Tom Sawyer Perspectives, Java Edition

Release 9.1.0

Overview

This release features the new Bundle layout style, which produces clear drawings of dense graphs, where other layout styles would produce drawings that look like hairballs. To reduce clutter in the drawing, the layout style bundles edges to share the same rows and columns.

Release 9.1.0 also includes support for MongoDB 4.2 and Neo4j 4.1, the ability to add edge decorations with labels, two-dimensional swimlane drawings, improved performance, and various quality improvements. Tom Sawyer Business Process has improved performance for Neo4j databases and the new ability to override role and department restrictions for activity and gateway assignees. Tom Sawyer Model-Based Engineering has improved item flow representation through the use of relationship decorations, added support for grouping elements by attribute, and additional custom coloring capabilities. Tom Sawyer Graph Database Browser includes the new Bundle layout for graph databases.

New

Designer

• Added option in node templates to enable truncation of node names for expanded nodes

Integrators

• Added MongoDB support
• Added support for selecting and browsing named graphs in OrientDB to Apache TinkerPop integrator

Views

• Drawing
  • Added new Bundle layout drawing style
  • Added support for two-dimensional swimlane drawings
  • Added support for edge decorations
  • Added support for grouping meta-edges by user-specified types and assigning UI templates to the meta-edge types

Business Process

• Added ability to override role and department restrictions on activity and gateway assignees

Model-Based Engineering

• Improved item flow representation through the use of relationship decorations
• Added support for multiple item flows on a single connector in Internal Block Diagrams
• Added ability to group elements by attributes in Block Definition Diagrams
• Added ability to group relationships by conveyed item in Internal Block Diagrams
• Added the ability to group connectors in Internal Block Diagrams by choosing grouping stereotypes
• Extended ability to color nodes and relationships in Activity, Block Definition, Package, Parametric, Requirement, State Machine, and Use Case Diagrams
• Added ability to color ports in Internal Block Diagrams and Block Definition Diagrams

Graph Database Browser

• Added new Bundle layout drawing style

Documentation

• Added tutorial to show how to integrate with a MongoDB database
• Added tutorial to show how to use two-dimensional swimlanes
• Added tutorial to convert a Tom Sawyer Perspectives web application into a Spring Boot application
• Added tutorial to deploy a Tom Sawyer Perspectives web application inside a Docker container

Improvements

Integrators

• Improved text integrator performance by up to 7%

Views

• Drawing
  • Improved orthogonal layout performance by up to 11%
  • Improved symmetric layout performance by up to 4%
  • Improved viewport transition after drawing changes
  • Enhanced animation for drawing changes in web applications
  • Improved layout of disconnected nodes in swimlane pools
  • Added ability to marquee-select nodes inside a swimlane
• Map
  • Eliminated the Internet connection requirement for using OpenLayers maps

Business Process

• Improved performance for Neo4j databases
• Improved the browser tab titles to include the module's name

Model-Based Engineering

• Improved performance up to 100 times faster for data loading of Internal Block Diagrams and Parametric Diagrams where relationship dependencies and flow properties are heavily used
• Improved the generation of element colors
• Improved the user experience of the deployment script

System Requirements

• Added support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.6
• Added support for Neo4j 4.1
• Added support for MongoDB 4.2
• Added support for OpenJDK 13
• These operating systems have been dropped:
  • Apple macOS 10.14
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4
• Dropped support for Neo4j 3.4

Fixes

Integrators

• Removed warning message in Amazon Neptune and Microsoft Azure Cosmos integrators for the cases in which a Gremlin query only returns results with internal properties

Views

• Drawing
  • Fixed drawing persistence when two swimlanes are specified
  • Fixed zoom level changes upon node expansion and incremental layout in desktop applications

Business Process

• Flow objects are now correctly placed in the swimlanes, when swimlanes are turned on
• Fixed intermittent inclusive gateway issue that prevented process execution from progressing
• Fixed memory leak when Tom Sawyer Business Process is used with a Neo4j database
• Fixed several bugs related to date attributes
• Fixed application crash in Microsoft Internet Explorer
• Enabled proper deactivation of the editing tool in Business Process Modeling, greatly improving its usability
• Fixed filtering of archived processes in the Process Map
• Fixed filtering of results from overdue task search
• Fixed process instantiation issues for installations on Oracle Linux

Model-Based Engineering

• Fixed rendering of icons in the Iconic Visual Style to include the correct image
• Fixed sizing of bus nodes in order to accommodate all of the incident edges
• Fixed empty diagram list upon project reopen in Internet Explorer

Issues

• When installing Tom Sawyer Perspectives on Microsoft Windows 10, this warning may display: "Windows protected your PC: Windows Defender SmartScreen prevented an unrecognized app from starting. Running this app might put your PC at risk." We confirm that our installer is signed with a valid Tom Sawyer Software digital certificate, and you can safely click the "Run anyway" button to install the software.
• Tom Sawyer Perspectives does not fully uninstall after use of Tom Sawyer Launch Center on Windows 10.
• Tom Sawyer Licensing does not always run automatically after installation of Tom Sawyer Perspectives on macOS and must be run manually after installation. From the Tom Sawyer Graph and Data Visualization installation directory, open bin/Tom Sawyer Licensing Setup.
• The integration with MongoDB Atlas requires Java 8, or Java 11.0.6 or later.
• There is an issue using the default configuration for the https protocol with the Neo4j integrator. Contact Support for assistance in using this configuration.
• Use of OpenJDK 11 or 12 can cause issues with multiline, vertical, and diagonal edge labels. This issue does not occur when Tom Sawyer Perspectives is used with OpenJDK 13.
• Starting the Designer through the command shell with OpenJDK 9 or later can cause an "Illegal Access" warning caused by third party library use of Apache Groovy 2.6 or earlier, or while using the Amazon Neptune or Apache TinkerPop integrator with Apache Gremlin 3.4.4.