AFD security enhancements

EBS AFD integration has been updated to allow an institution to use a user ID and token for authentication, rather than a serial number and password. This change gives increased security and simplifies the setup by removing the need for many different serial numbers. In the future we expect AFD authentication using a serial number to be de-supported, so we have added this into the Essential Maintenance category in this release.

In 4.49, user ID and token authentication could be used for phone and email validation. In 4.50, user ID token authentication can now be used for all Address Integration.

Before switching to user ID and token authentication in EBS, you must request your credentials directly from AFD and ensure all the features that you require are enabled on the credentials.

API properties added to control AFD validation of phone and email

Two new properties have been added to the Insert/Update People API as follows:

• ValidatePhone

• ValidateEmail

If EBS is configured to use AFD for phone and email validation, these properties can be used to determine whether or not a person's email address or phone number is validated on an API call.

If the properties are omitted, the learner details will not be validated. The existing institution settings AFD Phone validation (ontrack) and AFD Email Validation (ontrack) will continue to control whether these elements are validated in Ontrack.

Add description field to Third Party Links reference data

Staff can now populate the Summary field in Reference Data. Only valid values are accepted. When completed, the summary value syncs with the associated label, URL, and roles.

Add Icons drop-down to third-party links reference data

Staff can now select an Icon from a drop-down menu in Reference Data. Only valid icon values are accepted.

Attendance and punctuality screen

New screens have been added to Interfaces Designer to support new data links for attendance and punctuality. An additional workflow have also been added. Existing attendance and punctuality datalinks have been removed from the EdgeStudyRoute screens also.

Intel pi version has been upgraded

This EBS release includes the January 2026 release of pi. For more information, go to pi Release notes.