OL Connect Release Notes 2022.1.5

License Update Required for Upgrade to OL Connect 2022.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 2022.1.

For further details on how to upgrade the Update Client and update your Connect License see the Update Manager 1.5 - 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 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 2022.1 and Workflow 2022.1, as well as some important installation information.

Installing OL Connect 2022.1 and Workflow 2022.1

• OL Connect is released as a 64 Bit version only (with the exception of the Workflow, Fax, Search and Imaging modules).
• Full details on installing (Installation Wizard) and licensing (Activating a License) OL Connect and Workflow can be found in the linked online Help pages. 
• Note that OL Connect comes with a 30 day trial license by default.

Connect and Workflow installers require Administrator rights

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

Connect Templates Used in Workflow

For improved performance we recommend re-saving any Connect templates used in Workflow to the current version of Connect templates.

Reduced Memory Version (not recommended for production)

It is possible to install OL Connect on a machine with a minimum of 2 GB of RAM. The Connect Designer will automatically detect whether it has been installed on a machine with less than 4 GB of RAM and default to only using one internal Weaver and one internal merge engine on that system. The Server will also run using internal engines.

OL Connect 2022.1.5 Improvements

Scaled barcode issue

It was discovered that some OL Connect 2022.1.x scaled barcodes could be hard to scan. This affected "small" scaled (fixed to width) PNG barcodes in particular. This issue has now been fixed. (87162)

Workflow updated

An issue was found with how Workflow 2022.1.4 installed a Microsoft VC++ 2013 redistributable. This would cause subsequent OL Connect 2022.1.5 installation problems.
This issue was fixed, and a new Workflow 2022.1.5 installer was prepared. (87190)

OL Connect 2022.1.4 Improvements

Windows 11 and Windows Server 2022 now supported

Both OL Connect and Workflow have now undergone thorough testing under the newest Microsoft Windows versions.

Having passed this testing process, OL Connect and Workflow version 2022.1.4 are now officially supported under Windows 11 and Windows Server 2022 operating systems.

Additional improvements made to Connect 2022.1.x installer.

• The language chosen for the installer is now applied to the installed products. (86545)

• The 'Select Setup Language' dialog language and the default language selection now use the local machine language. (86623)

• Fixed some German language translations, including one which that caused issues with the installation. (86317/86582)

• Fixed problems with non-ASCII text corrupting the Connect Service installation. (86436)

• Cleaned up text displayed on 'Installation Finished' page. (86237)

OL Connect 2022.1.3 Improvements

Add support for text extraction on CID fonts that rely on external Adobe "-UCS2" CMap files. (86069)

OL Connect 2022.1.2 Improvements

Additional security feature added, making Connect 2022.1.2 the first official Connect 2022.1.x release. (86250)

OL Connect 2022.1.1 Improvements

Some issues were discovered with the new Connect Installer during 2022.1.0 Release Candidate testing. These issues have now been fixed. (86124)

OL Connect 2022.1 Improvements

Version control added

Both the Designer and the DataMapper now use Git integration to maintain a history of files inside named Projects. (81457)

This feature allows you to combine all the files used in a Project and keep a record of any/all changes made to any of the files within the Project thereafter.

Projects are added via new Project menu.

The files comprising a Project can be viewed in the new Project Files panel.

Each time you commit a resource (i.e., when you save an updated version of it), any additional information provided gets recorded alongside the file.

You can browse through the history of all changes in the Versioning History panel, which contains a complete record of who did what, on which date, and for which reason.

You can elect to revert to a version from within the history if something turns out to be flawed in your current project.

Swiss QR barcode

Swiss QR barcode support added to Connect. (84012)

New Connect Installer

The OL Connect installer has been totally re-engineered. (81627)

The new installer is based upon more standard architecture and supports rollbacks in case something goes wrong during installation.

Maria DB installed with Connect

Fresh installations of Connect now install MariaDB, rather than MySQL. Pre-existing Connect installations that had the Connect MySQL component installed will be migrated to MariaDB at installation time.

Connect will continue to work with any customer provided MySQL databases that were present prior to Connect being installed. (83135)

Java update

Updated the Java platform upon which Connect runs to AdoptOpenJDK 11.0.13+8 (82163)

Runtime parameters

The DataMapper now lets you specify runtime parameters directly inside condition and repeat steps so that you no longer have to write scripts.

We have also added Runtime parameters when calling Workflow sub-processes. The Go sub task now lets you specify which values to pass on to the sub-process without having to go through intermediate steps (by first storing them inside JobInfos, for instance).

This feature not only allows you to design your sub-processes faster, it also eliminates potential mistakes caused by improper values being passed to them.

Server Configuration

The Server configuration tool was not saving changes for Connect Server connection user ("olc-user" by default) correctly, if the new entry used the same password as the previous user. This could cause engines to stop talking to the Connect Server under certain circumstances. This has been fixed. (84937)

OL Connect 2022.1 Designer Improvements

Import Microsoft Word documents into print Templates

Added the ability to create new print Templates from Word documents and to import Word documents into an existing Templates. (83760)

The import uses the original Word document page size, margins, text formatting, lists, graphics, TextBoxes and even mail-merge information.

The contents of the Word file are added to the first Section in the Connect Template.
Mail merge place holders in Word documents are used to create a datamodel and userscritps. Images are written to the Images folder and a base stylesheet is added to the Stylesheets panel. TextBox objects are converted to <div> elements.

HTML templating using Handlebars

Provided new functionality that reduces the amount of scripting needed to create placeholder heavy and modular design templates. (83543)

If you’ve ever created OL Connect Designer templates for long documents like contracts and insurance policies, you’re undoubtedly familiar with snippets. Snippet-heavy templates can become hard to maintain when each snippet requires multiple scripts to apply personalization and conditions. It requires the snippets and scripts to be thoughtfully organized (grouping, naming conventions, search optimizations). But even then, things can become cluttered and may even impact the overall performance of your template.

Users with a background in web design may be familiar with the Handlebars library. It is a popular templating library that provides a simple way to merge HTML snippets with data. This library has now been added to OL Connect Designer.

The Handlebars template snippets in OL Connect Designer will vastly reduce the number of scripts for the mentioned document types and help keep templates lean by creating semantic snippets.

Improved Web Font support

The OL Connect Designer already supported web fonts, but only via CSS Stylesheets.
To simplify this, an option has been added to the Fonts folder to directly add remote fonts. (78790)

Conditional Script improvements

To further simplify Conditional Scripts, we have added two new conditions is empty and is not empty. (81585).

Search across Resources

The Resources panel has been expanded with a filter option. (83845)

This allows searching across master pages, sections, stylesheets and snippets.
The search results are grouped into the files containing the search term showing a preview and indicator of the term in each file.

Sample Projects

• The Project Wizards feature has been renamed Sample projects to reduce potential confusion with the newly introduced Version Control Project concept. (84804)
  

• Sample project Wizards now include a credentials page in which you can set the username & password for the Workflow configuration. (84338)
  

General Designer Improvements

• Fixed a problem with HTML snippets saved in source mode not actually saving the changes. (80971)

• Refresh types button in text scripts now enabled when needed. (82014)

• Templates are now still considered "changed" after making changes, saving and then undoing those changes. (83254)

• Send to Server dialog made wider. (83636)
• Dynamic Tables: The data-show-row option for TR elements in THEAD and TFOOT can now be set to start-of-table to have the row appear only in the first (or only) instance of the TABLE. (84135)

• Connect will now continue to recognize remote translation files after a template is saved, closed and then reopened. (84825)

• Updated 3rd party library to fix issues with USPS IMb barcodes. (84847)

OL Connect 2022.1 DataMapper Improvements

JSON Field Type added

Added a JSON field type that allows storing JSON objects in the data model. (83707)

The DataMapper and the Designer automatically parse the contents of these fields and allow you to address each individual property as if it were a field of its own. The Script Editors in both modules even offer code completion as you type.

Runtime Parameters added

Runtime parameters are now directly available for some steps. (82079)

The Condition step and Repeat step Based on property, and the Extract step Mode property now have Runtime parameter as an available option.

MariaDB support

The Connect DataMapper now supports MariaDB data sources. (83314)

General DataMapper Improvements

• The Ignore CR/LF at end of file option now also Ignores trailing Form Feed characters (FF) in data files. (67112)
• Added a new method named isRuntime(), to determine whether the data mapping process is currently running in debug or runtime mode. (80858)

• Fixed a problem with runtime parameter initialization. (SHARED81747-)

• Datamapper now supports JSON data using UTF-16 and UTF-32 encoding. (83886)

• Fixed Automatic Date parser for dates with negative time zone with non-zero minutes. (83528)

• Incorrect code completion suggestions for Arrays in JavaScript have been fixed. (83719)

• Fixed boundaries behaviour in TEXT emulation when the "Ignore CR/LF at end of file" option was set. (83980)

OL Connect 2022.1 Output Improvements

Tweak Postscript Headers

Raw Postscript can now be inserted at the header level. (83380)
Certain printers require very specific information in their header comments to work correctly. Although this could already be handled through custom Printer Definitions, it can now also be done directly through Dynamic PPD mode.

The inserts are added in the order they appear.

Use system fonts as fallback for missing input file fonts

When fonts are missing in input files (PDF, PostScript, etc.), it is now possible to have Connect use system fonts if the same fonts are installed locally. (54777)

At the moment this a technical preview feature, which requires manually editing the OL-outputpreset file, thus:

<fontSubstitutionConfig>
<pluginId>0</pluginId>
<useSystemFonts>true</useSystemFonts>
</fontSubstitutionConfig>

General Output Improvements

• Improved error/warning messaging. (75666)
• When the output engine flattening a transparency in a PDF file takes more than a minute, it will now logs messages to report progress on the flattening operation. (81683)
• It is now possible to change the default SMTP timeouts of the Merge Engine via setting system properties in the ini file. (82202)
  
• Added support for web font files (*.woff) in AddText components of custom Enhance workflows. (83567\83587)
• Prevented an "Attempt to paginate an already paginated DOM" error that could occur when scripts called merge.section.paginate() function. (84276)
• Improved handling of Open Type Format (OTF) fonts. (84502)

• Cloning a section that contained a dynamic table would break the expansion/pagination of the table. This has now been fixed. (84891)

• Updated 3rd party library to fix issues with USPS IMb barcodes in output. (85117)

Email Output Improvements

• Email content now always created through OL Connect Server. (28569)

Print Output Improvements

• Fixed issue in Dynamic PPD to include missing %EndPageSetup. (83388)
• "Timeout errors" could sometimes be encountered when connecting to a remote printer from Connect server. The timeout values have now been optimized to fix this issue. (83532)

• Fixed an error occurring in PDF output for certain types of images when image optimization is enabled (Indexed with a base colorspace that is not DeviceRGB/Gray/CMYK). (83559)

• Media items in DynamicPPD Output presets are now optional. (83827)

• Crop marks were incorrectly positioned on the back side of duplex output sheets when using 90 or 270 degrees rotated impositioning. This has been fixed. (84770)

• Fixed issues encountered in templates that use JQuery for setting up dynamic tables. (84814)

• Improved handling of PDFs with Transparency Groups when using Imposition. (84914)

• AFD and IPDS improvements
  • IPDS jobs that contained many barcodes were failing to print. The handling of barcodes has been changed to address this issue. (83927)
  • IPDS and AFPDS advanced logging now contains extra information on forms and images used. (84202)
  • Updated handling of PDF with Transparency Groups when using Imposition in IPDS output. This has resulted in improved processing times and smaller spool-file output. (84914)
  • To address an issue with IPDS Duplex printing starting out of sync after a restart, we now include Plex commands at the start of each physical sheet. (84916)

OL Connect 2022.1 Improvements

Security and Installer improvements

• Connect dependencies have been updated. (83698)
• The Adobe PDF Library and PDF Converter libraries were updated to their latest version. (83712)
• Improved resilience of Server connection. The Maximum queues setting has been removed from the Server Configuration preferences. The value is now automatically optimized, based on the maximum threads setting. (84029 )
• The OL Update Manager included as part of the Connect/Workflow has been updated to version 1.5 in Connect/Workflow 2022.1. (85508)
• Updated Windows Service Wrapper library to improve security. (85076)
• NodeJS log lib (log4js) updated to improve security (85078)

• Upgraded dependencies to protect against Spring vulnerability CVE-2022-22965. (85809)

REST API Improvements

• A new header named Content-Disposition has been added to the response of the FileStore download REST endpoints to return the original file name. (84592)

• The content creation for email working examples in the Connect REST Cookbook can now correctly connect to a mail server that does not require authentication. (83861)

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.