OL Connect Release Notes 2020.1

License Update Required for Upgrade to Connect 2020.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 to 2020.1 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 Client, as version 1.2.40 of the Update Client can update your OL License to the required version, then install Connect 2020.1.

For further details on how to upgrade the Update Client and update your Connect License see the Update Client 1.2.40 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 OL Connect version.

Overview

This document provides an overview of the new features and enhancements in OL Connect 2020.1, as well as some important installation information.

Installing OL Connect 2024.1

  • 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 the software comes with a 30 day trial license by default.

OL Connect 2020.1 Enhancements

MySQL update and improvements

The database that comes bundled with OL Connect has been updated to the latest version of MySQL (8.0.18), along with the drivers used to connect to it. (SHARED-63665/74191)

The new packaged database will only be installed with new installations. This is to avoid any chance of issues that might occur in migrating an existing database to the new version. Existing users who want to upgrade their packaged database, will have to start with a fresh database.

Other MySQL improvements

  • Connect now supports connecting to existing MySQL version 8 databases for the Connect back-end database. (SHARED-71285)
  • Under certain circumstances, precision was lost when using MySQL databases, causing content on pages to be misplaced. The precision of numbers has been increased. (SHARED-74458)
  • Fixed issue with the Connect cleanup service failing to detect partitioning support on newer MySQL instances (v8.x). (SHARED-74623)

Security Improvements (and library updates)

  • Connect dependencies have been updated to recent versions, curing a number of smaller security issues. (SHARED-73677)
  • Oracle third party dependencies have been updated. (SHARED-74196)
  • NodeJS version updated to version 12.13.1. All npm packages were updated to latest versions.
    Vulnerabilities listed by npm audit goes from 54 to 0. (SHARED-73468)
  • A myriad of other libraries have been updated. (SHARED-74605)

Print Manager Improvements/fixes

  • Speed up loading of History table, to avoid issues with cleanup services failing. (SHARED-76485/76676)
  • Fixed issue with Print Manager not removing Finished jobs when the selected language was set to a language other than the default. (SHARED-76922)
  • Added the ability to limit the number of jobs loaded in the job History table. The setting is available in the Print Manager General Preferences page. (SHARED-76949)

General Improvements

  • Several interface translation improvements and fixes have been made. (SHARED-73925)
  • Improved logging of Connect engine activity. Particularly in regards engines (data mapper, merge engine, output engine) running in tight memory conditions. (SHARED-74548)
  • Externally launched engines and HSQLDB database instances will now launch with the language specified in the 'Language' preferences. (SHARED-74807)
  • Fixed issue with the "background.rotation" property having effect on section clones. (SHARED-76744)

Connect 2020.1 Designer Improvements

Improved backwards compability

Save a Copy now modifies script wizards in such a way that they will work in Connect versions that pre-date the wizards.. (SHARED-74183)

Scripting Improvements

  • Introduced new translate(string[, context]) script function that can be used to translate a string and optional context. (SHARED-74827)
  • Control script change. Assigning the value "undefined" to masterFront or masterBack should override the master page settings in the Sheet Configuration dialog and ensure that no master page is used. In 2019.2 you needed to pass either "null" or an empty string. (SHARED-74887)
  • Fixed an issue with scripting that could cause statements like query("<tbody>") or query("<tr>") to fail. (SHARED-74898)

General Designer Improvements

  • The underline feature now creates <span> wrappers with text-decoration:underline instead of <u> wrappers. This prevents a preflight warning about the <u> tag not being supported. (SHARED-69181)
  • “Save as” now uses the directory of the original resource as default save location, unless the resources was never saved or was included in external package. (SHARED-70057)
  • CSS can be pretty printed manually by invoking the new "Format" command or through the Ctrl+Shift+F shortcut. (SHARED-71419)
  • Added support for custom properties and the var() keyword in CSS. (SHARED-72634)
    For more info, see https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/--*
  • Table columns can now only be re-sized in DESIGN mode. This change was introduced to prevent columns from being unintentionally re-sized in PREVIEW mode. (SHARED-73021)
  • The Styles panel now includes styles for pseudo-elements like ::before and ::after. (SHARED-73327)
  • Fixed a problem with the Align toolbar buttons not always properly aligning the selected elements. (SHARED-73493)
  • Improved the checking of presets, to avoid prompting for unnecessary preset imports. (SHARED-74028)
  • It is now possible to control which email section is processed by enabling or disabling email sections in a control script. (SHARED-74051)
  • Fixed an issue with the Import Resources feature that could cause an UnsupportedOperationException error. (SHARED-74889)
  • Improved the default line settings for the USPS IMb barcode. (SHARED-75097)
  • Fixed an issue that would disallow changing font names in the Edit Font dialog. (SHARED-75525)

Connect 2020.1 Output Improvements

PDF Digital Signature Improvements

  • The digital signature now includes the signer, the location, the reason for signing and the time of signing (if configured to use a time stamp). (SHARED-73528)
  • Connect used to create digital signatures twice. Once to determine the size of the entire signature (including the timestamp if enabled) in the output file, and once for including the actual signature in the output. As of 2020.1 this "double clicking" of timestamping and digital signing has been removed, and the signature now only created the single time. (SHARED-71872)

New PDF Signature dialog box options.

  • Can now pick an alias from a list of aliases, using new browse button. (SHARED-75183)
  • It is now possible to specify the page of the output file that the signature should appear on. (SHARED-71881)

Print Output Improvements

  • A retry option has been added for when the output file exists but cannot be deleted. (SHARED-74292)
  • Print Output presets now have all non-relevant entries set to default values. (SHARED-74594)
  • When a table was split across more than two pages, some table rows would be missing from the output. This issue has now been fixed. (SHARED-74903)
  • Fixed a bug where in certain specific conditions with templates that generate a lot of pages, content would be missing from the output (detail tables, batched pagination). (SHARED-74940)
  • Improved handling of angled and skewed text in AFPDS , IPDS and PCL outputs. (SHARED-75094)
  • PDF initial view options are now available as settings. These allow you to specify how the PDF output is to be viewed upon opening. (SHARED-75224)
  • Fixed a crash when uncoloured tiling patterns were used with an Indexed colour space. (SHARED-75250)
  • Fixed issue with TTF outline characters appearing squashed in AFPDS and IPDS outputs. (SHARED-75462)
  • Fixed an issue where setting Rasterize Options on a div would cause errors while generating output. (SHARED-75577)
  • In PostScript level 3 output, when a shading refers to a named colorspace resource, Connect now ensures that the colorspace gets written before the shading itself. (SHARED-76342)
  • Fixed a problem with decimal number precision when writing out PDF Type 3 font in PDF pass-through mode. (SHARED-76406)
  • Fixed an issue with Ledger paper size in PCL output. (SHARED-76630)
  • PCL custom page sizes failed to select the correct size, when paper in Landscape mode. This has now been corrected. (SHARED-76634)

Email Output Improvements

  • Added a new CSS inline mode for email. (SHARED-74350)
  • Restored support for email attachment paths containing spaces (which was broken in 2019.2). (SHARED-75050)
  • Fixed a problem with scripted email headers that was introduced in 2019.2, whereby the headers were not reset after each record. (SHARED-75413)

General Output Improvements

  • Fixed an issue where in rare cases the wrong indexToLocFormat could be written in a TrueType font's 'head' table, effectively corrupting the font. (SHARED-74383)
  • Fixed an issue that crashed the output engine when processing some PDF input files that containing lots of resources (such as color spaces). (SHARED-74655)
  • The Dutch Postal Service PostNL KIX database has been updated to the 2020 version. (SHARED-74801)
  • Improved Connect support for Type 1 fonts. (SHARED-74910)

  • Fixed an issue that broke WYSIWYG output when using a resizable table in combination with the rowspan attribute. (SHARED74915)

  • Fixed an issue with text positioning encountered when writing text scaled down to zero. (SHARED-75096)

General Print Wizard Improvements

  • Fixed an issue where occasionally custom OMR size validation code in the Wizard would fail with an unexplained validation error, preventing the Wizard from being finished. (SHARED-74264)
  • Fixed logic with media selection size rules when the media is landscape orientation. (SHARED-74540)

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.