Release 10.0.0

Owned by Tom Gibson (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Dec 01, 2023 by Anthony George
9 min read


Introduction

Following the success of the changes to the user interface in PhixFlow 9, Version 10 continues to improve usability and expand the capabilities of PhixFlow.  

For an overview of the enhancements provided in this release visit and take a look at the Improvements and New Features section in this document:

https://www.phixflow.com/platform/whats-new-in-phixflow-10/

Installing or Upgrading to PhixFlow Version 10.0.0

To install a new PhixFlow instance:

  1. Check System Requirements and Compatibility for details of the PhixFlow system requirements and update any dependencies. 
    1. Please email support@phixflow.com if you are planning to run PhixFlow 10.0.0 on an unsupported database version.
  2. Follow the instructions in Installing PhixFlow.

To upgrade an existing PhixFlow instance: 

  1. Check System Requirements and Compatibility for changes to the system requirements or supported database versions. For example, you may need to upgrade your database or Java version.
    1. Please email support@phixflow.com if you are planning to run PhixFlow 10.0.0 on an unsupported database version.
  2. Ensure you have a backup of the database before upgrading PhixFlow.

  3. Follow the Upgrading PhixFlow steps. It is important to complete Step 8, in which you apply any Special Upgrade Instructions for all the intermediate releases between your current version and the version to which you are upgrading.

  4. This release includes changes that affect the PhixFlow database. After upgrading, remember to republish the PhixFlow data as described in Step 10 of Upgrading PhixFlow

Upgrading Step 8: Special Upgrade Instructions

Create new PhixFlow configuration files

You must create a new version of the following configuration file in your <tomcat>/webapps/phixflow/WEB-INF/classes directory:

  1. phixflow-instance.xml

 To do this:

  1. Rename your existing configuration file, for example by adding a .bak suffix.

  2. Follow the Install the PhixFlow Webapp instructions for creating a new file from the ".example" files provided. 

  3. Copy the individual values from your existing configuration files and paste them into the new files.

    1. Avoid copying entire XML blocks into your new configuration files, as you may overwrite a section of the configuration file that PhixFlow requires.

Database Upgrader

Run the upgrader from the command line once you have run the migration scripts and taken a suitable backup of your PhixFlow Database:

  1. Open the command line tool as an administrator.
  2. Within the Version 10 installation directory navigate to the directory holding upgrader.jar.
    1. For example, \desktop\PhixFlow10\install\bin
  3.   Run the following command:
    1. java -jar upgrader.jar --upgrade --path=<tomcat>\webapps\phixflow\WEB-INF\classes
      1. Where <tomcat> is the location where tomcat is installed. 

JWT Token for API Authentication (Optional)

PhixFlow Version 10 supports incoming API access, this can be either anonymous or authenticated.  To use Authentication for an API coming into PhixFlow, a signing key is used to generate the PhixFlow API key and this is stored on the server to ensure secure access.

Using the page Configure a Keystore and Aliases, configure phixflow-api-key to be used as the signing key for PhixFlow API Keys in the same way as pepperKey is configured. This secret string must be a minimum of 32 bytes length. Full API details can be found on PhixFlow Incoming API.

Application Template Package (Optional)

To be able to use the new features in Version 10 it is recommended that you install the Serene Grey Template Package. See Installing Template Packages.

Schema Changes

Significant Schema changes are required for this release. Also see special installation instruction above.


Discontinued Features

The following are now deprecated/out of support:

DEV-3862 - 3D Pie Charts and 3D Bar Graphs have been deprecated. It is recommended that users switch to the Pie Chart and Bar Graph using the same setup.

Changes to Privileges

New Privileges

UseApiKey - is a new privilege that enables a user to generate an encrypted JWT token which is used to authenticate the user within a PhixFlow Web Hook (API into PhixFlow).

Privilege Changes

DEV-15283 - System Console is no longer visible for users without the required 'View System Console' permission.


A number of privilege changes were introduced in Version 9, if you have migrated from a Version 8 release it is recommended that you review the Changes to Privileges section of this page: Release 9.0.0 

Improvements and New Features

Performance

DEV-15281 - Import performance has been improved. Configuration import, and related copy functions now create audit records in the background so these records may continue to be created after the import has been completed.

Common Features

DEV-8521 - It is now possible to filter on the action summary column of audit summary and audit detail grids.
DEV-12984 - It is now possible to export from the audit summary tab.
DEV-13005 - StreamItemId and supercededDtm is now added to default views.
DEV-13267 - Two new functions have been added to support base64: base64Encode(string, [format]) and base64Decode[string, [format]).
DEV-13348 - Tab headers are no longer displayed for the 4 key areas of PhixFlow as they can be directly accessible via the header menu.
DEV-13553 - Added "Max Duration" to task plan under "advanced". value must be blank or a positive integer. When a value is entered the task plan will be automatically cancelled after running for a number of minutes equal to the max duration. Added "Earliest start" and "Latest end" to task plan under "advanced". value must be in the format hh:mm e.g. 06:30. If one is set then the other must be set as well. When both are set the task plan can only be run after the start time and will end automatically at the end time if still running. 
DEV-13926 - Support for namespaces added to the XMLtoItems attribute function.
DEV-14525 - Enhancement to allow a single Task Plan to contain both analysis and rollback tasks. This supports the scenario where a rollback is required before an analysis is executed.
DEV-15042 - Task Plans can now contain a mix of Actionflow tasks and other tasks.
DEV-15243 - Macros now have access to _out, _inputMultiplier and _outputMultiplier.

Administration

DEV-13398 - External User Group Mapping Prefix field was added into the System Configuration. This changes the {mappingValue} variable with user group name if the user enters {mappingValue} variable to the External Login Groups field in the User Group.
DEV-13916 - The installer now includes options to report and repair data integrity issues in the PhixFlow configuration data. The installer now prompts for missing password and for confirmation before overwriting existing data.

Applications

None

ERD

DEV-15664 - It is now possible in ERD diagrams to select multiple tables using ctrl.

Workflow

None

Screens

DEV-9923 - Users can now add a style directly from the editor for a grid attribute.DEV-13840 - It is now possible to set View Attributes to display grid cells as HTML.
DEV-13989 - Configuration selection drop downs have been updated to now indicate the container (application or package) for each entry. E.g. when selecting Styles, Tables, etc you can now identify different items with the same name by the container they are in.
DEV-14482 - There is a new 'Copy selected records to the clipboard' right-click option for grids which allows users to copy data and paste it into Microsoft Excel.
DEV-14503 - Form Field Templates can now contain multiple input fields with different names.
DEV-14684 - Pressing the enter key when typing in a single-line string field on a screen will trigger the OnChange and form data change events. An example use case for this change is the ability to type in a search field and press enter which will cause the search criteria to apply to a filter and refresh the screen.
DEV-15052 - With the new relation view changes it is no longer necessary for Card Containers to have a View to present data. Existing Card Containers will maintain their views until they are removed and new Card Containers no longer support views. 
DEV-15893 - Quick filters on grids in property editors are not case sensitive by default.

Actionflows

DEV-12943 - Save actions and View actions now pass through all attributes of the input record.
DEV-13524 - Gateway nodes now have a glyph to indicate if the gateway is inclusive or exclusive.
DEV-14286 - Actionflows are now included as an entry on the homepage and main menu bar.
DEV-14291 - Added "use raw url" to HTTP collectors and HTTP exporters. When ticked the URL will not have any escaped characters decoded, the URL is used in its raw form.
DEV-14784 - Added the ability to create a new Screen on the Open Screen action creation window.

Analysis Models

DEV-8554 - The "Email From" field on file exporters now allows expressions.
DEV-8810 - Added "Default Datasource Instance" to datasource, this will be used for the "find tables" option if there is more than one instance.
DEV-12051 - It is now possible to mark a pipe in an analysis model as an 'action' pipe. A new view option allows showing all pipes, only action pipes or analysis view (non-action pipes).
DEV-12986 - Users can now create a screen directly from a table in an analysis model by selecting 'Create Screen' when right clicking on a table.
DEV-13368 - Users can now view the database table name and database column name for tables and table attributes in their respective repository detail views.

Bug Fixes

Performance

DEV-14346 - Improved performance where lists of tables are loaded in the GUI.

Common Features

DEV-11508 - Fixed issue whereby deleting a View, View Action or Component used to leave some internal configuration data behind.
DEV-12221 - Improved display of audit summaries for pipes to include more context and have an improved layout.
DEV-14646 - You can now refer to pipe names as the default value of a switch statement.
DEV-14661 - It is now possible to add Validation Types to Configuration Export Tasks.
DEV-14727 - Dragging a task from one task pane to another is now supported.
DEV-14824 - Table Actions and Tables are now ordered alphabetically in the repository.
DEV-14900 - Actionflows will now no longer occasionally show as "Action" in the console log files.
DEV-14914 - Fixed incorrect type-conversion check on order-by fields.
DEV-14932 - Analysis tasks run from Actionflows will now include the name of the action in the log message.
DEV-15056 - Copying a Screen now also copies referenced Components.
DEV-15221 - Audit Summaries will no longer sometimes be marked as system instead of the user who made the change.
DEV-15475 - Resolved issue where exporting selected items from a filtered table wouldn't always work.
DEV-15669 - Selecting a record in the active tasks section of the system console will now show its messages in the lower grid.
DEV-15687 - Upgrade jQuery library to 3.7.0.

Administration

DEV-13050 - Where an object's visibility is controlled by a list of User Groups and an 'All Users can View' switch, the list of Groups is now cleared if 'All Users can View' is set to true. Prior to this change, the hidden list of User Groups could cause complications when exporting/importing. This change applies to Applications, Screens, Filters, Tables, Table Attributes, Views, View Order and Layout Components.
DEV-13827 - PhixFlow now supports displaying Unicode characters in users names.

Applications

DEV-14791 - Changing applications will no longer cause the "all users can view data" field to be set to an invalid value.
DEV-15722 - When copying or importing, user groups no longer maintain their associations with users that exist in the target instance.

ERD

None

Workflow

None

Screens

DEV-13160 - Rearranged the action tab of the button property editor so that mutually exclusive action types and action methods will no longer show together.
DEV-13171 - Fixed multiple issues related to changing fields templates.
DEV-14394 - Cards now correctly evaluate formatting rules and refresh after driving views change selection.
DEV-14406 - Improved performance of the screen creation process.
DEV-14647 - Fixed problem with views refreshing in an incorrect order.
DEV-14859 - Read-only flag now correctly applies to inner form components.
DEV-15207 - Outer area now correctly calculates Formatting Rules after upgrading its properties.
DEV-15704 - Driven components (cards, grids) are optimized not to refresh whilst screen is still loading.
DEV-15705 - Improved performance of dragging components when screen building.
DEV-15771 - Drop Downs now correctly apply Formatting Rules.
DEV-15850 - Dragging an item onto a form from the layers view will no longer create a copy and will now move the item.
DEV-15901 - Double clicking a button no longer incorrectly opens the same screen twice.
DEV-15923 - Fixed an error when creating a foreign key dropdown when the attribute type is decimal.
DEV-15948 - Selecting a value in a dropdown will cause any grids it drives to refresh.

Actionflows

DEV-12387 - Save Actions that are marked as "Insert" or "Auto insert / update" no longer need the primary key attribute to be mapped.
DEV-14176 - Calculate Action Attributes will now correctly record their audit detail.
DEV-14382 - Setting Cards as Drop Targets now works correctly for Action Flows.
DEV-14496 - Deleting the currently selected action phase will now default to selecting the first phase remaining.
DEV-14568 - Error messages evaluating expression for action attributes will now include the action name and the attribute name.
DEV-14585 - Confirmation buttons which are not wired to an output Action Phase will no longer cause the action spinner to stay perpetually.
DEV-14588 - Improved Action-flow error handling.
DEV-14595 - Toggling "Close parent screen" or "hide loading spinner" for an actionflow will no longer cause the input / output points to move.
DEV-14610 - You can no longer have two action connection points on the same action with the same name.
DEV-14688 - Actionflows will now correctly close the in progress spinner upon completion.
DEV-15066 - The parameters section of actionflow action editors has been renamed as Input Parameters and moved above the Output Attributes.
DEV-15285 - Fixed not being able to connect from some types of action nodes directly to the actionflow's output connection points.
DEV-15411 - Renamed "Returned Attributes" on action connection points to "Input Parameters".
DEV-15446 - Having two save actions on the same audited table will no longer cause the action to fail.

Analysis Models

DEV-13386 - Fixed analysis lookup pipes using an exact match index and group-by unticked failed with an internal error.
DEV-14567 - Expression related error messages will now include the expression's source.
DEV-14985 - Fixed multiple problems with Table Actions created from the Full Repository.
DEV-15051 - Fix invalid warnings of missing objects when importing configuration data.
DEV-15657 - Fixed problem with dragging items from the Repository when multiple Repository tabs are open.
DEV-15917 - Fixed issue where a lookup pipe in a Table Record Action returned the same results for all records updated; now the pipe filter conditions are correctly re-evaluated for each record updated. Note that the problem did not happen when an explicit lookup() function was used.