Intersoft Systems launches finPOWER Connect Version 6.00

Version 6 - Installation & Configuration Guides

Version 6.00.00 explained

The .NET Framework was first released in the early 2000's and was adopted by Intersoft Systems for the launch of finPOWER Connect in 2010.  In the years since, Microsoft has introduced .NET Core as the modern replacement for the .NET Framework.  This has since evolved into the unified .NET platform, which is currently at v.9  and will be the foundation for finPOWER Connect v.6.

Although Microsoft has no immediate plans to discontinue support for the .NET Framework, it is no longer under active development. The final version, 4.8.1, was released in 2022.  Microsoft now recommends that all new development utilises .NET 8 or later.   

Learn about the .NET framework at:

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/microsoft-net-framework
• https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet-framework

Learn about .NET 9  (and newer as it becomes available):

• https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/platform/support/policy/dotnet-core

Key advantages that .NET 9 has over the .NET framework:

• .NET 9 is significantly faster and more efficient than .NET Framework.
• Each new version of .NET (especially 6, 7, 8, and 9) has brought major performance improvements, especially for cloud-native and high-throughput applications.
• .NET 9 unifies desktop, mobile, web, cloud, and IoT development under one platform.
• Regular updates and security patches.
• Smaller runtime footprint and faster cold starts in cloud environments.

Installation

Initial installations will require .NET 9 to be installed alongside finPOWER Connect.  Please refer to the installation guides above.

Scripting

It is imperative that any customer considering an upgrade ensures that their existing Scripting compiles and runs as expected.  The Script Compilation Errors Report (Tools, Utilities) is a good starting point for this.

During internal testing, Intersoft Systems found that most issues stemmed from implicit references that were allowed in older versions.  In .NET 9, these references must be explicitly defined.  To assist with this, a References tool has been added to Global Settings (under Developer) to automatically apply specific references across all Scripts in the database.

Running a test compile and switching references on will, for the most part, sort out compile issues. However depending on the Scripting code changes may be required.

Limitations with Microsoft Access

From v.6, Intersoft Systems can no longer recommend MS Access as a reliable method of storing data in a production environment.  This is not due to MS Access itself, but rather the Microsoft requirement to run the 32bit version of the application to open Access databases.

With the move to .NET 9, the way that Scripts compile and run (including Summary Pages and HTML Widgets) has been migrated to Microsoft's Roslyn compiler.

Although there are a number of advantages over the previous Framework compiler, it is not optimised with 32bit applications.  Microsoft has significantly reduced its support for 32bit applications in recent years and fewer and fewer applications continue to support it.

There are 64bit MS Access database engines available, such as ACE, however these do not enforce Security to a sufficient level for an application such as finPOWER Connect, so are not suitable replacements.  Therefore, the recommendation is to no longer run MS Access production databases due to the likelihood of running out of memory somewhat randomly.

Recommendations for clients currently running MS Access databases in production (including address databases):

• SQL Express
• Provided free from Microsoft.
• Has limitations, e.g. Microsoft limit the size of a SQL Express database to 10GB.
• Will allow for an easy upgrade to full SQL Server once the database becomes too large.

• SQL Server
• Requires Microsoft subscription.
• No limitations.
  

VBA Documents are no longer supported

In v.6 and later, VBA Documents will no longer function.  Any clients still using these types of documents should plan to replace them using Gembox alternatives prior to upgrading to v.6.

The Documents Administration library has been updated to highlight this with warnings, should a VBA-type Document be selected.

Similar to MS Access, VBA has been progressively de-prioritised by Microsoft and many applications are moving away from it.   In addition, VBA Documents are not (and never have been) compatible with finPOWER Connect Cloud.

For more information, download the following information:  Word Document and Excel Workbook Processing and/or contact mbsl.

The User Interfaces for both Desktop and Cloud will feel immediately familiar to existing users. The most noticeable changes are in the Cloud version, where enhancements have been gradually introduced since v4.01.00 (when enabled via Device Settings).  See: Device option to allow 'NEW User Interface' to be trialed.   The new User Interface is now enabled by default and the existing option to switch it on has been removed.

For a full list of changes check out the below Knowledge Base links:

• finPOWER Connect Desktop
• finPOWER Connect Cloud
• Web Services