Maarch Courrier v26.0 Deployment: A Major Upgrade for Enhanced Security

Maarch is taking an important step and plans to roll out a new software update in early February: version 26.0.

This version brings major technical improvements and security updates, aimed at modernisation, component longevity and simplified maintenance.

Code Security and Maintainability

Support for Major Middleware¹ Updates

Updating the PHP and PostgreSQL versions aims to ensure performance and strengthen the system’s security — changes aligned with current technology standards.

¹ In computing, middleware is intermediary software that facilitates the exchange of information between different applications, tools and databases. It acts as a bridge to provide consistent, harmonised services.

Maintaining and Securing Dependencies

The libraries used for certain features will now be updated regularly to fix security vulnerabilities and ensure their longevity. Particular attention has been paid to SimpleSAMLphp, to strengthen the security of Azure-SAML authentication.

User Interface Modernisation

The interface redesign, aligned with current design standards, reduces technical debt and improves compatibility with modern browsers, without affecting the user experience — users keep their familiar reference points and habits.

Replacement of Obsolete Components

The Zend Lucene indexing engine is being replaced by Typesense, for more robust, high-performing and simplified maintenance of mail and the BAN (National Address Database), as well as a reduction in dependencies on unmaintained libraries.

The document conversion system is now based on LibreOffice, following the adoption of a more stable and maintainable solution, replacing Unoconv for document conversions not handled by the deployed editors.

Documentation – Migration to MkDocs

Version 26.0 brings concrete improvements, both to the documentation and to the features.

As part of this version, Maarch is migrating and consolidating all documentation spaces — for users, functional administrators, integrators and technical administrators — into MkDocs. This provides:

• unified, centralised documentation
• improved navigation
• more effective search, making it easier to quickly find information

New Features

Maarch continues to improve the user experience by extending and harmonising the sorting criteria lists in document lists. The five key areas (queue, tracked mail, folder, advanced search and default sort settings) now offer the same list of criteria, ensuring functional consistency. This list includes both the main criteria and custom fields.

The new update now includes two new native fields, « Summary » and « Tone », populated via the API. This development paves the way for better use of external data.

When electronically signing a PDF document, Maarch Courrier now automatically merges the signature tags.

This improvement helps make the final document more readable and consistent; it also enables better integration of signature information and increased reliability of electronically signed documents.

Conclusion

Version 26.0 secures its components to lay the groundwork for future developments:

• Uploading documents into the GEC from Google Drive,
• Transmission of signed official documents and associated data to FAST Actes, positioning Maarch Courrier in the management of administrative acts and council resolutions,
• Integration of an alternative electronic signature solution via the open-source Scard/Outsign components,
• Optimisation of application and UI performance to handle volumes of 100,000 users and 15,000 departments.