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2019.1

Ephesoft Transact Version 2019.1

Introduction

This document introduces Ephesoft Transact v.2019.1, contains short descriptions of new features and enhancements to the Ephesoft Transact product, and cites specific bug fixes and workarounds for potential issues.

Starting with Ephesoft Transact release 2019.1, the product versioning has changed, as follows

  • Instead of major and minor releases, Transact will now be released quarterly using a new versioning convention:
  • For example, the upcoming releases will be 2019.2, 2019.3 and so on

Ephesoft Transact 2019.1 Hotfix

April 15, 2019: Ephesoft releases Transact 2019.1 Hotfix

This Ephesoft Transact 2019.1 Hotfix resolves issues with saving changes to the batch class and other issues discovered after the initial software release on January 31. For more information, refer to the following article:

Installation and Licensing Notes

Installation information for Release 2019.1 is available at the following locations:

Windows

Linux

Multi-server Installation and Upgrade

Some or several of the above single-server documents also support information about multi-server deployment.
In addition, please refer to the following resources for more information about multi-server deployment:

Notes:

1. Before upgrading to Ephesoft Transact v.2019.1, make sure to have all your current batch instances in the Finished state for the reporting jobs to run successfully.

2. If installing with Oracle 11g, ensure that your time zone is set properly before running the Transact installer.

Licensing information in Ephesoft Transact has been updated:

  • Licensing Type is no longer used, because the Ephesoft Transact application is now released quarterly, without major or minor software versions.
  • Application Version has been added in addition to the License Version on the License Details screen to differentiate between the purchased license and the installed application version (license purchased for one version can be valid for further releases).

Release Overview

Release Category Functional Area Description
What’s New? Extraction EText Support for PDF documents
Batch Instance Management Expedite Export feature
Feature Enhancements Installer Installer Improvements
Machine Learning Machine Learning for Invoices and Enhanced Machine Learning
Developers Batch.xml and XSD Improvements
System Administration Reporting Re-architecture
Plugins Ephesoft Cloud HyperExtender Plugin
Default Index Field Value Plugin Improvements
Web Scanner Web Scanner Improvements
Bug Fixes Various

What’s New?

EText Support for PDF Documents

Ephesoft Transact 2019.1 fully leverages the text embedded in computer generated PDFs (also referred to by RecoStar as EText). This helps to boost the accuracy of extracted text and greatly reduce the effort required for extraction on all projects that include processing of electronically generated documents.

Rather than being OCRed as images, the documents with EText layer are processed using a special mechanism, which helps to extract data directly. As per provided configuration, the EText support feature can be used:

  • AUTOMATICALLY
  • ALWAYS
  • NEVER

This feature also allows to create the exported PDF artefact(s) from the original file rather than use an image with a text layer attached.

For more information on EText support, refer to the following article:

Expedite Export

In this release, a new “Expedite Export” feature allows the user to essentially “split” the batch and push one or more valid documents through to the next stage of the workflow (typically Export) without waiting for all of the documents in the batch to get validated. This essentially allows operators to locate and push through specific documents that may need to be processed more quickly or to move them through the system more efficiently. Once the selected documents are split into a new batch instance the system pushes this new batch through to the next step of the workflow (typically Export).

For more information on Expedite Export feature, refer to the following article:

Feature Enhancements

Installer Improvements

In this release, the Ephesoft Transact installer has been improved and updated:

  • The installer size has been reduced by 340 MB
  • Some screens have been updated for easier setup
  • Readme.txt file has been included in the installer frame

For more information on Ephesoft Transact installer and installation of release 2019.1, refer to the following section on the Ephesoft Wiki:

Machine Learning for Invoices and Enhanced Machine Learning

In Ephesoft Transact v.2019.1, the approach to machine learning has been majorly revised. The new core machine learning helps to achieve better extraction accuracy as well as shorter “time to value”. Based on a much more focused approach, the new mechanism has been created only for Invoice batch classes. The system now automatically identifies the document type, and then searches and finds configured key-value pairs.

Apart from the core machine learning, there is also the enhanced machine learning (EML), which can be used for any batch class. This mechanism allows the user to learn the data entered on the Validation screen.

In the current implementation, the core machine learning functionality is provided only for the Invoice category and only for index fields. More batch class categories as well as support for Invoice table machine learning will be added in future releases.

For more information on this feature, refer to the following section on the Ephesoft Wiki:

Batch.xml and XSD Improvements

Ephesoft Transact v.2019.1 introduces important new enhancements for the batch.xml file and XSD. The enhancements accomplish multiple benefits for end user developers who need to leverage standardized XML DOM, XSD and the batch.xml file. These benefits include the following areas:

  • New Metadata Fields
  • Script Usability
  • Plugin and Corresponding User Interface Updates
  • Improved Batch.xml Performance

For more information on batch.xml and XSD enhancements in Ephesoft Transact v.2019.1, refer to the following section of the Ephesoft Wiki:

  • Batch.xml SchemaNOTE: A new feature document that describes batch.xml and XSD enhancements in Release 2019.1 will soon be available.

Reporting Re-architecture

Ephesoft Transact v.2019.1 significantly enhances reporting functions, while continuing to support the familiar user interface to use and manage reports. Release 2019.1 enhances reliability, stability, and performance while providing simplification in operations.

The visible and familiar methods for using reports in Ephesoft Transact have not changed, other than adding new menu option to a batch management screen.

The internal data management or operational changes include these specific enhancements:

  • Advanced reports / Dashboard reports
  • Data migration / calculation / cleanup jobs
  • Database processes and functions
  • Workflow and performance

For more information about reports in Ephesoft Transact 2019.1, refer to the following section on the Ephesoft Wiki:

  • Ephesoft ReportingNOTE: A new feature document that describes Reporting enhancements in Release 2019.1 will soon be available.

Ephesoft Cloud HyperExtender Plugin (US only)

The Cloud HyperExtender Plugin is introduced in release 2019.1. For Transact customers open to cloud processing and who have extensive document processing needs, the new plugin leverages high-performance cloud image processing that can scale.

  • The Cloud HyperExtender Plugin requires that batch class administrators first train certain plugins for the batch class or classes to be configured for cloud.
  • Then the batch class administrator removes these plugins from the Transact workflow, and adds the CLOUD_HYPEREXTENDER_PLUGIN to the Folder Import module.
  • Finally, the batch class administrator must configure additional Ephesoft cloud settings in the System Administration settings.

Once these configurations are complete, Ephesoft Transact can leverage Ephesoft’s cloud infrastructure to import and process documents using cloud computing resources for a significant increase in performance.

For more information, refer to the following article:

  • Configuring the Ephesoft Cloud HyperExtender Plugin

Default Index Field Value Plugin Improvements

The Default Index Field Value plugin now includes five new global batch class fields. They can be used to default any index field to the value of the configured system defined variable. If no value is extracted for that field by configured extraction rules, the Default Index Field Value plugin will populate the field with the corresponding system defined variable value and save it in batch.xml.

The following global default value batch class fields have been added to the plugin:

Field Name Variable on the UI
Batch Class Description SYS:$BatchClass:Description
Batch Class Identifier SYS:$BatchClass:Identifier
Batch Class Name SYS:$BatchClass:Name
Batch Creation Date SYS:$Batch:CreationDate
UNC Folder SYS:$Batch:UNCPath

To configure the index field, the user needs to simply select required value from the Default Value Batch Class Field drop-down on the Index Fields screen. The fields are arranged in alphabetical order, highlighted in grey and placed below the user configured batch class fields under a separator.

Note that above-mentioned names of the global batch class fields are reserved for system defined variables and should not be used when creating new customized batch class fields.

For more information on Default Index Field Value Plugin, refer to the following wiki article:

Web Scanner Improvements

In Ephesoft Transact v.2019.1, the user can now see information about batches created via Web Scanner. For this purpose, a pop-up window is displayed once the batch scanning is completed and the Finish button is clicked on the Web Scanner screen. The scanning completion pop-up includes the following information:

  • Batch Instance Id
  • Batch Instance Name
  • Batch Instance Description
  • Batch Page Count

The pop-up window also contains a cookie-based “Don’t ask me again” option. Once this option is selected, the pop-up will not be displayed upon scanning completion.

Note: Transact and the Web Scanner versions must be in sync for each release.  When upgrading the Transact product all Web Scanner clients in use on client machines must be uninstalled and re-installed to the latest version to be in sync with the Transact product.

For more information on Web Scanner Service, refer to the following Wiki article:

Bug Fixes

JIRA ID  Axosoft ID Category Description
EEN-17850 EPHE-23849 Authentication Additional configuration was required in PIV/CAC setup, where Principal Name of a user cert could be bound to the server.xml.
EEN-12853 EPHE-19930 Authentication There were issues with configuring PIV/CAC setup where required cert files did not have required extension (.pem).
EEN-12722 EPHE-19753 Authentication The user was redirected to the 400 error page when trying to access the application after restarting Transact/Tomcat service.
EEN-19159 EPHE-25066 Batch Processing After upgrading Transact to v.4.5.0.2, the batches were opening slowly for review and some batch instances were not displayed on the Batch Instance Management screen.
EEN-19142 EPHE-25137 Batch Processing Batch instance uploaded for default BC1 batch class could not be updated and the document could not previewed on the RV screen in Linux environment.
EEN-19054 EPHE-23582 Batch Processing Duplicate pages were created in batch.xml leading to error in processing batches and causing mismatch of pages in the final exported PDF.
EEN-16977 EPHE-22737 Batch Processing In some cases, batches went into the Error state after validation reached 100% completion.
EEN-16648 EPHE-23088 Batch Processing Batches were stuck if multiple .xlsx files were dropped in the Drop Folder.
EEN-16447 EPHE-22960 Batch Processing It was possible for users to create a document type named “Unknown”. When such document types were deleted, they were still visible in the DB and at Review and Validation stage.
EEN-15187 EPHE-22114 Batch Processing During batch processing, the temp folder was not deleted and contained duplicate files for all original pages, which were also displayed at the Review stage.
EEN-15110 EPHE-22018 Batch Processing Batch instance record did not get updated, and its status remained “Running”, even though it could go into error in some module or even be successfully completed.
EEN-14947 EPHE-21922 Batch Processing Batch instances remained locked even after closing the batch instance tab.
EEN-14698 EPHE-21621 Batch Processing Batch instances remained stuck at 100% at the Clean-up module without changing the status to Finished.
EEN-14504 EPHE-21603 Batch Processing Batches were not sent into error, even though batch.xml files got corrupted due to network issues.
EEN-14354 EPHE-20472 Batch Processing Batches went into error as overlaid images were not generated due to mismatch of page count in multipage PDF and batch.xml.
EEN-13978 EPHE-20970 Batch Processing In some cases, batches could not be restarted using web service / API call, but could be restarted from GUI.
EEN-11637 EPHE-18661 Batch Processing Some batches were still in Ready for Review / Ready for Validation state even after they had been reviewed / validated.
EEN-19356 EPHE-25244 Export Exporting data containing a backward slash (\) caused DB Export plugin to fail.
EEN-18781 EPHE-24426 Export Batch instances were stuck in the Running mode when a large number of number of files was processed for a single document type.
EEN-18330 EPHE-23626 Export Large batches errored out in Export module when using GENERATE_BOD_XML plugin.
EEN-14932 EPHE-21754 Export Specific batch classes failed to be exported to the database.
EEN-18803 EPHE-24568 Extraction Force Review (Alternate Values) functionality was not working when fields were mapped against FuzzyDB and returning multiple values, causing batch instance processing to fail.
EEN-16864 EPHE-22893 Extraction Field fuzzy search results were cached and displayed even after doing other fuzzy searches returning no/different results.
EEN-14283 EPHE-21238 Extraction Some batches failed at extraction due to a Table Extraction error returned for certain files.
EEN-14035 EPHE-20886 Extraction Confirmed fuzzy search value changed on the Validation screen when the user moved on to another unconfirmed field.
EEN-14950 EPHE-21929 Folder Management 404 error was returned when trying to view xml files via Folder Management and empty file was received when trying to download them.
EEN-19147 EPHE-25032 Import Email import was failing due to a custom script issue, which prevented processing and import of the email body.
EEN-18717 EPHE-24400 Import Folder import was failing for PDF files created according to the e-invoicing standard “ZUGFeRD” (European standard for creating invoices).
EEN-17698 EPHE-23754 Import When using Alfresco v.5.0c, CMIS Import failed to change the old metadata value to a new value defined in the CMIS Import Configuration window causing the same batch to be picked up again and again.
EEN-14560 EPHE-21305 Import Email with invalid attachment was blocking the email import process.
EEN-14089 EPHE-21011 Import Error logs recorded intermittent IMAP connection errors, even though email import was working fine.
EEN-18677 EPHE-24151 Installation/ Upgrade Upgrade from Transact v.4.0.3.0 to v.4.5.0.0 with MariaDB was failing.
EEN-17234 EPHE-23545 Installation/ Upgrade When upgrading to Transact v. 4.5.0.2 or v.4.5.0.1 from v.4.5.0.0, some changes in the properties/js/xml files were lost.
EEN-16638 EPHE-23103 Installation/ Upgrade After the upgrade to Transact v.4.5.0.0, the field type of all index fields configured previously was changed to COMBO.
EEN-14791 EPHE-21799 Installation/ Upgrade When installing Transact v.4.5.0.0 in Linux environment, it was not possible to add existing ID and group. “Group exists” message was received and it was not possible to proceed without creating a new group.
EEN-17236 EPHE-23546 Licensing Transact version 4.5.0.0 is displayed on the License Details screen even after the upgrade to v.4.5.0.2.
EEN-14631 EPHE-21670 Machine Learning Batches remained stuck at Extraction module when using Machine Learning Based Extraction plugin.
EEN-18812 EPHE-24084 OCR The size of images converted by Recostar from PDF to TIFF was not sufficiently reduced causing the ephesoft-system-folder to grow too large.
EEN-18059 EPHE-23942 OCR There were performance issues after upgrading to Transact v.4.5.x due to Recostar updating PDI of images generated during PDF to TIFF conversion.
EEN-16313 EPHE-22841 OCR OCRing of some images by Nuance was stuck and consumed all available threads, preventing processing of further batches.
EEN-14308 EPHE-21183 OCR Incorrect values were read by Recostar OCR engine.
EEN-10416 EPHE-17680 OCR HOCR files contained junk characters for some PDF files.
EEN-9997 EPHE-17285 OCR In some cases, PDF files could not be processed by Recostar.
EEN-15511 EPHE-22516 Performance DB indexes to improve OCR performance needed to be created and added to the stored procedure table manually.
EEN-17571 EPHE-23697 Plugins Box plugin removed forward slash (/) from extracted metadata sent to the Box repository.
EEN-17511 EPHE-23510 Reporting Export Excel functionality failed to work in Reports returning 404 error.
EEN-17312 EPHE-23475 Reporting Incorrect records were displayed in the common module of the Throughput Reports.
EEN-15794 EPHE-22610 Reporting ETL jobs were failing due to Out Of Memory issue, and clean-up jobs were not running according to configured crons.
EEN-19296 EPHE-25352 Scripts When using a Function Key Script, the displayed value in the “Table” view (Method Name) was not consistent with displayed value in the “Field” view (Method Description).
EEN-17782 EPHE-23797 Security There was a vulnerability in Ghostscript related to -dSAFER

parameter used by Ephesoft Transact in Export module for PDF optimization.

EEN-17172 EPHE-23501 Security It was possible for the customer admin user to delete the scripts folder for the Transact 4Mortgage batch class and substitute it with exploit containing malicious code.
EEN-17154 EPHE-23499 Security It was possible for the customer admin user to delete files from any location inside the SharedFolders by modifying a Delete File request in Fiddler. The issue was reported for Transact 4Mortgage in AWS environment.
EEN-15131 EPHE-22015 Server The user needed to migrate Ephesoft JavaAppServer settings into their own Tomcat server.
EEN-15004 EPHE-22046 SSO/SAML A closing tag was missing for a parameter in the web.xml.
EEN-14991 EPHE-22022 SSO/SAML After the login with IDP, the user is redirected to Ephesoft Transact home page, however 500 error is returned when trying to open any other pages.
EEN-17009 EPHE-23371 Web Scanner The “Access Denied” pop-up message upon checking Scanner Service version compatibility was not clear and consistent across Transact releases.
EEN-16933 EPHE-22228 Web Scanner Scanning jobs went into error when the scanning session was kept active and open for over an hour.

Known Issues and Workarounds

For additional information and resolution to a few known issues, please refer to the following document in support of Ephesoft Transact 2019.1:

End of Life Notices

When a software release reaches end of life:

· Ephesoft does not provide new software licenses for that release.

· Ephesoft does not provide support services for that release, stops support for mentioned DBs and OS.

Item Description Notes
Ephesoft Transact versions Ephesoft Transact v.4.1.0.0 Ephesoft will no longer provide new software licenses or support services for this release.
Ephesoft Transact v.4.1.1.0 Minimum release that customers can upgrade from.
Operating Systems Microsoft® Windows Server 2008 R2 Discontinued support is related to Recostar upgrade to version 7.8 in this Transact release. Recostar v.7.8 does not support MS Windows server 2008 R2.
All Linux versions prior to 7.0 When upgrading to Transact v.2019.1 from an older application version in Linux environment, Ephesoft recommends to create a brand new environment installing a Linux version 7.0 or above that is supported by Transact v.2019.1.

After installing Transact v.2019.1 in this new Linux environment, the customer can then migrate items such as shared folders, databases, batch classes, and other components.

NOTE: There is no requirement enforced by the Ephesoft Transact v.2019.1 installer. The 2019.1 installer does not notify the administrator if the Linux environment is older than Linux version 7.0.

Databases Microsoft® SQL Server 2008 R2 Effective with Transact Release 2019.1, Ephesoft does not support this version of MS SQL Server.
MySQL 5.5 MySQL 5.5 is no longer bundled with Ephesoft Transact and does not get installed from the Transact installer as of Transact Release 2019.1 and beyond.

If the customer has an existing installation of MySQL from previous versions of Ephesoft Transact, they can upgrade MySQL (version 5.5) to supported version of MariaDB (preferably, version 10.3.10). The upgrade procedure for Windows is outlined below.*

MariaDB versions prior to 10.2.1 MySQL 5.5 is no longer bundled with Ephesoft Transact and does not get installed from the Transact installer as of Transact Release 2019.1 and beyond.
MySQL is no longer supported with Ephesoft Transact due to the OEM EOL plan and architectural changes to the Transact databases that are not supported by MySQL. We recommend MySQL customers install and migrate data over to a supported version of MariaDB (preferably, version 10.3.10). The upgrade procedure for Windows is outlined below.*

* To upgrade from MySQL 5.5 to MariaDB 10.3.10:

– Stop Ephesoft server.

– Take backup of database folders located under MySQL\MySQL Server 5.5\data.

– Stop MYSQL services and uninstall MySQL 5.5.62.

– Install MariaDB 10.3.10 on your machine.

– Check if MYSQL services are already running. If so, stop and copy the backup DB folder under (MariaDB 10.3\data) along with ibdata1,iblogfile0 and iblogfile1 files.

– Start MYSQL services. The backup data should be restored successfully and all the batches executed earlier should be visible on the Batch Instance Management screen.

For more information on Ephesoft Transact versions support and EOL notices, refer here.

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