2024-12-09: Media description with Azure Content Understanding

This release adds a new optional feature for data ingestion that sends each figure in a document to Azure Content Understanding to generate a description. This is an alternative approach to our vision approach for handling documents with images, though it could even be used in conjunction with it.

For example, for this document:

The graph is replaced by this description:

The description is stored as HTML in the chunk, for maximal expressivity:

  <figure>
   <figcaption>Impact of Interest Rates, Inflation, and GDP Growth on Financial Markets<br>
   The line graph titled 'On Financial Markets' displays trends in Interest Rates, Inflation Data, and GDP Growth from 2018 to 2023. The x-axis represents the years, while the y-axis shows percentage values ranging from -5 to 5. Interest Rates start at 2% in 2018, dip to 1% in 2020, and rise to 2% by 2023. Inflation Data begins at 2%, peaks at 3% in 2022, and slightly decreases to 2.5% in 2023. GDP Growth shows a significant drop to -4% in 2020, recovers to 3% in 2021, and stabilizes at 2% by 2023.
    <table>
      <thead>
        <tr>
          <td>Year</td>
          <td>Interest Rates %</td>
          <td>Inflation Data %</td>
          <td>GDP Growth %</td>
        </tr>
      </thead>
      <tbody>
        <tr>
          <td>2018</td>
          <td>2</td>
          <td>2</td>
          <td>2</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>2019</td>
          <td>2</td>
          <td>2.5</td>
          <td>1</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>2020</td>
          <td>1</td>
          <td>1.5</td>
          <td>-4</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>2021</td>
          <td>1.5</td>
          <td>2</td>
          <td>3</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>2022</td>
          <td>2</td>
          <td>3</td>
          <td>2</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>2023</td>
          <td>2</td>
          <td>2.</td>
        </tr>
      </tbody>
    </table></figure>

See the doc for enabling the feature:
https://github.com/Azure-Samples/azure-search-openai-demo/blob/main/docs/deploy_features.md#enabling-media-description-with-azure-content-understanding

Please try it out and give feedback.

What's Changed

• Add media description feature using Azure Content Understanding by @pamelafox in #2195

Full Changelog: 2024-12-02...2024-12-09

2024-12-02: Use built-in auth for Azure Container Apps

This release configures built-in auth for Azure Container Apps deployments when you enable the user login feature. Previously, we only supported built-in auth for App Service, so user login was handled entirely by the MSAL SDK for Azure Container Apps. Now, with built-in auth on ACA, the user will be prompted to login before they ever see the chat application, and the frontend will reuse the tokens from the built-in auth service.

If you have an already deployed app on Container Apps using the login feature, you may want to ask users to clear their localStorage and cookies to get the new login experience.

Here are screenshots of the new login experience-

Visiting the URL immediately redirects to the auth tenant login screen:

After successful login, it redirects back to the app, and the user sees their logged in email:

What's Changed

• let env var overrule .dot env setting by @cforce in #2136
• Lower case the ACA container registry name by @pamelafox in #2182
• Add support for symlinked files by @charris-msft in #2180
• Refactor the README to move advanced sections into docs by @pamelafox in #2165
• Fix Broken Links in azure_app_service.md by @jeannotdamoiseaux in #2186
• Bump astral-sh/setup-uv from 3 to 4 in the github-actions group by @dependabot in #2192
• Update path to chunking algorithm in data_ingestion.md by @cococ0j in #2204
• Configure built-in auth for Azure Container Apps by @pamelafox in #2205
• [Bugfix] The "send" button for chat should be enabled for logged in users by @jeannotdamoiseaux in #2202
• Remove empty origins for array version of CORS domains too by @pamelafox in #2210
• Move check for AZURE_PUBLIC_NETWORK_ACCESS by @pamelafox in #2209

New Contributors

• @cforce made their first contribution in #2136
• @cococ0j made their first contribution in #2204

Full Changelog: 2024-11-19b...2024-12-02

2024-11-19b: Turkish translations

The app UI now has Turkish translations. A user will see the Turkish if their browser defaults to that language, or they can select Turkish from the language picker if you have enabled the optional language picker.

What's Changed

• Turkish translations added by @mertcakdogan in #2154

New Contributors

• @mertcakdogan made their first contribution in #2154

Full Changelog: 2024-11-19...2024-11-19b

2024-11-19: start.sh improvement

This release features an improvement to the start scripts so they can be run directly from the root, like "./app/start.sh"

This release also upgrades many backend and frontend packages to the latest version.

What's Changed

• Update start.sh by @yavuzkaymak in #2147
• Bump @fluentui/react-icons from 2.0.249 to 2.0.265 in /app/frontend by @dependabot in #2142
• Bump @types/react from 18.3.11 to 18.3.12 in /app/frontend by @dependabot in #2161
• Bump @fluentui/react-components from 9.55.1 to 9.56.2 in /app/frontend by @dependabot in #2160
• Bump @azure/msal-react from 2.0.21 to 2.2.0 in /app/frontend by @dependabot in #2143
• Bump aiohttp from 3.10.5 to 3.10.11 in /app/backend by @dependabot in #2166
• Use per-package dependency updates for Python packages by @dependabot in #2163
• Bump react-i18next from 15.0.1 to 15.1.1 in /app/frontend by @dependabot in #2177
• Bump dompurify from 3.1.6 to 3.2.0 in /app/frontend by @dependabot in #2176
• Bump react-syntax-highlighter from 15.5.0 to 15.6.1 in /app/frontend by @dependabot in #2170
• Bump react-router-dom from 6.26.2 to 6.28.0 in /app/frontend by @dependabot in #2172

New Contributors

• @yavuzkaymak made their first contribution in #2147

Full Changelog: 2024-11-16...2024-11-19

2024-11-16: Copy button in answer UI

This release adds a "Copy" button to answers for ease of copying by users. Screenshots:

Before copying:

Just after copying:

What's Changed

• Feature: Add copy button to answer UI by @jeannotdamoiseaux in #2131
• Bump vite from 5.4.10 to 5.4.11 in /app/frontend by @dependabot in #2140
• Bump i18next from 23.15.2 to 23.16.5 in /app/frontend by @dependabot in #2141
• Update README.md to remove the OpenAI form by @pamelafox in #2156
• Update cost estimation guide by @pamelafox in #2150

Full Changelog: 2024-11-12...2024-11-16

2024-11-12: Chat history with CosmosDB

You can now enable chat history that's persistent with Cosmos DB.
See the documentation on enabling chat history.

That requires you to also have setup the optional login.
See the documentation on enabling login.

Here's an example of chat history in action:

What's Changed

• Update pre-commit hooks, re-run on files by @pamelafox in #2128
• Update links and clean up tasks by @pamelafox in #2124
• Port Python tests workflow to uv by @pamelafox in #2129
• Feature: Store chat history in Cosmos DB by @fujita-h in #2063

Full Changelog: 2024-11-05...2024-11-12

2024-11-05: Danish translations

This release adds Danish translations for the UI, and includes various bug fixes, refactor, and Azure OpenAI model/API version updates.

What's Changed

• feat: Add Danish (da-DK) translations.json and update config.json by @EMjetrot in #2119
• Bump quart from 0.19.6 to 0.19.7 in /app/backend by @dependabot in #2082
• Bump werkzeug from 3.0.4 to 3.0.6 in /app/backend by @dependabot in #2084
• Bump @vitejs/plugin-react from 4.3.2 to 4.3.3 in /app/frontend by @dependabot in #2087
• Bump vite from 5.4.8 to 5.4.10 in /app/frontend by @dependabot in #2075
• Bump @types/react-dom from 18.3.0 to 18.3.1 in /app/frontend by @dependabot in #2060
• Bump @fluentui/react-components from 9.54.13 to 9.55.1 in /app/frontend by @dependabot in #2054
• Update model version for gpt-4o to latest by @pamelafox in #2106
• Documentation improvements: Remove duplicate READMEs, consistent titles by @pamelafox in #2118
• Properly handle AZURE_SPEECH_SERVICE_VOICE azd env var by @pamelafox in #2107
• VS Code debug launch improvements: remove azd extension dependency, add compound, add docs by @pamelafox in #2120
• Upgrade Azure OpenAI API version and use AZURE_OPENAI_API_VERSION consistently by @pamelafox in #2105
• Refactor settings into a single component across Chat/Ask by @bnodir in #2111

New Contributors

• @EMjetrot made their first contribution in #2119

Full Changelog: 2024-11-04...2024-11-05

2024-11-04: Dutch translations

This release fixes a few issues (noted below) and adds support for nl translations to the UI.

What's Changed

• Fix regression from PR #2056: Allow whitespace in citation filenames by @bnodir in #2100
• Add missing variables to azd pipeline by @pamelafox in #2104
• feat: Add Dutch (nl-NL) translations.json and update config.json by @jeannotdamoiseaux in #2115

New Contributors

• @jeannotdamoiseaux made their first contribution in #2115

Full Changelog: 2024-10-28...2024-11-04

2024-10-28: Default to Container Apps instead of App Service

To improve the deployment experience for new developers getting started with this template, we are switching the default from Container Apps to App Service. If you are an existing develop and pull from main, then you will need to follow this guide to stick with App Service:
https://github.com/Azure-Samples/azure-search-openai-demo/blob/main/docs/azure_app_service.md
If you want to switch to Container Apps from App Service, you may need to delete the current App Service before you run azd up, or at least remove the "backend" tag from the App Service, as that tag is how azd figures out where to deploy.

Also note that ACA private endpoints are still in private preview, so you need to stick with App Service if you are using the private endpoints feature.

We apologize for the inconvenience for existing developers. Please post in issue tracker for any migration issues.

What's Changed

• Switch to ACA by default by @pamelafox in #2092

Full Changelog: 2024-10-23...2024-10-28

2024-10-23: New option to include category

The most significant feature in this release is an additional developer setting to "include category". Read the guide for how to ingest documents with categories set: https://github.com/Azure-Samples/azure-search-openai-demo/blob/main/docs/data_ingestion.md#enhancing-search-functionality-with-data-categorization

What's Changed

• feat: add Portuguese (pt-BR) translations and update i18n configuration to include the new language by @glaucia86 in #2052
• Bump typescript from 5.5.3 to 5.6.3 in /app/frontend by @dependabot in #2037
• Bump @azure/msal-browser from 3.24.0 to 3.26.1 in /app/frontend by @dependabot in #2039
• Fix: Provisioning failure issue by @fujita-h in #2058
• Bugfix: Citation Parsing Issue (Version 2) by @bnodir in #2056
• Bump prettier from 3.0.3 to 3.3.3 in /app/frontend by @dependabot in #2061
• Fix scrolling bar issue for long content in chat UI by @BetterAndBetterII in #2044
• When uploading file with upper case extension name, cannot match correct parser by @BetterAndBetterII in #2069
• Feature: include category by @bnodir in #2021

New Contributors

• @glaucia86 made their first contribution in #2052
• @BetterAndBetterII made their first contribution in #2044

Full Changelog: 2024-10-17...2024-10-23