MHC NorthStar CCM 2026 Release Notes

Summary

Descriptions of the new features and fixes added to the MHC NorthStar CCM (formally EngageCX or Ecrion) being added between February 2026 and January 2027. New releases are added to NorthStar CCM every four weeks, starting with R2026.01.1.

Note: Previous Product Versions

Each feature is tagged with the NorthStar CCM level it's included with: Essentials, Enterprise, and/or Enterprise Plus. If you are updating from a previous version (Engage CX or Ecrion), you can check below to see which level of NorthStar CCM your current version equates to.
    EngageCX
  • EngageCX Create or Develop NorthStar CCM Essentials
  • EngageCX Converse > NorthStar CCM Enterprise
  • EngageCX Experience > NorthStar CCM Enterprise Plus
    Ecrion
  • EOS-CCM > NorthStar CCM Enterprise
  • EOS-CEM > NorthStar CCM Enterprise Plus

New Features

Version R2026.04.1 (May 2026)

MHC NorthStar CCM release R2026.04.1 contains enhancements to NorthStar Designer and forms editor, including:

NorthStar Designer:

Forms Editor:

NorthStar Designer: Accessible Hyperlinks Enterprise Enterprise Plus

Add alternative text to hyperlinks to improve document clarity and accessibility.

When selecting a hyperlink in NorthStar CCM Designer, you can now click "Alt Text" to open a properties panel and add a text description of where the link goes or what it does, with a limit of 150 characters. This alternative text can be used by screen readers to clarify the presence and purpose of links in your document.

Why did we make this change?

Alternative text for hyperlinks is a common requirement of accessibility standards. Alternative text allows someone using a screen reader to understand the presence or purpose of the link in your document. NorthStar CCM's accessibility compliance checker will flag missing alternative text from hyperlinks, and this feature allows you to correct those issues to ensure your document meets accessibility standards and is readable to a larger audience of users.

NorthStar Designer: Letter Spacing Enterprise Enterprise Plus

Adjust the letter spacing of paragraphs to create more readable documents.

With NorthStar CCM Designer, right-clicking a paragraph will open a Properties panel with a "Letter Spacing" field. The default value of this field will be "Normal," which applies the chosen font's default character spacing. Adding a 'pt' value adds additional spacing between letters of the selected paragraph. This allows you to ensure letters in your paragraph can be spaced 10-12% wider than the default setting, which can improve readability for users with low vision or other processing difficulties.

Why did we make this change?

This enhancement gives you more control over the appearance of your documents, and allows them to be easily readable by a larger audience.

NorthStar Designer: AI Assist Enterprise Enterprise Plus

Create data expressions more easily with AI assistance.

When inserting data fields, dynamic elements, or conditional text into your document, NorthStar Designer allows you to create expressions to filter or transform your data, and Designer's AI Assist functionality can now help transform plain language instructions into formatted expression syntax.

To build an expression with AI Assist, click on the AI Assist tab within the expression builder when adding a data field, content fragment, conditional text/formatting, or repeating rows. Type a simple description of the expression you want to build in the text window, and then click "Send."

AI Assist will build an XPath expression based on your description, which you can either revise or click "Apply" to add to your document.

Why did we make this change?

Expressions allow you to filter or transform data in order to generate specific, personalized, and relevant documents, but the requirement to know XPath expression syntax could be a barrier to some template designers. AI Assist's expression builder allows non-coders to leverage the expressions to improve their templates.

NorthStar Designer: Accessible Repeating Row Filtering Enterprise Enterprise Plus

Filter data when building repeating rows.

When you create repeating rows in Designer (a table with a variable number of rows based on linked data), you can now apply conditions to filter the data used by the table. This ensures that when the document is rendered, only rows that meet your requirements will actually display.

To add filters to a repeating row, select the row and then choose "Filter Rows" from the Table tab. This will open an "Edit Filters" modal, from which you can add and insert conditions into the table, and then click Apply to save the changes.

Why did we make this change?

The ability to filter data when rendering repeating rows enables a document to use data more discreetly and selectively, and allows a greater range of raw data to be used without needing to format or edit it specifically for the document.

For example, if you wanted an invoice document to include unpaid items, and you had a master list of items with a "Status" field for "Unpaid" or "Paid" items, you could filter that data to populate the repeating rows with only unpaid items, instead of having to create a smaller "unpaid only" dataset.

This enhancement makes NorthStar CCM a more flexible and functional tool for converting raw data into relevant, accurate, and effective documents.

NorthStar Designer: Language Support Enterprise Enterprise Plus

Streamline and simplify your templates by removing unneeded languages.

NorthStar Designer allows you to add multiple languages to your template, but if a language is no longer needed (or was added mistakenly), you can now remove it.

From the Home tab of NorthStar Designer, select the Manage languages icon (the globe). This will open a panel listing all languages that have been added to the template. To remove one, select the language from the list, and then select the "Delete Language" button.

Note: If a language has been set as the default language for the template, it cannot be deleted.

Why did we make this change?

You may occasionally need to simplify a template by removing unsupported or unnecessary languages. This change allows you to more easily keep your template language options lean and relevant.

NorthStar Designer: Language Support Enterprise Enterprise Plus

Preview your templates in different languages.

If you have set up a template in Designer with multiple languages, you can easily preview your template in any of the languages you've chosen. When you click the dropdown arrow by the "Preview Template" icon (a red PDF) on the Home tab, you'll see a "Set preview language..." option. Clicking it will open a "Set preview language" dropdown selection, from which you can choose any of the languages you've added to the template and click "save." Clicking the "Preview Template" button will then generate a preview in your selected language.

The language you've saved will persist for all future previews (and CCM sessions), until you manually change it again.

Why did we make this change?

When building a multi-language template, it's essential to be able to preview the final form of the document in each language to verify proper layout and formatting. This update makes it easier to preview your document across multiple languages, and set the default language you'd like to use for image previews.

NorthStar Designer: Table Editing Enterprise Enterprise Plus

Split table cells in your templates.

If you're designing a table for a template, and you need to subdivide an existing cell, you can now select the cell and click on the "Split" button in the table tab. This will allow you to choose how many rows and columns you'd like to split the cell into, clicking "OK" to apply your changes.

Note: A cell can only be split up to 15 times.

Why did we make this change?

Enabling both cell merging and cell splitting gives you more control over customizing your template's tables to fit your needs, with greater ease and control than merging alone.

Forms Editor: Text Styling Enterprise Enterprise Plus

Add bullets and rich text formatting to your forms.

Within the NorthStar CCM Forms Editor, selecting a paragraph element will now open a Paragraph panel. From this panel, you can compose and format the Display Text for your form element with rich text styles and elements, including:

Why did we make this change?

Enabling rich text styling for Forms elements allows you to elevate the style of your forms, emphasize key information, and structure your form for enhanced readability.

Version R2026.03.1 (April 2026)

MHC NorthStar CCM R2026.02.1 includes enhancements to NorthStar Designer and the Forms Editor.

NorthStar Designer: Table Editing Enterprise Enterprise Plus

Merge table cells when editing templates.

You can now merge adjacent cells in templates, giving you more control over table layouts.

Why did we make this change?

The merge feature allows you create cleaner, more flexible table designs without workarounds.

NorthStar Designer: Paragraph Editing Enterprise Enterprise Plus

Adjust the spacing between lines of text.

You can now merge adjacent cells in templates, giving you more control over table layouts.

Why did we make this change?

Being able to configure line spacing makes it easier to meet visual and branding requirements for your templates, and provides additional options for readability or paragraph sizing.

NorthStar Designer: Accessibility Enterprise Enterprise Plus

Easily see which fonts can be embedded for greater accessibility.

When viewing the font dropdown menu in NorthStar Designer, embeddable fonts will be marked with a small icon (hovering over this icon will display the label "Embeddable Font").

Why did we make this change?

Font embedding is a requirement of many accessibility standards. Allowing you to view which fonts are embeddable within Designer helps you choose a font that will support your accessibility requirements and avoid building templates with unembeddable fonts.

NorthStar Designer: Admin AI Controls Enterprise Enterprise Plus

As an admin, enable or disable AI-assisted translations in NorthStar Designer.

From the AI tab of the Edit Environment section of NorthStar CCM, you can now enable or disable AI translations by selecting or clearing the corresponding checkbox.

Disabling AI-assisted translations will hide the "AI" button from the Language Properties panel, as well as the column of checkboxes that are used to select sentences for AI translation.

Why did we make this change?

Adding this control allows administrators to have finer control over the translation options available to template designers. For organizations that have preferred translation processes, disabling NorthStar CCM's native AI-translation streamlines the interface and helps ensure that translations are generated by the intended tools and processes.

Forms Editor: Images Enterprise Enterprise Plus

Add images to the body of your forms.

When designing a form, you can now add images. From the form editor, double-click or drag the Image icon onto your form body. This will add a placeholder image to your form, and open an editing panel on the left side of the window. Click "Browse" and select an image from your project's component library, or click "Upload File" to add a new image.

Once added, you can add alternate text to your image, adjust its size, or apply style elements to it; these options are all available in the editing panel.

Why did we make this change?

Adding images or icons to your form can allow you to build richer layouts and reinforce your brand.

Version R2026.02.1 (March 2026)

MHC NorthStar CCM R2026.02.1 includes several enhancements to NorthStar Designer, including AI support for text revision and translation. We've also provided a version of the Software Development Kit (SDK) with .NET 4.8 support for legacy or enterprise applications using that framework, and we've made some UX improvements to forms.

AI Assist Enterprise Enterprise Plus

Make your templates more effective with AI-assisted text refinements.

If you have enabled the MHC AI Studio, you'll find an "Open AI Writing Assistant" icon in Home tab of NorthStar Designer. Selecting this icon will open the AI writing assistant panel.

When you select text from your templates, the AI writing assistant panel will analyze the sentiment of your text. To refine your text, choose your desired sentiment (positive, neutral, negative), tone (professional, casual, informational), and length. Then click "Generate Draft" for a revised version of your selected text. If you approve of the revision, you can instantly update the original text by clicking "Update."

Why did we make this change?

This feature allows you to leverage AI with your own knowledge of your audience and preferences. You can quickly revise sections of text to ensure that your templates are consistent and meet your requirements for tone and sentiment.

AI Translation Enterprise Enterprise Plus

Use AI to translate your templates instantly.

If you have the MHC AI Studio enabled, when you click on the "Manage Languages" icon in the Home tab, you'll see an "AI" button on the Language Properties panel.

Clicking the AI button will immediately generate an AI-provided translation for each text string in your document. Note: This action will overwrite any existing translations.

If you approve of the translations, you can save them by clicking "OK," or you can manually revise any number of translations before saving. You can also click "Cancel" to discard all changes and revert to the prior state.

Why did we make this change?

This feature allows you to effortlessly translate your document into multiple languages, allowing you to efficiently reach and speak to a wider audience.

Table Formatting Enterprise Enterprise Plus

More easily format and edit multiple table cells or columns at once.

We've updated NorthStar Designer to allow the selection of multiple cells, rows, and columns within a table by clicking and dragging. Once selected, any formatting or styling selections will be applied to all selected cells.

Why did we make this change?

This improvement makes it easier to apply formatting changes to specific cells, rows, or columns in a table.

Forms Enterprise Enterprise Plus

Edit and rearrange forms more easily.

We've made two user experience (UX) improvements to forms:

Why did we make these changes?

Both of these enhancements allow you to edit and customize a form with fewer clicks and greater ease. Making incremental changes like this allow us to continuously improve the user experience based on the customer usage and feedback.

Software Development Kit (SDK) .NET 4.8 Support Essentials Enterprise Enterprise Plus

Integrate your legacy and enterprise applications with our .NET 4.8 compatible Software Development Kit.

We now offer a Software Development Kit (SDK) that can build and run successfully in a .NET 4.8 application, with no dependency requirements for .NET 2.1+ or .NET 6+ features. This SDK supports the same core API endpoints as our .NET 8.0 SDK, and matches the same authentication flows (e.g. API keys, OAuth, etc.).

Why did we make this change?

We became aware that some developers using our software were running legacy or enterprise applications on the .NET 4.8 framework, which is incompatible with the .NET 8.0 SDK we offer. By providing an SDK option for developers working in the .NET 4.8 framework, we make NorthStar CCM easier and more effective for a broader range of legacy and enterprise applications.

Version R2026.01.1 (February 2026)

MHC NorthStar CCM R2026.01.1 includes the launch of NorthStar Designer, a new design tool that allows you to create, design, and style rich CCM templates with integrated data and conditional formatting. You can learn more about the features of NorthStar Designer in our user guide.

This release also includes:

NorthStar Designer Enterprise Enterprise Plus

Create, design, and style rich CCM templates within NorthStar CCM.

Opening a document template or content fragment within NorthStar CCM will now open that template within NorthStar Designer, our new template editing tool. NorthStar Designer includes a suite of standard styling and formatting features, along with support for connecting a template to a data source, embedding data elements and content fragments in the template, and conditionally formatting or adding content based on the data.

Why did we make this change?

NorthStar Designer enables a rich level of template editing and design from any browser, ensuring that your tools and templates are accessible and up-to-date.

Accessibility Report Improvements Enterprise Enterprise Plus

Review accessibility reports with improved ease, clarity, and readability.

We've updated accessibility reports to remove inessential information, reduce redundancy, and highlight the most relevant information from the report. This includes the following changes:

The report will no longer display internal rule codes (such as RC4 or RC6), since these have no external relevance. The full description for an accessibility rule will only be provided once in the section header, instead of repeating it with each violation of the same rule. Content fragments will be listed as a separate location in the report, enabling users to more easily locate issues in content fragments. The report will not require that content fragments have a title or language. If the document fails multiple contrast standards, only the highest selected standard will be shown. The report will display the document name, but not the long alphanumeric template ID, which isn't generally helpful as user identifier. The "Required" or "Not Allowed" status for rule issues has been removed, since all issues found on a report share this status. We've improved the text/background contrast of the report banner to make it more accessible.

Why did we make this change?

These changes make the report easier to read, easier to understand, and more actionable for users, while reducing visual noise.

See the Communications App Guide for Accessibility reporting intructions.

Text Box Fields Enterprise Enterprise Plus

Keep repeated instances of a form textbox synchronized.

We've updated the form functionality so that when multiple text boxes share the same field name, such as the same field appearing on multiple pages, entering or displaying a value in one instance will now be reflected in all other instances, for consistent Adobe-compatible behavior.

Why did we make this change?

Previously, repeated text boxes could behave as separate fields even when they shared a name, which could lead to inconsistent outputs. This change ensures repeated fields function as a single shared form field across the document, improving consistency for templates that reuse the same value in multiple locations.

Template Migration Enterprise Enterprise Plus

Migrate existing templates and route documents more efficiently with workflow parameters.

Business rules now support workflow parameters to drive conditional logic when selecting the routing paths for templates. This enhancement allows organizations to route documents dynamically based on parameter values provided by the workflow, rather than relying on rigid or duplicated configurations.

Why did we make this change?

Previously, migrating complex folder setups required separate workflows or templates to accommodate each variation in document structure. With this update, a single business rule can evaluate a workflow parameter (such as a template name or document type) and conditionally apply the appropriate template path. This change simplifies large-scale migrations, reduces configuration overhead, and increases flexibility when handling documents with varying XML structures.

Template Migration Enterprise Enterprise Plus

Reference workflow parameters with XPath expressions.

XPath expressions used in business rules can now reference workflow parameters, enabling more flexible and dynamic rule evaluation. This enhancement allows XPath conditions to incorporate parameter values—such as file names or naming patterns—when determining how documents are processed.

Why did we make this change?

This change allows XPath expressions to evaluate workflow parameters to replicate existing file-based routing logic, such as selecting templates based on XML file name patterns. This makes it easier to migrate complex folder setups to NorthStar CCM's cloud services, reduces the need for duplicate workflows, and provides greater control when handling documents with varied XML structures.

Issues Fixed

Version R2026.04.1

License Resetting

Summary: One user's key volume was not resetting on the expected anniversary reset date.

Solution: The problem was fixed and verified in Ruby version 26.04.1.06244.

XFD Rendering

Summary: Rendering an .xfd in Studio was intermittently failing after the first or second render with a “Can’t obtain temporary folder / non-existent temp file” error, which did not occur when an .xfc content fragment was omitted.

Solution: The issue was fixed and verified in Ruby version 01.01.0.06230, resolving the temporary file handling error during repeated renders.

Version R2026.03.1

PDF Generation (Develop)

Summary: Generating a PDF in Develop was producing a document whose text layout did not match the original, with unexpected extra spacing that split words and inserted gaps between characters.

Solution: The PDF rendering was corrected so the generated output matched the original again (as long as PDFFloatPrecision was set to 6).

PDF Rendering

Summary: Rendering a specific PDF input was previously causing an unhandled exception and crash.

Solution: Changes made for Custom Encodings resolved the crash. The output still showed visual differences with some text rendered incorrectly due to unsupported Type1 CID fonts with /subtype/opentype; no fix could be made for these differences because the underlying PDF library does not support /subtype/opentype for Type1 CID fonts.

REST API Endpoints (Ruby/Onyx)

Summary: In the NorthStar CCM Ruby version, the /api/v2/status REST endpoint was missing from the REST API page and no longer returned ImageProductName, ProductVersion, and BuildNumber fields that were previously available in Onyx.

Solution: The API was updated to expose a simplified /api/v2/status response focused on server connectivity, introducing new StatusCode values (0–3) to indicate PE and DE connection states and removing fields deemed unnecessary for server status.

Word Document Importing

Summary: Importing a Word document into a Communications project was causing the import to fail with “Server exception occurred: Invalid XPath” in the enterprise-eudemo01-cx environment.

Solution: The issue was fixed in the Publishing Engine’s DOCX-to-EPR conversion path.

Version R2026.02.1

CJK Fonts

Summary: Opening certain vendor PDFs that used KSC-EUC-H font encoding without embedded font data or ToUnicode mappings was causing them to appear blank in Adobe and in NorthStar CCM-generated output.

Solution: The fix was to extend support to these external Adobe CJK encodings by adding the appropriate cmap and cidToUnicode resources (e.g., Adobe-Korea1.cidToUnicode) into Bin/Resources and implementing PDFFontResource to read the generated CTU mappings.

PDF Rendering

Summary: Rendering a certain PDF input in NorthStar CCM was causing repeated "Embedded font file is not a stream" warnings followed by an unhandled exception and memory leak in the Ecrion PDF engine.

Solution: The PDF rendering logic was updated to handle non-stream embedded font definitions in such input files, preventing the crash and leak.

Unicode Characters

Summary: Unicode characters in URL links within Procore XSL‑FO inputs were causing ASCII conversion failures, resulting in unhandled exceptions during PDF generation.

Solution: To fix this, URL handling was updated to properly support Unicode characters, preventing ASCII conversion errors and eliminating the resulting exceptions.

JSON Parsing

Summary: Numeric values from JSON data sources were being rounded (e.g., 0.0418 to 0.042) when rendered in Publisher.

Solution: Numeric parsing was updated to preserve the original precision so values from JSON were no longer rounded during rendering.

Microsoft Defender

Summary: Installing MHCCreate-25.08.1-06045.exe had left Engines.WebServer.exe unsigned, causing Microsoft Defender to block the service from running despite correct service rights, folder permissions, port configuration, and other troubleshooting attempts.

Solution: We identified that Engines.WebServer.exe needed the same code-signing treatment as PublisherSvc.exe. We provided a properly code-signed version so it could run without being blocked by Microsoft Defender.

Version R2026.01.1

CJK Language Support

Summary: We observed incorrect punctuation when rendering documents containing Korean, Chinese, or Japanese (CJK) text.

Solution: We've fixed this by updating the punctuation font selection logic so that punctuation no longer inherits the font of the preceding CJK character.

Padding and Autofit

Summary: We observed a scenario in which the spacing between text elements was not automatically expanding as the font size was changed.

Solution: We examined the issue and found that the issue was caused by a nested block container. Nested block containers should be avoided, and removing it corrected the issue.

Arabic Language Support

Summary: We observed parentheses in the Arabic XSL‑FO output could display incorrectly after the most recent upgrade.

Solution: We corrected the XSL‑FO formatting so that parentheses rendered in the proper direction in the generated PDF.