ThinClient (Subscription Release)

[cvdcage]

Hi,

We are using the new (and improved) webclient for Vault 2014 (Sub Release 1, SP 1) . We have some weird bug going on, let me explain.

We have a workflow on a category called Engineering Documents.  This workflow basically bounces from New -> In Progress -> Released. There is no automatic revision bumping because we want to be in control of that and sometimes it is nescesary to edit a document without bumping the revision. A new 'quick change' workflow is too cumbersome.

We have configured our portal to only show Released files (that are in the "Released state", which is configured at the Released workflow step).

Now onto the bug:

1) When a document follows the worflow and goes into Released, revision A everything is fine. The portal shows the document and not when it is "In Progress" like expected. (see 1) on the attached picture)

2) When a document needs to go Revision B (or higher) the portal shows a file with no state. (see 2) in the picture)

3) When the document is revised from A to B and set to Released the weird stuff happens. (See 3) in the picture).

all the while the "old" portal is not showing this behaviour and we really want to use the new portal because of the new features.

Is this a bug? Or am I missing something? I have tried uninstalling Subscription Release 1 SP1 but that gives the same behaviour...

I hope to hear something back because we are really needing this function to work correctly.

Best regards,

Christiaan

[chearhuat]

Hi Christiaan,

Was attempting to re-create your reported scenario, but to no avail to showing 2 entries of the same file.

Might need you to examine if there're any steps that i could've missed out.

My Steps:

1. Duplicate a lifecycle, say Basic Release Process

2. Remove the 'Bump Primary Revision' from all state transition originated from steate 'Released'. // This is to mimic the reported case, where revision will not get bumped automatically.

3. Assign the vaulted file to the lifecyle in #1

4. Bring the vaulted file go thru this series of state/revision changes

    a. Change state from WIP -> Released
    b. Change state from Released -> WIP
    c. Revise [manually] from A to B

Verifying result using Thin Client and, comparing them with VE.

5. In Thin Client, add these fields, to better examine the entries:

    State (Historical), and Version.

Explanation.

i. In Thin Cilent, you will get to see ONE entry:

   Revision = A , State = empty, State (Historical) = Released, and version = n (which is not the latest version)

  This is valid, because TC's administrative settings restricted user to view only Released file (which could be an older version). As this entry newer state in not 'Released', TC will show the latest 'Released' version instead, which is of an older version. You could use field 'Version' to examine if the file is of the latest version, and field 'State (Historical)' to examine the state then.

Lastly, please provide the steps to reproduce the reported case that showed 2 entries (as in screenshot provided).

Thanks.

Regards,

Chear Huat.

[cvdcage]

Hi Huat,

thanks for the reply. I have done as you asked, even though I have deleted all the default lifecycles that came with the product I have recreated one from scratch. See pic 1.

Pic 2 describes how we've completed the lifecycle and that did not work out. 😞 I did, however, got a lot of errors in the server logs when I started up the Vault Client. When the files went through the lifecycles (from 09:16 AM) I didn't receive any.

Here's more background information that could help: The server is running on a Windows 2012 standard edition with SQL 2012 SP 1 but I doubt that has anything to do with the root of the problem because the error is not showing on the classic thin client. We don't want to use the thin client because we want to be able the dish out DWG files while still having DWF for visualization purposes. 🙂 The only thing that we've changed in the web.config is the following:

<!-- Log In Settings -->
  
   <!-- Default server name (eg. "localhost"). Leave empty will make the 'Server' field visible and editable. -->
   <add key="defaultServer" value="our server name" />
   <!-- Default vault name (eg. "Vault"). Leave empty will make the 'Vault' field editable. -->
   <add key="defaultVault" value="our company vault name" />
   <!-- control the expiration of the cookie. The value should be an integer and represent the number of days that the cookie will be good for (from time of login). -->
   <add key="loginCookieDaysDuration" value="7" />

Best regards,

Christiaan

[cvdcage]

Hi Huat,

I have also made screenshots of the system properties (metadata) of everything. I hope this can help us in solving this mystery. 🙂

Regards,

Christiaan

[chearhuat]

Hi Christiaan,

Please help to clarify the following:

1. The lifecyle definition, for each state. I'm assuming the following:

    - Created 3 new states: NEW, WIP and RELEASED.

    - Only RELEASED state is marked as 'This is a Released State'
    - The transition for each state is empty.

2. How do you execute the said workflow?

    Particular, how do you assign the category to each newly vautled file, and bring them thru the file revision state, in details.

3. Please add field 'version' and 'State (Historical)' in Thin Client and Vault Explorer, which will help us to understand the file iteration history.

Others:
the config settings should be related to lifecyle. Those settings are meant to set the default value in the login dialog.

Regards,

Chear Huat

[cvdcage]

1. The lifecyle definition, for each state. I'm assuming the following:

    - Created 3 new states: NEW, WIP and RELEASED.

You are assuming correctly.

    - Only RELEASED state is marked as 'This is a Released State'

Yes
    - The transition for each state is empty.

I have no custom settings in the new Testje lifecycle.

2. How do you execute the said workflow?

    Particular, how do you assign the category to each newly vautled file, and bring them thru the file revision state, in details.

Right now I have a default rule setting all new vaulted files to the 'Test' Category. The 'test' category has the default lifecycle set called 'Testje'.

3. Please add field 'version' and 'State (Historical)' in Thin Client and Vault Explorer, which will help us to understand the file iteration history.

Is the PDF file that I've sent in my 3rd post displaying this information?

Thanks.

Christiaan

[cvdcage]

Hi Huat,

Another things comes to mind. We have deleted all properties that came with the product and, like I said, all custom lifecycles are also deleted.

Regards,

Christiaan

[chearhuat]

Hi Christiaan,

Based on the given info, this is my simulation of the case:

At version 4, the file is released. Hence, at TC, you will get to see State and State (Historical) showing value 'Released'.

After that, i revise the file state from Released to NEW, and examine the same entry from VE and TC.

Noticed that TC is still showing file version 4 (instead of the latest version #5). This behaviour is due to TC's administrative setting that only show 'released' file to user. It this case, only 'State (Historical)' will capture the state of version 4.

The above examples should clarify the reason why state is empty for some entries.

Nonetheless, i still could not reproduce the case where the duplicate entries were displayed for the same file.

[cvdcage]

Hi Huat,

Thanks. Can you do this untill you've gone to revision G or higher? Our Autodesk contact thought he couldn't reproduce it untill he went a few revisions higher.

thanks and Regards,

Christiaan

PS: I have my own test/POC environment up and running again and the issue persists there too...

[cvdcage]

Hi,

It is not consitent, too. Check out the attached picture. rev A,B, E, F, G and H are good.

Regards,

Christiaan

[cvdcage]

Hi,

I first tried to create a new Vault and test it there. Same result.

Then I tried to rebuild the site search indexes and that cleared the wrong values for me... I tested it intensively and it sometimes still happens (went from A -> rev Q and everything worked fine but when I moved to rev R it happened again...

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Christiaan

EDIT: tested it a lot more and it seems that it happens very rarely now...

[chearhuat]

Hi Christiaan,

Could you try the following:

Administrators can add a new security entry to the released state through lifecycle configuration in Vault Explorer. Follow these steps:

• In the Vault Client go to Tools > Administration > Vault Settings and select the Behaviors tab.
• Click Lifecycle.
• Select the lifecycle definition that you want to modify and edit the Released state.
• Add a new entry to the Security tab that denies read access to Guest (or any user).

Regards,

Chear Huat.