Visual LANSA Framework (VLF) EPC870

Date : 4 November 2011

Visual LANSA Framework (VLF) EPC870 provides iPad and Android tablet support for VLF-WEB, stronger support for WAMs and new features that improve performance, productivity, functionality and usability.

Get this EPC

Download EPC870 via the LANSA Support Portal

Product

Visual LANSA Framework (VLF)

Build Number

870

Pre-Requisite Details

You must be using a LANSA V12 Confirmed or Maintained platform. See Supported Platforms Document
LANSA systems must be at Version 12 SP1 and Partitions must be RDMLX enabled.
For RAMP-TS applications Axes software must be at version 2.10.007 (or later).
Any newlook software used with RAMP applcations must be at version 8.0.5.14769 (or later).
If you upgrade Newlook software from version 7.0 to 8.0, new license codes may be required.

Future Planning Notice

Shipped demonstration material and examples will only be tailored for multilingual and RDMLX enabled LANSA partitions.

As previously indicated, this EPC870 version of the VLF...

deprecates the use webevent functions, Fast Parts and RDML in existing applications and does not support their use in new applications.
does not support monolingual or RDML (ie: non-RDMLX) partitions

Valid Upgrade Paths

Your Current VLF Level	Can you upgrade directly to EPC870?	Additional Actions you need to take that are NOT described in this document
EPC793	Yes	Obtain copies of the EPC804.HTM, EPC826.HTM and EPC868.HTM upgrade notices. Consolidate the Additional Actions they advise into your upgrade planning for EPC870.
EPC804	Yes	Obtain a copy of the EPC826.HTM and EPC868.HTM upgrade notices. Consolidate the Additional Actions they advise into your upgrade planning for EPC870.
EPC826	Yes	Obtain a copy of the EPC868.HTM upgrade notices. Consolidate the Additional Actions they advise into your upgrade planning for EPC870.
EPC831	Yes	Obtain a copy of the EPC868.HTM upgrade notices. Consolidate the Additional Actions they advise into your upgrade planning for EPC870.
EPC839	Yes	Obtain a copy of the EPC868.HTM upgrade notices. Consolidate the Additional Actions they advise into your upgrade planning for EPC870.
EPC843	Yes	Obtain a copy of the EPC868.HTM upgrade notices. Consolidate the Additional Actions they advise into your upgrade planning for EPC870.
EPC868	Yes	Perform the Additional Actions in this document only.

Full Distribution

This is a full distribution. It may be used to install a brand new VLF or to upgrade an existing one.

Additional Actions

Existing VLF web browser applications must be (re)saved so as to (re)generate the associated HTML and JavaScript definition files before executing the application. The regenerated HTML and JavaScript files need to be (re)deployed to production environments as part of your upgrade plan.

If you are using RAMP then you will need to merge the shipped VF_Macro information (see below).

If you are install the server side components of the Visual LANSA Framework on a language JPN (Japanese) IBM i you must follow the extra steps given in the Installation Developer System i / IBM i - Language JPN (Japanese) section.

System i / IBM i Specific Special Notes

The System i / IBM i instructions are expedited procedures that assume a sound knowledge of OS/400.
You should perform upgrades under a user profile that is QSECOFR, part of the QSECOFR group, or, has *ALLOBJ and *SECADM special authorities.

Document Updates

Updates to these guides are part of this EPC:

LANSA047.chm - Deployment Check Lists for Visual LANSA Framework
LANSA048.chm - Visual LANSA Framework Guide
LANSA049.chm - Rapid Application Modernization Process (RAMP) Guide
LANSA050.chm - RAMP-TS Guide
VLFNETSDK.chm - VLF .NET Snap-in Components Guide

Major New Features in EPC870

Refer to the "What's New" section in these guides:

LANSA048.chm - Visual LANSA Framework Guide
LANSA050.chm - RAMP-TS Guide

Corrections and Other Features in EPC870 [Click here to Show table...]

CCS id.	Description
141558	A change has been made to the way the VLF deploys applications to the Web that allows command instances to have the blank values for Webevent Process and Webevent function in the Snap In settings. Setting the values for Webevent Process and Webevent function in the Snap In settings to blanks is not recommended.
143962	A problem has been fixed where two windows contain the entire Framework (i.e all Applications and Business Objects) and in the second window update functionality is not provided.
144142	The administrator is now able to produce a.csv file listing all objects and all user's authorities to them.
144446	There are two messages issued by HIDE_CURRENT_FORM, one is the message displayed in the body of the panel. This fix has changed the processing for this message to allow it to be any size.
144465	The default WAMS have been saved and xsl re-generated correcting a problem where the xsl for the push button was incorrectly saved.
144609	Non-ENG frameworks show invalid characters in button captions due to an invalid charset set for enduser RAMP scripts. Now fixed.
144642	For VLF-WIN -Enhancement - Allow the administrator to sort the entries in a user's groups list (by any of the columns in the list).
144845	Increases the height of the list of servers in the connect dialog, to allow for the presence of scroll bars when there are many possible servers to connect to.
144906	VLF_WIN - When a filter is stay-active NEVER, and the user clicks on another business object that has no filters, the VLF will now cause the filter to terminate. The filter will initialize again, if the user clicks back to the original business object.
144961	A problem has been corrected in VLF-WEB and VLF-NET where using subtype on a business objects that can appear as children instances in a tree causes an error "Child or peer object out of context".
145033	A problem with messages not being sent to the Framework in VLF-NET has been fixed. This first appeared in EPC868.
145081 & 145120	This fix temporarily deactivates the delayed termination of command handlers, introduced by epc868. This means that stay-active NEVER command handlers may not be terminated if the framework is busy at the time. This was the behaviour in earlier versions of the VLF
145122	A problem with loading the VLF-WEB into browsers other than IE using DBCS languages has been fixed.
145124	When switching to a different window, and adding switch instances, if the target business object used subtype control of command handlers, the subtype was wrongly evaluated. This is now fixed.
145258	Fixes an issue where VLF.NET applications crashed just before instance list or command handler is supposed to appear. The crash is accompanied by error message "Unable to cast COM object of type System.__ComObject to interface of type mshtml.IHTMLElement".
145329	A problem has been fixed where clicking on an application view in the navigation pane didn't always update the uCurrentAppView object property.
145361	This change avoids a problem introduced by Adobe Reader 10.1.1 when it is used in an ActiveX, in a VLF environment, in French (or other language where the numeric decimal separator is not "."
145424	The RAMP-TS Engine property dropdaown displayed both options as 'aXes-TS' in language JPN. This has beem corrected so that the second option now is displayed as 'aXes-TS2'.

Installation - Developer's Visual LANSA Workstations (VL-IDEs)

LOAD: Double-click on EPC870w.exe to execute it. If you have multiple Visual LANSA configurations a dialog box will be displayed listing the available LANSA configurations on your machine. Select the Visual LANSA configuration to which the EPC is to be applied. When you have selected the correct Visual LANSA configuration and pressed OK the EPC will be loaded ready for installation.
INSTALL: Start your Visual LANSA IDE. Select the LANSA partition to be updated with this EPC. On the Visual LANSA logon screen click on the "Partition Init..." button and select the "Visual LANSA Framework" option. When this operation completes EPC870 has been installed into the partition.
REPEAT: The preceding step for each LANSA partition that is to be installed or updated.
CHECK: That all Additional Actions from this and any other relevant EPC documents have been completed.

Note: If you are using RAMP, then you should repeat the merge of the shipped Newlook macro VF_Macro into your Newlook client. See "Installation and Configuration" -> "Merge Shipped Macros into Newlook" in the RAMP guide for details of how to do this.

Installation - Developer's Windows Servers

If you are using server side components of the Visual LANSA Framework, update any additional (ie: non-local) development Windows servers you are using.
Refer to "Setting up your Framework Environment" -> "Windows Web Server" in the Visual LANSA Framework Guide for detailed instructions.

Installation - Developer's System i / IBM i servers

If you are using server side components of the Visual LANSA Framework or are using RAMP, then you need to update any development System i / IBM i servers you are using. Refer to "Setting up your Framework Environment" -> "Install the Framework on the Server" -> "System i / IBM i Apache Web Server" in the Visual LANSA Framework Guide (lansa048.chm) for detailed instructions. Note that if you are only using RAMP you do not have to complete the HTTP web server setup steps.

Note: It is strongly recommended that the System i / IBM i LANSA import step in these procedures is performed under a strongly authorized user profile such as QSECOFR, a member of the QSECOFR group or the appropriate LANSA partition security officer.

Installation - Developer's System i / IBM i servers - Language JPN (Japanese)

If you have installed the server side components of the Visual LANSA Framework on a language JPN (Japanese) system you must complete the steps in this section.

EXTRACT: Locate the zip file VF_JPN02.zip in the \Imports\VLFramework\ folder of your LANSA system and extract the file VF_JPN02 to a folder in QDLS file system.
CONVERT: Use the XFLRTOSAVF command to convert the PC file VF_JPN02 to a save file of the same name.
IMPORT: Invoke LANSA using the chosen PARTITION(ppp) parameter. Then use the option Import objects into this partition from the Housekeeping Menu to import from save file VF_JPN02.
CHECK: When the import job finishes, check the import log and import job log for any fatal errors.

Installation - Production/End User Workstations and Servers

Visual LANSA Framework components are deployed to production environments as a part of your own application deployment strategy because they are actually part of your application, not part of LANSA per se. Remember that web browser HTML and Javascript files need to be (re)saved and (re)deployed as part of this process for EPC870. If you are upgrading directly from EPC level 793, 804, 826, 831, 839, 843 or 868 additional considerations may apply. Refer to the "Valid Upgrade Paths" section earlier in this document for considerations.