Tom Sawyer Perspectives, Java Edition

Release 8.3.0

Overview

This release improves our data integration framework. You can now integrate with Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB and Amazon Neptune RDF data sources. You can also write data back to Amazon Neptune and Apache TinkerPop databases. In addition, you can use schema extraction for RDF data sources and structured text files, including CSV data sources, and take advantage of support for Neo4j 3.5 and TinkerPop 3.4. On the security front, Graph and Data Visualization and Graph Database Browser now support Amazon AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM).

In Graph and Data Visualization, the improved node growth model supports inside connector labels, there is now support for constraints to control the order and positioning of connectors, and you can rotate connector labels. Also, symmetric layout is up to 25% faster. You can also take advantage of our new data loading framework with incremental layout positioning and animation of newly added data into an existing drawing while preserving positions of existing data.

Tom Sawyer Perspectives 8.3.0 also includes many enhancements to its enterprise-ready solutions. The Graph Database Browser is up to 20 times faster with Amazon Neptune data sources and TinkerPop data sources by up to 5 times faster. Additionally, the Graph Database Browser has greatly improved responsiveness for node and edge properties selection. The Graph Database Browser now supports JanusGraph and Stardog data sources and offers autocomplete for Cypher and Gremlin queries. The Business Process solution is now integrated with Neo4j graph databases, tasks can have longer descriptions, and the descriptions are easier to view in Business Process Execution. In the Model-Based Engineering solution, the end user now has control over the placement of node and port elements in diagrams through the use of constraints and settings. In addition, the end user can save diagrams and filter by selected nodes in both web and desktop applications.

New

Designer

• Added four new user interface color themes for web-based applications

Integrators

• Added Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB support
• Added Amazon Neptune RDF support
• Added RDF schema extraction
• Added schema extraction for structured text files, including CSV data sources
• Added support for Amazon AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) for accessing Amazon Neptune data sources
• Added query-based commit for saving data to Amazon Neptune and Apache TinkerPop databases

Views

• Drawings
  • Added connector constraints
  • Added the ability to rotate connector labels
  • Added support for outside node and inside node connector labeling
  • Added framework that allows additional data loading into an existing drawing with automatic incremental layout while preserving the positions of existing data
  • Added animation of newly added data from good starting positions
• Charts
  • Added print and export support for charts
• Timelines
  • Added print and export support for timelines
• Inspector
  • Added support for resizable columns to the inspector in web applications

Graph Database Browser

• Added support for Amazon AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) for accessing Amazon Neptune data sources
• Added support for JanusGraph databases
• Added support for Stardog databases
• Added autocomplete for Cypher and Gremlin queries
• Added autocomplete for the expression language

Business Process

• Added support for Neo4j graph databases

Model-Based Engineering

• Added support for node constraints
• Added support for port constraints
• Added the ability to save diagrams in web applications
• Added the ability to show only the selected elements or hide the selected elements
• Extended the color options to all diagram types
• For most diagram types, added the ability to change the orientation for hierarchical layout
• Added control for the end user to rotate port labels in Internal Block Diagrams
• Added control for the end user to position port labels inside or outside of nodes in Internal Block Diagrams

Improvements

Designer

• Improved the performance of the Designer for projects that have large schemas

Filtering

• Improved performance in the filtering framework, which enables views to update more quickly

Interactive Environment

• Improved the behavior of the wait cursor
• Added a setting in the Designer to delay showing the progress indicator in web applications
• Improved support for keyboard shortcuts

Views

• Drawings
  • Improved symmetric layout performance by up to 25%
  • Reduced peak memory usage for hierarchical layout with orthogonal edge routing by up to 3%
  • Improved integrated labeling performance by up to 5%
  • Improved performance of orthogonal layout by up to 10 times for graphs with an average of 1,000 connectors per node
  • Improved the node growth model to support inside connector labels, node labels, and images
  • Improved behavior when adding a node to an empty drawing
  • Improved the placement of movable connectors in orthogonal drawings
  • Improved edge placement for degree 4 diamond-shaped nodes
  • Improved the placement of edge labels
  • Improved behavior of incremental orthogonal layout upon expand all operations
  • Improved rendering of navigation controls
• Charts
  • Added support for over 1,000 data points in charts
• Timelines
  • Added support for over 1,000 data points in timelines

Graph Database Browser

• Improved Amazon Neptune database queries to run up to 20 times faster
• Improved local TinkerPop database queries by up to 42%
• Improved remote TinkerPop database queries by up to 5 times faster
• Greatly improved performance of node and edge selection by up to 90% for large graphs

Business Process

• Improved text placement to fit more text within nodes
• Added a context menu item to open a called process instance in a new tab
• Improved how users view task descriptions in Business Process Execution
• Improved the default values for the timer trigger type

Model-Based Engineering

• In web applications, moved the list of available projects into a tree view to make projects easier to open
• Improved hierarchical layout in Internal Block Diagrams to take flow direction from ports into account
• Enabled end users to generate Block Definition, Internal Block, and Parametric diagrams from Tom Sawyer Perspectives diagrams within the No Magic MagicDraw integration
• For Block Definition Diagrams, the end user now has an option to show ports
• Improved the appearance of certain types of nodes

System Requirements

• Added support for Oracle Java 11
• Added support for Oracle Java 12
• Added support for OpenJDK 11
• Added support for OpenJDK 12
• Added support for Neo4j 3.5
• Added support for TinkerPop 3.4
• Dropped support for Apple macOS 10.13
• Dropped support for Oracle Java 9

Fixes

Designer

• Fixed drag and drop for folders in Designer rule definitions
• Fixed the Microsoft Windows Start Menu appearance
• Fixed splitting horizontal toolbars into two or more sections, distributed evenly over the available space
• Fixed the layout cancel button in desktop preview
• Fixed screen flicker in UI Editor

Integrators

• Fixed an Amazon Neptune binding element issue for large content lengths

Views

• Drawings
  • Fixed the sizing of large connectors
  • Fixed edge spacing at the corners of highly connected nodes

• Tree Views
  • Fixed unwanted scroll after tree view expand and collapse

Graph Database Browser

• Increased the default timeout for NGINX proxies

Model-Based Engineering

• Modified the deployment script so that it runs correctly even if the licensing variables are not set
• Fixed header margins
• Corrected the orientation of generalization edges
• Fixed the option to Show Only Elements with Specified Stereotypes with generated Block Definition Diagrams

Issues

• None