ER 9.2 Release Notes

ER 9.2 enhancements include:

 

Communication Center Enhancements

Several Communication Center enhancements are included in this release. The following
sections provide details about application changes.

 

Auto Notify Rules ID

Auto Notification Rules have a new Rule ID column in the rules table. This field is numeric and
the ID assigned to a rule never changes when rules are added, deleted, or moved, making it
easier to reference and identify rules by ID.

For existing rules, the system automatically assigns Rule IDs; no migration or administrative
intervention is required.

 

Auto Notify Rules Excel Export

In this release, the Auto Notification Rules can now be exported to a Microsoft Excel file.
This allows business users to more easily communicate with team members and meet audit
requirements.

The Excel column headers are the same as those in the UI table headings, and are given in the
same order.

 

Display Recipient If Condition in Rules Table

Another addition to the Auto Notification Rules UI is the inclusion of a new column in the rules
table that displays the If Condition for Recipients for each Escalation Level.

In previous versions, the Recipient for each Escalation Level was displayed, but the If Condition
was not shown. This If Condition data is included in Excel exports as well.

 

Activity Logging for Templates and Rules

Additional activity logging that tracks usage of Email Templates and Auto Notify Rules has
been added in this version.

For manual emails, the Email Template ID has been added to Activity Log details.
For Auto Notification emails, the Email Template, Auto Notify Definition, and Rule IDs have
been added to Activity Log details. Note that Auto Notification emails can be merged
(resulting in the inclusion of multiple Rule IDs).

This enhancement makes it easier for the administrator to audit and report on the usage of
Email Templates and Auto Notify Rules.

 

Auto Notify Rules Display for Source Mappings

In this release, for each Source Mapping in an Auto Notify Rule, the Source Filter conditions display in the Rules table. Conditions are also included in Excel exports for Auto Notify Rules.

 

Enhanced Email Look Up Listing

In the previous release, the email look-up functionality for manual emails returned a list of User IDs only; this was because the LDAP directory look-up did not return the User Name and Email attributes. In this release, an enhancement to the LDAP user listing allows email look-up functionality to fetch and display the user's Display Name and Email address. This enhancement affects email auto-completion and the address book. For auto-completion, results now display as User Name <user_email>; for the address book, the Name and Email Address columns display for returned data.

 

Default Recipients for Auto Notify Rules

At times, an Auto Notify Rule may fail to provide a valid email recipient. When this occurred in previous releases, the rule failed.

In this release, a new system default recipient may be configured in the AUTONOTIFY_DEFAULT_RECIPIENT parameter, which has been added to the ER.properties configuration file.

The default recipient receives any email notifications that would have otherwise failed due to an inability to locate a valid email recipient. In addition, the rule that triggered the default recipient email is logged, as is the email, and the administrator is notified via email notification as configured for application process failures.

 

Configurable Max Length for Manual Email to Address Field

In earlier versions, the To and Cc address fields on manual email forms had a maximum default input length of 255 characters.

With this release, the maximum length for the To and Cc fields is configurable. Configuration is done via a new property (EMAIL_RECIPIENT_LIST_MAX_LENGTH), found in the ER.properties file.

The default value for this property is 255, allowing backward compatibility and no functional change for customers that do not wish to alter the default.

 

Configurable Email Body Read Size Limit

To protect the system and end users from encountering resource problems caused by huge
emails that might have been generated by mistake, this release includes a configurable option
to limit the reading and display of very large email bodies.

The new configuration parameter, EMAIL_BODY_READING_CHARACTER_LIMIT, sets a limit
on the number of characters that are read and assembled in the email body content.

If the configured limit is set to a number greater than zero, the system sums the total length of
the email body content stored in the database before actually reading it into memory. If the
email body length exceeds the configured limit, the system skips reading / displaying the email
body, instead returning a standard system-generated body content that says "The email body
size exceeded the system limit and will not be displayed."

 

Line Formatting for Manual Emails and Responses

Line and space formatting in user comments were previously ignored by the browser when
viewing manual emails and response comments. To preserve email line formatting, content has
been formatted for HTML display in this release. This allows users to preserve line breaks in
their response comments and manual emails.

This enhancement only applies to new emails and responses; existing emails and responses are
not changed by this functionality.

 

Enhanced Error Isolation for Auto Notify Rules

Auto Notification rules are executed with more error isolation in this release.

Failed rules are logged and notification sent to the administrator; however, a failed rule does
not stop execution of other rules, allowing more rules to be completed successfully.

 

Improve Manual Recon Email Template Evaluation Performance For 1000+ Items

Previously, when the number of selected items for a manual email was very large (1000 items or
more), the manual template evaluation timing was often lengthy. In testing scenarios, timing
varied from 20 seconds to 15 minutes, and depending upon network connection speed and
size of items.

To improve evaluation performance and reduce the total time required, the implementation
was optimized. In subsequent test scenarios, timing improved remarkably and consistently took
under 15 seconds, even for very large data sets (about 2000 items).

 

User Profiles Management Activity Logging

In this release, the system logs to activity taken on user profiles, including:

• Who, What, When
• Create and Update activities
• Before and After values for User Profile attributes

 

Validation for Work Owner Display Names

Validations for work owner display names in work owner management UI have been added in
this version.

Validations include a check for unique display names when a work owner is added or updated.
The display name also cannot contain leading or trailing white space or validation will fail.
Invalid display names are rejected and the UI displays an error messages on the cause of
validation failure.

 

Results Table Calculation

A simple calculator for numeric columns in selected results has been added to this version.
Much like QMatch functionality, the Results Calculator can save end users time in research and
matching activities.

The Results Calculator is enabled by a toggle button; when enabled, recalculations occur
automatically when upon selection change. No additional match / edit / work owner
permissions are required to use the calculator, just item read permissions.

In this release, Results Calculator functionality is developed for only the Item Search and Recon
Entity Search screens. When QMatch is in use, the Results Calculator is disabled. Likewise,
when the Results Calculator is enabled, QMatch is disabled.

When user enables the Results Calculator, they are prompted to make a selection. Available
calculations for the selection include Null, Count, Sum, Min, Max, Mean, and Unique Count.
Results are presented with the same number formatting as input columns and results are
displayed on the status bar at the bottom of screen.

 

Auto Maximize Data Screens

To save user clicks, a new configurable parameter to specify data screens be opened at
maximum size has been added in this release. This functionality applies to all Search and Detail
screens in the Reconciliation, Adjustment, and Cash Differences components.

The new parameter, RICH_CLIENT_MAXIMIZE_DATA_SCREENS, is located in the
ER.properties file and is set to false by default.

 

Email Format for Text Fields

In many cases, Reconcilers may manually enter one or more email addresses into text fields;
the text fields are then mapped to specific auto notification rules, where email addresses are
used in the recipient list.

Manual entry is tedious and error prone, often leading to Auto Notification processing errors.
To help avoid this, a new email format is now available for text fields.

This new specification allows the system to enable validation and auto completion for text
fields with the email format. This helps reduce email entry error and improves speed for user
entries.

The administrator configures a text fields with the email format in the User Interface definition.
This format is available only in the Reconciliation component.

When a text field with email format is editable, the system provides auto complete list that
looks up emails from LDAP directory based on user character entry, the same as with manual
email auto completion. The system also validates text entered for email syntax, rejecting invalid
entries. Note that the text field with email formatting may be Null or empty.

 

Email Link in Activity Log View

The email object link is now displayed in the Activity Log, allowing the email object to be
opened from the UI.

 

Email Listing Performance Optimization

When listing a large number of emails on the screen, the application now avoids retrieving
email body content and attachments for all emails upfront, reducing memory and bandwidth
usages.

 

GUI Toolkit Upgrades

In this release, some of the third-party GUI toolkits used in the application were updated.

 

Libraries Upgraded

In this release, several third-party libraries have been updated. These updates increase system
security and reliability.

 

Rich Client Java 10 Support

The Infogix ER rich client now supports use of Java 10.

 

Replacement of Struts Web Application Framework

The Struts Web Application Framework was removed and replaced by Spring Web Application
Framework.

 

New Software Supported

• Microsoft® SQL Server® 2017 is supported (Microsoft and Linux platforms)
• Java® 10 is supported

The complete list of supported software and hardware versions is included in the Infogix Technical Specifications Document included in the application documentation.

 

Java 10 Support for WildFly

Java 10 is supported for WildFly 10.1.0 Application Server. Infogix products on release 9.2 support Java 10 except for Infogix Perceive.

To use Java 10, edit setup.bat (for Windows®) or setup.sh (for UNIX® or Linux®) in /Infogix/etc folder and specify the full path of Java 10 home directory.

 

Library Updates

In this release, several third-party libraries have been updated. These updates increase system security and reliability.

 

Configuration Validation Improvements

During the installation process, the script validate-config-values.bat (.sh) is executed to verify the configuration within the properties files. The script has been enhanced to provide better troubleshooting information to the user if the configuration validation fails.

The script also has the ability to provide verbose logging with the -v option.

From the <install_dir>/Infogix/bin directory, execute the following command:

For Windows:

validate-config-values.bat -c <myConfigName> -v <product>

For UNIX or Linux:

./validate-config-values.sh -c <myConfigName> -v <product>

Where:

• <product> represents the Infogix application:
  • For Infogix Assure, specify IA.
  • For Infogix ER, specify ER.
  • For Infogix Insight, specify II.
  • For Infogix Perceive, specify IV.
• <myConfigName> is the name of your configuration
• -v enables the verbose output option

 

Java 7 is no longer supported

Infogix products on release 9.1 and later do not support Java 7 version.

 

Fixed in this Release

The following issues have been fixed in this release of Infogix ER.

ER-6997 Defect: The Offset field is not displayed in Rules Catalog Rules UI Definition.

ER-7010 Defect: User is able to view Cash Differences from the Owned Work Items tab for the Welcome page after the CD module License has expired.

ER-7013 Defect: Attachments from email responses not associated with the source item. Attachments were saved with email responses, but should also be associated with the corresponding source item.

ER-7057 Defect: Manual email recipient validation error message needs to be updated to reflect the separator as configured in the EMAIL_RECIPIENT_SEPARATOR parameter.

ER-7070 Defect: For manual emails, the Check Names option overrode existing email recipients.

ER-7072 Defect: In the Communication Center for Templates, if the Email Templates header was inadvertently selected when exporting templates, the application triggered a NullPointerException (NPE).

ER-7073 Defect: In the Communication Center for Auto Notification Rules, if the Auto Notify Type header was inadvertently selected when exporting rules, the application triggered a NullPointerException (NPE).

ER-7074 Defect: In the Communication Center for Data Models, after importing a data model definition, the Modified field value for the definition was not updating correctly.

ER-7075 Defect: In the Communication Center for Email Templates, after importing a template definition, the Modified field value for the definition was not updating correctly.

ER-7090 Defect: The Auto Notification process failed when the process failed to generate more than 1000 emails for a specific source. The root cause was a limiting repeat restriction.

ER-7091 Defect: The Auto Notification process logs the rule number processed to the IGX log. For example, a log entry might appear as: Processing <Auto Notify Def ID> Rule #1 Source <source>: [sourceType=Reconciliation Recon Entity, sourceId='<Source ID>'}. When there are multiple sources in a rule, the rule number logged is incremented for each source. As a result, the rule number in the log does not match that shown on the definition UI, making it difficult to correlate the rules processed from the log entries. This change requires the rule number logged must always correlate with the rule number displayed on the Auto Notify Rules UI.

ER-7113 Defect: In the View Email screen, if an existing email was selected when a user clicked New to create a new email, the CC field and email body were populated from existing values in the selected email. The expectation is any new email fields should be empty.

ER-7115 Defect: The Attachment Name length for Manual emails was not validated against the Attachment database table column size limit, resulting in users being able to attach files with names exceeding the name column limit. This caused a persistence error, but the email was sent successfully.

ER-7121 Defect: If an attachment file name is over 80 characters, the user gets a UI error and the email is not logged; however, the email is sent and the recipient gets the email, despite the error. Logging was improved to specifically describe this event and now the log includes the message: Persistence Error Occurred After email was sent.

ER-7124 Defect: Email response page handle non-ASCII text correctly.

ER-7132 Defect: On manual emails, the Forward button is enabled when there is no email to forward; clicking Forward results in a NullPointerException (NPE).

ER-7134 Defect: If there are no existing Auto Notification definitions, the Data Model list does not always get populated correctly for a new Auto Notification Rule; there are no errors in the log or console.

ER-7145 Defect: When there are no existing templates, cancelling the creation of a new template definition causes a NullPointerException (NPE).