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ART-DECOR® – Release 3.10.3 ​

Release notes 24 September 2026

Introduction ​

We are happy to announce ART-DECOR® Release 3.10.3, a focused patch release with substantial new capabilities. In total, 69 tickets were handled, comprising tasks and stories delivering new features and improvements, as well as bugs that were fixed.

Release 3.10.3 focuses on the following major areas:

  • FHIR: Extensive improvements to StructureDefinition export, FSH support, FHIR search, and FHIR API correctness
  • Transaction Building Blocks (TBB): Backend association overrides, override table in the detail panel, and bug fixes
  • Questionnaire support: Constraint handling, answerOption initialSelected, and saving fixes
  • Terminology Browser: SNOMED refset delta viewing, code-search fix, CodeSystem content support, and language label corrections
  • Obligations: Frontend read support for obligation extensions
  • Additional binding support: Read support for bindings on datasets and transactions (frontend and backend)
  • ADA: Setting-permissions for users; ADA update fix
  • Performance and stability: Continued API deconstruction, nginx routing fix, expensive XQuery rewrite, codeSystem persistence improvements
  • General quality: DECOR check workflow improvements, periodic-notifier fixes, branch clean-up, and numerous bug fixes across datasets, transactions, and terminology

NOTE

Release 3.10.3 is a cumulative update and fully replaces 3.10.2. Existing installations should upgrade directly to this version.

FHIR ​

FHIR tooling has received the most significant investment in this release. The StructureDefinition export pipeline has been extended and refined across multiple dimensions — from smarter type-count mapping and improved handling of choice[x] groups, to the inclusion of Requirements mappings and concept aliases. FSH format support has been broadened to cover code system exports, and several API-level bugs affecting ConceptMap export and search result paging have been addressed.

StructureDefinition Export Improvements ​

  • [AD30-2506] Smarter mapping of valueDomain type count in FHIR 4.0 StructureDefinition export.
  • [AD30-2507] FHIR 4.0 StructureDefinition export was incomplete for concept/contains. This has been fixed.
  • [AD30-2508] FHIR 4.0 StructureDefinition smarter export of concept.desc into ElementDefinition.short has been implemented.
  • [AD30-2509] FHIR 4.0 StructureDefinition export of choice[x] concept groups is now supported.
  • [AD30-2530] Transaction context elements are now exported into StructureDefinition as ElementDefinition.comment.
  • [AD30-2547] StructureDefinition export can now include Requirements mappings.
  • [AD30-2557] FHIR StructureDefinition now includes the concept name in the aliases field.

FSH Support ​

  • [AD30-2529] FSH output for contact now generates the correct type. Bug fixed.
  • [AD30-2532] Exporting code systems in FSH format is now supported.

FHIR Search and API Fixes ​

  • [AD30-2531] FHIR API was failing on Concept Map export due to a too-narrow function signature. Fixed.
  • [AD30-2555] FHIR Search Bundle was returning a wrong total when paging. Fixed.
  • [AD30-2558] An extremely expensive for-if expression in api-codesystem for FHIR has been rewritten for performance.

Transaction Building Blocks (TBB) ​

Transaction Building Blocks continue to evolve. This release adds backend association override support, exposes a TBB override table in the transaction detail panel, and fixes several bugs that caused data loss or incorrect state when working with overrides, obligations, and context fields.

New Features ​

  • [AD30-2415] Backend association overrides for Transaction Building Blocks are now supported.
  • [AD30-2450] A TBB override table in the transaction detail panel has been implemented.
  • [AD30-2526] TBB associations override in patch concept is now supported.

Bug Fixes ​

  • [AD30-2519] Bug in putRepresentingTemplate for TBB has been fixed.
  • [AD30-2543] putRepresentingTemplate payload was missing obligations and context fields. Fixed.
  • [AD30-2593] Transaction concepts were losing their terminology override. Fixed.
  • [AD30-2601] Transaction editor was leaving absentForUpdate upon override. Fixed.

Questionnaires ​

Several inconsistencies in questionnaire authoring have been corrected. The saving pipeline now correctly surfaces errors on invalid item structures, answerOption initialSelected is properly handled, and value set containment has been made optional rather than unconditional — improving compatibility with a broader range of questionnaire patterns.

New Features and Fixes ​

  • [AD30-2496] Questionnaire.item inconsistencies were being saved without error. The system now correctly reports errors on save.
  • [AD30-2504] Support for Questionnaire.item.answerOption initialSelected has been added.
  • [AD30-2528] Questionnaire.item saving procedure was failing. Fixed.
  • [AD30-2533] Questionnaire containment of value sets is now optional, not unconditional. Fixed.
  • [AD30-2381] Transaction editor was incorrectly manipulating cardinality when adjusting conformance. Fixed.
  • [AD30-2603] Editing a transaction value of attribute enableBehavior with an empty string was failing. Fixed.

Obligations ​

Obligation extensions defined in profiles can now be read and displayed in the ART-DECOR frontend. This is the first step in a planned series of obligation-related improvements; write support and deeper UI integration are planned for subsequent releases.

  • [AD30-2409] Frontend read support for obligation extensions has been implemented, allowing obligations to be viewed in the UI.

Additional Binding Support ​

ART-DECOR now supports reading additional bindings on datasets and transactions, both in the backend and the frontend. This lays the groundwork for full read/write support of additional bindings in line with the FHIR additional-binding extension pattern.

  • [AD30-2366] Additional binding support in datasets and transactions has been introduced (story).
  • [AD30-2370] Backend support for additional bindings has been implemented.
  • [AD30-2417] Frontend read support for additional bindings has been implemented.

Terminology Browser ​

The Terminology Browser has received a set of useful additions and a number of bug fixes. SNOMED CT refset delta viewing is now available, the terminology associations tree is now on par with the transactions tree, and CodeSystem.content is supported at the backend. Several synchronisation and search bugs that had crept in since earlier releases have been resolved.

New Features ​

  • [AD30-2512] Support for viewing SNOMED refset deltas is now available in the Terminology Browser.
  • [AD30-2580] The tree for terminology associations is now on par with the transactions tree.
  • [AD30-2595] Backend support for CodeSystem.content has been added.

Bug Fixes ​

  • [AD30-2446] CodeSystem 'purpose' field was missing. Fixed.
  • [AD30-2520] CodeSystem ORPHA had changed OIDs. Updated.
  • [AD30-2525] Terminology browser searching by code was no longer working. Fixed.
  • [AD30-2538] Terminology Browser Codesystem Language dialog table header label translations were incomplete. Fixed.
  • [AD30-2559] POST valueSet frontend and backend were no longer in sync. Fixed.
  • [AD30-2587] Value sets could not be stored via PATCH. Fixed.
  • [AD30-2605] Terminology association add parameter was not allowed. Fixed.
  • [AD30-2606] Regression with terminology associations has been resolved.
  • [AD30-2609] GET server/$decortypes was no longer returning correct data for the 'property' field. Fixed.

Datasets ​

Dataset authoring has seen several correctness improvements. The baseId selection on concept creation is now supported, relationship-to-self compilation for contains has been fixed, and concept usage now correctly uses targetRef instead of targetId on the backend — aligning with the expected data model.

  • [AD30-2422] Choosing a baseId upon concept creation was not supported. This has been implemented.
  • [AD30-2540] getFullConcept was incorrectly compiling a relationship to self for 'contains'. Fixed.
  • [AD30-2553] RetrieveConceptDiagram links were pointing to the non-versioned page. Fixed.
  • [AD30-2594] containedConcept path value is now correctly handled in the id field.
  • [AD30-2607] Concept usage has been moved from targetId to targetRef on the backend.

Scenarios & Transactions ​

Two targeted fixes affect scenario and transaction handling. The no-longer-applicable 'optional' flag has been removed from transactions and templates, and a parameter mismatch in getConcept from the Transaction panel has been corrected.

  • [AD30-2425] The 'optional' flag for transactions and templates has been removed as it was no longer applicable.
  • [AD30-2582] Wrong parameters were being passed in getConcept from the Transaction panel. Fixed.

Concept Maps ​

Two bugs affecting the Concept Map Editor have been resolved — an edge case in the editor itself, and a crash on save that occurred when a concept map contained multiple targets.

  • [AD30-2271] Improvement to the Concept Map Editor: an edge case bug has been resolved.
  • [AD30-2478] ConceptMap was throwing an error upon save when there were multiple targets. Fixed.

ADA (ART-DECOR Application) ​

ADA has been extended with user-level setting-permissions, giving administrators finer-grained control over what individual users can configure. A bug that had been preventing ADA updates from completing has also been fixed.

  • [AD30-2560] Setting-permissions for users can now be configured in ADA.
  • [AD30-2503] ADA update was failing. Fixed.

Publications & DECOR2html ​

Publication robustness has improved with the resolution of a race condition when concurrent publications were started, a link-prefix fix in DECOR2html output, and a correction to the project index link for referenced datasets.

  • [AD30-2477] A race condition when starting a second publication before the first had started has been resolved.
  • [AD30-2586] DECOR2html was generating links without the required prefix. Fixed.
  • [AD30-2469] Projectindex link to the development project for a referenced dataset was broken. Fixed.

DECOR Check ​

DECOR check now validates that QuestionnaireAssociation elements reference existing concepts, closing a gap that previously allowed dangling references to pass undetected. The overall check workflow has also been streamlined for a smoother experience.

  • [AD30-2260] DECOR check now validates that QuestionnaireAssociation points to an existing concept.
  • [AD30-2536] Workflow improvements for DECOR check have been implemented for a smoother checking process.

Performance and Stability ​

Ongoing work to decouple and restructure the platform continues. project-api deconstruction progresses, eXist-db has been upgraded to version 6.4.1, codeSystem persistence has been hardened, and a particularly expensive XQuery for-if expression in the FHIR codesystem API has been rewritten. An nginx routing gap that was bypassing the decor-services controller for RetrieveDataSet has been closed.

  • [AD30-2118] Continued deconstruction of project-api, moving functionality to a dedicated library to improve modularity and maintainability.
  • [AD30-2358] eXist-db 6.4.1 has been built and integrated.
  • [AD30-2476] Improvements to codeSystem persistence have been made for better reliability.
  • [AD30-2505] ART installer pre/post-install logic has been moved to the API; ART terminology references have been decoupled.
  • [AD30-2548] nginx configuration was not routing RetrieveDataSet through the decor-services controller. Fixed.

Software Development / Tools ​

Post-3.10.2 branch cleanup has been completed on both frontend and backend. A compile error, unreliable send-status detection, and unguarded date casts in periodic-notifier.xql have been fixed. Acceptance testing for this release has been completed.

  • [AD30-2403] Backend: old branches after 3.10.2 have been cleaned up.
  • [AD30-2406] Frontend: old branches after 3.10.2 have been cleaned up.
  • [AD30-2562] periodic-notifier.xql: compile error, unreliable send-status detection, and unguarded date casts have been fixed.
  • [AD30-2413] Acceptance testing for Release 3.10.3 has been performed.

Hints for Updating an ART-DECOR® Release for local installations ​

For all our hosted servers we do planned and announced updates of the server software regarding backend and frontend, comprised of ART-DECOR Vue and ART-DECOR http-proxy. For cliens that run their own installations, this section includes hints for upgrading your installation.

npm build vulnerabilities (AD30-2454): Critical security vulnerabilities in axios (< 1.15.1) and 10 high-severity module vulnerabilities have been resolved by updating dependencies in both the art-decor and http-proxy packages. For clients that running the vue frontend, please update to our newest vue frontend version.

XSLT Saxon compilation failure (AD30-2421): A critical bug in Saxon 9 caused XSLT transformations to fail with UnsupportedOperationException: Cannot enumerate an infinite set during stylesheet compilation. This affected all sites using Saxon < 12.0, including ADRAM. The recommended fix is to upgrade ADRAM and/or ADAWIB which include the upgraded version Saxon-HE 12.9. Only clients that are running ADRAM, or ADAWIB are effected by this change.

Please Note

When you have a local installation of ART-DECOR and want to update to this release, please consider reading our Updating an ART-DECOR® Release documentation.

Thank you ​

A BIG thank you!

We are always thankful for any comments and suggestions.

Special thanks for the feedback regarding the Template Viewer and Editor to the colleagues from ELGA (Austria) and HL7 Italy / Ernst&Young (EY) and for Dataset and Questionnaire editor to the Berlin Institute of Health @ Charité team.

Especially in the terminology and questionnaire sector we got great feedback from the Dutch ICT Institute in Health Care (Nictiz). Thanks to Gunter Haroske working for the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Pathologie / German Association of Pathology pointing to shortcomings and missing features in our Questionnaire functions and to the Dutch Uitkomstgerichte Zorg Program for contributions in the same area.

Special thanks also to the mio42 GmbH team, Agence du Numérique en Santé (ANS) and our partners at Kereval / IHE Europe for testing, feature suggestions and bug fix requests.

Please don't hesitate to write us with suggestions for improvements or feature requests to our email address provided for this purpose: feedback@art-decor.org, also easily reachable through the Services Card at our ART-DECOR landing page (the link with the bulb 😃).

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Outlook ​

Current development is heading towards Release 3.10.4 as well as towards 3.11 which focuses on further enhancements and features for Questionnaire Management, including score calculation support. We plan to have intermediate minor releases to tackle remaining improvements appropriately but stepwise. We are also working hard on our new FHIR Profile Editor utilizing FHIR Shorthand (FSH).

At the same time we are currently also working on the ART-DECOR Release 4 series. This will imply a big update on the frontend as we switch to Vue 3.

As you can see: more on that to come. Thank you for your patience. Stay tuned.

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