AppsAnywhere Release Notes

These release notes contain a high-level list of changes made to each version of AppsAnywhere.

Version 3.1.0 (Current Version)

Release Date: June 2023

Features

Pre-launch Dialogs

• This feature gives administrators the ability to configure some custom text for any application which will be presented to the user in a dialog before an application is launched. This feature has many use cases that involve the need to impart important information to the user such as an End User Licence agreement, a licence key for a software download, or instructions about the application itself. The administrator has control over whether it is possible for the user to supress the dialog in future launches.

• The Pre-launch Dialog admin screen comes with a rich-text editor so that more formatting can be included in the dialog including links to alternative apps (for example in the scenario that there are 2 different version of the same app with different licencing rules you could provide a warning with a link to the unique URL of the alternative app). This rich-text editor has also been applied as an enhancement to the App Description edit screen.

Updated virtual appliance operating system

• Ahead of the upcoming End of Life of CentOS 7 in June 2024, the AppsAnywhere virtual appliance is now based on Rocky Linux 8.

User Portal Preferences

• Portal users now have the ability to customise their experience. This will allow them to not only select their theme (Dark/Light/System), but also how many apps they want displayed on their home-screen. Moving from a default of two rows of 3 apps, to rows of 4 in this version, the user can now set in the browser how many apps they would like to display from 0 (if they prefer search) up to a total of 20 on the home-screen. 

• For new students, a default “Apps” collection will be displayed ensuring that an A-Z of available apps will be viewable (up to a maximum of 20) on first log-in. This ensures that there will be some apps visible to the users to launch from day one until they start building their smart collections through usage.

• A user’s session will now memorise which collection they have selected on log-out. When the user logs back in they will land on the same collection; meaning that if ‘Favorites’ is their preferred collection for example, they will land back where they left off.

Improved Accessibility

• We have made over 70 changes to the user portal to address a variety of accessibility needs making AppsAnywhere 3.1 the most accessible version of the product yet.

Dynamic content in the Admin Dashboard

• The Did You Know? and What’s New sections of the admin dashboard now have dynamic content allowing for AppsAnywhere to update them outside of a product upgrade. This mean that admins can be notified of important information such as a new release or links to helpful documentation at a time that is most relevant.

User Portal Preferences

• Portal users now have the ability to customise their experience. This will allow them to not only select their theme (Dark/Light/System), but also how many apps they want displayed on their home-screen. Moving from a default of two rows of 3 apps, to rows of 4 in this version, the user can now set in the browser how many apps they would like to display from 0 (if they prefer search) up to a total of 20 on the home-screen. 

• A user’s session will now memorise which collection they have selected. When the user logs back in they will land on the same collection; meaning that if ‘Favorites’ is their preferred collection for example, they will land back where they left off.

Apps view

• A new “Apps” collection can be enabled as the default for new users, ensuring that an A-Z of all available apps will be viewable (up to a maximum of 20) on first log-in. This makes sure that that there will be some apps visible to the users to launch from day one until they start building their smart collections through usage.

• Note: To enable this as the default view for new users, you must enable the option under Admin -> Setting -> General -> Behaviour → Default to “Apps” on the Portal home screen. By default this option is not enabled and the first app collection you have configured will be the default for new users.

Improved Accessibility

• We have made over 70 changes to the user portal to address a variety of accessibility needs making AppsAnywhere 3.1 the most accessible version of the product yet.

Dynamic content in the Admin Dashboard

• The Did You Know? and What’s New sections of the admin dashboard now have dynamic content allowing for AppsAnywhere to update them outside of a product upgrade. This mean that admins can be notified of important information such as a new release or links to helpful documentation at a time that is most relevant.

Simplified app collection admin

• We have simplified the management of app collections by combining the search and grid view options into a single panel.

• Note: If you previously had the same collection configured with different names on the search and grid views, this is no longer possible. For smart collections (Favourites, New and Recent), the collection name is no longer configurable. These changes will be enforced and take effect the next time you update app collection settings via Admin → Settings → App collections.

Bundled translations

• We now provide the following languages out of the box with highlighted ones new to 3.1:

  • Arabic (Saudi Arabia)

  • Welsh

  • English (UK)

  • English (US)

  • Danish

  • Catalan

  • Spanish

  • German

  • French Canadian

  • Norwegian

Fixes

• AA-4742 - Analytics device "Last Seen Date" is never updated

• AA-4875 - Cloudpaging app sessions not being automatically expired

• AA-4884 - When "Loading more" applications on the grid view, switching to the search view then back only shows the "new" applications

• AA-4937 - Azure AD OAuth 2.0 SSO method using Azure AD Graph API which is being deprecated 30 June 2023

• AA-3656 - Difficulty interacting with smaller embedded analytics dashboards

• AA-4674 - Summarized Analytics data for Cloudpaged delivery methods is not created

• AA-4712 - Cloudpaging dependencies of Cloudpaged delivery methods show as unavailable when dependency type is set to 'Automatic' (but can still be launched)

• AA-4962 - Broken API App database configuration when setting up both the database and the user through the wizard

• AA-4172 - There is a small window (1536-1582 pixels) where horizontal scroll bars appear in grid view

• AA-4427 - Unable to use hardware profiles to limit access based on single value (Memory or Dedicated GPU)

• AA-4650 - Security fix relating to setting admin user roles

• AA-4714 - App collection that is configured to appear only on the search view may not display correctly on the grid view when the ‘View all’ button is pressed

• AA-4916 - Users may accidentally close the Azure Virtual Desktop guide dialog when switching windows

• AA-4954 - Amazon AppStream Embedded Streaming URL should be the default option when a AppStream custom domain is configured

Version 3.0.0

Release Date: December 2022

Features

User Experience

• Additional Smart App Collections to make it easier for students to find their apps:

  • New – Applications and desktops that have been recently added to the system within the last month

  • Recent – The last 6 applications and desktops that a student has launched displayed on the search screen, and up to the last 50 on the grid view

  • Desktops – Desktops that are available to the user

• A less obtrusive post-launch dialog - launch dialogs are no longer pop-ups and presented more subtly within the portal

• Edit this app - The ability for admins to jump straight to an application edit screen from the portal more info screen

• Portal dark mode – allowing users to manually select or use system preferences to shift between light and dark visual theme

Delivery Methods

• New delivery methods:

  • Amazon AppStream 2.0 – providing the option to launch via a streaming URL or the embed streaming method via an AppStream integration

  • Nutanix Frame – Launch a session via a Frame URL
    

• Enhancements:

  • WVD has been updated to Azure Virtual Desktop and given more control to users with the ability to cancel a launch. The AVD dialog can now differentiate between the native and web client when providing instructions and guidance

  • Guidance added on the ability to configure an SSO experience between AppsAnywhere and VMware Horizon

Higher Ed

• Blackboard Learn integration:

  • The ability to configure App Lists to associate them to a course

  • The ability to launch applications directly in Blackboard Learn

• SAML attribute mappings - removes the necessity for an LDAP connection by providing the ability for AppsAnywhere to take the required user data from the SAML login and then user roles

  • Provisioning and delivery method restrictions can be set up using the SAML attributes

• Improved Canvas integration - The Canvas integration has been enhanced in line with the new Blackboard Learn integration. Canvas integration users should expect to see an improved visual presentation

Analytics and Data

• AppStream and Frame launch data available in Analytics

• Analytics data in the admin dashboard:

  • Providing Application usage data (launches in last 30 days, rolling average, 1 year, all time) in the application list and edit screens and ability to sort by this information

  • Availability of admin dashboard data to all admins (logins this month, active users, devices seen this month) 

Updated Client Setup

• Includes the new v1.1.0 Client Setup application

• For further details, please refer to the Client Setup release notes:

  • AppsAnywhere Client Setup (Win)

  • AppsAnywhere Client Setup (macOS)

Fixes

• AA-4216 - The number of row value expressions in the INSERT statement exceeds the maximum allowed number of 1000 row values

• AA-4303 - Incorrect MySQL syntax error when upgrading

• AA-4326 - Incorrect MySQL syntax error when migrating favourites as part of upgrade

• AA-4358 – Parallels RAS Client launches fail when SSO that is not SAML is configured in AppsAnywhere

• AA-4277 - When using Cloudpaging upgrades, application status checks may use different logic than from before 2.11

• AA-2233 - Automatic dependencies with Cloudpaged delivery methods do not work in conjunction with device-based restrictions

• AA-4046 - When creating an app list whose name only contains special characters, its slug is randomly generated, which means it isn't consistent

• AA-4276 - Directory record lookup is always performed on Cloudpaging renew, regardless of provision check frequency

• AA-4307 - Database schema upgrade fails on SQL Server < 2016

• AA-4393 - Machine Provisions no longer working after upgrade

• AA-4418 - On Site Client Suppression not working

• AA-4421 - Automatic dependencies do not work via Parallels RAS

• AA-4512 - Intermittent validation failures due to invalid or expired timestamp

• AA-4574 - Incorrectly migrated SAML federated domain data

• AA-4654 - Windows 32-bit (x86) not detected correctly after client validation

• AA-4184 - When “On Site" suppression option not enabled post upgrade

• AA-4423 - When the highest priority Cloudpaging delivery method is made unavailable as a result of dependency checks, the dependent app can erroneously be made unavailable as well

• AA-4191 - If a user has an analytics role but not an admin role and clicks the AppsAnywhere logo in Analytics then they are navigated to a 403 Forbidden page

• AA-4194 - AVD Launch dialog does not differentiate between the native client and web client when providing instructions/guidance.

• AA-4197 - Icons for soft-deleted applications are unable to be migrated

• AA-4430 - Forced MFA in Office365 breaks OAuth 2 single sign-on methods

• AA-2645 - Admins are unable to change default attribute for a user’s unique ID for an Open LDAP connection

• AA-4288 - Automatic (no popup) dependencies are not launched automatically

• AA-4620 - The create list button is duplicated on the search screen when the user has no app lists

• AA-4675 - Intermittent error when running Analytics cron, halting concurrency calculations

Version 2.12.0

Release Date: June 2022

Features

• New portal user interface

  • An all new design, rebuilt from the ground up for performance and flexibility

  • API driven; data - such as search results - are only loaded as required

  • A new streamlined home screen featuring Search and App Collections

  • An improved search for finding apps quickly, and launching them directly

  • Less intrusive validation with built-in troubleshooter

  • New app launch experience with help

  • Unavailable apps are no longer hidden

  • Clearer descriptions of why apps are unavailable

  • App Collections (documentation)

    • Intelligent, customisable groups of applications

    • Can be displayed on the new home view and grid view (configurable)

    • Supported collections: Favorites, Categories

  • App Lists are now more discoverable, appearing on the home and grid views

  • New user menu options to validate and to download the client on-demand.
    

• Refreshed admin user interface design

  • Refreshed design with rebuilt foundations

  • Menus have been consolidated for more consistent navigation

  • Built-in search for admin pages
    

• App Hardware Profiles (documentation)

  • Control which delivery methods are available based on the hardware specification of a users’ device

  • Supported metrics: Minimum memory (RAM), Discrete graphics card present?

  • Requires AppsAnywhere client 1.6.0 or above (Windows, macOS)
    

• Improved Client Setup

  • A new independent executable ‘setup’ app for Windows and macOS

  • Intelligently downloads, installs/upgrades the correct client version automatically

    • This requires an institution ID within square brackets within the app filename, otherwise it will fall back to installing the latest client version

  • Only used for installs via the portal (e.g. BYOD)

  • Managed deployments will continue to use the existing .msi and .pkg installers
    

• Improved Detection of Locally Installed Executables (documentation)

  • New option to specify a list of absolute directory paths to search for an executable (Windows only)

  • The Locally Installed delivery method user interface in admin has been overhauled to make the available options easier to understand
    

• Improved Parallels RAS Authentication

  • SAML authentication is now passed through to the Parallels client, removing the need for users to login again when authenticated via this SSO method

  • Requirements:

    • Parallels Remote Application Server  >= 18.2

    • Parallels Client for Windows >= 18.2

    • Parallels Client for macOS >= 18.1.0.1

    • The same SAML SSO source configured in AppsAnywhere and Parallels RAS Server
      

• Restrict manual logins (documentation)

  • Control over the manual username/password login option when SSO is enabled

  • Three options: Show (default), Hide, Hide and disable
    

• Bundled translations (documentation)

  • We now provide the following languages out of the box:

    • English (UK)

    • English (US)

    • Danish

    • Catalan

    • Spanish

    • German

    • French Canadian

    • Norwegian
      

• Support for upcoming operating system releases

  • macOS 13 Ventura

  • iOS 16

  • Android 13

Fixes

• AA-3682 - AppsAnywhere shortcut launches with dependencies do not function in Parallels headless sessions

• AA-1276 - Cannot Select "Prefetch All" for online/floating Cloudpaging delivery methods

• AA-1886 - Cloudpaging application upgrade launch error on new application when launch command changes

• AA-3563 - Error when launching Parallels: Cloudpaged delivery methods on Linux/iOS/Android devices in 2.11

• AA-3688 - Unable to launch applications with VMware horizon client 8.3.0

• AA-3836 - Application fails to authorize and is removed after /labs login

• AA-3861 - Error when moving application between Provisions

• AA-3894 - Hardware profile tab fails to open in some scenarios

• AA-3524 - Ensure the 'What's new?' section of the admin homepage is focusable for keyboard users, and does not interfere with the normal focus flow

• AA-3885 - objectGUID values in Active Directory that start with bytes representing 'N;' halt login

• AA-3011 - AppsAnywhere cannot detect the difference between an iPad and macOS when it comes to apps requiring validation

Version 2.11.0

Release Date: July 2021

Features

• AA-2555 - Automated App Licensing - Manage license details for compatible Software2 apps through AppsAnywhere Admin

• AA-3271 - Update the look-and-feel to reflect the upcoming v3 User Interface

  • This includes a selectable theme to revert the UI to the old style, until customers are ready to transition

• AA-3400 - Add support for upcoming operating system versions

  • iOS 15

  • MacOS 12 Monterey

  • Android 12

• AA-3409 - App List API now lists locally installed delivery methods, as well as Cloudpaging delivery methods

As it is not yet clear how Windows 11 releases will be numbered, all future releases will continue to be categorized as Windows 10. We have preempted a switch to 11.x versioning to ensure that AppsAnywhere continues to function in this scenario.

Fixes

• AA-528 - Unable to verify session data during Cloudpaging renewal requests

• AA-1679 - Moving apps from one provision to another causes launch errors for users

• AA-1734 - Issue generating database proxies following system upgrade

• AA-2167 - External Website delivery method not accepting "ms-windows-store://" URLs

• AA-2621 - Unable to specify custom login endpoint for AzureAD SSO authentication

• AA-2755 - "No new applications to add" when Cloudpaging API takes more than one minute to respond

• AA-3014 - Some Canvas integration functionality is still operational, even when the App List feature is disabled

• AA-3022 - Copy button is not working for an App List share URL

• AA-3082 - Custom launch button text is not being displayed for the primary delivery method for desktops

• AA-3100 - Validation issues caused by macOS versioning switching to 11.x 

• AA-3128 - jQuery is out of date, which is being highlighted by security scans

  • The admin UI is being overhauled in stages, starting in v2.10, and the older libraries will be phased out as part of a larger-scale re-structure

  • The version of jQuery has been updated for the user-facing portal UI but there are too many dependencies in the admin UI for this to be achieved

• AA-3131 - Error displaying apps in the portal when an app set as an automatic dependency has no valid delivery methods

• AA-3134 - Encrypted SAML assertions are not supported for SAML SSO

• AA-3201 - Error launching Parallels HTML5 Cloudpaged applications in recent browser versions

• AA-3223 - System e-mails are not being delivered following change to SendGrid authentication options

• AA-3237 - Analytics menu is not loading until all reports have loaded, and in some cases, not at all

• AA-3241 - Cloudpging cache folder created with incorrect permissions if cron job is run before first Cloudpaging use

• AA-3249 - App List data migration task fails on upgrade if there are no app lists defined

• AA-3257 - Analytics summarization tasks fail when usage events exist on a daylight saving time boundary day

• AA-3273 - Navigating the user profile menu with the keyboard results in the screen scrolling up and down

• AA-3277 - References to "OS X" should be changed to "macOS"

• AA-3299 - Analytics summarization task does not summarize all data when repository filtering is in use

• AA-3328 - Secondary launch options are not being translated in the portal UI

• AA-3354 - Hyperlinks to newly-created Analytics dashboards do not open the dashboard as expected

• AA-3364 - Validation issues when device is connected to a domain which reports as an alias of the primary domain

• AA-3478 - App Sessions resulting from Parallels: Cloudpaged launches contain incorrect (unknown) launch usernames

• AA-3521 - Cloudpaging launches fail when the validation data returned by the client contains a NetBIOS domain name that has lower-case characters

Version 2.10.0

Release Date: December 2020

Features

• AA-2056 - Provide access to lists of apps from within Canvas LMS (LTI Integration)

• AA-2057 - Give admins the ability to access app list information via an API 

• AA-2924 - Prompt users to launch their app using Windows Virtual Desktop

  • Includes third-party client management for the Windows Virtual Desktop clients

• AA-2712 - Implement the newer, more secure communication with Parallels RAS native clients

• AA-2996 - Add support for upcoming operating system versions

  • iOS 14

  • MacOS 11 Big Sur

  • Android 11

Fixes

• AA-964 - Session is being re-validated after taking the tour

• AA-1326 - List of available apps fails to load when dependencies are unavailable

• AA-1783 - List of available apps stops rendering if an app's dependencies are not provisioned in the same provision

• AA-2273 - App name is trimmed on Analytics dashboard

• AA-2329 - Client download being offered on iOS due to changes in default browser behavior

• AA-2411 - Unable to re-enable an app that has passed its expiration date

• AA-2488 - Number of favorited app shows incorrect total if apps have been deleted

• AA-2497 - Current theme on branding settings page always shows as default, even when a custom theme is applied

• AA-2546 - Additional launch options are clipped when they extend beyond the bottom row of apps

• AA-2748 - List of OS filters on the main portal page cannot be seen at certain zoom levels

• AA-2913 - Windows pass-through SSO does not work when the domain name contains a hyphen

• AA-2920 - Hovering over an app name that has been trimmed does not display the full name

• AA-2979 - Upcoming browser changes to SameSite cookie behaviour are set to break certain app functionality

• AA-2999 - Migrating app list availability data fails on upgrade when using SQL Server

• AA-2952 - (From AAMAC-65) App changes required to improve security of OSX Install delivery method on macOS

• AA-3031 - Corrected grammatical error on direct download tooltip

• AA-3077 - LDAP connection username field is limited to 64 characters

• AA-3037 - Login form username and password placeholders are not translatable

  • Customers using a non-english translation will need to ensure their translation file is updated with the new keys, to avoid translation issues on the login screen

    • See the /admin/settings/language page for a list of missing translation keys

• AA-3145 - Forward compatibility change for Analytics integration

  • Analytics releases past version 24-07-2020 will require AppsAnywhere v2.10

Compatibility

Beware of minimum AppsAnywhere Client version requirement and backwards compatibility issues with Parallels RAS

• AppsAnywhere 2.10 requires AppsAnywhere Client versions 1.4.0 and above

  • Users that do not have the minimum 1.4.0 client will not be able to launch Parallels RAS apps, or Windows Virtual Desktop apps from AppsAnywhere v2.10

  • Customers should ensure that the 1.4.0 client is deployed to all managed machines and set as the minimum version in client settings when using AppsAnywhere v2.10

• Due to the changes for AA-2712, the minimum supported version of the Parallels RAS native clients is 16.5 

  • Customers should ensure that a later version of the Parallels RAS client is deployed to all managed machines and the minimum version is set in client settings when using AppsAnywhere v2.10

Version 2.9.0

Release Date: June 2020

Features

• Virtual Appliance Delivery

  • Improved performance

  • Improved reliability

  • Quicker installation

  • More reliable upgrades

Fixes

• AA-507: Secure Download File Size Limitation

• AA-1731: Cloudpaging 2/5-min warning being given to users whose app session shouldn't have expired

  • The resolution for this issue means potentially fewer sessions will be expired by AppsAnywhere

  • Overall Clougpaging license usage may increase as sessions which would previously have been expired (in error) may now exist for longer

• AA-1766: Updated LDAP directory username not reflected in AppsAnywhere, disallowing login

• AA-1782: Cron errors seen in log files when run on Linux without Analytics being installed

• AA-2332: On login, user redirected to most recently-accessed endpoint (even if it was an internal API URL, such as keep-alive)

• AA-2500: Page content overflows on some admin pages

• AA-2505: Issue launching Citrix: Cloudpaged delivery methods in some situations

• AA-2552: Security update for Parallels RAS integration with native clients

Version 2.8.0

Release Date: November 2019

Fixes

• AA-1757: Accessibility: "app-manager-run" image on setup instructions does not have alt tag

• AA-1758: Accessibility: Discoverable "don't show me this again" checkbox not labelled

• AA-1760: Accessibility: Colour contrast is insufficient for some text

• AA-1759: Accessibility: Web aria group on app cards should have name

• AA-1792: Launching a 'direct download' delivery method after launching any 'Parallels' delivery method causes both apps to launch

• AA-1839: Frontend Performance: The render time in IE & Edge is too long when a large number of apps are being used

  • Several improvements have been made to increase rendering performance

  • Customers should be careful when selecting icons for their apps that they are not excessive in size. 

  • For best performance, save icon files at 110px x 110px and compress images using a tool such as tinypng.com 

• AA-1245: Apps with more than two automatic dependencies cannot be launched

• AA-1497: ChromeOS support is missing for Parallels delivery methods

  • Support has been added for Parallels delivery methods on ChromeOS

  • The ChromeOS client for Parallels does not currently support the launch mechanism used by AppsAnywhere

  • In order to use this functionality, users must install the Android client from the Google Play Store, or Parallels must update their client support

• AA-1634: Inaccurate macOS version displayed after validation following macOS upgrade

• AA-1664: Mass action button greyed out when trying to manage app sessions

• AA-1777: Reporter Graphs not loading in AppsAnywhere 2.7

• AA-1778: Windows Executable delivery method not working in some circumstances

• AA-1780: SAML SSO: HTTP 500 error when using multiple domains & UPN username attribute

  • SAML SSO options now include the ability to define "Domain Aliases" so domains can be recognised even if they are referred to differently in the SAML response

• AA-1784: "Remove on Expiration" setting not enabled by default when creating Cloudpaging delivery method

• AA-1785: Cannot launch Parallels apps using the latest Android Parallels client

• AA-1790: Automatic dependency launch opens a new tab pointed at /undefined/provision/true

• AA-1802: Unknown user shown after leaving the frontend logged for an extended period, results in "No delivery method ID" error on launch

  • AppsAnywhere session cookies now set to expire after 5 minutes

  • A keepalive has been added from the frontend UI to keep the session alive

  • If the keepalive fails, or the session expires, users will be re-directed to login, rather than given the perception that they are still authenticated

• AA-1441: Operations applied to the list of apps fail to be applied to machine-provisioned apps under some circumstances

• AA-1563: AutoRun should be disabled if user selects to launch via the AppsAnywhere client

• AA-1661: The screen for editing a Locally Installed delivery method freezes when an error is encountered

• AA-1731: Cloudpaging 2/5-min warning being given to users whose app session shouldn't have expired

  • The resolution for this issue means potentially fewer sessions will be expired by AppsAnywhere

  • Overall Clougpaging license usage may increase as sessions which would previously have been expired (in error) may now exist for longer

• AA-1761: Cloudpaged RAS delivery method view not retaining settings

• AA-1781: Error loading user profile following a 2.7 upgrade resulting in users being unable to login

• AA-1787: Analytics: OS label under 'Active devices by OS' missing for unknown OSs

• AA-1920: Creating an app list only functions when using simple grid view

• AA-1954: /labs setting is not being persisted through login

• AA-2274: Cron timeouts are too restrictive

• AA-1627: Reporter cron updates failing when there are non-English characters in app/license names

• AA-1743: Multiple dependencies can be saved with the same ID

• AA-2256: Unable to mass-expire app sessions

• AA-647: Admin UI is not clear that only Cloudpaging delivery methods are acceptable as automatic dependencies

  • Automatic dependencies are only intended for use with Cloudpaging delivery methods. To ensure this is the case, the following rules are now applied: 

    • Dependency Type can only be set to "Automatic" if the main app is only using Cloudpaging delivery methods

    • Dependency Type can only be set to "Automatic" if defined dependencies are only using Cloudpaging delivery methods

    • Dependencies can only be added when dependency type is set to "Automatic" if they are only using Cloudpaging delivery methods

  • If an app is currently configured that does not conform to the new restrictions, a warning will be displayed on the dependencies tab

• AA-1442: Favourites are not marked correctly on initial load of app list

• AA-2036: Error accessing AppsAnywhere EULA content(s) for some users

• AA-2330: End users are presented with welcome tour after AppsAnywhere upgrade

Version 2.7.0

Release Date: July 2019

New Product: AppsAnywhere Analytics (AA-1411 / AA-1412)

A powerful, easy to use business intelligence product designed to enable customers to better understand use of software within their organisation

• AppsAnywhere now tracks and stores much of the data it processes, including

  • Who is logging in

  • Which devices they are logging in from

  • What they are launching

  • How it is delivered to them

• Import of usage information from metered delivery methods to show concurrency information across delivery technologies

• Built-in dashboards tailored to show the most useful information "out-of-the-box"

• Ability to explore the data model quickly and easily to create your own custom reports and visualizations

• Ability to create and share custom dashboards containing the most valuable information for your organization

* Metered delivery methods currently include Cloudpaging, Parallels Cloudpaged (Native and HTML5) and Citrix Cloudpaged

Features

• AA-513 / AA-1184 / AA-1356: Ability to create and share lists of apps/desktops

• AA-1585: User interface enhancements to the admin portal to allow optimized navigation.

• AA-1564: Linux (other) category added to OS available compatibilities to cover unrecognized, or un-identified Linux distributions

• AA-1713: Accessibility enhancements for 508 compliance, including improved readability of login screen and navigability of EULA screens

• AA-1732: Added support for Windows Server 2019 as well as future support for iOS 13, macOS Catalina and Android Q

Fixes: 

• AA-1678: Cloudpaging launches made using advertised shortcuts not correctly tracking as the user that launched it

• AA-1579: Cloudpaging delivery methods being offered on non-compatible Windows devices (X-box)

• AA-1722: Location information is incorrect due to out-of-date GeoIP database

• AA-1731: Cloudpaging 2-minute warning periodically being displayed for users that should not have had their session expired

• AA-1663: App admins unable to upload custom icons to an application

• AA-1578: Valudation error when validating device enrolled to a Jamf environment not known to AppsAnywhere

Version 2.6.0

Release Date: December 2018

Features

• AA-323: Citrix Receiver (Workspace App) Integration for Windows managed devices

• AA-322: Add ability to present End User License Agreements on first use of AppsAnywhere 

• AA-663: Provide auditing functionality for all changes made in AppsAnywhere admin

• AA-1041: Provide more granular administrator roles (e.g. global admin, system admin, app admin)

• AA-1109: Add ability to launch Parallels RAS apps using iOS native client

• AA-1111: Add ability to launch Parallels RAS apps using Linux native client

• AA-1112: Add ability to launch Parallels RAS apps using Android native client

• AA-828: OS compatibility recognition for XBox and Playstation 

• AA-996: OS compatibility recognition for Debian Linux

• AA-497: Add OS compatibility setting for "other" (unrecognised) OSs

• AA-1010: Improve support for IE and Edge on Windows touch-screen devices

• AA-1081: Accessibility enhancement: Provide "skip to content" button when site receives focus

• AA:1083: Accessibility enhancement: Make the main application list accessible through keyboard navigation

• AA-1085: Accessibility enhancement: Make the user profile menu and associated areas accessible through keyboard navigation

• AA-1279: Accessibility enhancement: Make the welcome tour accessible through keyboard navigation

• AA-1094: Accessibility enhancement: Improve the ability for users to make use of AppsAnywhere using speech recognition tools

• AA-1097: Accessibility enhancement: Make AppsAnywhere more accessible to those using screen readers

• AA-1188: Mask the Swivel Two-Factor Authentication PIN on the 2FA input dialog

• AA-1203: Send AppsAnywhere URL to client during validation to avoid the need for a call to the central API

• AA-1285: Add a simple way to check that all translation files are up to date following an upgrade

Fixes

• AA-1291: Compatibility issue with Cloudpaging 9.1.5 server

• AA-1135: Anonymous users being recorded in Cloudpaging reporting data

• AA-693: Unable to launch multiple apps from the same Cloudpaging package

• AA-1287: User interface making too many context calls to the server when a large number of apps exist 

• AA-1012: App icons not being correctly displayed in large grid view

• AA-1277: Reporter cache can be manually regenerated for current or future dates, causing issues with future caching

• AA-651: A large number of app sessions can overload the manage apps sessions page

Known Issues

There are several known issues with the new Parallels Native Client integration for iOS, Android and Linux that have been released
with this version in the hope that they are resolved by updates to the Parallels Clients before the next version of AppsAnywhere is released

• Users must re-enter their password when launching apps on iOS and Android

• Launch parameters cannot be sent to apps installed on the server using the parallels native client on iOS, Android or Linux

• Cloudpaging apps cannot be launched through the parallels native client on iOS, Android or Linux

• Support for the Android native client on Chromebooks is currently limited to ARM devices (not x86)

• Use of the Android native client on Chromebooks is currently untested

Version 2.5.0

Release Date: 29^th June 2018

Features

• AA-657: Jamf Pro Integration

• AA-533: Expand the SSO capabilities of AppsAnywhere

• AA-942: AppsAnywhere Client Detection

• AA-208: Ability to change launch button text

• AA-522: Change default value of 'Prefetch All' setting when offline usage is selected for Cloudpaging delivery methods

• AA-746: Allow setting of 'Licence Invalidation Time' value for Cloudpaging delivery methods

• AA-521: Allow setting of 'Remove on Expiration' value for Cloudpaging delivery methods

• AA-741: Add confirmation to mass app session evictions and expirations

• AA-512: Provide ability to select default auth location

• AA-294: Provide additional information when managing applications

• AA-383: Allow more IP CIDR ranges in general settings

• AA-850: Reduce the number of database calls made when loading app config

• Added support for iOS 12, macOS 10.14 and Android 9.0

Fixes

• AA-769: App expiration date affected by delivery method settings

• AA-755: Cloudpaged Parallels apps do not launch on macOS

• AA-739: Delivery method friendly name not used on upgrade list page

• AA-691: Take a tour: not working when suppression is in place

• AA-683: Desktop icons not displayed correctly in Internet Explorer

Version 2.4.0

Released: 16^th February 2018

Features

• AA-317: Ability to monitor status of and manage Zend Server license from within AppsAnywhere

• AA-327: Allow admins to restrict access to delivery methods based on associated Active Directory records

• AA-327: Allow admins to restrict access to delivery methods based on whether or not the device is a laptop

• AA-517: Ability to offer users access to help and support information from the AppsAnywhere dashboard

• AA-299: Ability to add custom rolling banner images to the AppsAnywhere dashboard

• AA-504: Ability to bulk manage Cloudpaging app sessions

Fixes

• AA-649: State of check boxes not properly reflected on first page load, only on refresh

• AA-534: Timeout issues when trying to refresh the available Cloudpaging applications list

• AA-532: Cannot enable front end caching

• AA-529: Selectable date range not updated when switching from 'Never Expire' to any other setting

• AA-527: Cloudpaging patch version is incorrectly reset when editing a delivery method

• AA-526: Launch command not updating correctly when editing Cloudpaging delivery methods

• AA-525: Editing Cloudpaging delivery methods creates a duplicate

• AA-511: VMware Horizon delivery methods do not support brackets in Resource Name field

• AA-510: Unable to set UNC path for a Secure Download delivery method

• AA-500: Users cannot login if their password contains special characters

• AA-488: Unable to delete a delivery method if it is part of an upgrade

• AA-448: Previous session are not correctly terminated when logging in via SSO

• AA-385: Unexpected error thrown if device lookup fails in domain

• AA-549: Dependencies pop-up has a missing translation

• AA-530: Client download screen translation issue

• AA-671: Reporting users to not have a link to access reporter

• AA-645: Domain membership not correctly detected on mac OS

• AA-487: Cloudpaging DMs do not reflect newly-added patch versions (see notes)

• Added support for Andriod Oreo

Version 2.3.0

Released: 16^th October 2017

Features

• Parallels RAS Integration (remote apps and desktops)

• AA-320: Multi-lingual Support

• AA-313: Interactive Welcome Tour, Hints and Tips

• AA-204: Hub-specific reporting for shared Cloudpaging environments

• AA-306: Ability to name delivery methods to ease administration

• AA-298: Ability to specify custom launch commands for Cloudpaging delivery methods

• AA-318: Integration with S2Library for selection of app icons from the community repository

• AA-301: User can now have layout and language preferences persist across devices

• AA-300: New dependency option for automatic without user popups

• AA-458: Official support for Chrome OS

Fixes

• AA-490: Missing support for mac OS High Sierra

• AA-485: Missing support for iOS 11

• AA-329: OS Compatibilities not being correctly summarized when editing a delivery method

• AA-328: Incorrect counts shown in filter menu when OS compatibility is not 100% across all versions

• AA-307: DB port required during setup making it difficult to configure instance connections

• AA-297: MAC device descriptions of more than 32 characters break validation

• AA-290: Clustering job client_copy fails to download client installers through proxy

• AA-238: Erroneous authentication prompt when disabling frontend caching via cache settings

Note

All AppsAnywhere servers require an internet connection for normal operation. Please see the updated Server Requirements page for more information

Version 2.2.0

Released: 30^th June 2017

Features

• Azure Active Directory single sign-on support (including Office 365 tile support)

• Managed Cloudpaging upgrades

• Third party client management

• Locally installed apps detection

• VMWare Horizon Integration (remote apps and desktops)

• Moved AppsAnywhere client version management into AppsAnywhere

• New Add Delivery Method screen to make it easier to find the suitable delivery method

Fixes

• Resolved issue causing double prompts for basic authentication following failed single sign-on attempt

• Resolved issue with branding not working following v1 migration during setup

• Resolved issue with delivery methods not being available on Windows Server operating systems

• Resolved issue where Cloudpaging apps could not be launched from the Player if a user logged out of AppsAnywhere

• Extended validation timeout from 21s to 60s to reduce the number of failures

• Resolved issues with apps not being visible on unknown Linux distros

• Updated GeoIP database

Version 2.1.1

Released: 13^th April 2017

Fixes

• Removed duplicate calls to get-favorites API

• Fixed timing issue stopping apps that required validation being re-contextualized once validation completes

• Fixed issue with applications not being correctly marked as unavailable

• Removed console logging by default to improve performance

• Reduced the number of API calls required for fetching application details

• Added scrolling to category and filter dropdowns

• Updated method for rendering applications to improve performance in IE and Edge 

• Reduced number of calls to update-icon API by combining requests

• Split app list rendering into chunks to reduce wait time for initial view

• Added conflict resolution for apps that are provisioned to the user AND the machine

• Reduced number of context API calls for machine apps

• Added caching to application dependency info to improve performance

• Added fix for apps with dependencies that aren't correctly contextualized

• Moved rendering of app totals until after all context has returned to avoid the perception of losing apps as they are marked as unavailable

• Removed restriction icons from main app view - reducing page HTML by > 50% for IE and Edge performance

• Simplified compatibility icons and favorites icon to further reduce HTML

• Remove flexbox rendering to improve performance

• Removed case sensitivity from app list sorting

• Resolved issue expiring App Sessions (reported by Kingston)

• Resolved issue with category information not being applied to machine-based apps (reported by Durham)

• Resolved issue with converting Cloudpaging licenses to Offline enabled (reported by Oxford Brookes)

• Resolved issue uploading app icons when system contains a large number of apps

• Updated Geo-IP database

Version 2.1.0

Released: 14^th February 2017

Features

• Support for deployment of SCCM and App-V packages via AppsAnywhere and Software Center

• Improved caching of context data to increase front-end performance

• Added ability to enable/disable/refresh system cache via admin

• Various improvements to the installation/upgrade procedure

• Added option for "BYOD only" restriction

• Ability to deliver AppsAnywhere client downloads from within AppsAnywhere and manage 3rd party installed versions (centrally)

Fixes

• Performance improvements for reporting

• Reporter general settings page still susceptable to IE bug

• Current delivery method OS compatibilities not displayed on edit

• Unable to switch Cloudpaging Environments when creating a delivery method

• Dependencies not visible on the dependencies view when they should be 

• Username incorrectly reported to Cloudpaging on app launch

• Problems loading the dashboard in IE10

• Validation required flag incorrectly set on MacOS

• Validation does not occur in Safari

• Validation banners should not be branded

• Applications ordered by added date instead of alphabetically

• Various UI bug fixes 

Version 2.0.2

Released: 13^th January 2017

Features

• Added ability to customize portal branding with custom imagery and color scheme

• Added ability to create custom themes for the interface by overwriting template files

• Added checks and warnings for deleting applications or provisions when active app sessions exist

Fixes

• Issue with banner suppression on managed machines

• "Use Cloudpaging license warnings" setting not being applied correctly

• Updates to SSO settings to (finally) avoid the IE bug that stops forms submitting data!

• WindowsInstall delivery option not launching applications properly

• Healthcheck URL does not return the proper status code

• Reinstated ability to delete applications and provisions

• Current set OS compatibilities not reflected when editing a delivery method 

• Multiple fixes for user interface bugs

• Validation and application launches are not executed in Safari

• Error caused by removing and immediately re-setting dependencies

• Long page timeouts eventually cause Apache to crash on Windows

Version 2.0.1

Released: 7^th December 2016

Features

• Added support for latest Windows & OSX versions

• Support for native OSX application installs through AppsAnywhere

• Support for launching locally installed applications through AppsAnywhere

Fixes

• Issue launching applications via RemoteApp delivery method

• Improve page load performance when using SSO

• Performance improvements for dashboard application load

• Removed ability to delete applications to avoid an identified bug with existing app sessions not being handled correctly

Version 2.0.0 - Initial Release

Released: 19^th October 2016

Features

• PHP 7, Zend Framework 3, Zend Server 9 support

• Improved installation setup and configuration workflow

• Single application entity, multiple deployment methods

• Custom build local client

• Delivery method contextualization

• Smart prioritization

• OSX support

• AppsAnywhere brand