Release Notes 2.3.2

Introduction

Version 2.3.2 is an early release version of AppBoard that was released as a GA candidate on November 14, 2012. This page summarizes the New Features, Resolved Issues, and Known Issues in that release.

What is AppBoard

AppBoard is a data integration and data visualization platform that dramatically redefines the cost/benefit equation for the development and deployment of real-time business systems dashboards. AppBoard allows you to connect, integrate, visualize, and interact with your data in a simple, straight-forward builder environment. The end result is powerful, compelling dashboards that summarize data from multiple sources and can be accessed from any device.

New Features

This section describes the enhancements to AppBoard that are currently slated for version 2.3.2.

• The Topology Widget was completely replaced and re-written. It includes many new features and capabilities. (1541)
• AppBoard configuration details, which were previously managed in stacks.xml, are now persisted in the AppBoard database. Notes:
  • Startup: The first time you start the system, stacks.xml will be processed and any config records read in will be written to the database. During this process, stacks.xml will be renamed so that it will not be re-loaded on a restart of Appboard. Note: This could create an issue if for some reason the file permissions do not allow the file to be re-named. If this issue occurs, the system will log an error in appboard.log.
  • Export/Backup: Stacks.xml will be archived on export and packaged in the archive-YYYYMMDD-hhmmss.jar. Note: Since stacks.xml or other config files will be reloaded on restart, the system will rename stacks.xml after the export finishes. It may be better to delete the file to keep from causing any confusion.
  • Writes/Updates: When config changes are made on the client, they are made to the database immediately. In the past, these changes were pushed to the map of records and saved on shutdown or each time the system timer was activated (30 second intervals).
  • Backups: There is a timer that will back up Stack configuration details to the local file system on the AppBoard server every 2 hours, if there were any changes made during the most recent 2-hour period.
• A new "Change Type" button is provided on the Widgets Administration panel. A list of Widget Types is provided, and the Widget is changed to the new type that is selected. Depending on the types of Widgets, the name of the Data Collection may be retained by the new widget. The updated Widget will need to be re-configured, but all of the Options and Actions are retained from the previous Widget. The previous Widget's configuration is saved, so that swapping back later to the prior widget type will automatically re-capture that configuration. (1853)
• Created a new Data Source adapter called "Shell Command" that will run a shell command and parse the results as a new entity. (1894)
• Enhanced the Line Chart Widget:
  • Allow the Widget builder to configure an icon or symbol to represent data points. A different symbol can be used for each line on the chart. (1597)
  • Provide the ability for the Widget builder to set line styles of "solid", "dashed", "dotted", or "none". (1598)
• Enhanced Chart Widgets, for accessibility, to allow Widget builder to apply patterns to colored regions of charts in addition to supporting colors. (1877)
• Enhanced the Marquee Widget to include the following options: (1291)
  • Set the speed of the scrolling text
  • Set the background and foreground colors (including alpha)
  • Allow for column name to be included in the displayed text
• Provide a button in the Data Source screen to copy a selected Data Source (with all settings) to a new name and immediately enter the wizard to configure the new Data Source. (1854)
• Provide a system for generally configuring mouseover datatips. Enhancements include the following: (1741)
  • Control over which columns in the Data Collection are displayed
  • Ordering of fields
  • Ability to control the labeling of the field
  • Added a framework to allow Widgets and Actions to declare support for mouse over events
  • Added a "Show Data Tip" hover over action
  • Added a date formatter
  • Added the ability to show "widget generated data tips"
  • Note: now that there are separate actions on mouse click and mouse over, you may have to manually add the actions for mouse over that were default in version 2.2.
• Enhanced drag and drop capabilities in configuration panels for Chart Widgets: (1939)
  • Created new class (DraggableDataGrid) that can be used when re-ordering is needed in Widget configuration UIs
  • Updated configuration panels for the following Widgets to use the new data grid that supports Drag and Drop:
    • Area
    • Bar
    • Bubble
    • Column
    • HLOC
    • Line
    • Scatter
• Enhanced drag and drop capabilities in configuration panels for rule builder UIs: (1942)
  • Created new class (DraggableList) that can be used when re-ordering is needed in rule builder configuration UIs
  • Updated configuration panels for the following rule builders to provide drag and drop via the top left corner of the item:
    • Icon Filter Rules
    • Color Rules
    • Colored Shape Rules
    • SubQuery: Sort
• Updated the default values in list Widgets (Status List, Icon List, and Advanced Status List) to the following more typical selections: (1948)
  • Layout = Vertical
  • Label Orientation = Right
  • Default Status Color = Grey
• Streamlined UI controls on template screens to match the style of other managers. (1937)
• Added custom directories in the default installation. These directories indicate the file locations that will be preserved when upgrading AppBoard to future versions. All customer customization files should be saved in one of these custom directories that are provided, whenever possible. (1606)
• Improved the efficiency of writing to the server when changes to an element are detected, and at system start-up. When elements are accessed, AppBoard will check for changes and only trigger a save when there is an actual change to the element. (1944)
• Enhanced management of Data Collections (1991):
  • After Data Collections are deleted, they are no longer listed in pull-down lists of Data Collections.
  • After Data Collections are deleted, they are no longer displayed.
  • New "Status" indicator confirms the state of the Data Source being used in a Data Collection.
  • When deleting a Data Source that is used in a Data Collection, a warning message is provided.
• Added a "safemode" feature which can be used when an error in a Widget on the primary Stack prevents the administrator from being able to fix the error. The special URL http://servername:port/enportal/ab/#safeMode= will temporarily turn off the visibility of all Stacks until the issue can be repaired or the offending Widget can be removed. (2039)
• Enhancements to the Twitter Data Source:
  • Expanded wizard to provide additional fields for narrowing down the application of the search, using Twitter's API. (2043)
  • Added cache timeout setting to provide additional configuration to work with Twitter's server limits. (1555)
• In the Data Source Wizard "Explore" screen, added options for "Publish All" and "Unpublish All", to assist with Data Sources that have numerous fields to be considered. (319, 823)
• When the Show Record Details Action is used, enhanced the display of long data elements to be fully displayed and not truncated. (2007)
• Improved the length and presentation of Data Collection drop-down listings, to show more items in the list and indicate the current status of the Data Collections. (2049)
• Upgraded the color picker component provided on several of the configuration screens to use the expanded color palette that was already being provided in other contexts. (2041)
• Added a "Banner Role Label" setting in the Theme Editor. If set to 0.0, the Role name for the current user will only be shown in the AppBoard banner when the current User has more than one Role. If set to 1.0, the Role name for the current user will always be shown, regardless of how many Roles the User has. A Role chooser is always provided for Users with more than one Role. The default value for Banner Role Label is 0.0.(1690)
• Added several icons to the available library in /server/webapps/enportal/visualizer/assets/icons/256x/, for use in various icon Widgets: (1481)
  • Biohazard
  • Blocked
  • Blocked Virus
  • Bomb
  • Fingerprint
  • Flame
  • RadioActive
  • Medic
  • Safe
  • Scan
  • Target 01
  • Target 02
  • Worm
  • Air Force
  • AH-64 Apache Helicopter
  • Army
  • F16 Fighter Jet
  • Infantry
  • M1 Abrams
  • Marine Corp
  • Navy
  • Ship
  • Drone
  • Headquarters
  • M16
• Improved the usability of the Action configuration screens: (972)
  • Implemented a maximize option, that allows for more space to be provided for managing configurations.
  • Implemented an additional expand/collapse feature on the list items
• Enhanced the naming of archive (backup) files to indicate the type of archive:
  • Backup All - archive-YYYYMMDD-hhmmss-all.jar
  • Backup AppBoard - archive-YYYYMMDD-hhmmss-appboard.jar
  • Backup portal - archive-YYYYMMDD-hhmmss-portal.jar
• Added code to perform type conversions, so associations will work, when possible, between fields of different types. (1872)

Resolved Issues

This section describes the resolved issues that are currently slated for AppBoard version 2.3.2.

• Fixed an issue in the Comments Widget so that polling will only occur when the Widget is visible. Also, corrected an issue to stop polling when the Stack containing the Widget is deleted. (1751)
• Fixed several issues related to deploying Stack Templates: (1615)
  • Issue where the "Stack Templates" dialog did not show a newly selected template until the browser was refreshed.
  • Issue where the client will sometimes crash after clicking "Deploy Selected", with the error "Cannot save an incomplete object".
  • Issue where the interface would allow the user to select files with unsupported file types.
• Fixed an issue in the Google Map Widget and Web Widget. When viewing a DataTip from a hover action in an adjacent Widget, the DataTip extending over could cause the map or web content to disappear. The data tip now attempts to place itself around the mouse pointer, but not over an iframe widget, whenever possible. (1909)
• Fixed an issue where attempting to swipe select text from an input field in a rule builder would instantiate a drag action for the list item, causing the builder to crash if values are null. (909)
• Fixed issue in Status List Widget and Icon List Widget where the Widgets were not displaying custom color and alpha settings for "Selected List Item Colors" made in the theme editor. The color was displaying correctly in the Preview, but not in the Widget itself. (1897)
• Added scroll bars, internal to AppBoard, at the board level. This resolves issues with complex layouts getting cropped at AppBoard's minimum resolution. (1551)
• Fixed an issue in the Basic Table Widget where the data format preview was difficult to read, when customizing the date renderer options for fields of Date types. (1811)
• Eliminated an issue in the Line Chart Widget where a tooltip could truncate or abbreviate the x-axis label so that it would not make sense. (1815)
• Fixed an issue where Users were not being locked out after exceeding the number of permitted login attempts in the Password Policy configuration. (1492)
• Fixed an issue in the Column Chart Widget where some data sources cause the chart to fail with an Error #1502: "A script has executed for longer than the default timeout period of 15 seconds". (1971)
• Fixed an issue in recent AppBoard 2.2 builds where charts were not loading in some Widgets when viewed on mobile devices. (1974)
• Removed the "Clustered" Series Type option from the Area Chart Widget, as this is not a relevant option for this type of Widget. (1623)
• Removed the "Property Comparison Filter" option from the Data Collection filtering Actions. (2045)
• Fixed an issue in the Twitter Data Source configuration where search terms including quotes were not handled properly. (2037)
• Fixed two items related to managing Actions on Widgets: (1916)
  • Corrected an issue where, after deleting an Action, the remaining list of visible Actions was not correct.
  • Corrected an issue where, when trying to edit the mouse-hover Actions, AppBoard was not showing the correct Action properties.
• Fixed two issues with the Write Static Value Action:
  • Fixed an issue where an error message was presented in the client after the value was written to the data source. (1634)
  • Fixed an issue where the data source was being deleted, except for the record being updated by the Action. (1361)
• Cleaned up the deletion of Data Sources so that a deleted Data Source is no longer listed as an available Data Source in the choosers on various screens, unless the given component was previously explicitly configured to use that Data Source. (2030)
• Fixed issue that when the Animation Duration chart option is set in the current theme and a filter is applied in a Pie Chart Widget, the colors were not shown in the legend. (1852)
• Corrected orientation of labels along the Y axis of Chart Widgets to read from bottom to top, not top to bottom. (1060)
• Fixed an issue where the "Add Role" dialog was being partially obscured by the edge of the display area. (1380)
• Removed the "CompareDataCollectionContextFilterRule" option for configuring Widget filter Actions, as the need for this option is replaced by the functionality of other rules. (2092)
• Turned off the ability to re-size columns in the Table Widget preview, eliminating the impression that the preview column size setting is retained in the live Widget. (1468)
• Fixed the Tree Map Widget so that after updating color filter rules a browser refresh is not required for the change to be applied.(2070)

Known Issues

This section describes the known issues in AppBoard version 2.3.2.

• Certain database drivers that were bundled with previous versions of Appboard are no longer included. The user would need to download the driver and save into [AppBoard_Home]/server/webapps/enportal/WEB-INF/lib/. For example, to use MySQL you would need to download the JDBC driver file (such as mysql-connector-java-5.1.19.jar) and save in the /lib/ directory. The error message indicating a missing driver would be "Please install missing [drivertype] Driver" on the screen and in Appboard.log. (1926)
• When using a "Widget Comparison" filter while Switching to a Board with a Server-side Filter Action, with Bundled Actions, the queries do not fire and only the Switch To Board Action is performed, leaving the data showing what was last queried by the previous selection.
• You can create a context between a Widget and a Board by using the "Add Board" option in the "Launch A Board" Action. There is not currently a way to view or edit this contextual association between the Widget and the new Board.
• Issues with Advanced Table Widget:
  • Clicking column labels to sort in an Advanced Table Widget can cause the browser to freeze in some situations
  • Using the Advanced Table Widget for grouping with large data sets may cause performance issues
• In the Google Map Widget, all of the Symbols/Badges will appear above the Status Shapes. If you have enough clustered together, it looks mashed together.
• MySQL has a configuration option for case-sensitive table names, which is recognized by AppBoard. There can be inconsistency when switching between MySQL back-end databases if the databases have the same tables but different case used in the table names.
• In the Google Map Widget, in some cases there are issues updating the display when the underlying data changes after the initial map draw. This behavior can vary, depending on the browser and map configuration. (2157) (1988)

Contact Information

For questions or assistance with this release of AppBoard, please see the support page for contact information.