Latest updates Nintex K2 5.8 Release

The wait is over! Nintex Automation K2 (5.8) has officially launched, and it’s packed with incredible new features, updates, and improvements. This release is a game-changer, with major advancements in workflow automation, cloud capabilities, design experiences, and integration options. K2 5.8 is set to transform how users work, making it easier, faster, and more productive than ever before. Let’s dive into all the exciting innovations that have just landed!

Support and Release Strategy

K2 continues to offer tailored support for its key platforms: K2 BlackPearl, Automation K2, and K2 Cloud. Each environment is designed with specific support strategies:

• K2 BlackPearl remains an on-premise solution with support for version 4.7 through 2025. Critical bug fixes will be provided, however clients are encouraged to migrate to K2 Five for continued support and many great features.

• Automation K2 allows for flexible deployment options and will receive continued updates to the latest version.

• K2 Cloud offers fully managed cloud infrastructure, with updates keeping features between on-prem and cloud solutions in sync.

Release Upgrade Compatibility

Upgrading to K2 5.8 requires careful planning for clients on older versions. Direct upgrades to 5.8 are not supported for versions 5.5 or earlier. In these cases, clients must upgrade to version 5.7 before transitioning to 5.8. This structured approach ensures a smooth and stable upgrade experience.

K2 5.8 Release Overview

This new release is focused on 3 main categories: integration & modernisation, translations & localisation, and security & management.

• Integration & Modernisation: Building on the SharePoint Online Migration Tool introduced in version 5.7, Nintex continues to add new integration capabilities, including updated permissions management and performance improvements in workflow design.

• Translations & Localisation: This release introduces Out-Of-the-Box (OOB) language support for Arabic, German, French, and Spanish, allowing users to work in their native languages, including full interface translations for K2 Designer, K2 Management, and K2 Workspace. Additionally, the translation feature will also be available for views and forms created using the K2 Designer, allowing users to work seamlessly in their preferred language across all design elements and manageable on K2 Management website.

• Security & Management: The new functionality allows you to compare workflow versions, helping with troubleshooting and identifying changes within a workflow. This includes the ability to revert to an older version and continue making changes from that point. This feature extends to Forms, allowing effortless retrieval of older versions. A huge relief for all K2 developers!

New Features and Enhancements

Workflow Version Management

K2 5.8 introduces powerful new features for managing workflow versions. Users will now be able to save and manage multiple versions of workflows with comments, making it easier to track and restore previous versions if needed. Finally!

Version histories can now be viewed to track changes, and both draft and deployed versions can be downloaded for troubleshooting and comparison. What an improvement!

• Save drafts: Saving a version to take a snapshot with comments.
• View version history: See who made changes and when
• Edit older versions: Edit an older version to make changes from that snapshot
• Download versions: Download form versions to compare changes or for support troubleshooting.

Productivity Enhancements

To improve the overall design and deployment experience, K2 has introduced several productivity-focused features:

• Solution Design and Management: Users can now store and reference their JavaScript (JS) or CSS files directly in K2, simplifying the design process and ensuring consistent styling.
• Productivity with Rules: The new rules cloning feature allows for quicker, more efficient rule building, along with future updates to the SmartForms designer.

Multilingual Support

K2 is introducing enhanced multi-language support for key interfaces such as Designer, Workspace, and Management. From a developer’s perspective, these interfaces will now be available in multiple languages, streamlining the development process across global teams.

For end users, the system will automatically adapt to the language of their browser, offering seamless experiences in German, French, Spanish, Arabic, and more. This update facilitates global collaboration and workflow management, making it easier to work across regions. With over 77,000 words and phrases translated for each language, K2 is now fully equipped to support your multilingual needs and elevate your productivity on a global scale. Nintex will continue to add features to translation capabilities in K2 and bring them to K2 Cloud next year, but you can begin translating your existing or new SmartForms with 5.8.

Performance and Modern Frameworks

K2 5.8 focuses heavily on performance, utilising updated frameworks to streamline and secure the workflow design experience. These upgrades are designed to minimise load times while ensuring the platform adheres to the latest security and performance standards. These changes also focus on achieving feature parity, so users experience seamless functionality with noticeable improvements in speed.

SharePoint SPFx Migration Tool

Nintex is building a migration tool to take your existing SharePoint Online apps from the old event receiver and add-in model to the new SPFx pages and webhooks.

Key features include:

• Scanning the environment: Identifying existing SharePoint Online site collections and integrations.
• Migrating solutions: Transitioning existing apps from the add-in model to the SPFx model while displaying progress and logging results.
• Reporting results: Providing a detailed report on the migration and cleaning up old artifacts.
• Performance and stability: Operating within SharePoint Online’s throttling limits, with error rollback to ensure continued functionality.

SharePoint Permissions Enhancements

The upcoming K2 5.8 release includes new methods to manage permissions on SharePoint folders and items. These enhancements provide greater flexibility and control over how permissions are applied:

• Folder Permission Methods:

Users can now:

• 1. 1. Add or remove users or groups from folder permissions
     2. Stop inheriting permissions to enable unique permission settings for specific folders
     3. Delete or retrieve unique permissions set on a folder
• Item Permission Methods: These methods allow users to retrieve all permissions applied to specific SharePoint items, including lists or document IDs.

This set of tools gives users enhanced capabilities to handle permissions more effectively within their SharePoint environments.

SmartForms Modernisation

To keep up with modern web standards, SmartForms has received a significant overhaul. The default OOB theme has been modernized, replacing legacy themes with a cleaner, more efficient design. New web components have been added, and Style Profile Templates are now available, allowing users to quickly apply modern themes.

Additional Security and Technical Enhancements

Security updates: Cross-site scripting fixes in Forms Rules and Insecure deserilisation fixes
Code Fixes: All fix packs released for 5.7 merged
Technical Debt: ADAL to MSAL updates for modern authentication libraries
Framework Updates: .NET Core 8support for microservices

Conclusion

The K2 5.8 release is an exciting development for automation professionals. With significant improvements in version management, performance, productivity, integration, and language support, K2 is continuing to provide innovative solutions for users worldwide. As K2 prepares for future releases, the platform is set to become more powerful, secure, and user-friendly than ever before.

Looking ahead, the roadmap for K2 promises an exciting future. Early 2025 will see the release of Nintex Automation K2 5.8.1, offering further cloud synchronization, followed by a major update to K2 Cloud in mid-2025. By the end of 2025, K2 5.9 will debut with weekly bug fix packs, ensuring continuous improvement. Notable features on the horizon include enhanced Live Instance Management for effortless workflow upgrades, deeper integration capabilities with OpenAPI 3.0, OData v4, and Nintex RPA, as well as, a more flexible JavaScript Service Provider for seamless system integration across environments.

To showcase these exciting upgrades, we will be organising webinars in early October— so stay tuned for more details!