Release Notes (Pulsar App)

6.1.x

15-Sep-2021

Critical Note: 

• As of this release, Pulsar will be using a two-database setup to facilitate a non-blocking sync. This means when sync is running, user interaction will not be blocked except during two relatively brief stages (i. Schema change related database migration ii. index building). 

  • Please note that this is a major overhaul of how we maintain state tables and other critical operation information. We have run our internal testing rigorously to test every component of the core application but only you can test your complex implementations. So please make sure to test this release well and let us know if you see anything break. 

  • There will be a database migration step when users upgrade from 5.1 to 6.0.

• A caution: Please note that our plan is to give you a total of 6 weeks of testing time and submit to the store on August 15th if we don’t receive any critical bug reports during this period. Please do expect delays if we hear any critical issues from customers.  

New Features: 

• Non-blocking sync.

• Added support for launching a VisualForce page via Salesforce Quick Actions.

• Added support for uploading and annotating Files via Flow and Related screens.

• Added support for uploading multiple photos into Rich Text Fields.

Retired Features: 

• None

Sync Changes:

• Non-blocking sync 

• Always re-sync AppExtensions object. This is a relatively short object and Salesforce platform doesn’t support a straightforward way to clean up old actions. So, a force re-sync would make sure the user doesn’t see actions that are no longer relevant.

UI Changes: 

• Implemented new UI for multi edit action for the related list – only applicable to iOS.

• Added support for using the front camera on Surface 4 tablets – only applicable to Windows 10.

• Show default value of ‘None’ for a picklist if that is specified on Salesforce – worked as expected on iOS before. Fixed on Android/Windows 10 with this release.

• Support to preview the image on the Flow screen. 

• Added support for showing Checked Vs. UnChecked checkboxes in list views as opposed to showing string values. 

• Windows shows the filename Vs. the content library id when you open to view a file from related list – only applicable to Windows 10. 

• Fixed a rotation issue – only applicable to Android. 

• Added a button to advanced settings page to delete and resync image cache (this applies to Service report template header and footer images. The setting will force download them again).

• Various new translations for button names and app messages are added.

JSAPI Methods: 

• Existing methods: 

  • DisplayURL JSAPI will not need the "path" param if "fullUrl" is specified. No changes are required to your custom code. This is an additional enhancement to an existing method.

• New methods: 

  • None.

PSL Actions:

• Existing Actions: 

  • Alerts: You can use variables for specifying button titles. This provided some customers to use custom labels and provide translated button titles.

• New Actions: 

  • None

• New Variables:

  • Added support for @@LastSyncTime and @@LastSyncSuccessful so they can be used in after sync triggers.

FSL Notifications:

• None.

Flows: 

• Adjusted the spacing between Next and Back buttons.

• Added support for specifying description for the photos uploaded in a Flow screen.

Various bug fixes also included!

5.1.x

15-May-2021

Critical Note: 

• User Agent string is changed to include the string "pulsar" (in lowercase and of course without the quotes). This will help customers to correctly identify connection attempts to Salesforce from Pulsar.

• Starting with this release, Pulsar will set FALSE value for checkboxes if that is the default specified on Salesforce. In the past, the value stored in the local database used to be NULL. 
  * Please thoroughly test your PSL and custom code if it was dependent on this default value.

New Features: 

• Minor improvements to Flow screens. Check the Flows section below.

Retired Features: 

• None

Sync Changes:

• Metadata tables (__mdt) will be synced during the initial sync without requiring a catchup sync.

• Pulsar will let the server assign the ShareType property for files uploaded from Pulsar. (This property is on the ContentDocumentLink object).

• Skip downloading all content documents the user can view. Sometimes users have org wide open share on files uploaded by users. Sync will by default skip downloading them.

UI Changes: 

• Online status button will only be shown on the home page. Customers can enable it on list view and object pages with a setting.

• iOS will revert to using wheel-based time and date pickers since the latest iOS picker is not very user friendly.

• Online search will display an activity indicator.

• Help text will be supported for Checkbox fields.

• Picklist controller will auto adjust size to accommodate longer entries.

• Textboxes on Android will support multiple lines.

• Object list views will honor default sort order clause.

JSAPI Methods: 

• Existing methods: 

  • DisplayURL JSAPI will not need the "path" param if "fullUrl" is specified. No changes are required to your custom code. This is an additional enhancement to an existing method.

• New methods: 

  • Added a method called getRTFImages() to query images stored in a rich text field on an object

PSL Actions:

• Existing Actions: 

  • Fix a regression in handling the where clause setting after a barcode scan for a lookup field.

• New Actions: 

  • None

FSL Notifications:

• Honor quotes meant to be displayed for the user in Notification messages.

Flows: 

• Added support for dependent picklists in Flow screens.

• Added support for specifying description for the photos uploaded in a Flow screen.

Various bug fixes also included!

5.0.x

15-Mar-2021

Critical Note: 

• If you are running Salesforce Field Service app within Pulsar, please make sure to install the latest Pulsar FSL beta file. 

Pulsar FSL Beta File

New Features: 

• Custom Notifications 

  • Salesforce platform enabled custom notifications to help customers deliver mobile push notifications upon specific process or event execution. This versionof the Pulsar application supports receiving those notifications on the mobile client. To learn more about Salesforce custom notifications, please visit: https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=sf.notif_builder_custom.htm&type=5. 

  • Note: You would also need to update your Pulsar Settings (Pulsar Premium) AppExchange package to 5.0 in order for this feature to be fully functional. 

• Online Search in list views 

  • Some of our customers who download a subset of the data to the device for full offline functionality would like to be able to search Salesforce records if that specific record is not found in the local database. With this new feature (enabled by a specific Pulsar Setting), when you search for an item and it is not found in the local database, the app will give an option to perform the search on Salesforce server. When they find and choose the record they are looking for, it will be stored to the local database ready for future offline usage.

  • Note: This additional online search will only work if you are connected to the network. If the device currently has no connectivity, it won’t be able to do the online search.

• Pulsar deep link invocation now supports launching a custom HTML document. Documentation here: https://luminix.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PD/pages/1052966913/5.+Pulsar+Deep+Links

• iOS : Improvement to performance when interacting with Native Pulsar object windows from custom HTML. No functional/behavioral/navigational changes here except for performance improvement.

Retired Features: 

• None

UI Changes: 

• iOS/Windows/Android: lookup and text fields now support using the barcode reader to fill the field

• iOS: Slight UI improvement to guide the user to rotate the phone to landscape mode when scanning a barcode

• Windows – Minor UI change to prevent the sync banner appearing in a pop-up page in desktop/laptop mode

• Windows and Android – Slight improvement to date format display to match Salesforce browser

JSAPI Methods: 

• Existing methods: 

  • JSAPI Update method has been changed to apply trim function before executing the SQL query to be more helpful to developers. This should not change/affect any of your custom code because if there were extraneous characters in your query before this release, the query would not have worked anyway and it would have forced you to fix your code 

  • ViewObject() JSAPI call will now recognize ContentVersion and actually open the file as opposed to the wrapper object. This will not impact any other object. So unless you are using viewobject method for ContentVersion specifically, this doesn’t change anything else. 

• New methods: 

  • Added a method to jump to the home page from a custom HTML/JS page

PSL Actions:

• Existing Actions: 

  • No changes

• New Actions: 

  • Added an action to support kicking off sync from within PSL

  • PSL for returning the translated custom label will allow a variable to be specified for Locale parameter

FSL Notifications:

• Better handling of notifications received when the device was completely offline when the actual notification triggered on Salesforce

Flows: 

• Allows flow collection assignment to a flow variable

• Flow decision logic allows advanced AND/OR logic

Various bug fixes also included!

4.1.x

17-Jan-2021

Critical Changes:

• Windows 64 bit support 

  • Pulsar already supports 64 bit versions of iOS and Android. This release includes Windows 64 bit support

• User Auto login 

  • Based on customer feedback, we have changed the behavior of the app to auto log the user in and launch them on the home page quicker. We recommend testing with multiple logins and trying the Switch/Add user method as well

  • Note: This means that the app will skip settings download during this step. If there are meta data changes, the user will have to click Refresh Settings -> Sync now to get these changes.

• Clicking on the home button icon on Pulsar object details page will take you to the home page (in FSL orgs, this means Schedule page with today’s appointments)

New Features: 

• Bluetooth support 

  • Added Bluetooth support, so the app can be configured to read Bluetooth device output

• Barcode Improvement 

  • The barcode scanner can be used to populate a text field. App used to only support lookup fields for this action

Retired Features: 

• Pulsar no longer supports Open In functionality. Pulsar supported opening a file from other applications like an email and add it as an Attachment object. We have retired this since you can now add documents directly 

UI Changes: 

• Slight changes to the Online/Offline status messaging on the green circle on the home screen

• Native object navigation bar color will honor the FSL mobile setting (in FSL enabled orgs)

• App now shows the help Icon for a field to display additional information just like Salesforce browser does

JSAPI Methods: 

• Existing methods: 

  • No changes

• New methods: 

  • Added a method to jump to the home page from a custom HTML/JS page

  • Added an extra parameter for specifying a full URL to the DisplayURL API call. Existing calls will continue to work as expected

PSL Actions:

• Existing Actions: 

  • No changes

• New Actions: 

  • Added an action to support aftersync trigger. This can be used to register information about when the last successful sync happened for this user

  • Added an action to support custom notifications. This can be used to register custom notifications based on logic and can be used before or on save of objects

  • Added an action to support launching a quick action from within PSL

  • Added an action to retrieve custom labels

FSL Notifications:

• Better handling of navigation to the Service Appointment

Flows: 

• File upload Flow element now allows opening and removing images after they are added

Various bug fixes also included!

4.0.x

15-Nov-2020

• Various bug fixes and improvements.

• Specific listviews can be pinned so that it becomes the default listview for an object list.

• Improved performance of catch-up syncs when using relationship sync.

• Added JSAPI call 'batchdelete' to be able delete multiple records at a time.

• Added support to disable the layout required field check from JSAPI creates.

• Added support for Event Series (recurrence).

• Added support for the beforeSave trigger when adding a content file.

• Picklists auto populate if they are required and have only one available value.

• Added support for syncing SFDC metadata types.

• Added JSAPI support for a confirmation prompt before leaving an html page.

3.10.x

15-Sep-2020

• Various bug fixes and improvements.

• Added support for hiding the edit and delete buttons via settings.

• Added Flow back button functionality.

• Added JSAPI call for Salesforce Custom Labels.

• Added JSAPI call to allow http(s) requests from javascript.

• Upgraded our Salesforce API to version 49.0

3.9.x

15-Aug-2020

• Various bug fixes.

3.8.x

01-Jul-2020

• Various bug fixes.

• Added PSL and JSAPI methods for calculating formulas and saving results to the local database.

• Added Log action to PSL to write to the log file.

• Logging level can now be changed from Options menu and Log Screen.

• Added support for launching a custom HTML document from PSL.

• Improvements made to barcode scanner.

• Improvements made to deep link support (view, edit, update, create, list, quick actions).

• Added support to hide the top toolbar during web navigation.

• Added radio button control for use in flow screens.

• Added support for Flow Text Template and Flow "Equals Count" operator.

• PSL BeforeSave trigger will now run before SFDC ValidationRules

• Formula field calculations for the given object record are now automatically persisted to the local database in offline mode. (When online, values continue to be read back from Salesforce calculations).

• Improved the layout of the Settings screen.

• Added a special PSL variable (@@CreatedObjectId) to access the object Id from the onSave trigger.

3.7.4

15-May-2020

• Various bug fixes.