Version 3.5.2 ReadMe 1 iNEWS ® Newsroom Computer System Version 3.5.2 ReadMe Date Revised Changes Made 25 May 2012 Added information related to v3.5.2 release 29 February 2012 Added information related to v3.5.1 release 15 February 2012 Added information related to v3.5 release including FTS v4.0 (There was no v3.4.6 release.) 19 October 2011 Added information related to v3.4.5 release (There was no v3.4.4 release.) 11 August 2011 Added information related to v3.4.3 release 28 July 2011 Added information related to v3.4.2 release 5 July 2011 Added information related to v3.4.1 release 12 May 2011 Added information related to v3.4.0 release 7 March 2011 Added information related to v3.3.1 release 30 November 2010 Added information related to v3.3.0 release 23 November 2010 Added information related to v3.2.2 release 14 October 2010 Added information related to v3.2.1 release 24 May 2010 Initial version (based off of v3.1.1 doc.) Important Information Avid recommends that you thoroughly read all of the information in this ReadMe file before installing or using any new software release. Note: Search the Avid Knowledge Base (http://www.avid.com/onlinesupport ) for the most up-to-date ReadMe file, which contains the latest information that might have become available after the documentation was published. This document describes compatibility issues with previous releases, hardware and software requirements, software installation instructions, and summary information on system and memory requirements, when applicable. This document also lists any hardware and/or software limitations. Note: Since this release of iNEWS will be more widely distributed than previous versions, some notes on important features and changes have been brought forward from previous ReadMe documents. Notes that are less important were not brought forward, and users should reference older iNEWS ReadMe files for additional change information not contained in this ReadMe.
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Version 3.5.2 ReadMe
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��iNEWS® Newsroom Computer System Version 3.5.2 ReadMe
Date Revised Changes Made
25 May 2012 Added information related to v3.5.2 release
29 February 2012 Added information related to v3.5.1 release
15 February 2012 Added information related to v3.5 release including FTS v4.0 (There was no v3.4.6 release.)
19 October 2011 Added information related to v3.4.5 release (There was no v3.4.4 release.)
11 August 2011 Added information related to v3.4.3 release
28 July 2011 Added information related to v3.4.2 release
5 July 2011 Added information related to v3.4.1 release
12 May 2011 Added information related to v3.4.0 release
7 March 2011 Added information related to v3.3.1 release
30 November 2010 Added information related to v3.3.0 release
23 November 2010 Added information related to v3.2.2 release
14 October 2010 Added information related to v3.2.1 release
24 May 2010 Initial version (based off of v3.1.1 doc.)
Important Information Avid recommends that you thoroughly read all of the information in this ReadMe file before installing or using any new software release.
Note: Search the Avid Knowledge Base (http://www.avid.com/onlinesupport) for the most up-to-date ReadMe file, which contains the latest information that might have become available after the documentation was published.
This document describes compatibility issues with previous releases, hardware and software requirements, software installation instructions, and summary information on system and memory requirements, when applicable. This document also lists any hardware and/or software limitations.
Note: Since this release of iNEWS will be more widely distributed than previous versions, some notes on important features and changes have been brought forward from previous ReadMe documents. Notes that are less important were not brought forward, and users should reference older iNEWS ReadMe files for additional change information not contained in this ReadMe.
Compatibility Notes and Issues ................................................................................................................................. 7
Fast Text Search .................................................................................................................................................... 7
Community Feature ............................................................................................................................................... 7
iNEWS Client ........................................................................................................................................................ 7 iNEWS Server ....................................................................................................................................................... 8
MOS Gateway ....................................................................................................................................................... 8
New End User License Agreement ...................................................................................................................... 15
Upgrade Notes and Issues ........................................................................................................................................ 15
iNEWS v3.5.0 and FTS v4.0 ............................................................................................................................... 15
Upgrading iNEWS Server Software from Previous Versions ............................................................................. 16
Upgrading iNEWS Client Software from Previous Versions .............................................................................. 16
Upgrading iNEWS v2.8 Client Software to Future Versions .............................................................................. 16
Upgrading iNEWS Server from Previous Versions ............................................................................................. 16 Changes between 3.5.1 and 3.5.2 ............................................................................................................................ 17
Server ................................................................................................................................................................... 17
Changes between 3.5 and 3.5.1 ............................................................................................................................... 17
Monitor Server ..................................................................................................................................................... 17
Changes between 3.4.5 and 3.5 ............................................................................................................................... 18
Server ................................................................................................................................................................... 18
Changes between 3.4.3 and 3.4.5 ............................................................................................................................ 19
Monitor Server ..................................................................................................................................................... 20 Messaging ............................................................................................................................................................ 20
MOS .................................................................................................................................................................... 20
Changes between 3.4.2 and 3.4.3 ............................................................................................................................ 21
Server ................................................................................................................................................................... 21 Workstation ......................................................................................................................................................... 21
Changes between 3.4.1 and 3.4.2 ............................................................................................................................ 22
Server ................................................................................................................................................................... 22
User Interface ...................................................................................................................................................... 22
Production Cues ................................................................................................................................................... 23 Macros ................................................................................................................................................................. 23
Changes between 3.4.0 and 3.4.1 ............................................................................................................................ 23
Server ................................................................................................................................................................... 23
Monitor Server ..................................................................................................................................................... 24
Changes between 3.3.1 and 3.4.0 ............................................................................................................................ 24 Installation ........................................................................................................................................................... 24
User Interface ...................................................................................................................................................... 24
Server ................................................................................................................................................................... 25
Changes between 3.3.0 and 3.3.1 ............................................................................................................................ 31 Projects ................................................................................................................................................................ 31
Community .......................................................................................................................................................... 32
User Interface ...................................................................................................................................................... 32
MOS Integration .................................................................................................................................................. 33 Monitor Server ..................................................................................................................................................... 33
Web Access ......................................................................................................................................................... 33
Changes between 3.2.x and 3.3.0 ............................................................................................................................ 34
Installation ........................................................................................................................................................... 34 User Interface ...................................................................................................................................................... 34
Monitor Server ..................................................................................................................................................... 34
Server ................................................................................................................................................................... 34
URLs and Web Services API .............................................................................................................................. 35
Changes between 3.2.4 and 3.2.5 ............................................................................................................................ 35 Txnet .................................................................................................................................................................... 35
User Interface ...................................................................................................................................................... 35
Server ................................................................................................................................................................... 36
Changes between 3.2.3 and 3.2.4 ............................................................................................................................ 36
User Interface ...................................................................................................................................................... 36 TXNET Server ..................................................................................................................................................... 36
Changes between 3.2.2 and 3.2.3 ............................................................................................................................ 36
User Interface ...................................................................................................................................................... 36
Community .......................................................................................................................................................... 36 Interplay Integration ............................................................................................................................................ 36
Changes between 3.2.1 and 3.2.2 ............................................................................................................................ 37
Active X ............................................................................................................................................................... 37
User Interface ...................................................................................................................................................... 37
Changes between 3.2.0 and 3.2.1 ............................................................................................................................ 37 Searching ............................................................................................................................................................. 37
User Interface ...................................................................................................................................................... 37
Changes between 3.1.1 and 3.2.0 ............................................................................................................................ 38
User Interface ...................................................................................................................................................... 38 Changes between 3.1.0 and 3.1.1 ............................................................................................................................ 38
dbrestore and Restoring Stories ........................................................................................................................... 39
Message Server .................................................................................................................................................... 39
Changes between 3.0.x and 3.1.0 ............................................................................................................................ 39
User Interface ...................................................................................................................................................... 39 Playout ................................................................................................................................................................. 39
Searching and FTS ............................................................................................................................................... 40
Changes between 3.0.0 and 3.0.1 ............................................................................................................................ 41 Client ................................................................................................................................................................... 41
Server ................................................................................................................................................................... 41
Monitor Server ..................................................................................................................................................... 41
User Interface ...................................................................................................................................................... 42
Macros ................................................................................................................................................................. 42 Changes between 2.x and 3.0.0 ............................................................................................................................... 42
Monitor Server ..................................................................................................................................................... 42
User Interface ...................................................................................................................................................... 42
iNEWS Server ..................................................................................................................................................... 43 FTS Multiple Indexes .......................................................................................................................................... 43
Site files ............................................................................................................................................................... 44
New Features ........................................................................................................................................................... 44
For iNEWS v3.5 .................................................................................................................................................. 44
Blockmode Command ..................................................................................................................................... 45 For iNEWS v3.4.5 ............................................................................................................................................... 45
Community ...................................................................................................................................................... 45
For iNEWS v3.4.0 ............................................................................................................................................... 46
For iNEWS v3.3.0 ............................................................................................................................................... 47
Desktop Icon .................................................................................................................................................... 47 Projects and Facets .......................................................................................................................................... 47
For iNEWS v3.1.0 ............................................................................................................................................... 47
NewsCutter media ............................................................................................................................................... 48 For iNEWS v3.0.0 ............................................................................................................................................... 48
Story links ........................................................................................................................................................ 48
Field write groups ............................................................................................................................................ 50
Editorial groups ............................................................................................................................................... 50
Play Interplay Low-res Streams ....................................................................................................................... 51 Qualified Asian Languages and IMEs ..................................................................................................................... 51
Korean ................................................................................................................................................................. 51
Chinese Simplified .............................................................................................................................................. 51
Chinese Traditional .............................................................................................................................................. 52
Japanese ............................................................................................................................................................... 52 Vietnamese .......................................................................................................................................................... 52
Microsoft Windows Critical Updates ...................................................................................................................... 52
Known Issues and Limitations ................................................................................................................................. 53
iNEWS Web Services API .................................................................................................................................. 53 Multiple Monitors ................................................................................................................................................ 53
Macros and Keystrokes........................................................................................................................................ 54
Technical Support Information ................................................................................................................................ 55
Accessing Online Support ................................................................................................................................... 55
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Compatibility Notes and Issues This section contains compatibility information related to the iNEWS 3.5 release or earlier.
Fast Text Search Fast Text Search (FTS) version 4 is required for iNEWS Server version 3.5 and higher. FTS 4 is not supported on any iNEWS Server versions lower than 3.5. FTS 4 is supported on Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows XP SP3 (32-bit), and Windows Server 2003 SP2 (32-bit). The recommended operating system is Windows Server 2008 R2. A full re-index is required with an upgrade to FTS 4.
Workstation/Server Compatibility Chart
2.8 Server 3.0/1/2 Server 3.3. Server 3.4/5 Server
2.8 Client Allowed Allowed Allowed Allowed
3.0/1/2 Client Not allowed Allowed Allowed Allowed
3.3 Client Not allowed Not allowed Allowed Allowed
3.4/5 Client Not allowed Not allowed Not allowed Allowed
Community Feature
For iNEWS 3.4.5 to connect via community to iNEWS 3.4.5 or earlier servers, the 3.4.5 servers need to have a file named /site/env/gnews. The following string must be placed in that file: GCOMMUNITYSMALLDATABASE=1. See the New Features section of this document for additional information.
iNEWS Clients cannot be used in a community where any server in their path is of a lower version than the client.
• 3.4 clients can connect to 3.4 servers, which can connect through community to 3.4 servers.
• 3.4 clients cannot connect to pre-3.4 servers directly or through community.
• 3.3 clients can connect to 3.3 and higher servers, which can then connect through community to 3.3 and higher servers.
• Clients prior to iNEWS 3.3 do not support the new features in iNEWS 3.3: projects, facets, search queues, and queue templates.
• 2.8 clients can connect to 2.8 and higher servers, which can then connect through community to 2.8 and higher server.
• The iNEWS 2.8 client software does not support the new features in iNEWS 3.x: combo boxes, check boxes, story links, URL links, calendar fields, duration fields.
iNEWS Client The iNEWS client software is qualified and supported for use on Windows 7 (32-bit), Windows 7 64-bit Service Pack 1, Windows Vista (32-bit), Windows 2000 Professional (SP4), Windows 2000 Server (SP4), Windows XP Professional (SP2 or SP3) and Windows Server 2003 (SP1). This version of iNEWS is not officially supported for use on any other Windows operating system, including the pre-SP1 release of Windows 7 64-bit
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• The iNEWS 3.5.0 client software cannot connect to servers earlier than iNEWS 3.5.0.
iNEWS Server The iNEWS Server is qualified and supported for use on 32-bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.x.
The iNEWS Server is qualified with VMWare Server v2.0 and later for Windows operating systems and is supported to run in a VMWare image. It must have networking set to BRIDGED to allow a unique IP address.
Command The iNEWS Server is qualified and supported for use with Command 1.0.1 or later.
ControlAir The iNEWS system is qualified and supported for use with ControlAir 1.6 or later. However, for the loading of single playlists with between 500 to 1000 stories, ControlAir v1.7.4.4 or later is required.
MOS Gateway The iNEWS system is qualified and supported for use with MOS Gateway 3.0.2 or later.
Console Multiplexer The iNEWS Server requires version 2.0 of the console multiplexer (MUX) software, which is on the iNEWS installation CD. The console multiplexer cannot currently display Unicode characters. A terminal emulator that supports Unicode characters can be used if Unicode support is required.
Data Receiver The iNEWS system is qualified and supported for use with Data Receiver 1.8 or later. iNEWS 3.0 Server saves data as well-formed XML. Data Receiver SFCs must be updated to deliver well-formed XML. Also, field tags have changed from <f id=TYPE></f> to <string id=”TYPE”></string>.
Instinct The iNEWS system is qualified and supported for use with Avid Instinct 1.1 and 1.6 or later. After the iNEWS client software is installed on an Instinct computer, manual registration of the Instinct installation’s COM control should be performed: Start > Run > regsvr32 “C:\Program Files\Avid\Avid iNEWS Instinct\iNewsCOMU.dll”.
NewsCutter The iNEWS system is qualified and supported for use with NewsCutter NRCS Tool 6.1.5 or later. After the iNEWS client software is installed on a NewsCutter, manual registration of the NewsCutter installation’s COM control should be performed: Start > Run > regsvr32 “C:\Program Files\Avid\Avid NewsCutter\iNewsCOMU.dll”. If both NewsCutter and Instinct are on the machine, the Instinct COM control should be the one you register.
Teleprompter The iNEWS system supports the following teleprompter software: WinPlus BDL Unicode version 6.8.7.3 and WinCue version 1.30 (build 674 or higher).
Installation Notes and Issues
FTS v4.0 • An FTS server installation supports up to 50 iNEWS systems.
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FTS Installation and Configuration Procedure The new installation and configuration procedure for FTS server version 4 is provided here. To install and configure FTS:
1. Navigate to the FTS folder on the iNEWS installation DVD and click Setup.exe. The InstallShield Wizard starts and displays a Welcome dialog box.
2. Click Next.
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The License Agreement dialog box appears.
3. Read the Avid Software License Agreement, accept the terms, and click Next.
The Destination Folder dialog box appears.
4. (Optional) Click Change if you want to alter the default installation location. Otherwise, you can
accept the default and click Next.
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5. Click Install when you are ready to begin the installation.
When the InstallShield Wizard completes the installation successfully, the following dialog box appears.
6. Select the Launch Avid FTS Configuration check box and click Finish.
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You are now ready to configure the system. The Fast Text Search configuration window appears. By default, no services are active.
7. Click Configure to configure the FTS_1 services.
The default configuration values will appear, as shown in the following illustration.
8. Set the Active field to ACTIVE. 9. Set the System Name to the name of the iNEWS system to be associated with this service. 10. (Optional) Modify the ports and index path. 11. Click Save.
A warning might appear to indicate if the Index Path Folder, indicated in the Index Path field, does not exist.
12. Click Yes to create the folder at the configured path.
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The firewall exceptions, service configurations, and index path are created at this time.
13. Click Back to return to the main configuration window and start the services. The configuration
window will now display the active services with the configured system name. 14. Configure additional systems by selecting unused FTS_# entries from the list.
Stopping and starting services should be performed from the Fast Text Search configuration window, using the Pause and Play buttons next to the relevant system name. Even though the services will appear in the Windows Services list, all stopping and starting should be performed from the FTS management UI.
15. By default, logs and index bases are stored in C:\ProgramData\Avid\FTS in Windows Server 2008 R2 and in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Avid\FTS in Windows XP and 2003.
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If FTS needs to be uninstalled, all FTS entries should be set to “DISABLED” prior to the uninstall. Below is sample output from ftsdebug…
NRCS-A$ ftsdebug index statistics Service name: ftsindex1
An index rebuild is required when upgrading to FTS 4.
To build the iNEWS index:
Perform the following commands: ftsdebug index statistics — This confirms communication with the FTS Index
service. ftsdebug search statistics — This confirms communication with the FTS Search
service. list c fts — This displays the ftsseek and ftsindex device numbers (ftsseek# and
ftsindex#). stop <ftsindex#> <ftsseek#> — This stops the FTS devices. dbpurge system.index 0 — This clears any unhandled index requests. dbpurge system.fts 0 — This clears any unhandled search requests. dbtraits . reindex > /dev/null & — This creates an index request for each
indexed queue. The output is sent to /dev/null because of output volume.
Note: Alternatively, more important wires and recent archives can be added to the index before adding the full database during the reindexing.
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start <ftsindex#> <ftsseek#> — This restarts the FTS devices.
iNEWS Installer • The iNEWS Server installer no longer allows installation on 64-bit operating systems.
FTS v3.1.x • Beginning in FTS 3.1, "ftsdebug index statistics" reports index base file size as well as truncated file size.
The truncated size is a measurement of the "in use" size of the files. When stories or queues are removed from an index base, the file size does not decrease, but the truncated size does decrease. The truncated size can be used to more accurately determine the free space in the index base. A truncated size of 0 (zero) indicates that the file cannot be truncated. Queues should be moved to different index bases if the truncated size of any file in the index base approaches two gigabytes
New End User License Agreement • Beginning with version 3.0, the iNEWS Server now displays an End User License Agreement (EULA) on
the master at the first configure/startup after an installation or upgrade. The EULA is in English and formatted at 80 columns for the iNEWS Console Multiplexor. Non-English EULAs are available on the release DVD.
• Beginning with version 2.8, an End User License Agreement is part of the iNEWS client software installation. This EULA must be accepted for installation to proceed. Administrators should generate a new silent install script before rolling out the client.
Upgrade Notes and Issues This section contains information related to upgrading from previous versions of iNEWS.
iNEWS v3.5.0 and FTS v4.0 • An upgrade to iNEWS 3.5 and FTS 4 requires a full rebuild of each index.
iNEWS v3.4.1 • If upgrading from previous 3.x versions of iNEWS, there are likely invalid URLs stored in the database.
Repair these URLs by running the command: dblines c .
Note: The period (.) in the dblines c. command indicates the entire database.
Some early versions of iNEWS 3 created NSML links in SYSTEM.KEYBOARDS. When the dblines command fixes those links, they become invalid keyboards. To repair the keyboards, remove the excess whitespace at the beginning and the middle of the keystroke line.
iNEWS v3.4.0 • If a full dbrestore is not performed as part of the upgrade to iNEWS 3.4.0, the clearflagbyte utility
should be run on the database. Usage is simply “clearflagbyte.” This utility touches all database nodes and initializes the new byte that holds the monitored attribute. This should be performed before running mapcheck.
• iNEWS 3.4 and higher references all stories in SYSTEM.MAP when determining functionality. Excess stories should be moved to other queues or deleted. After removing excess stories from SYSTEM.MAP, the Mapcheck utility (mapcheck -f system.map) should be run to validate SYSTEM.MAP and set the monitored trait on all rundowns. For more information on the Mapcheck utility, see the “New Features” section of this ReadMe file.
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Upgrading iNEWS Server Software from Previous Versions • When upgrading iNEWS to 3.3.0 from any version, both dbgen p and dbgen m are required.
The dbgen p command initializes projects, and the dbgen m command initializes mailboxes for project-related notifications.
• When upgrading iNEWS from a version prior to 3.0, a dbrestore is required.
The dbrestore command converts the database to the NSML 3.0 specification. This conversion formats existing stories into well-formed XML documents. Stories containing invalid data will not be restored, and will display StoryCreate errors during the dbrestore process. Errors include 'Anchor missing element,' 'AE missing attachment,' and 'Finish aelist bad M.' These errors should be rare, and the NSML2 version of the story are accessible by the 'remnant ID' reported to the console.
Upgrading iNEWS Client Software from Previous Versions • Client upgrades have changed in version 3.0 to allow smoother minor and major upgrades in future. All
iNEWS 2.6+ language installations are seen as the same product, so a major upgrade from 2.6+ to 3.0 will uninstall all 2.6+ languages that are installed. Beginning in version 3.0, different language installations will be considered different products of the same family, allowing upgrades to version 3.x of specific languages without uninstalling all other 3.0 languages.
During transition periods, both 2.6+ and 3.0 clients may need to be on the same machine. The 3.0 installation uninstalls 2.6+, so if both are needed, simply re-install 2.x into a different directory after 3.0 has been installed.
• When installing or upgrading iNEWS, you must have adequate user rights to install the client software.
Note: During the install procedure, iNEWS client software version 3.0 will not provide an option to upgrade from any previous iNEWS version. iNEWS 2.6 and higher will automatically be uninstalled by the iNEWS 3.0 installation. iNEWS 2.1 and lower should be uninstalled manually before the iNEWS 3.0 installation.
Upgrading iNEWS v2.8 Client Software to Future Versions Due to changes made for Windows Vista, upgrades on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Vista require escalation to administrator privileges. When iNEWS administrators have set their system to roll out upgrades, Windows Limited and Power users will receive the iNEWS auto-upgrade dialog when logging in to a server. Once the user accepts the option to download the new installer they will receive a Run As dialog box in which an administrator's name and password must be entered to complete download and installation. If the Current user in the Run As dialog box is an administrator, it is necessary to deselect the check box called: Protect my computer and data from unauthorized program activity for the upgrade to succeed. This is a Windows security restriction outside of iNEWS client control.
Using the v2.8 download.exe program to download and upgrade to a new client version still requires a manual Run As… administrator. Limited users running download.exe without running the program as an administrator will not be able to complete installation.
Upgrading iNEWS Server from Previous Versions • When moving to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0 version from Red Hat 3.0, a full OS and iNEWS install
must be completed. There is no upgrade path from Red Hat 3.0 to Red Hat 5.0.
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Changes between 3.5.1 and 3.5.2
Workstation • In previous versions of iNEWS 3, custom form fields in SYSTEM.FORMS had their data type changed to
Editbox after user logged out then back in. This is fixed. • In previous versions of iNEWS 3, only editbox form fields would paste into new story form. This is fixed. • In previous versions of iNEWS 3, Cut Production Cue context menu option in production cue, and
CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+X, were not working correctly, leaving production cue contents in place. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, some updates within the same second were not shown as updated in observing sessions in refresh queues. This is now fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, duplicate field types could be found in field properties droplist when that field type was used for two different data types in two different stories. This now fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, legacy forms with zero length edit boxes placed underneath the field label would incorrectly show the editbox. Doing this corrupted the form view and covered up the label of the field below it. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, new workspaces would open with all tree nodes collapsed. This is fixed. New workspace now opens with the root node of local server expanded.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, the scroll bar within the VizRT plugin was not functioning. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, script templates which included bold formatted text would be imported into story missing the bold formatting. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, line breaks could be removed when copying and pasting inside the production cue panel. This is fixed.
• In prior versions of iNEWS 3, web pages with script errors would pop up a script error to the iNEWS user because the web interface in iNEWS had script debugging enabled. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, the user session was terminated when a user logged in directly to a form that contained a duration cell. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, localized versions of iNEWS had issues loading exisiting search criteria for search queues. This is fixed.
Server • In previous versions of iNEWS 3, stories that were txnetted to an email address using the mailto function
would not show the proper Backtime or Cume-time. This is fixed.
Changes between 3.5 and 3.5.1 • User InterfaceIn previous versions of iNEWS 3, iNEWS formatted text would lose its formatting when it
was copied and pasted in to a new story, and sometimes within the same story, when Windows clipboard was used. This is fixed.
Monitor Server • In previous versions of iNEWS 3, the monitor server would exit when it encountered a MOS item
exceeding 32,667 Unicode characters (65,334 bytes). The behavior has been changed so that the utility program will no longer exit. Instead, the monitor server will return an error message for that production cue that is A_BADMOSSIZE, “MOS item too large”.
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Changes between 3.4.5 and 3.5
FTS • The W_INDEXBASE token is removed from /site/dict/words; the location of the index base is now
configured at the FTS server.
• iNEWS Server to FTS Index service communication now reuses the active network socket instead of opening a new socket for each story. This change improves indexing speed by 10-to-15% and eliminates the “Add failed (25,99)” errors that appeared during large index rebuilds. Because of this change, the ftsdebug commands could take up to 10 seconds to respond when the FTS Index service is actively re-indexing a large queue.
• Individual index bases are still limited to 2GB per file. Continue using the ftsindex dbtraits setting in iNEWS to define which index base each queue uses.
• The ftsindex program now prints a diagnostic to the iNEWS log when the size of any index base file reaches the 2GB limit.
• The shutdown command has been removed from both ftsdebug search and ftsdebug index. Stopping services is now handled on the FTS server.
• The rotatelog command has been added to both ftsdebug search and ftsdebug index. This command is used to save the current log and start a new log when it is necessary to read the logs on the FTS server. Active logs are locked by the relevant service. The rotated log file name has a number (1, 2, 3, etc.) added between the service name and the process ID.
• The limitlog command has been added to both ftsdebug search and ftsdebug index. This command changes the size at which the log file will rotate to a new file. The default size is 10MB. The command is provided a log size in megabytes: ftsdebug index limitlog 50.
Server • In this version of iNEWS, dbvisit terminates at the end of the traversals if any critical errors were found.
This termination prevents administrators from rebuilding the freelist when it would not be advisable.
• In previous versions of iNEWS server, the monitor server (utility program) could report network communication failures during story reorders with multiple Command servers loaded in the same rundown. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS server, the rename utility could not be used to rename a path of the maximum length: 63 characters. This is fixed.
• In prior versions of iNEWS unsafe characters in hyperlinks were not encoded correctly to the server. This is now fixed.
• Current iNEWS servers and workstations use only a TCP socket for communication. Legacy workstations communicating with the current server continue to use TCP and UDP communication. This change was made in the iNEWS 3.3.0 release of server and client software.
Workstation • In previous versions of iNEWS 3, at times iNEWS had troubles with the painting of some toolbars after
user logged in. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS3, copy and pastes from Internet Explorer to iNEWS story would include extra characters for iNEWS installs onto Czech operating systems. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, sometimes HTML text that was copied from a Web page and then pasted into an iNEWS story would have its CC formatted text change when the user left the story and went back to it. This is now fixed.
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• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, multiple cell copy and pastes from the queue view to Excel for combo boxes would paste the wrong value. This has been fixed.
• In previous versions of the iNEWS client, links could be submitted to the server with formatting (bold, italic, underline) intact. This is fixed. Formatting is now removed from links before submission for saving.
• In previous versions of iNEWS, the iNEWS client software could crash when receiving data from the Harris server after the NXMB Control plug-in had been closed. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, mail queues which contained accented characters in the mail messages in an iNEWS 2.0 database would cause the client software to hang when mail was accessed after an upgrade to 3.x. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS3, if enough notifications were being processed and sent it would clog network activity and would terminate the client software. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, Project pull down menu would terminate iNEWS when previous focus was on an opened plug-in. This is fixed.
NSML • In previous versions of iNEWS 3, iNEWS would allow the paste of complex links which would break the
NSML parser. Complex links are now pasted as plain text. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, UNC paths were encoded as NSML links which was incorrect because UNC paths are not valid links. This is fixed.
Mapcheck • Running the mapcheck utility on a system that has not been configured is no longer allowed. The user is
informed that the system has not been configured.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, mapcheck would give an Invalid CG Address Block error when there was a dash in the delta / buffer of SYSTEM.MAP. This is fixed.
Miscellaneous
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, local database stories were timed using a wordlength of 1. This is fixed. Local stories are now timed using the wordlength and readrate configured on the server to which the client PC most recently connected. If no server connection has been made from the PC, the local stories are timed with a wordlength of 6 and a readrate of 180.
• In previous versions of 3.4, standard users logging into and out of NewsWeb would occasionally terminate the NewsWeb application. This is fixed.
Changes between 3.4.3 and 3.4.5
Indexing • In previous versions of iNEWS server, ftsindex could stop scanning SYSTEM.INDEX during long squeeze
operations triggered by adbserver. This is fixed.
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• FTS Indexbase can now be assigned from an iNEWS Workstation, using the Directory/Queue Properties dialog box. A drop-down option allowing integer selection from zero through 49 has been added to the Forms tab, adjacent to the Indexed check box. Prior to iNEWS 3.4.5, this value could only be assigned from the console via the dbtraits ftsindex command.
Monitor Server • In previous versions of iNEWS server, the monitor server could assign duplicate CG addresses when
addressing CGs that were added to stories already containing CGs. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS, the monitor server could corrupt production cues when writing changes triggered by mosItemReplace. This is fixed.
Messaging • In iNEWS 2.6 and later, the top-line messaging Check Name (CTRL+W) function did not list partial
matches when an exact match was found. This has been changed. Check Name now displays both exact matches and partial matches for the supplied user name.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, the Up and Down Arrow buttons in the message bar did not disable when the user reached the top or bottom of the message list. This is fixed.
MOS • In iNEWS 2.6 and later, the ReplaceTime MOS-MAP variable did not work correctly. This is fixed.
If ReplaceTime=No, then MOS items dropped into the story form do not populate the mos-duration field. MOS items dropped into the story body do not include a RUNS time. If ReplaceTime=Yes, then MOS items dropped into the story form populate the mos-duration field. MOS items dropped into the story body include a RUNS time. Yes is the default value for ReplaceTime.
Miscellaneous • In previous versions of iNEWS 3, pressing Escape while text was highlighted could result in the
highlighted text being deleted. This is fixed.
• In iNEWS 2.1, the Format toolbar was localized for non-English install sets. These localized toolbars were not used in iNEWS 2.6 and later. This is fixed. The Format toolbars that were localized in iNEWS 2.1 are now localized in the current iNEWS client software.
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• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, story save failures could occur if fields from different forms shared a Current Field Type but had different Data Types. For example, a "var-1" field that is an editbox in one form and a checkbox in another form could result in errors. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS server, serial device licenses could be incorrectly identified as mobile device licenses. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3.4, groups added to combobox definitions were not saved correctly. This is fixed.
• In iNEWS 3.3 and later, navigating among queues when the story form was hidden could result in the client software terminating. This is fixed.
• In some previous versions of iNEWS server, txnet would attempt to reuse a data port for a transfer after the prior transfer completed. This resulted in port reuse errors when transferring to Windows FTP servers. This is fixed. Now, txnet uses ports supplied by the host operating system when transferring data, as it did in iNEWS 2.8 and earlier.
Changes between 3.4.2 and 3.4.3
Monitor • In iNEWS 3.4.0 and higher, users not in the read group of SYSTEM.MAP could not load monitor for
rundowns that were defined after the first story in SYSTEM.MAP. This is fixed. Users in the rundown's monitor group can now load monitor regardless of the definition location in SYSTEM.MAP.
Server • In previous versions of iNEWS, the server would not tolerate links saved with formatting (bold, italic,
underline) within the link. This is fixed. The formatting is now removed from the link when the server saves a story to the database.
When the server repairs these links, the following informational diagnostics are printed in the iNEWS log:
G2998: Removing </b> from <link> content
G2998: Nested <b> error, removing <b>
Workstation • In previous versions of iNEWS, a user could not re-submit a story from the workstation to the server after a
story save failure. The body of the story would not be sent after the user repaired invalid elements. This is fixed. The story is resubmitted to the server if a user attempts to save after a story save failure.
• In previous versions of iNEWS, presenter instructions or closed captioning combined with two or more formatting elements (bold, italic, underline) would send invalid NSML to the server, resulting in a story save failure. This is fixed. The client no longer submits invalid NSML, and the server will repair invalid NSML received from legacy clients.
When the server repairs these errors, the following informational diagnostics are printed in the iNEWS log:
G2996: Nested <b> error, removing <b>
G2996: discarding nested <i>
G2996: discarding orphan </i>
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Changes between 3.4.1 and 3.4.2
Server • In previous versions of iNEWS, monitor could abort during periods of high message volume with verbose
logging active. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS, the monitor program could corrupt production cues for invalid items when stories containing those items were edited. This corruption caused monitor to abort when the stories were next scanned. This is fixed. Monitor no longer corrupts items, and if it encounters corrupt items from previous versions a 'parse error' diagnostic will be printed to the console. The corrupt stories should be deleted when encountered. These stories will appear in 'dblines c' output with a message stating, "Invalid Nsml in AEset section."
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, cume-time and back-time were not exported as formatted time values through txnet or web forms. This is fixed.
• Any unsupported or incorrect server strings listed in /site/config will generate "failed to invoke <server>" diagnostics at startup. These lines should be removed from /site/config. Example: Print servers are no longer supported. If a server is upgraded and a printserver line is not removed from /site/config, startup will print a "failed to invoke 'printserver'" diagnostic. Remove the printserver reference.
• In previous versions of iNEWS, top-line messages retrieved from remote servers could display an incorrect second character. This is fixed.
User Interface • To select a server in the monitor dialog, users must click the selector button to the left of the row. Clicking
in a Device or Status cell will not select the row.
• In iNEWS 3.3 and later, searching for multiple words using the Find toolbar did not work correctly. The incorrect search criteria were submitted to the server. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, the timing bar could show incorrect values or asterisks if the show crossed midnight during timing. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, the workstation would not display search results if the M_BGSDONE token was set to multiple words in /site/dict/messages. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, pressing the Escape key while text was highlighted deleted the highlighted text. This is fixed.
• The Launch Link to Machine Control context option is now available for MOS items attached to the story form.
• In iNEWS 3.3 and later, a user could not scroll to the bottom of the Directory panel when their workspace was set to the two-panel horizontal layout. This is fixed.
• Values saved in calendar and duration fields are now converted to readable format when printing.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, defining multiple CGs for a Command server could result in the first CG using an incorrect style string. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS, the client could save the incorrect group in Field Properties. This is fixed.
• In iNEWS 3.3 and later, the Copy To and Move To options in the Edit menu did not work when focus was in the Directory panel. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, typing Ctrl+End in a large non-refresh queue could crash the client. This is fixed.
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• In iNEWS 3.4.0, some users would crash while logging in if a prior 3.x client had not logged in with that username. This is fixed.
• Floating toolbars are no longer remembered on successive launches. This 3.3.1 fix was removed.
• In iNEWS 3.3 and later, Alt+keypad keystrokes could not be used to insert Unicode characters into the story body. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS, the client could terminate when receiving a 'logout' command from a remote server to which that client was connected. This is fixed.
Projects • In previous versions of iNEWS, all project and facet nodes displayed the same queue form after the first
node was accessed. This is fixed. The nodes now display the configured form.
• In previous versions of iNEWS, clicking directly from the Project menu into an ActiveX plug-in could cause the iNEWS client to crash. This is fixed.
• In iNEWS 3.3 and later, the Project tab in the story body was not visible in some zoomed layouts. This is fixed.
Production Cues •
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, editing a story with an error-state production cue could cause the cue to save as normal text instead of machine instructions. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS, script template insertion could leave keyboard focus in the Instruction panel, even though visual focus was in the Story Text panel. This is fixed. Keyboard focus is now always in the Story Text panel after a script template is inserted into a story.
Macros • In previous versions of iNEWS, changes to the item-channel field could cause the workstation application
to freeze. This is fixed
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, keyboard and button macros executed while focus was in the message bar would fail to activate menu items. This is fixed.
Changes between 3.4.0 and 3.4.1
Server • In previous versions of iNEWS 3, the server allowed the iNEWS client to store invalid URLs. Stories with
invalid URLs are problematic when accessed with the iNEWS Web Services API. Therefore, beginning with version 3.4.1, the iNEWS Server no longer allows storage of invalid URLs. When any client submits an invalid URL to the server, a server diagnostic is produced, and the server changes the link, show, and url NSML tags to spaces.
The dblines command has also been enhanced to discover and clean invalid URLs. Customers upgrading from 3.x to 3.4.1 or greater should run dblines c . to repair any invalid URLs currently stored in the database.
• In previous versions of iNEWS Server, rxnet would disconnect a client when receiving a UTF-8 upload that included a byte order mark. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, any invalid date or duration fields caused a story to be rejected during dbrestore. This is changed. Invalid duration fields are now reformatted if the contents are MM:SS or MMM:SS. Any other invalid duration entries are simply discarded, and the story is restored with a blank
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duration value. If the create-date field is invalid, the internal story create date replaces the invalid field content. If the modify-date field is invalid, the internal story modify date replaces the invalid field content. Any other invalid date values are discarded.
All instances of values being replaced or discarded include a dbrestore diagnostic similar to the following: "ARCHIVE.1998.TRAINING.RUNDOWN "cold open" stamp:804148398 storyid:1138877 field audio-time invalid[1:23] converting to [83]".
• In iNEWS Server version 3.3, the dbdump utility could become stuck in a loop when encountering a corrupt story. This is fixed.
• The dbrestore utility now renumbers mismatched anchored elements, allowing restoration of some stories that would have failed with “Anchor missing element” errors in previous versions of dbrestore. A diagnostic similar to the following appears in this situation: "SHOW.TRAINING.RUNDOWN "t: celts reax" stamp:1072494491 storyid:238123 <ae id=1> changed to match <a idref=2>."
• The –S option is removed from dblines in iNEWS server 3.3.0 and later.
• The number of allowed concurrent locked blocks in a system is increased from 30 to 100.
Monitor Server • In iNEWS 3.3.0 and 3.4.0, floating or deleting a story immediately after it was added to a monitor loaded
rundown could cause the monitor server to hang. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, floated, deleted, or moved BREAK lines in event list queues were only removed from a server's final device's event list. The server's final device is the last device listed in its SYSTEM.MAP entry. Non-final event lists were not updated properly. This is fixed. The monitor server (utility program) now handles break events properly in all event list queues.
• In previous versions of iNEWS, placing more than 32766 characters in a story field would cause the monitor server to crash when the story was sent to playout. This is fixed. The monitor server now truncates fields to 255 characters. If more characters are needed, the FIELD_TEXT_LIMIT variable can be set in the monitor file: /site/env/monitor.<DEVNUM>. A value of 0 (zero) indicates no truncation, and monitor will once again abort if a field crosses the upper bound of 32766 Unicode characters.
Note: The truncation only affects the message being sent. The field stored in the database is not truncated. Also, this limit only impacts story fields: title, page-number, etc. Story attachments are not affected.
• In previous versions of iNEWS, monitor would abort if verbose logging was set and the monitor log reached two gigabytes. This is fixed. The monitor log now rolls over to a new file when the current file reaches one gigabyte.
Changes between 3.3.1 and 3.4.0
Installation • Previous versions of the iNEWS client installer would display an Internet Explorer 4 error if the computer
had been upgraded to Internet Explorer 9. This is fixed.
User Interface • In previous versions of iNEWS 3, decimal entry was not allowed in the Local Printing Line Spacing field.
This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS, the Story > Approve menu item worked to approve a story when the user was not in the write group of the endorse-by field. This is fixed.
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Server • In previous versions of iNEWS 3, some special characters in paths were not escaped properly when
submitting Indexed searches. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS, diskcopy did not detect mirror failure during the copy. This is fixed; diskcopy will now terminate if the mirror fails.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, NSML links were downgraded to NSML 2 for legacy compatibility. This downgrade consisted of removing show and link tags while keeping the url tags. This is changed. The downgrade for legacy clients now strips all tags from links so that the NSML2 client will only receive the address portion of the URL. For example, "<link><url>http://www.avid.com</url></link>" will become simply “http://www.avid.com.”
• The optional 'choice' parameter is added to the SYSTEM.MAP syntax. Choice is the fifth column of the server line in SYSTEM.MAP...
<type> <server1> <server2> <form> <choice>
Choice can be any string. Lines with matching choice strings are mutually exclusive to monitor, allowing the user who turns monitor on to select the device control systems that will receive stories and events. When monitor is turned on, the user must select one server from each choice. After monitor is on, all stories relevant to that choice will be sent only to the selected server. To change the selection, the user must turn monitor off and back on.
The following example has two Command server choices (cmdchoice), two no-choice MOS servers, three ControlAir CG choices (CG), and two ControlAir SS choices (SS).
Selections are made by selecting the radio button next to the desired server. The user may only select one server from each choice grouping. The default selection is the first server of that choice in SYSTEM.MAP. (Notice that cg-room3 is the default CG choice selection.)
The user can select one server from each choice, and then turn monitor on. If the user selects the b1 Command system, the room2 CG system, and the r1 SS system, this is how the monitor dialog will display before and after monitor is turned on.
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Before:
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After:
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To load individual devices:
1. Click the selector button to the left of the device(s) you want to load.
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2. Click Load.
• The 'monitored' trait is added to queue attributes and the Queue Properties dialog. Monitored indicates a rundown. A queue without the monitored attribute cannot be monitored. The -f flag of mapcheck sets the monitored attribute for all rundowns in the SYSTEM.MAP queue.
The monitored attribute is displayed as a capital M in the twentieth column of the 'list d' output.
Q-RP----I---QA----T- TITLE P0 R1 - SHOW.10PM.MASTER
Q--P----I---QA----TM TITLE P0 R1 503 SHOW.10PM.RUNDOWN
Q--P---------NX----- TITLE P18 R1 - SHOW.10PM.VIDEO
• The biolatency command is added. This utility can be used by iNEWS support and engineering to evaluate the status of the system's bioservers and mirror network.
NRCS-A# help biolatency
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usage: biolatency [<iterations> [<delay in seconds between iterations>]]
Example:
NRCS-A$ biolatency 5 5
Block # allocate lock write all write one unlock free
• The output of the unbusy command is changed. In previous versions, empty fields were displayed showing no data. This output was generally ignored and could cause relevant data to be missed. Empty fields are now suppressed from output. They can be shown using the -e option.
MCS Dictionary • A_BADMAPCHOICE is added to /site/dict/mcs. The default value is "Bad Map line: choice server-
type mismatch." This error message is received by the user who turns on the monitor server if a single 'choice' has multiple server types, such as mossvr, casvr, wnasvr.
• A_ENDSVRS is added to /site/dict/mcs. The default value is "ENDSVRS." This string can be entered in SYSTEM.MAP to indicate the end of a rundown's entry. The string is not required, but it can improve readability when using the new 'choices' format.
Txnet • In previous versions of iNEWS 3, txnet open responses that spanned multiple TCP packets would result in
the connection failing. This is fixed.
Changes between 3.3.0 and 3.3.1
Projects • In iNEWS 3.3.0, non-English installations had two Help menu labels instead of a Project label and a Help
label. This is fixed.
• In iNEWS 3.3.0, Project and Facet Properties used the form list from a local database if one was present. This is fixed. The Properties dialogs now use the form list provided by the server to which the user is connected.
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• In iNEWS 3.3.0, dragging a story from an indexed queue to a project or facet would not cause the story's project tab to appear. This is fixed.
• Shortcut keystrokes have been added for all project functions.
Function Keystroke Combination
New Project Ctrl+Alt+J
New Facet Ctrl+Alt+F
Properties Alt+Enter
Delete Project Ctrl+Alt+D
Subscribe to Project Ctrl+Alt+S
Unsubscribe to Project Ctrl+Alt+U
Show Expired Project Ctrl+Alt+E
Community • In previous versions of iNEWS, community story moves or copies were rejected if the story contained a
CART item. This is fixed.
• iNEWS 3.3.0 could not accept stories copied via community from iNEWS versions 3.0 through 3.2.2. This is fixed.
Messaging • The 'sendlong' utility is added. The sendlong utility is used to send messages greater than 71 characters in
length. Clients that cannot accept messages over 71 characters will receive multiple messages. usage: sendlong <user> The long message to be sent is read from standard input - CR LF stripped.
FTS • In previous versions of iNEWS server, FTS searches would fail if the system name contained a hyphen:
NRCS-SYS-A, for example. This is fixed.
Seek • In iNEWS 3.3.0, form-level seek searches searched the story and the form. This is fixed. Selecting ‘Form’
in Find All only searches the form.
User Interface • Shortcut keystrokes are added for the following basic user functions:
Function Keystroke Combination
Play Low-Res Video Shift+Ctrl+D
Insert Script Template Shift+Ctrl+I
Copy Story Link to Clipboard Shift+Ctrl+K
• In previous versions of iNEWS, toolbars that were floated at application close were docked at the next launch of the application. This is fixed. Floating toolbar placement is recalled.
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• In previous versions of iNEWS, the storyform area could display without accounting for the height of the horizontal scrollbar, resulting in the scrollbar covering fields. This is fixed.
• In iNEWS 3.3.0, navigating to the Maintain tab of the Queue Properties dialog when a system mailbox was set would result in an error. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS, queue panel edits could be lost if not saved before a refresh notification was received. This is fixed. Active edits now recall both cursor position and edit status when other stories are updated in the queue.
• The amount of directory view refreshing (flashing) has been reduced when double-clicking a queue or expanding a folder.
• In this version of iNEWS, dbmanager support was added to the Copy From Template folder and Queue Properties feature.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, some advanced user search options could cause the client to terminate. This is fixed.
Macros • In previous versions of iNEWS, a macro that types text immediately after a {window <dialogName>}
command could insert an unwanted underscore before the typed text. This is fixed.
MOS Integration • In iNEWS 3.3.0, mos-title was not taken from objSlug if itemSlug was empty or not present. This behavior
resulted in a blank mos-title field when MOS items were dragged to the story form and blank production cue descriptions when MOS items were placed in the story body. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS, a mosItemReplace that changed the mosSchema resulted in a monitor hang. This is fixed.
Monitor Server • In iNEWS 3.3.0, the monitor server could become unresponsive if deletions or edits were made in
composite lists. This is fixed. When the monitor server is unable to find an expected entry in a composite list an error will be posted to the iNEWS server log and the monitor server will continue to behave normally.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, the monitor server could corrupt a story if the story contained fields that were split across database records. This is fixed.
• Unread message sent from monitor to MON ON and MON LOAD users are now cleared at MON OFF. Some device-specific messages will still be present.
• In previous versions of iNEWS, BREAK items in event lists and composite queues had a queue stamp of zero, making them irretrievable by FTP connections. This is fixed.
Txnet • In previous versions of iNEWS, txnet could terminate when sending edit-locked stories. This is fixed.
Web Access • In previous versions of Web Access, 12-character passwords were not considered valid. This is fixed.
Tokens • Two /site/dict/queues tokens are added:
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• Q_CLIENT_MOBILE_IDS has a default of system.client.mobile-ids. This queue is reserved for integration with upcoming products.
• Q_CLIENT_MOBILE_VERSIONS has a default of system.client.mobile-versions. This queue is reserved for integration with upcoming products.
Changes between 3.2.x and 3.3.0
Installation • In previous versions of iNEWS, the server installer allowed installation on 64-bit operating systems. This is
fixed. The iNEWS Server installer no longer allows installation on 64-bit operating systems.
• When installing iNEWS 3.3.0 Server, installers must run dbgen p to initialize projects
• When installing iNEWS 3.3.0 Server, installers must run dbgen m to initialize the mailbox, which allows project-related notifications.
User Interface • In previous versions of iNEWS 3, production cue text would not be displayed if cursor focus moved from
the production cue directly to a non-iNEWS application. This is fixed. Production cue text continues to display regardless of cursor focus.
• In previous versions of iNEWS, button and keyboard macros that move from the Queue panel to the story body and up to the story form could insert unwanted characters into the first field in the form. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS, editing of text pasted into the Queue panel was not allowed if the user had double-clicked or used F2 to enter input mode before pasting. This is fixed. Double-clicking followed by pasting will allow further editing of the pasted text.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, the Directory panel flickered or flashed as focus moved. The issue existed in all operating systems, but was most apparent in Windows 7. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS, moving focus among search results, a mail workspace, and a directory workspace could result in an 'object not managed' error. This is fixed.
Monitor Server • In previous versions of iNEWS, monitor could exit if Command disconnected immediately after initial
connection. This is fixed. monitor now recognizes that Command is unavailable, and will go to error.
• In previous versions of iNEWS, monitor could exit with some item-channel changes in MOS-enabled rundowns. This is fixed.
Server • In previous versions of iNEWS 3, dblines reported script and margin errors every time it was run. This
resulted in large diagnostic output that was difficult to parse. These messages have been removed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS, running the remove console command against a non-empty queue would result in that queue being purge locked. This is fixed.
• Beginning with this version of iNEWS, dbvisit and dblines now display a diagnostic for every REFRESH, UPDATE, or SORTED queue that contains more than 1000 stories.
• In previous versions of iNEWS, 'finit -' would fail if the database partition was larger than 17GB. This is fixed. 'finit -' now initializes the database to the maximum size allowed by the server or the partition. If the partition is larger than the the maximum database size, finit will initialize up to the maximum allowed size. Space remaining on the partition will not be used.
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NSML • iNEWS now uses NSML 3.1. This version of NSML adds the projects section and the body-level <sb/> tag
that will be used by future journalist editor applications. <sb/>, when encountered by the iNEWS client, will display a "Segment Break" that looks like the current "Page Break" line.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, file links in the story body were formatted improperly, leading to NSML read errors with some external applications. This is fixed.
URLs and Web Services API • In previous versions of iNEWS 3.0, using keystrokes to launch URLs had inconsistent behavior. This is
fixed. The keystroke now launches the link on which the cursor resides.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3.0, using the mouse to highlight a URL could result in the URL launching. This is fixed.
• Double-clicking a production cue that has an attachment now launches the embedded URL, if found, when an ActiveX plug-in is not available. A context option is also available - "Launch Link to Machine Control."
• In previous versions of iNEWS, empty formatting tags submitted by the iNEWS Web Services API would be translated incorrectly, causing the text that followed to be formatted improperly. This is fixed. Empty formatting tags are now maintained with no impact on trailing text.
Changes between 3.2.4 and 3.2.5
Txnet • In previous versions of iNEWS, txnet could terminate when sending edit-locked stories. This is fixed.
User Interface • In previous versions of iNEWS, the Spell Check feature checked the entire story. It now only checks from
the cursor position to the end of the story. Also, when closing Spell Check, the cursor remains on the last found word instead of moving to the initial focus point.
• In previous versions of iNEWS, users connected to community servers did not have a connected icon when their usernames were entered in the message bar. This is fixed.
• In iNEWS 2.6.0 and later, tabbing through story form fields placed the cursor at the start of the field. In versions earlier than 2.6.0, tabbing into a field highlighted the field's contents. Starting in iNEWS 3.2.5, behavior is returned to the highlighting behavior that was used in pre-2.6.0 versions. This behavior can be modified via registry entry. If a user would like form field tabbing to place the cursor at the start of a field, an administrator should create the FieldCursorPosition DWORD value in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment and set that value to 0.
• The workspace title text color has been modified so non-focus workspaces have much lighter text than the in-focus workspace.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, some advanced user search options could cause the client application to terminate. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, production cue text would not be displayed if cursor focus moved from the production cue directly to a non-iNEWS application. This is fixed. Production cue text continues to display regardless of cursor focus.
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Macros • In previous versions of iNEWS 3, keyboard and button macros executed while focus was in the message
bar would fail to activate menu items. This is fixed.
Server • In previous versions of iNEWS, dbrestore could split a single form fields across database records. After this
split occurred, the monitor server could corrupt the story during a mosItemReplace write. This is fixed.
Changes between 3.2.3 and 3.2.4
User Interface • In previous versions of iNEWS, toolbars could change position at iNEWS start-up if the application had
been closed in a maximized state. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3.x, the keystroke combinations CTRL-END and CTRL-HOME, when zoomed in to large queues, could result in the client terminating. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS, all text in a left-justified queue field running under a right-to-left locale was right-justified. This is changed. Now, only right-to-left script is right-justified in a left-justified field when the OS locale is a right-to-left locale.
TXNET Server • In previous versions of iNEWS 3, txnet open responses that spanned multiple TCP packets would result in
the connection failing. This is fixed.
Changes between 3.2.2 and 3.2.3
Plug-ins • In previous versions of iNEWS v3, ALT-keystrokes to expand iNEWS menus would not work when the
VizRT VCPTemplateFiller Control plug-in was maximized with workspace auto-arrange off. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS, the iNEWS client could crash when receiving data from the Harris server after the Harris NXMB Control plug-in had been closed. This is fixed.
User Interface • In previous versions of the iNEWS client, the queue view could blank during periods of high refresh
activity. This is fixed.
Community • In previous versions of iNEWS v3.2, copying stories to an iNEWS v3.3 server via community would fail.
This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS v3, some stories dbrestored from pre-3.x versions of iNEWS would fail to copy when dragged to a community server. The message received was, "The copy failed: The story couldn't be parsed by the server." This is fixed.
Interplay Integration • In previous versions of iNEWS v3.2, 'Play Low-res Video' would fail to log in to some versions of
Interplay. This is fixed.
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Changes between 3.2.1 and 3.2.2
Active X • In previous versions of iNEWS 3, ActiveX plug-ins were skinned by the iNEWS skinning engine, causing
refresh issues and possible client crashes. This is fixed. Third-party plug-ins are no longer skinned by iNEWS.
SYSTEM.MAP • In iNEWS Server v2.6.5 through v3.2.1, form-level MOS items and form-level video items could not be
sent to playout from the same rundown if mossvr was primary in SYSTEM.MAP. This is fixed. Also added is the event-status of both item types in the same rundown, regardless of which appears first in SYSTEM.MAP.
User Interface • In previous versions of iNEWS, entering hundreds of lines of text into a production cue could result in a
"No error occurred" error message and an unusable story body. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS, some dialogs (delete confirmation, copy/move to) when dismissed would cause the OS desktop and icons to refresh. This is fixed.
Changes between 3.2.0 and 3.2.1
Searching • In previous versions of iNEWS, changing the form in the Search Results required logging out and logging
back in. This is fixed. The Use Form selection now switches the form immediately.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, manually sorting search results by date did not work correctly. This is fixed. Manual sorts in search results now behave as expected.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, seek searches of queues that had modify-date in the form would report modify-date as 1969. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, operators in seek/non-indexed searches were not formatted properly, causing "invalid keyword expression" errors. This is fixed. The operators are now submitted properly, and the searches succeed.
User Interface • In previous versions of iNEWS, copying a story from a queue with hidden parents and pasting into a
different queue would cause the client to terminate. This is fixed. This situation occurred when a user had access to a queue but not to the parent folder—the PEOPLE folder, for example.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, form updates to a story would cause that story's body to scroll to the start of the story. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, typing in an editable combobox in the queue view followed by clicking in the form area of that story would cause the typed value to be lost. This is fixed. The user no longer has to tab out of the queue cell for the value to register.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, selecting exactly half of the stories in a queue and moving those stories would result in all stories in the queue being moved. This is fixed. Only the selected stories are moved.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, only the first machine control entry in a single production cue was recognized. This is fixed. All machine control entries in all production cues are now recognized and acted on by the monitor server.
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Calendar Issues • In previous versions of iNEWS 3, duration and calendar values in the queue view could not be cleared with
the spacebar. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS 3, entering calendar field values in the story form and not including time or not leaving the field before saving would result in the entered value not being saved. This is fixed. Empty time is saved as 00:00:00, and the user does not have to leave the field for the value to save.
Miscellaneous • In previous versions of iNEWS, the client would terminate when closing the Sony NewsBase Filing
Control ActiveX. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS, txnet/rxnet connections between servers could reconnect with improper information, causing orphaned connections. This issue is fixed.
• In previous version of iNEWS 3, the roChannel MOS Gateway workflow did not function properly. This is fixed.
Changes between 3.1.1 and 3.2.0
Hyperlinks • Previously, in iNEWS 3.0 and higher, non-hyperlink strings that contained slashes were not saved when
pasted into the client. This is fixed. All text pasted into the client is now saved correctly.
• Previously, in iNEWS 3.0 and higher, lines beginning with the at symbol (@) were treated as hyperlinks. This is fixed.
Macros In previous versions of iNEWS, [<dialog name>] was used in macros to define a dialog wait. This syntax interfered with other macros already using the square brackets. A new token, K_WINDOW has been created in /site/dict/keymacros to replace that syntax. The default value for the K_WINDOW token is: window.
Usage example: If a macro should wait for the Local Printing dialog box before continuing, the syntax is: {window Local Printing}. The text following the word window must match exactly the title of the dialog box. If the text does not match, the user must press the Escape key to exit the macro.
User Interface • In previous versions of iNEWS, duplicate CG addresses could be assigned mistakenly. The duplicate
assignment was related to the order in which CG events for different devices were inserted into stories. This is fixed.
• In a previous version of iNEWS, multi-word Find searches (Ctrl+F) did not work correctly. This is fixed.
Changes between 3.1.0 and 3.1.1
ActiveX Plugins In previous versions of iNEWS, ActiveX plugins would not repaint correctly at times, causing blank plugin workspaces. This is fixed.
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dbrestore and Restoring Stories Previously, in iNEWS 3.0 and higher, restoring stories with Hebrew form information could result in dbrestore terminating. This is fixed.
Message Server In previous versions of iNEWS, message server could terminate at times of high monitor message traffic, resulting in system slowness. This is fixed.
Changes between 3.0.x and 3.1.0
User Interface • In previous versions of iNEWS, assigning a color to a combobox value required leaving the row and
returning. This is fixed. Colors can now be assigned immediately after typing or selecting the entry value.
• In a previous version of iNEWS, comboboxes in the Story Form panel did not resize with font size changes. This is fixed.
• In iNEWS v3.0.0, custom toolbar buttons could reset to an incorrect size when toolbars were moved. This is fixed. Custom toolbar buttons now retain their size.
• In iNEWS v3.0.0, disconnected local databases did not show the system colors of the most recent server. This is fixed. The system colors used by a disconnected local database match the system colors assigned in the most recent server connection.
• In a previous version of iNEWS, right-clicking on a URL would not allow opening the URL into the iNEWS Web browser workspace if the user’s preferences were set to launch hyperlinks externally. This is fixed.
• In a previous version of iNEWS, moving from a story row with a background color to a row with a different background color could result in the field background of duration and calendar controls in the Story Form panel being the incorrect color. This is fixed.
• In iNEWS v3.0.0, font sizes greater than 18 did not appear correctly in comboboxes displayed in the Queue panel. This is fixed.
Playout • In previous versions of iNEWS, moving monitored production cues within a story could result in the items
being out of order on the playout device. This is fixed. The order on the playout device will always reflect the order in the iNEWS story.
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Searching and FTS • Find All Advanced searching has been changed so that it is now aware of custom check box and calendar
fields. In the Find All dialog box, on the Advanced tab, when a user chooses to search a custom check box field (such as v-check in the sample graphic below), the user can then select Is or Is Not Checked.
When a customized calendar field (such as v-cal) is selected, the new DT button activates as shown in the following sample graphic:
The search parameters allow the user to specify the standard date search criteria: Equal To, Not Equal To, Less Than, Greater Than, Less Than Or Equal To, and Greater Than Or Equal To. The DT button launches the Select Date dialog box, shown below:
• In FTS v3.0.0, placing the index bases and the FTS installation on separate drives could result in ftssch.exe crashes. This is fixed.
• In previous versions of iNEWS, using the Find All button on the Find toolbar (the button shown far right in below graphic of toolbar) caused the default Find dialog selection to be “First # paragraphs”.
This is fixed. Using the Find toolbar no longer impacts the default selection of the Find dialog box.
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• In previous versions of iNEWS, the Stop button would not appear in the Search Results window. This is fixed.
Stories • Starting with v3.1.0 of iNEWS, story links and file paths can now be added to stories via drag and drop.
To add a story link to another story:
1. Select the story that will be linked.
2. Drag it into the body of the story that will hold the link.
To add a link to an external file:
Drag the file into the story body.
Note: Windows Vista and Windows 7 User Account Control (UAC) will prevent dragging items from external areas into iNEWS. UAC can be disabled if this feature is needed. Avid engineers are currently working with Microsoft on other solutions to the UAC issue.
NewsCutter Integration • In iNEWS v3.0.0, story changes made via NewsCutter’s NRCS Tool were rejected if the NRCS Tool used
FTP-only communication. This is fixed. The iNEWS Server now supports both FTP-only and COM+FTP NRCS Tool communications.
Unicode • In a previous version of iNEWS, some Unicode characters were converted to question marks at save. This
is fixed.
Changes between 3.0.0 and 3.0.1
Client • In iNEWS 3.0.0, initial start time of the client software after double-clicking the shortcut was slow. This is
fixed. The start is now faster.
Server • The trademark and copyright information has been updated in the latest version of software, which can be
viewed at the console by typing what appears in bold: NRCS-A# version
• In previous versions of iNEWS, the dbdump command would skip the contents of all subdirectories and queues if a parent directory had the skip trait enabled, even when the children did not have the skip trait. This is changed. Queue contents will only be skipped by dbdump if the queue has the skip flag.
• In previous versions of iNEWS, top-level directories and queues could be created with "[" as the first character, resulting in a corrupt directory or queue. This is fixed. "[" is no longer allowed as the first character in a top-level node.
Monitor Server • In previous versions of iNEWS, an empty entry in SYSTEM.MAP was the only way to declare 'no end
time' for a monitor. This is fixed. The value now allows empty and "-" (hyphen) to declare 'no end time.'
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User Interface • In iNEWS 3.0.0, ALT keystroke combinations used to trigger menu options did not work when the layout
was set to auto-arrange off with workspaces maximized. This is fixed.
• In iNEWS 3.0.0, form field labels placed Left, Bottom, and Right would realign to Top after saving. This is fixed.
• In iNEWS 3.0.0, form area checkboxes did not show as checked when users first navigated to the story. This is fixed.
Indexing & Searching • In iNEWS 3.0.0, date and duration field types were not indexed correctly. This is fixed. If an indexed queue
contains date or duration fields, it must be re-indexed after upgrading to 3.0.1 server and 3.0.1 FTS.
• In iNEWS 3.0.0, newly indexed items were only searchable after a period of time up to an hour. Now, indexed items are searchable immediately after indexing.
• In iNEWS 3.0.0 and FTS 3.0.0, restarting the FTS server or processes required a restart of the ftsindex and ftsseek devices on the iNEWS server. This is fixed.
Macros • In previous versions of iNEWS, some macros would send keystrokes to dialogs before the dialogs were
available. There is now a way to prevent that behavior. In the button or keyboard macro definition, place the name of the dialog in square brackets immediately following the keystroke that launches the dialog. This entry will cause the macro to pause until the named dialog is available. For example, if {ctrl p} is used to launch Local Printing, {ctrl p}[Local Printing] will cause the macro to pause until the dialog is available. The text in brackets must match the dialog title exactly. If the text does not match, the macro will pause indefinitely or until a user presses the escape key. This enhancement will resolve some instances of macros not working as designed. This enhancement will not necessarily resolve all macro timing issues introduced by the upgrade to Internet Explorer 7 or 8.
Changes between 2.x and 3.0.0
Messaging • In previous versions of iNEWS, a message sent across a community would generate an extra message to a
blank username. This message buildup eventually caused slowness when receiving messages. This is fixed.
Monitor Server • In previous versions of iNEWS, monitor server would hang if it encountered duplicate qrstamps in a
rundown. This duplicate will only occur with database corruption. The hang has been fixed. If the monitor server encounters a duplicate qrstamp, it will print a diagnostic and exit.
User Interface • The User Properties dialog no longer contains the Broadcast Control option; it is no longer utilized.
• In previous versions of iNEWS, changing the formatting of a block of text that included multiple text types – presenter instructions, normal text, and closed captioning – would only save the change to the first text type. This is fixed.
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iNEWS Server • The output header for the list u command has changed. The T representing the technical direct (td)
option is no longer used. The old output header appeared like this: user rr kb su m | SOEKCVTH sc destination The new output header appears like this: user rr kb su m | SOEKCVH sc destination
• In previous versions of iNEWS, the list c console command displayed invalid characters in the Computer column. This is fixed.
• The verbose list command (list s-v) has been enhanced to display the command used to invoke the displayed session. The expanded information includes values such as the monitored rundown and the program. The expanded information is only available on the server running the program.
• The s <slow> option has been removed from diskcopy.
• The list d command now has an ‘i’ option. ‘list d-i <directory>’ displays the FTS index base and Interplay server used by the directory.
• The dbtraits command has two new options: ftsindex and interplay.
• The doc utility now includes the verbose (v) flag for its put command. When a parsing error occurs on a put, the administrator can run the put again with the verbose option enabled. When verbose is active, each tag is output as it is parsed. This allows easier detection of the source of the parsing error. The doc utility has changed to default to NSML entry instead of simple text entry. 'doc -p' accepts NSML, while 'doc -pt' accepts text. A '2' has also been added to allow inputting of NSML 2 data. The new doc syntax is outlined below:
FTS Multiple Indexes • iNEWS now supports up to 50 separate index bases. This separation allows indexing of more documents
while avoiding the index base file size limit of 2GB. The index base is assigned using the dbtraits command. All directories default to index 0. For example, the following commands will separate index bases: dbtraits wires ftsindex 1 dbtraits archive.2007 ftsindex 2 dbtraits archive.2008 ftsindex 3
• ‘list d-i’ displays the index base used by a directory. When the index base is changed, the directory is automatically removed from its current base and added to the new one.
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• FTS handles the separation of the bases. There is still only one ftsindex device on the iNEWS server, and there is still only one ftsidx.exe process on the FTS server.
• An ftsindex attribute was added to iNEWS that supports any value from 0 to 49. The ftsindex attribute is independent of the INDEXED attribute and determines which FTS index base is used for the data in the queue with that ftsindex value. Also, the word definition W_INDEXBASE must now contain a path to a directory and not the full pathname for the index files. For example, the following old definition should be changed to the new definition: (old) W_INDEXBASE /C:/FTS/FTSINDEX (new) W_INDEXBASE /C:/FTS That directory will contain a subdirectory for each index. These subdirectories will have 3 digit names with leading zeros. So, index base 0 is in the directory C:\FTS\000, and index base 32 is in C:\FTS\032.
The index base files are always named “ftsindex”, with the distinction coming in the tag. For instance, four files would be: ftsindex.in1, ftsindex.in2, ftsindex.in3, and ftsindex.in4.
W_AGEWEIGHT, W_HITSWEIGHT, and W_LOCWEIGHT are removed from /site/dict/words. FTS search results will always be returned in descending date order.
Site files • The iNEWS Server software upgrade from pre-Unicode versions now substitutes /¤ for /164 when
that character appears in /site/dict/words: W_CUE_REF.
• Both scriptrhmax and scriptlhmax have been removed from /site/system and the connect parameters. These parameters are no longer used.
• In this version of iNEWS, the device limit in /site/config is increased from 4096 to 5000. Device count by type (inws, aiws, etc.) must still comply with licensing, but the total device count allowed is now 5000, which means that valid device number assignments are 1 through 5000.
• There is a new resource type in /site/config: api. This type handles connections from the iNEWS Web Services API. It is a licensed resource.
New Features This section contains a listing of new features.
For iNEWS v3.5
FTS
• The iNEWS Server now logs a diagnostic when any queue is added or removed from indexing. This feature allows tracking index rebuild progress without scheduling ftsdebug index statistics commands. The first diagnostic reports the start of indexing, and the second diagnostic reports total number of documents indexed.
Dec 22 10:20:03 NRCS-B S120: Queue WIRES.ALL::add:0:-1:-1:0
Dec 22 10:23:24 NRCS-B S120: Queue WIRES.ALL 11226 adds
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Blockmode Command
• Some customers send many changing stories via FTP to third party FTP servers. This can consume many TCP port numbers and with a large TIME_WAIT setting prevents the reuse of those port numbers. This can lead to “port exhaustion,” that is, no ports available for further transfers. When using Stream Transfer Mode, the end-of-file is denoted by the closing of the data connection, hence the need for a new connection for every transfer. Block Transfer Mode includes end-of-file information in the data so the data connection can be kept open for successive data transfers. This can be used when the iNEWS proprietary FAST mode cannot be used. The syntax is: blockmode [no|yes] If Yes or No is not declared, blockmode all by itself assumes a value of Yes.
Note: To function correctly, the blockmode command must be placed after the scan/bscan/poll/bpoll command and before the open command. The blockmode command will take precedence over the fast command default.
For iNEWS v3.4.5 This section contains a listing of new features implemented in iNEWS v3.4.5.
Community Because of upcoming expansion to allow databases larger than 16GB, the iNEWS Community communication protocol was modified. This modification breaks compatibility with iNEWS Server version 3.4.4 and earlier. iNEWS 3.4.5 still supports Community communication with either iNEWS 3.4.5 or earlier for systems with a small database, but for those with large databases, Community communication is supported only with iNEWS 3.4.5 and later. Both simultaneously are not supported. All 2.x and 3.x servers should be upgraded to at least 3.4.5 when a large database server is added to the community.
By default, iNEWS 3.4.5 is configured to support Community communication with large databases. Even though it is still a 16GB database, a 3.4.5 default configuration is considered a large database in regard to iNEWS Community.
To configure iNEWS 3.4.5 as a small database:
Create the file /site/env/gnews. In this file, place the following line: GCOMMUNITYSMALLDATABASE=1.
• A single community cannot have both small and large databases.
• iNEWS 3.4.4 and earlier cannot be in a community with large database servers.
• Large database servers cannot be in a community with small database servers.
• iNEWS 3.4.5 can be in a community with iNEWS 3.4.5 if both systems have the same GCOMMUNITYSMALLDATABASE setting, large or small.
Troubleshooting:
Below are the error messages and the cases in which they will appear:
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Case Error Message
3.4.5 Large connecting to 3.4.4 or earlier
local: G###: Error (1) during SETCOMMUNITY to <REMOTE>
remote: C###: Cannot service request: eB
3.4.4 or earlier connecting to 3.4.5 Large
local: G###: Unable to set community server number with <REMOTE> (9)
remote: C###: Cannot participate in small database community
3.4.5 Large connecting to 3.4.5 Small
local: G###: Unable to set community server number with <REMOTE> (9)
remote: C###: Cannot participate in large database community
3.4.5 Small connecting to 3.4.5 Large
local: G###: Unable to set community server number with <REMOTE> (9)
remote: C###: Cannot participate in small database community
SYSTEM.MAP Syntax The SYSTEM.MAP syntax has changed slightly. For iNEWS Command (wnasvr) CGs, there is now an optional sixth column. When blank, the value defaults to YES. When this column is set to "NO," iNEWS monitor will not validate style names before sending CGs to Command. This change allows the loading of CG items to the Command playlist before they exist in Command’s inventory.
For iNEWS v3.4.0 This section contains a listing of new features implemented in iNEWS v3.4.0.
Mapcheck Utility The mapcheck utility validates all stories in a designated queue. Errors are produced for any syntax violations, missing queues (rundown, composite, or event), and trait omissions.
For example, typing mapcheck -f system.map at the console will make the system analyze all stories in SYSTEM.MAP. It sets the monitored trait for any listed rundowns that do not have the trait set, and it reports any syntax errors in SYSTEM.MAP. Mapcheck should be run after an upgrade to 3.4 and as part of error investigation.
NRCS-A$ mapcheck
usage: mapcheck [-v] [-f] <queue name>
Flags
f - Fix monitored trait
v - Verbose
vv - Very verbose
vvv - Very very verbose
SYSTEM.MAP Queue The entire SYSTEM.MAP queue is now used to define rundowns. The behavior is similar to the SYSTEM.RESOURCE queue, where separate stories can be used to segregate rundown definitions into
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categories, such as ”morning”, “afternoon”, and “evening”. Multiple small stories are easier to manage and maintain than the one large story used previously.
Restrictions:
• A single rundown’s definition cannot span stories.
• The same rundown cannot appear in separate stories; only the first instance will be consulted.
For iNEWS v3.3.0 This section contains a listing of new features implemented in iNEWS v3.3.0.
Desktop Icon The iNEWS v3.3 client software has a new desktop icon on the workstation. The new icon is shown at left.
Projects and Facets
• The iNEWS system now supports projects and facets. Projects are a way of categorizing stories by topic so that news teams working on a particular topic can find everything related to it in a single place, without moving or copying original source information within the database. Facets are sub-topics of projects that provide additional granularity. For more information about projects and facets, see the iNEWS Projects chapter in the Avid iNEWS v3.3 Setup and Configuration Guide.
Search Queues
• The iNEWS system now supports search queues. A search queue is a special queue that stores a pre-defined query of indexed queues, along with its own queue form and read group. When users with proper read access open a search queue, a fast text search (FTS) is activated, and the results are delivered to the workspace in the Queue panel instead of the Search Results pane. For more information about search queues, see the section called “Search Queues” in the Database: Directories, Queues, and Stories chapter of the Avid iNEWS v3.3 Setup and Configuration Guide.
Queue Templates
• The iNEWS system now provides a Copy From Template button in the Directory/Queue Properties dialog box. Templates are created as queues in SYSTEM.PROPERTIES, and once created, they can be used to help speed up the process of configuring directories or queues in the iNEWS database. For example, a queue named SYSTEM.PROPERTIES.RUNDOWN can be created and assigned all standard rundown traits: Inverted, Refresh, Monitored, Save All, etc. When a user selects the Copy From Template button, they will see "RUNDOWN" as an option. Selecting that option will apply the traits from SYSTEM.PROPERTIES.RUNDOWN to the queue they are currently editing. For more information about copying queue templates, see the section called “Database Traits Summary” in the Database: Directories, Queues, and Stories chapter of the Avid iNEWS v3.3 Setup and Configuration Guide.
For iNEWS v3.1.0 This section contains a listing of new features implemented in iNEWS v3.1.0.
Script Templates
• iNEWS now supports a new feature called Script Templates. Script templates are templates created by an administrator for users to quickly insert predefined text into stories. The database structure for script templates is the same as the structure used for forms and lists:
SYSTEM.SCRIPT-TEMPLATES.<first letter>.<name>
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For example, if a standard weather story has a set of production cues and presenter text that are always the same, you can create a story in SYSTEM.SCRIPT-TEMPLATES.W.WEATHER. In this story, place the standard text, presenter text, and production cues found in the weather story. After the template story is saved, the template is available to users via the Story menu or through an option in the Story Text sub-panel’s context menu.
To use a script template:
1. Right-click in the Story Text sub-panel.
2. Select Insert Script Template. A Templates dialog box will appear with a list of all available templates.
3. Enter the name or select the template from the list.
4. Click OK.
After the template is chosen, the template is inserted in the story’s body at the cursor position.
Note: This new feature can replace the use of complex macros currently used to insert template material.
NewsCutter media • iNEWS can now stream material created using the NewsCutter NRCS Tool 8.0.5 feature that inserts a
production cue into the story when a user creates a new sequence from a story. If the production cue is not created when the sequence is created, iNEWS will not be able to stream the mixdown. Depending on the NewsCutter version used to create the production cue, the cue displayed in the iNEWS client will either be a full MOB ID or simply a read-only {N}.
For iNEWS v3.0.0 This section contains a listing of new features implemented in iNEWS v3.0.0.
Hyperlinks
• iNEWS now supports the addition of hyperlinks in the story body. Links can be in the form of http:// or www. E-mail addresses are also recognized. A user preference is available defining whether clicked links will launch into an Internet Explorer workspace within the iNEWS application, or into the user’s default browser outside of the iNEWS application.
Story links
• iNEWS now supports creating story links. When focus is on a story, the context menu and the story menu have available the “Copy story link to clipboard” option. When this option is selected, it creates a story link
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on the user’s clipboard. This link can be pasted into another story and will appear as: inews://<server>/<path>/<story>. Clicking the link will create a new workspace displaying the linked story.
Comboboxes
• Form fields can now be assigned predefined values. When these fields are used in a form, the user is presented with a drop-down list instead of a text field. These fields are called comboboxes.
To create a combobox:
1. Edit a field property or insert a new field.
You will notice a new section named Type on the right side of the Form Properties dialog box.
2. Select the Combobox radio button.
• Include Blank Row means there will be a blank row provided before the list entries.
• Editable means a user can type their own value into the combobox in addition to selecting a pre-existing value
• The New button allows the administrator to create ad-hoc values that will appear in the combobox, instead of using a system list or group
• The Delete button removes an existing entry.
• The Up/Down buttons are used to reorder the values in the combobox.
• The Add List/Group button presents a dialog to the user in which they can select system lists and groups to be added to the combobox. <G> will appear in front of a group name, and <L> will appear in front of a list name.
• The color boxes show the current system colors. Colors can be assigned to individual entries or to entire groups and lists. To add a color, select the entry row and then select the desired color. A ",<#>" will appear after the entry, indicating which color index is assigned to the entry.
Check boxes
• A new field type, check box, is now available in forms. Any user-created field type can be assigned as a check box. The values saved are "1" for checked and blank for unchecked, allowing use with raw queries and affects-ready. Check boxes can be selected with the mouse or with the spacebar. Check boxes will always have the "Text alignment" attribute set to "Center."
Duration
• A new field type, duration, is now available in forms. Any user-created field type can be assigned as a duration field. Duration fields use spinners to display duration in the form, HH:MM:SS.
Calendar
• A new field type, calendar, is now available in forms. Any user-created field type can be assigned as a calendar field. Calendar fields use spinners to set and store dates. The dates default to a time of 00:00:00, but times can be added if more specificity is needed.
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Field write groups
• Individual fields can now be assigned write groups. Only group members and superusers are permitted to edit those fields. The write group is assigned in Form Properties.
Editorial groups
• Another group type, editorial group, has been added to iNEWS. Members of the editorial group can delete, move, float, and break stories. If no editorial group is assigned, the relevant permissions apply to the write group to stay consistent with previous functionality.
Colors
• There is now a queue that holds system colors. By default, the colors reside in the queue SYSTEM.COLORS (/site/dict/queues:Q_COLORS sytem.colors). The first story in SYSTEM.COLORS defines the system's colors.
The syntax is a four-column list. The first column is the index of the color, from 1 to 10. The second column is the RGB red value. The third column is the RGB green value. The fourth column is the RGB blue value. The color values are numerical, from 000 to 255.
Example:
1 255 000 000 ; red
2 000 255 000 ; green
3 255 255 000 ; yellow
Only indexes 1 to 10 are accepted. Syntax errors in SYSTEM.COLORS will cause no colors to be displayed.
Community: When in a community, the colors displayed for a client will be the colors of the local server, regardless of the location of the queue they are currently viewing.
Lists
• The ability to create system lists has been added. By default, the lists reside in the directory SYSTEM.LISTS (/site/dict/queues:Q_LISTS /system.lists). The structure of the SYSTEM.LISTS directory is the same as the SYSTEM.FORMS structure, where the first character in the list's name defines which sub-folder holds the list. For example, a list called "format" is the first story in the queue SYSTEM.LISTS.F.FORMAT.
The lists are used for combobox form fields.
The syntax of a list is a two-column story. The first column holds the text value. Double-quotes should be used if special characters or spaces are used in the text value. The second column holds the background color index value. The second column is optional, and no color is used if the column is blank.
Example, using the colors defined above: SYSTEM.LISTS.S.STOPLIGHT
Stop 1
Go 2
"Slow Down" 3
"No Light"
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; the value "Stop" has a red background color
; the value "Go" has a green background color
; the value "Slow Down" has a yellow background color
; the value "No Light" has no background color
Play Interplay Low-res Streams
• Low-res streams created by Interplay 2.0.1 and later can now be played through the iNEWS client. Several Interplay components are required for this workflow: iNEWS Instinct, Interplay Transcode, Interplay Stream Publish, Interplay Media Services, and Interplay Stream Server. QuickTime 7.5 must also be installed on the iNEWS client machine.
• When Instinct associates a sequence with an iNEWS story, the iNEWS client will display a context option called “Play Low-res Video.” When this option is selected, iNEWS will contact the Interplay server to retrieve the streaming URL. If the sequence has been mixed down and published to a streaming server, iNEWS will then disconnect from the server and open a QuickTime window inside the iNEWS client. The QuickTime application will automatically play the available stream.
• The queue SYSTEM.INTERPLAY (/site/dict/queues: Q_INTERPLAY) must exist for this workflow to be supported. The first story in SYSTEM.INTERPLAY is a four-column story. The first column is the index of the Interplay server, starting with 0. The second column is the hostname of the Interplay server. This name must be resolvable by the iNEWS Workstation. The third column is an optional column holding the username to be used when connecting to Interplay. The fourth column is an optional column holding the password to be used when connecting to Interplay. If the third and fourth columns are blank, the iNEWS username and password will be used to connect to Interplay.
o 0 interplay1
o 1 interplay2 streamuser streampass
• Interplay servers can be assigned to individual directories using the dbtraits command or the Directory/Queue Properties dialog. All directories default to Interplay 0.
o dbtraits show.sports interplay 1
o dbtraits show.weather interplay 2
• ‘list d-i <directory>’ displays the Interplay server associated with the directory.
Qualified Asian Languages and IMEs
Korean The following Korean IME (standard Windows IME) is tested and qualified:
• Korean Input System (IME 2002)
Known Issue – While the Korean-text queue navigation works correctly, the Go To > Destination menu option does not allow direct navigation to folders with Korean-text names.
Chinese Simplified The following Chinese Simplified (PRC) IME (standard Windows IMEs) is tested and qualified:
• Microsoft Pinyin IME 3.0
• WangMa Wubi 86
• WangMa Wubi 98
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Chinese Traditional The following Chinese Traditional IMEs (standard Windows IMEs) are tested and qualified:
• New ChangJie
• New Phonetic
• ChangJie
• Phonetic
• DaYi
The following Chinese Traditional IMEs (3rd party IMEs) have had minimal testing done and are not yet qualified or supported:
• Boshamy (WuXiaMi)
• Natural Input
Japanese The following Japanese IME (standard Windows IME) was tested and qualified:
• Microsoft Standard IME 2002 version 8.1
Vietnamese The following Vietnamese IMEs were tested and qualified:
• UniKeyNT 3.6
o Input Methods: Telex and VNI
o Character Set: Unicode
• Vietkey 2000 Build 10727
o Input Method: Telex
o Character Set: Unicode Pre-Compound
Known Issue with both Vietnamese IMEs - Certain Vietnamese characters do not get inserted correctly via keyboard macro when the IME is set to Vietnamese input. The workaround for this issue is to set the IME to English input before starting the macro.
Microsoft Windows Critical Updates Avid recognizes that it is very important to be able to deploy Microsoft security patches to our Windows-based products as quickly as possible. We recommend that systems be kept up to date in order to maintain the highest level of security and encourage you to install all critical operating system updates provided by Microsoft.
In the unlikely event that one of these updates causes an issue, it is recommended that you uninstall the update and contact Avid customer support as soon as possible. Avid will investigate the incompatibility and if necessary, will provide a software update or work around to allow our products to properly function with the Microsoft update in question.
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Known Issues and Limitations
UNC Paths • As a result of the server-side URL changes in iNEWS 3.4.2, UNC paths with spaces no longer work
correctly in the iNEWS client software. In a future version of the iNEWS client software, these links will be client-only, allowing a user to launch them from the iNEWS Workstation without saving them as URLs on the iNEWS Server.
• Third-Party IntegrationiNEWS integration with Intelliscribe printing should be configured at 300 DPI with "Enhanced Features" disabled. Setting a higher DPI or enabling enhanced features can cause long delays in printing.
• There are screen painting issues when the Vertigo Xmedia plug-in and the Aurora Assignment List plug-in (version 7 or later) are both installed on the same client. The Xmedia splash screen can cause the Xmedia tree to be inaccessible. Workaround: When this issue occurs, the workaround is to rename or remove skinCrafter3_vs2008.dll from the Assignment List installation directory.
Keyboards • Some early versions of iNEWS 3 created NSML links in SYSTEM.KEYBOARDS. When the dblines
command fixes those links, they become invalid keyboards. To repair the keyboards, remove the excess whitespace at the beginning and the middle of the keystroke line.
iNEWS Web Services API • The iNEWS Web Service API cannot be undeployed via the Tomcat management interface when Tomcat is
running on a Windows host.
To undeploy in Windows:
1. Stop the Tomcat service
2. Delete the inewswebservice file and folder from the Tomcat webapps directory.
3. Place the new .war file into the webapps directory.
4. Start the Tomcat service.
Note:Undeployment through the management interface works correctly if the Tomcat service is running on a Linux host.
Multiple Monitors • If running the iNEWS client software on a dual monitor workstation, there are some key issues you could
encounter:
• If the application is maximized at close, it will be maximized on the primary monitor when it is reopened, regardless of which monitor it was on when closed.
• Moving a user from a dual monitor machine to a single monitor machine, such as an undocked laptop, could result in the application opening to a screen that no longer exists. Workaround: Right click on iNEWS in the Windows taskbar and select Move. Then press one of the arrow keys on the keyboard; this will lock the application’s window to the mouse. You can then move the mouse pointer onto the screen and the iNEWS main window will move with it.
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Macros and Keystrokes • Some PCs, when upgraded from Internet Explorer 6 to Internet Explorer 7 or 8, will experience issues with
macros that perform several functions in rapid succession; the macros might not complete all assigned activity in iNEWS. Avid is working with Microsoft on this issue. This issue is most apparent with macros that trigger the Local Print dialog box or the User Preferences dialog box.
Workaround: Place the name of the dialog box after the K_WINDOW token value immediately following the keystroke that opens the dialog box. For instance, instead of just {ctrl p} to open the Local Print dialog, the macro should be: {ctrl p}{window Local Printing}. The text following ‘window’ must match exactly the name of the dialog box as it appears in the title bar. The ‘K_WINDOW /window’ token can be changed in /site/dict/keymacros.
Another available workaround is to add {pause <#>} statements of one or two seconds to problem macros at the point in the macro where activity ceases. In the example of the Local Printing macros, the pauses are likely needed when typing a name of a printer or changing a print style.
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Technical Support Information Most products feature a number of coverage options. Avid Assurance service offerings are designed to facilitate your use of Avid solutions. Service options include extended telephone coverage, automatic software maintenance, extended hardware warranty, and preferred pricing on replacement parts. Offerings and options may vary by product and are not available for all products.
For more information regarding Avid service offerings, visit www.avid.com/support or call Avid Sales at 800-949-AVID (800-949-2843).
Program availability and details might vary depending on geographic location and are subject to change without notice. Contact your local Avid office or your local Avid Reseller for complete program information and pricing. However, if you need help locating an Avid office or Avid Reseller near you, please visit www.avid.com or call in North America 800-949-AVID (800-949-2843). International users call 978-275-2480.
Accessing Online Support Avid Online Support is available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Search the Knowledge Base to find answers, to view error messages, to access troubleshooting tips, to download updates, and to read/join online message-board discussions.
To access Avid Online Support:
Go to www.support.avid.com .
Note: Supplemental documentation for this release, if available, is provided on the Knowledge Base. For the latest up-to-date information, browse the Knowledge Base at Avid Online Support.
