WebFOCUS 8207.06 Release Notes


The following topic provides all the information that you need to know about this release of WebFOCUS.

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Release and Gen Information

Release Date Gen Information Reporting Server
Wednesday, March 25, 2020

wf032420a Gen 24

wi032420a

as032420a

8207.06 Gen 1911

New Features

Adding Drilldowns to Content in WebFOCUS Designer

Drilldowns are links that you can execute by clicking on a hyperlink in a report or a section of a chart at runtime. You can use these links to access other content items, open web pages, or execute JavaScript functions. Drilldowns can even be parameterized, so the target of the drilldown is contextualized based on user selection. Drilldowns are a flexible and powerful tool that you can use to greatly enhance the amount of information available from a single content item.

To create drilldown links in a report, right-click any field and click Configure drill downs. In a chart, right-click a measure field in the default measure bucket and click Configure drill downs. You can specify the type of drilldown, where to open a target item or webpage, the parameters you want to pass, and more.

For more information, see Adding Drill-Down Links to Content.

Chaining Filters in a Visualization

Drop-down list filter controls for new content are now chained in all directions by default in WebFOCUS Designer. Chaining applies filter selections from one filter control to other filter controls in the visualization, removing values that would result in no data displaying in your content. This helps to ensure that only relevant filter values are available for selection, resulting in more user-friendly and intuitive filter behavior.

You can also use the Filter options menu Filter menu options to change the chaining setting from
multidirectional to hierarchical, in which filter chaining is applied from left to right based on hierarchies in your metadata, or to turn chaining off.

Advanced Subtotal Options

You can create subtotals and recomputes with more additional customization options, such as different aggregations and cascading to all higher level sort fields. This allows you to communicate more detailed information in your subtotals and easily create them for all dimension fields in a report. To access these options, right-click a field in the Rows bucket of a report, point to Insert breaks, and click More options. The Configure Subtotals dialog box opens, as shown in the following image.

Advanced Subtotal Options

Select the Aggregate columns radio button to create subtotals, or the Recalculate totals radio button to create recomputes. These can be created at only the current level, that is, the selected field, or you can create them for the current level and all higher level sort fields. In the Columns grid, you can specify which measure fields are subtotaled, and specify the aggregation that is applied. You can also change the subtotal label text and choose whether or not to display subtotals for single-row groups.

To learn more, see Using Breaks and Subtotals on Rows in a Report..

Generating a Data Extract or Image From Content

When creating a stand-alone chart or report in WebFOCUS Designer, you can export a snapshot of your content as a data extract in a .xlsx Excel spreadsheet or as a .png image, which are downloaded from your browser. This allows you to quickly generate a representation of your content at any time, in a format that can be easily saved and distributed.

To generate the image or data extract, click the Application menu and, in the Export As section, click Data or Image. The file is downloaded using your browser. When you export a data extract of your chart or report, it is downloaded as an Excel spreadsheet with the data displayed as a basic tabular report. When you export an image, a snapshot of the item is taken as it currently exists, and saved in .png format. Headers, footers, and legends are included in the image, but external items such as filter controls are not.

Upload Message Added in the Edaprint Log

An informational message similar to the following has been added to the edaprint.log file for each upload request:

I request to upload file=station_zip.csv,size=24398,u=PTH\user1

This enables you to generate a list of uploaded files from the edaprint.log showing the user ID (with security provider), name, size, and date and time of each upload.

Displaying the Number of Times an Agent Has Been Used

The Data Service Agents page, available on the Workspace page of the Server Console, now has a column named Connections that shows the number of connections that have been used for each agent, as shown in the following image.

Displaying the Number of Times an Agent Has Been Used

You can compare this number to the maximum number set for each service. The maximum number of agents allowed for each service can be changed by right-clicking the service and clicking Properties.

Using Stratified Sampling

When preparing data and viewing the distribution profile of the data, Representative Sampling can be used. This provides better responsiveness, especially for large data sets.

However, there may be times when you want to ensure that the sample includes every distinct value of one or more fields. For example, if a file has a field with the value State, and some states have very few records, a representative sample may not include all of them.

With Stratified Sampling, you can select one or more fields, and the sampling process will include records with every unique value of the selected fields, as long as the number of values does not exceed the sample size.

Adapter for Stratio Crossdata: Support for TIMESTAMP Data Type

The Adapter for Stratio Crossdata now supports the TIMESTAMP data type with microseconds, if that data type is supported by the version of Crossdata being run.

Displaying Count and Detail Values in a Chart

You can change the display of measure values in a chart to count or detail values using the Calculation Options menu. By default, when you create a chart, the Summary option is used, so measure values are aggregated as sums for each sort value.

Select the Count option to display a count of records for each sort value. This allows you to see the distribution of your data, such as in a histogram. When you select the Count calculation option, every measure bucket in your chart displays as a count, allowing you to apply a count aggregation to multiple fields faster than using the prefix operator.

Select the Detail option to display the value of each individual record from your data set. This allows you to analyze your data on a more granular level. Since every record is displayed, the Detail option is best used for chart types that can display lots of values effectively. For example, the following image shows a scatter plot where each point represents a different record. The Revenue and Cost of Goods values represented by each axis are the non-aggregated revenue and cost of goods for each individual record.

Displaying Count and Detail Values in a Chart


Fixes

  • The HTML Canvas only allows 4px grid increments instead of 1px. (191203071)
  • Only one of many files appear in the Domain folder when the items do not have an EDA connection defined. (191217063) 
  • An HTML page does not autofit correctly in Responsive Design. Initially, the containers do not alight correctly, but if you minimize then maximize the page, they will align correctly. (191119115)
  • The Move function deletes the folder even if you cancel the move. (180807086)
  • Disabling forms based authentication does not allow the /signout page to work for IWA, SAML, and OIDC. (190912059, 191119086)
  • Enhanced protection in the JavaScript API addresses security vulnerabilities in the WebFOCUS WFClientTrace endpoint preventing users from injecting misleading information to the event log. (200211075)
  • Modified the example for the Facebook’s Page_Insights due to a change in the Facebook API.
  • Using the adapter for Salesforce.com for a request with a BY TOTAL results in an invalid SOQL query which results in a MALFORMED QUERY error from Salesforce. (200210058)
  • When an adapter's Bulk Load Service setting for DIRECT_BULK_LOAD is set to ON and the checkbox for Optimize Load is checked in the Flow properties, if the source file contains a header line with field names, a DataMigrator flow fails with the error: ERROR: syntax error at or near "HEADER" (200113126)
  • Agent crashes intermittently with the Google BigQuery adapter when response paging is performed. (200226121)
  • Lines are commented out with $-$ when opening a large synonym in the Data Management Console or from the Synonym Editor on the Web Console even when the segment limit is not reached. (191122015)
  • Retrieval issue when JSON Metadata is created with an XPATH to the element subtree and an array at the top level. (200204023)
  • The onLoad controls overlap each other instead of being hidden. (200225127)
  • A script error occurs when an HTML page loads: Cannot read property target of undefined (200225123)
  • A section of the Graph Limit controls are visible and should be hidden. (200225126)
  • The maximize icon is missing in the title bar of the report or chart panel. (200225122)
  • Checkboxes in an HTM report cannot be selected or unselected. (200225101)
  • When a Search control is set to Keep selected values and is added to a Multiple Drop Down List box, the search control does not keep all the selected values. (200227107)
  • When executing a migrated HTML Canvas page, a script error occurs: Unexpected token o in JSON at position 1 (200225119)
  • In App Studio, buttons do not resize when the panel or screen is resized. (200225132)
  • A basic user receives an access denied error when accessing a Portal with a Visualization that was created by converting a Designer Page. (200109059)
  • When a Portal uses shortcuts to Pages and you replace the content in a panel, the replacement will not be displayed when you run the Portal in a new session. (200123141)
  • NOPRINT fields are appearing in column menu tools of In-Document Analytics reports. (191021095)
  • Descending axis labels with custom grid steps are not displayed. (200204016)
  • A geographic role that uses an uploaded .dbf file does not work with App Studio.
  • The Select All option does not run if the Required/no validate option is enabled.
  • When using toggle visibility/Request, setting Effect to None does not work.
  • Deselecting a push button does not remove the filter on an HTML page or the dashboard.
  • A second chained listbox does not automatically scroll up to show All as checked.
  • Global Names set in App Studio are not updated across portal tabs.

Upgrade Notes

  • When upgrading from release 8206.xx to 8207.xx, the WebFOCUS Integrated Installation does not automatically assign the Unicode UTF-8 (CP65001) code page to the Reporting Server configuation. In order to configure the Reporting Server to use the UTF-8 code page, you can select the entry directly from the CODE_PAGE? list. In the Web Server console, this list appears in the NLS Configuration tab of the Workspace node.

    We recommend that you apply this change because, as of release 8207, WebFOCUS Integrated Installations configure all installed components to use the UTF-8 code page. Changing the Reporting Server code page to UTF-8 will ensure that there is no mismatch of code pages between WebFOCUS, Tomcat, and the Reporting Server, which could result in data retrieval issues.
  • In Release 8207, Magnify functionality is not available. To add Magnify functionality to Release 8207 and higher, see the manual steps outlined in this topic.  
  • As of Release 8207, in App Studio, the Domains node in the Configured Environments tree has been renamed to the Workspaces node.

Known Issues

  • The WebFOCUS help system does not work when the Application Server is configured with Java Version 11. As a workaround, you can configure your WebFOCUS instance to use help hosted by IBI. This provides an additional benefit, as users will have access to the latest content. See the workaround in the Release Notes PDF
  • The canvas of WebFOCUS Designer for this release is an interactive canvas based on AHTML. When creating a report, page and row break settings are not supported on this canvas for this release. If you select any other output format, such as HTML, PDF, PPTX, or XLSX, you will see these breaks at runtime. These output format options are available for stand-alone content items only. This will be resolved with the introduction of the non-interactive document canvas in a future release.
  • When an Insight-enabled chart created in the 8207.00 version of WebFOCUS Designer is added to a visualization as external content, the Insight icon does not appear on the chart when the page is run, so Insight features cannot be accessed. Resave the chart in WebFOCUS Designer 8207.01 or later to make Insight available when the chart is added to a visualization.
  • When working with the Cell menu in an interactive report, the filtering functionality does not work as expected.
  • When saving an artifact (from or of and interactive report, chart or dashboard), the output file name is ARsave.html rather than ARhtml.html.
  • If you create a report or chart in ARVERSION=2 (In-Document Analytics) and you set the output format to PDF Analytic Document, an error occurs when you run it. If you change the option in Procedure Settings to Legacy, the report or chart is produced correctly.
  • If you are working with an In-Document Analytics chart in landscape mode on an Android mobile device and you switch to portrait mode, your content displays in fullscreen mode. Your chart displays at the bottom. If you run your content in new window mode, your In- Document Analytics chart does not display in fullscreen mode, displaying the chart on the right.
  • HIDENULLACRS, which hides across columns that have null or zero values in the entire column, is not supported with interactive content using the new Designer style of In- Document Analytics capabilities.
  • If you add an existing ARVERSION=1 report to an AHTML document set to ARVERSION=2, it fails at run time, displaying JSON text on the screen instead of the expected report output.
  • If you are working with a procedure (.fex) and you change the ARVERSION to ARVERSION=2, global filters do not display when you run the procedure.
  • In a scatter plot chart or bubble chart, multiple measure fields on the horizontal and vertical axes generate separate axes, resulting in a grid of scatter plots for each combination of measure fields. In WebFOCUS Designer, if you create a scatter plot chart or bubble chart with multiple measures in the Vertical or Horizontal buckets, only the axis for the first measure in each bucket displays on the canvas. When you run the chart, all measure fields in the Vertical and Horizontal buckets are shown as separate axes, as intended.
  • The Expression Editor has a an area that displays objects that you can add to an expression, which are columns, variables or functions. The selection and display of these was controlled by buttons above the area, but when then size of the area was compressed, some of the buttons were hidden. Now there is a single button with a pull-down menu that allows selecting what objects are displayed.
  • Both the db_collation.sh file and the db_collation.bat file generate the "Main WARN Error while converting string [] to type," error message in the Command Prompt window at the end of their run. This message has no impact on the functionality of this post-installation utility, and it completes the run successfully.
  • The load_repos.sh file generates the "WARNING: sun.reflect.Reflection.getCaller Class is not supported. This will impact performance," error message in the Command Prompt window at the end of its run. In addition, the db_inplace_update.sh, WFReposUtilCMDLine.sh, and update_repos.sh files generate the "Main WARN Error while converting string [ ] to type," error message in the Command Prompt window at the end of their run. These messages have no impact on the functionality of these post installation utilities, and each one completes its run successfully.
  • App Studio upgrades are currently not supported. Messages related to failures that occurred while merging changes in the mime.wfs and languages.xml files display during the upgrade installation process.
  • In Release 8207, you cannot install a standalone version of ReportCaster. If you attempt to do so, you receive an error message after you click Next to exit the Advanced Configuration page of the installation wizard. Currently, there is no workaround for this issue. However, you can successfully install ReportCaster by including it in a WebFOCUS installation.
  • The upgrade installation for WebFOCUS Release 8207 does not preserve the Enable Dynamic Language check box selection, preventing the display of any non-English language configurations. In order to restore the configuration after completing the upgrade installation, you must open the Dynamic Language Switch page from the WebFOCUS Administration Console Configuration tab, select the Enable Dynamic Language check box, and then save the change.
  • When using MS SQL Server as the database platform for the WebFOCUS Repository and upgrading from 8105M to 8207.06, only MS SQL Server 2008 and 2012 are supported. MS SQL Server 2014 and later versions are not supported.
  • The following two files:

    • eclipselink-*.jar
    • javax.persistence*.jar
    that are identified in the How to Create the WebSphere Application Server Shared Library section of the WebFOCUS and ReportCaster Installation and Configuration Guide for Windows and UNIX, have been replaced by the following six files in the java source file package:
    • org.eclipse.persistence.jpa-*.jar
    • org.eclipse.persistence.asm-*.jar
    • org.eclipse.persistence.antlr-*.jar
    • org.eclipse.persistence.jpa.jpql-*.jar
    • org.eclipse.persistence.core-*.jar
    • jakarta.persistence-*.jar

Browser Information 

This release is now certified and has been tested with Google Chrome version 80, Firefox version 73, and Microsoft Edge version 44 (WebFOCUS only). For additional browser details, see Browser Information

OpenJDK 8 JRE Update 242 (8u242) and Tomcat 8.5.51 are supported and included with the packaging.