BCD Tech Blog

This is a followup to our October 19, 2011 Minimum OS/400 Release Level Notification for BCD products.

As of later this month V5R4 will be the minimum OS/400 release level supported by most BCD product releases as well as any software updates we create.

The following versions of our products are the last releases that can be installed on OS/400 V5r3:

• WebSmart ILE 9.0
• WebSmart PHP 4.0
• Clover 3.0
• Presto 3.8
• Catapult 7.71
• Nexus 4.03
• ProGen Plus 9.6
• Spool-Explorer/400 4.52
• File-Flash Plus 4.5
• DbGen 2.5
• Docu-Mint 6.6

If you have any questions or concerns please contact Technical Support.

Catapult 7.7 is now available for download. This version includes several significant fixes to issues recently reported by customers. There are no changes other than the fixes listed below, so if you are at a recent release, there should be minimal risk of this upgrade affecting your existing rules. Contact Technical Support if you have any questions on this!

These are the fixes in Catapult 7.71:

• Resolved an issue where errors during post-processing delete of spooled files were not being reported correctly Read more…

As part of our ongoing development strategy and planning efforts here at BCD we are scheduling future internal IBM i system upgrades. This will affect the minimum OS/400 release level supported by BCD products. Our product line currently requires a minimum OS/400 release level of V5R3. As of January 1, 2012 V5R4 will be the minimum OS/400 release level supported by most BCD products and updates released after that date.

As our products continue to evolve and new products are introduced it is generally our intention to keep in step with IBM OS/400 release levels, while also giving our clients enough time to plan for this change. This allows us to develop using current technology and to make this technology available to you in our product family.

IBM discontinued support for V5R3 on April 30, 2009.

If you have any questions or concerns please contact Technical Support.

Catapult 7.7 is now available for download. This updated version of Catapult includes several dozen fixes and changes, mostly for issues reported by customers over the last few months.

You can find a complete list of fixes at our website, but highlights include:

• Added new spool file identifiers introduced in V5R2.
• Fixed a problem resequencing rules with very large numbers.
• Implemented enhanced searching for spool files from the console.
• Fixed a blank error message when a spool file fails to load (CPF3492).
• Fixed a problem that was causing the cache to get corrupted.
• Fixed a problem where a failure to load a rule would cause the poller to crash.
• Fixed a problem with the option to create separate emails.
• Fixed problems with corrupt console configurations.
• Moved the batch processing before document transformation, matching Catapult 6.
• Fixed some problems with improperly formed strings of multiple email addresses.
• The widths of columns in the main Console window will be retained between restarts.
• Added a new option for the Catapult Launchpad to start the Console automatically.
• Fixed some problems with splitting where pages would be missing.
• Fixed an inconsistency between version 6 and 7 with unassigned segments not being combined into a single email.
• Adjusted the trimming so that leading whitespace in User Data fields are retained.

If you are upgrading from version 6.x, use these instructions, which will guide you through setting up an upgrade test environment. If you are at any release of Catapult 7 you can use the much simpler Catapult 7.x to 7.7 upgrade instructions. Let us know if you need a myBCDSoftware.com login to access these guides.

If you have any questions about Catapult 7, or this update in particular, please get in touch!

Join us for a webinar on EZ-Pickin’s, Catapult and Spool-Explorer tomorrow, March 10th,  at 1:00 EST.

EZ-Pickin’s empowers financial, sales and other staff members to unlock the vast amounts of critical data buried in spool files, reports, documents and database files and turn it into data they can use now. Your users can now get timely and accurate data with no programming skills or assistance from the IT department needed.

Attend this to learn how EZ-Pickin’s helps you save time, reduce printing costs and make better decisions by doing the following:

• Convert IBM i spool files to Excel spreadsheets, PDF and other formats
• Extract and mine data from virtually any type of report or database file
• Turn reports into live interactive views to analyze, summarize and graph data
• Email or archive reports automatically or manually*

Promotion: Purchase EZ-Pickin’s and get Spool-Explorer Free! Attend the webinar to learn more details.

Register now!

We’ve released Catapult 7.63, a new Catapult client side update which addresses a reported issue with page breaks being stripped out during full document splitting. The most evident symptom of this problem is that a multi-page PDF would display just a single page.

In order to install this version you need to be running at least 7.61 on the server.

Using Full Document Splits
Full document splits were most often used in older versions of Catapult as a ‘workaround’ approach to extracting report data values. In more modern versions of Catapult you can extract data values without splitting, so we no longer recommend this processor-intensive technique. Read more…

We have released Catapult 7.61. Included in the many recent improvements to Catapult is an important security fix. I encourage you to upgrade soon.

Catapult 7.61
Catapult 7.61 is now available for download. This update includes the following changes:

• Improved support for very large spool files (500MB+ in size).
• Resolved an issue with some upgraded version 6 rules that used the Full Document option for splitting.
• Removed the Catapult Poller ‘Audit’ option.
• Resolved issues with date and time stamps for rules not updating correctly.
• Resolved some iSeries installation issues.

Upgrade Now!
We strongly urge you to upgrade to the latest release as soon as you can. Read more…

Catapult 7.6 is now available for download. This updated version of Catapult includes some minor new features and dozens of fixes. The new features include:

• Catapult is now using EXODUS51 for communication. (Please note the new subsystem is started with STRSBS XL_EX51/EXODUS51.) As a result of this change Catapult no longer requires the QSECOFR profile for installation. Exodus51 also provides more informative messages when connection issues occur.
• Added a Help menu option to launch GoToMeeting sessions.
• Added the ability to specify parameters in the batch file path (EZP) which permits flexible output file naming.

Read more…

Catapult 7.43 is now available for download. This updated version of Catapult includes the following changes:

• Resolved issue where distribution errors prevented archiving of split segments.
• Resolved issue where the ZRUNRULE or ZDSTSPLF command would report that a spool file was not *SCS, when it fact it was.
• Resolved issue where illegal characters in the archive path caused an error.
• Resolved issue where upon adding documents to the email body, the email would include a row of asterisks (intended to separate multiple reports) even when only 1 was included.
• Resolved issue where emails were permanently stuck in pending status.
• Resolved issue where Catapult 7 wasn’t using the timeout/notify feature of the ZRUNRULE command.
• Resolved issue where web paths (for email text/html links) didn’t check for a trailing slash.
• Resolved issue where a crash exception was occuring when viewing Header/Footer category.

Catapult 7.43 is an updated version of the recently released Catapult 7. You can find additional details about Catapult 7 at our web site, where you can also view the recorded new features webinar. [Note: We had a problem with the audio on this webinar. When you click the link, wait a few seconds for it to buffer, then fast-forward to about the 2:30 mark.]

If you have any questions about Catapult 7, or this update in particular, please get in touch!