xBit 3.13.0 Release Notes

February 21, 2025

🚀 New Feature: Chain of Custody 2.0

Chain of Custody has been revamped and is now powered by the Form Builder. That means you are free to change the Chain of Custody forms however you like. There are three different forms in the form builder you can edit: Intake, Exchange, and Disposal. You can add your own fields in the form builder or remove unnecessary fields. We made the video below for you to follow along or you can use the written guide below.

Examples of Added Fields
You can add / remove any fields that you need from Chain of Custody forms just as you would with any evidence form.

As an example, let's add a Security Measures field to the Intake Form.

We can add a field by clicking on the plus button below:

Select add your own and then name it. Let's make it required:

Let's add options to it as well as instructions and save. We are using the multiple choice field option so that users can select multiple options.

Our new field will appear in all chain of custody forms. Another example of a field you can add is notes. We added notes to this form with the Long Text field type using the same process.

Our new Intake Form is visible on the new evidence page. We can make the same changes to Exchange Forms and see them on the change of custody tab of evidence pages:

You can create custody reports from the Chain of Custody tab of the evidence page:

NEW: 🏃 User Type Fields

One of the new fields added to xBit is the User field that lists users within xBit.

Clicking on this field lists all available xBit users and if they are an admin.

Editing a user the Form Builder provides numerous options for default users and what users are allowed in the list.

Allow Default User
Enables setting a default user for the field. When activated, a pre-selected user can be shown by default in the form.

Allow New Entries
Lets users enter any text input, even if it’s not in the predefined list (free-form entry).

Prefill With Logged-in User
Automatically fills the field with the currently logged-in user when creating a new entry.

Choose Users
Allows you to manually select which specific users are available for selection in the field.

Allow Disabled Users
Includes users who have been disabled in the system in the selection list.

Choose User Groups
Lets you filter user options based on group membership (e.g., Admins, Investigators).

NEW: 📁 File Upload Field

You can now upload a file in any xBit form. Edit the upload field type in the Form Builder to view options

Instructions
A text box where you can add helpful guidance or notes for users uploading files (e.g., “Please upload a PDF of your report”).

Allow Multiple Files
Enable this to let users upload more than one file at a time.

Restrict By File Extension
Limit uploads to specific file types (e.g., .pdf, .jpg). Helps control what formats are accepted.

Restrict By MIME Type
Adds another layer of file validation based on MIME type (e.g., image/png, application/pdf) to ensure accurate file type handling.

Keep Original File Name
Saves uploaded files using their original name.

Rename With Custom Format
Automatically renames uploaded files using a predefined format (e.g., "Court Order", "Forensic Image Report") Useful for organizing files consistently.

Limit By File Size
Lets you specify a maximum file size for uploads (e.g., 10MB). Helps manage storage usage and system performance.

Require Minimum Image Width
Ensures that image uploads meet a minimum pixel width—useful for maintaining quality in scanned documents or photos.

Allow Searching by Content
When enabled, the content within uploaded files (like PDFs or Word docs) is indexed so it can be searched later. Great for forensic, legal, or document-heavy workflows.

NEW: ✏️ Rich Text Fields

We’re excited to introduce Rich Text Fields to our Digital Case Management software! This powerful new feature allows users to format their text directly within forms—bringing more clarity, structure, and customization to your case records.

With rich text support, you can now:

• Add bold, italic, and underlined text for emphasis
• Create bullet points and numbered lists for organization
• Insert hyperlinks and line breaks for cleaner formatting
• Use headings and indentation for better readability

This enhancement is designed to improve both the user experience and the quality of information captured in your workflows.

This is distinct from a Long Text field type because you have numerous options including:

• Font Family
• Font Size
• Font Weight
• Alignment
• Italics
• Underlining
• Strikethrough
• Font Color
• Font Background Color
• Ordered and Unordered Lists
• Indentation
• Tables
• Dividers

🦾 Keyboard Accessibility

The xBit team is excited to announce significant enhancements to keyboard accessibility across the platform—making it easier than ever to navigate without a mouse.

Tab Navigation
Users can now smoothly navigate through the system using the Tab key. Each press will move focus to the next interactive element on the page. To navigate backward, simply use Shift + Tab.

As you tab through the interface, the currently focused element will be clearly highlighted with a green border and background, making it easy to track where you are.

Smart Auto-Focus
To streamline workflow, xBit will automatically focus on commonly used elements—such as search bars—when a page loads. If there are no auto-focus elements on a page, tabbing will start from the main menu by default.

Skip to Section
Need to jump to a specific part of a page? You can now use the Table of Contents feature. Simply press Shift + Tab until you reach the xBit logo at the top of the page. Once focused, a navigable Table of Contents will appear, allowing you to quickly skip to any major section of the page.

These accessibility upgrades are part of our ongoing effort to make xBit faster, easier, and more inclusive for all users. Try it out and let us know what you think!

Copy Barcode on Click

You can now click on any barcode to copy the UPC or numeric version of the barcode so you don't just have the visual version.

Example: Clicking the barcode above will copy 472394620938 to your clipboard, which you can paste wherever needed.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• Barcode - Fixed barcode button that sometimes submitted the form.
• Evidence - Fixed an issue that occurred when trying to create evidence and the reviewer list contained users who could not see the evidence.
• Evidence - Fixed an issue where creating a new evidence type was not working.
• Evidence Reviews - Fixed the "Setup Evidence Reviews" link in the Form Builder page.
• Evidence Reviews - Prevented duplicated status notes when adding Peer/Admin review in case status.
• Fields - Fixed an issue with orphan data on field value tables. All field value-saving routines prevented partial failures.
• List Manager - Fixed the Exam Result table not loading.
• Login - Added proper messaging for invalid recovery codes.
• Settings - Fixed the enable review toggle not working on the settings page. Added an alert when an error occurred so it was not stuck in "saving."
• Table View Builder - Prevented disabled fields from being added to the Table View.
• Uploads - Added Preview text to PDF case uploads.
• Uploads - Fixed a bug that allowed a file to be uploaded three times.
• USSS Stats - Added USSS fields to contexts Cartridge, DNA, Firearm, and Intel.
• USSS Stats - Set the timezone on the USSS Exam End Date.
• Users - Prevented the user manager from showing a false-positive logged-in user.

🌈 UI Changes

• Auto CID - Changed the warning copy to be clearer when turning Automatic Case ID on, instructing users that they would be directed to another page to set up the Auto CID template. Made small cosmetic changes.
• Case Dashboard - Fixed the Admin group in the case permission modal style.
• Case Status - Corrected the note name.
• Case Status - Moved the status note to the last status when a review status was added.
• Chain of Custody - Changed dropdown styling for the Missing Signature button and updated the text.
• Evidence - Fixed how error messages were displayed on the evidence view page.
• Evidence Review - Allowed timeline field names to wrap and equalized the width of the field attribute and value.
• Evidence Review - Fixed the label issue for the reviews toggle.
• Fields - Fixed radio-type fields that misaligned when vertical.
• Fields - Fixed the TinyMCE editor not displaying dotted borders on tables.
• Form Builder - Fixed a scroll issue and removed the datepicker when closing the sidebar.
• Form Builder - Moved HR up in User options.
• Lab Request Manager - Fixed lab submission not working on non-SMTP request submissions.
• License - Fixed an issue where the license warning container showed on small screens.
• New Evidence - Delayed focus on the date until after the warning appeared so that the date picker appeared in the correct position.
• Report Builder - Made the Evidence Type List in the Content Library sorting case insensitive.
• Settings - Centered AD Buttons.
• Settings - Fixed the AD group tab navigation bug.
• Stats - Fixed charts that showed "[object Object]" in the tooltip.
• Table View Builder - Allowed toggling back on default filters in the evidence manager and case manager.
• Table View Builder - Made horizontal scrollers follow when scrolling up and down in table views.
• USSS Stats - Fixed USSS dropdown fields that got cut off when options were more than one line.
• USSS Stats - Fixed the loader for adding USSS stats.
• USSS Stats - Fixed the USSS stats tab in the dashboard bug that showed the "Permanently Match" button all the time.
• User Manager - Made list style changes.
• User Manager - Moved the online user indicator. Fixed the log-out user button not showing.