Changelog

Promodag Reports v.14 introduces certificate-based authentication for Office 365, eliminating the need for a user account with a mailbox and resolving issues with password expiration and multi-factor authentication (MFA). This method grants permissions directly to the Promodag Reports application in Azure AD, enabling automated batch report generation without human intervention. The Exchange Online Management v.3 PowerShell module is now included with the application and complete setup instructions are available in the Knowledge Base.

The Tag Messages by Subject feature in Promodag Reports allows administrators to filter and hide messages from traffic reports based on keywords without deleting them from the database. This is useful for excluding automatic messages, private communications, or confidential content from reports distributed across the organization, particularly for GDPR compliance. Users can add predefined or custom tags (like "private," "birthday," or notification keywords), organize them into categories (e.g., notifications, private messages, automatic messages), and easily process or restore them in the database as needed.

Promodag Reports introduces a new Delegated Mailings report to address Office 365's limitation in identifying senders of messages sent "on behalf of" delegated mailboxes through tracking logs. This report of the Mailbox Content category scans items in the Sent Items folder of delegated mailboxes (requires enabling a specific PowerShell cmdlet) and offers two detail levels: Mailbox level showing delegate email addresses and message counts, and Item level listing individual messages with recipients and details. Users can filter items by age using the Filter tab, though the report only captures messages still present in the Sent Items folder at execution time.

Microsoft is decommissioning Basic authentication (username/password sent over SSL) in favor of Modern authentication (OAuth 2.0 token-based) for Exchange Online due to security vulnerabilities like brute force attacks. Promodag Reports now supports Modern authentication, requiring a one-time admin consent process where a Global Administrator grants the application necessary permissions to access mailboxes and send messages. Permissions can be revoked anytime by removing Promodag Reports from Enterprise applications in Azure AD.

Promodag Reports v.12 now allows users to run, stop, enable, disable, and manage scheduled tasks directly from the product interface, eliminating the need to access Windows Task Scheduler for basic operations. A new priority management feature was added after a user experienced performance issues when SQL backups competed with import tasks for server resources. These improvements make the task automation module more intuitive and user-friendly than the standard Windows Task Scheduler.

Promodag Reports v.12 introduces SQL LocalDB as the new default database format, replacing the obsolete Microsoft Access option due to Access's limitations. LocalDB, packaged with the installer, offers 10GB capacity, better performance, full SQL Server interoperability, and enables seamless migration to full SQL Server if needed. Users can create and manage LocalDB databases through Promodag Reports' interface or SQL Server Management Studio. While existing Access databases can still be opened in v.12, creating new Access databases is no longer supported and users are encouraged to migrate to LocalDB.

Promodag Reports v.12 introduces a Migration Wizard that automates the upgrade process from v.11, eliminating the need to manually copy files and recreate scheduled tasks. The wizard detects existing v.11 installations, migrates the configuration file including encrypted passwords and server settings, transfers custom reports and batch files, and clones scheduled tasks adapted for v.12 while disabling the original v.11 tasks. After migration completes, users simply need to apply the v.12 license and accept the database conversion to finish the upgrade process. This automated approach replaces the inconvenient manual migration workflow.

Version 12 of Promodag Reports delivers significant performance improvements: importing Office 365 mailboxes is now 4 to 8 times faster, and support for SQL LocalDB now allows you to create local databases up to 10 GB in size. This version incorporates modern authentication for Office 365, supports government cloud environments and includes a Migration Wizard that automatically transfers configurations from version 11. Other improvements include optimized management of public folders, a default switch to 64-bit mode and more efficient task automation controls.

A PowerShell error "The syntax is not supported by this runspace. This can occur if the runspace is in no-language mode" occurs upon importing the directory and the size of mailboxes since the April 2021 cumulative update for Exchange. This issue has been identified and corrected.

We have started to implement the new PowerShell Exchange Online cmdlets provided by the EXO V2 PowerShell module. These commands are used to retrieve data in bulk from Office 365.

Version 11.2 of Promodag Reports introduces support for modern authentication for Office 365, which requires the Exchange Online PowerShell V2 module and 64-bit mode for enhanced security. This update delivers significant performance improvements: reports now load progressively as they are generated, while 64-bit mode helps prevent out-of-memory errors on large reports. Key enhancements include a simplified setup wizard, improved diagnostics, additional fields in distribution group reports, and the ability to filter for active devices only in the Recipient Mobile Devices report. Critical bug fixes address errors when importing tracking logs and issues with analyzing the contents of public folders.

Promodag Reports now supports Office 365 Modern Authentication in response to Microsoft's deprecation of Basic Authentication for Exchange Online services. To enable this feature, users must install the Exchange Online PowerShell V2 module on the Promodag console and run the application in 64-bit mode (Access database is incompatible). Modern Authentication currently supports directory imports, Office 365 tracking logs, and storage size imports, with content reports support planned in a future release. This enhancement ensures Promodag Reports remains compatible with Exchange Online's evolving security requirements.