New in Version 7

If upgrading from or have had exposure to a previous version, here are some of the highlights that were introduced in version 7.

Significant new features:

The following is a list of new features that directly affect most users and administrators:

Better Amazon Web Services compatibility

Integration with Amazon SES SMTP and support for the Amazon Elastic Load Balancer provides for complete cloud-based installations. Please note that for Amazon SES, even though the Amazon documentation calls for TLS, they do in fact mean SSL and do not support StartTLS. This is being highlighted here as it can be very confusing.

Better documentation structure

The documentation has been split into guides that are more relevant for specific users. This cuts down the size of reading materials and allows for the specific documents to be better targeted. In addition, the rules reference is now a separate document that is built upon demand, based on the actual rules installed in the console.

Credentials Vault

The new credentials vault provides a central place to store user IDs, passwords, access keys and the like. This ensures that this sensitive information no longer needs to be stored directly within the rules in clear text. Instead, the relevant credentials are supplied to the rules engine in encrypted form as part of the deployment process.

Experimental spy cam feature

The spy cam feature provides a method for recording and visually playing back user interactions with a website. This feature is currently experimental and has a significant number of limitations. It is included in this version as a technology preview and has limited support.

Improved rules editor

The rules editor has been given a face lift with newer larger connection points, better graphics and an editing grid.

Improved rules help

Within the rules editor, any rule on the canvas can now be right-clicked to access the help documentation on that specific rule which was previously only found in the full product reference document.

On-demand test data collection

Test data is no longer collected by default. With the introduction of the built in browser proxy in version 6 there has been a steady decline in the need for the test server. Instead, there is now the ability to turn test data collection on and off on demand, providing a better balance between memory consumption and actual data needs.

Roles determine flight recorder visibility

User roles can now be used to grant/restrict access to specific flight recorders.

Rule changes

A number of new rules have been added (including the Filter rule and experimental rules to support HBase). The HTTP Servlet Execute rule has been renamed to HTTP Server Execute to make it more intuitive.

Rule search feature

Due to the large increase in rules over the years, the rules editor has now been equipped with a search feature that includes instant results based on search characters typed.

Updated user interface

The user interface has been given a face lift which includes new graphics, more consistent button icons and a better login experience.

Support for LDAP user authentication

Console users can now be authenticated against a central LDAP server

Significant technical changes:

The following is a list of major changes that are relevant to administrators and extension programmers.

Better password safeguards

By moving the various user IDs, access keys and passwords used by rules to access external services to the credentials vault, those items are no longer exposed to the rule writers and generic rule sets can be shared without the risk of also accidentally sharing restricted information. In addition, those credentials are now only transmitted to the rules engine in encrypted form.

Classpath changes

To facilitate the use of resource bundles and properties files for internationalization of rules engine output, the home folder of the rules engine is now included in the class path of the rules engine loader. This inclusion applies to individual files only, not JAR files.

Installers for extensions

All extensions now have the ability to include code that will be run upon installation and removal. This allows extensions to automatically create credential templates in the credential vault, install database drivers or perform other console related tasks as part of the install.

Internal database for configuration completely reworked

The console now makes use of a technology known as COOP (Change Oriented Object Persistence). This technology significantly reduces the time needed to add new features to the console. The database will now automatically adapt to the configuration objects instead of the other way around. There is a one-time conversion step where data is copied from the old table structure to COOP when first migrating from version 6 to version 7, but that will be the last database update ever needed for console configuration items.

Rules documentation delivered via extensions

Rules extensions now ship with the ability to include rule documentation. The rule documentation is automatically merged into the rules reference PDF document as part of the install process. It is also made available as a help feature in the rules editor. Please refer to the Programmer's Guide for more information.

SSL and TLS support for emails

Emails sent from both the rules engine and the console now support both SSL and StartTLS (Transport Layer Security with fall back) for SMTP emails.

Scripting support using TCL

The console can now be remotely managed by providing scripts in the TCL language via HTTP.