Information in this document is subject to change without notice.

No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,

for any purpose, without the express written permission of TEMENOS HEADQUARTERS SA.

© 2016 Temenos Headquarters SA - all rights reserved.

 R20 Release Notes

Release R20
Temenos Application Framework C Version (TAFC) Release
Notes

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 R20 Release Notes

Table of Contents
IMPORTANT RELEASE INFORMATION 3
Release Highlights............................................................................................................. 3
Java................................................................................................................................... 3
Component Updates.......................................................................................................... 3
TAFC Initialisation Checks................................................................................................. 3
SQL Engine....................................................................................................................... 3
jQL Explain Plan................................................................................................................ 4
Windows Performance Counters.......................................................................................4
Generic Logger API........................................................................................................... 4
Cache Duplication............................................................................................................. 5
Read Cache....................................................................................................................... 5
Partial Update.................................................................................................................... 5
Super transaction.............................................................................................................. 6
Thread Based TAFC Sessions.......................................................................................... 6
Splunk Support.................................................................................................................. 6
T24 Data Filter................................................................................................................... 7
Database Enhancements 8
Real Columns.................................................................................................................... 8
Modifications to ORACLE Failover....................................................................................9
Performance Enhancement to Use ORACLE Piece-wise Data Retrieval..........................9
Official Support to ORACLE Binary XML with XQuery.......................................................9
Entity Framework Driver - for TAFC.NET..........................................................................9
DCD Multi Database Support – DataFramework/Data Separation..................................10
Data Encryption............................................................................................................... 10
System Component Requirements..................................................................................11
Third party libraries distributed with TAFC.......................................................................12
Internationalization library................................................................................................ 12
XML library...................................................................................................................... 12
Java JRE library.............................................................................................................. 12
Disk Space Requirements............................................................................................... 12
INSTALLATION OF THE SOFTWARE13
On UNIX systems............................................................................................................ 13
On Windows systems...................................................................................................... 13
Upgrading jBASE (TAFC)14
Amend your .profile.......................................................................................................... 14
Incidents addressed in TAFC R20 Release........................................................................15

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IMPORTANT RELEASE INFORMATION
This section outlines new features in TAFC1 R20 and contains important information for upgrading clients.
If you are upgrading from an earlier release of TAFC, please read and understand all the release
information details for each release before starting the installation.

Release Highlights

This section provides an overview of any new TAFC components or features and advice regarding any
components which have been replaced, deprecated or modified.

Java
The Java Client (jremote.jar) has been built using Java 8. For secure connections TLS is used as SSL is
no longer supported.

Component Updates
From R09, a new update process was introduced that give client the ability to find and apply ‘upgrades’
on a component basis. This means it is now possible for changes to be isolated and delivered with fewer
fixes and for specific components. A service pack installation will still be available and is required to get a
full upgrade to all parts of TAFC.

TAFC Initialisation Checks

From R12, TAFC has been enhanced to provide Initialisation Check functionality. This component allows
TIC (TAFC Initialisation Check) programs to periodically check Spoolers, jDLS, TJ, user limits (ulimit), and
disk space. This component can run as a UNIX daemon or Windows Service and has the ability to
disable the T24 application server if the system enters a critical state. I.e. Out of disk space would be a
critical state.
Please reference the TAFC Initialisation Check User Guide for more details.

SQL Engine
The jBASE SQL Engine (jSQL) has been enhanced to provide case insensitive queries, basic column
constraints, default values, aliases for column headings and multiple PICK association compatibility
enhancements. Additionally, the SQL catalog has a new option to allow a different DICT to be used when
adding tables.

Please reference to jBASE SQL User Guide for more details.

1
From R09 jBASE has been renamed to TAFC. This name has been introduced to ease client
understanding and avoid questions such as “I run an Oracle database, why do I need a jBASE database”.
The Temenos Application Framework C Version or TAFC is the new name for the runtime part of the
jBASE product; the database portion will continue to be called jBASE.

Information in this document is subject to change without notice.

No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,

for any purpose, without the express written permission of TEMENOS HEADQUARTERS SA.

© 2016 Temenos Headquarters SA - all rights reserved.

 R20 Release Notes

jQL Explain Plan

From R12, the jBASE Query Language (jQL) supports a new ‘EXPLAIN’ statement. This statement
displays information about how the jQL query will be processed. The EXPLAIN command output a list of
the files, indexes, and sorts that will result from the supplied query, along with access timings in a report
format. Using this information the query can be understood, tuned or written more efficiently.
Please reference to jBASE Explain Command User Guide for more details.

Windows Performance Counters

From R12, TAFC can publish the internal counters (JIMI counters) to Windows Performance Counters
API. The counters can be retrieved by any standard Windows monitoring tool like PerfMon or Microsoft
SCOM.
Please reference to TAFC Performance Counters User Guide for more details.

Generic Logger API

From R12, TAFC has a generic API for logging. The logs collect information from TAFC core, jAgent and
jBC.

From R13, several improvements have been done to TAFC logger API as follows

Improved jAgent/ jCF logs with proper severity levels and redundant messages removed.

Additional components using Logger API:

jDLS logging through Logger API.

tafc utility logging through Logger API

Driver logging through Logger API

TAFC JBASECOREDUMP function writes to logger.

Additional features

T24 username and OS user name added to log to enrich log content.

Include logging for scenario where a session is blocked on READU for a lock already taken. Also included
is logging for scenario involving READU and LOCKED clause.

If the value of the TAFC_CONTEXT variable begins with “@” the rest of the value is treated as a file path.
If there is no "@" it is treated as just a name of the context.

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Add logging for TAFC thread status changes

Include logging for DEBUGCONTINUE (Enter debugger after displaying message, but the user is allowed
to use the 'c' to continue command) and DEBUGQUIT (Enter debugger after displaying message, but the
user cannot continue - the user must 'q' or 'a' from debugger).

Please reference to TAFC Logger API User Guide for more details.

Cache Duplication
From R12, the TAFC transaction cache has been modified to handle (discard) duplicate entries within a
transaction. Prior to this enhancement it was possible to have duplicate entries with in a transaction
boundary. Elimination of duplicate entries has reduced the IO on the database reducing the network
traffic to the database.

Read Cache
Prior to R12 ‘READ entries’ within a transaction was never cached. For every ‘READ’ from within the
transaction the record data was fetched from the database. This situation is avoided in R20, since ‘READ’
are cached within the transaction. Once ‘READ’ entries are cached, the records can be fetched from the
transaction cache without hitting the database thus reducing the network traffic.

By default, READs are not cache but this can be turned on using an environment variable.
Refer to User guide for details.

Partial Update
In R12, Partial Update was introduced for RDBMS supported databases (i.e. ORACLE, DB2, and
MSSQL). This work in conjunction with the REAL column implementation of the DCD drivers (refer to
‘Database Enhancements’ section of this document for more information).

Prior to this all the ‘WRITE’ entries will flush the whole record back to the table even when only few
attributes have changed. This results in huge amount of redundant data being flushed to the database
table. This situation can be avoided when those attributes/fields that are most frequently used are
available as real columns. Then DCD driver could update the real column data only and not the whole
record.

With this feature it is possible to write only those attributes/ fields of a file that has undergone change
within a transaction boundary. Note that Partial Update is applicable only within transaction boundary.
During the transaction commit phase the ‘Current record’ and the ‘Before image of the record’ from the
database table are compared and those attributes/ fields that have changed are only written to the
database resulting in huge IO improvement.

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 R20 Release Notes

Super transaction
Super Transactions are used to modify the default behaviour of TRANSTART, TRANSEND and
TRANSABORT operator in jBC when jBC code is called via jAgent. When a transaction is started via
jAgent (connection.begin()) any occurrence of TRANSTART, TRANSEND and TRANSABORT will be
ignored within any jBC code called,

As these functions are ignored in jBC all updates now will be handled in a single transaction, because
there will only ever be a single transaction this will give some improvement in performance, as all current
TRANSTART, TRANSEND and TRANSABORT will be ignored, the transaction operations are now
handled by jAgent.

A new flag has been added to dp (dp->tdp->super_transaction), this is set when a transaction is started in
jAgent. The following functions use in jBC, TRANSTART, TRANSEND and TRANSABORT will check for
this flag, if it has been set they simply return and use the current transaction. If rolback() or commit() is
called from jAgent, the flag is reset and the jBC routines then behave as normal and process the current
transaction. By default this new behaviour is enabled in jAgent, to disable the new behaviour you can set
“TAFC_DISABLE_SUPER_TRANSACTION” before starting jAgent.

Although Super Transactions bring many advantages there are some drawbacks to consider. Because
transaction key words will be ignored if issued via jAgent running the same routine from a jSH could
potentially produce different results.

Thread Based TAFC Sessions

TAFCSessions are an addition to the jBASE TAFCfrmwrk library. Each TAFCSession is a standalone C+
+ object from which jBC programs and subroutines can be run and, if necessary, stopped. The
TAFCSession handles 'unusual' conditions such as the jBC code entering the debugger or invoking
terminal IO.

If built in 'multi-threaded' mode (refer to User Guide) it is possible to create more than one TAFCSession
from each OS process.

Refer to User guide for details.

Splunk Support
TAFC R20 provides support for Splunk.

Refer to relevant User Guides for additional details.

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 R20 Release Notes

T24 Data Filter

When a T24 transaction is committed several records in several different tables can be updated within the
scope of the transaction. The data updated is entirely dependent on the T24 application and the type of
transaction. To track these changes TAFC brings a new hook called Data Filter.
The user can configure any table with valid VOC entry and its data to be tracked. This information should
be stored in DF_FILTER record of F.SCHEMA table. If any transactions change the data of these tables
the changed data is stored in F.DATA.EVENTS table for further references.
The data filter capability is provided for WRITE and also extended to DELETE operations.

Refer to the relevant User Guide for additional information.

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 R20 Release Notes

Database Enhancements
Note: these enhancements apply to all three Direct Connect drivers except where specified. See DCD
installation Guide for more details on how to use these features.

Real Columns
‘Real Columns’ are different from the ‘Promoted Columns’ that were provided in R11.
Promoted Columns are virtual columns generated from the XML column and hence there is a duplication
of data. Promoted Columns could be indexed and used for queries whereas the data is still retained in the
XML column for read and write, update and retrieval.
Real Columns are physical columns built on the table, their data is extracted from XML and stored in the
column so there is no duplication of data, the real columns can be indexed and used for both queries and
data value update and retrieval.
The implementation of Real Columns on ORACLE, DB2 and SQL Server database provides the capability
to make Partial Updates on the data values to improve the performance and reduce the amount of data
both sent over the network and placed in the transaction log. The Partial Update capability must be
explicitly enabled and is handled automatically during the commit of the framework transaction cache.
The Real Columns when present are automatically detected and used by queries and also provide the
capability for the introduction of partial reads. Partial Reads need to be invoked explicitly within the
application where determined to be useful.
The principle is that certain fields in the XML document (corresponding to single value Attributes in T24)
can be extracted into a separate relational column. There is no duplication between XML and real
columns, so the data it can be read or written independently. Full reads and writes functions are
unaffected and transparently maintained by DCD.
The driver will translate the JQL query accordingly. i.e., the driver will create a SQL column expression
instead of an XPATH query, which would have been used before to select the field from within the XML
document column. Currently this is implemented as a ‘manual’ modification to the database, and should
be undertaken in liaison with TEMENOS Customer Services.

NOTE: This feature is only valid for XML type columns. Any attempt to use with BLOB type table
configuration will result in an error exception being thrown.

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 R20 Release Notes

Modifications to ORACLE Failover

DCD has supported ORACLE failover since R10. In traditional way DCD throws an error back to T24
whenever a failover occurred, the error handling was then left with T24.
However in certain instances T24 fails to handle this error correctly and hence was possible that the
process could continue after failover completed. If the failover happened on a query, outside a transaction
then this presents no real problem however if the failover occurred during a transaction and the error is
not handled then it is a problem. ORACLE rolls back the current transaction whenever a failover occurs,
DCD reports the error to T24 statement (usually on a read or write statement), if T24 misses the error and
continues processing then it is possible for a partial transaction to occur, whereby the latter half of the
transaction was committed to the database but the former part would be missing, resulting in an
inconsistent transaction state.
In R12, this modification will stop the above scenario from happening by dropping the process out
whenever a failover notification is captured, and thereby force T24 to retry (Online) or restart (COB) the
transaction. This will guarantee the transactions consistent between database and application during
failover.

Performance Enhancement to Use ORACLE Piece-wise Data Retrieval

In previous releases (R10 and R11) ORACLE temporary LOB is used for data reads, i.e. data is retrieved
from table into a temporary LOB, and then DCD reads data from LOB. The advantage of this mechanism
is that there is no data size limitation, even large data can be handled in LOB, but the disadvantage is it is
expensive in both storage space and performance.
In R12 this issue has been addressed by introducing piece-wise data retrieval. The idea is to use fixed
size buffer to retrieve a fixed size piece directly from table, if the data is larger than what would fit in the
fixed buffer, then the retrieval will be repeated until all the data is fetched. The benefit is that the
temporary LOB space is no longer required, and data movement from table to LOB is saved. The
disadvantage is that for very large records additional retrievals are required. Statistically most data
records will be retrieved in one round which would mean around 2.5 times quicker than LOB read.

Official Support to ORACLE Binary XML with XQuery

ORACLE Binary XML was introduced in 11gR1, and XQuery 1.0 standard was applied in DCD from R10
onwards. However due to problems encountered by TEMENOS with the operation of using ORACLE
Binary XML and XML Index this functionality had been withheld from production.
The ORACLE and TEMENOS partnership has now resolved those problems and the Binary XML, XML
Index and XQuery are now functional in R12 release. As such function based index are now not the only
choice to improve query performance and XML indices can now be used to translate the jQL to XPath
queries.
XML Indices can be used with both CLOB column storage as well as Binary XML column types.

DB2 support

R20 supports DB2 v10 and DB2 v10 Workgroup edition

Entity Framework Driver - for TAFC.NET

A new T24 database driver for SQL Server and SQL Azure has been introduced for deployment with
TAFC.NET from R13.

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 R20 Release Notes

The driver leverages Microsoft Entity Framework 5.0 and Microsoft .NET framework 4.0 to provide
database connection pooling enabling T24 to partake in the same transaction scope as a WCF .NET
transaction as provided by TAFC.NET capability.
The driver fully supports the existing T24 XML and BLOB table formats without modification as the entity
models are dynamically constructed as required, enabling tables to be added or deleted rather than
prebuilt at design time.
The driver utilises the Microsoft code first approach with subsequent development leading to data and
model first extensions.

DCD Multi Database Support – DataFramework/Data Separation

T24 data is separated into volatile and non-volatile and are being stored in different databases. Hence
Direct Connect Drivers are enhanced to connect to multiple databases. config-XMLxxx utility is also
enhanced to configure multiple databases. It allows creating tables in different databases, creating
READ-ONLY tables, and configures ASSOCIATE property to the “live” table of the database.

Please refer the User Guide for the DCD Multi database support for additional details.

Data Encryption

The T24 application being a banking application needs the ability for data to be protected from
unauthorised access. The new enhancement encrypts the data in the table specified by the user. The
base key is added to the jedi_config. ENCRYPT key qualifier is provided for the CREATE-FILE utility to
use user-defined encryption key. Encryption can be done for both BLOB and XML tables. The JQL to
SQL translation is suppressed to all the encrypted tables. The data in these tables would be encrypted
while storing in database and decrypted while reading. These tables cannot be renamed or copied.

Please refer to the relevant User Guide for additional information.

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 R20 Release Notes

Windows SDK support

An alternative to using the Visual Studio 2010 Professional compiler is to use the Microsoft Windows SDK
v7.1.
Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 4

"The Visual C++ compilers shipped in the Windows SDK v7.1 are the same compilers that ship in Visual
Studio 2010 RTM"

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=6b6c21d2-2006-4afa-9702-
529fa782d63b&displaylang=en

System Component Requirements

The following table shows the minimum recommended Temenos components and release numbers
which are designed to run with TAFC.

Component Release Platform

Temenos Application Framework C Version R20 Supported Operating Systems

TAFC

Windows Server 2012 R2

RedHat Enterprise Linux 6.5+
RedHat Enterprise Linux 7
RedHat Enterprise Linux 8
AIX v7.1
Solaris 11 SPARC
Solaris 11 x64
HPUX Itanium2 11.31 V3

Oracle Direct Connect R20 Minimum ORACLE 11gR2

Recommended ORACLE 12c

DB2 Direct Connect R20 Minimum DB2 v10

Recommended DB2 v10.5

MSSQL Direct Connect R20 Minimum SQL Server 2012

Recommended SQL Server 2014

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 R20 Release Notes

Platform Compiler version

AIX v7 IBM XL C/C++ v11.1.0.7

Windows Server 2012/2016 Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 SP1

Redhat Enterprise Linux 6 gcc (GCC) 4.4.7 20120313 (Red Hat 4.4.7-23)

Redhat Enterprise Linux 7 gcc (GCC) 4.8.5 20150623 (Red Hat 4.8.5-39)

Redhat Enterprise Linux 8 Gcc (GCC) 8.3.1 20190507 (Red Hat 8.3.1-4)

HP Itanium2 11.31 V3 HP C/aCC++ B3910B A.06.22

Solaris 11 SPARC Solaris Studio 12.3

Solaris 11 x64 Solaris Studio 12.3

Third party libraries distributed with TAFC

Internationalization library
ICU 4.8 is required for Locale, Timezone and Multi Byte character set support. This version of ICU allows
a client to download updated locale and timezone information from the ICU home page. http://site.icu-
project.org/

XML library
Xerces 3.1.4 and Xalan 1.11b are required for XML transformation within TAFC.

Java JRE library

Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.8.0 is required for CALLJ functionality within TAFC.

Note: CALLJ functionality is deprecated and may be removed in future releases. It is recommended to
use CALLJEE instead.

Disk Space Requirements

Before upgrading you TAFC installation please ensure you have sufficient disk space available ( at least
600 Mb )

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 R20 Release Notes

INSTALLATION OF THE SOFTWARE

On UNIX systems

Set the ‘umask’ to enable the correct UNIX permissions for the files about to be installed

    umask 0

Create the directory into which you are installing R20, eg :

    mkdir /home/R20

This directory path will subsequently be used as the ‘$JBCRELEASEDIR’ / ‘$TAFC_HOME’ environment
variable setting

[ ensure the volume in which you are installing R20 has sufficient free disk space, approximately 600MB
is required, plus additional space for any temporary files ]

               df –k                 [ will show the current disk usage within each UNIX volume ]

‘cd’ to the directory just created, eg :

                cd /home/R20

Uncompress the appropriate ‘tar.gz’ file, eg for Aix 7.1 :

              gzip –d TAFC_R20_AIX_7_132643.tar.gz

Install the jBASE release using :

              tar –xvf   TAFC_R20_AIX_7_132643.tar

On Windows systems

Run the installer, e.g. ‘TAFC_R20_WIN64_VC100_2016_132643.exe’ and follow the on screen

instructions/prompts shown

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 R20 Release Notes

Upgrading jBASE (TAFC)

If you have an earlier version of jBASE or TAFC installed you should stop all jBASE/TAFC processes,
services, and save any system configuration files before proceeding with the installation of TAFC

Amend your .profile

Change the “export TAFC_HOME=” statement in the .profile file to point to the TAFC_R20 release
For example
export TAFC_HOME=/usr/tafc (where your TAFC_R20 resides)

NOTE: Your profile will have another environment variable, JBCGLOBALDIR, this should be as follows:
export JBCGLOBALDIR=$TAFC_HOME

NOTE: For installation or upgrade of Direct Connect Drivers (DCD) see separate Installation Guide
document.

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 R20 Release Notes

Incidents addressed in TAFC R20 Release

No incidents for R20 release.

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