Designer for Novell Identity Manager: Readme

March 16, 2007

For the latest version of the Readme file, visit  http://www.novell.com/documentation/designer20/index.html

Documentation

Finding Documentation

The documentation for Designer 2.0 for Identity Manager is included in the build. It is also available online at the Novell Product Documentation Web site.

For information about Novell® Identity Manager 3.5, refer to the documentation located at the Novell Product Documentation Web site.

Browsing or Searching

F1 Help in Maximized Editors

If you maximize an editor (for example, the Modeler), help topics do not display when you press F1. To view the help, minimize the editor.

Localization

Available Languages

This release of Designer includes User Interface translation for Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish. The User Interface language can be chosen at install or at runtime through the preferences dialog box.

Non-Translated Components

This release does not include translation of Designer runtime help or product documentation. At this time, project documentation generated by Designer is available in English only.

Plug-Ins

Some plugins are provided by the metadirectory and are available only in languages supported by the metadirectory: Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), French, German, and Japanese. Some third-party plugins might be available in English only.

Document Generation

Chinese or Japanese PDF not Displaying Properly Using Linux PDF Reader (Evince)

By default, Linux may be using a PDF reader (Evince) that doesn't support the embedded font we use to display double-byte characters.  We recommend use of the Adobe Acrobat Reader for Linux to support these languages.

Error: "Out of Memory" when Generating Documentation on Windows

Some Windows users have experienced an Out of Memory error when generating documentation. To fix this, right-click the Designer shortcut, then select Properties. You must make sure that the -vmargs -Xms256m -Xmx1024m parameters are not enclosed in quotes. Only the path to the designer.exe file must be in quotes. The following example illustrates the path:

"C:\Program Files\Novell\designer\eclipse\designer.exe" -vmargs -Xms256m -Xmx1024m

If you still experience problems, you can attempt to adjust the -Xms256m -Xmx1024m parameters to a higher memory amount. Just make sure you have that memory available on your system. The default settings should be sufficient for most applications. 

For more information, see "What's New - Application Framework - Heap Size Control" in the Designer help menu.

Backward Compatibility for Document Generation Styles

1.x versions of Document Generation styles are not compatible with Designer 2.0.  It is recommended that you create a new style, then copy and paste your data from the old style. Otherwise, you miss new functionality found in 2.0 styles.

Encryption/Security

Project Files Not Encrypted

Passwords are obfuscated. However, if you have other sensitive data in your project file, it is not encrypted in any way, and you must take care to safeguard your information. In the future, the data will be protected.

Clear Text in Policy Builder

Important: When you use any action that might require a password to be entered (for example, Do Send Email), the password is not being encrypted with this release. If you deploy the policy or save it to disk, the password is in clear text.

General Issues

Policy Simulation Stops Working After Designer Upgrade

If simulation stops working after a Designer upgrade, and you are unable to progress past the query/response stage of processing, you can remedy the situation by checking and correcting your simulator preferences page settings.  To do this go to Window -> Preferences -> Designer for IDM -> Simulation and verify that all paths specified for Input, Output and Java Extensions are valid paths and that they exist.

Notification Templates Are Filtered by Name and Locality Settings

When running Designer in any language, by default you see only notification templates for the language that you are running in.  To see templates in additional languages, change the filter settings for the Outline view:
  1. Click the filter icon in the upper-right corner of the Outline view.
  2. Select the languages that you want to see.
Also, when creating new templates, you must add the proper language code to the template name so that your new templates are filtered correctly.  For example, a German template should be named <TemplateName_de>.  The language codes are as follows:

de-German
es-Spanish
fr-French
it-Italian
ja-Japanese
nl-Dutch
pt-Portugese
ru-Russian
sv-Swedish
zh-CN-Chinese Simplified
zh-TW-Chinese Traditional
English Templates are not named with a code.

Designer will not Launch after Installation on Windows Vista

Windows Vista has implemented a new "User Account Control" feature that prevents applications to run as "Administrator" unless you specifically allow it.  To run Designer in Vista, right-click on the Designer shortcut and choose the option to "Run as Administrator".  You may also choose to disable "User Account Control". 

Java Heap Status Widget not Displayed When Running Designer Initially

The first time you run Designer, this widget will not show up.  The widget shows up once Designer has been restarted.  This is a known Eclipse issue.

On Import Users may See "java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/apache/xml/serialize/XMLSerializer"

When importing a project , users may see the above error in the error log.  If you are seeing this error in the error log re-install designer to lay down the xerces.jar file again.

Project Backward Compatibility in Designer

Projects created in Designer 2.0 are not compatible with earlier versions of Designer. In this release, if you use a project created earlier than Designer 2.0, Designer runs a project conversion .

Save Custom XDS Documents before Upgrading or Reinstalling

WARNING: By default, preferences for policy simulation output are saved to the plug-in directory.  Running Designer 1.2 or earlier, if you save your custom XDS documents to the plug-in directory, the documents will be deleted if you run an upgrade or reinstall.

To prevent custom XDS documents from being deleted, save them to some other directory than the plug-in directory. For example, save them to the workspace directory or change the default output directory to the workspace directory.

Minimum Resolution Required for Designer

The minimum resolution required for Designer is 1024 x 768. The recommended resolution for Designer is 1280 x 1024.

Trace Options Disappear from Trace Preferences on NLD

On Novell Linux Desktop, some themes can cause display issues for Designer. One issue is the inability to see the available plug-ins to trace when tracing is disabled. This problem is most widely seen with the Industrial theme.

To work around this issue, change your theme to one of the following:

Protecting Your Project Files and Project Data

It is a good practice to protect your work by periodically saving your project.  You can easily make a copy:

  1. Right-click a project in the Project view.
  2. Select Copy Project.
In the very rare event that Designer gets into a questionable state (for example, lines aren't drawing correctly), as an extra precaution, don't save the project. By not saving, you avoid the possibility of saving a corrupted project. Close and then re-open the project and resume your work.

Application Schema Not Imported by Default

With this release of Designer, an application schema is not automatically imported by default. You can always perform a refresh application schema operation on a particular application after the project has been imported:

  1. Right-click the application
  2. Select Live operations > Refresh application schema.
    You can also change this preference by selecting Window > Preferences >Identity Manager > Import, then select Include application schema when importing drivers.

Running Designer with 120 DPI Fonts in Windows

120 DPI is too large for text in standard Windows XP decorations. Adjust the Display settings:

  1. In the Control Panel, select Display > Appearance > Effects.
  2. In "Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts," toggle Standard to ClearType. 
    If you have a display that necessitates 120+ DPI fonts, you need ClearType. Besides the obvious anti-aliasing aspects, ClearType gives fonts better weight. Without ClearType, the fonts are too thin and light, decreasing readability.
  3. Click OK, then click Advanced.
  4. In the Item field, reduce the Icon, Menu, Message Box, Selected Items, and ToolTip sizes.
  5. Reduce title bars and related controls to a preferred size.
  6. Fix icon spacing and scroll bar width.
  7. Make sure that you are running at a very high resolution.
    This helps eliminate most of the display issues on an HD monitor.

eDirectory-to-eDirectory Certificate

The certificate wizard for eDir2eDir drivers allows for the generation of certificates for a single trust or mutual trust (mutual authentication).  However, even though the wizard allows you to select mutual authentication and generate the certificates, this is really operating in a single trust mode.  This will be addressed in a future milestone.

Boosting Modeler Performance

If you want to maximize the performance on large-scale operations (for example, copy/paste of several objects), you will find that the performance is up to ten times faster if you hide or close the Outline view.  You get even more performance if you also close the Properties view.  To quickly restore these views, click Window > Reset Perspective.

Enabling IDM 3.5 Features

This release of Designer supports the new features introduced in IDM 3.5.  IDM 3.5 features are enabled by default on all new projects.  The default IDM server version for all new projects is 3.5.  This is done in the server properties page so that users can get access to the new 3.5 feature set.  The server properties page is found by going to the outline view and double clicking on the server icons.  More information can be found in the "What's New" documentation for Designer 2.0.

If a Project Contains a JDBC 3.5 Driver

If a project contains a JDBC 3.5 driver, you need to slightly alter its configuration file. Edit the configuration file by escaping the period in the name. That is, change JDBC 3.5 to JDBC 3\.5. Otherwise, the project doesn't deploy.

Installation

Installation on Windows Vista

Designer 2.0 is not officially supported/tested on Windows Vista, however our initial impression is that Designer will run well on Vista.  During the install you will see a message stating that you are installing on a unsupported Windows version.  You may continue with the installation by selecting ok.  See readme item "Designer will not launch after installing on Vista"  under general issues for instructions on running Designer on Vista.

Installing on English Windows with East Asian Language Pack and with Double Byte Install Path

When installing to a path where there are double byte characters and if your operating system is running the English version of Windows
with the East Asian Language Packs installed,  the install package will throw an error saying that it is unable to extract the compressed file.
There are known issues with using Double Byte Character Sets (DBCS) in Windows file paths.  We cannot provide fix at this time as this would
have to come from the OS vendor or the install framework vendor.  As an alternative you can install to DBCS paths when installing to a localized
version of the operating system.

Designer Install Crashes on SLED 10, SuSE 10.2 with XGL Desktop

There are known cases when the Designer install crashes when installing on SLED 10 and SuSE 10.2 when XGL is enabled.
The error may be displayed as:
An unexpected error has been detected by HotSpot Virtual Machine:

The problems are only seen when XGL is enabled.  If XGL is enabled,  disable it and then try installing again.

Install Dependencies for NDSBase and NICI

When installing on Linux, supporting Linux packages for Designer are needed. The GNU gettext utilities are a set of tools that provide a framework for internationalized and multilingual messages. Make sure you have installed this package and any dependencies for this package before installing Designer. You can use YaST to check for installed packages and to check dependencies.

Designer Installs it's own JRE

The installation installs a JRE specifically for Designer. This JRE won't impact Java* installed for other uses on the workstation.

Unable to Install Designer on Windows

Some users have reported the inability to install Designer on Windows*. The install starts to run but closes with the following error:

"This Application has Unexpectedly Quit."

If you see this issue, do the following:

Right-click the Designer install.exe file and choose Properties. Select the Compatibility tab. Under the Compatibility mode section, choose the option to "Run this program in compatibility mode" and select Windows 2000 from the drop-down menu. The Designer install should execute normally.

During Linux Install,  Root Privileges are Required

Installing eDirectoryTM base components and NICI requires root privileges. The install program prompts you for the root password so that you can install these components.

On Linux, Install Throws an Exception Error

The following error occurs with some versions of Linux:

The xhost program makes Linux more secure by not allowing other hosts and users to make connections to the X server. If you are logged in as a valid user and are trying to run the install as root, this error can occur. For more information on xhost, refer to the man page for xhost.

On Linux, Resizing Process Window252207 after Pre-Installation Summary Halts Installation of Designer.

This is a problem with the underlying install framework in use by Designer.  The issue is being tracked and addressed by the third party company responsible for that install framework.

Linux Specific Issues

Our installation framework provided by Macrovision, confirms that this is a problem in the install framework.  At this time these links will have to be opened
manually by the user.

Running eDirectory with Designer on Linux

If you are running eDirectory on Linux and also want to run Designer, you may need to run Designer as root. The eDirectory install requires you to install its base packages as root. This prevents a normal user from running them. Specifically, Designer crashes if you are running as a non-root user when importing or deploying and when connecting to a tree.

Running Designer on Linux

We don't recommend that you use the gtk-qt-engine - GTK-style Engine for Use with Qt Plugins and Settings. This RPM package is installed with SUSE Linux 9.2 and 9.3 and possibly other Linux Distributions. There are known issues that cause crashes and Designer theme issues when this package is installed.

If you must use this RPM package, obtain the latest version. You can download this version from http://www.kde-look.org.

Even with the latest version of the package, Designer theme functionality might not be present.

To determine whether you have the gtk-qt-engine - GTK-style Engine for Use with Qt Plugins and Settings RPM package installed, enter:

If gtk-qt-engine appears in the list, you should remove the package by issuing the following command as the root user:

rpm -e gtk-qt-engine

If You Encounter Display Issues on Linux

GNOME
If you encounter display issues in GNOME*:

  1. Select the Applications menu.
  2. Click Preferences > Font, then decrease the size of the application font.
  3. You can also adjust the thematic elements to your liking. Keep in mind that GTK thematic elements can cause performance issues with Designer. If Designer is running slowly, especially when you use pull-down menus and other widgets, you might try changing to a simplified GTK theme.
Normally, this process fixes display issues.

KDE
Because Eclipse (Designer) is a GTK application, it is recommended that you use GTK themes rather than qt-based themes. This can be accomplished using one of the following methods:

Prerequisites:

You must remove the gtk-qt-engine package mentioned in section 3.6. This can be done through YaST or by using the instructions given above.

You need to have the following packages installed on your Linux system. If you installed the GNOME subsystem, you already have these packages installed:

  • gtk-engines
  • gtk2-engines
  • control-center2 > Gnome Control Center
  • gtk2-themes > or the themes you downloaded, and all the related dependencies
  • gnome-themes > only needed if you are going to use Gnome Control Center to set your theme
    •

    Do one of the following:

    Launching Designer from the Shell on Linux

    The StartDesigner.sh file sets important variables, permissions, and memory parameters. If Designer isn't launched from this file, Designer won't function correctly or be able to call other programs (for example, Mozilla*) on Linux.

    StartDesigner.sh is located in the /path to the Designer install/designer/eclipse directory.

    Opening a Browser within Designer on Red Hat Fedora Core

    If you are running the latest Fedora core, you might see errors in the error log when you try to use Designer's Browser functionality:
      "Internal browser is not available: No more handles libstdc++.so.5: cannot open shared object file:"
    The latest Fedora core is shipping with a new shared library that provides browser support. However, Eclipse still depends on the old library. To work around the problem, log in as root and issue the following command to install a compatibility library. sudo yum install libstdc++.so.5.

    What's New HTTP Links not Launching Browser on Linux.

    Certain links on the what's new page, (specifically the bugzilla links) do not launch a browser on Linux.  This is an Eclipse issue that should be fixed in later versions which we will implement into Designer.  As a temporary workaround, you may configure your eclipse preferences to launch an external browser for viewing help files.  This is found by going to preferences - general - web browser.

    Workflow/Provisioning

    A Form Field That Returns Undefined Does Not Display an Error or Warning 

    If a field on a form used by a workflow returns the value "undefined", the form does not display an Error or Warning message. This situation results from a problem in the script. In general, if a form script evaluates to "undefined", the script is considered to be in error. The workaround is to make sure you do not set "undefined" in the preactivity mappings. To do this, use a try/catch/finally block to ensure that there is always a valid value being sent to each control.

    Possible Timeout When Setting Trustee Rights on a Provisioning Request Definition

    You might encounter the following error message when trying to set Trustee Rights on a provisioning request definition or when trying to access the Identity Vault via the ECMA expression builder:

    "Cannot connect to host 'xxx', verify the address is correct and the server is running."

    If the address is correct and the server is running, this might be caused by a slow connection.

    You can change the connection timeout by setting the Connection preference via Windows > Preferences > Provisioning.

    Saving Incorrect Credentials in the Provisioning Request Definition Editor

    When you connect to the Identity Vault from the provisioning request editor (for example when setting Trustee rights on a provisioning request definition) you are prompted for your Identity Vault credentials. If you type an incorrect password and click the Save password button in the Identity Vault credentials dialog box, you cannot connect to the Identity Vault and you are not prompted to retype your credentials.

    To work around this issue, access the Modeler view and reconfigure the Identity Vault credentials for the project.

    Legal Notices

    A portion of Designer code includes derivative Eclipse code, where we have enhanced Eclipse source code to best suite the needs of our product and customers.  This code has been contributed back to the Eclipse community under the EPL license agreement under Bugzilla entry #105582.  The contributed code deals solely with general-purpose Eclipse framework UI and contains no Identity Manager-specific code, concepts, or logic.  Novell retains full rights and ownership of all code outside of the specific code contributed, as noted in submission #105582.

    This product includes software developed by IBM Corp. using the Eclipse platform (all rights reserved) and the Apache Software Foundation (http://www.apache.org). Novell is an Eclipse Foundation Member.

    This product includes TightVNC viewer software, which is a free remote control software package derived from VNC. This is under the GPL license and ships as a separate plug-in, apart from the core Designer plug-ins. (http://www.tightvnc.com).

    Novell, Inc. makes no representations or warranties with respect to the contents or use of this documentation, and specifically disclaims any express or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. Further, Novell, Inc. reserves the right to revise this publication and to make changes to its content, at any time, without obligation to notify any person or entity of such revisions or changes.

    Further, Novell, Inc. makes no representations or warranties with respect to any software, and specifically disclaims any express or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. Further, Novell, Inc. reserves the right to make changes to any and all parts of Novell software, at any time, without any obligation to notify any person or entity of such changes.

    Any products or technical information provided under this Agreement may be subject to U.S. export controls and the trade laws of other countries. You agree to comply with all export control regulations and to obtain any required licenses or classification to export, re-export, or import deliverables. You agree not to export or re-export to entities on the current US export exclusion lists or to any embargoed or terrorist countries as specified in the US export laws. You agree to not use deliverables for prohibited nuclear, missile, or chemical biological weaponry end uses. Please refer to www.novell.com/info/exports/ for more information on exporting Novell software. Novell assumes no responsibility for your failure to obtain any necessary export approvals.

    Copyright © 2005-2006 Novell, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, photocopied, stored on a retrieval system, or transmitted without the express written consent of the publisher.

    Novell, Inc. has intellectual property rights relating to technology embodied in the product that is described in this document. In particular, and without limitation, these intellectual property rights may include one or more of the US patents listed at http://www.novell.com/company/legal/patents/ and one or more additional patents or pending patent applications in the US and in other countries.

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