Version: v4.8 (v4.8.0.7059)
Hotfix ID: wff480
Date: Jun 9th 2023

Installation instructions here.

Over the past few months we've been doing some considerable reworking of the backend of WorkflowFirst to make it more performant and scalable, including upgrading to the more recent .Net v4, and reworking the DbfScript engine so that it can compile down to native code. The 4.8 release encapsulates all these changes to the backend, along with some more minor changes to WorkflowFirst Designer itself.

This update can only be applied to Designer running under Microsoft IIS. If you are using WorkflowFirst Launcher or OfficeSuite, we will ship a separate set of files to replace the main installation.

Once installed you will have to update the application pool to .Net 4. Instructions on upgrading to .Net 4 can be found here.

Please backup your files and databases prior to installing this update.

1. WorkflowFirst now runs with .Net 4 (and in Integrated mode in IIS). This was necessary for performance and security reasons, and to be able to use more recent releases of certain components (such as the Lucene search engine). Instructions on upgrading to .Net 4 can be found here.

2. All DbfScript scripts are now compiled to run natively for performance. Internally they are compiled to C# and then into native machine code. This is currently disabled by default, but can be enabled in the "Optimize Scripts" option in the Advanced area under the Application configuration in Designer. This allows you to run long scripts that would run at the same speed as if they were developed in a language like C#.

3. Quick Reports now have an option to "Show Logo In Header". This will show a logo in the header of the report. However, the logo must be in the Configuration (StandingData) of your application, in a field called "Override Logo" (File type). If this is present, it will use that logo in the report, otherwise it will be ommitted.

4. The data navigator can now be enabled on individual forms. In Advanced under a particular form, switch on "Enable Navigator Popup". This will show a navigator icon next to the title of records, which you can use to navigate through the list. This is especially useful for hierarchical lists, as it lets the user get to a specific record without lots of screen changes.

5. The security option "Disallow Orphan Access" can now be switched on any form, under Advanced. When set, any URL references to a particular record will also verify that the user can access all the parent records. If the user does not have access to a parent record, then access will be denied to the record pointed to by the URL. This is a security feature that adds a performance overhead but may be necessary in certain complex data models.

6. While WorkflowFirst is a hierarchical database, the hierarchy is limited (as low as 12 levels deep in certain cases). There is now an option under Advanced under a form called "Extra Depth". Set this to Yes and it will allow double the depth, at the expense of a slight performance overhead. You can enable this if you have a hierarchical database you intend to have many levels in depth.

7. Use of POP3 now supports OAUTH. Use the format Name*Service as the user name for the POP3 request, and it will use the user name and its OAuth authenticated login for that user. Many POP3 services have stopped accepting plain passwords and now require OAuth to be used.

8. WorkflowFirst now supports Windows Server Core. This operating system is a slimmed-down version of Windows that uses less memory, and has a smaller footprint. In particular it is considered more secure as it has a smaller attack surface.

9. The version update process now uses PowerShell behind the scenes to make it more reliable on certain machine configurations (esp. Windows Server Core).

10. Assignment emails will now switch language to the preferred language of the user before sending out emails, using localization if available.

11. The Search Engine used in WorkflowFirst (Lucene) now uses the v4.8 release, which is a lot better at indexing and finding variations of words.

12. If a dropdown value is set as a value, but that dropdown value is no longer in the list, the missing value is now still added to the dropdown list to be selected, to stop certain conditions arising that could break the database integrity.

13. Tooltips are now displayed as a dotted underline, rather than a help icon (to be more consistent with other modern UIs).

14. Performance enhancements to make better use of memory utilization.

15. Changes to the look and feel.

16. Fixed an issue where edit-only fields would appear in the HtmlNode output (HTML representation of records that shows up in emails and other textual areas).

17. Fixed an issue where occasionally outgoing emails would not send in certain high-usage parallel loads.

18. The search index can now be reset from Admin Tools (under Functions). The link will reset and rebuild the search index in the application.

19. WebService client codes are now hidden from the user.

20. Fixed an issue where sometimes duplicates would show up in the workflow dashboard calendar view.

21. Fixed an issue where dropdown lists would sometimes crop the bottom of the list if inline previews were displayed for certain items.