Helix 6.1 represents the second stage of our work in updating our code for OS X. Helix 6.1 features OS X native versions of Helix Server, Helix Engine, Helix Client, Helix Utility and Update Collection. Helix 6.1 products are created in Xcode, paving the way for Intel-native Helix.

Helix Server 6.1 is fully compatible with Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) & 10.5 (Leopard).

Helix Server for Intel 6.1.1 (as the name implies) runs natively on Macintosh computers with Intel processors. Running Helix Server for Intel on a Mac Pro or Xserve brings truly stunning performance to Helix. (Even running on an Intel-based Mac mini is pretty nice!)

Helix Server 6.1.1 is fully compatible with Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) & 10.5 (Leopard).

Helix Server for 6.1 is compatible with all three Helix Client products: Helix Client Classic, Helix Client for PowerPC, and Helix Client for Intel, allowing a complete mix of old and new client Macs. You don’t need to upgrade your entire office to run Helix Server 6.1!

Macs with PowerPC 60x, G3, & G4 processors running Mac OS 9 can run Helix Client Classic. Macs with PowerPC G3, G4, & G5 processors running Mac OS X can run Helix Client for PowerPC or Helix Client Classic if Classic compatibility is available. Macs with Intel processors can run Helix Client for Intel or Helix Client for PowerPC (via Rosetta).

This allows you to continue to access features that are not yet available in the Mac OS X by using Helix Classic Client from workstations that support it. You can even run both the Classic and PowerPC versions of Helix Client on the same workstation (2 user logins required) as long as the computer supports the Classic environment.

Only Helix Client Classic is officially released at this time. Helix Client for Intel & Helix Client for PowerPC are currently available in Preview Release versions.

BZ954: Queries on dates fail (Intel-native only)

BZ955: Pasting large pictures fails

Helix Server crash when handling styled text

When a Helix Client caused a change to occur to a field containing styled text, Helix Server could scramble some important memory locations, resulting in a Helix Server crash. This bug has been fixed.

Helix Server stability improved

Improvements to some core routines in Helix Server 6.1.1 (both PowerPC and Intel) result in improved stability.

Document corruption

Helix Client non-responsive when Helix Server dialogs are open

BZ903: PORT resource value ignored

Helix Server 6.1 was ignoring the PORT resource, always using port 10860 (the default port). Helix Server 6.1.1 correctly reads and applies alternative port settings.

BZ777: AutoOpen Post with omitted key field corrupts index

A rare combination of factors would result in the corruption of an index, resulting in records appearing twice in lists, or deleted records appearing as a blank line in lists. This has been fixed.

Helix Utility is also able to detect this problem and schedule the index for rebuilding, but lists could display inaccurate data between Helix Utility runs.

See this technote for details on the factors that triggered this bug.

TS2233: Crash Recovery: pictures over 64K are lost

Pictures over 64K, pasted into Picture fields, were not being recovered when the log file was applied after a crash. Upon recovery, the records containing the pictures were recreated, but the picture field was empty.

This is now fixed. All data types and sizes are properly recovered from the log file after a crash.

Potential write lock failure

It was discovered that every four billionth attempt to write lock a record would fail, and the record could potentially be edited by two users simultaneously. A user would have to write lock a record once every second of every day for 136 years to reach this number, so we are confident this bug has never affected any Helix user to date. Nonetheless, it is now fixed and will not affect users no matter how many centuries their databases are kept in use.

Mini menu cleaned up

The items available in the ’mini menu’ — the one that appears when you launch Helix Client but have not yet connected to a Helix Server — contained a number of pointless commands that were always disabled. Those have been removed.

Miscellaneous fixes

Because the main focus of our effort since the release of Helix Client/Server 6.1 has been on completing the Intel-native version of Helix Server and advancing the Mac OS X Helix Clients, many changes have been made to the communications core that exchanges data between Helix Server and Helix Clients. Although not cataloged specifically as Helix Server 6.1.1 fixes, we expect that many of these changes will have a beneficial effect in Helix Server 6.1.1 as well.

Open Recent Menu

The Open Recent menu, found in the File menu, provides a quick way to reopen recently served collections. The number of items displayed is controlled by the OS X System Preference for number of recent items to display.

Tip: If you hover over a menu item in the Open Recent menu, a tooltip appears showing the full path to that file.

New About Window

The About Helix Server window has been completely redesigned. Using Apple’s WebKit, the about pages are created as standard HTML files. In fact, the Current Version page (see below) is a live web page, pulled from our web server.

Also found in the About Helix Server window are the End User License Agreement and Notices & Credits. (There is also an Easter Egg, for those who like that sort of thing.)

• Current Version Check

  The Current Version panel in the About Helix Server window connects to our web server so the information is always up to date. (If you have no internet connection, a message to that effect is displayed.)

  Because the current version information is pulled live from our web server, we can also use this page to provide you with late-breaking news. Should any important bugs be reported, we will be sure to post a message here, letting you know.

  By default, the About Helix Server window opens once per week as an easy reminder to keep up to date. This window does not impact Helix Client performance.

Server Info Window Enhancements

New or enhanced pieces of information found in the Server Info window…

• Font Info List

  A list of all fonts referenced in the collection is available. The list shows the name of the font, font ID, whether it is available or not, and if not available, the substitute font being used. Note that each Client handles its own font substitution table, so a font that is not present on the Server will display correctly if it is installed on the Client.

  If the Server Info command is available to a user running the OS X Client, the Client’s Font Info list reflects the availability of fonts on the workstation.

  The Reference Count column is of little use. It is included for technical support purposes.

  A ‘referenced font’ is any font that has ever been used in the collection, in both collection design and Styled Text fields, even if it is no longer used. (The font reference table does not remove obsolete entries.)

• Save Stats Precision is 0.1 seconds

  In OS X, Helix typically saves so quickly that Helix Server 6.0 sometimes reported the Last Save Length and Average Save Length statistics as ‘0 seconds.’ In Helix 6.1, saves are reported with 0.1 second accuracy.

• More Machine Statistics

  One of the keys to maximum performance in OS X is to minimize the use of Virtual Memory. VM usage is best gauged by the PageIns & PageOuts statistics. These are now available in the Machine Info panel.

Additional Preferences

New preferences have been added to Helix Server. See Server Preferences in the built-in Help for the updated list.

• Auto Connect Mechanism

  You can now set a Helix application to automatically open a specific collection every time it is launched via the HXAutoOpenURI preference.

Other Changes

• Processor Requirements Reduced

  Prior versions of Helix consumed 100% of the free processor time. Helix now uses only what is needed, resulting in more efficient computer operation.

• Form Compiling Eliminated

  Helix 6.1 no longer relies on compiled forms. As a result, Helix Server opens recently modified collections faster. Compiled forms were shown to be the source of some obscure and intermittent bugs.

• Navigation Services

  All Helix file service dialogs take full advantage of Mac OS X Navigation Services.

• AutoSave Options

  The 12 Hour (AM/PM) option has been removed from the Start Time setting. Specify the start time using 24 hour format.

Server on Intel-based Mac crashes when Client posts (TS1965)

Helix Server 6.0.x running on an Intel-based Mac could on rare occasions occasionally crash when a Client does something that involves posting. Helix Server 6.1 fixes this bug.

Intermittent Posting Failures (TS2013)

In prior versions of Helix Server, a posting operation could mysteriously stop working. When this bug struck, the post would stop working and not work again until the administrator took the collection into Design Mode and re-specified the posting operations.

Helix Server 6.1 fixes this bug.

Inaccurate Message on Permissions Failure

If a collection can not be edited because it is locked or permissions are set to ‘read only’, Helix 6.0 would display a dialog indicating that the collection was damaged. Helix Server 6.1 corrects this. The dialog now reports ‘The collection is locked or read-only (permission denied).’

Long-standing Bugs

Because of Xcode’s more thorough code checking, many long-standing bugs have been eliminated. These are bugs that would appear intermittently and were therefore extremely hard to track down.

Pre-existing Known Problems

• Fragile Indexes Are Not Invalidated

  If a Client changes data that requires the rebuilding of a fragile index, the index is not invalidated by Helix Server. The Helix Utility Data Damage Repair process will flag this index, causing this index to rebuild the next time the collection is opened.

New in Helix Server for PowerPC 6.1

• Client Info Window Grows

  As Clients log out of the collection, their statistics (username, IP address, time logged in/out) are added to the Logged Out panel of the Client Info window. As the list grows, the window becomes larger, until it extends off the bottom of the screen, making it impossible to access the buttons at the bottom.

  Selecting entries and clicking the Clear button removes them from the list. Doing this periodically will keep the window small. The list is also cleared when the collection is closed.

• Client/Server Info Windows Improperly Sized

  The Server Info & Client Info windows open at the wrong size, causing the buttons at the bottom to be slightly clipped. Resizing the window manually corrects the problem. This is a cosmetic issue only.

• Server Preferences and AutoSave Dialogs Highlighting

  When the Server Preferences or AutoSave dialog is opened, all of the editable fields appear to be highlighted. Tabbing through them removes the highlighting. This is a cosmetic issue only.

Keyboard shortcut modifiers supported

In addition to the original Command key commands, Shift-Command, Option-Command, and Shift-Option-Command modifiers are now available. Contact your collection designer to have extended modifiers added to your Helix Client user menus.

User view permissions inadvertently restricted (TS1992)

An obscure bug in the Classic Helix User Editor has been fixed. Helix keeps an internal table of user permissions for each view where a permission has been turned off. In a very specific situation, editing the menu of a user who did not have a particular view restricted in any way would result in that user inheriting restrictions for that view from the user doing the editing. This has been fixed.

If your Helix Client has restricted permissions where it should not, contact your collection designer about this fix.

Enter menu highlighting

Pressing a command key to execute a menu item should always highlight that menu briefly to provide feedback to the user. In Helix 4.5.3 this function was disabled in the case of the Enter command. The rationale was that when Enter is called repeatedly in a sequence, highlighting the menu is a distraction and reduces performance.

In Helix Client Classic 6.1, pressing the Enter key properly highlights the menu when an Enter command is executed. When the Enter command is executed as part of a sequence, the menu is not highlighted.

Why? message during sequence: format error

When an error occurs during the running of a sequence, there can sometimes be two error messages generated. For example, if a sequence attempts to enter a record that can not be entered because a validation check fails, there are two errors involved: the error because of the validation failure and the error because the record can not be entered.

Prior versions of Helix concatenated these two errors into a single entity, sometimes producing messages that did not make sense as presented. Helix 6.1 splits these messages onto separate lines, making it more apparent that two errors are involved.

Build number missing from splash screen

Prior versions of Helix RADE were not displaying the build number in the splash screen, making it difficult to determine precisely which version of Helix was in use. The build number is now shown when Helix RADE launches and when selecting About Helix RADE from the Apple menu.

See the Release Notes.

Helix Client for Intel & Helix Client for PowerPC are currently available in Preview Release products.