OL Connect Release Notes 2021.1

License Update Required for Upgrade to OL Connect 2021.x

From OL Connect 2019.1 onwards, only customers with a current OL Care subscription will be able to update Connect.

Every Connect license now contains an end date that represents the last day of OL Care coverage for each customer. Upgrades and updates of Connect will be freely available up until that end date, but will not be available thereafter, unless the OL Care period is extended.

This new licensing model requires anyone upgrading from Connect versions earlier than 2019.1 to first update their OL Connect License.

A dialog box appears as part of the Connect upgrade process requesting you to do this.

It is heavily recommended that you first update the OL Update Manager, as newer versions of the Update Manager can update your OL License to the required version, then install Connect 2021.1.

For further details on how to upgrade the Update Client and update your Connect License see the Update Manager 1.3 - Upgrade Guide.

If issues arise, or if you need to renew your OL Care subscription, please contact your local Customer Care group.

Backup before Upgrading

It is recommended that you always backup your existing OL Connect preferences before upgrading to a new version. This will enable you to revert back to the previous version, in a worst case scenario in which the new version introduces issues with your existing production processes. Whilst the probability of such a worst case scenario is remote, it cannot hurt to take some simple precautions, just in case.

For instructions on how to do so, please see Backup existing Connect version.

Overview

This document provides an overview of the new features and enhancements in OL Connect 2021.1, as well as some important installation information.

Installing OL Connect 2021.1

  • OL Connect is released as a 64 Bit version only.
  • Full details on installing and licensing OL Connect can be found in the online help, which can be accessed from the software and the installer.
  • Note that OL Connect comes with a 30 day trial license by default.

Connect installation requires Administrator rights

Please note that the OL Connect installations can only be run by users who have Administrator rights.

OL Connect 2021.1 Enhancements

OL Connect 2021.1.1

In the OL Connect 2021.1.0 partner preview it was discovered that dragging group data from the DataMapper into a template was sometimes throwing an error. This has been fixed in the 2021.1.1 patch release of Connect. (SHARED-82134)

Security Improvements

For increased security the cookie, localstorage and indexedDB features have now been disabled for the internal browser used by the Designer and Merge Engines. (SHARED-77792)

Print Manager Improvements

For IPDS printers, Multi Job mode is now set as the default. To disable Multi Job mode, select Legacy mode option. (SHARED-78768)

Installer Improvements

  • Connect can now be installed when no internet access is available. (SHARED-79964)
  • The issue with slow responsiveness in Installer component selection has been fixed. (SHARED-76902)
  • On a Connect update/upgrade, the installer Welcome page now clearly displays both the currently installed version and the upgrade (update) version about to be installed. (SHARED-77819)
  • You can now choose to omit the Update Manager from the installation, using the command line parameter UPDATEMANAGER=0. (SHARED-79761)

  • Fixed an uninstallation issue caused by some Connect temporary files being set as read-only. (SHARED-79765/79838)

  • Fixed an installer issue that was preventing Connect from installing on Hyper-V (and some other virtual environments other than VMware). (SHARED-79918)

OL Connect 2021.1 Designer Improvements

Conditional Wizards

The Designer conditional Wizard for elements and the Wizard for conditional print sections have been dramatically improved, allowing very complex rules to be created without any need for scripting. (SHARED-79806)

Scripting Improvements

  • The default insert method for new search-and-replace scripts is now "Text" instead of "Html", to improve performance. (SHARED-80376)
  • Fixed syntax highlighting issue with the Script keyword 'let' . (SHARED-78644)

  • We now generate an error if a script tries to move an element relative to itself (which Connect does not support). (SHARED-79945)

  • Fixed an issue where an incorrect selector would be generated for scripts when a datafield containing spaces in the name is dragged from the data model to the template. (SHARED-80535)

  • Fixed a problem with UNC paths in the Dynamic Image Script wizard. (SHARED-81145)

General Designer Improvements

  • Improved Designer translations/localization. (SHARED-76798)
  • JSON editors and the loadjson() function now support UTF-16 and UTF-32, in addition to UTF-8. (SHARED-74159)
  • After adding an HTML snippet you are now prompted to select encoding (UTF-8 by default). (SHARED-78552)
  • Added validation to JSON resource editors. (SHARED-79937)
  • New prompt added when dragging a field from a detail table to a location outside a detail table. (SHARED-80116)
  • Add support for copying contents of an extraction field into the clipboard. (SHARED-80164)

  • Can now set the Virtual Stationery of a media back to "None" by using the clear button. (SHARED-78802)

  • Fixed an issue within the Source tab, whereby HTML in the source tab unintentionally contained helper elements for resizing and dragging. (SHARED-78928)

  • Fixed an issue with converting a paragraph to a header1 (p to h1), in which the parameter ID would be lost. (SHARED-79022)

  • Fixed an issue where the cellpadding and cellspacing values that were set directly on a table were removed after switching to Preview, if these values were not defined in stylesheets. (SHARED-79543)

  • Fixed a problem with scripts referencing BackgroundResource.RESOURCE_PDF producing an error. (SHARED-79606)

  • Fixed issue with the popup menu in the breadcrumbs bar. (SHARED-79727)

  • Show Edges settings once again persist through view changes. (SHARED-79970)

  • Fixed a problem with absolute positioned elements nested inside other absolute positioned elements. (SHARED-80003)

OL Connect 2021.1 Output Improvements

Dynamic passwords for protected PDFs

The password for opening/protecting output PDF files can now be set dynamically. (SHARED-80537)

General Output Improvements

  • The stability of the Output engine has been improved. Particularly when the engine is running with low memory. (SHARED-77203)

  • The output engine is now more accepting of certain invalid CFF fonts (those containing hintmask without hstemvm/vstemvm). (SHARED-76464)

  • Fixed an error in the output of Unicode (3,1) cmap tables for TrueType fonts which could trigger an exception if multiple glyphs have the same Unicode mapping. (SHARED-78284)

  • Fixed issues with Type 1 and CFF font glyphs. (SHARED-79973)

  • Versioning has been added to font mapping files for TextRestore. To prevent problems in text extraction going unnoticed, font mapping files without a version or with a mismatching version will result in an error. Resolving those errors requires manual updating of these font mapping files. (SHARED-80568)
    This change only applies to Enhance configurations run from Connect.

Print Output Improvements

  • Fixed an issue with misleading warning messages for certain output presets when opening the production Print Wizard or Output Preset editor. (SHARED-74399)

  • Dynamic PPD rule validation is now immediately updated after the additional elements for a selected PPD element are updated. (SHARED-77060)

  • Restored maximum stack depth setting in the Imposition options page back to a maximum of 100,000. (SHARED-79357)

  • Increased maximum paper sizes available for PostScript output. (SHARED-79433)

  • The output engine now can process intermediate files (from merge engine) that are over 2 GBs in size. (SHARED-80490)

  • Fixed an issue with IPDS pages larger than 22.75 inches failing to load on the printer. (SHARED-80846)

  • For some output formats, such as PostScript, output creation didn't terminate for certain input files containing transparency, because Connect's transparency flattening tool was unable to process it. This has been fixed. (SHARED-81542)

Known Issues

As of OL Connect 2018.1 the Known Issues have moved from the Release Notes to the Connect online Help.

They can be found here Known Issues.