Upgrading, Migrating and Installing Fixes

Updating a Service Pack (from ApplinX Version 9.7 and above)

The upgrade process is similar to the installation process. Please refer to the webMethods Installer documentation, which you can find at http://documentation.softwareag.com/. When selecting the installation directory, ensure not to select the directory where ApplinX is currently installed (the default path is C:\SoftwareAG).

In the panel including the ApplinX specific parameters, browse and select the ApplinX license file.

Post-update Results

  • When opening the Software AG Designer, the default workspace will point to a new location. It is possible to select and use the workspace location from the previous version, and in this way preserve your preferences (such as ApplinX server connection list and ApplinX (Eclipse) preferences (Windows > Preferences > Software AG > ApplinX)) from the previous version. If you use the new workspace location, check that the preferences suit your needs.

  • From version 8.2, the batch and shell commands used to start and stop the server, and to start the Administrator are located in the <ApplinX installation>/bin folder.

Post-update Tasks

  • When using ApplinX web applications (JSP or .NET): Upgrade the web application using the ApplinX Web Application Manager in the Designer (refer to Framework Management in the Web Application Development documentation of ApplinX).

  • You may have made changes in your previous ApplinX version, in one of the following files. Backup copies of these files can be found (unless otherwise stated) in the ApplinX installation directory with the .bak suffix. To apply these changes to your current ApplinX version, you must copy the changes from within the backup files to the relevant file.

    • GXApplinXService.ini

    • bin/startup.bat

    • bin/startup.sh

    • bin/gxadmin.bat

    • bin/gxadmin.sh

    • config/gxadmin.prp

    • config/gxstartup.prp

Migrating

ApplinX applications from previous ApplinX versions are able to run on the current ApplinX version once you have performed a number of migration activities. The migration process has been tested for supported versions. Migration can be performed when installing the new ApplinX server version or via batch files after the new server has been installed.

The following topics are covered below:

Pre-Migration Steps and Prerequisites

  • Back up the repository database.

  • When using ApplinX .NET 1.1 web applications based on Visual Studio 2003, you will require installing Visual Studio 2008/2010.NET 2.0-4.0 as .NET framework 1.1 is no longer supported.

Migration

Migration can be carried out as follows:

Migration of all ApplinX applications when installing ApplinX

To migrate ApplinX applications during the installation process: In the screen where you select the ApplinX parameters, select the Migrate previous ApplinX data check box and specify the existing installation location.

graphics/wminstall4a.png

Migration of all ApplinX applications after installing ApplinX

To migrate all ApplinX applications after the installation has been completed: Run the <ApplinX root>\utilities\migrate_ApplinX_server.bat/sh file, enter the installation path of your previous installation, and then enter the new path of the current installation.

For example: migrate_ApplinX_server.bat "c:\ApplinX52" "c:\SoftwareAG\ApplinX"

Migration of a specific ApplinX application

To migrate a single ApplinX application from versions previous to 8.0:

  1. Export the relevant GXZ file of the application (the GXZ file in older versions (5 and below) includes both the application and the entities).

  2. Convert the GXZ file to a GXAR file (using <ApplinX root>/utilities/convert_gxz_to_gxar.bat). Refer to Convert Utility Batch File in the Administration documentation.

  3. Import the GXAR file into ApplinX 8.x. Refer to Importing an Application's Configuration or Entities in the Designing and Developing an Application documentation.

To migrate a single ApplinX application from version 8.x and above:

  1. Export the relevant GXAR file of the application (the GXAR file includes both the application and entities).

  2. Import the GXAR to the new version. Refer to Importing an Application's Configuration or Entities in the Designing and Developing an Application documentation.

Migration of ApplinX applications with external database

For ApplinX applications that use an external database (except JDBC-ODBC), the database type will be changed automatically to internal database. A message warns that there are applications containing a JDBC-ODBC database type that will not be migrated. You have two options:

  1. Choose OK to continue with the installation. ApplinX will migrate all applications except for the JDBC-ODBC types. The names of these applications will be written to a log.

  2. Choose Cancel to stop the installation, then modify those applications.

Start of instruction setTo modify JDBC-ODBC applications

  • Change the repository type to internal DB /gxz in the original ApplinX installation installed on your computer, and then restart the installation and migration.

Migration Results

The following is the outcome of the migration process and relates to migrating all ApplinX applications:

  • The entire old config folder (except for the http.xml file) is copied to the new installation location. The gxstartup.prp file from this folder is renamed to .bak, and the new gxstartup.prp file (from the new installation) is used.

  • The new config folder (from the new installation) is renamed to config.bak.

  • The entire host-applications folder is copied except for the demo applications. The demo applications from the new installation are used.

  • All database related jar/zip (classes*.zip, classes*.jar, *sql*, *db2*) are copied to the lib folder of the new installation. Note: any other DB driver should be copied manually to \ApplinX\applinx-web\WEB-INF\lib.

  • The batch and shell commands used to start and stop the server, and to start the Administrator are no longer located in the ApplinX installation folder. These files are now located in <ApplinX installation>/bin folder and are named startup.bat and shutdown.bat accordingly for the server, and gxadmin for the Administrator.

    The start-gxserver.bat/sh and gxadmin.bat/sh files from the previous ApplinX installation are copied to <ApplinX Installation>\bin and the gxstartup.prp and GXApplinXService.ini files are copied to <ApplinX Installation>. These files are renamed to *.bak.

    Notes:

    1. Any manual changes made in the previous ApplinX versions (such as language, file encoding, database jar etc.) must be backed up and copied to the new version.
    2. When migrating from APX 8.0, conf folder (internal Tomcat) is not copied from the old installation. Therefore any manual change made in this folder must be re-done again in the new conf folder.

Relevant for migrating from ApplinX versions before 8.0:

The following actions occur when the server is started for the first time after the migration process has been completed:

  • Each application (configured in config/gxconfig.xml), will be created as a separate file and copied to host-application/<application name>/gxconfig.xml. The original file config/gxconfig.xml will hold from now on only ApplinX server configuration and host definitions which are not in use by any application.

  • Replay files are copied to host-applications/<application name>/records and new recorded files are saved in this location.

  • If a file based repository (GXZ or MDB) is configured for the application, the repository is copied to host-applications/<application name>/db .

A post-migration report is written to the <ApplinX root>/log/gxlog.txt.

Note:
If the application name includes space characters, these are replaced by underscores, as space characters are not supported in versions from 8.0 and above. However, previous SOAP clients will be able to connect to old addresses which include spaces.

Post-migration Tasks

  • When opening ApplinX Designer, enter the name of a workspace directory. When upgrading from ApplinX version 8.0 and above, define a new workspace directory in order to be able to work with both versions.

Post-migration Tasks for Entities Created in Versions before 8.0

Note:
The following entities are still supported in runtime, but cannot be edited or changed, it is therefore strongly recommended to follow the guidelines below

Old Paths and Path Wrappers

Paths and Path Wrappers require a conversion process.

Note:
When converting a Path Wrapper, the path which is invoked by the path wrapper is also converted. When converting a Path which is invoked by a Path Wrapper, the Path Wrapper is also converted.

Start of instruction setTo convert

  1. Right-click on the Path or Path Wrapper and select Convert. The Conversion wizard is displayed. The first screen displays the name of the Path and Path Wrapper that are to be converted.

  2. Click Next.

  3. Warning Messages: The conversion process may detect that the Path/Path Wrapper which you are attempting to convert includes steps which need to be manually tweaked, after the conversion has been completed, or may include attributes or settings which cannot be converted. Read the warnings carefully to understand whether you are required to make changes after completing the conversion.

    • Path warning messages
      Warning messages appear when a path detects one of the following issues. Manual changes may be required for items that are not supported:

      • Path timeout (the conversion process does not support this).

      • Exception paths are not handled in the conversion process. Now, there can be only one Exception path per application, defined in the application properties.

      • "*lastup" field is not supported.

      • <any unexpected screen> is not supported.

      • Input values in "any screen" are not supported. It is recommended to define a Screen Group for these fields instead of mapping to ANY screen.

      • Inputs are not mapped when the input field is not found in either the source or target screen.

    • Path Wrapper warning messages
      The conversion process does not support collecting attribute data from within a specific instance of a screen. To preserve this setting, you need to manually define to collect data from this screen: when you know the specific instance, preserve the links to outputs in the relevant step and remove links to outputs within irrelevant steps.

    • Retrieving field colors using the Path Wrapper returned colors such as LightBlue and LightYellow in a single word. After the conversion these colors are returned as two words, separated with a space (i.e. Light Blue, Light Yellow).

    • It is only possible to convert a Path Wrapper that invokes an old Path. Path Wrappers which invoke Path Procedures cannot be automatically converted.

    • The Always collect last screen option, if selected, is ignored in the conversion process.

    Click Next.

  4. When ApplinX detects that an entity with the name of the entity that you are trying to convert, already exists, you are required to enter a different name. Click Next.

  5. The Summary screen is displayed. Here you can see the entities that are to be converted. Select whether to open these entities in the Editor once the conversion process is completed.

Path-based Tables

Old Path based tables are still supported in runtime, but cannot be edited or changed. It is recommended to convert the path used by the table.

  1. Right-click on the path and select Convert.

  2. The table must be represented as a Data Structure array in the path procedure output. In order to do this, one must first define a Data Structure type (entity) that will represent a single row in the table. Follow these steps to do this:

    1. In the relevant ApplinX screen, add a Table definition of the tabular data. This allows you to easily create a Data Structure entity and map data to the procedure output.

    2. In the relevant step, right-click the screen table and select Create Data Structure.

    3. Select the Path Procedure root node and then define an output as an array of the newly created structure type.

    4. In the mapper, drag the screen table onto the data structure array output. Ensure that all of the table columns are properly mapped to the arrays attributes.

    5. Create a Procedure Group and assign the path procedure to it.

    6. Generate a Procedure Client into the web project (refer to Generating a Procedure Client in the Designing and Developing an Application documentation).

    7. In the relevant web page, replace the gx_fillTable code with code that executes and binds the procedure result to the HTML table (refer to Binding Procedure Outputs to an ApplinX Framework Based Web Page in the Web Application Development documentation).

    Examples for collecting tables can be found in CompositeDemo (BrowseCustomers1.jsp/aspx) or SOADemo (CustomerList.jsp/aspx).

Map Paths

All map paths are automatically merged into a single Application Map during the repository synchronization (refer to Application Map in the Designing and Developing an Application documentation). The Map paths are removed and each step in them is assigned to its relevant screen. These steps appear in the screen editor, in the Map Steps tab.

Note:
Advanced usage in the old Map path flow tab or dynamic variables is currently not supported in the new Application Map. Refer to Application Map in the Designing and Developing an Application documentation for further details.

Namespaces

The Namespace entity is deprecated. It is not possible to create new Namespaces, however, in procedure groups you can still specify a Namespace. A migrated application that had Data Structures (Business entity in 5.2 and lower) that were associated with namespaces still refers to them, but this reference is not displayed and is not editable. Procedure groups display the namespace name and allow you to edit the name.

Procedure Groups

If you have Procedure Groups in the repository, their SOAP clients are redirected to WS-Stack. Set each procedure group to automatically be deployed to WS-Stack (in the Procedure Group editor).

Note:
For performance improvements, it is recommended to regenerate all your SOAP clients. For automatic deployment of the web services to WS-Stack, the application initialization mode should be set to "Automatic".

Tables

Sorting functionality in tables is no longer provided.

Procedure Clients

When working with an application which included space characters in the application name, you are required to manually change the application name in each of the Procedures Clients, replacing the space character with an underscore.

Post-migration Web Application Tasks

JSP:

  1. Ensure that you have:

  2. It is recommended to import/copy the web applications from older Eclipse versions to the lastest version of the Software AG Designer (based on Eclipse 4.5 technology), as this is the common Software AG development tool, used with other Software AG products such as ApplinX, EntireX, CentraSite and Integration Server.

  3. Upgrade the web application using the ApplinX Web Application Manager in the Designer (refer to Framework Management in the Web Application Development documentation).

  4. Compile the JSP project:

    • With IDE (from Eclipse or any other IDE)

    • Without IDE (make.bat)

Note:
When working with an application which included space characters in the application name, you are required to manually change the application name in the web application (e.g. in GXBasicWebForm.jsp file, or in the Framework Configuration Editor, in the Application name parameter).

.NET:

  1. Visual Studio 2003 and .NET 1.1 Users: Visual Studio 2003/.NET 1.1 applications should be migrated to Visual Studio 2008/2010.NET 2.0-4.0 using Microsoft's Visual Studio automatic converter.

  2. It is recommended to convert from .NET project type "Web Project" to "Web Site" as from the current version ApplinX generates .NET web pages based on the "Web Site" format and file structure.

  3. Upgrade the web application using the ApplinX Web Application Manager in the Designer (refer to Framework Management in the Web Application Development documentation).

  4. Compile (relevant for .NET "Web Projects" type projects):

    • With IDE (from Visual studio)

    • Without IDE (make.bat)

Note:
When working with an application which included space characters in the application name, you are required to manually change the application name in the web application (e.g. in GXBasicWebForm.cs/GXBasicWebForm.vb file, or in the Framework Configuration Editor, in the Application name parameter).

Installing a Fix using Scripts

Fixes are available for UNIX and Window on the Software AG Empower website. Follow the instructions below when downloading the fix from Empower.

Note that when applying a fix, you must make sure that the installed ApplinX version is of the same service pack as the fix version, i.e. that the first three digits are the same (e.g. 9.5.1).

Start of instruction setTo install a fix

  1. The fix will install and add all the necessary new files to your existing ApplinX installation.

  2. Before starting the fix installation, close ApplinX and Eclipse and stop the ApplinX service.

  3. To start the fix installation process, extract the fix zip file to the existing ApplinX directory: For example: C:\SoftwareAG\ApplinX. A new directory is created: \hotfix-<hot fix version>.

  4. To install the fix, just run install-hotfix.bat on Windows platforms, or install-hotfix.sh on UNIX platforms. On Windows platforms: Check that the ECLIPSE_PATH parameter is pointing to the desired Eclipse installation location and that you have removed the rem remark indication.

  5. During the fix installation, a backup folder will be created containing the original files from before the update (backup-for-hotfix-<hot fix version>).

  6. After the fix installation, a log is created with a list of all the copied files (install.hotfix.log).

  7. Upgrade the web application using the ApplinX Web Application Manager in the Designer (refer to Framework Management in the Web Application Development documentation).

Note:
It is possible to uninstall the fix. This will revert all updated files to their original state. To uninstall the fix, just run uninstall-hotfix.bat on Windows platforms, or uninstall-hotfix.sh on UNIX platforms. After the fix uninstallation, a log is created with a list of all copied files (uninstall.hotfix.log).

Upgrading the ApplinX Server

When upgrading the ApplinX server - for example when applying a fix or during migration - you will need also to upgrade the web application as well. If the client and server versions do not match, you will get the following error message:
"Error 6002- Version mismatch.
The application version [<version>] does not match the server version [<version>]. Server version must be equal to the application version.
Action: Upgrade the web application."