14.1 Applicant Release Notes

  • Production Deployment Date: April 18, 2015
  • Training Deployment Date: March 30, 2015

Summary

  • Applicant Enhancements
  • Global header, footer and navigation changes
  • Search Grants page components with "Open Date" label changed to "Posted Date"
  • Timestamp format changed on multiple pages
  • Clarified submission error message that appears when a user applies for an opportunity that is not yet open
  • Created new S2S Web service for retrieving "Competition Title" of an application package
  • Rejected Submissions enhancement
  • Batch processes updated to consume UTF-8 formatted SAM extract files
  • Other updates
  • Reminder of Upcoming Changes

Global Changes to Grants.gov

Global Banner

  • Removed the Contact Us link and the light blue vertical line to the left of the Manage Subscriptions link
  • Moved Contact Us content to Support tab on Global Navigation Menu

Global Navigation

  • Updated the Global Navigation Menu to accommodate the addition of the "Grants Learning Center" under the Learn Grants tab.

Global Footer

  • Changed hyperlinks for Privacy, Accessibility, and Exit Disclaimers
  • Privacy and Accessibility links previously sent users to HHS.gov Privacy and Accessibility pages

Timestamp Format Change

The modified timestamp format appears on the following pages and content:

  • Under Date/Time Received and Status Date columns of the Track My Application page
  • Under Date/Time Received and Status Date columns of the My Recently Submitted Applications grid
  • Under Date/Time Received and Status Date columns of the Check My Application Status results grid
  • Under Date/Time Received and Status Date columns of the Check Application Status for Organization results grid
  • On the submission timestamp footer of the flat PDF (from the downloaded application Zip file)
  • On Rejection Notice emails (PDF, S2S V0, V1, and V2.0)
  • On Submission Receipt emails (PDF, S2S V1 and V2.0)
  • In exported data files

New Web Service for S2S

Created a new Web service allowing applicants to retrieve the "Competition Title" of an application package through S2S

  • This service returns a collection of objects for all open opportunities
  • This service allows applicants to filter the request using the following Input Parameters:
    • FundingOpportunityNumber
    • CFDANumber
    • CompetitionID

Rejected Submissions Enhancement

Modified application submission processing so that submission-related data, such as agency and Funding Opportunity Number, is retrieved and stored earlier in the process.

This enhancement ensures that applications rejected moments after submission will appear in Track My Application, and in the applicable Grantor and Applicant pages and reports.

Change SAM interface to use new UTF-8 files

Updated Grants.gov daily and monthly batch processes to consume UTF-8 formatted SAM extract files.

Other Updates

  • Trimmed leading and trailing spaces from all user fields when registration information is submitted
  • Allowed existing users to log on with a username with "%" character and a two-digit hex number.
  • Modified the RSS feed to resolve the issue caused by synopsis descriptions with non-readable characters.
  • Modified the XML extract file creation process to resolve the issue caused by extended ASCII characters.
  • Removed all the hardcoded hyperlinks to the Glossary page.
  • Implemented various security enhancements to maintain system ATO

Reminder of Upcoming Changes

Effective Date: January 1, 2016 (Note: No waivers permitted)

Grantor S2S, Applicant S2S - Port 446 Disablement

  • Port 446 will no longer be available in any environment
  • Port 443 will continue to only support:
    • SHA-2 Certificates
    • TLS v1.1 and TLS v1.2

Grantor S2S, Applicant S2S - S2S Versions

  • S2S V0 and V1 end points are being discontinued
  • S2S V2 will be the only end point supported

Grantors, Applicants, Grantor S2S, Applicant S2S - Old Training (AT07) Environment URLs

  • The old Training (AT07) URLs will no longer be rerouted to the new URLs