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API Enhancements

The Civio Engage API now supports full content management. With an API token, you or a connected tool can create, read, update and delete the main content across your site: projects, surveys and their submissions, pages, updates, timeline stages, events, maps, hotspots, documents, and more. Survey responses over the API.

Learn more about working with the Civio Engage API.

Other New Features

Icon Picker for Menu Items

You can now select icons from a large Google Material icon list for your header and your footer. Start typing to filter, then click the one you want.

More Precise Email Styling

Emails sent from your site now render more precisely and on-brand. Including your theme colours, button text colours, and content you compose in the rich-text editor looks the same in the delivered email as it does while you're writing it. So what you build is what recipients receive.

Document Upload Size Limits

Administrators can now set their own maximum document upload size (up to 60 MB) from the dashboard, and a file that exceeds the limit returns a clear message for your users.

Submitter Handler Improvements

When a survey is submitted, you can now include the submitter's name and email in the actions that submission triggers. Submitter name, Submitter email, and Project name are now available to include in your submission notification emails.

Other Improvements & Fixes

• The social media icons in the site footer are now larger, making your linked platforms easier to spot.

• The Next and Back controls on multi-page surveys now work reliably for people navigating with a keyboard, including anyone using a screen reader or other assistive technology.

• Improved Rich Text Table Editor Performance

• Documents and images with very long file names now upload reliably across the platform.

• Existing links stay clearly visible when you select them in the content editor, and link-style names are readable in the dropdown.

• Decorative banner images are now skipped by screen readers, reducing noise for people using assistive technology.

• The "Closing today" and "Closing tomorrow" badges on public project pages now reflect the viewer's local time and day. Supporting engagements that span across multiple time zones.

• Project category tags on the public project listing are now announced clearly by screen readers as project categories.

• Content groups using the 'Full width highlight' style now fit the page width exactly, with columns neatly aligned.

• You can now preview the in-progress (draft) version of your home page and see exactly how it will look, while published pages and live visitors are unaffected.

• You can now search within survey submissions from the submissions listing, making it quicker to find a specific response.

• Documents approved while a project is in draft now stay visible on the project after it is published.

This release focuses on making everyday admin work faster and your content easier to navigate. The headline is a major upgrade to the listing tables across the platform, with column sorting, a powerful new filter builder, and bulk actions. We've also added a Table of Contents for long content pages and configurable password security for your site, along with a round of fixes.

Sort, filter, and select in bulk.

The listing tables for Projects, Surveys, Users, Documents, and more now support sorting, advanced filtering, and bulk actions.

Sort any column. Sortable columns show a sort indicator. Click a column header to sort ascending or descending, whether that's ordering projects by status, users by role, or documents by date. Sorting follows sensible rules for each type of data, so workflow statuses, dates, numbers, and names all order the way you'd expect.

Build advanced filters. A new Filters panel lets you narrow a long list down to exactly the records you care about. Add one or more filters to narrow the list. Each applied filter appears as a chip above the table, and the Filters button shows a count of how many are active so you always know what you're looking at.

Take action in bulk. You can now select multiple rows at once and apply an action to all of them together, such as changing workflow status or deleting.

Search and filters in the header. The search box and filter controls now sit in the table header, giving every listing page a consistent layout.

Learn more about sorting, filtering and bulk actions

Table of Contents

You can now add an "on this page" Table of Contents that automatically lists the headings on a Project, Page, Event or Update, letting visitors jump straight to the section they want.

It's switched off by default and builds the list from your selected headings, with the ability to indent them. The higher heading always nests the lower heading elements when you indent it. Open the Table of contents panel and click Edit TOC to choose which headings are included.

Configurable Password Security

You can now set the password rules that suit your organisation's security policy. From the Password settings page (under Settings, then People), an administrator can set the minimum password length and which character types are required (a mix of upper and lower case, letters, numbers and symbols). You can also stop people reusing recent passwords and lock accounts after repeated failed sign-in attempts.

A strength indicator appears beneath the password field as you type.

Learn more about managing your password

Bug Fixes & Minor Improvements

• All reviewers now reliably receive the "Project sent for approval" notification email.

• Password reset and email verification notifications are now delivered promptly and reliably

• You can now add an image to accordion content in the rich content editor.

• The "view version in progress" timeline preview now shows each stage with its correct status

• Engagement managers now have permissions to manage Q&A boards.

• When importing users, the default notification preferences that will apply to imported users are now shown in the import settings.

• Visiting /page/home now redirects to your site's home page.

We're excited to share what's new in Civio Engage Release 1.28, a collection of practical additions for everyday engagement work along with platform fixes. Highlights include print-ready surveys for hybrid consultations, user groups for segmenting your audience, the ability to change a survey question's type after building it, and a streamlined editor for hotspot and map descriptions.

What's New

Print Surveys

You can now print a copy of any survey directly from the admin interface, making it easier to support hybrid and offline engagement. Open the survey, click More…, and choose Print. The survey renders exactly as it appears on the frontend, with the site header, navigation, project hero, sidebar, and footer all stripped out so the printed version stays focused on the questions themselves. Learn about how you can set up your surveys for in-person consultations.

Change a Survey Question's Type

You can now change the input type of a survey question without deleting and rebuilding it. When you open a question block, a new Input type dropdown sits at the top. Switch a radio question to checkboxes, swap a short text field for a dropdown, or change any other supported input type, all while keeping the rest of your question intact.

The labels around the block have also been refreshed to make it clearer where you are in the flow: Add input when you're creating a question, and Edit input when you re-enter it later.

Learn more about survey question types · When to use which survey question type

Editor for Hotspots and Maps

Hotspot points and map point descriptions now use a streamlined version of the rich content editor. It gives you the formatting you actually need in those tight spaces, including bold, italics, strikethrough, code, bullet and numbered lists, task lists, and links, without the heavier blocks like image embeds and media that don't suit small description fields.

The result is a cleaner editing experience for short-form content, and tidier output on the frontend.

Bug Fixes & Minor Improvements

• You can now organise your registered users into groups, making it much easier to target communications and manage access to private projects.

• Project-level events no longer appear on the global events listing when they belong to a hidden or restricted project.

• Pressing Enter in the search field on the Projects page now runs the search, matching standard keyboard behaviour.

• Moderation and project-review notification emails now link directly to the relevant moderation page, instead of dropping reviewers back at the site homepage.

• The "View version in progress" preview now reflects the project's current stage on the timeline, matching what's shown on the published version.

• Fixed a homepage banner image bleed on mobile viewports.

• Sites can now opt out of Microsoft Clarity session recording and heatmaps from Settings → Telemetry.

Civio Engage version 1.27.1 brings two new enhancements to give you more flexibility when building your site — a new HTML code block for embedding custom content, and icon support for site menus.

What's New

HTML Code Blocks

A new HTML content block is now available in the page editor. This lets you embed custom HTML directly into your content pages — perfect for adding third-party widgets, custom forms, or styled content that goes beyond the standard editor blocks.

The block validates and sanitises your HTML on save, so only safe, supported tags and attributes will render on your live pages. Any unsupported or potentially unsafe code is automatically removed.

Learn more about content blocks

Menu Icons

Icons added to menu items in the backend now render on the frontend. You can also set a menu item to display as icon only — the text you enter will still be used as alt text for accessibility, but only the icon will be visible to visitors. This is useful for social media links, search icons, or other items where the icon speaks for itself.

Learn more about editing the site menu

Bug Fixes & Minor Improvements

• Fixed an issue where the Save as Template button displayed truncated text on some sites.

• Fixed a bug where updating the footer logo alt text on the Appearance page would incorrectly overwrite the main logo's alt text.

We're excited to announce Civio Engage version 1.27, introducing the brand new Templates system. Templates allow you to save your best engagement tools as reusable starting points, making it faster and easier to launch new consultations with proven configurations.

Major Features ⭐️

Templates

A new Templates section has been added to the dashboard, giving you a central library to save, browse, and reuse your best engagement tools. Save any content or participation tool as a template from the More... menu, then use it to quickly create new tools across your site or within projects. New tools created from a template start in Draft status with all content and settings pre-filled, ready for you to customise.

Templates are available for Surveys, Pages, Polls, Idea Boards, Map Feedback, Q&A Boards, Budgets, Timelines, Events, and Maps.

Learn more about using Templates

Release 1.25 introduces a Save and Continue Later feature for surveys, new security controls for embedded tools, referrer URL tracking, accessibility enhancements, and a refreshed icon library throughout the platform.

Major Features ⭐️

Save and Continue Later for Surveys

Participants can now save their progress when completing surveys and return to finish them at a later time.

For participants with an account

When a participant is signed in, their survey progress is saved automatically. A message confirms that progress is saved and can be accessed from their profile at any time.

For participants without an account

Participants who are not logged in can click Finish later to save their progress. They receive a unique link that allows them to return and continue the survey on any device. Any changes made in future sessions are automatically saved when the browser is closed.

• Saved drafts remain active for 60 days

• Drafts are removed when the survey closes

Learn more in our full article so you can understand how your participants can finish incomplete submissions.

Referrer URL Tracking for Embedded Tools

Engagement managers can now track where submissions originate from when using embedded participation tools, making it easier to compare engagement across different embedded locations.

• View the Referrer Domain and Referrer Path for each submission in the submissions table

• Referrer data is included in submission exports

• New Submission Referrer URLs widget available in participation tool reports

Embed Security Settings

Administrators now have greater control over where participation tools can be embedded with new domain restriction settings.

• Global allowed domains: Configure site-wide permitted domains in Settings > Embed

• Per-tool allowed domains: Override global settings for individual participation tools in the tool's embed settings

• Domain validation prevents invalid entries (no protocols, no trailing slashes)

• Tools cannot be embedded on domains that are not in the allowed list

Learn more about embedding tools in our embedding guide.

Minor Features ✨

Refreshed Icon Library

We've updated the icons throughout Civio Engage with a modern, consistent, and more accessible icon set:

• Cleaner outlined style for improved legibility

• Consistent sizing across all interface elements

• More familiar iconography for common actions

Improved Heading Accessibility

We've updated the heading structure of content blocks to improve accessibility and SEO:

• Block and group titles now render as H2 headings for proper document hierarchy

• The Rich Content editor now supports H3 through H6 headings for use within your content

These changes help ensure your content meets accessibility standards without requiring additional configuration. Learn more in our Rich Content editor guide.

Support for Additional Image File Types

You can now upload additional image formats throughout the platform:

• WebP for optimised web images

• SVG for scalable vector graphics

• GIF for animated images

These formats are supported for primary images, content images, and all areas where image uploads are available.

Bug Fixes 🔧

• Fixed an issue where clicking internal links would not scroll to the top of the destination page

• Resolved an issue preventing image uploads on surveys with a large number of form fields

Release 1.24 introduces powerful new capabilities for community engagement, including our new participatory budgeting tool, enhanced user reporting dashboards, and AI-assisted features for submission analysis. These additions provide organisations with more flexible ways to engage communities and gain deeper insights into participation patterns.

Introducing Civio: Our New Brand Identity 🎉

We're excited to announce that District has evolved to become Civio! This rebrand reflects our strengthened commitment to civic engagement and community empowerment across Australia and beyond.

What's Changing

• District Engage is now Civio Engage

• Our company name transitions from District to Civio

• Fresh new colour scheme: We've updated our platform's visual appearance with a modern, accessible colour palette that enhances readability and user experience

• New visual identity and branding across all touchpoints

• Updated domain and email addresses (with automatic forwarding from old addresses)

What Stays the Same

• Same trusted team supporting your engagement initiatives

• All existing functionality and features remain unchanged

• Your contracts and agreements continue without interruption

• Same commitment to excellence in community engagement technology

• Continuous platform improvements and dedicated support

The Civio name better represents our mission to strengthen civic participation and democratic processes. It embodies our vision for more connected, engaged communities where every voice matters.

The refreshed colour scheme brings a more contemporary look to the platform whilst maintaining excellent accessibility standards. You'll notice these visual updates throughout the interface, designed to create a more engaging and professional experience for both administrators and community members.

Major Features ⭐️

Introducing Budgets!

We're excited to launch our new Budgeting participation tool, designed specifically for participatory budgeting exercises. This powerful feature allows communities to meaningfully engage with budget allocation decisions in a transparent and user friendly way.

Key Features

• Flexible budget types: points, money ($), or custom units to suit your engagement needs

• Create and manage budget proposals with rich descriptions and imagery

• Budget allocation reporting to understand community preferences and make well informed priority decisions

Whether you're running a traditional participatory budgeting program, allocating community grants, or seeking input on priorities, the Budgets tool provides an intuitive way for community members to make their voices heard.

Enhanced User Reporting Dashboards

We've significantly expanded user reporting capabilities, giving engagement officers comprehensive insights into individual participant activity across your platform.

New User Report Dashboard

Access detailed reporting for any registered user through a dedicated dashboard that includes:

• Submissions made across all participation tools

• Events they've registered for

• Projects they follow

• Email communications sent to them

To access a user's report dashboard, navigate to Users > Public Members, then click on any user's name. User dashboards also support the same flexible widget system as project and site dashboards. You can:

• Add, remove, and rearrange widgets to focus on the metrics that matter

• Configure widgets to show specific timeframes or content types

• Export data for further analysis

AI-Assisted Analysis Tools

Release 1.24 includes AI-powered features designed to streamline submission analysis and help engagement teams work more efficiently with community feedback. These experimental tools offer new ways to surface insights from community input.

Natural Language Submission Search

Filter and find submissions using natural language queries instead of manual filter building:

• Ask questions in plain English like “people who support the new park“ or “submissions from residents aged 25-40“

• AI interprets your query and applies relevant filters automatically

• Refine results by adjusting filters as needed

• Works across all survey question types

This feature helps engagement teams quickly locate relevant feedback without navigating complex filter interfaces.

Automated Submission Tagging

AI can automatically categorise open-ended text responses, making it easier to identify themes and sentiment:

• Define custom tags relevant to your engagement topics

• AI automatically tags long-text responses based on content

• View sentiment analysis (positive, negative, neutral) for responses

• Manually adjust tags and sentiment as needed

• Bulk review and tag responses through the Questions view

Automated tagging helps surface key themes from large volumes of community feedback, whilst still maintaining human oversight and control.

Interested in AI Tools?

These features are available for Civio Engage customers. To learn more about AI-assisted analysis tools and how they might benefit your engagement projects, please reach out to the Civio Engage team.

General Improvements

We've made various improvements to platform stability, performance, and user experience based on customer feedback and ongoing optimisation efforts.

Looking Ahead

We're committed to continuously improving Civio Engage based on your feedback and evolving community engagement needs. The Budget tool and enhanced reporting capabilities in this release reflect features requested by our customers, and we're excited to see how organisations use them to deepen community participation.

We're excited to announce District Engage version 1.23, featuring a refreshed admin interface with enhanced visual design, improved accessibility, and better dark mode support. This release focuses on elevating the user experience for administrators with modern styling updates while maintaining all existing functionality and workflows.

Major Features ⭐️

Modernised Admin Interface Design

We've completely refreshed the visual design of the District Engage admin interface to provide a cleaner, more modern, and accessible experience for all users. This comprehensive update brings consistency and polish to every aspect of the dashboard while maintaining the familiar layout and navigation structure you're accustomed to.

Key improvements include:

• Updated colour system: A refined colour palette that improves readability and reduces visual fatigue

• Improved navigation: Streamlined left-hand navigation with better visual hierarchy and full keyboard accessibility and mobile support

• Modern component styling: Updated buttons, forms, inputs and cards with contemporary design patterns

• Consistent iconography: Unified icon set with improved contrast and clarity

• Clearer visual hierarchy: Better organisation of information across all admin screens

WCAG Accessibility Compliance

This release brings significant accessibility improvements to ensure the admin interface meets Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) standards:

• Enhanced colour contrast: All text and interactive elements now meet or exceed WCAG contrast ratio requirements for better readability

• Full keyboard navigation: Keyboard accessibility throughout the entire admin interface

• Improved focus indicators: Clear visual cues for keyboard navigation

• Screen reader optimisation: Better compatibility with assistive technologies

• “Enhanced accessibility“ mode: Optional setting in Settings > Appearance for users requiring additional visual cues

Light and Dark Mode Enhancements

The admin interface now features a sophisticated theming system that seamlessly switches between light and dark modes:

• Optimised contrast ratios meeting WCAG standards in both modes

• Refined colour transitions that maintain visual consistency

• Improved focus states for better keyboard navigation

• Updated hover states across all interactive elements

What Hasn't Changed

• All functionality remains unchanged

• Your workflows stay exactly as they are

• Content, projects, and settings are unaffected

• Public-facing frontend remains unchanged

• Everything is exactly where you expect it – just cleaner and more accessible

These visual updates represent our ongoing commitment to providing an exceptional and accessible user experience for all District Engage administrators. The refreshed interface not only looks more modern but also significantly improves usability and accessibility, ensuring that everyone can use District Engage effectively regardless of their abilities or assistive technology needs.

The changes have been carefully implemented to maintain your familiar workflows while providing a cleaner, more accessible interface. We believe these enhancements will make your daily work in District Engage more pleasant and productive.

As always, we welcome your feedback on these improvements. If you have any questions or need assistance with the new interface, please don't hesitate to contact our support team.

This styling and theming release transforms how you can customise your District Engage site's appearance. Release 1.22 introduces extensive new styling options, homepage controls, and accessibility improvements to create more engaging and inclusive experiences for your community.

Major Features ⭐️

New Styling and Theming System

We've expanded District Engage's appearance customisation capabilities with a comprehensive suite of new styling options that give you more control over your site's visual identity.

Key Styling Options

• Spacious Theme Style: A modern, clean aesthetic that provides more breathing room between elements and follows contemporary government website design patterns.

• Flexible Navigation: Position your main navigation to the left, centre, or right to match your organisation's brand guidelines and user expectations.

• Enhanced Content Groups: New background colour options for highlighted content groups using your site's palette colours, with intelligent text contrast adjustment for optimal accessibility.

Advanced Homepage Customisation

Your homepage is often the first impression visitors have of your engagement site. We've introduced powerful new controls to help you create compelling homepage experiences:

Hero Style Options: Choose between default hero layouts or wide image formats that make visual impact with full-width imagery.

Search Integration: Toggle homepage hero search forms on or off to match your engagement strategy.

Registration CTAs: Configure custom call-to-action text for user registration directly in the hero section.

Title Positioning: Control how relationship block titles appear across your content with flexible positioning options (top, left, right).

These homepage enhancements work seamlessly with all existing District Engage themes and can be configured through Settings > Home page in your admin dashboard.

Accessibility Improvements ✨

Continuing our commitment to inclusive design, Release 1.22 delivers significant accessibility enhancements across both frontend and backend interfaces:

• Enhanced focus states for better keyboard navigation visibility

• Improved contrast ratios for password field icons and interactive elements

• Better screen reader support with proper ARIA labelling

• Accessible dropdown menu navigation with focus trapping

• Keyboard-accessible mobile hamburger menu with proper focus management

• Enhanced “show more/show less“ link functionality with visual direction indicators

• Improved image gallery controls with consistent focus states

• Corrected postcode field labelling (no longer displays as “Location“)

• Enhanced filter dropdown accessibility with keyboard navigation

• Better autocomplete attributes for registration forms

• Improved breadcrumb link visibility and interaction

Bug Fixes 🔧

• Emails now properly display your organisation's name instead of “District Engage“

• Fixed visual issues with the Kiwi theme when using wide hero layouts

• Resolved background colour display problems with tabs and accordion group layouts

• Corrected hamburger menu icon alignment across different themes

• Addressed focus state inconsistencies in image gallery fullscreen controls

• Improved navbar positioning when site-wide messages are active

Many of these enhancements and fixes have been requested by our customers and represent our ongoing commitment to providing flexible, accessible, and visually appealing community engagement tools.

If you encounter any issues with this release or have questions about the new styling features, please reach out to the District Engage Support Team.

Release 1.21 introduces improvements to content reporting, API capabilities, and user customisation options, along with various improvements and bug fixes to enhance your community engagement experience.

Minor Features ✨

Event RSVP Customisation

Event organisers now have greater control over attendee registration:

• New “Allow RSVP“ option when creating or editing events

• Automatic hiding of attendee limits and registration tabs when RSVPs are disabled

• Enhanced RSVP attendee details showing user profile information including contact details and postcodes

Learn more about creating and editing events and viewing your Event's registrations

Authentication Improvements

We've expanded single sign-on capabilities with several enhancements:

• New Okta SSO provider support for enterprise authentication

• Customisable SSO login text and button labels

Learn more about configuring your settings and customising user sign-up forms.

New Page Reporting Widget

We've improved our content reporting capabilities with a new dashboard widget to report on top pages:

• New “Published date“ column shows when content was first published

• Separate widgets for different content types: “Top pages“, “Top updates“, and “Top timeline stages“

• Each widget displays Total Visits, Unique Visitors, and Published status

• Improved sorting by Total visits in descending order with 5-item limits for focused insights

Learn more about dashboard widgets and how to customise your dashboard.

API Enhancements

We've expanded our API capabilities with new endpoints for better integration with external platforms. Administrators can create API keys and access comprehensive documentation at /docs/api when logged into your site.

Learn more about using the District Engage API

Bug Fixes & Administrative Improvements 🔧

• Fixed registration form suffix field not saving changes properly

• Resolved SSO authentication errors

• Improved stability and error handling across API endpoints

• Translation settings now accessible via the dashboard menu