7.0 Migration Guide

In this document, we will see the major steps to migrate from 6.1 to 7.0.

Please check the change log for detailed list of fixes, changes and improvements introduced in 7.0

Migrate to new front-end built on top of React

Current Angular front-end is now dropped in favor of new front-end built on top of React.

Here are the following changes due to this change :

  • npm-install Gradle task has been removed.

  • input values aren’t trimmed anymore : leading and trailing whitespaces are preserved.

Font Awesome icons deprecated

Font Awesome icons was used as main icons library. Now two library are used : Material Symbols and Bootstrap Icons.

Depending on the icons used, it will try to first use Material Symbols if the icon exist, then fallback to Bootstrap icons. To ensure easy migration steps, Font Awesome icons have been mapped to Bootstrap Icons. Please be aware that some Font Awesome icons don’t have any equivalent in Bootstrap Icons, so an apps icon will be use instead. Missing icons will be log in console in non production mode.

Plain user passwords are no longer hashed upon startup

For historical reasons, user passwords that were stored in plain text within the database were hashed upon startup. On databases with a large number of users, this could result in unnecessary time consumption during startup.

To reset a forgotten admin password, update or insert an active admin user with a temporary password admin123 in database using the hashed password:

UPDATE auth_user set password = '$shiro1$SHA-512$1024$NE+wqQq/TmjZMvfI7ENh/g==$V4yPw8T64UQ6GfJfxYq2hLsVrBY8D1v+bktfOxGdt4b/9BthpWPNUy/CBk6V9iA0nHpzYzJFWO8v/tZFtES8CA==' where code = 'admin';

Another way to generate passwords, is to use the Apache Command Line Hasher:

$ (cd /tmp && curl -sSL -O https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/apache/shiro/tools/shiro-tools-hasher/1.11.0/shiro-tools-hasher-1.11.0-cli.jar)
$ java -jar /tmp/shiro-tools-hasher-1.11.0-cli.jar --algorithm SHA-512 --iterations 500000 -p
Password to hash:
Password to hash (confirm):
$shiro1$SHA-512$500000$pbUIjvJh1moFNc98vH+YbA==$Wtu3fIgNIL4ab9jWp6DyRa7vW5Zo33knW7JNV9KFJj08lal4WHBmVJSOHxJ0w+7SwlPvJ25O1QYNVb6wgmTHnA==

Also, if you import users with passwords from any source, either password must be hashed or you can use helpers methods to encrypt it :

  • com.axelor.auth.AuthService.encrypt(java.lang.String) : Encrypt the given password text.

  • com.axelor.auth.AuthService.encrypt(com.axelor.auth.db.User) : Encrypt the password of the given user.

  • com.axelor.auth.AuthService.encrypt(java.lang.Object, java.util.Map) : Adapter method to be used with csv/xml data import in order to encrypt the password of the given user.

MailFlags table changes

The flag associated to the user and message is now retrieved on backend. This avoids duplicated mail flags after reflagging messages. As part of the change, the message is also required and indexes as been reviewed.

Run following SQL script to adjust MailFlag table changes :

ALTER TABLE mail_flags ALTER COLUMN MESSAGE SET NOT NULL;
DROP INDEX mail_flags_message_idx;
DROP INDEX mail_flags_user_id_idx;
CREATE INDEX mail_flags_user_id_message_idx ON mail_flags (user_id, message);

Fields that prevent dirty record

Current way to prevent making record dirty when changing a field value, is to prefix the field name with $. The rules are :

  • in server side, setting the dummy field value, use $ prefix but when accessing the dummy field value, don’t use $ prefix.

  • in client side, always accessing the dummy field value with the $ prefix.

This is causing confusion and misunderstood.

To improve the usage, we introduce x-dirty attribute. This can be used on any fields, dummy or object fields. If the view field is marked as x-dirty="false", the field value change will not mark current record dirty.

The old dirty checking behavior of the $ prefixed fields is now deprecated and will be removed during next major release.

React templates

React templates can be used in favor of legacy Angular templates. They provide better integration with built-in UI components.

If the template is wrapped inside <></> (react fragment), it is considered as React template :

<field ...>
  <viewer>
  <![CDATA[
  <>
    {some.value && <Box as="span">{some.value}</Box>}
  </>
  ]]>
  </viewer>
</field>

Following UI components are supported: Box, Badge, Alert, AlertHeader, AlertLink, Button, ButtonGroup, Divider, Image, Link, List, ListItem, Panel, Popper, Scrollable, Table, TableBody, TableHead, TableFoot, TableRow, TableCell, TableCaption, Icon.

Translation in template can be allowed using _t helper : <>{_t("Draft")}</>

React template no more rely on main record context but on the field context for reference field (legacy template was inconsistent). So templates should be now :

<!-- Legacy -->
<field name="customer">
<viewer><![CDATA[
    <p>{{$get('customer.title.name')}}</p>
]]></viewer>
</field>

<!-- React -->
<field name="customer">
<viewer><![CDATA[
<>
    <p>{{$get('title.name')}}</p>
</>
]]></viewer>
</field>

Parent context can be used with _parent property :

<field name="customer">
<viewer><![CDATA[
<>
    {_parent.some && <Box as="span">{_parent.$fmt("foo")}</Box>}
</>
]]></viewer>
</field>

Others Notable Changes

Check the change log for detailed list.

  • x-show-bars actions used to affect parent form. Now, they affect local grid context only

  • Collection editor without x-viewer="true" no more used in readonly

  • Changes in shortcuts

  • Some dependencies have been upgraded to newer versions

  • Remove top menus support

  • Drop custom style

  • Drop StaticResourceProvider

  • Remove $context variable in frontend eval expressions

  • /ws/app/info endpoint moved to /ws/public/app/info

  • Datetime fields value in tracking messages now stored in UTC

  • sync action to sync record is no longer needed, so it is now removed

Due to the nature of front-end changes, some features haven’t been implemented. We expect to reinstate them in a future version. Concerned features are :

  • Markdown widget

  • Phone widget with flag feature (added in 7.1)

  • Print Gantt view

  • Following chart types : area, radar, scatter (added in 7.1)

  • Views help link (added in 7.1.6 & 7.2)