Skillable 2025

  • Updated on Apr 1, 2025
  • Published on Feb 20, 2025
  • 4 minute(s) read
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March 31, 2025

User Dashboard

The Dashboard in Skillable Studio has been updated to improve productivity and display information that helps to make informed decisions with lab building and lab management.
Some key features include:

  • Quick actions: access the most used actions in Studio, based on your usage activity.
  • Lab Advisor: the top four recommendations for your labs, sorted by criticality and the number of impacted labs. Additional Lab Advisor data can be viewed by selecting the Lab Advisor from the User Dashboard.
  • Lab Grid: quickly search for Favorites, Lab Instances and recent Lab Profiles.

For more information about the User Dashboard, check out our documentation.

Instructions Editor Code-only mode

The code-only Instructions editor has been updated to utilize the ribbon bar while using Markdown format to write lab instructions. This provides quick and easy access to formatting tools, so that you can stay focused on creating hands-on content.

For more information about the Instruction Editor, check out our documentation.

Override Theme at Launch Time

When launching a lab in Studio, lab authors can now optionally select a theme for that lab instance. This allows lab authors to test their labs with different themes to ensure that it is displayed properly while being styled by the selected theme.
Themes are chosen by clicking the theme button next to the launch button. A simple search dialog will appear and allow a theme to be searched for and selected. The selected theme will only apply to this launch, and subsequent launches will continue to use the default theme that is configured on the Lab Profile.

For more information about overriding Themes at launch, check out our documentation.

Revert Virtual Machine via API (Beta)

Our Lab API has been updated to enable virtual machines in hands-on labs to be reverted to a previous state. This feature allows instructors and administrators to assist students in restoring their VMs as needed. This API endpoint is currently in beta, if you would like access to this endpoint, please reach out to your CSM.

March 25, 2025

Custom Virtual Machine Endpoints (Beta)

The Custom Virtual Machine (VM) Endpoint feature optimizes access to VM endpoints within lab environments by eliminating the need for intermediary VMs to connect to VM endpoints. This enhancement allows users to seamlessly connect to terminals, web applications, containers, services, and other configurations on a VM that traditionally required direct login to access.
The Custom VM Endpoints feature significantly improves VM management efficiency and security, making lab environments more user-friendly and effective. In this initial release, we support SSH, RDP, HTTP and HTTPS connections, with plans to extend support to VNC in future updates.
Additional key features include:

  • Multi-Endpoint Support: Define multiple endpoints on a single VM.
  • Tab-Based UI: Each endpoint is displayed as a separate tab within the lab interface, making it simple to switch between endpoints and removing errors when entering login credentials.
  • Persistent Connections: Maintain active sessions while switching between endpoints.
  • Secure Access: Uses an internal secure network for web traffic and a proxy for HTTP endpoints.
  • Nested VM Support: Enables interaction with child VMs hosted inside a parent VM.

For more information about configuring and using Custom VM Endpoints, check out our documentation. This feature is currently in beta and we appreciate your feedback as we continue to refine and improve this feature. If you would like to provide feedback, please do so within the Lab Profile in Skillable Studio on the Virtual Machines tab.

March 10, 2025

Publishing Groups

  • Error messages have been improved to show more details, when attempting to delete a Publishing Group.

Accessibility Enhancements

  • When using the on-screen keyboard has been updated to allow scrolling with the keyboard for pages that are displayed in an iframe.
  • The User License Agreement has been updated with an ARIA label that allows screen readers to read the contents and enables the user to navigate and interact with the page more effectively.
  • The dashboard has been updated to have the proper contrast ratio when viewing the top navigation buttons or viewing the Last Modified date on the User License Agreement.
  • The top navigation bar elements have been updated with an ARIA parent role, to inform assistive technologies to treat them like interactive elements.

Optimizations

  • Fixed a bug was fixed that caused the /CreateVoucher API to fail if the ExpirationDate property was blank
  • Fixed a bug the prevented lab instances from being sortable on the Find Lab Instances page when the max score was zero for any lab instance.
  • Fixed a bug that could cause a user to create duplicate accounts when redeeming a training key.
  • The tool to update users in bulk has been updated to remove user roles and organization management permissions when a user account is disabled.

February 27, 2025

Lab Profiles

  • Lab Profile details pages have been updated to show all Life Cycle Actions that are configured on the Lab Profile. This simplifies Lab Profile management and ensures lab authors are making informed decisions with Lab Profiles.
  • Lab Profile export performance has been improved to prevent erroneous clicking when confirming the export dialog.
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