Designer Upgrade Guide

Version

Function Description

Our products have constantly been updated and iterated to meet customers' new needs and improve some functions of earlier versions. The upgrade is divided into designer upgrade and server upgrade.

Server upgrade: This upgrade is performed typically by system administrators who upgrade the company's test and formal environments to fix issues from previous versions and add new product functions.

Designer upgrade: This upgrade is performed typically by template-designing users who upgrade the local designer to maintain consistency with the company's system.

Note:

Upgrade solutions crossing major versions are not provided. (e.g., FineReport 10.0 to FineReport 11.0). You can download and install the designer directly.

This document mainly describes two scenarios for the designer upgrade within minor versions (e.g., FineReport 11.0.5 to FineReport 11.0.9). You can choose the applicable solution based on your situation.

The solution in this document is to upgrade the designer with lower versions of FineReport 11.0 to the latest version online.

Designer Backup

Before upgrading the designer, you must back up your designer projects to avoid any file loss caused by upgrade failure.

You are advised to directly back up the webroot folder located in %FineReport_HOME%\webapps.

Online Update

1. Open the designer.

2. Ensure you switch from the remote design mode to the local default environment (Upgdate&Upgrade is not supported in the remote design mode).

3. Choose Help > Update&Upgrade to check whether the Update Now button is clickable. (Your designer is in the latest version if the button is grayed out.)

4. Click Update Now. Since the need to fetch, compare, and parse JS files during the designer upgrade, you may need to wait for a few seconds to obtain the update information.

Designer Restarting

1. Close the designer.

2. Manually delete the netty-related JAR package located in %FR_HOME%/webapps/webroot/WEB-INF/lib if you need to upgrade from version 11.0.9 and earlier to version 11.0.9 and later.

In version 11.0.9 and later, the product has embedded functions related to netty-all-4.1.78.Final.jar. Therefore, you need to delete the extra JAR package, otherwise, the project may fail to start properly.

Note:

If you need to restore from a higher version to version 11.0.9 or earlier, you need to add the netty-related JAR package to the %FR_HOME%/webapps/webroot/WEB-INF/lib directory of the designer.

You can download the JAR package: netty-all-4.1.78.Final.jar.

3. Start the designer.

Upgrade Result Check

Choose Help > Update&Upgrade after you restart the designer.

If the page shows Already Latest Version and the Update Now button is grayed out, it indicates that the project update was successful.

The solution in this document is to manually upgrade the designer with lower versions of FineReport 11.0 to the latest/specified version.

Designer Backup

Before upgrading the designer, you must back up your designer projects to avoid any file loss caused by upgrade failure.

You are advised to directly back up the webroot folder located in %FineReport_HOME%\webapps.

JAR Package Obtaining

1. Check the version of the server project that needs a remote connection if you need to obtain the JAR package of a specified version for the remote connection.

2. Log in to the remote project, choose System Management > Registration Management > Version Information, and record the minor version number of the server project (including the date). 

Premium users can contact FanRuan technical support and request the JAR package of the latest/specified version. To contact our technical support, you can send an email to international@fanruan.com or click  at https://intl.finebi.com/.

A version upgrade generally requires the 14 upgraded JAR packages:

fine-accumulator-11.0.jar、fine-activator-11.0.jar、fine-core-11.0.jar、fine-datasource-11.0.jar、fine-decision-11.0.jar、fine-decision-report-11.0、fine-report-designer-11.0.jar、fine-report-engine-11.0.jar、fine-schedule-11.0.jar、fine-schedule-report-11.0.jar、fine-swift-log-adaptor-11.0.jar、fine-third-11.0.jar、fine-webui-11.0.jar、fine-cbb-11.0.jar

Manual Update

1. Close the designer.

2. Place the fine-report-designer-11.0 JAR package in %FR_HOME%/lib.

3. Place the remaining JAR packages in %FR_HOME%/webapps/webroot/WEB-INF/lib.

Note:

Version 11.0.3 and earlier only has 12 JAR packages which do not include fine-cbb-11.0.jar. If you want to restore the version to 11.0.3 and earlier, you need to delete fine-cbb-11.0.jar.

4. Manually delete the netty-related JAR package located in %FR_HOME%/webapps/webroot/WEB-INF/lib if you need to upgrade your designer from version 11.0.9 and earlier to version 11.0.9 and later.

In version 11.0.9 and later, the product has embedded functions related to netty-all-4.1.78.Final.jar. Therefore, you need to delete the extra JAR package, otherwise, the project may fail to start properly.

Note:

If you need to restore from a higher version to version 11.0.9 or earlier, you need to add the netty-related JAR package to the %FR_HOME%/webapps/webroot/WEB-INF/lib directory of the designer.

You can download the JAR package: netty-all-4.1.78.Final.jar.

5. Manually delete the original jxbrowser-related JAR packages located in %FR_HOME%/lib first if you need to upgrade from version 11.0.20 and earlier to version 11.0.20 and later.

Download the suitable jxbrowser-related JAR packages of version 6.0.23 and 7.26 based on the environment where the designer is located and place the downloaded packages in %FR_HOME%/lib.

6. Start the designer.

Upgrade Result Check

Choose Help > Update&Upgrade after you restart the designer to check whether the current JAR version is the desired designer version.

An upgrade will be triggered in the following two scenarios.

Upgrade Triggered by Plugin Management

The designer has enabled Use New Plugin Manager, as shown in the following figure.

You can choose Server > Plugin Management. If the jxbrowser-related JAR packages are missing, a mandatory upgrade prompt will be displayed, as shown in the following figure.

You can click OK or close the prompt to go to the Update&Upgrade page. The subsequent upgrade steps are as described above.

Inconsistent JAR Versions Between Designer and Remote Server

The JAR versions on the server and the designer must be consistent, otherwise, some templates may appear normal in the local preview but abnormal in the server preview.

When the working directory of the designer is switched to that of the remote server, a pop-up message will appear if the JAR packages on the server and the designer do not match themselves.

You can click Sync to Local. After that, the inconsistent content information will be obtained from the server, and the corresponding JAR packages and plugins will be downloaded to replace the local ones. After the replacement is complete, the designer will be restarted and connected to the remote server again.

For details, see FAQs of Version Mismatch Between JAR Packages and Plugins.