbers now import into the correct phone field instead of the address field.

Release: May, 2026

Client: 2022.4.1.315 | Online: 2022.4.1.139 | Reports: 2022.4.1.60

Check Manager: 2022.4.1.62 | API: 2022.4.1.66 | Student Importer: 2022.4.1.111

Feature	Description	Benefit
Paragraph Text Fields Visibility	Paragraph text fields data in forms entered by other roles can now be viewed by students with read-only access without requiring any additional permissions.	Ensures data visibility as intended across all permission levels.

Bugs Fixed

Timesheets now work correctly when adding them to students in a placement group.
Check Manager now loads correctly after resolving a dependency issue that was causing a blank screen on sign-in.
The supervisor student view now displays consistently regardless of how many students are assigned.
Student custom fields now update correctly when written to by a subsequent form submission.
Multiple custom list field filters now work simultaneously in student search.
The placement calendar now shows correct dates with proper timezone handling.
The SiteStudentPositions placeholder now correctly shows unallocated mentor and supervisor information.
Form conversion to PDF now generates successfully.
Log emails are now sent correctly for the Student Importer.
The placement calendar now displays the correctly configured date across all timezones.
Notifications for site primary contacts are now routed correctly and no longer sent to parent site contacts.
The Student Importer now correctly applies the DistinguishEnrolmentsByStudyMode and UnpersistEnrolments settings.
Date format is now preserved correctly when passed from a text-type form field to a student check.
Actual duration is now calculated correctly on the placements screen when hours are entered manually in a form.
The Student Importer now runs without errors when "Document" type custom fields are encountered.
Timesheets now save correctly when you are signed in via Sonia Client.

Release: March-April, 2026

Client: 2022.4.1.268 | Online: 2022.4.1.110

Reports: 2022.4.1.42 | Dashboard: 2022.4.1.21 | Check Manager: 2022.4.1.44

Feature	Description	Benefit
Image Form Field Type	A new "Image" form field type is now available when building forms. If your forms require signatures or other images, you can now use a dedicated field to upload images directly within the form.	Improves the usability of forms requiring image uploads.

Bugs Fixed

Placement Officers can now interact with form dropdowns as expected, without the fields failing to respond.
Dates now display in the correct format throughout placement groups and form respondents, preventing confusion and data entry errors caused by unexpected date format changes.
Users can now reliably enter and save duration values on timesheets, and add timesheets through forms as expected, without data being lost.
The # character is now stripped from output filenames, so document exports complete successfully.
The Sites API now only requires the site name and correctly updates existing records instead of creating duplicates.
Emails now correctly filter students by the selected date range.
Security hardening has been applied and embedded in code so fixes persist through future updates.
The Preferred Name filter now works consistently across all pages, matching the Last Name filter's behavior.
Form calculation performance has been optimized to reduce delays.
Workflow conditions "All Student Mandatory Checks Met/Not Met" now correctly evaluate each student's check status, ensuring emails go to the right students.
The Site Importer now correctly distinguishes sites by site code and creates separate profiles.
Import tab and ribbon controls are now fully accessible by keyboard.
The ribbon menu is now fully navigable via keyboard for assistive technology users.
Timesheet display performance has been significantly improved, reducing load times and preventing timeouts.

Release: February 27, 2026

Client: 2022.4.1.129 | Online: 2022.4.1.77 | API: 2022.4.1.24

Reports: 2022.4.1.15 | Dashboard: 2022.4.1.21 | Check Manager: 2022.4.1.44

Student Importer: 2022.4.1.21

Feature	Description	Benefit
New Sorting Option for Subject Selection	A new sorting option, by Name or Code, has been added to make subject selection easier when adding students to placement groups.	This will allow Placement Officers to browse the full list of subjects more efficiently, either by name or code, when adding subjects to placement groups.
Document Extraction: Added Metadata	Additional metadata is available on documents when they are extracted using the document extraction tool.	This will give customers more insight into which documents have been extracted using the document extraction tool.
Enhanced Geocode Service to Support Google Maps API	Customers can now use Google Maps API as a backup if Azure Maps fail to optimize the location. NOTE: Customers need to obtain their own Google Maps API key and share it with the Sonia Support team for implementation within Sonia.	Provides better reliability and continuity in location optimization.

Bugs Fixed

Form fields not rendering interactive content.
Check Importer Reference Value not cleared when imported value is null.
Custom styling blocked in forms.
SSO in Check Manager not working.

Release: January 30, 2026

Client: 2022.4.1.96 | Online: 2022.4.1.57 | API: 2022.4.1.18

Feature	Description	Benefit
Convert Student Forms to PDF Documents	This feature allows users to select multiple completed forms (for a given student) and convert them into PDFs in one go. University users can use this tool to generate PDFs in Sonia and migrate the converted documents to Experiential Learning Cloud (ELC).	Sonia customers can quickly convert one or more forms for a single student into PDFs, making it easier to prepare for migration to ELC.
New Check Placeholders	The following new placeholders allow users to dynamically insert a check's value (for example, check's expiry date) into student and supervisor communications: Student Check Value Supervisor Check Value	Makes communications easier and clearer by embedding the selected check values within the message text, rather than displaying it in a separate table.
New Columns in Timesheets Table	In addition to the duration column, the timesheets table now displays two new columns: Total unapproved duration Total approved and unapproved duration	Provides visibility into the total duration entered, regardless of approval status.
Password Requirements (Sonia Client)	Password requirements can now be configured in University Options in the Sonia Client and will be enforced for users created in the Client.	Improves platform security by promoting password policies.
Student Allocation API Endpoint Improvements	The Student Allocation API endpoint will now allow multiple allocations to be passed in a single POST call.	Improves efficiency of the API endpoint.
Comments Column Added to Supervisor Table (Sonia Online)	The supervisor table in Sonia Online can now be configured to display comments.	Provides high level insight into supervision information.

Bugs Fixed

Break value not being stored in timesheets.
Filtering timesheets by Subactivity causes error.
Selected placement duration unit not being used consistently throughout application (occurs when the duration unit is changed).

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Sonia: 2026 Release Notes

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