ARender v2023.18.0 – Release Notes

Upgrade note: See v2023.18.0 for detailed instructions.

Overview

ARender 2023.18.0 delivers a significant PDFOwl rendition engine upgrade (v1.24-22) that resolves multiple rendering issues with large files, PDF layers, and specific document types. It also introduces new JavaScript audit hooks for tracking print and download events, FileNet multi-objectStore document support, and a long-awaited video time display. Several annotation, rotation, and document-open fixes round out the release.

Prerequisites

Security

Spring Boot upgraded to 2.7.34 Upgraded the embedded Tomcat through Spring Boot 2.7.34 (HeroDevs) to address a HIGH severity vulnerability affecting Tomcat Embedded Core. Related issues: AR-18163

User Perspective

Video time display (elapsed and remaining) ARender now shows the time elapsed and the time remaining while viewing video documents, providing better orientation within long video files. Related issues: AR-16734

Rotation-aware print and download Printing or downloading a document after rotating pages no longer requires the “include annotations” option to preserve the rotations. Two new properties control this behaviour:

• topPanel.documentMenu.downloadRotation=true — adds a dedicated download-with-rotations button in the top panel menu (default: false)
• print.includeRotations=true — includes saved rotations when printing (default: false)

Note: these properties require that page rotation saving is already enabled via the pre-existing visualization.rotation.save.enabled=true property. Related issues: AR-17468 More information: Top panel configuration

⚠️ Do not enable this feature in production yet. The current implementation requires end users to choose whether to include rotations — both an extra download button appears in the UI for downloads, and a checkbox must be checked for printing. This is not the intended final experience. A follow-up improvement is planned for the next release: when topPanel.documentMenu.downloadRotation=true is set, the standard “Download as PDF” action will automatically include saved rotations without any extra button; when print.includeRotations=true is set, printing will automatically include saved rotations without any checkbox. We recommend waiting for that release before exposing this behaviour to end users.

PDF checkbox rendering matches Acrobat Reader (PDFOwl only) Fixed a rendering issue where checkboxes in certain PDF forms appeared unchecked in ARender while they were correctly displayed as checked in Acrobat Reader. This fix is specific to the PDFOwl rendering engine. Related issues: AR-15828

Pre-configured default annotation filter Two new properties allow setting which annotation types are pre-selected in the annotation filter panel on document open:

• annotation.comment.explorer.filter.types.enabled=true — enables the feature (default: false; when false, all types are selected)
• annotation.comment.explorer.filter.types=<comma-separated list> — the annotation types to pre-select (e.g. STICKY_NOTE,HIGHLIGHT)

The filter is applied immediately on document open, without requiring any user interaction. Related issues: AR-16077 More information: Annotation properties

Missing Excel macro-enabled file type icons Added missing SVG icons for XLSM (Excel macro-enabled workbook) and XLTM (Excel macro-enabled template) file types. These were previously generating 404 errors in browser monitoring tools. Related issues: AR-17920

Eliminated console errors when clicking outside page content Clicking in the grey area surrounding document pages no longer produces SEVERE exceptions in the browser console related to hyperlink position computation. Related issues: AR-18100

Developer / Integrator Perspective

JavaScript Save API in DocBuilder mode Integrators using DocBuilder mode can now trigger the document save programmatically via two new JS API methods:

• saveCustomDocument() — triggers save with default options
• saveCustomDocument(download, delete, freeze, behavior) — full control over download, panel removal, freeze, and save behaviour

This enables external buttons or workflows to initiate the save action without user intervention. Related issues: AR-15793 More information: DocBuilder JavaScript API

JavaScript hooks for print and download events New JS API hooks allow integrators to be notified when a user prints or downloads a document (including via the JS API, DocBuilder buttons, or error-state downloads). This enables integration with audit trail systems to meet regulatory compliance requirements. Related issues: AR-18119 More information: Print JavaScript API, Download JavaScript API

Integrator profile for configuration override A dedicated Spring active profile (integrator) is now provided for custom connector integrators. By setting spring.profiles.active=integrator (or spring.profiles.include=integrator), integrators can override ARender and Spring Boot default configuration without risk of property file conflicts. Related issues: AR-18126 More information: Spring configuration

FileNet multi-objectStore document support via VSID The FileNet parser now natively handles opening multiple documents using their VSIDs even when those documents reside in different objectStores, simplifying multi-document workflows in FileNet environments. Related issues: AR-17170 More information: FileNet P8 connector

Exploitation Perspective

PDFOwl upgraded to 1.24-22 — major rendition improvements This upgrade bundles a large set of fixes and enhancements to the PDFOwl rendering engine:

• Large PDFs (100k+ pages): Resolved a performance issue where layout generation was extremely slow due to internal linked-list traversal. Pages are now maintained in a direct array, dramatically reducing processing time. Related issues: AR-18093

• PDFs with large embedded images: Fixed a timeout/crash caused by the PDFOwl resource store reaching its default 256 MB limit. The store size is now configurable (--maxstore), avoiding slow garbage collection and rendering failures. Related issues: AR-17738

• Control characters in PDF layer names: Fixed a JsonParseException caused by ASCII control characters (e.g., ASCII 26 – SUB) embedded in layer names during DocumentPageLayout deserialization. Related issues: AR-17733

• Quotes in PDF layer names causing invalid JSON: Fixed an invalid JSON layout generated by PDFOwl when PDF layer names contained unescaped quotes. Related issues: AR-18095

• Specific PDF document failing to open: Resolved an issue where certain PDF documents failed to render correctly with PDFOwl. Related issues: AR-17668

• PDF checkbox rendering: Fixed white-on-white rendering of checkboxes in PDF forms by correctly handling the B operator (fill + stroke) for path drawing. Related issues: AR-15828

• SVG output format: PDFOwl now supports SVG as an output format for rendered pages. Related issues: AR-18108

Changelog

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