June 2024 - Dashboard Release Notes

 

Table of Content Key

  • Customer Requested tickets are highlighted with this icon

 

Notifications

Below are key notifications to be aware of before upgrading your dashboard.;

  • This release changes our supported version of Java, from v8 to v11. This will not affect people using container deployments or Windows, however Linux users should take note of the change. The JDK/JRE on the system being used by the Dashboard should be updated to a v11 version. Upcoming build changes will break any installations still using Java 8.

  • The available languages file for i18n which previously required maintenance for language additions has been removed, and the languages available are now populated automatically.

  • This release contains no Schema changes.


NEW FEATURES

 

Editable Tables - New HTTP Method To Send ALL Rows Of Data In A Single JSON Request

pi#2377

30872 & 31127

Editable Tables - New HTTP Method To Send ALL Rows Of Data In A Single JSON Request

pi#2377

30872 & 31127

A new HTTP Method for Editable Tables has been added that will send all rows of data when submitting an Editable Table update rather than only those rows that have been edited.

Note:

  • The data that is sent for each row is still determined by the ‘Call Parameters’ you have set up in the ‘Editable Settings’ tab. If you want this method to send all columns of the table then each of them will need a corresponding ‘Call Parameter’

  • The visual feedback when using this method has been kept consistent with the other methods in that only the changed rows will be highlighted / included in the counts

  • The read-timeout for this and the POST (JSON) HTTP method has been increased to 30s

 

 

Multilingual / Languages - i18n Improvements

pi#2392

29804

Multilingual / Languages - i18n Improvements

pi#2392

29804

Retrieval of userEntered strings i18n files is now done via a direct download in the end-user (admin only) browser. This means server access is not required to get access to the content. In addition, uploads of these and other supported i18n files can now be done directly from the browser. To upload a file it must be one of the supported filenames;

 

  • messagesStatic_en_GB.properties (for static system strings)

  • messagesUserEntered_en_GB.properties (for strings a user has entered into the Dashboard)

  • messagesData_en_GB.properties (for user data items that you wish to be translated)

 

image-20240613-071424.png
image-20240613-071300.png

 

 

Security - Allow Users To Configure Ciphers

pi#2280

29708 & 29709

Security / Cipher

Security - Allow Users To Configure Ciphers

pi#2280

29708 & 29709

Security / Cipher

An option has been added to allow the list of Ciphers to be configurable. A new option has been added to the Configuration Tool GUI, allowing users to specify a list of ciphers they wish to use; otherwise, the default cipher list will be utilised.

The new ciphers option can be found under the ‘Security’ tab, within the ‘Advanced’ section as shown below;

 

In addition to the Configuration Tool GUI method, Ciphers can also be configured through a new environment variables - PI_TOMCAT_CIPHERS. For more information on Environment Variables, see HERE.

 

 

 

Environment Variables - Configure eMail (SMTP) and Dashboard Module Settings

pi#2392

29804

Environment Variables - Configure eMail (SMTP) and Dashboard Module Settings

pi#2392

29804

It is now possible to set the email and modules global settings via environment variables (as well as from within the Configuration Tool GUI). When set it will disable the ability to set them via the product user interface. The following new variables have been added;

For more information on Environment Variables, see HERE.

 

 

HTTPS Certificate Chain - Allow Users To Configure

pi#2424

29708 & 29709

Configuration / Environment Variables

HTTPS Certificate Chain - Allow Users To Configure

pi#2424

29708 & 29709

Configuration / Environment Variables

An option has been added to allow users to define an optional HTTPS Certificate Chain. The path to HTTPS Certificate Chain can be configured through the new environment variable - PI_TOMCAT_HTTPS_CERT_CHAIN. The option to configure the path has also been added to Configuration Tool GUI - it can be found under Tomcat > HTTPS:

 

 

 

Category Object - Label Name

pi#1244

25472 & 20620

Category Objects

Category Object - Label Name

pi#1244

25472 & 20620

Category Objects

Added the ability to set a label for Category Objects. If set, this value will replace the name shown to the end-user when browsing the Dashboard.

 

 

CHANGES

 

Horizontal Scroll Bars - Unnecessary Appearance On Tables - Having Already Zoomed In

pi#2423

29732

Data Tables

Horizontal Scroll Bars - Unnecessary Appearance On Tables - Having Already Zoomed In

pi#2423

29732

Data Tables

Addressed another Edge case where unwanted horizontal scroll bars appeared on tables. If you are already zoomed in on the web page, and then load the Category, occasionally, additional scroll bars would appear towards the bottom of the table, and partially overlay across data.

 

 

Performance - Impacted When Using Externally Stored Images In Themes

pi#2331

25359 & 28844

Performance / Themes

Performance - Impacted When Using Externally Stored Images In Themes

pi#2331

25359 & 28844

Performance / Themes

When using externally hosted images in themes, performance was sometimes impacted due to an occasional rises in high memory usage.

 

 

Password - Unable To Change Mandatory Password When Licence Had Expired

pi#2422

-

Password

Password - Unable To Change Mandatory Password When Licence Had Expired

pi#2422

-

Password

Changing password as part of the mandatory post-login flow was previously not possible, when your licence had expired.

 

 

Category Objects - Unable To Filter Solely On NULL (When Using Multi-Select Category Object Filter Types)

pi#2394

26598

Category Objects

Category Objects - Unable To Filter Solely On NULL (When Using Multi-Select Category Object Filter Types)

pi#2394

26598

Category Objects

Previously, if users selected NULL as the only filter value for a multi-select filter type Category Object (multi-picker, checkboxes), the SQL generated would result in no data being returned rather than using NULL as the filtering criteria.

 

 

PDF Export - Footers Not Appearing (In Landscape Mode)

pi#2397

30597

PDF Exports

PDF Export - Footers Not Appearing (In Landscape Mode)

pi#2397

30597

PDF Exports

An upgrade of the Puppeteer library has resolved an issue whereby the footers was disappearing from PDF exports when defined in landscape mode.

 

 

Save Button - Disappearing When Creating A New Password Protected Chart

pi#2400

29799, 30476, 30585 & 31851

Save Button - Disappearing When Creating A New Password Protected Chart

pi#2400

29799, 30476, 30585 & 31851

Resolved an issue with the save icon disappearing from the UI when attempting to add ‘Write’ protection to a chart, which did not previously have a password protection defined.

 

 

Redis - Session State For Session Storage

pi#2348

29803

Open ID Connect

Redis - Session State For Session Storage

pi#2348

29803

Open ID Connect

The session was previously used to store temporary nonce values used as part of the OpenID Connect login flow. These values have been moved to the database to reduce the data stored in the session and resolve an issue which occurred when using Redis for session storage.

 

 

Database Migration - Unexpected Migration Being Applied (In Exceptional Circumstances)

migrations-jar#54

-

Migrations

Database Migration - Unexpected Migration Being Applied (In Exceptional Circumstances)

migrations-jar#54

-

Migrations

In exceptional circumstances, when there is an issue with the database connection and the application was restarted at the same time, one of the old migration scripts could have run when it should not and could potentially cause data loss.

 

 

Library Upgrade - Java v11

dashboard-deployment#83

-

3rd Party Library / Components

Library Upgrade - Java v11

dashboard-deployment#83

-

3rd Party Library / Components

The Java library has been upgraded from v8 to v11. Windows and Docker environments will include a newer version of Java so there will be no change required.

 

 

Library Upgrade - Puppeteer v21.10.0

pi#2397

30597

3rd Party Library / Components

Library Upgrade - Puppeteer v21.10.0

pi#2397

30597

3rd Party Library / Components

The Puppeteer library has been upgraded to v21.10.0, which also includes a Chromium upgrade to v121.0.6167.85.

 

 

Library Upgrade - Angular v5.2.11

pi#2450

-

Library Upgrade - Angular v5.2.11

pi#2450

-

The Angular library has been upgraded to v5.2.11, to benefit from improvements in more recent versions.

 

 

Logging - Improved Renderer Error Capture (Browser Console Errors)

renderer#114

-

Observability / Logging

Logging - Improved Renderer Error Capture (Browser Console Errors)

renderer#114

-

Observability / Logging

When the Renderer is operational, should the browser console generate errors, these will now be logged in the standard renderer log files to allow for fuller log file analysis.

 

 

 

Merged Charts - Showing Incorrectly When A Donor Chart Measures Is Cumulative

pi#2393

29807

Merged Charts

Merged Charts - Showing Incorrectly When A Donor Chart Measures Is Cumulative

pi#2393

29807

Merged Charts

Previously when creating a merged chart, where one of the donor charts included a cumulative measure this returned an inaccurate view in the final merged chart.

 

Schedule Indicator - Not Always Visible on Schedule Editor Screen

pi#2351

28609

Schedule Editor

Schedule Indicator - Not Always Visible on Schedule Editor Screen

pi#2351

28609

Schedule Editor

Previously, the schedule indicator icon would not be visible on the schedule editor screen when the schedule’s name was very long. Now, the indicator always shows.

Multilingual / Languages - Export Language Files Directly To The Browser

pi#2269

28134, 29607

Language Files

Multilingual / Languages - Export Language Files Directly To The Browser

pi#2269

28134, 29607

Language Files

Previously, when downloading a generated language file, it would appearing within the dashboard’s file system. Now, it downloads directly to the browser.