Kitewheel October 2017 Release Notes

Watch An Overview of the New Features

New Features

There are a set of new features and bug fixes in this release. The highlights are: 

• Engine Error Messages - standardising the messages from the engine
• New OEM Partnership Type - extending the capabilities beyond Agency and Strategic partnership types to a new level 
• Parameterised Graphs - re-use business logic through the use of parameterised graphs 
• Managed Graphs - publish and use centrally managed content 
• Azure Service Bus - new queue connection type
• Kitewheel Provisioning API - OEM feature to allow automatic creation of organizations, users, and projects
• Single Sign-On - OEM feature that allows authentication to happen automatically 
• Webtracking Improvements - the ability to specify the domain for the Kitewheel cookie and a fix to the Kitewheel fingerprint

Engine Error Messages 

The error message system of the Kitewheel Engine has been changed so that all errors that are returned have a unique and diagnosable error code. 

• The code format allows Kitewheel to understand the exact location and variation of the issue that has occurred and is designed to help with support cases
  
• The error code format follows a standard structure that identifies the module and the exact error that has occurred
  • "KW"
  • Module identifier 
  • Node Or Adaptor identifier 
  • <SOMETHING>
  • Specific error code for that node or adaptor 
• This allows Kitewheel to standardise the error messages and, in the future, provide comprehensive documentation and descriptions of these messages
• Any old error message text is provided at the end of the error message following the word DEPRECATED - this is provided in case any graph was relying on the error message to capture specific errors. This deprecated text will be removed in a future release of Kitewheel. 

New OEM Partnership Type

Kitewheel previously had two partner levels identifiable in the software. These different levels provided different feature sets for the level of partnership. With this release, Kitewheel has created a new OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) level of partnership that provides significant white-label capabilities for the Kitewheel Hub. Depending on the level of partnership for your organization, different features and levels of customization are available. 

This means that some new features which are referenced in the documentation will only be accessible to particular partner types. 

1. As a sub-domain of kitewheel.com e.g. partnerX.kitewheel.com
2. Any domain - partner is responsible for SSL certificates and DNS entries
3. Using the 'Edit Look and Feel' options for colors, logo but retains "Powered by Kitewheel" 
4. Full interface CSS capability includes removal of all Kitewheel elements
5. Requires training and certfication 

if you are interested in changing your partnership level please speak to your Kitewheel account manager. 

Paramterised Graphs

Graphs can now have parameters that allow schema values to be passed in to the graph when calling the parameterised graph as a sub-graph. 

A graph can only have a Listener or Parameters - it can not have both. 

Managed Graphs 

Managed graphs are a new type of "shareable" graph that allows full graphs to be published and used by other hub users without having to hydrate the whole graph. The update of the managed graph is controlled centrally by the publisher. The user of the graph can not see the contents of the managed graph. 

This means that Kitewheel has two means of sharing useful and reusable graph content: 

• Graph Templates - allows one or more graphs to be shared but the graph will be fully hydrated into the project and can be changed by the user
• Managed Graphs - allows central control of the graph capability and the content of the graph is not visible to the user 

The ability to publish managed graphs is currently an OEM partnership level capabiltity - this may change in a future release of the Kitewheel hub. Any user can use a Managed Graph that is available to them. 

Azure Service Bus

Kitewheel now supports the Azure Service Bus queue connection type. The queue provides the standard Read, Write, and Listen functionality as with all of the other queue connection types. 

Kitewheel Provisioning API

Kitewheel now has a provisioning API that allows the creation, update, and deletion of Organizations, Users, and Projects. This is an OEM Partnership level feature. The documentation is in the restricted section of the library. 

Single Sign-On 

Kitewheel now provides single sign-On capabilities for Acquia Lift customers. This is an OEM Partnership level feature. Kitewheel is evaluating other single sign-on capabilities for future releases. 

Webtracking Improvements

Kitewheel has made an improvement to the web tracking JavaScript.

There is now an option to allow the specification of the domain on which the KItewheel cookie will be registered.  This simplifies cross-site tracking for sub-domains. Normally, the Kitewheel web tracking cookie "kwcookie" would be set on the full domain of the site on which it was loaded. The option now allows you to specify the domain on which the cookie will be set. If the Kitewheel tracking JavaScript is unable to set the cookie on the specified domain, then it will revert to the original behaviour. 

The option is enabled by ticking the Specify Cookie Domain option in the Xponent Graph API Web Tracking and Recommendation panel. 

This will generate JavaScript tag code that looks like this - note the "specifyCookieDomain" option in the _kw.options object: 

<script>
  var _kw = {};
  _kw.options = {
    "listenerId": "6ae3ffc7cb0abde65e896801a917642e",
    "listenerHost": "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/v1/listener/",
    "specifyCookieDomain": {"enabled": true, "domain": "corp.com"}
  }
  _kw.events = {
    "trackViews": {"track": true},
    "trackClicks": {"track": true,"noConflict": false},
    "trackForms": {"track": true,"noConflict": false},
    "trackButtons": {"track": true},
    "trackBlurs": {"track": true},
    "trackDivs": {"track": false},
    "trackGeo": {"track": false},
    "trackFingerprint": {"track": false}
  };
  _kw.success = function(data) {
    // Handle returned data here
  };
</script>
<script src="https://cdn.kitewheel.com/webTrack.v1.js"></script>

A bug has also been fixed with the Kitewheel fingerprint capability that could sometimes lead to different fingerprints being delivered in the same browser. 

Bugs Fixed in this Release

• [KIT-899] - Trace Logs aren't rotating in AWS - this was causing engines to become stuck 
• [KIT-919] - Database Listen Adaptor Error Simple Typo in "Both Listen Query and SET Query" 
• [KIT-921] - Graph Template tooltips's text does not match adaptor text
• [KIT-923] - Device Fingerprint gives different values in the same browser
• [KIT-927] - Cannot write Decimal objects to job queue
• [KIT-953] - SOAP Web Service Adaptor does not parse Silverpop WSDL - the WSDL is now parsed and operation correctly presented - however some versions of this WSDL are non-executable due to badly formed XML
• [KIT-965] - Engine can't write to log filesystem leading to API timeouts and failed listeners
• [KIT-1000] - If log processing takes a long time hub should remain available 
• [KIT-1024] - Selecting top level and subgraph when generating template results in malformed template
• [KIT-1048] - SQS can produce false negatives