Technical Notes

This technical note describes features introduced in Verastream Host Integrator (VHI) version 6.0.

New Release Available

Verastream Host Integrator version 6.5 is available beginning in February 2007. For a list of what's new, see Technical Note 10069.

What's New in Version 6.0

The improvements and enhancements to Host Integrator are as follows:

• You can now copy objects while creating models in the Design Tool. This time-saving feature allows you to reuse existing entities (for new unrecognized entities while online), patterns (within an entity), tables, and procedures instead of building each one separately from scratch.
• A new model debugging feature provides you with more information to diagnose a problem and repair a malfunctioning model. It provides a view of past behavior that demonstrates a model interacting with a terminal datastream, allowing you to diagnose and repair screen recognition, data read and/or write, and synchronization flaws in a model. This feature is particularly helpful for those model designers working with VT and HP host applications, where synchronization issues are more common. For more information, see Technical Note 10065.
• When creating a model for VT and HP hosts, improved synchronization commands are automatically generated in operations. For more information on synchronization commands, see Technical Note 10023.
• Within the Design Tool, you can now deploy a model to a test Host Integrator server other than the local server.
• You can now run deployment commands from the Deploy Models shortcut (installed in the Verastream programs folder on the Start menu). For more information on deployment best practices, see Technical Note 10237.
• Rogue session management within a session pool has been added. For example, a session exhibiting the circular behavior associated with an expired password in the model variable list can be automatically "quarantined" until you have addressed the underlying problem.
• Improvements in model behavior in the following areas:

• Web Builder has support for Microsoft .NET Framework version 2.0 and Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.
• In Web Builder projects, you can choose which model procedures you want to make available in your generated web application or Web Service.
• In Web Builder web application projects, you can choose between two layout options for procedure output results (table or list of records).
• In Web Builder projects, you can choose whether the generated web application has a user option to enter SQL statements (for the model's procedures that have "Available for SQL queries" enabled).
• In Web Builder projects, you can choose whether the generated web application has an option for the user to provide input for the model's ProcessString event handler. This is useful for testing purposes.
• Design Tool Procedure Editor allows you to set any model entity to be the procedure home entity. (In previous releases, the procedure home entity had to be navigable to and from the model's home entity.)
• It is now easier to upgrade the 60-day time-limited evaluation Windows Server or Development Kit to the full licensed product. For more information, see Technical Note 40033.
• Error messages displayed in Design Tool include an error number [VHI nnnn] for easier identification in documentation, in Technical Notes, and by Technical Support.
• When security is enabled in Administrative WebStation and you configure an Actual Group on Linux/UNIX, you can select from all operating system groups including groups with a large number of users.
• Improved entity recognition for models that use blank screen areas as patterns.
• More efficient Session Server performance in pattern scanning and screen recognition, especially for models with a large number of entities.
• Other reliability improvements and performance optimizations.

For a version comparison chart, see http://www.attachmate.com/NR/rdonlyres/88FB5161-3C60-4EBF-AA05-2C60C921DBC3/0/vhi_vcc.pdf.