What's new in V9

This topic provides you the list of Volt MX V9 Iris & Foundry What's new features, enhancements, & defects' fix list with detailed information of each component.

For detailed information in a specific component, see below.

• Volt MX Iris

• Volt MX Foundry

Note: See all the defects' fix list here.

Volt MX Iris

Storyboard View In Volt MX Iris

Storyboard view in Volt MX Iris enables a user to view all the application forms in a single view, organize the application flow and manage the navigation logic. You can use this feature to define simple navigation actions between various forms in a project. You can also create forms within App Groups in Storyboard view.

For more information on this feature, click here.

Volt MX Frame Work

The Volt MX test framework enables users to record any activity on the application and generate test scripts. Further, the dashboard provides an overview of the last five tests that have been executed and an option to play recorded tests, then automate these tests as part of the continuous testing lifecycle through our DevOps platform. The testing framework also allows you to build atomic test cases that can be reused as part of larger test suites and test plans.

For more information on this feature, click here.

Client-Side Workflow

Easily create Client-side business logic using the new client-side workflow in Iris. The Client- side workflow can be launched from the Storyboard view and can be created following an event driven design in a workflow editor using drag & drop actions to design a visual workflow of the client side business rules.

For more information on the Workflow support, click here.

Rapid App Generation

Adding to its many existing productivity features, Iris now enables users to rapidly generate simple applications with CRUD based forms from objects in a database or a data model. In a few simple steps users can import data from an excel, csv or from a database and generate applications that allows users to view, create, update and delete data.

For more information about this feature, click here.

Volt MX Collab

The Collab feature helps developers who use Git as the collaboration tool to avoid conflicts while working on the same Iris project. Collab notifies the developers who work on the same file or the same project and highlights possible conflicts.

For more information on this feature, click here.

Generate An App Binary For The Volt MX App Viewer App

A new menu option, Customize Volt MX App, is added in the Build Menu of Volt MX Iris. When this menu option is selected, Volt MX Iris internally checks for NFIs in the app. If there are no NFIs, the QR code to download the Volt MX App Viewer App is generated. If the app uses NFIs, the Build process packages the NFIs with the app and generates a binary that you can view on the Volt MX App Viewer App.

For more information on this feature, click here.

Build Native Apps Locally

You can now build native apps on a local machine A new option, Build Native Local, is added in the Build menu of Volt MX Iris. Use this menu option to build native app binaries in Volt MX Iris and store the binaries on a local machine.

For more information on this feature, click here.

Build a Universal Windows Platform App

You can generate a Universal Windows Platform app binary using the Build Native Local option in the Build menu of Volt MX Iris. You must configure the required settings and certificates in the Windows Native settings before you build the application.

For more information on generating a Windows native app, click here.

Data & Services Panel Enhancements

Several enhancements were made to the Data & Services Panel.

Volt MX Foundry Node Moved to the Data & Services Panel

For more information about this feature, click here.

Disable/Enable the Categorization of Project Services

For more information about this feature, click here.

Enhanced Discoverability of Data Storage Object Services

For more information about this feature, click here.

Configure an Object Data Model by Importing an Excel File

For more information about this feature, click here.

Simplified Data Storage Object Service Invocation

For more information about this feature, click here.

Support for Enumeration Data Type in Object Data Model

For more information about this feature, click here.

Customize the Generation of Data Model Objects

For more information about this feature, click here.

Dynamic Customization of Data Model Objects

For more information about this feature, click here.

Generation of Object Services UI for Responsive Web

For more information about this feature, click here.

Mapping Editor Enhancements

Set Data for the Segment in a Component

Auto-generate Templates and widgets for a Segment in a Component.

For more information about this enhancement, click here.

Create a Template from a Default Segment Template

Create a customized template from an auto-generated segment template.

For more information about this feature, click here.

Set Data for the Widgets in the Section Header Template of a Segment

Map the widgets of the Section Header Template of a Segment by using the Mapping Editor.

For more information about this feature, click here.

Set Data for Components with Contract

Use the Mapping Editor to create data mappings among various forms, components with contract, and widget elements as well as global variables.

For more information about this feature, click here.

Action Editor Enhancements

From Volt MX Iris V9, while adding actions to widgets present in your app, the Action Editor now opens in a new modal window. The window contains three sections: A list of all the actions in the left pane, the Action Editor Canvas in the middle, and a properties pane on the right. There are three different views in which the Action Editor is displayed: Diagram, Design, and Code. The default view is the Diagram View, which represents the action sequence in a graphical flow structure. The existing view of the Action Editor is the Design View. The Code View displays the action sequence in JavaScript format.

For more information about this feature, click here.

Several new actions are added for widgets:

• Modify Local Variable
• Loop

• Try-Catch block

• String operations

• Set Timeout, Clear Timeout

• Get Local Storage

• Set Local Storage

• Phone Call

Consolidation of Service Invocation Actions

From Volt MX Iris V9, the service invocation action feature in the Action Editor has been revamped to include an Invoke a Service action that contains the option to invoke all types of services (Identity, Integration, Orchestration, Object Services) from one place.

For more information about this feature, click here.

Search Functionality and UX Updates

New fuzzy search functionality has been added to search for actions in the Action Editor. In addition, various user experience enhancements have been made in the Action Editor, such as a new error message banner, color differentiation of the main flow diagram and the nested flow, support for Rename Action Sequences, and display Help text for Actions.

For more information about this feature, click here.

Android Enhancements

• From Volt MX Iris V9, support for Android X is added in Volt MX Iris. Further, a few enhancements are made to the following APIs.

• The requestPermissionSet API has been added in the voltmx.application namespace to request the user for a set of permissions before they can access the resources of the device.

• The Geofencing feature has been enhanced to receive better location updates in the background.

• The startForegroundService, updateForegroundNotification, and stopForegroundService APIs have been added in the voltmx.application namespace to start, update, and stop a foreground service to run user initiated actions when an app is either running in the background or when the device is locked.

• The retrieveSMS, clearSMSListeners, and generateAppHashKey APIs have been added in the voltmx.phone namespace to automate the user authentication process by using a one time password (OTP). From Volt MX Iris V9, 64-bit architecture is the default architecture for Android builds.

  For more information about this feature, click here.

• The Local Authentication APIs have been enhanced to support additional biometrics such as Face and Iris based authentication along with touch-based authentication.

  For more information on Local Authentication APIs, click here.

Project Settings Enhancements

The Project Settings section is enhanced to port a few features from Iris Classic into Volt MX Iris. New settings introduced are Android Wear Settings, Platform Settings for iOS, and General Tab in the Adaptive Web Settings.

For more information about this feature, click here.

Connect Volt MX Iris to an on-premise Volt MX Foundry Environment

From Volt MX Iris V9, an option to sign in to an on-premise Volt MX Foundry environment has been provided in the Volt MX Foundry section of the Preferences tab.

For more information about this feature, click here.

Resolve Conflicts in Designer and Developer actions

From Volt MX Iris V9, if there are any conflicts in the actions of a widget or form when a project is imported from Iris Classic, Volt MX Iris provides an option to resolve these conflicts in bulk at the time of import or by widget during later stages of the app's development. This feature has been introduced to support the porting of actions from Iris Classic into Volt MX Iris.

For more information about this feature, click here.

Responsive Support For Collections

From Volt MX Iris V9, you can create instances of components and add responsive properties within responsive forms. When you add such instances to a collection library, the responsive properties that are configured along with the custom breakpoints do not change; even when you reuse them in a different project or form via the Collection Library.

For more information about this feature, click here.

Support For Responsive Web Components

From Volt MX Iris V9, you can create components with different breakpoints for responsive web apps. You can create layouts for different breakpoints and then insert it into a responsive web form.

For more information on using responsive web components, click here.

Support For On Breaking PointChange Event In Components

From Volt MX Iris V9, the onBreakpointChange event has been added to Responsive Web components. When you select a Component that has been designed for Responsive Web Breakpoints, the event appears in the Action tab of the Properties panel in Volt MX Iris.

For more information on this feature, click here.

Custom Widget Support

From Volt MX Iris V9, developers can import custom 3rd party web libraries into SPA and Desktop Web applications to generate a widget or a component.

For more information about this feature, click here.

PDF View Widget

From iOS 11, a new widget to view PDFs on iOS devices is added. In previous versions of Volt MX Iris, the Browser widget was used to render the PDF content. You can load a PDF using the PDFView widget via a URL or a file Path.

For more information on PDF Viewer, click here.

Image Recognition API And Widget

Image Classification API

Image Classification is a technique used to classify real time objects based on the trained model categories. Using the Image Classification API, a developer can identify the name, label, entity or category of an object based on the image captured either from the device camera or by using an image from the device gallery.

For more information, click here.

MLCamera widget

From Volt MX Iris V9, you can use the MLCamera widget and Image Classification APIs to implement image recognition in your application. Using this capability, you can scan and classify real- world objects.

For more information, click here.

Augmented Reality API And Widget

VoltMX.ui.ARRenderer API

A new VoltMX.ui.ARRenderer API is added in this release. The ARRenderer API creates the ARRenderer widget. The AR Renderer widget occupies some space on a form depending on its positional and dimensional properties.

For more information on the VoltMX.ui.ARRenderer API, click here.

ARRenderer widget

From Volt MX Iris V9, you can use the ARRenderer widget to implement augmented reality in your application. Using this widget, you can scan an area and then add a 3D object to that area.

For more information on the AR Renderer widget, click here.

Widget Enhancements For Responsive Web

Zooming support for Map for Responsive Web

From Volt MX Iris V9, support for zoomLevel and showZoomControl properties of the Map widget has been added in the Responsive Web and SPA platforms. This feature helps users control the zoom feature of a map in Responsive Web and SPA platforms.

Microphone API for Responsive Web

From Iris V9, support for the voltmx.media.record API has been provided in the Responsive Web platform. This API helps your application to record audio.

Screen Recording and Screenshot APIs for Responsive Web

From Iris V9, the voltmx.screenrecorder namespace has been introduced to implement the screen record feature of WebRTC in Web apps. The voltmx.screenshot API has also been introduced to capture the whole web page or screen of your web application.

Widget Enhancements For Android Q

From Volt MX Iris V9, the hyphenationFrequency and breakStrategy properties have been introduced for the Android platform. This is to improve the text layout in the Label and RichText widgets. The hyphenationFrequency property specifies the periodicity of the word breaks in a text, and the breakStrategy property specifies the method of line breaking in paragraphs of text.

Support For CSS 3.0

From Volt MX Iris V9, the Responsive Web platform has added architectural updates to the CSS generation for improved performance. Following this, the platform has deprecated support for the contextMenu and blockedUISkin properties. In addition, the Adaptive Web and Responsive Web applications now support the textStyle property for the Label widget.

For more information, click here.

Cache Progressive Web Apps

From Volt MX Iris V9, two new caching strategies, cacheMechanism function and replace Service worker file, have been introduced. You can use these caching strategies to cache static and dynamic data from third-party services.

For more information about this feature, click here.

ControllerActions Files In Gitignore

For a form created using the Reference Architecture, Volt MX Iris creates a controlleractions.js file corresponding to the form. When the project is hosted on GIT, during the commit process, as Volt MX Iris creates the controlleractions.js file every time Iris restarts, GIT commits will result in conflicts. To avoid these conflicts, the controlleractions.js file commit process is modified, and now the file will automatically be added to the .gitignore folder.

For more information about this feature, click here.

Enhancements In Volt MX No SQL APIS

From Volt MX Iris V9, the following APIs have been added or enhanced:

• Added support for the voltmx.nosql.createIndices API and the [voltmx.nosql.deleteIndices] API. These APIs can be used to create and delete indices for a specific table in the database.
• Added the groupBymethod for the result object in the voltmx.nosql.fetchRecords API. The API enables a developer to group records depending on a specified condition.

Web format support for images

From Volt MX Iris V9, Iris supports the WebP format for images in the SPA and the Desktop Web platforms.

For more information about this feature, click here.

Productivity Features

VoltMX Iris V9 includes many new developer productivity features like Enhanced performance on Project load, refresh and form load. Simplified the first time user experience. Search for marketplace components in the Component library.

Digital Experiences

This release packages some sample applications to showcase modern digital experiences integrated within Iris like Chatbot for native & web apps & Augmented Reality using the native AR frameworks.

Security Enhancements

Security of applications is always our highest priority. With this release we have added Web Obfuscation and protection capabilities with our new & best in class protected mode for Web.

Support for Edge with Chromium

Continuing with our support for the latest in web and native technologies, we have certified support for the latest Microsoft Edge browser using the Chromium engine.

Volt MX Foundry

Workflow

VoltMX Foundry V9 introduces a BPMN 2.0 compliant visual workflow editor as a Foundry back-end service. Workflow provides a simplified low code approach for server-side business processes to create an application workflow. The server-side workflow supports features like validation rules for changing states, setting security policies, updating third party systems, and sending user notifications.

For more information about this feature, click here.

Rules as a Service

VoltMX Foundry V9 introduces Rules as a first-class service in Foundry. You can create new Rules services and invoke them from the client app or integrate them with workflow for a conditional logic. Rule logic can be configured and updated at runtime from a business administration application.

For more information about this feature, click here.

AWS S3 and Cloudian adapters

New Adapters for working with files in AWS S3 and Cloudian Storage have been added. Both the adapters are based on the new File System Adapter framework. These adapters can be invoked by the clients to securely upload/download content per user/group into a mounted drive on the client's premises or on the Cloud.

For more information about S3 File Storage, click here and for Cloudian File Storage, click here.

Automatic Generation of Object model from MS Excel

VoltMX Storage object service provides you the ability to create your own database schema on the relational database hosted on Volt MX Cloud. You can create a data model for objects in an Object Service by importing the column data in MS Excel.

For more information about this feature, click here.

Server-side events

Developers can create or listen to events from Foundry services, request or response or custom code.

For more information about this feature, click here.

Concurrent behavior in Identity services

You can now control the concurrent behavior of the users in an Identity service. Out of the box configuration options are added to the Identity services to achieve this feature.

For more information about this feature, click here.

Granular feature level access

You can define granular access to specific features of your Foundry Cloud environment, such as the ability to build only Client App, ability to access only App Services, ability to access only the Engagement services, or only the Logging Console, and so on. The Feature Level Access Permissions (Custom Access) functionality is supported only for Foundry Cloud.

For more information about these features, click here.

Multiple Java Pre-processor and Post-processor

You can now define multiple Pre-Processors and Post-Processors for services to make the custom code modular and extendible.

For more information about this feature, click here.

Improved App Key Management

You can now have different App Key and App Secret for Native and Web apps for enhanced security of the apps. Added the ability to rotate the keys to improve security.

For more information about this feature, click here.

Enhanced Relational Database Adapter

You can access external databases using a developer written query. Support for transactions has been added by providing the Transaction Manager. The user interface is simplified to configure Relational Database Services.

For more information about this feature, click here.

Enhanced Enterprise App Store

EAS has been enhanced to leverage the Volt MX Engagement Services for sending manual push messages to all registered devices, or to a subset of devices, based on the device ID.

For more information about this feature, click here.

Added the ability to access the Enterprise App Store from Desktop Web. For more information about this feature, click here.

Analytics Enhancements

• You can now export standard chart-based reports in excel format.

  For more information about this feature, click here.

• Added the ability to download the complete crash log from the Application Error Detail Report on Cloud.

  For more information about this feature, click here.

• Added support to install a new version app link while launching the Volt MX Foundry Mobile App.

• Deprecating support to the older version of Volt MX Foundry Mobile App.

  For more information about this feature, click here.

Enhanced Email API

• Added the ability to use templates to send emails.

• Added the ability to send email attachments (an existing file or a file downloaded from a signed URL) using the Email API.

  For more information about these enhancements, click here.

• Enhanced the Engagement console with email attachment related configurations.

  For more information, click here.

Support for Salesforce SMS Aggregator

Added support for the Salesforce SMS aggregator to send SMS messages in the Console and by using APIs.

For more information about this feature, click here.

Application API key

Added support to enable the use of a static key approach to send push notifications to an associated app via the engagement console and APIs. This static key can also be used to invoke other non-app specific APIs if the user has the correct set of permissions.

For more information about this feature, click here.

VoltMX AppFactory

• Build and publish apps across clouds and cloud accounts using AppFactory.
• Allows you to build and publish apps to Docker images and Azure Cloud from the AppFactory console.

• Run your Jasmine test scripts on AppFactory for Native apps, Responsive web apps, and Progressive web apps as part of your build process on native devices or on the latest Google Chrome browser.

• Receive comprehensive results from each Jasmine Test run via email or review your test in AppFactory’s testing console.

• The Jasmine testing framework is incompatible with the Cordova and web browser widgets with this release.

• The Jasmine testing framework cannot test OAuth based logins with this release.

  For more information about this feature, click here.

• The Cloud Build and AppFactory analytics have been moved into Metrics DB.

• Added support for building pre-processors and post-processors.

• Improved the user interface for builds.

  For more information about this feature, click here.

• Improved result emails including build notes generated from git commits.

  For more information about this feature, click here.

• Added support for generating the 32bit binaries and x86 architecture supported binaries.

  For more information about this feature, click here.

• Added support for generating the Android App Bundle binary.

  For more information about this feature, click here