Release Notes for ASNA DataGate Component Suite Version: 16.0.83.0 Release date: 2023-12-06


What's New

CAUTION: If you are upgrading from DCS 14.x or prior, you may be effected by the changes to the ASNA Runtime (see ASNA Runtime Changes below).

DataGate Studio & DataGate Monitor

DataGate Client

Web Controls

Known Issues

DataGate Client * DataGate 16 features secure database name storage using Windows DPAPI. ASNA has always recommended using PUBLIC database names for websites.
In v16, we further recommend always using the "
Public/" prefix explicitly when referencing database names in website applications, including Monarch.
Otherwise, applications may encounter run-time exceptions that include phrases such as "user profile not loaded" when Windows DPAPI is used in IIS sessions running with anonymous or impersonated credentials.

For example, an AVR-based website might have code similar to the following, which references a DG database name in a DCLDB statement as follows:

DclDB Name(MyDatabase) DBName("IBMSERVER") Access(*Public)

We strongly recommend changing this statement as shown below:

DclDB Name(MyDatabase) DBName("*Public/IBMSERVER") Access(*Public)

If changing existing code is impractical, the only way to avoid errors is to ensure that the configuration of the IIS application pool in which the 
website runs includes the setting "Load User Profile = True".  
Note that this setting may reduce the performance of large-scale website applications.  Configuring IIS is Windows- and version-dependent, but 
generally follows this set of steps:
    1.  Open IIS Manager.
    2.  Under the Application Pools node, select the Application Pool that the website runs under.
    3.  On the right-hand panel, select "Advanced Settings...".  A property dialog appears.
    4.  Scroll to the Load User Profile setting, and ensure that it is set to True.
    5.  Restart IIS.

DataGate Studio

Web Controls

Installation Notes

DCS 16.0 is able to coexist with DCS 15.0, but not with earlier versions. Installing DCS 16.0 may upgrade the 15.0 runtimes if these are old; if this is the case, deployment machines using 15.0 will also need to be updated to use the new versions.

Installing Microsoft's latest service packs, high priority and optional software updates for Windows and the. NET framework is highly recommended, while Visual Studio 2019 is required.

Caution: Ensure neither Visual Studio, its installation, nor any Visual Studio update is running at the time of DCS installation, as it may cause conflicts.

Local Help Support

Visual Studio 2019 treats local (offline) as an optional component. As such installing it requires some additional steps:

When installing Visual Studio 2019:

  1. Under the Individual Components tab.
  2. On the Code Tools section.
  3. Enable the Help Viewer component.

To verify the Help Viewer is installed, look at the top of the Help Menu in Visual Studio. The following three options should be visible at the top of the menu:

  1. View Help
  2. Add and Remove Help Content
  3. Set Help Preferences

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)

The DataGate client software contained in this release significantly changes the way Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connections are configured. DataGate SSL support was introduced in Version 15 as an option for secure network communications between DataGate clients and servers.

In prior releases, DataGate client connection configurations, by default, specified an SSL-enabled connection. This allowed many users to enhance the security of their applications by simply installing the new, SSL supporting DataGate release. Unfortunately, other customers experienced connection and security issues due to shifting standards and evolving platform infrastructure supporting SSL, as offered by Windows and IBM i.

In this release, DataGate client users must now "opt-in" when configuring new connections secured with SSL. When a new connection configuration is created, the default setting is to specify a non-SSL, or "clear-text" connection to the server.

DataGate connections are typically configured as "database names". A database name is a collection of properties defining all the information needed to connect to a DataGate server from the client computer. Existing database names are not affected by this change, but new database names are affected:

Database names created by prior releases retain the same SSL configuration as they had when created or modified. The default configuration of new database names will specify non-SSL connections. Creating SSL-Enabled Database Names

Online documentation linked below fully details the process of creating an SSL-enabled database name configuration using DataGate Studio. The process is very similar for users of DataGate Monitor.

More information here

Other DataGate SSL Options

DataGate offers many options for enhancing the security of its client/server connection with SSL. For full details of options available for both the client and server, please consult the online documentation.

Configuring DataGate Connections Programmatically

Connection configurations are represented in DataGate as instances of the SourceProfile class in the DataGate .NET API. While most users and applications will configure connections via database names, some programs use the DataGate API directly.

Users of the SourceProfile class are advised that the changes in this release may represent a breaking change to the behavior of your programs. The default value of the SourceProfile.SslOptions property is now SslOptions.None; in previous releases the default value was SslOptions.Request. If your program does not explicitly set this property, connections made with the SourceProfile instances you create will be clear-text, rather than SSL-enabled.

If you directly create and use SourceProfile instances in your programs, ASNA highly recommends modifying them to explicitly set SourceProfile.SslOptions before deploying this DataGate release.

Database Name Migration From Non-SSL Releases

Database names created by DataGate releases prior to Version 15 do not contain SSL-related configuration information. When these database names are read by Version 15 software, the configuration is migrated to include SSL configuration options. Prior to this release, those migrations would enable SSL connections, unless otherwise explicitly changed by the user. Henceforth, automatic database name migrations will disable SSL in the connections they represent.

Users who deploy applications using the database names contained in configuration files created with prior, non-SSL supported DataGate releases are advised that changes in this release may represent a breaking change in this deployment strategy, for reasons outlined in the previous paragraph.

Software Requirements

The DataGate Component Suite supports the following software:

Platform support:

DataGate for SQL Server 16.x supports:

ASNA Mobile RPG and ANSA Wings also require:

ASNA Monarch Cocoon also requires:

Visual Studio 2019 Editions

Visual Studio 2019 16.5 or higher Professional or Enterprise edition is required.

The ASNA 16.x family (including AVR for .NET, Wings, Mobile RPG, Monarch and Synon Escape) requires a commercial version of Visual Studio 2019 (ie, Professional and up). These products no longer work with either the Visual Studio Community Edition or the Visual Studio Integrated/Isolated Shells.

Note If this software is downloaded via Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 or 10 you may receive a message stating that this file "is not commonly downloaded" when attempting to install it. In this event click the View Downloads button, select the ASNA product to install from that list, and confirm that you'd like to install it.

Similarly, attempting to install the software directly through Microsoft Windows may cause a "Windows protected your PC" message to appear. In this event click the small More Info prompt on the left, and click Run Anyway on the following window.



Changes Since Version: 16.0.82.0

Clients - DataGate Explorer