Release Notes

Release v2.0_beta (To be released ...)

Ported Enquiry Tool features to work with LiveCycle ES Update 1 (8.2)
Please note that all Enquiry Tool releases v1.x will not work on LiveCycle ES Update 1 or later.

Release v1.8 (Latest Version)

Fixed content type issue on task attachment download. Added way to retrieve content type mapping according to attachment filenames as configured in the application server it is running on.
Improve performance when bringing up Enquiry Tab for the first time, since the server is restarted.
Added new feature to navigate to sub-process and parent process.
Enabled loading user task form as how it is seen if opened by the task assignee.

Please perform the complete installation steps outlined below with the latest downloaded release.

Release v1.7p2

Fixed bug on downloading task attachment when running LiveCycle on WebSphere Application Server.
Fixed bug on downloading MS Word document attachment occured on IE browser.

Please perform the complete installation steps outlined below with the latest downloaded release.

Release v1.7

Fixed bug to sort search by process initiator.
Drop down list for search operands are set to "skip" by default.
Enquiry related texts appear on UI are now extend-able to support other languages, as would the original workspace.

Update Installation Instructions (if you have already installed the previous version of Enquiry Tool):

Redeploy avoka-enquiry-workspace-client.ear found in the downloaded zip file to the Application Server.
Start Workbench and go to its "Components" view to uninstall the Enquiry DSC previously installed.
1. Expand com.avoka.livecycle.enquiry>Active Services> and right click on Enquiry:1.0 and select "Edit Service Configuration ..."
2. Copy the license key and organisation to a notepad or any text editor, and click "Cancel" on the dialog box.
3. Right click on com.avoka.livecycle.enquiry and select "Stop Component"
4. Right click on com.avoka.livecycle.enquiry again and select "Uninstall Component"
5. Install the updated Enquiry DSC (avoka-enquiry-dsc.jar) included in the downloaded zip file by drag and drop it to the Components view.
6. Right click on com.avoka.livecycle.enquiry and select "Start Component"
7. Expand com.avoka.livecycle.enquiry>Active Services> and right click on Enquiry:1.0 and select "Edit Service Configuration ..."
8. Now fill in the license key and organisation from the texts you copied earlier in step b and click "OK".
This update installation DOES NOT require application server to be restarted.

For fresh installation instructions (i.e. for installing Enquiry Tool for very the first time on the environment), please refer to the Installation section below.

Release v1.6

Fixed compatibility issue when running within LiveCycle ES SP2 regarding form rendering and task submission.
Quick complete button is no longer turned off permanently. It now uses the global configuration settings applied on ES Workspace.
If earlier version has been installed, you will only need to redeploy avoka-enquiry-workspace-client.ear file to your application server. Web browser cache will not to be cleared on client machine.
This version has been tested on LiveCycle ES SP1b and SP2. It does not suport to work with LiveCycle ES 8.01 without Service Pack.
Context root changes for Enquiry Tool, allowing the original workspace to be still available, i.e. no need to undeploy the original adobe-workspace-client.ear. Now the context root for Enquiry Tool enabled workspace is http://<server>:<port>/enquiry.

Release v1.5

Fixed error when running on client browser with Flash Player 9.0.115 (Build 115) installed.
Toast is now working when running on IE
The default "quick complete" button on Card View for tasks in TO DO list is now turned off. Note: Please do not set your User Step in the workflow to initialize route names and set user to have to select complete route name with route names "Approve" and/or "Deny" out of the User Step in the workflow, otherwise, those magic buttons would appear on card views. But if you just have normal user step with multiple routes without enforcing user has to select a route, then you don't have to worry about this.
If you have already installed v1.3, you will not need to carry out the full installation instructions below. Instead, you will only need to replace adobe-workspace-client.ear with the latest 1.5 version without the need to restart JBoss. However, the web browser of the client(s) may need to clear the cache.

Enquiry Tool Key Features

Enquiry tool extends the functionality of LiveCycle ES Workspace with the following key features:

Allow user to search on processes using custom fields or custom criteria set up in a process.
The search is NOT restricted to only user who has participated in the process for the user to run the search/enquiry. However, the administrator would need to set up for such user to have READ permission on such process for he/she to run the search.
The search result shows the matching processes according to the search criteria, displaying custom fields of the process that have been configured to be visible. Thus making them sortable fields as well should the user wish to sort the search result by them.
The search result at a glance, shows the status of the process, and the current active operation/action(s) of the process and the status of the operation itself, allowing user to find out where this process is at in its execution, and point out if there is any breakage or bottleneck in the process.
User can also further drills down the search result to find out the form(s) in the process and download a read-only copy of it.
User can also drills down the search result to get all its operations. By default it shows User related operations only, with option to show all operations.
User related operations or tasks listed can be Claimed by a user. The task claiming process will evaluate if the user has the permission to claim the task and displays if the claiming is performed successfully.
It shows task attachments, task notes, and task assignment history. For task attachments, user can only see only see attachments where the attachments are set to have at least READ access, in other words, attachments added with NO-ACCESS won't be displayed. Attachments displayed are downloadable.
Allow user to navigate through the process chain (its sub-process and parent process) if available.

Limitations

Enquiry Tool does not support loading Form other than XFAForm type.
Enquiry Tool depends on the existence of Output Service in LiveCycle ES to perform PDF Form Flattening when loading Form from a process; The XFAForm can be either XDP form template or PDF form template.
If Output Service is absent, Enquiry Tool can only render XFAForm with PDF form template NOT XDP template.
Only English version is currently supported. But it is extend-able to support another language if required.

Installation

Workspace Enquiry Tool consists of 3 parts:

Enquiry DSC - Which performs the nuts and bolts of the Enquiry feature implementations.
Modified Workspace Client - Containing the standard Workspace client PLUS Enquiry pages. This is an EAR file: avoka-enquiry-workspace-client.ear.
Modified adobe-livecycle-<appserver>.ear/adobe-workspace-runtime.war - This WAR file serves between Workspace Client and relay Enquiry related requests to Enquiry DSC. These contains: avoka-enquiry-runtime.jar, avoka8utils.jar, services-config.xml and web.xml.

To download all the parts required, please go to our website: www.avoka.com

Installation steps:

Unzip the downloaded WorkspaceEnquiryToolx.x.zip into a folder in your hard drive.
Install Enquiry DSC (avoka-enquiry-dsc.jar) using LiveCycle ES Workbench (through the "Components" view) and start it. The license for running this Enquiry Tool is set on the Enquiry DSC component, which will be explained in the next section. Upon installing Enquiry DSC, it will also deploy two processes to assist for Form loading feature.
Deploy avoka-enquiry-workspace-client.ear found in the folder in step 1 to your application server.
Do either one of the followings:
1. Provided that you have 7zip program installed, do these:
  1. The unzipped folder contains a batch file, called build.bat. Edit the first few lines so that it points to your server deploy directory and specify the directory for the 7zip tool, and save it.
  2. Run the build.bat and it should create a deploy folder containing the updated livecycle.ear file ready to be deploy to your application server. Remember to undeploy the previous one before the redeployment.
2. Alternatively, manually editting the livecyle.ear to inject in new files to it.
  1. Undeploy adobe-livecycle-<appserver>.ear. Browse the content of this EAR file to locate adobe-workspace-runtime.war. Browse the content of this WAR file, under WEB-INF overwrite the existing web.xml with one downloaded under config/WEB-INF/web.xml; then under WEB-INF/flex, overwrite the existing services-config.xml with one downloaded config/WEB-INF/flex/services-config.xml; and finally copy avoka-enquiry-runtime.jar and avoka8utils.jar found on config/WEB-INF/lib into WEB-INF/lib. Make sure that your WAR file is propertly modified and saved, and in turn the outer EAR file is also modified and saved reflecting all the changes you just made and added. Redeploy this modified adobe-livecycle-<appserver>.ear.
Restart application server.
Enquiry Tool is accessible via: http://<server_host>:<port>/enquiry, while the original ES workspace if still deployed, is still on http://<server>:<port>/workspace.

Enquiry Tool Configurations

Configuring License on Enquiry DSC

For how to configure license information for Enquiry DSC, please click on the following link:
Avoka LiveCycle ES Component License Configuration

Enquiry Tool Admin Configurations

For the Enquiry Tool to function and showed up on your Workspace client, administrator will need to run through these following steps:

For users/groups that require access to this Enquiry Tool, the administrator needs to assign INVOKE PERMISSION to the users/groups using ADMIN CONSOLE (adminui) under Service Management for Service, called Enquiry.
Assign READ PERMISSION on process(es) to respective users/groups if you want them to be able to run enquiry about such process(es).
Enquiry Tool allows user to also claim task, but the process designer is responsible to determine who has the right to claim task on a particular process. Appropriate error message will be shown should the claim task fails due to permission issue.

LiveCycle Process Setup for Enquiry Tool

Each process intended to be looked up by this Enquiry Tool needs to have its process variables set to be "Searchable", and in order for the matching process result to show custom process information, those information will also need to be stored in process variables set to be "Visible in UI". Both the UI visibility and search-ability of process variables can be set in Workbench on editing the variable settings via double-clicking it on "Variable View" of your Workbench.

In LiveCycle ES, by default, every deployed process is set to be secured, i.e. apart from Super Administrator, everyone else unless granted has no permission on the process to query or invoke. In order for the Enquiry Tool to work for a certain process for a certain user, that user needs to be granted READ permission on such process via Adminui. As an administrator, you can choose to grant READ permission on a process to a group of users instead of each individual.

Known Issues

Workspace Source rebuilt add note to task no longer works. This is now resolved in version 1.3.
Running Enquiry Tool on Client with Flash Player 9.0.115 has problem with showing pop-up menu when selecting a process instance. It only works once, but the subsequent navigation away and back causes the pop-up menu not appearing anymore. Applicable to both IE and Firefox. This problem does not exist on ealier version of Flash Player (e.g. 9.0.47 and 9.0.45). This is now resolved in version 1.5
Enquiry Tool version 1.5 has issue running with LiveCycle SP2. PDF forms cannot be rendered when opening up task via Enquiry Tool-enabled Workspace with IE browser. Firefox does not have the problem. This issue does not affect LiveCycle ES SP1b. This is now resolved in version 1.6
Unable to sort by "Initiator" in the Enquiry search screen. This problem will be fixed in the next release. This is now resolved in version 1.7
Search screen should set the combo operands to "skip" by default. This is intended to be in the next release. This is now resolved in version 1.7
When running on WebSphere Application Server, Enquiry Tool is unable to download task attachment. This problem is not present on JBoss. This is now resolved in version 1.7p2
Via Enquiry Tool MS Word document attachment is viewed as plain text on IE browser instead of an option to save attachment. This is now resolved in version 1.7p2
Initial Enquiry Processes load after the server is rebooted takes quite some time, about 2-3 minutes. But subsequent processes load is very quick. This is now resolved in version 1.8

Future Enhancement

Ability to store the search filters values and re-run it next time, without having to retype the values for the search filters, just run it.