Throughout EDAS, text fields can often be Markdown, whether in an email template, session description, track description, or travel grant recommendation. We have switched from the PHP Parsedown implementation to the CommonMark GitHub-flavored version. Most importantly, this version supports tables and automatically recognizes a wider variety of URLs.

We have unified the listing and export of travel grant applications, allowing the selection of only relevant fields. Applications can be listed as web pages or exported as CSV or Excel (.xlsx) files. We have added a link to a page where all active applications can be marked as rejected, e.g., after the winning travel grant applications have been identified. Applications on the listing can be judged with a single click, rather than going through the "Judge application" page for each, speeding up the handling of travel grants with many applications.

Instead of requiring new users to fill out a lengthy form with personal details, they now only need to provide their name and email address. If the email address matches an organization in our database, the remainder of the profile is automatically populated. The system only prompts for those parts of the profile that cannot be deduced.

 EDAS now provides coupons that allow discounts specified in absolute amounts or as a percentage.

EDAS has had a function for repairing some common PDF problems, such as lack of font embedding, use of URLs, and inclusion of bookmarks. We now integrated the function a bit better and made it more readily accessible via the 'wrench' icon next to manuscript problems that are possibly fixable. The upload function also attempts to fix these automatically.

Many of the IEEE conference templates contain the copyright string placeholder  XXX-X-XXXX-XXXX-X/XX/$XX.00 ©20XX,  to be replaced by the actual ISBN and year information. However, authors don't typically fill this in, as this is better done automatically by the paper stamping function in EDAS. Unfortunately, authors can't know this, so they leave the placeholder. This then requires authors to resubmit their final papers. We added a check, enabled by default for final manuscripts, that rejects the manuscript if the placeholder is found.

Conferences can now upload PDF backgrounds and generate presenter and author certificates. Each author or presenter can download their certificate from the paper page, by clicking on the icon next to the (bio) label. The certificate can include the author or presenter name and the paper title. Certificates for attendees and reviewers will be added on request.

 To better support posters, tracks can allow additional paper sizes: A0, A1, A2 and A3.

EDAS now tracks the number of times a file, such as a video or manuscript, has been viewed or downloaded. The view counts are shown in the Papers:List and Export form as "Times viewed".

A summary of the key features for supporting virtual conferences is now available  on  the EDAS documentation page.

In addition to per-paper discussions, each session is now associated with a discussion group. Discussion messages can be directed to everybody who can view the program, just the conference chairs, just the session chairs or the session authors. As for paper messages, the discussion counts are updated on the program page in real time. The discussion page is also kept current as long as the page is in a browser tab.

Most conferences impose time limits on their author-provided talk videos. EDAS can now check to make sure that the video uploaded does not exceed the maximum play duration. Just configure the file type you use for presentation videos in the track settings ( Conference / Tracks , " Maximum video duration (for video files only), in minutes") . As always, chairs can upload files that violate the file constraints. You can also list the video duration in the paper listing. The video duration is shown on the paper page, too, next to the file size in bytes.

You can now add EDAS-hosted video uploads or presentations as links to the EDAS conference program, with a chair-designated icon or an icon representing the file type (e.g., PDF or Powerpoint). Each paper can also have a video URL, e.g., pointing to a YouTube or Vimeo video.

As conferences go virtual, interactions between attendees and authors can be challenging, particularly if the audience is distributed across many different time zones. EDAS now has a basic text chat discussion feature. Messages are sent by email to authors and attendees who have listed their paper to be among their favorites. Message counts are also updated in real-time on the conference program and can be seen by clicking on the count bubble.

Most text items, including templates, submission instructions, and page headers, can now be edited in an HTML editor, making it easy to add formatting, tables, and links. Plain text and Markdown  formats are still available for email templates.

Conference chairs can now export their accepted paper metadata in the format suitable for DBLP .

Many conferences have had to transition from an in-person to a virtual event. EDAS now supports such virtual conferences by allowing each session to have a link to a video conferencing service such as Zoom. Also, if enabled in the conference configuration, authors and attendees can discuss papers via a simple message board. Authors receive all messages, while attendees can mark papers as favorites. Once attendees have commented on a paper, they will get any follow-up discussion as well. Discussions are time-limited, with the start and end date set by the chair in the conference configuration ("Online access & program"). Only attendees who have been given access to the manuscript can comment on a paper. Discussion links have to be enabled on the program page.

EDAS now signs outgoing email using the DKIM  mechanism. This allows the sender to validate that the email was actually sent by EDAS. This will hopefully reduce the number of EDAS email messages filed as spam, e.g., by Yahoo. Because of the way DKIM works, this only applies to email messages using an @edas.info email sender. Since this is new to EDAS and DKIM is a bit gnarly, please contact EDAS Help if you see validation problems.

For many years, EDAS has handled registration payments for conferences both in the United States and elsewhere. We used PayPal to handle our credit card payments, and attendees would get billed in the currency advertised on the conference web site, possibly converted into their home currency. However, PayPal transferred the collected funds to EDAS Conference Services in US Dollars - that's the only option for almost all credit card processors, at least in the United States. This mechanism often meant that we had to convert the collected funds twice - once from, say, Euros to US Dollars and then back again to Euros, with the attendant currency conversion losses to the conference and EDAS. Payments also had to be batched, so that the conference either had to wait a while for funds or incur multiple wire transfer charges. We are now trying out a new payment processor for all of our payments, Stripe. It allows us to connect Stripe accounts located in other countries, set up by the co...

EDAS icons have been upgraded to Font Awesome 5.  If you see any spinning question mark icons, please let EDAS Help know.