New License INSIDE THIS ISSUE · 2020. 1. 27. · as an option, due to Oracle Java SE compliance...

July 2019 | Issue 2 www.lansa.com

New License Model LANSA

From May 2019, LANSA will move from using 3rd party

softkey and hardware keys for Visual LANSA development

licensing to a different model.

LANSA will no longer be offering any of the following options

for development licensing for any version of Visual LANSA:

• 3rd party hardware key (also known as a dongle)

option.

• 3rd party Softkey options.

• 3rd party License Server option.

These options will be replaced by the Visual LANSA

development licensing options introduced in EPCs for V14 SP2

and V13 SP2.

The new Visual LANSA development licensing model will be

offered on the LANSA supported versions detailed here.

Converting to the new model involves 3 simple steps:

• Apply the EPC applicable to your version of Visual

LANSA. V14 SP2 requires EPC142050. Alternatively, a

new instance of Visual LANSA V14 SP2 can be installed

from the DVD spin0338, which has all EPCs up to

EPC142050 included.

• The LANSA License team will provide replacement

licenses in advance to all LANSA customers on

maintenance. If you have not been provided with a

replacement license, you can request a replacement

license from your local LANSA Licensing representative

by sending them your CPU details. New CPU details

(stored in a file called x_cpu.txt) can be generated

using the steps here.

• Apply the new license related to your Visual LANSA

version.

• Alternatively, a new instance of Visual LANSA V14 SP2

can be installed from the DVD spin0338, which has all

EPCs up to EPC142050 included.

New License Model LANSA..................... 1

LANSA License Server Install error ......... 3

Composer 7 ............................................ 4

LANSA V13 SP2 and OpenJDK............... 18

aXes version 4.2.0................................. 23

LANSA Roadmap Timeline .................... 28

New VLF version ................................... 30

Reading huge JSON data in web service invocation ............................................. 38

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

https://www.lansa.com/support/supportedversions.htm

https://www.lansa.com/support/notes/epc/epc142050.htm

https://www.lansa.com/support/tips/t0622.htm

What is installed and supported?

▪ LANSA Development License Service:

▪ LANSA Development License Manager:

▪ LANSA Development License Studio:

▪ 64-bit version on 64-bit O/S | 32-bit version on 32-bit O/S.

LANSA License Server Install error

EPC142050 introduces LANSA development licensing to replace the existing sentinel development

licensing. You can use the wEPC142050Lic.exe that is shipped in EPC142050 to setup an

independent LANSA License Server (no Visual LANSA installed).

While installing the LANSA Licence Server on a standalone Windows server, you may encounter the

following error:

The LANSA License Manager and LANSA License Studio have the following prerequisites:

• VS 2013 runtime(x64) on a 64 bit OS.

• VS 2013 runtime(Win32) on a 32 bit OS.

These executables can be independently downloaded from the Microsoft web site. They are also

available on the V14 SP2 DVD image in the folder \setup\Installs\VC_Redist\2013.

Composer 7

Recently, LANSA made a new version of Composer available. New features and enhancements in this

version of LANSA Composer are:

1. Installation and Upgrade

LANSA Composer Client This version of LANSA Composer provides a new client installation program that uses "standard"

Windows installer/MSI technology. It will appear as a separate item in the Control Panel Programs

and Features and can be uninstalled in the usual way.

Only a single copy of the LANSA Composer version 7.0 client software may be installed on a

Windows computer.

Altova MapForce version 2018, release 2 (2018R2) is provided on the media. It is strongly

recommended that you upgrade MapForce to this level on all LANSA Composer clients.

LANSA Composer Server on IBM i The LANSA Composer installation on IBM i servers now correctly supports installation into

independent auxiliary storage pools (IASP), if required.

Installation and configuration of LANSA Composer's COMPOSER_RUN SOAP web service support is

now automated on IBM i servers. (Previously manual installation and configuration steps were

necessary on an IBM i server in connection with this support.)

LANSA Runtime Version Information LANSA Composer version 7.0 is built with LANSA version 14SP2 and requires a run-time

environment at least at that level. In addition, it requires LANSA Integrator at EPC level 142000.

This is of concern only to existing users who have installed LANSA Composer in an existing LANSA

system. The upgrade of standard LANSA Composer installations (in their own LANSA run-time

system) will upgrade all the necessary components. The Client Runtime now utilizes DirectX

rendering.

2. New Look to the User Interface

The user interface for LANSA Composer 7.0 has been redesigned to take advantage of ribbon-style

tabs. It contains all the same functions, but they're now more easily accessed. We hope you find our

new look easier to use.

New Look LANSA Composer Home

New Look for the Component home pages

New Look for Processing Sequence Editor

New File Menu We have introduced a File menu. This allows for the quick opening of objects, creation of new

objects as well as options and more.

New Object creation items

New View Recent Objects

New Open Menu

3. Web Interface for the Management Console While processing remains the same, you can use a browser to run the Process Monitor, Performance

Monitor and Throughput Monitor. Additionally, you can now run processing sequences from the

browser.

New look Performance Monitor

New Look Throughput Monitor

View processing sequence status

Read through processing sequence logs

4. SMB Protocol now available

The Server Message Block (SMB) Protocol is a network file sharing protocol.

The SMB Configuration allows you to save and store connections to be used for SMB Connections

during processing.

To accompany the SMB Configuration is a suite of SMB activities

5. Database Connection Helper

The database connection helper will speed up the input of your database connection details as you

won't have to worry about the syntax. (That's these database types: sfDB2, MSSQLS, MySQL and

Oracle).

Refer to Database Connection Helper for further details.

6. Mapforce 64bit Support

Mapforce 64bit can now be accessed from within Composer. This allows for the use of 64bit JVM's to

operate for JDBC connections during design time and compiling. It should be noted that Composer

will always default to a 32bit version of Mapforce therefore you must first remove the 32bit version,

if you have one.

https://docs.lansa.com/lc7/en/lansa091/content/lansa/intengc2_0970.htm

7. Adopt Open JDK 1.8

LANSA Composer Client has previously shipped with Oracle JDK 8, but this will no longer be

supported as of January 2019. Open JDK will now be shipped with Composer Version 7. This will be

installed and used by default:

• a JDK on LANSA Composer Client

and

• JRE on LANSA Composer Windows Server.

8. Log Purge Notifications

Database purges help to keep your system organized and take up minimal space, so LANSA

Composer allows for the purging of various elements, such as logs, audit records and JSM Traces.

However, if a purge is not carried for a long time, this can be a very time-consuming process. Purge

Notifications, as in the example following, have been implemented to prompt you that it has been x

days since you have performed a purge.

9. EDI Staging Table Creation Helper

The EDI Staging Table Creation Tool allows for the creation of staging tables to be based on

information from the SEF file (Standard Exchange Format) and Altova Mapforce's EDI Definitions.

Staging tables allow for EDI data to be stored in a temporary location for further processing.

The Staging Table Creation Tool is in two parts:

• the setup, allowing for the tool to be configured to the exact environment required (currently

DB2 and MSSQL only)

and

• the runtime, allowing the selection of individual transaction types to have the required table

created in the Library or Database.

10. New and Enhanced Activities

The following supplied activities are new or revised for this version of LANSA Composer:

• The SQL_CALLQUERY Column size has been increase to 8,192 bytes, from 1,024 bytes.

• The TEXTFILE_SPLIT has a new suppress zero's parameter, allowing for if it is set to *NO, a

file will appear will no zeros suppression, allowing for better organization in lists. By default,

this will be *YES.

• The CREATE_DIRECTORY has been added, allowing for the creation of new directories during

processing.

11. New and Enhanced Features

Amongst other revisions in this version of LANSA Composer are:

• HTTP Configuration Outbound remote host parameter length has been increased

allowing for authentication methods to be added into the host url. There is also an increase in

the URI to allow for longer queries.

• LANSA Composer application DLL's have now been signed, greatly minimizing the risk

of them being quarantined or deleted by an antivirus.

• LANSA Composer Windows Server no longer use the *.RRN files for relative record

numbers.

• A new database configuration called EXAMPLE_MYDB will be created during the

installation, this will use the details known to Composer to construct a database connected to

the installed database.

• Text from the processing sequence log can now be copied to the system clipboard.

• You can now choose a theme per connection, giving you a simple visual aid to know

what server you are connected to.

• When copying a Trading Partner, you will now be prompted to choose prefixes for

Inbound and Outbound Archive, to allow you to save the new trading partner.

https://docs.lansa.com/lc7/en/lansa091/content/lansa/at_sql_callquery.htm

https://docs.lansa.com/lc7/en/lansa091/content/lansa/at_textfile_split.htm

https://docs.lansa.com/lc7/en/lansa091/content/lansa/at_create_directory.htm

LANSA V13 SP2 and OpenJDK

Background The instructions below to switch LANSA Integrator V13 SP2 from Java SE to OpenJDK are provided

as an option, due to Oracle Java SE compliance and End of Public Updates for Oracle JDK 8,

detailed here.

Steps to use OpenJDK with LANSA V13 SP2 If OpenJDK is not already installed, it can be downloaded here (note the Hotspot version is pre-

selected).

Install by unzipping into a folder path. This is referred to below as <installed Java path>.

• The java folder name path will depend upon which OpenJDK Java version is being used.

• 64-bit Path is generally C:\jdk8u172-b11.

• 32-bit Path is generally C:\jdk8u192-b12 (a 32-bit O/S requires the 32-bit version.)

https://www.lansa.com/support/tips/t0640.htm

https://adoptopenjdk.net/releases.html?variant=openjdk8&jvmVariant=hotspot

The steps to switch to OpenJDK are the same whether you have an existing LANSA Integrator V13

SP2 installation or whether you are installing a new LANSA Integrator V13 SP2. You must modify the

following Integrator shortcuts.

Note

To avoid issues in the ‘Start In’ related to long path names and embedded spaces in the New

Values below, LANSA recommends using the short path name. One way to establish the short path

name for the shortcuts is to open the LANSALauncher.cfg file in the Tools folder and copy the

WorkDir path into the ‘Start In’.

1. Integrator Studio

Existing values will be like the following:

Target

“<installed LANSA Integrator path>\Tools\LANSALauncher.exe" /app=javaw.exe /id=Studio

/lang=ENG

Start in

<installed LANSA Integrator path>\Tools

New values:

Target

"<installed Java path>\bin\javaw.exe" -Djava.ext.dirs=".\lib\ext" -

Djava.endorsed.dirs=".\lib\endorsed" com.lansa.jsf.studio.JSFStudio

Start In

<installed LANSA Integrator path>\Integrator\Studio

2. RFI


Target

"<installed LANSA Integrator path>\Tools\LANSALauncher.exe" /app=javaw.exe /id=RFI /lang=ENG

Start in


New values:

Target

"<installed Java path>\bin\javaw.exe" -Djava.ext.dirs=".\lib\ext" com.acme.RFIExampleViewer

Start in

<installed LANSA Integrator path>\Integrator\RFI

3. User Agent


Target

"<installed LANSA Integrator path>\Tools\LANSALauncher.exe" /app=javaw.exe /id=UserAgent

/lang=ENG

Start in


New values:

Target

"<installed Java path>\bin\javaw.exe" arg=-Djava.ext.dirs=".\lib\ext" -

Djava.endorsed.dirs=".\lib\endorsed" com.lansa.jsf.useragent.JSFUserAgent

Start in

<installed LANSA Integrator path>\Integrator\UserAgent

4. JSM Server

The <installed LANSA Integrator path>\Integrator\JSMAdmin\jsmmgrdta.txt file must be updated.

Change:

JVM=..\Java (or similar)

To new value:

JVM=<installed Java path>\bin\java.exe

aXes version 4.2.0

LANSA made a new version of aXes available. New features and enhancements in this version of aXes

are:

1. New Features

Material Design Themes Material Design is a design language on sets out rules and behaviour for web applications. We have

decided to implement the visual elements of Material design in aXes. Developer will have the option

to display their application using Material Design controls as well as designing themes to use with

these applications.

A sample view could look like the below, in various colours:

It is easy to develop a new theme with the new integrated Material Design theme designer.

Choreographer This feature allows the developer to record screen navigation and keystrokes, and replay those

recordings.

The developer can choose to make these recording available to the user by embedding them in push

buttons for example. Once added on the screen, theses controls allow the user to navigate

automatically to the destination screen.

The example on the left shows the recording list, while below are

displayed the details of the recording which is highlighted.

In this example, the recording starts at “MAIN” and finishes at “XHRRPGTRN”

Reporting function The reporting functions allows developer to generate a report encompassing all customised screens

and application settings. Also, on each customised screen, the report will detail all elements and all

extensions with their respective settings.

The purpose of such a report is for compliance and documentation purposes where the customer

requires to be able to see in a plain format all modification applied to each screen.

aXes Services HTTP Server Axes has been upgraded to use a new and improved HTTP web server. Axes web server is the server

component of aXes which transforms the IBM i screens in data the client can understand.

This new server component is a complete rewrite and features many security and performance

enhancements.

When installing aXes 4.2.0 the new HTTP server will be installed side by side with the existing

AXESW3. Customers can decide to use any server however we recommend to use the aXes Services

HTTP server by default.

aXes Service HTTP server does only support TS2 (not aXes TS).

Browser support Axes Developer Tools has been upgraded to include support for the following browsers.

• Chrome (latest version)

• Fire fox (latest version)

• Internet Explorer 11 (latest version)

Please refer to the www.aXeslive.com website for a complete list of supported platforms.

IBM i OS Version support The IBM i operating system version support for aXEs4.2.0 are V6R1M0 +.

On V6R1M0 the aXes Services HTTP server will not be available due to restrictions on the install

program, therefore users cannot take advantage of the new aXes Services HTTP Server or the

Connector functions on IBM i OS V6R1M0. Customer wishing to install those features must upgrade

to OS400 V7R1M1 and above.

Installer Options The IBM i installer for aXes 4.2.0 does not support the upgrade option any longer. The reason for

this is a limitation of the installer program containing the new web server. Customers who wish to

upgrade, are directed to use the Side-By-Side option and copy their projects and settings from the

previous version to the new instance.

2. New eXtensions

Signature pad This extension enables the addition of a signature panel on the screen which allows the user to store

digitally signatures on the IBM i server or download them as a PNG file.

Button Panel The button panel allow the developer to add a panel which can hold function keys and user defined

buttons on the screen.

LANSA Roadmap Timeline Let us start by having a look at what has been delivered in Q1 of 2019 so far (which is April to June)

that you can take advantage of today.

• Released in April 2019 - with LANSA Composer v7.0 (see separate article in this

newsletter).

• Visual LANSA Free Trial with latest fixes and enhancements as well updated Licensing for

Development to remove our dependency on 3rd party licensing.

• Enhancements to aXes product to support your Application Modernization initiatives (see

separate article in this newsletter).

• Coming soon in Q2 (which is between July and Sep of 2019 is an update to Visual LANSA

Framework in EPC142057, some of the key enhancements include:

o Log On Using Microsoft, Google or Facebook. You can enable the user to Log on

to VLF-ONE Applications via Microsoft, Google or Facebook.

o Use Google Translate in the Workbench. The VLF Workbench Can Now Use Google

Translate to dynamically translate Framework text strings.

o Quickly Create a 'Contact Us' Dialog. There is a New Common Activity to Create a

‘Contact Us’ Toolbar Option.

o Deployment Checker. You can use the Deployment Checker to produce a list of the

components used by your Framework.

o Create Your Own Instance List Toolbar.

o Collapse/Expand Filters. A new option to contract and expand filters is now

available.

• Also coming in Q2 is an App wizards and helpers to generate common application scenarios

to help you enhance your existing applications and build new applications quickly. Some of

the new views include Contact Us, Maps with one or more pins, Dashboard, Gallery of

Images, Launcher Menu, Attachments and Notes that can be associated with any SCRUD

application. These also serve as a great way to learn best practices with LANSA as well.

• Also coming in Q2 (which is between July and Sep of 2019) are Web services enhancements

to the current ability to publish REST API from server modules.

Key enhancements include Schema Support with RDML which greatly simplifies and reduces

code to manage and handle REST API inputs and outputs.

Security enhancements to support JWT Tokens when exposing REST API to the outside world

for integration purposes.

• In Q4 of 2019 which ends in March 2020, will be the release of Visual LANSA

Version 15 which will introduce a number of new capabilities to the LANSA platform

…

• Projects in the IDE to better organize and deploy your LANSA applications as part of

the overall DevOps process.

• Support for new validations rules within the Repository to validate your data by calling

REST APIs.

• Enable you to extend your VL-Web apps and build Progressive Web apps that leverage

latest browser capabilities to support richer user experiences and offline capabilities.

• Leverage HTML5 and CSS-based Flexbox Layout to build modern responsive web

applications without the need for complex Layout Management.

• Easy load and connect to existing data sources and import data from Spreadsheets.

• Automate build within the LANSA IDE as part of your Application Development

process.

• Enhancements to Material Design controls and ability to add events and notifications

to your applications.

New VLF version

We just released a new VLF (Visual LANSA Framework) version. It contains lots

of new features. This section outlines new features in the EPC142057 version of

the Framework.

Log On Using Microsoft, Google or Facebook

You can enable logging on to VLF-ONE applications via Microsoft, Google or Facebook by setting

the LogonHandlerId()parameter in your entry point web page (i.e. your version of web page

UF_OEXEC) to LogonHandlerId(“External=Microsoft”), LogonHandlerId(“External=Google”) or

LogonHandlerId(“External=Facebook”).

Use Google Translate in the Workbench

The multilingual prompt now allows dynamic translations.

For example, the hint of a business object:

Translates to:

To use the translate feature you need to have the LANSA Integration Services Library installed into

the partition.

You need to obtain a Google translate API key which needs to be inserted into the integration

services configuration lansa_libs.config file in the partition execute folder in the Google section:

The Closing of a Form Can Be Delayed

The Delay() parameter may be used to delay the close operation to allow already stacked or scoped

operations to completed first.

The value specified is in milliseconds. The default value is Delay(0). Values <= 0 mean no delay is

used.

Instance List Column Caption Set at Run Time

You can now set an instance list column’s caption at run time using

avListManager.avSetColumnCaption. For example: #AVLISTMANAGER.avSetColumnCaption Ucolumntype(V) Ucolumninstance(2) UCaption(‘ My new column heading’ )

will change the header of instance list column Visual ID2 to 'My new column heading'.

Note: Only the standard instance lists VF_UM040O and VF_UM044O will respond immediately. How

contact card style instance lists respond will depend on how they are coded.

Quickly Create a 'Contact Us' Dialog

The new Common Activity can be found here:

The resulting command handler looks like this example:

Enhanced Sample Assistance Panel

The Create an assistance panel common activity has been upgraded.

It now generates an example assistance panel that looks like this:

The generated code in the example panel needs to be adjusted to what is appropriate for the

customer.

GUID and UserObjectType in User Authority Model

The replaceable VLF-ONE authority model has been extended by the addition of the highlighted new

properties in the VF_SY188O object passed to the avCheckAuth method:

Note: To use these new properties you must (re)save your framework’s definition .DAT file on the

server.

Deployment Checker

You can now snap in a deployment checker reusable part.

The shipped example (UF_DPCHK) produces lists of the VLF-WIN and VLF-ONE components used by

your Framework. These lists could be included in your deployment or quick export.

When the deployment checker is snapped in, it is accessible from the tools menu of your VLF

developer workbench.

You could extend the shipped example to test your Framework for warning scenarios. For example

your deployment checker could test whether any business objects use filters but have no instance

level commands.

Create Your Own Instance List Toolbar

You can now replace the command buttons area above an instance list with your own visualization

and logic.

For example, here the area has been replaced by a big wide push button.

Keep Command Handler Maximized When Switching

This option is intended for VLF-WIN applications which have a button on a command handler that

switches the user to another command handler in the same business object. For these applications

only, there is a new avSwitch option to preserve any maximization of the command handler pane

during the switch.

Multilingual Captions in Instance List Columns

In instance list maintenance, when dragging in a field to be a new instance list column, the column

will receive the multilingual values from the field for all the languages defined in the Framework.

And similarly, when an instance list column is edited and changed to use Description/Label/Column

Heading, it will get all the relevant multilingual captions from the field.

Contract/Expand Filters

A new option to contract and expand the filter is activated when you add this line to the uInitialize

method of a filter:

#COM_OWNER.avAllowExpandContract := True

The new option is shown here circled in orange:

Reading huge JSON data in web service invocation

The XPRIM_JsonReader (and XPRIM_RandomAccessJsonReader), which is part of the RDMLX

Extended Library, does not perform well when reading large amount of JSON data, as it's an RDML

library, as opposed to a native VL feature.

Also, performance on the IBM i is definitely worse than on Windows.

If your web service invocation returns large JSON data, consider switching to the VL

native PRIM_JSON.Reader (note it's PRIM, not XPRIM).

As it's completely integrated and built-in to VL, PRIM_JSON.Reader performs much better. On

the IBM i, you can expect PRIM_JSON.Reader to run at least 20x faster than XPRIM_JsonReader.

Right now you would have to write the HTTP response first to a temporary file.

See code example below.

Define_Com Class(#PRIM_IOC.FileStream) Name(#FileStream)

Define_Com Class(#PRIM_IOC.StreamReader) Name(#TextReader) Stream(#FileStream)

Define_Com Class(#PRIM_JSON.Reader) Name(#JsonReader) TextReader(#TextReader)

Define_Com Class(#XPRIM_File) Name(#TempFile)

* Create empty temporary file

#TempFile.CreateTemporaryFile

* Save HTTP response to temporary file

#HttpRequest.Response.AsFile AutoDelete(True) Path(#TempFile)

* Do the reading using JsonReader

#FileStream.Path := #TempFile

Dowhile Cond(#JsonReader.Read)

* DO your stuff here

Endwhile

A couple of comments

• The RDML Extended Library (XPRIM components) was created so that new & experimental

features can be released faster to customers. Some components will, in due time, be made

into proper VL PRIMs (such as the JSON reader). The price to pay however is that

the XPRIM components (such as XPRIM_HttpRequest) are not interoperable with proper

VL PRIMs. For the time being, in order to read your HTTP responses using the native

PRIM_JSON.Reader, you would need to write the HTTP response to a temporary file first.

For simple HTTP request that does not return a huge amount of data, this could be an

unnecessary overhead, so keep this in mind before you change everything over to use the

native PRIM_JSON. Until we have a VL native PRIM_HttpRequest component, use native

PRIM_JSON only when you see a definite performance improvement.

• The native PRIM_JSON is provided as part of the publishing web services feature, and

the team is currently working hard on creating a set of guide and examples for publishing

web services, which should include documentation/samples on PRIM_JSON.

Please contact LANSA Support for more information on this, include also your question if

there are easier ways to extract the JSON without having to go through the tokens.

New License INSIDE THIS ISSUE · 2020. 1. 27. · as an option, due to Oracle Java SE compliance...

Documents

Transcript of New License INSIDE THIS ISSUE · 2020. 1. 27. · as an option, due to Oracle Java SE compliance...