DigiSlice Corporation

AppComposer with Enterprise Suite Release Notes

Version 3.0.1 - 2003.08.18

Contents

Introduction

DigiSlice Corporation is pleased to announce the release of version 3.0.1 of AppComposer bundled with its Enterprise Suite of components and plugins. This suite includes features like direct EJB support, better web services integration and easier access to databases.

About this Version

Quick Installation Instructions

While most of the dialogs displayed during installation should be fairly self-explanatory, detailed instructions can be found in the Installation Guide.

Download Instructions

You can download installable executables of AppComposer from our website: support.digislice.com.

Simply fill out the registration form (with a valid email address), and along with a link to the current installable executables, a license key will be generated and emailed to the address given. Note: This version, like the previous one, comes in two flavors: AppComposer and AppComposer with an included JVM (Java Virtual Machine). If you know that you have installed a JDK (version 1.3 or better) on your system, then install AppComposer without Java. If you are unclear, download the one with Java. There is no functional difference between the two except that one is a smaller download.

System Requirements

High-end workstations with at least 512MB of physical memory. The official platforms currently supported:

Note: You must have installed a Java Software Development Kit (SDK or JDK) before AppComposer can be installed, unless you download a version of AppComposer that has a JVM embedded into it. You can download a version of J2SE SDK from Sun Microsystems from their website (make sure you download and installed the SDK as the JRE is not sufficient).

Windows Installation

Simply execute the program, AppComposerInstallWindows.exe and following the instructions displayed in the InstallAnywhere dialog process as explained in the Getting Started Guide.

Linux Installation

Simply execute the shell script, AppComposerInstallLinux.bin from the command line, as in:

$ sh ./AppComposerInstallLinux.bin  
Preparing to install...
Extracting the installation resources from the installer archive...
Configuring the installer for this system's environment...
 
Launching installer...

Continue following the instructions displayed in the InstallAnywhere dialog process as explained in the Installation Guide.

Solaris Installation

Simply execute the shell script, AppComposerInstallSolaris.bin from the command line, as in:

$ sh ./AppComposerInstallSolaris.bin  
Preparing to install...
Extracting the installation resources from the installer archive...
Configuring the installer for this system's environment...
 
Launching installer...

Continue following the instructions displayed in the InstallAnywhere dialog process as explained in the Installation Guide.

Mac OS X Installation

Unzip the AppComposerInstallMacOSX.zip file by double-clicking on it. You will be left with an InstallAnywhere executable that can be double-clicked to execute it.

Continue following the instructions displayed in the InstallAnywhere dialog process as explained in the Installation Guide.

Product Support

Support for this product can be obtained in any of the following methods:

  1. Online Forums. We have set up a support web site at support.digislice.com with online documentation and user discussion forums (a bulletin board message system). Our engineers monitor the discussion and answer questions posted there. This should be sufficient for non-critical problems. Note: Bugs can be posted and submitted at this site as well.
  2. Email Support. Direct, but less urgent questions can be sent to support@digislice.com.
  3. Phone Support. Phone support is based on your support agreement that you may have purchased along with the Enterprise Suite. See that document for details. You can purchase a support agreement from DigiSlice by sending email to sales@digislice.com.

Product Change Details

The following describe in more detail some of the major changes and features added to the product for this release.

New JSP Tag

We added a new getProperty tag to the Composer Tag Library. This tag retrieves a property from the capsule and converts the value to a string (with optional formatting and encoding), and outputs the text. The basic format is:

<composer:getProperty property="propName" />

Here are the details of the tag attributes:

We have added a new capsule and JSP template in the JSPFormTagTesting example project so you can see how it works. Also updated the Math example project to use the tag, and updated the Intro tutorial which builds the Math capsule.

New Components

In the course of actually using AppComposer, we occasionally create components that we would like to put into the AppComposer release. Here are two that were previously mentioned on our online support forum portal:

Alarm ... this component will generate an event based on a particular date or time in the future. See this online forum discussion for details.

ErrorDocument ... this component will quickly output an HTML document. It is especially useful when debugging or when you are trying to catch an exception or error. See this online forum discussion for details.

Bug Listing

Bugs Closed from Last Version

The following is a brief listing of some of the bugs from the previous (3.0.0) version that have been closed in this (3.0.1) version:

ID Summary Description
102 Cannot type in "Import Web Service" Dialog box, without clicking browse first
129 Capsule debugger won't launch on Mac
122 Fixed various minor cosmetic issues (see Bug#125 and Bug#126 as well).

Open Bugs

The following is a listing of known bugs and issues associated with this version of AppComposer. Details concerning these bugs can be found by logging into our Bugzilla bug tracking system at bugs.digislice.com.

ID Summary Description Priority
131 Selecting "wedge popup items" do not stick to the properties panel [Mac OS X only] P3
  Workaround: This is a strange de-focus issue where the contents don't get saved unless you loose focus from widget just the "right way". One workaround is to click in the field and hit the tab or return key.  
114 Cannot parse WSDL file for web service P3
  Comments: This is a deficiency in the Enterprise Suite web services and will be address in the next release.  
22 Console window has no vertical scrollbar toggle. P3
Workaround If you resize the window, it is usually redisplayed. You can also select all of the text, and copy/paste it to another program for easier viewing.
60 'Editor not Available' message for constant value of type 'Object' is misleading. P3
Comments: The message displayed is a warning message. See details in order to understand what the error message should actually say.
62 Focus problem in console window after dialog dismissed P3
Workaround: See the bug details.
123 Eval popup fails to draw sometimes on Windows JDK 1.3.1 P3
7 JMS beans need JavaDocs P3
8 JMS beans need more than TextMessages P3
47 Spurious error about "Port 80 in use" when port is not set to 80. P3
Comments: The error message that is displayed shouldn't be displayed. It works correctly. Most people, however, will not run into it.