8206.17 Release Notes


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

Have questions? Click Send Us Feedback (on the right) and we'll be in touch!


Release and Gen Information

Release Date Gen Information Reporting Server
Monday, April 20, 2020 wf041320a Gen 165 8206 Gen 1765
as041320a

Fixes

  • On the Microsoft Windows® operating system, the Reporting Server’s TCP listener sporadically becomes unresponsive after a large number of connections. (190708017)
  • Emails generated for Library subscriptions do not contain a subject line. (190508079)
  • The WebFOCUS application receives various inputs from users, including values from HTTP headers and parameters to perform dynamic operations on the server side. If an exception is thrown, the application should catch it and return a generic error message that does not include any information regarding the system. (200211076)
  • When using the adapter for Salesforce.com®, some server-generated SOQL (Salesforce Object Query Language) queries to retrieve data were not valid or efficient.
  • An attempt to switch an adapter connection to a different user via SET CONNECTION_ATTRIBUTES/DEFAULT_CONNECTION commands or CONNECTION attribute in the Access File may fail if the adapter is JDBC-based and all connections have the same logical name. (200213038)
  • Using the adapter forSalesforce.com® for a request using the NOT-FROM operator is converted to NOT BETWEEN a AND b in a SOQL request.
  • A query using a prefix DT(YYYYMMDD) for a timestamp field generates an invalid SOQL request when using the Salesforce.com adapter.
  • By default, Grant Password for OAuth security sends the Client ID and Client Secret as Base64 encoded for the authorization in the HTTP Header of the Token request. If BDYCLT:TRUE is added to the REST adapter connection string, the Client ID and Client Secret is sent as encoded parameters in the body of the token request. (200204125)
  • When parsing an XML file, the parser does not disable the access to external entities, thus enabling payloads that might cause the server to perform unexpected actions. (200211064)
  • Clicking on the Data tab from a Workbook results in an agent crash when the server is configured with the WebFOCUS Client REST adapter. (190628097, 190927075, 200214052)
  • GEO ROLE is still generated when using Get Data after setting Activate GEOGRAPHIC_ROLE to Off and uploading a file. (190902027)
  • Creating a savediag from the Web Console using a secondary administration ID (iadmin) and security provider OPSYS results in an error. Error: failed to run EXSDIAG Warning: can't find savediag log (190404027)
  • Unable to create a savediag sometimes resulting in an EC6 abend where a REASON CODE=0594E04B is encountered. (200224015)
  • App Studio closes unexpectedly when you right-click the Embedded CSS editor tab on the HTML canvas, uncheck Outlining and Auto Complete, and start typing any CSS code. (200128027)
  • The WebFOCUS Administration Console displays Brazilian-Portuguese words incorrectly for
    English words that contain special characters. (200408162)
  • NOPRINT fields are appearing in column menu tools of In-Document Analytics reports.
    (191021095)
  • During WebFOCUS Client and WebFOCUS Integrated full or update Installation, the
    repository utilities mask warnings and errors reported by the database and proceed as if
    everything succeeded. (21353550)
  • Using IN-GROUPS-OF n TILES to group data in percentiles for reports or charts causes an
    abend when used with SET EMPTYREPORT=ON and the request returns no
    data. (200124059)
  • A WHERE clause using a field with the DBA property RESTRICT=NOPRINT is ignored,
    allowing the field value to be printed. The WHERE generates an internal DEFINE that is not
    associated with the original field. (200310047)

Upgrade Notes

  • In App Studio, the Action, Method, Enctype, and Accept properties have been removed from the Form component in the Properties panel because these properties were not actually being used.
  • In App Studio, an output widget container no longer contains the Autosize options in the Properties panel. Everything inside the widget is now fully CSS3 responsive at run time. Autosize is handled by JavaScript and responsive is handled by CSS3 styles.
  • When upgrading from previous versions of ReportCaster, FTP setting configuration information remains available in existing distribution schedules as long as the default value (Customized FTP) is assigned to the FTP Server Name field.
    • If you replace this value with a predefined FTP setting configuration in an individual schedule, the previous FTP Setting configuration information for that schedule is overwritten automatically.
    • If you limit FTP Setting configurations to a predefined list by selecting the Don’t allow user defined FTP in schedule check box in the (Default Settings) configuration, the previously FTP Setting configuration information for all schedules becomes unavailable, and is replaced by the default FTP Setting configuration or a predefined FTP Setting configuration selected for an individual schedule.
  • After an upgrade to Release 8206, only those users working in roles that include the new Create Shortcuts (opShortcut) privilege, located in the Basic Reporting privilege category, can continue to create shortcuts. Even though this privilege is included in the DomainBasicUser, DomainAdvancedUser, DomainDeveloper, DomainAnalyst, and WebFOCUSManager roles, it is not selected by default. Administrators must either select the Create Shortcuts privilege check box directly, or use the Role Update utility, located on the Configuration tab of the Administration Console, to include this privilege in each of the roles that can continue to use this feature.
  • The Display Esri Configuration Utility (opEsriAdminConsole) privilege, which granted access to the Esri Configuration Utility, was removed from the Application Development privilege category located on the Roles tab of the Security Center. The new ArcGIS API for JavaScript replaces the Esri Configuration Utility and is available to all users. Existing maps created using the ESRI Configuration Utility continue to work with the new ArcGIS API for JavaScript. However, you cannot upgrade them without first recreating them with the new ESRI HTML5 component-based Point Map or Choropleth Map options available from the WebFOCUS Designer or InfoAssist Chart Picker.
  • The following changes appear on the InfoAssist Properties page of the Administration Console Configuration tab. These changes were called for by In-Document Analytics rebranding, and they match changes to the labels of the corresponding format options in the Output File Format list that opens from the Format Group in the InfoAssist Home Page ribbon.
    • In the Format Tab section, the Active PDF option was renamed PDF Analytic Document Format and the Active Report option was renamed HTML Analytic Document Format.
    • In the Report Output Format, Chart Output Format, and Document Output Format lists located in the Tools Options Dialog Defaults section, the Active Report option was renamed HTML Analytic Document and the Active PDF option was renamed PDF Analytic Document.
  • The functions previously categorized as Statistical Python functions have been reclassified as Machine Learning (Python-based) functions. The names of the functions have changed as follows:
    • BLR_CLASSIFY is now named CLASSIFY_BLR.
    • KNN_CLASSIFY is now named CLASSIFY_KNN.
    • KNN_REGRESS is now named REGRESS_KNN.
    • RF_CLASSIFY is now named CLASSIFY_RF.
    • RF_REGRESS is now named REGRESS_RF.
    • POLY_REGRESS is now named REGRESS_POLY.
  • The enhanced In-Document Analytics user interface available is configured by default for new installations. 

    Customers upgrading to 8206 from 8205 or earlier releases will have the Legacy In-Document Analytics user interface configured.

    The new In-Document Analytics setting appears in the Tools Option Dialog Defaults section of the InfoAssist Properties page, which is located on the Configuration tab of the Administration Console. This setting establishes the default value for the In-Document Analytics setting in the Procedure Settings dialog box which opens from the InfoAssist Quick Access toolbar. The value in this setting determines the interface used to display reports, charts, and documents using the HTML Analytic Document format. There are two valid values:
    • Designer Style. Content displayed conforms to the conventions of WebFOCUS Designer and includes the Navigation icons, such as the Chart Format menu and the ellipsis menu.
    • Legacy. Content displayed conforms to the legacy run-time interface and provides options like the legacy column menu.

      Content created in earlier versions is automatically assigned to the Legacy display, which conforms to the conventions of the Active Technologies format, and provides options like the Chart/Rollup and Pivot tools.

      New content is automatically assigned to the WebFOCUS Designer option, which is selected by default.

      To convert content created in earlier versions to the WebFOCUS Designer display, developers must open that content for editing, reset the value in the In-Document Analytics setting to Web FOCUS Designer, and save the revised procedure. As an alternative, developers can use the text editor to add the following commands directly to a procedure.

      -DEFAULTH &WF_ARVERSION=2; SET ARVERSION=&WF_ARVERSION;
  • To prevent unexpected field transformations, when creating a chart in WebFOCUS Designer, the buckets are type sensitive. Certain buckets, such as the Size and Tooltip buckets, only accept measure fields, while others, such as the Horizontal and MultiPage buckets, only accept dimension fields. Additional buckets, such as the Vertical and Color buckets, accept both field types. When you attempt to drag a field into an incompatible bucket, the cursor changes to a cancel sign.

    To add a measure field to a dimension bucket or a dimension field to a measure bucket, right-click a field in the Fields panel and click Add as dimension or Add as measure. The field is added to the default dimension or measure bucket. You can drag the field into another bucket, as needed. As in previous releases, measure fields used as dimensions display as distinct instead of aggregated values, while dimension fields used as measures are aggregated using the Count operation.
  • If, in Release 8206.03 and higher, when migrating a chart created in InfoAssist to WebFOCUS Designer, the chart type is not supported and a similar chart type cannot be found, the chart is converted to a bar chart. You can then modify the bar chart in Designer. Previously, the chart type was maintained, but the buckets were not accessible and the chart could not be edited. Affected chart types include 3D charts, stock charts, and polar charts.

    Note: To open an InfoAssist chart in WebFOCUS Designer, you must have the associated Technical Preview enabled. For more information, contact your Information Builders representative.
  • In Release 8206, the default value assigned to the Account Creation on Sign In (IBI_ALLOW_LOGIN_EXTERNAL_GROUPS) setting, located on the External page of the Administration Console Security tab, changes from All to OFF. If you must continue to use All as the default value in this setting, after upgrading to Release 8206, you must open or create the webfocus.cfg file, type the IBI_ALLOW_LOGIN_EXTERNAL_GROUPS=* setting in it, including the asterisk (*) value, which represents All, and then save the updated file.
  • WebFOCUS page breaks in format XLSX report output are synchronized with Excel page breaks. To revert to the behavior in previous releases in which page breaks were not synchronized, issue the SET XLSXPAGEBRKIGNORE=ON command.

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.

    To accomplish this, you need to perform the following configuration using the WebFOCUS Administration Console:
     
    1. Select the Configuration tab and navigate to Application Settings and then Application Contexts.
    2. Change the Help value to /ibi_apps/ibi_help.
      Note: The ibi_apps value must be the same as the WebFOCUS web app context created during installation. If you provided an alias, for example, ibi_apps8206, then the value for Help should be entered as /ibi_apps8206/ibi_help.
    3. Set the Help Proxy Host and Port value to onlinehelp.informationbuilders.com.
    4. Set the Help Proxy Context to /wfappent/8206. If you are using WebFOCUS Release 8207, set the value to /wfappent/8207.
    5. Select the Help Proxy Secure check box.
    6. Click the Clear Cache option and continue to sign out and sign in for the settings to take effect. 
  • Bursting reports by parameter values is not supported with interactive content using the new Designer style of In-Document Analytics capabilities.
  • 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.
  • When creating bar charts using the New option on the Ellipsis menu, the Color bucket incorrectly performs a count for a dimension field. It also shows a heat legend. The expected result is a color legend for each unique item.
  • 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 attempt to run an ARVERSION=2 (In-Document Analytics) AHTML Fusion chart procedure (.fex), it continuously loads and produces an F12 error. This does not occur with Fusion charts that employ ARVERSION=1.
  • 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. 
  • Running the configuration migration from the CMD line or UNIX Shell displays an error message in the log file. This error does not impact migration of the configuration files.
  • After running WFReposUtilCMDLine.bat or WFReposUtilCMDLine.sh, the RPT_DATA, RPT_METADATA, and RPT_USAGE tables are not getting dropped and are still available in the repository.
  • When you use the WebFOCUS Online Help in Japanese, if you type a search term in the Search box that contains NLS characters and press Enter, the words next to the Search box are corrupted. The workaround is to click the Go button next to the Search box, instead of pressing Enter. 
  • To ensure that Choropleth maps run correctly when working with the sample procedure Sales by Country and Product, you must replace the URL on line 155 with:
    https://services.arcgis.com/P3ePLMYs2RVChkJx/arcgis/rest/services/World_Administrative_Divisions/FeatureServer/0or open the procedure file in the newer version of the software. The previously provided URL is no longer supported by Esri®.
  • When creating reports in WebFOCUS Designer using the Technical Preview feature, the default font may not display all NLS characters correctly. To ensure that these characters display properly in reports, change the values of the FONT attributes, in the report section of the embedded StyleSheet you are using, to a font that supports the required NLS characters. For example:
    TYPE=REPORT, FONT='Arial Unicode MS',$
  • When a user who does not have the Upload Data privilege (opUploadDataFile) creates a chart or report using WebFOCUS Designer, they will still be presented with the Upload option in the Open dialog box when selecting a data source. While they can click Upload, they will be presented with a 403 error because they do not have the required privileges.
  • The Export Scenario dialog box does not display Master File Shortcuts in the list of available items under the Resources node. Even though they are not visible, Master File Shortcuts are present in the list and can be included in Export Scenarios. In order to add a Master File Shortcut to a scenario you must right-click the folder that contains it and choose the Select with Sub-tree menu option. The Master File Shortcut will be transferred to the Scenario, along with the rest of the items in the folder.
  • 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  b_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.
  • When installing WebFOCUS Release 8206, the Change Management import and export folders are backed up to the backup_files folder, under the ibi\WebFOCUSxx directory. However, the Change Management files are not copied back to the cm folder after the installation is complete.

    The workaround is to copy the files from the backup_files folder to the ibi\WebFOCUSxx\cm
    folders.
  • Performing an upgrade on a WebFOCUS instance that was not configured to use a local ReportCaster Distribution Server creates a ReportCaster service and it should not.

    The workaround is to remove the service by opening a CMD window as an admin and running the following command:

    sc delete "service_name"

    For example:

    sc delete "WF82"

System Requirements 

This release is now certified and has been tested with Google Chrome version 80, Firefox version 74, Microsoft Edge version 44 (WebFOCUS), and Internet Explorer version 11.

Java Version 8 or Java version 11 are supported with Release 8207. OpenJDK 8 JRE Update 242 (8u242) and Tomcat 8.5.51 are included with the packaging.