ASNA Monarch release notes

Version: 11.4.43.0 - Generally Available (for production environments)

Release date: 2024-10-21

Important notices

If upgrading from an earlier version please obtain a new license code from ASNA after installation.

What’s New

• Enhanced support for Free Format RPG
• Procedure-scoped field and DS declaration.
• NOMAIN modules
• Enhanced Embedded SQL Support
• INCLUDE CL command
• Ability to Rename Fields and Subroutines (including converting procedures that are not external to simplified subroutines)
• INFDS “status” support
• Optimized Data Agent, including enhanced support for multi-member files

DataGate Studio and DataGate Monitor

• Export/import of Database Name config files with secure, two-factor encryption for deployments.

DataGate Client

• Support runtime elimination of clear-text passwords via .NET SecureString.
• Encrypted local storage of Database Name connection details.
• *DOMAIN authentication enhancements (“Negotiate” protocol support, to eliminate “NTLM” from Active Directory networks).
• IPV6 support (server-only enhancement, all past & present .NET DG clients can take advantage of this).

Web Controls

• New Calendar with more modern look (for DDS date fields)

Known Issues

DataGate Studio

• File definition wizard for SQL Logical files crashes Visual Studio. Workaround: The crash can be avoided if DataGate Explorer connections used in the wizard dialogs are first opened in the DataGate Explorer window.
• New connections are not found by DataGate Studio controls. Workaround: To avoid this error, restart the DG Studio IDE before using newly-added connections.
• DataGate File Definition Projects: The “New -> Project…” command is changed in Visual Studio 2019 with a wizard-like dialog, allowing you to filter languages, platforms, and other criteria. In this release, DataGate projects are not listed as available project types via the filter drop-down selection mechanism.
  To access DataGate projects, enter the word “DataGate” in the search box to the right of the “Create a new project” banner on the dialog page.
  The available Datagate project templates (possibly among other irrelevant templates) should appear in the list below the filter selections.
  Select the DataGate template of choice and click “Next”.

Web Controls

• A Monarch Display File with a subfile where DblClickTargetValue DdsSubfileControl’s property is used on a field indicated by dblClickTargetField where the corresponding subfile field is of InputStyle=“CheckBox” does not get its CheckedValue when the record in the subfile is double-clicked.

Shared components

ASNA Monarch 10.0, ASNA Wings 10.0 and ASNA Mobile RPG 10.0 share some components to produce their user interface. These components are distributed with AVR and WebPak 16.0. The shared components are:

• The Monarch Server Controls (i.e.: DdsRecord, DdsCharField, DdsChart …)
• The ASNA 5250 Terminal Emulator

Installation Notes

Monarch 10.0 can be installed on a machine with the previous version (Monarch 9.0) if so desired. Any earlier products may cause conflicts if you have installed other ASNA products from our 14.0 and 8.0 product families (e.g. Visual RPG 14.0, Wings 8.0), please remove them prior to installation, or upgrade them before or after upgrading to Monarch 10.0.

ASNA Monarch 10.0 may be installed as a stand-alone product, or it may be installed along side ASNA Visual RPG 16.0. ASNA Monarch 10.0 is not compatible with ASNA Visual RPG 14.0 or earlier. Please consider upgrading to ASNA Visual RPG 16.0 before installing ASNA Monarch 10.0.

Installing Microsoft’s latest service packs, high priority and optional software updates for Windows and the .NET Framework is highly recommended.

Windows optional update KB3118401 is required for correct operation of version 16.0.

Platform support

See the ASNA Version Policy for full requirements

You can only install one version of an ASNA Windows product on a single PC. For example, you can’t install ASNA Visual RPG for .NET 17.x on a PC on which ASNA Visual RPG for .NET 16.x is installed.

General installation tips

• We strongly recommend you apply all pending Windows updates before installing any of our Windows products.

• Don’t install any ASNA Windows products while Visual Studio is running.

• For our products that snap into Visual Studio (ie, Visual RPG for .NET Framework, Wings, Mobile RPG, etc.) be sure to install Visual Studio first.

Supported Web browsers, smartphones, and tablets

Please see this asna.com article for ASNA’s browser and mobile client support.

Database Name change

DataGate 17 features secure database name storage using Windows DPAPI.ASNA has always recommended using *PUBLIC database names for websites. In v17, we further recommend always using the *Public prefix explicitly when referencing database names in website applications, including Monarch. Otherwise, applications may encounter run-time exceptions that include phrases such as “user profile not loaded” when Windows DPAPI is used in IIS sessions running with anonymous or impersonated credentials.

For example, an AVR-based website might have code similar to the following, which references a DG database name in a DCLDB statement as follows:

DclDB Name(MyDatabase) DBName("IBMSERVER") Access(*Public)

We strongly recommend changing this statement as shown below:

DclDB Name(MyDatabase) DBName("*Public/IBMSERVER") Access(*Public)

If changing existing code is impractical, the only way to avoid errors is to ensure that the configuration of the IIS application pool in which the website runs includes the setting “Load User Profile = True”.

Note that this setting may reduce the performance of large-scale website applications.

Configuring IIS is Windows- and version-dependent, but generally follows this set of steps:

1. Open IIS Manager.
2. Under the Application Pools node, select the Application Pool that the website runs under.
3. On the right-hand panel, select “Advanced Settings…”. A property dialog appears.
4. Scroll to the Load User Profile setting, and ensure that it is set to True.
5. Restart IIS.

Websites may produce “user profile not loaded” exceptions mentioned in the release Notes, even when database names are referenced with the recommended “*Public/” prefix. If so, you must configure the “Load User Profile = True” IIS Application Pool setting (also mentioned in the Release Notes) as a workaround. It is highly recommended to remove this workaround when you install the release of DataGate.

ASNA Monarch Cocoon also requires:

• ASNA Monarch Collector version 10.x - Installation instructions for Monarch Collector can be found here.

Changes Since Version: 11.4.42.0

• Case 21049. Do not generate VirtualRowCol for output-only fields
• Case 21743. Fields in a Row of a Record with same Col position are not migrated.