We recommend that you read the information below before you begin.

Automatic Upgrade for Live Forms Online (Cloud Hosted) Customers

Live Forms Online cloud hosted customers will be automatically upgraded on TBD. The automatic cloud upgrade will be seamless. Cloud customers should review these topics to prepare for the new version of .

•  Migration Considerations for Cloud and In-house Customers   

If you have any questions, please email support@frevvo.com.

Migration Considerations for Cloud and In-house Customers  

Message, Link, Image and Form Viewer Controls have new Save Value property

The following controls  (Message, Link, Image and Form Viewer) now have a Save Value property. This property controls several behaviors:

• whether the control's value appears in the  form/flow submission document 
• whether you can use it in an Optional Section
  
• whether or not you can use it in a business rule

Save Value will be unchecked (default) for new Message, Link, Image or Form Viewer controls added to your form/flow. It will be checked for all output type controls upgraded from a previous release version in order to preserve existing functionality. Re-instantiating a submission that has a message control will restore the value/text of the message control only if Save Value was checked for it and it was in the submission document.

Message and Link Controls and Business Rules

The Message and Link controls still support the "value" property. All existing rules will work unchanged. Note the Save Value property must be checked for there to be a value and have is accessible in a rule.

Message Controls in Repeats

Message controls can now be dropped into a Repeat control.

Message Control Changes

Message Controls and Optional Sections

If the Save Value property is unchecked, Message controls can now be included inside a section control. If this section control is referenced in a business rule that changes the sections properties (optional section) you will no longer be prevented from submitting the form or completing the flow.

Rich Text Editor Toggle

Message Controls now have a toggle to turn on the Rich Text Editor. Type HTML and message text directly into the Message property. If you need further formatting options, slide the Rich Text toggle  to the right to turn it on. You may notice that the Source tab has been removed from the editor. Slide the Rich Text toggle  to the left to turn it off.

Templates

Templates can now be included in Message controls.

Save and Test

The save and test feature reduces development time by allowing forms/flows, business rules and mapped PDFs to be tested without leaving the designers. Designers will be immediately notified if Rule or PDF precondition errors are found. Modifications needed after testing can be quickly addressed since you will still be in the designers once you close the popup window. This is particularly helpful when building, troubleshooting, and testing forms, business rules and mapped PDFs.

Click the save and test icon from the form/flow canvases, PDF mapping or Rule Editor screens. When you click the icon your form/flow is saved in the background, and the Live Forms Test popup window displays reflecting the newly saved version of your form/flow

Refer to the Testing Forms and  Testing Flows topics for more information about this awesome enhancement.

Precondition Rule Builder

Preconditions are typically used in workflows to perform/skip a step based on control values in prior flow steps. They can also be used to generate/not generate mapped PDFs. Preconditions use the same logic as Business Rules. In previous releases, designers had to type the JavaScript in the Precondition property of the workflow step or when setting up mapped PDFs. A modified version of the Visual Rule Builder is now available in v7.3 as a Precondition Rule Builder to help designers with preconditions. The Editor can be invoked in two modes:rule builder mode and code entry mode. Selecting the rule builder mode presents the editor where you can build your precondition statement by selecting form fields and conditions from dropdown lists. Of course, you can still enter the JavaScript manually in code entry mode. Refer to the Precondition topic for all the details.

Flows migrated from earlier versions (or uploaded) will have all existing preconditions shown in code entry mode with the manually entered code displayed. This also applies to PDFs with preconditions for migrated forms and flows.

This awesome enhancement in conjunction with improved error messages associated with this feature will significantly reduce the time spent troubleshooting workflows and PDF preconditions.

Space Menu Items and Relative URLs

New Space menu items are created using URLs relative to the application root, i.e. /frevvo/web/… Relative URLs help with forms/flow portability i.e. creating Spaces on your production and development servers. URLs in existing Spaces will not change after upgrade.

Dynamic Options - Zero Code

Static Checkbox, Radio and Dropdown selection control options can be typed into the Options property in the form/flow designers. You can now populate Dynamic Options for Dropdowns, Radios, Checboxes and the ComboBox from a web service such as the frevvo Database Connector using control properties. The frevvo Database Connectorextract the values returned from the service

The Dynamic Options feature is now available to configure these selection controls to pull values from a Rest Web Service and dynamically populate the options without the need to write a business rule.The designer need only provide the:

• URL to the REST Web Service with any parameters and mappings that the service requires
• Value and Label path(s) to retrieve the value to be included in the submission and the label the users see from the web service results.

The image shows a Dropdown control named Customer that populates the options from the JSON results of a query run on a database using the frevvo Database Connector (REST service) to obtain a list of customers. Refer to the Dynamic Options topic for the details.

Enhanced ComboBox Control

The functionality of the ComboBox control has been enhanced. An Options Src property has been added to the ComboBox control. This control can now be used to:

• Generate lists of users and roles from your current tenant.The designer no longer has to manually provide the tenant in the Options Src property.
• Retrieve values from a Restful Web Service using control properties to populate the ComboBox Options. Users can now typeahead and the options will change to match the entered text.
  
• Retrieve values from your database via the frevvo Database Connector
  
• Use new properties to set options from a business rule.
  

Designers no longer need to write complicated business rules to retrieve data from an external datasource. Simply provide the following:

• The URL to the RESTful Web Service and any parameters and mappings that the service requires.
• Path to retrieve the value that will be included in the submission from the web service results.

Existing forms/flows that contain the ComboBox control will have the value of the Options URL property in the Options Src field after upgrading. For example: if the Option URL was set to  /frevvo/web/tn/tenant.id/users?match=  in the previous release it will be changed to frevvo Users. If the Option URL was set to  /frevvo/web/tn/tenant.id/roles?match=  in the previous release it will be changed to frevvo Roles. Lists of Users and Roles can only be retrieved for the current tenant.

If the Options URL was empty in the previous release, the upgrade code defaults it to frevvoUsers.

{task.perform .url} template is the new default for Task Notification Emails

The {task.list.url} has been replaced as the default template by the {task.perform .url} template in Task Notification emails. The task.list.url template generates a clickable link in the email that takes the user to their Task List. The task.perform.url template generates a clickable link in the email that bypasses the Task List and takes the user to the specific task. 

Only new workflows will have the {task.perform.url} special template in the Task Notification message. Existing flows with the task.list.url template will NOT change after upgrade. Designers must manually change the special template if you prefer the {task.perform .url} template.

New version of the Database Connector

A new version (v2.5.2) of the Database Connector is included in the v7.3 frevvo tomcat bundle. It is also available in a separate download. You can download it here.  The database.war does not extract after startup. You will not see a database subfolder in the <frevvo-home>\tomcat\webapps directory if you are using the tomcat bundle as in previous releases.

 If you are running the Database Connector on your in-house server, customers must upgrade to v7.3  to use the Database Connector v2.5.2. There are 2 options:

1. Copy the configuration from your previous installation and the connector will continue to function as it did before. The DB v2.5.2 connector runs seamlessly with the DB Connector v2.4 configuration files.
   
2. Read the documentation for new configuration instructions to take advantage of the new features.

Review the DB Connector Release Notes for a complete list of the enhancements to help you decide.   

New version of the Google Connector

Version 2.3.0 of the Google connector is a small patch release with enhancements for logging and configuration. This version was deployed to the frevvo cloud on September 2, 2017. The connector will be released for in-house customers on TBD. frevvo recommends that you use this version of the connector with Live Forms versions v7.3+ to take full advantage of the improvements.

Logging and Configuration Enhancements

The Database, Google and SharePoint connectors now generate their own logs in the <frevvo-home>\tomcat\logs directory in the tomcat bundle. The Standalone version of the Database Connector creates the logs C:<dbconnector-home>\\Dbconnector-2.5.3-SNAPSHOT\logs\logs. The log files are named  <connector name>.YYYY-MM-DDDD. Generating separate logfiles make it much easier to search for errors when troubleshooting connector issues.

Although the connectors will function with configuration files from previous versions, they are now designed to use the frevvo-config.properties file. This file contains global properties that apply to frevvo connectors including the frevvo.war. Creating this file is the recommended approach going forward.These changes are already in place in the frevvo Cloud.

In-house customers should refer to Tomcat Logfiles topic for information about turning on DEBUG for the frevvo log and to the Connector Logging topic for more details.

Document Action Failure Emails

In v7.3.1, any users with the tenant admin role now receive email notification if a Document or Activity Document action fails to reach the intended destination. If a workflow has flow admins configured then they will receive the email instead of the tenant admin(s).

Support for curly braces in Share Link URLs

Tomcat 8.5 doesn't allow curly braces in URLs since they are not valid URL chars and deemed a security vulnerability. currently supports parenthesis as well as curly braces. However, if you are embedding forms, flows or the Task List in your website, change the markup to use parenthesis (). Support for curly braces {} will be dropped in a future release.

Tips for Embedded Forms/Flows viewed on Mobile Devices

Form/Flows embedded in mobile pages may not display properly when rendered on mobile devices. frevvo offers these tips to resolve the issue. Note the default behavior for showLink is now set to false which will show the form in a frame. A true value will show the form/flow as a link.

Migration Considerations for Live Forms In-house Customers  

Changes to Supported Platforms

Java 1.7 is no longer supported. In-house customers should upgrade to Java 8 before upgrading to v7.3+.  Please review Supported Platforms for a complete list. 

You must install the Oracle Java Development Kit (JDK) or the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) before installing Live Forms. Although Live Forms will run with either JAVA package, the Insight Server requires the JAVA_HOME environment variable so set it to the installation directory for the Java package that you install. Refer to  JDK or JRE Prerequisite for configuration details. 

Tomcat version Upgraded

The version of tomcat used in the frevvo bundle has been upgraded to now uses Tomcat  8.5.16. Tomcat 7 is not supported for 7.3.0.

Override _data properties in Configuration Files

In previous releases, global properties for different environments were defined using the built-in Manage Default_data feature. There is an additional option to define them in configuration files in v7.3. This approach is a simpler way to manage global data especially when configuring multiple environments.The values specified in the parameters in the configuration files overrides the values set in the _data properties file. Refer to the Manage Default _data chapter for the details.

For example, if you are using the tomcat bundle, you can set the servername for each environment by adding this parameter to the frevvo.xml file:

<Parameter name="frevvo._data.servername" value="http://<server>:<port>" override="false" />

JMX Monitoring Enabled in the frevvo tomcat bundle 

JMX (Java Management Extensions) is enabled by default in the v7.3 tomcat bundle. Information can be accessed with jConsole, or a similar tool.

Customize Default Messages and Labels

 Changing string name/value pairs in the default file found in the <frevvo-home>\tomcat\webapps\ frevvo.war displays the new English version of the string on the UI. This is mainly for OEM partners and resellers, but it will work for any  in-house customer. Modifications to the strings in this file can be used to change the labels in the Form Designer e.g. change Palette to Palette Controls or change the text of a message such as "Access denied. Authentication required" to something more user friendly. To access the default file, the frevvo.war must be unzipped, then rezipped after the changes are made. Refer to the Customizing Runtime Messages and Labels in the Designers topic for the step by step instructions.

You May Notice...

A New SharePoint Connector

Save form/flow submissions and attachments to SharePoint libraries and lists. The Save to SharePoint wizard makes it very easy to map form/flow controls to the columns created in your SharePoint website. The SharePoint Connector is not available for frevvo Confluence customers. Refer to the SharePoint Connector chapter for configuration and additional information.

Video Control removed from the Palette

The Video Control has been removed from the palette in the v7.3 release. Forms/flows from previous releases that contain Video controls will still work after upgrade. A Message control with a video embedded can be used to add videos to your forms/flows going forward.

Guided Tours and Page Help

Visual Guided Tours and Page Help are available for Cloud customers. When you install a Template Application, a Guided Tour is automatically launched if one is available. Guided Tours and Page Help can be invoked on–demand by clicking the appropriate button.

Just a Reminder for In-house Customers

In-house customers should review the topics below, the instructions in the Upgrade Guide and Supported Platforms before migrating. It is recommended that you perform a full installation of  v7.3+ when upgrading. 

Hardware and Memory Requirements for your Live Forms Server

The minimum recommended hardware configuration for your Live Forms server is:

• 2 gigahertz (GHz) 64-bit (x64) processor with 4 cores
• 5 gigabyte (GB) of system memory
• 100 GB hard drive

However you must size your hardware platform to your specific form usage characteristics. As the number of concurrent users and forms/flows increases so must the system memory. Refer to the memory configuration topic for the details.

Insight Server Memory Requirements

The Insight Server and Service (Batch job) MUST be configured to take full advantage of the Reporting and the Submission view and search capability. Do NOT disable it in the <frevvo-home>\tomcat\Catalina\localhost\frevvo.xml file.

It may be necessary to increase heap size for the Insight server, when reporting on/indexing a large number of submissions. Refer to the memory configuration topic for the details.

Database Configuration moved to server.xml file

The database configuration that was done in the <frevvo-home>\tomcat\conf\catalina\localhost\frevvo.xml file has been moved to the <frevvo-home>\tomcat\conf\server.xml file. Also, note that the datasource in the server.xml file has been renamed to jdbc/sharedfrevvoDS so that it can be shared by and the Insight server.

Email Configuration and custom configuration parameters are still configured in the frevvo.xml file.

Start the Insight server before Live Forms

 requires Insight software for the Reporting and Submissions View feature. The Insight software is included in the tomcat bundle. The Insight server MUST be started BEFORE starting . Instructions for Windows and Linux operating systems are listed here:

  You do not have to restart the Insight server every time you restart .