Release Notes for Front Office 9.7

This article covers the following topics relating to the release of Front Office 9.7:

• Enhancements
• Bug Fixes
• System Configuration Setting Amendments
• Access Rights Amendments
• Installation/Upgrade Considerations

Enhancements to the product this release

The Front Office Help Centre provides an ever-increasing set of self-help resources, including knowledge base articles, FAQs, videos, adapters, and templates to download. Support calls can be logged online at https://frontofficehelp.biomni.com/.

Pass SecurityToken to Custom Panels via Cookie

Reference: 4248

Currently, custom panels get the security token as a URL parameter. This is used to access the currently
logged-on user information from within the custom panel. It might be possible for an attacker to exploit
this for session hijack of the custom panel.

Front Office now supports sharing the SecurityToken via a Cookie.

As part of this update, new system configuration values have been created:

• Domain Name: The domain name used for the creation of the security token cookie.
  • Default: Set at install/upgrade
    • This will default to the FQDN of the Front Office website. If your custom panel is not on the same server as Front Office, you can use this to find a common domain name.
  • System configuration code: SYS_DOMAIN_NAME
• Security Token Cookie Name: The name of the cookie used for the security token. If editing the value, it is recommended to keep the leading period, but it can be removed if necessary.
  • Default: Set at install/ upgrade
  • System configuration code: SYS_SECURITY_TOKEN_COOKIE_NAME

Breaking Change

FrontOffice no longer automatically adds the security token to the Panel URL for the below areas. If you have one of these configured, and it requires the FrontOfficeSecurityTokenURLparameter, you must make the appropriate change to the configuration to add the security token to the URL.

• Admin> System Configuration> Top Bar IFrame URL
  • System configuration code: TOPBARPANELURL
  • If you have a URL within the ‘Value’field, please make sure you add the new query string value to the end, as demonstrated below.
    1. Example URL(current‘Value’):
       •   https://biomni.com/IFrames/TopPanel.aspx
    2. Add the query string below to the end of the URL:
       • ?FrontOfficeSecurityToken=##Session.SecurityToken##
    3. UpdatedURLshould now appears like this:
       • https://biomni.com/IFrames/TopPanel.aspx?FrontOfficeSecurityToken=##Session.SecurityToken##
• Admin> Theme & Customization> Custom About Me
  • Example URL:
    • https://biomni.com/AboutMeTestPage.aspx?CommsCode=##System.SiteCode##
  • Add the query string below to the end of the URL:
    • &FrontOfficeSecurityToken=##Session.SecurityToken##
  • Updated URL should now appear like this:
    • https://biomni.com/AboutMeTestPage.aspx?CommsCode=##System.SiteCode##&FrontOfficeSecurityToken=##Session.SecurityToken##
• Admin> Request Type> Form> Panel Fields
  • Example URL:
    • https://biomni.com/PanelTestPage.aspx
  • Add the query string below to the end of the URL:
    • ?FrontOfficeSecurityToken=##Session.SecurityToken##
  • Updated URL should now appear like this:
    • https://biomni.com/PanelTestPage.aspx?FrontOfficeSecurityToken=##Session.SecurityToken##

Add Support for .NET Framework 4.8

Reference: 4381

Support for .NET Framework 4.8 has been added for all supported operating systems.

Add Support for SQL Server 2022

Reference: 4382

Support for Windows Server 2022 has been added.

Create .NET 6 version of Front Office SDK

Reference: 4099

Creation of a new Front Office .NET 6 SDK to improve integration support with third parties, specifically providing updated versions of the following APIs:

• CreateRequest
• GetFrontOfficeVersion
• GetUserList

There is more information about the API methods in the SDK documentation, installed here:

• <install location>\SDK\Biomni.FrontOffice.Sdk.chm

If required, greater API support can be provided upon request.

Bug Fixes

Description	Reference
Exception when a selected value is invalid because it has been deleted (ref: 'ddlAddressName')	4196
Incorrect Dutch translations	4227, 4594,4618

System Configuration Setting Amendments

A full list of System Settings is available in the Documentation folder and via the Admin > Support category in the website.

Additions

• SYS_DOMAIN_NAME: Domain Name
• SYS_SECURITY_TOKEN_COOKIE_NAME: Security Token Cookie Name

Access Right Amendments

A full list of access rights is available in the System Settings List, available in the Documentation folder, and via the Admin > Support category in the website.

Installation/Upgrade Considerations

The install and upgrade process, as well as the instructions for applying a service pack, is explained in more detail in the Front Office 9.7 Installation and Upgrade Guide. If upgrading, please also review this section within each Release Notes for intervening versions.

Please contact the support team via https://frontofficehelp.biomni.com/hc/en-us/requests/new  if you have any questions

Prerequisite: .Net Framework 4.7.2

Front Office 9.7 requires .Net Framework 4.7.2 to be installed.

Role Privileges for Installation and Upgrade

The user who creates or upgrades the database should typically have the database ‘sysadmin’ role.
Prior to starting the process, a validation check warns if the user entered does not comply.

It is possible to run with reduced privileges. Details can be found in the Installation and Upgrade Guide:

• Installing and Upgrading Front Office – Installing Database with reduced permission set. 

SDK

The Front Office SDK can be found in <install location>/SDK

Software Requirements

It is recommended that the latest service pack should always be used for all software.

Server Operating System

The following operating systems are supported:

• Windows Server 2012 R2
• Windows Server 2016
• Windows Server 2019
• Windows Server 2022

SQL Server

The following versions of SQL Server are supported:

• SQL Server 2014
• SQL Server 2016
• SQL Server 2017
• SQL Server 2019
• SQL Server 2022
• Azure SQL database
• Microsoft SQL Server on Amazon RDS

Client Browsers

The following client browsers are supported:

• Edge
• Firefox
• Chrome
• Safari