Qlik NPrinting® Release notes - February 2024 Service Release 3

[Ruggero_Piccoli]

Table of Contents

• Improvements
• Resolved Defects
• Known issues and limitations
• Upgrade notes
• Downloads

The following release notes cover the versions of Qlik NPrinting released in February 2024 Service Release 3.

Improvements

SMTP connection retry configuration

Jira issue ID: OP-96021

Two new parameters have been added to the scheduler.config configuration file:

• max-mail-client-connection-attempts: Specifies the maximum number of attempts to connect to the email server. The default value is 2.
• mail-client-connection-attempts-delay-ms: Specifies the delay, in milliseconds, before retrying after a failed connection. The default value is 500 ms.

To customize these parameters, you must uncomment them in the configuration file.

Additionally, this security improvement introduces a breaking change to the email client: certificate validation no longer accepts untrusted self-signed certificates. To use untrusted self-signed certificates, you will need to disable validation in the SMTP configuration or convert the certificates to trusted (trusted root store).

Third party libraries updated

Jira issue ID: OP-96012, OP-96013
The following third-party libraries have been updated and patched to the latest releases:

• AngularJS
• NHibernate
• Bouncy Castle
• PostgreSQL (Qlik NPrinting Repository)

Resolved Defects

Import tasks now ignore hidden cells  

Jira issue ID: QB-26555

Import user tasks now ignore hidden cells in all worksheets of imported Excel files.

Known issues and limitations

The following issues and limitations were identified at release time. The list is not comprehensive; it lists all known major issues and limitations. We expect to have these issues fixed in future versions.

Supported languages

The following languages are supported:

• English
• French
• German
• Spanish
• Brazilian Portuguese
• Japanese
• Italian
• Simplified Chinese

Other languages are not officially supported. There may be issues with other languages, particularly those with right-to-left script and non-Roman alphabets.

Qlik Sense custom size sheets

Qlik Sense custom size sheets are not supported. Custom size will not be maintained on export.
Alternate states
QlikView and Qlik Sense alternate states are not supported.

Alternate states

QlikView and Qlik Sense alternate states are not supported.

Qlik NPrinting must be installed only on C: drives

Jira issue ID: OP-6196
Qlik NPrinting Server, Engine, and Designer can only be installed on C: drives. Any attempt to install them on a different drive will result in task failures.

Image size settings are not respected when adding the same object twice

Jira issue ID: OP-5831
When you add the same object twice, using the Images node in Qlik NPrinting Designer, only the image size property of the first image is respected.

QlikView On-Demand reports cannot be connected to Qlik Sense

It is possible to select the “Enable” check box in On-Demand for reports using Qlik Sense app data. These reports are visible in the QlikView On-Demand menu of the QlikView On-Demand add-on. But if selected, they will not generate reports, and you will see an error message.

Qlik NPrinting Designer crashes sometimes with zoomed screen settings

If you experience random crashes when using Qlik NPrinting Designer, open your Windows Display Settings in the Control Panel and verify that Smaller – 100% (default) is selected. When settings of 125% or 150% are selected, Qlik NPrinting Designer may crash.

On-Demand works in Chrome and Firefox, but not in Internet Explorer (11 or older) or Edge

Jira issue ID: OP-5908
In some cases, when you use Qlik NPrinting On-Demand in Internet Explorer 11 or Edge, the “origin” HTTP header is not generated. This results in the error message “REVEL_CSRF: tokens mismatch”.
The workaround is to install Qlik NPrinting On-Demand on a Microsoft IIS server hosting QlikView Access point or use a different web browser.

Too many users and filters leads to Qlik NPrinting Designer errors

Jira issue ID: OP-4940
Qlik NPrinting Designer may be unable to open a report template if there are too many filters associated with a connection in the report's app. The following error message displays: “A task was canceled”.
This typically happens when more than 4000 filters are using fields from a connection. Sometimes, higher numbers can work. For example, 7000 filters have worked in some situations.
The workaround is:
1. Split the Qlik NPrinting app into separate apps.
2. Split the connections (possibly by using multiple connections to the same documents in different apps).
3. Split the filters across apps (so that the filter count per app is lower).

Task fails with the error 'Exceeded maximum number of retries'

Jira issue ID: OP-4839
Some Qlik NPrinting tasks fail with the error message: “Exceeded maximum number of retries”. This is due to a performance issue in QlikView that appears when it exports large unfiltered files to Excel.

Verify connection freezes during “Initializing…” status

Jira issue ID: OP-5278
In some rare circumstances, pressing the Verify connection button will cause the screen to freeze on the “Initializing…” status and the spinning wheel cursor. This happens when a Qlik NPrinting Engine goes offline and Verify connection is pressed before the Qlik NPrinting Scheduler is aware that it is offline. It can take up to 20 seconds before the Qlik NPrinting Scheduler determines the offline status of a Qlik NPrinting Engine.

User filters are excluded from matching and object filters

Jira issue ID: OP-5914
When you:

• Open Qlik NPrinting Designer
• Import a report

The filters associated with each user are not uploaded, or displayed, for performance reasons. Waiting for all filters for thousands of users to import would take a long time. In most cases, importing this information is unnecessary, because filters created for users often contain something like the user IDs. You can change this behavior and make all filters visible by uncommenting the line <!--<add key="include-user-filters" />--> in the webengine.config file.
To make a specific filter visible in the lists, remove its association to all users, or create a new filter with the same fields and values not linked to any user.

Cancelling an upgrade results in a corrupted environment

Jira issue ID: OP-3986
The rollback that follows a Qlik NPrinting Server or Engine upgrade cancellation may corrupt the related Qlik NPrinting installation. A rollback is triggered by errors or by clicking the cancel button during the upgrade execution. After a corruption caused by a rollback, services may be uninstalled or cannot be started.
To restore a Qlik NPrinting Server to its original status:

• Retrieve a recent backup
• Uninstall Qlik NPrinting Server
• Perform a clean installation of the same Qlik NPrinting Server of the backup
• Restore the backup

You should always create a backup before starting an update. In any case, a backup is automatically created in the folder "%ProgramData%\NPrinting" at the beginning of the upgrade process. To restore a Qlik NPrinting Engine to original status:

• Uninstall Qlik NPrinting Engine
• Perform a clean installation of Qlik NPrinting Engine

Adding a title to a Sense object with Assistance on generates an error on preview or task

Jira issue ID: OP-7560
Add title functionality is not supported on Qlik Sense objects with Assistance mode enabled. The workaround to restore the Add title functionality is to disable Assistance mode for the chart in Qlik Sense. Then reload the metadata of the connection.

Cannot export tables, columns, and cells from Qlik Sense objects made using chart suggestions

Jira issue ID: OP-7568
Qlik Sense objects made in Assistance mode cannot be used as tables, columns, or cells in Qlik NPrinting. To restore them, disable Assistance mode on the chart in Qlik Sense; then reload the metadata of the connection. Furthermore, if a Qlik Sense object made with Assistance mode is exported as a table, column, or cell using Qlik NPrinting APIs, the request will fail.

Open Type Fonts (*.otf) are not supported

Jira issue ID: OP-7165
Open Type Fonts (*.otf) are not supported in PixelPerfect templates. Generated reports will use a different font, and not look as expected.

Qlik Sense tables with conditionally shown columns have limited functionality

Jira issue ID: OP-7747
The following functionalities are not supported for Qlik Sense tables that have a "Show column if" condition set on one or more of their columns: levels, single column export, and keep source formats.

Qlik Sense On-Demand reports with selections on calculated dimensions fails

Jira issue ID: OP-8382
Qlik Sense On-Demand reports with selections applied on calculated dimensions will fail. However, you can apply selections on dimensions based on Qlik Sense fields. The workaround is to move the formula to the load script and use the calculated fields to apply selections to your On-Demand reports.

Qlik Sense histograms cannot be add into the Tables node

Jira issue ID: OP-8985
Due to the internal way of exporting Qlik Sense histograms, you cannot add them to the Qlik NPrinting Designer Tables node. If you add a Qlik Sense histogram to the Tables node, you will not receive any errors or warning messages, but the exported data will be wrong.

QlikEntities limitation with Qlik Sense entities

Jira issue ID: OP-8921
QlikEntity reports support Qlik Sense objects with the following limitations:

• Containers are not supported, but you can use all the objects that are inside containers.
• Qlik Sense sheets can be added to QlikEntity reports and exported as images. The "Extend Sheet" feature does not work.
• Export in PDF and TIFF is not supported.

Embedding Excel worksheets into PowerPoint templates is not supported

Jira issue ID: OP-9087
You cannot embed an Excel worksheet in a PowerPoint report template. This will cause a Qlik NPrinting Designer crash. The workarounds are to insert the Excel worksheet without using the Qlik NPrinting Designer:

• Create a .pptx file by using PowerPoint without involving the Qlik NPrinting Designer. Insert the Excel worksheet and save the .pptx. Then use the .pptx file as a report template.
• If you have already created the PowerPoint template, export it, open the .zip file generated by Qlik NPrinting and double-click the .pptx file inside. Insert the Excel worksheet, save the resulting PowerPoint and overwrite the exiting Qlik NPrinting template by uploading the updated .zip.

Qlik Sense dynamic views limitations

Jira issue ID: OP-9067
Dynamic views is a new Qlik Sense feature starting from June 2020.
If you connect Qlik NPrinting to a Qlik Sense app that contains a chart used to generate dynamic views, the chart and the containing sheet are excluded from the Qlik NPrinting connection cache and cannot be used in reports.
You can connect Qlik NPrinting to a Qlik Sense app containing dynamic views. However, after a dynamic view refresh, the connection will stop working.

Reports size limit

Jira issue ID: OP-9628
Starting from November 2020, RabbitMQ Server (deployed as Qlik NPrinting Messaging Service) has been updated to version 3.8.3. It has an internal limit, not configurable, about messages size of 512MB. Previous limit was 2GB. As consequence, is not possible to generate Qlik NPrinting reports bigger than 512MB.

Excel print area with more than one range

Jira issue ID: OP-9766
Excel worksheet print areas can contain more than one range if the generation of the report does not expand the print area. If it expands, you will see an error: “Invalid Cell Name”. For example, the default setting of the Expand Range option in a Qlik NPrinting table causes the print area to change during report production, and an error is received.

Searching in Cyrillic characters is case sensitive

Jira issue ID: OP-9518
Using Cyrillic characters in the Search form of the Qlik NPrinting user interface is case sensitive.

The percentage "%" format is not kept in Excel reports

Jira issue ID: OP-9995
The percentage “%” format is not kept in Excel reports when using QlikView 12.50 (12.50.20000) or newer due to a QlikView issue. You can solve this by upgrading to QlikView May 2021 SR2 (12.60.20200) or newer.

Run verification does not check if the installed version of QlikView Desktop supports QVF

Jira issue ID: OP-95599

If you start a Run Verification on a connection to a QlikView document in QVF format, Qlik NPrinting cannot confirm whether the QlikView Desktop version installed locally on each Qlik NPrinting Engine is compatible with QVF file format. The check mark next to "QlikView can open the document" may be green, even if a version of QlikView that does not support QVF is installed. This is because verification only checks file permissions. If the installed QlikView Desktop does not support QVF format, metadata generation will fail.

 QlikView objects with many fields with the same label are not supported

Jira issue ID: OP-95682

QlikView objects with many different fields with exactly the same label are not supported. Duplicated labels cause an exception during the connection cache generation. To solve this issue, ensure that each field has a unique label.

Images defined by URL in Qlik Sense tables are exported as text

Jira issue ID: OP-95797

Images linked by using URLs in Qlik Sense tables are exported as text. This affects only Qlik Sense connections. A workaround exists for PixelPerfect templates.

Microsoft Sensitivity Labels Are Not Supported

Jira issue ID: HLP-17139

The sensitivity labels feature in Microsoft Office is not supported. If used, report generation and preview will fail with errors.

As a workaround to the issue, block the Active Directory domain policy that pushes the sensitivity labels requirement to domain users.

Upgrade notes

To upgrade to Qlik NPrinting February 2024 SR3, you must start from one of the following versions:

• February 2024 SR2 (24.4.10)
• February 2024 SR1 (24.4.7)
• February 2024 IR (24.4.5)
• February 2024 TP (23.49.1)
• May 2023 SR6 (23.20.16)
• May 2023 SR5 (23.20.13)
• May 2023 SR4 (23.20.11)
• May 2023 SR3 (23.20.9)
• May 2023 SR2 (23.20.5)
• May 2023 SR1 (23.20.3)
• May 2023 IR (23.20.1)
• May 2022 SR5 (22.15.16)
• May 2022 SR4 (22.15.14)
• May 2022 SR3 (22.15.11)
• May 2022 SR2 (22.15.8)
• May 2022 SR1 (22.15.5)
• May 2022 (22.15.2)
• May 2022 Technical Preview (22.15.0)
• May 2021 SR5 (21.14.10)
• May 2021 SR4 (21.14.8)
• May 2021 SR3 (21.14.7)
• May 2021 SR2 (21.14.5)
• May 2021 SR1 (21.14.4)
• May 2021 (21.14.3)
• May 2021 Technical Preview (21.14.1)
• February 2021 (21.0.0)
• February 2021 Technical Preview (20.50.1)
• November 2020 SR1 (20.39.4)
• November 2020 (20.39.3)
• November 2020 Technical Preview (20.39.1)
• September 2020 (20.31.2)
• September 2020 Technical Preview (20.31.1)
• June 2020 SR1 (20.19.5)
• June 2020 (20.19.3)
• June 2020 Technical Preview (20.19.0)
• April 2020 (20.10.2)
• April 2020 Technical Preview (20.10.0)
• February 2020 SR1 (20.0.3)
• February 2020 (20.0.2)
• February 2020 Technical Preview (20.0.0)
• November 2019 SR1 (19.40.4)
• November 2019 (19.40.3)
• November 2019 TP (19.40.0)
• September 2019 (19.29.3)
• September 2019 TP (19.29.0)
• June 2019 (19.19.4)
• June 2019 Technical Preview (19.19.0)
• April 2019 (19.9.5)
• April 2019 Technical Preview (19.9.0)
• February 2019 SR1 (19.0.4)
• February 2019 (19.0.3)
• February 2019 Technical Preview (19.0.0)
• November 2018 (18.39.6.0)
• November 2018 Technical Preview (18.39.0.0)
• September 2018 SR2 (18.29.9.0)
• September 2018 SR1 (18.29.8.0)
• September 2018 (18.29.7.0)
• June 2018 (18.19.6)
• June 2018 Technical Preview (18.19.0)
• April 2018 (18.9.5)
• April 2018 Technical Preview

If you have a version of Qlik NPrinting older than April 2018, you must upgrade to Qlik NPrinting April 2018 before you can upgrade to Qlik NPrinting February 2024 SR3.

If you have a version of Qlik NPrinting older than 17.3, you must first upgrade to Qlik NPrinting 17.3. Then you must upgrade to a version from April 2018 to May 2021 SR4 before you can upgrade to Qlik NPrinting February 2024SR3.

If you are upgrading from a version older than February 2018, all metadata caches (QlikView and Qlik Sense) will be marked as "not generated". This is due to a breaking change in the format of the metadata cache. All connection caches must be regenerated before you can edit a template or create a new connection.

You must back up your data before you proceed. Data can become damaged if a problem occurs during the
upgrade. If data is damaged, a backup is required to restore the repository. See: Backup and restore of a repository.
After backup, you must follow the instructions for upgrading on the help site page Qlik NPrinting upgrade.

Upgrade to November 2018 or newer

If you are upgrading to February 2024 SR3 from September 2018 SR2 or older you must:
• Open port 4997 outbound on Qlik NPrinting Server and inbound on all Qlik NPrinting Engines.
• Reinstall all your Qlik NPrinting Engines and provide a password for certificate exchange.
• Open the Engine manager in the Web Console.
• Open the detail page for each Engine and send the certificate after inserting the same password you used during the engine’s reinstallation.
Qlik NPrinting Engines stay offline until the certificate exchange is performed. Older Engine versions cannot connect to a Qlik NPrinting February 2024 SR3 Server.

Downloads

Setups are available at https://community.qlik.com/t5/Downloads/tkb-p/Downloads

About Qlik

Qlik’s vision is a data-literate world, where everyone can use data and analytics to improve decision-making and solve their most challenging problems. A private SaaS company, Qlik offers an Active Intelligence platform, delivering end-to-end, real-time data integration and analytics cloud solutions to close the gaps between data, insights and action. By transforming data into Active Intelligence, businesses can drive better decisions, improve revenue and profitability, and optimize customer relationships. Qlik does business in more than 100 countries and serves over 50,000 customers around the world.

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