Version 84 brings a significant upgrade to Custom Properties with the introduction of Reference-type navigation, expanded Veeva automated testing capabilities, and several quality-of-life improvements across the platform.

For more information see the release notes for Version 84.

Custom Property References

Custom Properties of type Reference can now refer to Rave draft objects, and we've built out a full navigation experience around them. When a Reference property appears in a list view, it links directly to the referenced object. The same applies in the object editor, where you'll find a clickable link to navigate to the target. If your object is referenced by another custom object, you'll see a convenient link in the editor sidebar back to the referencing object. When a Reference property is part of an object identifier, the link appears right alongside the identifier in the custom objects list.

These navigational links make it much easier to work with related objects without having to search or browse manually. When you copy a custom object with a Reference property into a draft, the reference is automatically resolved to the corresponding object in the destination draft when it exists.

Beyond References, we've added support for custom properties on Unit Dictionary Entries, giving you the same extensibility for units that you already have for other object types. Custom object layouts also now support a read-only mode for fields and containers — fields marked as read-only display a lock icon and cannot be edited, and child elements can override their parent container's setting when needed.

Veeva Automated Testing

We've continued to expand our Veeva testing capabilities in this release. The Test Case Advisor is now available for Comparison Rules, helping you generate test scenarios for this rule type just as it does for other Veeva rules.

Several new test steps improve how you work with subjects in Veeva test cases. You can now check the value of a subject's name and status directly in your test scenarios. The Test Case editor will also warn you if a data entry step could change the subject name without a subsequent step to verify or re-select the subject, helping you catch potential issues before execution.

Query steps now display their status in user-friendly text rather than raw values, making test results easier to read. We've also improved the messaging when a Form is restricted and the test runner account doesn't have restricted data access — you'll see a clear explanation if a Form isn't found due to permissions rather than a generic error.

AI Agent Controls

Organizations now have finer-grained control over AI Agent availability with a new URL/Vault level setting. This allows you to enable or disable AI Agents on a per-URL or per-Vault basis, giving administrators more flexibility in rolling out agent capabilities across their organization.

Veeva Reserved Words Diagnostic

A new diagnostic for Veeva studies checks whether Items are using reserved words. This helps you catch potential conflicts early in the study build process before they cause issues in your Vault environment.

This article was auto-generated by an LLM.

Version 83 introduces AI Agents to TrialGrid — intelligent assistants that work alongside you to speed up common tasks. This release also brings new automated testing steps, a new diagnostic, and improvements to custom object management.

For more information see the release notes for Version 83.

AI Agents

The biggest addition in Version 83 is the introduction of AI Agents into TrialGrid. Agents are AI-powered assistants embedded directly in the application that can help you with tasks that would otherwise require manual effort.

The Help Agent searches TrialGrid documentation to answer your questions without leaving the app. Need to know how a feature works or what a setting does? Just ask.

The Test Case Creator Agent can draft and edit test cases for both Rave and Veeva studies. It supports all Rave Check actions (except Balance and CTMS), and it's context-aware — if you open the agent from an edit check, custom function, or custom object page, it already knows which object you're working with. It can also use the Test Case Advisor under the hood to generate test cases from existing edit checks and custom functions.

The Test Case Search Agent lets you find test cases across your drafts using natural language queries, and the Custom Diagnostic Agent helps you create and edit custom diagnostics.

A new Field Visibility Agent assesses whether your form fields have appropriate visibility settings and corresponding edit checks to show or hide fields dynamically.

For safety, agents always ask for your confirmation before creating, updating, or deleting any objects. AI Agents can be enabled per-user by your organization — contact us if you're interested in trying them out.

Automated Testing

We've added several new test steps that give you finer-grained control over record lifecycle testing. You can now check whether a field is read-only or editable, and there are new steps to lock and unlock, freeze and unfreeze, verify and un-verify, and review and un-review log records.

There is also a new Project-level Test Cases view that shows test cases across all drafts in a project, making it easier to see the full picture without navigating draft by draft.

Diagnostics

New Diagnostic 0179 identifies double spaces in Form Names, HelpText, Folder Names, Field labels, and Edit Check Actions. It shows exactly where the double space occurs and offers an auto-fix option to replace double spaces with single spaces — a small but common issue that can now be caught automatically.

Custom Properties and Objects

Organizations can now add custom icons to TrialGrid, and users can create, edit, and manage layouts for Custom Object Definitions, including generating 1-column and 2-column layout templates.

This post was auto-generated by an LLM.

Batch Labelling

TrialGrid allows users to define Labels which can be used to signify workflow state of objects. Labels can be applied to all study design objects so, for example, you can create a label "Ready for Testing" and apply it to Edit Checks and to Derivations. Filters in object listings allow you to find all the objects which have a particular label.

Our last act of 2020 was to release new functionality which allows you to select a set of objects and apply (or remove) labels from them as a batch.

The ability to label objects in bulk is a great feature and the checkbox select on every row has already been used to make Form and Folder re-ordering more intuitive. Just check the rows you want to move and use the up/down buttons:

Improved Annotates

We have written before about our Microsoft-Word based document generation. This is a template driven system that can be used to generate all kinds of documents in Microsoft Word format. We provide some example templates and our latest Annotate template now calls out log sections as you can see in the example below.

There is a lot more we can do with Word document generation and a few weeks ago we also added PDF generation for customers who want the added security of PDF files. Contact us if you have a need to generate documents from Rave study designs. Whether its annotates, CRF completion guidelines, standard library documentation/usage guides, checklists, object level metrics or something else we can help.

Create URLs

CRO customers in particular will welcome the ability to create their own URL records in TrialGrid. CRO's routinely have Rave URLs which they share with a Sponsor and want a way in TrialGrid to mirror this arrangement. Users can now be assigned to have "Create URL" permission, copying setup such as Annotate Definitions, Labels and Core Configuration from existing URLs if needed.

Copy Project Metadata

Our first feature of 2021 is a simple way to copy Metadata between Projects. Similar to Labels, TrialGrid allows users to create new Custom Properties (or Metadata) for objects. This includes Projects and Drafts as well as Forms, Folders, Edit Checks, Data Dictionaries etc. For a Project you might use this Metadata to document what Therapeutic Area the Project study is targeting, the type of blinding, the study phase, whether it is a rollover study etc. Custom metadata can appear in project listings and in generated Annotates and it can also be used to drive Standards Compliance Rules (a topic for another day).

When you have many of these Project metadata values, creating a new project and setting all the values can be time-consuming. This feature makes it easier to copy these settings from an existing project.

Summary

We founded TrialGrid in 2016 to bring Medidata customers a better Rave Study build experience. Four years later we've expanded way beyond our initial ideas of Build Quality checks (currently 120 checks) and more intuitive Edit Check building into:

• Automated Testing of Edit Checks and Derivations
• Automated Form Data Entry
• Advanced editors for all Medidata Rave study build objects
• Study build Standards compliance checking and reporting
• Word and PDF document/annotate generation
• Team workflow and collaboration
• Study design visualization tools
• And a lot more

But the idea is the same: better tools for Rave Study build.

We have a lot more to do and most of our new features are driven by customers asking to do more with the TrialGrid system. Watch this space for developments or sign up for our newsletter at the top right of this page. Good luck with your Medidata Rave study build activities in 2021!