Uplink Connections

• Improved cancellation behavior, e.g. when cancelling during tool data upload/download
• Improved behavior and automatic reconnection after connection interruptions
• Improved notifications for failed Uplink/SSH connection attempts
• Added transmission of early RCE version information from client side during SSH login
• Added received early RCE version information to related event log entries on server side
• Prevented SSH/Uplink connections from auto-reconnecting after certain authentication failures
• Prevented SSH/Uplink connections from auto-reconnecting in case of unknown errors

GUI

• Fixed an issue with the "Connect immediately" option in connection dialogs
• Fixed transparency issues with some combo boxes on Ubuntu that led to unreadable entries

Bugfixes

• An issue with the script API that affected the RCE.create_input_file() method when using the Python
  integration has been fixed
• Fixed a bug that prevented the deletion of temporary files generated during the execution of Jython scripts
• Prevented issues with .rce/common folders created without version information
• Command "components list -r" now only lists the remote components as expected

Other Improvements

• Added a CITATION.cff file (see https://github.com/citation-file-format/), making this release
  citable (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.17878323)
• Increased the maximum heap space property in the rce.ini file from 2GiB to 4GiB
  This should have no effect on RAM usage unless your RCE instance actually needs that much RAM
• The integration of the Example tool during the generation of the Workflow Examples Project is now
  avoided if another workflow component named "Example" already exists
• Implemented a safeguard that prevents application startup when executing RCE as administrator/root,
  unless explicitly allowed via the new --allow-privileged command line flag.
  You may need to set this flag when running RCE as pseudo-root in rootless containers, e.g. Podman
• Improved documentation in the user guide
• Made build shells scripts more portable by not requiring an installed "zip" command
• Added "-e" flag to the run-unit-tests script to enable "extended" unit tests

Third-party Library Upgrades

• Upgraded activemq to 5.19.1
• Upgraded apache sshd to 2.16.0
• Upgraded bouncycastle to 1.83
• Upgraded commons-exec to 1.5.0
• Upgraded commons-lang3 to 3.20.0
• Upgraded jackson to 2.20.1
• Upgraded mwiede-jsch to 2.27.6

Quality assurance

• Fixed an issue in the BDD test executor that could cause long test sessions to fail with "inotify" errors
• Improved the Uplink crash-and-reconnect BDD test setup
• Improved "repoguard" rules
• The REUSE declarations were updated by splitting the deb5 file into TOML files for each bundle
  to adapt to the REUSE 3.3 specification
• The Checkstyle rules have been updated to match the latest Checkstyle version
• Fixed a unit test that was broken on Windows 11
• Fixed various minor warnings and Checkstyle issues

Components

• Enhanced the configuration validation of the Output Writer component in the GUI
• Improved the handling of long XPaths in the configuration dialogs of XML-related components
• Removed the deprecated VampZero Initializer component

Scripting

• Fixed a bug that led to errors with Python 3.12 and above by upgrading a referenced external
  library

GUI

• Prevented multiple "connection failed" dialogs from piling up when an Uplink connected is
  interrupted repeatedly
• Enhanced/replaced some icons
• Fixed an transparency issue with combo boxes on Ubuntu

Documentation

• A "Components Guide" PDF document has been added which describes all components shipped with
  RCE; While this documentation was always available, it was only accessible via the embedded
  "F1 Help", and therefore often missed
• Script placeholder documentation has been improved regarding "required-if-connected" inputs
• Added a link to the Update/Security website page in the User Guide
• Clarified the documentation on how to provide JVM options on the command-line (only needed in
  very special cases)
• Updated some parts of the developer guide and removed outdated sections

Technical Changes

• Major rework of the build and automated QA infrastructure, including an easier way to build
  RCE locally; note that a large part of this rework is not visible in the public repositories
• Raised the Eclipse platform to version 2023-03; this version was selected to still maintain
  Java 11 compatibility

Third-party Library Upgrades

• Upgraded various libraries as part of the Eclipse platform 2023-03 upgrade
• Upgraded BouncyCastle to 1.78.1, overriding the version used by the Eclipse platform
• Upgraded Jetty to 10.0.24, overriding the version used by the Eclipse platform
• Upgraded Commons-Compress to 1.26
• Upgraded Jung to 2.1.1
• Upgraded ActiveMQ to 5.16.8

QA

• Made the entire "rce-main" software repository compliant with the REUSE 3.0 specification,
  which defines the exact copyright and licensing status of each file
• Improved the automated product (BDD) test scenarios
• Fixes and improvements in the automated product (BDD) testing system
• Fixes and improvements in some unit tests
• Various minor QA fixes/improvements

Bugfixes

• Fixed a NPE that occurred in the Network View when the Uplink configuration contained invalid
  segments
• Fixed a bug that prevented the Connection Manager dialog from opening by double-clicking a
  connection in the Workflow Editor when the zoom level was not set to 100%
• Fixed that specifying JVM options on the command-line unexpectedly replaced the JVM options
  defined in the rce.ini file, which are required to start RCE; they are now appended instead

RCE 10.5.0 (November 21, 2023)

Tool/Workflow Integration

• Added name length validation for component names of integrated tools and workflows
• The context menu entry 'Edit selected Workflow Integration' in the Workflow Editor is now
  disabled if the workflow integration was renamed

Components

• Evaluation Memory Component: Added a validator for the tolerance value configuration
• Optimizer Component: Added a validator for boundary values
• Output Writer Component: The 'Timestamp at workflow start' placeholder is now consistent for
  all Output Writers within a workflow
• Output Writer Component: Validation results of the 'Add target for simple data types' dialog
  are now displayed within the dialog
• Database Component: There is no MySQL JDBC (database) connector shipped with RCE anymore;
  the User Guide now explains how to install it if necessary

GUI

• Removed empty configuration sections in workflow component's input and output dialogs
• Minor usability improvements

Security

• Adressed a potentially significant security vulnerability in ActiveMQ (CVE-2023-46604)
  that affects default ("local network") connections; upgrading all installations is strongly
  recommended, in particular servers that accept network connections (e.g. "relays")

Third-party Library Upgrades

• Upgraded ActiveMQ to 5.16.7
• Upgraded Ant to 1.10.14
• Upgraded Ant-Jsch to 1.10.14
• Upgraded Apache SSHD to 2.10
• Upgraded Bouncy Castle to 1.76
• Upgraded Cucumber to 7.12.1
• Upgraded Commons-codec to 1.16
• Upgraded Commons-compress to 1.24
• Upgraded Commons-csv to 1.10
• Upgraded Commons-io to 2.14
• Upgraded Commons-lang3 to 3.13
• Upgraded Easymock to 4.3
• Upgraded Jackson to 2.15.2
• Upgraded Jsch (mwiede) to 0.2.11
• Upgraded Objenesis to 3.3

Technical Changes

• The minimum required Java version is now Java 11
• Internal improvements regarding the handling of third-party libraries
• Internal improvements regarding the build process
• Migrated test resources to Python 3
• Raised the SSH authorization timeout from 10 to 30 seconds

Bugfixes

• Fixed a bug where configurations of specific and response settings of the Optimizer component
  were not persisted
• Fixed a bug where registering a "Workflow as Component" with a long component name would fail
• Fixed a bug in the Workflow Data Browser where references to already deleted files in the data
  management were not disabled
• Fixed a NPE that occured when trying to open a tool integration configuration from the context
  menu of a remote component in the component palette
• Fixed a NPE that could occur when editing a selected tool integration configuration

Script Component

• Fixed a bug that caused an error when running the Script component with longer scripts using the Python Agent function.

Workflow as Component

• Fixed a bug that prevented 'Workflow as Component' components from running when the component was integrated from the command line.

Optimizer Component

• Some GUI fixes regarding the Generic Optimizer feature.

Other

• Clarified documentation regarding valid server port numbers.
• Minor other fixes, documentation, and cleanup

Workflow Integration Editor (Workflow as Component)

• Implementation of a graphical editor to guide users through the workflow integration process
  • Supports the integration ("wrapping") of a complete workflow or parts of a workflow as a component by
    • selecting the workflow file in the Project Explorer or
    • selecting components of a workflow in the Workflow Editor
  • The usual metadata can now be added to integrated workflow components: version, icon, group, documentation, description, limit parallel execution, contact information
  • A specific workflow editor supports removing/deselecting individual connections or components that should not be part of the integrated workflow
  • Inputs and Outputs of the integrated workflow component can be selected and individually renamed
  • Context-sensitive help supports the user during the integration process
  • Integrated workflow components can be edited again after integration

Command Parser

• Reworked the infrastructure that parses and executes console commands (e.g. "wf run ...")
  • Command parsing is now done centrally, which allows for better help output and behavior
  • In particular, commands have a consistent way of defining parameters now; list parameters are also handled more consistently
  • Named parameters and flags are now accepted in any order
  • Added support for more specific help output, e.g. "help wf"
  • More parts of the command help output are now generated automatically, improving consistency
  • Likewise, the command reference in the User/Developer Guide is now generated directly from code, improving consistency
• Please note that some of the new help descriptions are not completely reviewed yet; this will be improved in the next releases

Event Log (Preview)

• Added a first draft of the RCE Event Log, which is meant to give users and administrators a concise and helpful overview of relevant events in an RCE instance
  • This preview does not cover all planned event types yet; in particular, workflow and component/tool execution is not fully covered yet
  • For this reason, there is no prominent Event Log access in the GUI yet - this will be added in a future release
  • To access the preview data, see the "Event Log" section in the User Guide

Optimization Algorithm API

• The optimization algorithm documentation has been completely revised, completed and added to the Optimizer Component help
• Several methods have been added to the API
• New GUI options have been added to display the algorithm properties on different setting tabs if desired

Third-Party Artifact Management

• In the near future, we will split our project repository into two parts: One primarily containing custom code and files, and one containing third-party artifacts, to allow more lightweight development and independent versioning. Internal changes have been made to support this.
• Additionally, internal changes were made to improve future flexibility regarding third-party libraries, e.g. for specialized RCE distributions.

Internal Network Connection

• Redesigned the "Add Network Connection" dialog, including an explicit option for reconnecting after a disconnect

Update/Security Information for RCE Releases

• Added a single point of reference for update recommendations and known security issues to our website at https://rcenvironment.de/update-status.html
  • This is intended for users and administrators and will be updated whenever new information becomes available
  • This page also provides Java runtime (JRE) version compatibility information

Other Fixes and Improvements

• Fixed a bug in the Component Palette that caused inconsistent behavior after renaming custom groups
• Fixed a bug concerning the update behavior on the Fault Tolerance tabs
• Fixed a bug affecting the filter behavior in the Workflow Console view
• Fixed a bug that caused incorrect saving behavior of some configurations when adding network connections
• Some minor fixes in the Script, Design of Experiments, Optimizer and Output Writer Component
• Fixed Linux specific GUI issues (invisible checkmarks; table columns could not be restored after resizing to zero width)
• Fixed a bug that leads to incorrect calculations of total steps within the Parametric Study component
• Fixed non-standard JSON comments in example and reference configuration files
• Added support for Elliptic Curve Cryptography SSH keys for outgoing connections; for technical reasons, this is not supported for incoming connections yet
• Added support for XML namespaces to the mapping features of CPACS components
• The Optimizer's algorithm selection has been updated to no longer allow invalid configurations for discrete design variables
• In some dialogs, better feedback is now provided when the ok button is disabled (e.g. add/edit Input/Output dialogs)
• Removed deprecated 'Remote Workflow Access' example and documentation content
• Various minor fixes, general documentation and usability improvements

Internal and Technical Changes

• Updated Checkstyle and its configuration
• Added support for rendering documentation content (User/Developer/Admin Guides and integrated Eclipse Help) from AsciiDoc sources
• Third-party library upgrades
  • Upgraded ActiveMQ to 5.16.5
  • Upgraded Jackson Core and Jackson Databind to 2.14.0
  • Upgraded SSHD to 2.9.1
  • Upgraded JSch fork by mwiede to 2.4.0
  • Upgraded Commons-Codec to 1.15
  • Upgraded Commons-IO to 2.11.0