OL Connect Release Notes 2025.1.1

License Update Required for Upgrade to OL Connect 2025.x

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

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

This licensing model requires anyone upgrading from OL Connect versions earlier than 2019.1 to first update their OL Connect License. A dialog box appears as part of the OL Connect upgrade process requesting that you do this.

It is 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.

For further details on how to upgrade the OL Update Manager to the latest version and update your OL Connect License see the Update Manager 1.9 - 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 2025.1, as well as some important installation information.

Installing OL Connect 2025.1

  • 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, here Installation and activation.
  • Note that OL Connect comes with a 30 day trial license by default.
  • It is recommended that you install and use OL Connect Designer under the same user account.

OL Connect installer requires Administrator rights

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

OL Connect 2025.1.1 Improvements

 

During the OL Connect 2025.1.0 partner preview the following issue was discovered:

  • An issue was discovered where if PDF security options were used in the Output Preset, some links within the output PDF would not work. This has been fixed in the 2025.1.1 release. (94542)

OL Connect Improvements

OL Connect general improvements

  • Added ability to force using the default port in the database connection Preferences. This allows you to connect by Instance name when using a Microsoft SQL Server as your back-end database. (92236)

  • Support added for turning Windows authentication on and off for Microsoft SQL Server back-end database connections. (92247)

  • Improved stability for better detection of licensing problems. (92497)

  • Fixed an issue with the custom database preferences set by the installer not using the proper delimiter. (93730)

  • Improved Context Sensitive Help for a number of dialogs. (93847\93859)

  • Several improvements made to interface localisation. (93996)

  • The Logging Preference rollover policy was not being applied to the licence logs. This has now been fixed. (94012)

  • Resolved issue with Preferences being incorrectly updated or even deleted when upgrading Connect. (94242)

Architectural Software Updates

  • Removed Microsoft VBScript dependencies from OL Connect. (93724)

  • Replaced older Eclipse j2v8 with Javet. (93864)

Security improvements

  • Third party libraries updated to more recent versions. (94136/94221)

OL Connect 2025.1 Designer Improvements

Improved support for editing non-Connect resources

Double-clicking a resource file in the resources panel for which the Designer does not have a built-in editor now pops up a dialog, which allows you to open that resource file in the default application associated with that file type, directly from within Designer. (90440)

For example, double-clicking an image resource in the Resources. If the Designer doesn’t have a built-in viewer for the file type, a prompt will appear, allowing you to open it in the default application. This allows you to not only view the image but also make edits that are saved directly to the file in the template.

Section Cloning Wizard improvements

  • Cloned sections no longer require unique names. (93973)

  • The Section Cloning Wizard now lets you set section clone names based on a data field, such as an insurance policy name. This makes it easier during the design phase to quickly find and view a specific section in Preview mode, helping you validate the content presentation or check the results of certain business rules. (94772)

  • The Section Cloning Wizard now inserts expressions that work with the detail record context, reducing the need to rewrite or remember the correct syntax.

    Note: Only supported in the wizard, not in raw scripts.

Copy Data Model

Options added to the context menu of the Data Model view allowing you to copy the model of the current template.



These copy a JSON representation of the data model to the clipboard. This makes it easier to generate sample data using AI tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot. Simply copy the model, then paste it into the AI and request one or more sample records. (94114)

Learn more about streamlining template design with AI: https://olresourcecenter.uplandsoftware.com/blog/streamlining-template-design-with-ai/

Insert image through insertion point

The Image Insert dialog now includes an Insertion Point option, which inserts the new image at a specific position. (92004)



In previous versions, images were always added as inline elements, requiring manual steps to move them to the correct location or place them in an absolute position. This now vastly simplifies that process.

General Designer improvements

  • Clicking on an absolute positioned image element will now trigger the box selection mode directly. (90602)
  • When a Data Model field is drag and dropped outside the page margins an absolute positioned box is created. If you resized that box to be smaller than the contents within, the text would overflow outside the box. This is no longer the case. The box now behaves similar to a regular absolute positioned box that can be inserted from the toolbar. (91170)
  • Fixed an error in the Data Model for the last record, when the number of records to be displayed is limited. (91302)
  • Fixed issue with buttons disappearing after Expand All selected in Data Model. (91576)
  • Remote content is no longer cached while editing a template in the Designer. (91620)

  • The JSON sample data has been simplified and improved. (91788)

  • Support added for "Alt+arrow up" and "Alt+arrow down" keyboard shortcuts to both script source and JSON sample data editors. (92463)
  • Added support for zooming in and zooming out using the CTRL + '+' and CTRL + '-' keys in the script source and JSON sample data editors. (92479)
  • Fixed an issue with the display of filtered results in the Data Model view. (92965)
  • If the main editor is read-only we have made sure you can still scroll in the Attributes panel and view and copy-paste values. (93118)
  • You can now browse through copied data in the Data Model view. (93204)
  • You can now define the encoding used in external files imported in to the Template. (93372)
  • When importing from Word we now substitute the font “Aptos” (a proprietary cloud font that cannot be used by a browser) with the more general “Calibri”. (93417)
  • Fixed a cosmetic issue where the Data Model view would keep showing a “Copies” label even after closing the DataMapper config editor. (93652)
  • Prevented excess error logging by the barcode library. These would appear in the Designer messages panel and could cause confusion. (93685)

  • Inserting a barcode on a Master page will now only insert a script if the active section does not have Handlebars enabled. If the section has Handlebars enabled a Handlebars expression will be used in the barcode box. (93862)

  • Any changes made in the Source tab to the inner HTML of an (empty) article for shared content are now assumed to be unintentional and will be ignored. (93978)

  • Fixed an error that was encountered when switching a cloned section between Preview and Source modes. 93994)

  • When you create a package to be sent to Workflow or saved on disk and you try to add a resource with a name that is already in the package you will now get a dialog asking if you want to overwrite the file in the package with the new one. Prior to this change you could have two files with the same name but when the package file was saved an error would occur. (94095)

  • Fixed an issue where master page objects where positioned incorrectly on the section page when the top and left bleed were set to different values. (94398)

  • Fixed an issue with Dynamic Image Scripts when the Folder on disk location option was used with an empty path. Previously this caused the base path to use the path of the Designer application. Now it will use an empty path as the base path.
    Additionally a validator was added to that Path field to disallow relative paths and accept only absolute paths.
    This validator was also added to the Dynamic Background Script. 94549)

  • Improved text font size changes implemented through Format dialogs. (94550)

  • When the Duplex checkbox in the Sheet configuration dialog gets checked we now set the Allow content on fields to All sides. If it gets unchecked, we set it to Front Only. (94551)

  • Applying text alignment within a Positioned box no longer wraps content in a new inline <div> element. (94554)

  • Fixed an issue with the script debugger that may occur if a run is aborted and Handlebars are not used. (94566)

  • Improved support for Handlebars expressions in src or href attributes. We URL-encode the expression result by default, but this can now be disabled using a triple-stash. (94595)

  • When selecting an Absolutely positioned table through the 'breadcrumbs' section and then choosing the Table… option, none of the fields within the Table Properties dialog were set. This has now been fixed. (94645)

  • Improved the importation of new tabular data into Templates already linked to a data file. (94720)

  • Fixed an error that may occur when applying styles like bold and italic to text in a positioned box. (94811)

  • Fixed an issue introduced in 2024.2 that prevented page-break-before or page-break-after styles from having any effect when applied to an element inside a table. (95132)

  • Fixed an issue where references to empty Handlebars partials would produce an error instead of the reference being replaced with an empty string. (95262)

OL Connect 2025.1 Output Improvements

LPR print Improvements

  • Multiple simultaneous LPR connections could cause failures, and then those failed jobs could mistakenly removed.
    We now move files to a printservice folder and add an LPR job to an internal task queue. This reduces the possibility of failures due to multiple simultaneous connections. And if the LPR fails the job will now be moved to the printservice/error folder. 86245)

  • LPR Queue Timeout and Retry Attempts are now configurable in the Print Options page. 94461)


Controlling the Title value in PostScript output

Added capability to control the %%Title value in PostScript output.

The %%Title field is often used by printers to display as the job name in the printer controller. With this change OL Connect users no longer need to rely on automation tools (such as Connect Workflow) to modify the field. (94073)

Print Wizard enhancements

  • Fixed an issue where the Windows Printer “Prompt for Printer Properties” selection was not being applied correctly. (89931)

  • Increased the number of fields that can be supported in job creation grouping. (93589)

  • Fixed an issue that was preventing dynamic PPD based output presets from being loaded into the Output and Print Wizards. (94250)

  • Fixed display issue when switching between PDF and non-PDF printer models in the Print Options Page of the Output and Print Wizards while the output type is set to windows printer. (94670)

General Output Improvements

  • Fixed an issue with loading images when the user profile location contains characters outside the US-ASCII range. (93453)
  • Fixed an issue with batched pagination that could cause the output to contain blank content if the output for a single record consisted of more than 15 pages; one of the top-level elements spans multiple pages; and that element happens to intersect a page range boundary for batched pagination (every 15 pages by default). (94516)
  • Improved behavior when the user running OL Connect has Unicode characters within their name. (94657)

Print Output Improvements

  • Fixed an issue that could cause missing pages in output if a single record produces more than 15 pages of content and a post pagination script calls merge.section.paginate. (93714)

  • Prevent entry of characters in the Job, Output and Print Wizards that are not valid according to the XML 1.0 specification. (94000)

  • Fixed an issue where (in certain edge cases) repagination from a post pagination script could produce overlapping master pages. (94025)

  • Additional Content now supports text patterns with hexadecimal and Unicode escaped characters. For example: ${"\x41"} (94465)

  • Fixed an issue that could occur in some edge cases when “Omit Master Page Back in case of an empty back page” was turned on. (94478)

  • Fixed masking of high byte in character codes when a TrueType (3,0) cmap table is being used. (94630)

  • An issue was identified with gray color in PCL output, where specific gray values were inverted. Light gray appeared as dark gray and vice versa. This problem has now been resolved. (94658)

Known Issues

The Known Issues can be found here, Known Issues.