Platform Update - Signed plug-ins 11/2024

In the last month, 10 plug-ins have received updates, which are now available to implement into your components in the Architect.
In this post you will find the affected plug-ins and a short description of the changes. If you want further information please contact your primary contact person.

Signed plug-ins

P56 Import Engine v2 r.120194

Changes

PI45481 - Evaluate contextless advanced expressions only once

Without source fields, the advanced expression could not vary in result for different rows, so can be evaluated once. This can dramatically improve import performance. The functionality is automatically applied when possible, there is no checkbox/option to select.

PI45483 - Commit only records that have changed fields

This PI introduces an option for the import definition to limit committing imported records only to the records of which the import actually changed the record’s value(s). This option is enable with the ‘Is commit only changed records’ checkbox on the import definition. Also, it is automatically enabled when a reference to a cached field exists (see PI33551).

PI45484 - Introduce memoryExistingDataLocator

This PI introduces a new means for checking existing records while importing data. The existing method uses an on-demand, batched retrieval method which is slow especially with large tables with multiple key values combined with large imports. The new approach loads all data from the table at once, which costs more memory, but is considerably faster for larger tables that no longer require a large number of batch queries.

The option can be enabled with the ‘Is reading all existing records to compare with import data’ option in the import definition.


P173 Serialization r.119530

Changes

PI50020 - Deserialization action does not check datatype of object if matches the required by configuration

Bugfix - The deserialization action will also check if the resulting NObject after deserializing is of the correct type before returning to the main process, in order to prevent a framework error (which kills the trace for example)

PI52821 - Add multipart form data serializer

What has changed: A multipart form data serializer has been implemented, that allows dependent plugins to work with requests of type multipart/form-data (sending and receiving files as binary data and not as base64 strings)

Who is impacted: All users of REST client, RESTful webservice, Data gathering
What needs to be configured: Nothing needs to be configured in the plugin itself.

!!! Ensure that if updating to this Serialization plugin revision, all dependent plugins (RESTful webservice, rest client, data gathering) also get updated to latest !!!

Failing to do so will result in exceptions at runtime.

How to use it: No manual usage !! There are no actions that support serializing/deserializing to/from multipart data. It is meant to be used by the REST client, REST webservice etc. to be able to handle multipart data.


P176 RESTful Webservice r.120092

Changes

PI53714 - NObject utils not handling int32

What has changed: Bug fix, now int parameters work fine again
Who is impacted: REST endpoints users
What needs to be configured: nothing
How to use it: no change in usage


P187 Instruction Generator r.120069

Changes

PI53695 - Perform httputility.htmlencode on string of documentation.xml

Text shown in the page and process documentation is now being html encoded.


P188 SSH Tools r.119375

Changes

PI53314 - SSH Key authentication support for sFTP connections

For SFTP connections, there is a need to support SSH Key authentication, in addition to the existing username/password authentication, therefore we’ve introduced an additional option for authentication using SSH key and username.


P195 Data Gathering r.118956

Changes

PI52653 - Not possible to use "-" in identifiers of data definition fields

What has changed: Can use “-” for identifier names of Data definition fields - now they would always be returned the same way they are stored in the configuration.

Needs to be used with Serialization revision >=119330 sign request SR63584

Who is impacted: Configurable endpoints users
What needs to be configured: Technically nothing needs to be configured, however data conversion might be needed to keep fully compatible with existing REST clients ( data conversion could ensure that existing fields that contain “-” should get converted to use “", because the REST clients before the update always worked under the assumption that "” is used)
How to use it: You can use “-” character for data definition fields identifiers and they would be returned properly in the same way they are stored

PI53227 - Do not include serialization connector in jar

What has changed: Data gathering no longer includes the Serialization connector plugin in its jar (Serialization is meant to be the only provider for it now)

Needs to be used with Serialization revision >=119330 sign request SR63584

Who is impacted: No one
What needs to be configured: Nothing
How to use it: No change in usage, simply ensure this Data gathering revision is used with Serialization revision >= 119330


P198 REST Data Webservice r.120105

Changes

PI53717 - New REST Data Webservice breaks when using %page in filter

What has changed: the page parameter is now always set in the plugin, so as long as it’s configured as placeholder in the validated expression fields on the REST Data endpoint records (ph name page, type int) it can be used within expressions.
Who is impacted: REST API users
What needs to be configured: Add placeholder to the validated expression fields configuration that you want to use %page in (name page, type int). This has been done in M8465 rev 223 for Fixed filter.
How to use it: No change in usage, simply use %page in filter expression if you need it


P201 TOTP Authentication r.119634

Changes

PI49971 - Logging in a TOTP user from a webservice context

What has changed: Code change, no impact for users. Generalize the name of a flag that is stored in Session storage
Who is impacted: No user impact
What needs to be configured: Nothing
How to use it: No change in usage, purely a back-end change to allow skipping TOTP in certain cases (i.e logging in with Novulo OAuth2, with a user that has TOTP enabled, but TOTP is skipped as user did TOTP while Token was being issued). This also opens possibility to do development in other plugins that do a webservice login, possibly with a user that has TOTP enabled

PI53289 - FieldToAddPostbackValidationTo is optional config item however not null safe

What has changed: Bugfix - made a null safe check for optional configuration item
Who is impacted: No one
What needs to be configured: Nothing
How to use it: No change in usage, simply bugfix


P207 Security Monitoring r.119642

Changes

PI50190 - CombineIdenticalSuccessfulAuthenticationAttemptsMinutes seems to slow things down

What has changed/new: Programmatically check for an index with specific name “IX_AuthAttempts_TimestampOnly” - as name states, the index is built against only the Timestamp column of the AuthenticationAttempts table. If there is no such index or failed to be created, no merging of the authentication attempts record will happen.
Who does this impact : All users, the merging of the authentication attempts should be improved (performance)
What needs to be configured : Nothing, the plugin takes care of creating the Index if it does not exists.

IMPORTANT

Even though the index can be automatically created, when it does not exists (with this name !!!), for cases where the authentication attempts table already exists and has A LOT of records in it, it might be better to create the index MANUALLY WITH THE SAME NAME.

Since the check is ran only at the first load of the plugin, which usually happens during the first login after application pool restart, if there are alot of records and the creation of the index takes a lot of time, SQL/Datahandler timeouts might occur, which can prevent the application from loading.

So when updating to this (or higher) plugin revision of the Security monitoring, consider the above carefully.

How do I use it: No changes is usage. Simply with this revision of the plugin, index with specific name is created and the usage of it is enforced in the SQL query that is supposed to use it.

PI53299 - Cache last successful authentication attempt entry instead of reading it from the DB

What has changed: Performance related fixes - now caching authentication attempt records, instead of always reading them from the DB (in order to determine if new log should be written or updated)
Who is impacted: No user impact, however there is positive application impact when the feature is enabled (less longs written, less reads from authn attempts table)
What needs to be configured: Configuration is purely optional. See below.
How to use it: No specific usage, simply configuration that could be enabled to have affect (see below)

How to enable/use - the functionality can be enabled 2 ways - via webconfig or via commands

  • default.aspx? NovuloSecurityMonitoring_SqlCombineEnabled=true/false (web.config: NovuloSecurityMonitoring.SqlCombineEnabled)
  • default.aspx? NovuloSecurityMonitoring_SqlCombineTimeoutMinutes= (web.config: NovuloSecurityMonitoring.SqlCombineTimeoutMinutes)
  • default.aspx? NovuloSecurityMonitoring_CachingEnabled=true/false (web.config: NovuloSecurityMonitoring.CachingEnabled)
  • default.aspx? NovuloSecurityMonitoring_CacheTimeoutMinutes= (web.config: NovuloSecurityMonitoring.CacheTimeoutMinutes)
  • default.aspx? NovuloSecurityMonitoring_CounterEnabled=true/false (web.config: NovuloSecurityMonitoring.CounterEnabled)

The first two are another way to customize the same configuration as the already existing CombineIdenticalSuccessfulAuthenticationAttemptsMinutes/NovuloSecurityMonitoring.CombineIdenticalSuccessfulAuthenticationAttemptsMinutes set, and are only added for consistency with the other new options.

CachingEnabled+CacheTimeoutMinutes allows you to use the new cache functionality, and CounterEnabled allows you to disable the increment of the counter on authentication attempts (if a record is “reused”).


P215 Production Messages Collector r.119413

Changes

PI53352 - Duplicate key error when retrieving messages in certain carts

Improved the determination of which product version ranges are updated. This change fixes a bug where duplicate ranges caused an error. No further impact for users or developers.