Universal Controller 6.4.1.0 Release Notes

Web Services Tasks

A new task type for Web Services has been introduced to provide support for HTTP(S)/REST and SOAP web service calls. XML and JSON input can be specified in the Web Service Task Details or referenced as a new script library object type, Web Service Payload. New functions are provided to allow access to Web Service results using XML path and JSON Path queries.

Script Data Functionality

A new script library object type, Data, has been introduced to allow script library objects to be referenced as data files by commands and from within Scripts and Universal Tasks. For example, this new feature allows powershell scripts to be stored in the Universal Controller database and used as input to Windows tasks executing the powershell command. A new _scriptPath function is used to reference the script data object within the desired command, script, or Universal Task.

Assuming that a Script Data object called myscript.ps1 is created and contains a valid powershell script it then can be executed in a windows task command as follows:

powershell -F "${_scriptPath('myscript.ps1')}"

In this case, the myscript.ps1 script object is copied to the file system on the agent server and referenced as an input file to the command that is executed on the agent server.

User Administration Function

Users with the ops.admin role can view logged on users, send messages to logged on users, and manually expire their sessions.

Automation / Workflow Control Enhancements

New System Operation Task Actions have been provided to support Launch, Trigger, and Re-run. This significantly extends the automation possibilities from the Task Actions feature.

Users are now able to initiate a manual re-run for tasks that are awaiting an automatic retry.

Users can now insert a sub-workflow into an active workflow instance.

Calendar Updates

Custom Day definitions with relative repeating dates now support less and plus offsets. This makes certain types of special days easier to define, for example Black Friday = 4th Thursday in November plus one day.

Bulk Export Enhancements

New Server Operations have been added to support bulk export of History, Audit, and Activity records. These exports are of course supported for bulk import.

Backup and Purge Enhancements

A new option, Purge by Retention Duration, is available for Trigger definitions. If Purge By Retention Duration has been specified for a trigger, and the Purge By Retention Duration checkbox has been selected in the Data Backup / Purge Details, all task instances launched by the trigger are eligible to be purged from the database as soon as the retention duration time specified in the trigger has been met.

This allows a more aggressive purge strategy to be implemented for tasks that are frequently triggered.

New User Password Encryption

Following previous improvements for credential passwords stored in the Universal Controller database delivered in 6.4.0.0, improved password hashing and salting using SHA-256 has been delivered for any user passwords stored in the Universal Controller database. Note that this does not impact passwords that are checked against an LDAP / AD database, as these are not stored in the Universal Controller database. Also note that the new password hashing will only be implemented when an existing users change their password. The user mass update functions can be used to set the Password Requires Reset flag to force users to set a new password.

Listing Agent Referenced Tasks

A new tab in the Agent details, Tasks, is provided to give visibility to all tasks that reference a specific agent.

File Transfer Task Updates

In conjunction with the new UFTP (Universal Agent FTP Client), updates have been made to the File Transfer Task in order to support additional protocols (for example, FTP) and new functionality (for example, Move).

API Enhancements

The RESTful Web Services API of the Universal Controller was extended with additional functionality: