RELNOTES for BBj 6.20

1. WHAT IS NEW IN THIS RELEASE

2. KNOWN ISSUES

3. SUPPORT

This maintenance release includes a preview of new BBj 7.0 features, giving the BASIS development community an opportunity to see, use, and comment on upcoming features well in advance of the features becoming a permanent part of the product. This allows the development community to participate in the design and implementation process of their development language.

For a list of What's New in BBj 7.0, type BBj 7 in the index tab online documentation or on the product CD at /documentation/html/index.htm. To review the features and enhancements previously introduced in BBj 6.0x, type BBj 6 in the index tab.

1. WHAT IS NEW IN THIS RELEASE

This release addresses over 130 reported bugs. For a list of fixed QA memos, see the file https://www.basis.com/products/bbj/fixes620.txt.

GENERAL FEATURES

6.20

• _search Utility - supports search and replace
• BASIS IDE enhancement - allows user to choose whether to compile the source prior to running the program or debugging it
• BBjSlider - provides methods for manipulating a GUI slider control
  • BBjSlider::get/setInverted - addresses the orientation
  • BBjSlider::get/setPaintTicks/Labels - sets whether to paint ticks/labels
  • BBjSlider::get/setMinor/MajorTickSpacing - sets major/minor tick spacing
  • BBjSlider::getMin/Maximum - sets minimum/maximum value(s)
  • BBjSlider::get/setValue - sets current value(s)
• BBjWindow::addHorizontal/VerticalSlider - adds a slider control to the BBjWindow
• Division performance improvement - executes typical cases approximately 40 times faster.
• Print preview enhancement - adds MODAL= to cause print preview to behave as a modal dialog
• Session pinning - ensures that once a program loads into a given session, the contents of that program will not change until the developer explicitly affects a change
  • Set pinning using the new BBjConfig::setOptionSetting optionName type SESSION_PINNING
  • Toggle pinning using new STBL("!OPTIONS") key SESSION _PINNING

6.011

• Delivers a version that uses significantly less memory than previous versions

6.01

• Introduces over 250 bug fixes

In 6.0

• AppBuilder enhancement - introduces ability to compile and execute projects in Visual PRO/5®
• BBjGridEvent - provides an interface that allows a program to retrieve the grid (either a BBjStandardGrid or a BBjDataAwareGrid) that was the source of the event
• BBjSysGui::get/setRepaintEnabled - provides control and indication of repaints on the client display
• BBjTemplatedString - provides the functionality of the traditional templated string used throughout BBj
• ESQL (Exclusive SQL) tables - offers true SQL data types, variable length records, dynamic index creation as:
  • Column constraint - allows filtering of the data that goes into a particular column
  • Computed column - defines columns in a table to be the result of a computation based on other fields in the same table
  • Default values - allows database administrators to define defaults for columns that will be used if no values are specified for that column. Default values may be any supported SQL data type or the result of a scalar or custom function
  • Identity field - generates unique numeric value automatically
  • Row constraint - evaluates multiple columns in the row in order to determine the validity of the entire row
  • Unique constraint - prohibits multiple rows from having the same value for the same column
• Expanded account management - adds new BBjAdmin methods that include addUser, removeUser, changePassword
• FormGen Wizard - allows developers to automatically create customizable data-bound forms based on the contents of a data file or SQL query
• Interface MultiSourceEvent - allows a program to retrieve the source of the event cast to a specified type
• SQL - introduces new TimestampAdd scalar function thar returns the timestamp calculated by adding various time units (fractional seconds, minutes, days, weeks, years, etc.) to a timestamp value

• Web Service Client incompatibility between classes from JDK 6 (rt.jar) and from saaj-impl.jar, which is part of JAX-RPC distribution, causes the exception java.lang.ClassCastException: com.sun.xml.internal.messaging.saaj.soap.ver1_1.Message1_1Impl cannot be cast to com.sun.xml.messaging.saaj.soap.MessageImpl
  To fix this issue, please update your saaj jars from the Snapshots download at https://saaj.dev.java.net/.
• BASIS does not support Java 5 Update 8 or 9 on the Windows platform due to a known memory leak issue. In Java 5 Update 10 and higher (including Java 6), this memory issue no longer exists.
• Solaris 32-bit (only) operating system limits file descriptors used by a STREAM to 256. The FlexNet licensing code uses STREAMs to open the basis.lic pointer license file. If BBj services open more than 253 (not 256 since 0, 1, and 2 are used for stdin, stderr, and stdout) files/sockets, any new license checkout results in the following error UNABLE TO CHECKOUT A VALID LICENSE: FLEXlm Error = -1: Can't find license file. To prevent the FlexNet licensing code from using STREAMs when accessing licensing information, place the information in the environment variable BASIS_LICENSE_FILE. For example:
         > BASIS_LICENSE_FILE=@
         > export BASIS_LICENSE_FILE
• Browsers other than Internet Explorer, such as Netscape and Mozilla, may experience difficulties viewing the documentation. In these cases, BASIS recommends using the Flash version available for download at http://www.basis.com/devtools/documentation/index.html.
• BBj uses a third party library to access the serial ports. This library is currently only shipped with the Windows and Linux BBj ports.
• All clients and servers must be running at the same release level of BBj.
• BridgeServer does not support Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).
• A local SysConsole environment does not support the BACKGROUND verb.
• A slight flicker may be noticable when running a GUI client on Windows with Java 6 in combination with modal dialogs. Downgrading the client machine to a Java 5 solves the issue.
• Older JVMs (fixed in 1.5.x)
  • The 1.4.x “server” JRE prevents BBj from functioning properly with either the server/jre/jvm.dll or the java –server option. BBj passes all QA tests using the default 1.4.x JRE and client/jre/jvm.dll.
  • JVM 1.4.1 on Windows, when reaching the maximum number of file handles (~2000), any attempt to open another file or program causes it to be erased. 
  • Java 1.4.1 contains a string buffer leak, which over time can cause a large memory leak. This was fixed in 1.4.1_05 and in all versions of 1.4.2 and later. For more information from Sun about this leak, go to http://developer.java.sun.com/developer/bugParade/bugs/4724129.html.
  • JVM 1.4.x JVM on a Fedora Core 3 (or higher) requires the installation of additional software. While the 1.4.x JVMs are built with the XFree.org X11 implementation, Fedora Core 3 installs the X.org X11 implementation. Some shared libraries have changed so to get libraries required to run BBjServices properly, you must install the xorg-X11-deprecated-libs package. In addition, 1.4.x JVMs encounter a security problem with Fedora Core 3 and later releases so either turn off the security features of SE Linux or install the selinux-policy-targeted-1.25.2-4.noarch package.