What We’re Working On

Wow, what a year it has been for us at Permanent! We have been working on a number of projects, and have managed to wrap up many of them. Read below for an update on what we’re working on and what we’ve accomplished lately.

New files uploaded are processed by Archivematica: Our back-end engineer, Liam, has been very busy this year working to integrate Archivematica as our preservation processing system in the back end. As of this month, when you upload a file on Permanent and view it in your archive, you’re seeing an access copy that was generated by Archivematica! It likely doesn’t look any different to our users, but this is a very exciting milestone for us in this project.

New Onboarding UI with a click of a button: We have wrapped up development of the new user interface for our account and archive creation for new members. However, there’s a small twist: all of these changes are technically live on the Permanent app, but they’re hidden behind a metaphorical switch that only the Permanent team has access to. Because of the upcoming holidays, we decided to wait to flip the switch and turn it on for new members to see after the holidays. Be on the lookout in early January for this update.

Two-step verification management on mobile: The mobile team is working on a number of user interface improvements in the mobile app for iOS and Android. As part of this update, we are adding the ability to manage your two-step verification methods within the mobile app. This is an important feature for the security of your account, and we are excited that it will be available across all platforms early next year.

To learn more about our development plans, please check out our updated Product Roadmap.

Recent Releases, Improvements, and Fixes

Clearing a location is coming!: When we add a new feature on Permanent, that feature generally requires two steps: first, we have to enable the feature in the back-end (things you can’t see), and then we have to build a way for you to access that feature on the front-end (what you can see). Our back-end engineers just finished some work that will allow users to clear a location on a record. While you can’t see this change, we expect that you’ll be able to clear locations from your records early in the new year.

Storage Checkout Changes: When making a purchase, we want you to be absolutely sure you know what’s going on. That’s why we’ve added an additional spinner to indicate that the storage purchase is processing, and a new confirmation message within the window to confirm that your storage has been purchased and your account updated. We hope this will provide you with more information about your storage purchases on Permanent.

Bug Fixes: We are always fixing bugs (that is, small problems) that you report to us. For high priority bugs, our turnaround time is one to two weeks. Recently, we fixed: 1) a bug that prevented dragging and dropping a folder into the public workspace to initiate an upload, and 2) a bug that signed a user out if they navigated away from Permanent during onboarding.

We want to hear from you! If you find a bug or wish to tell us about a feature or improvement you’d like to see, contact us at support@permanent.org and we’ll add it to the list. We’re looking forward to hearing from you.

If you have reported a bug or product improvement and wish to see its status, you can view the Member Improvements List here. We try to work on these bug fixes and improvements in order, so check back to see when your reported issue is resolved.

User Testing Opportunities

Interested in future user testing opportunities? You can sign up to be notified about future user testing opportunities at this link.