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Major release upgrade hesitation

  • 25 June 2024
  • 8 replies
  • 82 views

I am still running Arc Version 23.3.8725.0 and want to upgrade to 24, but I am hesitant.  There’s been a lot of upgrades to the UI and I’m concerned about my workspaces blowing up - as I have them all carefully laid out for ease of use.

Another concern I have is deprecated script functions.  For instance, I use the After Send events on dozens of connectors to trigger other flows the “old fashion way”

<arc:set attr="target.ConnectorId" value="SOME_CONNECTOR" />
<arc:call op="portReceiveFile" in="target" />

From what I understand, this method will not work in the latest release.  This has been replaced with a more secure token-based approach:

<arc:call op="api.rsc/receiveFile?" 
ConnectorID="SOME_CONNECTOR" 
httpmethod="POST" 
authtoken="admin:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" />

I have so much ArcScript written I’m concerned there are other places throughout hundreds of connectors where I may run into issues.  Has anyone experienced issues like this when doing a major release upgrade?  I have accepted the fact that my flows are most likely going to follow a new layout after the upgrade - but I’m concerned that the scripts (like above) may stop working.

Appreciate anyone’s comments!

 

8 replies

S

Hi Eric,

I just updated from 2023 to 2024 and I can assure you that it did change how my carefully laid out connectors looked after the upgrade.  “blowing up” is a good characterization in my opinion.  Connectors that have both input and output functionality like File, Ftp, Sftp, etc. are now split into two separate connectors in the diagram.  StartTrigger and FlowEnd tags were added everywhere a chain of connectors start or end.  There is an Auto Format button that can arrange everything as it sees fit.  I ended up using it in my flows to get closer to something readable.  Then I shuffled them around to make more sense to me.  With the connectors made bigger to show functionality and other info your flows are going to take up quite a bit more screen real estate.  In fact, I was just online searching for a bigger monitor.  I currently use 27’s.

ericbux
Userlevel 4
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Hi Eric,

I just updated from 2023 to 2024 and I can assure you that it did change how my carefully laid out connectors looked after the upgrade.  “blowing up” is a good characterization in my opinion.  Connectors that have both input and output functionality like File, Ftp, Sftp, etc. are now split into two separate connectors in the diagram.  StartTrigger and FlowEnd tags were added everywhere a chain of connectors start or end.  There is an Auto Format button that can arrange everything as it sees fit.  I ended up using it in my flows to get closer to something readable.  Then I shuffled them around to make more sense to me.  With the connectors made bigger to show functionality and other info your flows are going to take up quite a bit more screen real estate.  In fact, I was just online searching for a bigger monitor.  I currently use 27’s.

Thanks for the feedback.  

ab_complavis

Your workspaces will definitely be a total mess after the update. Everything will be on top of each other because of the increased size, the split into 2 nodes for some connectors and the start/end points.

At least if you tried to keep everything compact so far. The more space you left everywhere, the less bad it will be.

We switched back to the old UI which fortunately is possible at Settings > Advanced > Advanced Settings > Classic Flow Designer UI.
But you must not change (and therefore save) any flow while the new UI is active otherwise also the old UI will break.

Regarding the port operations in scripts:
We replaced everything with better/newer solutions before or instantly after the update.
We have also seen 1 port operation not correctly doing what it did before anymore after the update.
So I believe you should really not use these anymore even though we also saw one still work (at least it looked liked it until we finally replaced it anyhow).

We replaced it with flow based solutions though, not with the direct api.rsc replacement.
Is this not possible in your case?

ericbux
Userlevel 4
Badge

Your workspaces will definitely be a total mess after the update. Everything will be on top of each other because of the increased size, the split into 2 nodes for some connectors and the start/end points.

At least if you tried to keep everything compact so far. The more space you left everywhere, the less bad it will be.

We switched back to the old UI which fortunately is possible at Settings > Advanced > Advanced Settings > Classic Flow Designer UI.
But you must not change (and therefore save) any flow while the new UI is active otherwise also the old UI will break.

Regarding the port operations in scripts:
We replaced everything with better/newer solutions before or instantly after the update.
We have also seen 1 port operation not correctly doing what it did before anymore after the update.
So I believe you should really not use these anymore even though we also saw one still work (at least it looked liked it until we finally replaced it anyhow).

We replaced it with flow based solutions though, not with the direct api.rsc replacement.
Is this not possible in your case?

Thanks for the comment.  Everything is possible, as Arc evolves I find that certain customized scripts are no longer needed.  Which is great!  I think you’re approach to updating flows prior to upgrading Arc is a smart play.  Less room for error in a production environment.

S

After working with the 2024 version yesterday I found that the connectors that split showing both the send and receive can be hidden with a right click menu.  So, if your flow only received files you can hide the send connector.  It’s not as compact as it was in 2023 but It’s not as bad as I initially thought either.  Sometimes it’s nice to have a receive in the beginning of the flow and the send at the end with a start and end tag.

ab_complavis

Sometimes it’s nice to have a receive in the beginning of the flow and the send at the end with a start and end tag.

But it was already possible in the old UI to split connectors into separate send and receive nodes  where this makes sense (like SFTP).

Maybe I misinterpreted that, but your reply sounds like you did not know.

S

You are correct.  I did not know that.

James B
Userlevel 6
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I can confirm that CData Arc 2024 does have design changes to the layout of the connectors in the Flows tab. While these changes do not have an impact on the current processing of messages, this is something that we'd recommend that you take a tour of through the following video:

 

https://youtu.be/qoIApgJCZes

 

So you can be aware of what changes in the layout. Icons are made larger in the new update, but there is a new button in the Flows tab that will autoarrange connectors to restore their spacing:

 

 

as well as an undo button if you do not favor the autoformatted layout.

 

With respect to the operations in CData Arc, you are correct in that, for security reasons, previously undocumented operations that cross other connectors such as portReceiveFile will begin requiring the authentication token from a user with Admin API privileges in the Users section of the application:

 

https://cdn.cdata.com/help/AZK/mft/User-Roles.html#admin-api-access

 

So an operation that previously called portReceiveFile:

 

<arc:set attr="target.ConnectorId" value="Out" />
<arc:call op="portReceiveFile" in="target" />

 

Would now be properly called by calling the operation through a new the Admin API endpoint that functions the same as portReceiveFile and by adding a new authtoken argument:

 

<arc:set attr="target.ConnectorId" value="Out" />
<arc:call op="api.rsc/receiveFile" authtoken="jamesb:Qs4Udw:Tu7Yr6jg" in="target" />

 

Do you have access to a text editor with a Find in Files/Replace in Files option?

 

Our recommendation would be to scan the *.rsb files in the Application Directory for CData Arc, and search for instances of arc:call  - and then please open a ticket with us at [email protected] and share the operations that are matched. We can assist you with providing a Replace in Files script to update any operations that will require authorization with a simple replacement to catch all instances in your application.

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