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Release Notes

Version 6.1.3

Improvements

Task Mining

Form definition improvement

Form definition mechanisms are constantly tuned to handle more complex cases with extra precision. With this update, they acquire extra accuracy for detecting forms and their instances.

Recording Service

HTTP connection between Timeline and Recoding Service

To support backward compatibility, it is possible to use an HTTP option to establish authentication between Recording Service and Timeline installed on-premises. However, it is strongly recommended to work with HTTPS and highly discouraged HTTP.

Faster screenshot processing

For on-prem Timeline instances, the capabilities of image uploads from Recording Service are enhanced.

Handling blank application name properties

Recording Service now adds placeholder names for applications upon upload to a project if this field is empty in the logs. This update removes the risk of issues that can be possibly caused by empty name properties, and also allows re-using faulty logs created in the previous Recorder versions.

As a result of this improvement, the following issues are resolved:

Recorder

Fixed recording issues for the Internet Explorer mode of the Edge browser - URLs are now captured correctly and no longer produce applications with blank names in logs. Additionally tested in specific Edge versions with Internet Explorer mode: 123.0.2420.97, 122.0.2365.92.
Applications from the Excluded list are marked with the placeholder name "Excluded" in logs if the user interacted with such applications during recording.

Task Mining

Recorded applications no longer appear in Timeline with empty names. Supported a workaround to process faulty logs created in the previous Recorder versions. If a Task Mining project includes logs with empty name fields, delete faulty logs from the project and upload them again from Recording Service.
For instructions on how to upload logs, see Upload logs to the project.

Fixes

Task Mining

Fixed Definition editor logic. Now Timeline does not block switching between URL path and Domain name options when one of the options was selected.
Fixed several edge-case issues related to rename, move and merge operations in Definition editor, that were causing errors but not affecting actual processes.
An error no longer occurs when opening Task editor for the log that is still in progress of recording.

Known Vulnerabilities

Angular vulnerability CVE-2022-25844

A known vulnerability of AngularJS later than 1.7.0 is present in Timeline, which uses AngularJS 1.8.2. The vulnerability exposes Timeline to regular expression denial of service attacks by providing a custom locale that makes it possible to assign a very long string to a certain locale parameter, which in turn blocks the browser. More about the vulnerability here: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-m2h2-264f-f486

Timeline itself does not make use of the vulnerable custom locale, never configures the vulnerable parameter in any locales with any value, and certainly not with a user-provided string. It is still possible for the user to set this parameter, but not via Timeline, only via the developer console of the browser. Even if that happens, the effect is visible only in the user's browser and only in the actual session. It does not have any effect on any other user, or even the user's own browser after refreshing the page.

Since the impact of this vulnerability is negligible, we decided not to fix it, considering our ongoing work of phasing out AngularJS from Timeline altogether.

d3-color vulnerability

A known vulnerability of the d3-color module version 2.0.0 is present in Timeline. The vulnerability may expose the program to regular expression denial of service attacks by providing an option to manually define colors. More about the vulnerability here: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-36jr-mh4h-2g58

Timeline uses the d3-color module within the Nivo library. To exploit the vulnerability, the user should have the ability to define colors on charts rendered by Nivo. Timeline users cannot set colors for entities that use the d3-color module in Nivo charts. This way, Timeline itself eliminates the risk of configuring vulnerable parameters in charts.

ansi-regex vulnerability CVE-2021-3807

A known vulnerability of ansi-regex, which is exposed to Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity, appears with the globally installed ansi-regex package in the AWS lambda base image. More about the vulnerability here: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-93q8-gq69-wqmw

Timeline does not use the package provided in the image, therefore its users can not be affected by this vulnerability.

axios vulnerability CVE-2023-45857

Axios is a promise-based HTTP client for the browser and Node.js, it is used by several Timeline features. Axios is vulnerable to Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) due to inserting the X-XSRF-TOKEN header using the secret XSRF-TOKEN cookie value in all requests to any server when the XSRF-TOKEN cookie is available, and the withCredentials setting is turned on. If a malicious user manages to obtain this value, it can potentially lead to the XSRF defense mechanism bypass. Timeline itself is not affected by the issue, as withCredentials axios config values are always false by default. Some requests are initiated with credentials included, but Timeline uses the XMLHttpRequest framework for those and not axios.
The vulnerability is reported in several GitHub issues, you can refer to the first of them for details: https://github.com/axios/axios/issues/6006

Angular vulnerability to super-linear runtime CVE-2024-21490

A known vulnerability of a regular expression used to split the value of the ng-srcset directive, affecting Angular packages from 1.3.0. This regular expression is vulnerable to super-linear runtime due to backtracking: providing a large input of a certain nature, an attacker can cause a denial of service. More about the vulnerability here: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-4w4v-5hc9-xrr2

Timeline does not use the ng-srcset directive, therefore its users can not be affected by this vulnerability.

Version 6.1.2

Improvements

Timeline

Scheduled data upload to repository via ODBC

ODBC data source now supports a scheduling option. You are able to configure a data upload frequency to the Timeline repository. Automate the data delivery to your projects by specifying a to-do list to apply right after the upload and whether to retain the earlier uploaded data in the target table.

Enhanced settings for Charts

Charts can provide even more focused look at your statistics by introducing a new flexible time setting. New option provides an opportunity to specify time conditions for timelines to be included in the chart. Add timelines to the chart statistics in case the first, last, or any event in the timeline belongs to the configured time range.

Project cleanup option for data upload from repository

A more comprehensive cleanup option for old data allows tailored organizing of projects capacity. A new option allows deleting certain timelines in the project while loading data from the repository. You can remove timelines from the project before uploading new events based on an attribute value. If an existing timeline has any event with an attribute value that matches the criteria, it will be deleted before the data upload.

Fixes

Timeline

Links in the admin app now correctly redirect to the upload report.
Caching process of a large project continues when switching to another project.
Fixed issue in the Forecast analysis module, that can cause unexpected error when opening a single entity in Timelines.
The Metric history analysis module can interact with Attribute duration metric.
Metric name input in Side-by-side comparison submits on Enter.
Fixed decimal format processing in Timeline modules.
Resolved issues with project and Process view board cloning.
Applied filters in Primary path view now correctly interact with Current filters section.
New events, that appear with the latest data upload, are shown in Primary path view.
Configuration menu is unavailable for schemas without mined behavior in Simulation.
Uploads to repository support Mac-style line endings.
Fixed scrolling of the repository tables list.
Resolved issues related to the data upload into repository.

Task Mining

Log cutting properly processes events without assigned application.
Timeline does not block switching between URL path and Domain name options in Definition editor when one of the options is selected.
Supported screenshot processing for Task Mining projects created in older versions.

Recorder

Fixed screenshot recording for checkboxes in the Microsoft Word settings section.
Resolved issues with the screenshot loss for the last checkbox event in the log.
Fixed screenshot capture for actions made before/after scrolling.

Known Vulnerabilities

Angular vulnerability

Since the impact of this vulnerability is negligible, we decided not to fix it, considering our ongoing work of phasing out AngularJS from Timeline altogether.

d3-color vulnerability

ansi-regex vulnerability

Timeline does not use the package provided in the image.

axios vulnerability

Version 6.1

New Features

Timeline

Timeline API

The choice of a data source for your projects became much more flexible. It is no longer mandatory to have a specialized connector for uploads from a certain 3rd-party system. Timeline API is the new supported data source offering numerous possibilities for direct data upload from applications or systems of your choice by establishing a direct connection on the API level. It allows you to:

Upload data through the interaction with Timeline API endpoints.
Establish a connection between your system and Timeline for receiving data processed by Timeline back into your system.
Integrate Timeline with a 3rd-party application or system to make use of only the required Timeline features within your infrastructure, without the need to interact with the whole program. For example, automatize the upload-related tasks within your system, acting as the data source, or embed a calculated metrics display within your application's interface.

Get familiar with available resources, their endpoints, required parameters, and basic request and response examples in the illustrative form visualized by Swagger UI that is available by adding /open-api/1.0/apidoc.html to your Timeline instance address:
https://{your.timeline.instance}.com/open-api/1.0/apidoc.html

New Dashboards

Dashboard now has a significantly improved user interface and enhanced functionality. Dashboard has undergone visible changes: its display acquired significant flexibility, its use became much more intuitive, and its possibilities are now linked to a larger number of Timeline analysis modules. Dashboard now looks and acts nearly similar to the operational board embedded in the Process view module, but keeps its great value as a separate feature, useful when it comes to assessing the results of performed analysis outside Timeline, or for continuous monitoring of process statuses.

Among the updates:

New layout and tools to adjust it. Now you can tailor the dashboard's display to your needs. It is possible not only to move tiles and change their sizes separately, but zoom in and out all added tiles at once. The detached auto-layout button provides a mode that assists you in tile alignment.
Diagrams are introduced. These visualization elements allow showing illustrative representations of different Timeline modules on a dashboard, alongside metrics and charts. The following analysis modules are currently supported for dashboard display:

Side-by-side comparison
Allows displaying a pre-configured comparison table as a tile.
Path preview
Allows displaying a preview of paths in the project as a tile.

Now it is possible to add Static content tiles with fully custom textual content. Add important notes directly to your dashboard.
The number of tile types available by default is increased. You can now add easy-to-configure histograms representing a large number of metrics supported by Timeline, without manually creating charts based on them.
You can now clone an existing dashboard. You no longer need to create every dashboard configuration from scratch, if you need several common elements in more than one dashboard. Take an already existing one as a template, copy it, and then apply the required changes.

Format improvements for Number charts

New formatting options are available for the chart configuration window as separate dialogs, offering detailed font and number format customization. Now you can add some branding to your charts.

Attribute duration metric

A new metric type that allows measuring time gaps between attributes of an event. Now it is possible to calculate time spent on smaller and more detailed parts of a process, like when some actual working activity started, how long it continued, and when it stopped within a certain event. When Event duration (former Time interval measurement) metric calculates the time between two different events, Attribute duration gives a much deeper insight into the stages the event itself goes through before it is changed by a succeeding one. Attribute durations also help to define performance issues and their causes hidden inside events. For example, if the wait time for the actual work to start after the event occurrence is unexpectedly long, or if some event attributes are looped and do not allow the process to continue. These measurements can be visualized by a chart, so the conclusions made on these metric assessments are easy to illustrate and share.

OpenID Connect authentication

Timeline 6.1 introduces the support of OpenID Connect, a protocol that extends the OAuth 2.0 capabilities with an option to collect some profile data of a user. You can use this technology to implement Single Sign-On in your infrastructure where the Identity Provider is Timeline itself.

Email as multi-factor authentication method

Email is added as an alternative channel for multi-factor authentication. The Timeline authentication mechanism becomes more flexible and responsive to the needs of its users. Now SMS is not the only option to prove the user to be logged into an account, you can proceed with the confirmation using emails. It allows you to enclose the whole authentication process within your corporate structure and avoid possible complications related to mobile numbers.

Silent installation on Linux

The Linux installer received an unattended mode. Now you can perform a silent installation on Linux by handing a configuration file to the installer script. The configuration file should contain the information that a user is required to provide during a common installation. This allows accelerating installations and updates if multiple target machines are involved and also provides room for automation of the installation process.

Task Mining

New Definition editor

Task and Form editors are now combined in the same window - Definition editor. The common workspace makes it easier to switch between form and task editors and allows checking forms and defining tasks simultaneously. As these actions are closely related, joined editors streamline the whole workflow: мake all the required changes on different levels and apply them at once to proceed with the analysis.

Form-based timelines

It became possible to select which entities should represent timelines in a Task Mining project: forms or controls. This choice allows a higher abstraction level and a much more flexible approach to timeline-building activities. Now you can establish a scale of detailing in your project and look at the analyzed process from a different angle.

Recording Service

Recording Service scalability

Log processing is optimized to accelerate screenshot handling and improve the distribution of the available resources. Now you can install separate entities called Agents on additional machines to extend the resources of your main server, where Recording Service is hosted. The processing will be distributed between the main server and these auxiliary agents, which leads to the new benefits:

Screenshot-related processing can be accelerated by redistributing queues between agents.
The number of standalone recorders handled simultaneously can be increased without losing performance.
When the edge of available performance is reached, it is possible to redirect some of the required processing to additional servers, instead of upgrading the main one, which in some cases is more cost-effective.

Improvements

Timeline

Changed analysis modules order

The analysis modules in the drop-down list are now sorted alphabetically to ensure a more intuitive navigation.

Operational board enhancements

The operational board in the Process view analysis module received the same enhancements as the Dashboard feature. It is now possible to add new types of tiles like representations of separate analysis modules or static text notes. At the same time, it retained its compactness and strong binding to the adjacent schema - the data on tiles is responsive to the Primary path view configuration.

Simulation analysis module updates

Simulation functionality is extended, and its internal mechanisms are improved. Among the changes:

New timelines can be now saved in the project after running the simulation. You can add the timelines created after the changes you made in a simulation configuration to your project. As a result, you will get a new process image to analyze, which can be helpful for testing purposes, optimization decisions, or the metrics behavior in the updated process.
Simulation schema validation is improved. Now the added milestone schema is subjected to additional checks. That helps to start the simulation only after making sure the schema is configured properly. For example, there are no nodes without transitions, etc.
Simulation results display became more user-friendly. The headers of the results table no longer disappear when scrolling, which makes it easier to review the table values.

RegEx support in manifest file for SFTP upload

Regular expressions support allows providing a naming convention for multiple files to process and load them at one time. Hardcoding a file name in a manifest is no longer the only option for SFTP upload. This also makes adding more new files to upload easier.

Automatic set recalculations

Sets data update is now initiated automatically after a new data upload. You no longer need to start the calculation manually. The recalculated values are visible in the Sets window right after uploading data.

Table update time in Repository

A timestamp of the latest upload is now shown on a repository table. It is always visible when a table was updated the last time.

Metric multiplication by a constant number

It is now possible to provide a number instead of a metric name in the Derived metric editor. In this case, the action defined by the selected operand is applied to the metric and a provided constant number as if it were another metric. This allows multiplying metric values and visualizing some scaling expectations.

Task Mining

Form and Task editor improvements

Search in Definition editor
You can now perform a search in Task and Form editors to find the exact forms, controls, or applications. The task definition becomes easier due to the ability to find the needed entity from a long list by its name.
Frequency-based sorting for forms
Form editor now allows switching between alphabetical and Sort by frequency form orders. Sometimes the Timeline mechanism splits one actual form into several ones due to significant changes such as a scroll or a large drop-down list. To help you keep track of such cases, a new sorting method is now available to you. Its purpose is to show forms that often appear next to each other in a list adjacently.
Highlights on screenshots
The area related to a user action is now marked on the corresponding screenshot of a form in the properties pane.
Zebra striping for controls in Task editor
When you switch to the control-based log display, controls related to one and the same form now appear grouped and zebra-highlighted.
Application collapsing in Form editor
You can now use the arrow near a Form header to expand or collapse forms within presented applications.
Form selection in Task and Form editors
When you select a certain form in one of the editor tabs, the same form is automatically selected in the other one. With this change, you can easily find the form you want to change or include in tasks.
Log selection in Definition editor
Timeline allows switching between logs and selecting a specific one in Definition editor. You can click the button next to the log ID to select a log from the list of uploaded logs or use arrows to switch between logs.
Enhanced ignore mechanisms
If all controls within one form are ignored, the whole form will be marked as ignored. The same rule is applied when you ignore all forms in the application - the application becomes ignored too.
All logs option in Form editor
In Form editor, you can select All logs to see the whole list of applications and forms across all uploaded logs. This option is not active in Task editor.

Other improvements

Discover task mechanism improvements
The approach of the task suggestion feature is changed. The program analyzes the forms you selected, defines start and end ones, and considers the rest as Added. These forms are considered by the mechanism when defining tasks, but they are no longer required. As a result, Discover task creates all possible task instances using the list of the forms you defined skipping those that are not present in the involved log.
Control level entities in ignored items list
The Ignored items list now can display more detailed event types, including control level options. All ignorable entities are now gathered in one place.
Form unification
All manual changes in the logs in a project now apply to all new logs after their upload. For example, renamed applications or forms will appear with the updated names in new logs, if there are matching ones.
Navigation between form instances and controls
Internal navigation between form instances and controls in the Task editor tab of the Definition editor is much easier now. You can navigate from a form to its previous or next instance in the log using the respective options of the context menu, opened by a right-click on a form. Navigation between controls is implemented in the same way.
Form browsing position reflected in Task editor
If you navigate to a form different from the one you opened initially in the Form control level window, the form selection in the Task editor will be changed accordingly and moved to the correct event. This way you no longer need additional actions to select the form that draws your attention after a closer look, your viewing position will be reflected in the Task editor.
Hotkeys for switching Forms and Controls
If you often need to switch between Form and Control log representations in Definition editor, you can now do it faster and easier. The levels became responsive to hotkeys in the Task editor tab: "F" - for form level, "C" - for control level

Recording Service

Internal mechanism updates

Recording Service features are constantly optimized and improved. In Timeline 6.1, the following changes are introduced:

The timing of screenshot captures is improved to make them more illustrative and informative in a context, for example, screenshots for combo boxes. Also, the methods of screenshot capturing are optimized to exert less load on the CPU when processing large amounts of data.
Form instance-defining mechanisms are improved to handle periodically occurring and complex content forms better. As a result, form instances definition became smarter and more precise.

SSL connection to a remote database

Recording Service now supports SSL connection to remote databases to ensure easy and flexible access options, responsive to your infrastructure. This also means support for corporate solutions, for example, EnterpriseDB.

Fixes

Timeline

The updated order of events is not considered when building queries.
Only the current URL of the customer's portal is now visible when embedding Timeline into iframe.
Standard deviation value is now clearly visible in the Time range analysis module when hovering the mouse over a certain time range.
Attribute names are no longer fully capitalized after being uploaded to a project. Now they are displayed exactly as they are in the source data.
Values in columns with the data type "Number" are now sorted correctly in the Breakdown analysis module.
The Customize button in Chart editor becomes available immediately after a chart preview appears and remains active all the time.
Favorite dashboards are now sorted alphabetically by default.
ETL Table Spreadsheet export no longer overflows the memory.
The name of the sender is now shown along with the email address in the account invitation letters if First name and Last name are provided in the account details.
Special characters are now supported in email addresses for registration.
Logo images are now uploading correctly during the registration of a new OAuth client.

Known Vulnerabilities

Angular vulnerability

Since the impact of this vulnerability is negligible, we decided not to fix it, considering our ongoing work of phasing out AngularJS from Timeline altogether.

d3-color vulnerability

ansi-regex vulnerability

Timeline does not use the package provided in the image.

axios vulnerability

Version 6.0.2

Improvements

Timeline

Added description field for Query tool

An additional input field allows adding a description for the Query configuration. This text displays with the query filter in the Filters window. The description helps to distinguish queries when applying multiple of them.

Median value in Interval measurements

Now it is possible to choose either average or median values to show in the Interval measurements analysis module. The increased variety of available options makes the process analysis more flexible and covers more workflows.

New time configuration option in Charts

Now it is possible to show statistics for events that belong to dates greater than the specified one. Set the starting time and use the Up to last datapoint option to automatically expand the time range of shown statistics in the future. Therefore, after a new data import, the chart statistics include the most recent timelines.

Performance acceleration

Improved performance for projects with configured event costs and business duration. The program now uses a browser cache while working with these parameters. That accelerates the uploading process for the majority of Timeline modules. The project still needs some time during the first opening to upload all the needed data. However, further work with Timeline will proceed with minimal delays. Switch a project to Large Data Mode to eliminate slowdowns.

Fixes

Timeline

Timeline displays the correct number of uploaded records in the History tab when importing data from a Repository to a project in Large Data Mode.
Exported PNG file of a Milestone schema now displays the full node names.
Now Timeline uses cache for Cost and Business duration metrics in projects with Large Data Mode on.
Timeline saves correctly custom attributes for Charts after closing the configuration window.
Eliminated timeout error while Alteryx requests information from Timeline.
A log output, which contains operational information between the Alteryx connector and Timeline, now includes column headers.
"Connector for Alteryx Guide" updated. Added:

More detailed instructions on timestamp configuration.
Description of enhanced logs data.
Description of the upgrade process.

Recorder

Fixed screenshot capture while fast switching between windows.

Known vulnerabilities

Angular Vulnerability

A known vulnerability of Angularjs later than 1.7.0 is present in Timeline, which uses Angularjs 1.8.2. The vulnerability exposes Timeline to regular expression denial of service attacks by providing a custom locale that makes it possible to assign a very long string to a certain locale parameter, which in turn blocks the browser. More about the vulnerability here: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-m2h2-264f-f486

Since the impact of this vulnerability is negligible, we decided not to fix it, considering our ongoing work of phasing out Angularjs from Timeline altogether.

Version 6.0.0

New features

New Navigation
Timeline 6.0 introduces a fresh look and a redesigned interface. The user interface has become more convenient and functional. Explore updated navigation paths that make program usage even more understandable and easy. The logical grouping of elements and the general design approach will help to make users comfortable with the new navigation in a short time.

Process view
In Timeline 6.0 Process view is replacing the former Process schema. The feature has undergone colossal changes, seriously expanding the functionality while retaining familiar features. It is enhanced with the new schema type called Primary path view. The name here means that it helps to see the most frequent and common flow of events. Primary path is a graph that allows finding deviations from the common flow, the reasons for such deviations, and revealing them from different perspectives.

Eventually, this feature brings together a new schema and a highly interactive board that contains interactive tiles with visualized metrics and set statistics. This makes possible a flexible custom visualization of metrics and graphs. Explore the process as deep as you need:

Use the brand-new Primary path view to see the typical flow of events in timelines on the graph.
Switch to the Milestone view, the improved version of the Process schema, to have a fresh look at your existing graph or to create and analyze a new one, to visualize a certain scenario.
Configure Boards, the operational board, with Tiles displaying anything you might require: charts, dimensions, set metrics, intervals, or event data.

Views and Boards are co-dependent, which means that change of data in Tiles will impact the Views, and if the schema structure is altered - the data is recalculated on the Board accordingly. This interaction guarantees the up-to-date state of the displayed data and gives you freedom of action in your analysis tasks.

Integration with Chorus
Now paths and schemas can be also exported in a BPMN format supported by the Chorus BPM application. The format is the already familiar BPMN, but it has Chorus-specific extensions to make the import seamless. You can now easily go beyond Timeline functionality and spread your analysis tasks to other systems and share your research with colleagues choosing a suitable format.

Simulation
Timeline 6.0 introduces a new analysis module called Simulation. Using the possibilities of process simulation allows you to experiment with process performance by altering the number of transactions initiated per unit of time, varying processing times, or available resources. The feature allows you to simulate potential changes in processes in a complex way and evaluate the impact of these changes on the entire business process. It helps to assess the effectiveness of optimization decisions without a real implementation of the solution, which means saving money and time.

Simulation is based on Milestone view schema, so you can alter involved resources preserving the process structure and save them as scenarios. Running simulation recalculates data according to the reallocated resources and displays the results as process metrics (duration, cost, etc). Create multiple scenarios with resources redistributed differently to find different approaches. Compare these scenarios, find the most effective ones, and export them to share your vision with your colleagues.

Task Mining

Support End of Life for Timeline versions 5.2 and previous
Please note, that after the release of Timeline 6.0, ABBYY will no longer support Timeline versions 5.2 and previous. If you need assistance to migrate to currently supported versions, please contact ABBYY support.

PDD Generation improvements
The essential task attributes now can be exported to PDD (Process Definition Document) as a description of a task. This document outlines the task and its properties in PDF format or as a Microsoft Word document and can serve as a basis for creating automation solutions. It allows you to undertake preliminary research of the common workflow: assess what systems are involved in the process, and the frequency of events occurring, the presence of decision points affecting performance. And helps to elaborate opportunities for the process unification. At the same time, it is a comprehensive tool to form a vision of the automation direction and figure out an ideal image of the process, and then convert the result into development requirements. Its flexible visual configuration makes possible to get familiar with complex processes in an intelligible and illustrative manner, that is easy to share.

Discover tasks
Spare time and effort discovering tasks with the help of this new feature. It allows you to choose the forms you want to include and instantly create a task with them. This new feature offers you the freedom to experiment with multiple tasks without thoroughly configuring each of them. You will be always able to insert the necessary corrections on your own, so the rapidity and accuracy come together.

Subtasks
Timeline 6.0 offers a separate entity for the tasks that are parts of a larger one - Subtasks. Now you can detach concurrent tasks from those, that are completely integrated into other tasks. Make subtasks valid objects of analysis on the task definition step.

Duplicate projects
In Timeline 6.0 duplicating becomes available for Task Mining projects. Duplicate an existing project with its data to a new one to make necessary adjustments without recreating a project from scratch or affecting the initial one. Timeline complies with the privacy and data protection regulations adopted in different countries, so no sensitive information is transferred during duplicating. In addition, this option is disabled by default. When creating a new public project you can choose whether to allow duplicating or disable it.

Recorder & Recording Service

Web Recorder now supports a new manifest 3.0 version, that allows having all Recorder versions in one extension.
It is now possible to review logs' structure presented as forms in the Recorder Log Viewer.

Improvements

Timeline

Account section enhancements:

New tab in the account settings related to repositories, associated with the account. You can now see a list of all the repositories belonging to the project as a table, containing their general configuration data without actually switching to the repository view.
Now it is possible to export settings in the CSV format from the Users, Projects, and Repositories tabs of the Account Settings.
Account Settings now offer a more detailed image of your subscription possibilities. You can now see how many timelines and projects currently are in the account comparing to the maximum set allowed by subscription limits.
Timeline 6.0 brings in an additional unique ID for subscriptions and licenses. Now it is possible to identify client licenses and match them with the data in CRM system or databases.

Additional permissions in project
A new list of starting roles is added to the Sharing section of the project settings. You can now decide which user roles in your project are allowed to clone projects and export their data.

"Report an issue" button logic changes
The button now redirects to the support page with a form to submit a request.

Deletion timelines via event-type criteria
Timeline deletion mechanism acquired flexibility. It is now possible to delete specific events in a project from the timelines, keeping other events. This way, you no longer need to delete all timelines and upload the corrected data set again.

Accessibility statement
The accessibility option was added in the Help section, the statement is displayed in the pop-up window.

Task Mining

Task complexity
Task Ranking complexity calculation is improved. Giving more importance to the number of task instance variations and permutations inside them, paying more attention to the minimum and the maximum number of events, and involving controls elevate the accuracy of the results. The most essential parameters are embraced to assess the automation potential.

Recorder & Recording Service:

Improved recording quality and precise screenshot selection.
JPG format supported for screenshots
New security level in Recording Service
For sensitive data protection, now administrators can add Recording Service users to a separate group with restricted permissions. This way the users will have access only to obfuscated data or will not see any sensitive information at all.

Fixes

Timeline

X-axis value labels are correctly displayed in the tooltip.
Timeline can connect to Salesforce.
Forecast and Deadline trainings are now working correctly.

Task Mining

Task definition functions now work correctly if the screenshots folder in a log is missing or empty.

Known vulnerabilities

Angular Vulnerability

Since the impact of this vulnerability is negligible, we decided not to fix it, considering our ongoing work of phasing out Angularjs from Timeline altogether.

Version 5.3.0

New features

Task Mining

In Timeline 5.3 the Task Mining functionality became much more powerful and user-friendly.

Task Name visualization
In Task Mining projects, you can now easily switch between tasks as between data sets. All views will correspond to the chosen task, and you can change it from any view when needed.

Forms identification
In the new version, Task Mining obtained a fundamentally new approach to recording and analyzing user actions - Forms. A Form is a set of subsequent user actions in one application, window, or a web page. They are detected automatically by the program, and you can check them in the Form Editor view.

Form Editor
A brand-new feature that allows you to review automatically detected forms to improve the Task Definition quality. This helps you to have more control over the result and make the analysis handier and more precise.

Task Definition Editor
Updated Task Definition Editor mechanism, that gives you freedom to set tasks according to your needs. Timeline 5.3 now supports concurrent and parallel tasks, you can set them manually in this interface to ensure maximum accuracy of future analysis. This functionality now offers the following possibilities:

Task Definition Actions - In Task Definition Editor you can add a new task definition, drag-and-drop elements from original sequence to a task, rename tasks, select form type (required, removed, etc.), set special cutting mode and also apply and cut logs.
Ignore elements - you can select and mark applications, forms or action types as ignored. They will not be presented after cutting logs.
Control level - now it is possible to see a task step on a control level. This dialog lists all controls for a selected form and allows a deeper task configuration. Here you can choose a specific control that will be a task start or end instead of the whole form.
Single form task - tasks that contain only one form became configurable. In Task Editor you can drag-and-drop one form to the task area and determine it as a full-scaled task for further analysis.

Task View Schema
This is a new feature that allows you to have a graphical representation of data and gives you more task details, important when choosing automation candidates. Starting from Timeline 5.3 you can see the hierarchical logs structure on a graph as a visual result of the Form Editor and Task Definition Editor settings.

The Schema visualizes many different elements and gives you a large variety of display settings as showing percentages, more or less task variation, specific element details and many more. You can: ignore forms and applications so they are not shown in the schema; make a page, application Ad hoc, so they disappear from the main display and are placed into a special ad hoc section; declare that the order of several controls doesn’t matter and some pages or applications are optional; rename pages and applications and add comments to each element on a schema.
For determination of specific detail, Schema allows to display forms that a node contains by double-clicking on it. When expanding a node, the graph restructures itself and displays transitions between the controls of the chosen app and other apps involved in the task analyzed. From here you can go down to controls to take a closer look at a certain workflow step and set up a link to a Process Analysis project from this view.

Timeline

Terms of Service
All the separate Master Service Agreements are unified in the single Terms of Service document for all regions. For new registrations, it is accessible via a link from the modified End User License Agreement window. Existing user can read the new Terms of Service on this page.

ODBC data sources
Set of supported data sources is expanded. Since there are third-party ODBC drivers available for a wide range of databases, in Timeline 5.3 it is possible to upload data from various databases like PostgreSQL, MS SQL and Oracle. The ODBC connector is available as an External Import Adapter in the ETL (Repository) Data Sources configuration.

Blue Prism support
Timeline 5.3 allows integration with Blue Prism Capture. It is now possible to export tasks from Timeline in JSON format to 2.1 and 3.0 Blue Prism Capture versions. Blue Prism Capture – is a simple tool to record, visualize and edit Task Mining processes for further PDD creation or export to Blue Prism Automation.
The presence of this feature depends on your license and additional settings. Export is not allowed for Task Mining Projects by default, first, it has to be enabled in the Admin-app. An export file size limit can be also set there.

Attribute distinct count metric
Timeline 5.3 allows to create a new Metric type to count distinct of an attribute.

Clone projects
You can now create a copy of an existing Process Analysis project with its data. Cloning of Task Mining projects is not supported in Timeline 5.3.

Improved performance for projects in large mode
Internal algorithms are adjusted to assure faster handling of large projects. Timeline 5.3 tends to minimize processing time difference between projects in standard and large modes. Breakdown by dimension histograms for Duration, Count, Count unique, and Time gap metrics on the Project Home page are now supported in large mode projects.
Important. Big Data feature in Repository is no longer supported, please use Large Data Mode for projects.

Personal Data protection - delete suspended accounts
Starting from Timeline 5.3, all your personal data will be deleted when the time period for a subscription being suspended is over. Subscription becomes suspended when its validity expires, you will receive a series of email notifications to warn you in advance about subscription expiration. After being suspended for 30 days your data in project and repositories, account and subscription records will be erased.

Chart settings update
New options are added in the Charts tool. A limit of datapoints became configurable in the Data Threshold, you can now decide how many datapoints are shown and to hide or to aggregate others.

Query attributes
When creating a query, it is now possible to use two new operators: Equals any of and Contains any of. They allow to find timelines with attributes that correspond to the entered values according to the operators' logic. You can enter as many values as needed separating them with commas.

For vendors

License plan type
Timeline 5.3 offers its best with a personal approach - licenses are configured for each customer separately to meet the exact needs of each user. Plan type of a license is added to licenses tab in Admin-app, so this information will be also available in exported CSV from there. Now you can see your license's plan type even if you have no access to the Admin-app.

Email sender and the support email
Timeline 5.3 offers more flexibility for custom needs as configuring email sender and a link to support email. You can now set a branded electronic address for service mailings, e.g. a no-reply one, and add a different support email that is more convenient for you.

Improvements

Task complexity
The complexity algorithms are tuned to increase calculation accuracy.

Link to Process Analysis project
You can setup a connection between Task Mining and Process Analysis projects from a Task View Schema. It means to link a control in a task with an event in a process, which allows a cross-analysis of two projects of different types and to get a more detailed representation of an event any time.

Behavior of the Recording Service on disconnection
If a local Recorder loses connection with Recording Service, all the unsent data will be processed after the connection is restored.

Fixes

Task Mining

Task Mining missing clicks from Add-in button in Outlook fixed
Task Mining recorder is no longer recording every keystroke.
Double clicks recording fixed.

Timeline

General interface and dialogs improvement
Corrected Interval calculation when Calendar is applied.
PDD export error fixed.
Users with Charts now can be removed from account.
No password email address can now be used in SMPT Server Configuration.
Help link in Select Milestones in Schema configuration fixed.
Timeline Windows installer fixed to accept credentials correctly.
Connection String for data sources in repository now has no character limits.
Schema not rendering properly fixed.

Known issues

High CPU load
You can experience a CPU load increase after Timeline installation. You can learn the root cause and a possible workaround in the Timeline Known issues article.

Version 5.2.0

New features:

Timeline

Large Data Mode
Timeline 5.2 allows processing large datasets. Upload data files into projects in Large Data Mode, containing up to 100 million events.

Selecting Date Range When Uploading Data via ServiceNow
Now you can upload data via ServiceNow not only for the specified last time period but also for a set time interval between two dates.

Applying To-Do Lists to Multiple Tables
In the Tables section of the repository, you can apply a specified to-do list to multiple selected tables.

Displaying and Sorting Timeline
Now you can sort and arrange paths independently in the Path analysis module using Ascending and Descending metrics values.

Visualizing Combination Charts
Sort data on X-axis by ascending or descending combination charts in the Charts module.

Streamlined Login
The login panel in Timeline 5.2 is changed for convenience, providing you much better login experience.

Task Mining

Deleting Logs
This version allows deleting logs from a Timeline project through a selection dialog. Remove unnecessary logs to free both memory and storage space.

Creating Process Schemas Based on Automation Candidate
For creating process schemas, you can select any event from a chosen automation candidate as a milestone.

Hide or Gray Ignored Events and Applications
You can hide or gray ignored events, types of events and applications in the Task Definition Editor.

Recorder & Recording Service
New options for event recording:

Record user actions in Citrix.
Record user actions by schedule, for example, only during workhours.

User interface updates:

Supporting Japanese language.
Showing username in the UI.

Fixes:

Exporting Japanese fonts to PDD/PDF files fixed.
All events are available now for selecting as milestones in the Process schemas.
Alert emails now contain all timelines added while configuring alerts.
Optimized dashboard visualization.

Version 5.1.0

New features:

ABBYY Timeline

Alerts Webhooks can contain attributes from timelines.
Customer notifications.

Provide status information with admin app.
More detailed status information is displayed on the status page.

X-axis custom sorting on charts, only for histogram mode.
Multiple uploads into the same ETL table.
Recalculate sets button on set list modal allows to recalculated all the sets at the same time.
Improved business duration calculations for projects without time zones.
Remove support for ABBYY Timeline 1.2 and earlier.

ABBYY Recorder 2.0

Improved the meaningfulness of events the ABBYY Recorder produces.
Events in ABBYY Recorder 2.0 are formulated as interactions with UI elements.
Sequence of "low level" events, that represent for example interactions with a combo box, in the new approach will be just one event. The previous Recorder did not record most interceptions with buttons and menus if they were produced by keyboard.
ABBYY Recorder 2.0 records such kind of events. The events do not depend on how they were produced: by keyboard or by mouse.
Added Recorder extension for Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge browsers.

Events produced by browser plug-ins are more elaborate and meaningful because plug-ins have access to DOM (Document Object Model).
All three plug-ins (Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge) share the same code.

LightLogViewer standalone installation support for a tool to allow viewing of recorder logs without the need to install the Recording Service.
Supports the ability to view what is recorded without installing Recording Service.

Fixes:

Changed logic for recording sessions.
If you stop recording a session and then resume it without changing the template, then the log will be written to the same session (it used to be in a new session).
Custom minimum value for interval in alerts.
Administrator can change the minimum time interval for alerts. This feature depends on your license.

Version 5.0.0

New features:

• Update compressed projects

Allows adding data to compressed projects

A new repository operation will create an additional field and extract attributes from a timestamp into it

Extract year, month (as name or number), or day (as name or number)
This will support things such as using day of week as a dimension

Timeline can be installed on Kubernetes and run on a k8s cluster

Task Mining

ABBYY Recorder can record Windows apps and web apps

Windows apps

Apps with standard windows controls or wpf application

Web Apps

Applications that use standard html controls
Chrome is fully supported; other browsers will generate less complete information.

ABBYY Recording Service

Communicates with individual ABBYY Recorders and supports definition of templates, management of recorders, viewing of logs, uploading of logs to ABBYY Timeline, and management of settings. ABBYY Recording Service can run with local on-prem ABBYY Timeline as well as with ABBYY Timeline in the cloud.

Recording templates

A template defines

When to start recording
Whether to include screenshots
Where to obfuscate, or blur, images
What apps and websites to include or exclude from recording

Zoom in/out

Link an event in a process project to a task type
Selecting event in schema gives option to ‘zoom in’ which takes user to new tab showing home page in tasks project filtered to show only tasks/timelines for the selected type
‘Zoom out’ from a log will take user to the Timeline project the log was loaded to

PDDs are lists of events in a task.
For each event we provide an operation and a field as well as a screenshot if we have one
Option to generate in PDF or MS Word

Redaction

Options are no redaction or blur screenshot

Remove potentially confidential data from URLs

Expressions can be defined to map confidential data that might be in URLs into other strings

Highlighting of clicked fields in screenshots

Highlight in a screenshot what was done in a given step

Auto cut suggestions

Look for repeated sequences to recommend as cut suggestions using algorithm
Show user suggestions and allow user to select those to use to define tasks

Manual definition of tasks

User can define start and end events of a task
ABBYY Timeline will then find all instances of this task in logs

ABBYY Timeline Task Mining Homepage

Manage tasks

Display metrics to highlight tasks that are good candidates for automation

Rank automation candidates by complexity

Based on similarity of sequences

Rank automation candidates based on gain

Time saved is time taken by task

Define task cost

Cost for a task can be defined by hour or as a fixed cost per task instance

Filter to show specific task

Select a task type, apply filter, and use all timeline tools to view all instances of that task as you would any other process

Fixes:

Enhanced upload report
Create upload report not just from browser upload but also from sftp and scheduled uploads
Fixed installer not to ask for admin credentials on update
Improved ABBYY Timeline performance in handling large logs
We recalculate set statistics after uploading new data
Fixed error during exporting set
Side by side comparison was not applying metric for all timelines
Emails are not sent when invited user from account

Version 4.11.0

Version 4.10.0

New features:

new connectors

Alteryx connector
DB connector
SAP connector

Dashboard:

clone dashboard
threshold lines on charts

use groups from ADFS identity provider to share projects
central panel to manage scheduled tasks
delete timelines from project
aggregations table for Alteryx export

Fixes:

fixed upload report does not open after failed load-into-project operation in repository view
fixed delete-column operation failing after removing previously set filter
fixed check-date-format button in change-type operation editor

Dashboard

fixed dashboard authorization according to owner, user, dashboard_viewer_only roles
fixed dashboard to handle charts with % in the name

Misc

fixed misplaced tooltip in single-timeline view
updated 3rd party libs to add vulnerability patches
added a lower limit for dashboard chart size, below which only an error message is displayed
improved SOAP webhook error reporting
fixed saving/clearing breakdown dimensions in metric modals
fixed event cost configuration and calculation for time-based costs with lookup table
fixed five9 import to properly report invalid credentials
fixed embedding ABBYY Timeline in iframe
fixed dimension breakdown settings being remembered even after cleared by the user
failed SFTP operations are logged in repository history (if the target is a repository table)
send SFTP upload report email to actual repository owner

Version 4.9.0

New features:

Added new languages: French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazilian), Spanish.
ETL queries are limited to 10 minutes. This can be changed on a per account basis in the admin app by editing the license limits. Note that this applies to individual operations users run in ETL, ToDo lists are not limited as a whole, only the operations in them. At the same time, the limit applies to loading the original csv file into the database.
Added a notifications to the JOIN operation that it may take a long time, and it will be canceled in 10 minutes (10 is replaced in the message with the actual limit in the license). It is only shown if the 2nd table has more than 1000 rows.
Made it possible to give the ACCOUNT_ADMIN role to multiple users in an account.
Embedding Timeline in an iframe requires domain to be whitelisted.
Enabled setting the time zone for a project when loading data from ETL. This is analogous to setting the time zone during normal upload.
Added a button to test the data format the user configures in the change type operation editor.
Remove invalid "UTF8": 0x00' characters from CSV files when loaded into ETL.
Added handling of alternative column separators (coma, semicolon, pipe) in csv files uploaded into ETL.
Improved error reporting of misconfigured charts on the dashboad and in chart editor.
Added string and date operators to the case statement in Derived field ETL operation.
Modified Replace substring operation to allow replacement of NULL or empty string values.
Made session timeline configurable in the account view.

Fixes and Tweaks:

Improved handling large datasets in forecast training.
Fixed dashboard charts to handle cases when an event-based metric (e.g. time-interval) is to be broken down by an unrelated dimension.
Fixed a bug in the ‘Show timelines’ button in enlarged chart view. It failed to show the timelines behind the chart if there was no column selected. (In that case, it should show the timelines in the set the chart is based on.)
We changed the default mode of dashboards to ‘view’ from ‘edit’.
Fixed y-axis label formatting on combination charts with time based metric.
Fixed cost configuration when we did not accept fixed cost based on attribute (the user also had to specify a fixed zero amount).
Fixed relative time filtering (current quarter) in charts.
Updated UI framework to Angularjs 1.7.9 to apply latest vulnerability patches.
Added ‘Delete dimension’ button in Path details panel.
Fixed the interval view to keep selected range (min-max, 90%, etc) when changing dimensions.
Fixed the interval view to remember slider positions during page refresh.
Alert SMS used the profile language of the user the SMS is sent to.
Fixed side-by-side charts for truncated texts and we made it remember the last sort-by settings
Fixed breakdown view to use column alias if provided.
Display appropriate error message on phone-number validation screen to let the user know about malformed phone numbers.
Display appropriate error message when import fails due to invalid credentials or not configured API access.
Updated the help links to point to the new knowledge base and documentation.
Modified displaying dates throughout the app to use the format in the browser’s locale.
Fixed ETL load-into-project operation to handle timestamps with too high precision (timestamps are rounded to the seconds).
Fixed calendar config modal where exception days where displayed offset.
Added unit when displaying Total time saving or Total cost saving metrics on bottleneck view.

Version 4.8.8

Version 4.8.7

Version 4.8.6

Version 4.8.5

Version 4.8.4

Version 4.8.3

Version 4.8.2

Version 4.8.1

Version 4.8.0

New features and improvements:

Dashboard:

Metric catalog is split into metrics and charts:

Metrics are reused in charts, side-by-side comparison and path-details modal
Charts are loaded faster as data is pre-calculated

Combination chart is added:

Different sets of data can be displayed on the same chart

Charts from other projects can be added to dashboard
In chart view mode, dimension filters can be applied to charts
In chart view mode, ‘show timelines’ button adds filters from metric, selected dimension and applied dimension filters

Repository:

‘Delete column’ operation is supported
Operation ‘Derived field‘ is extended with options ‘case’ statement

Calendar:

Day of week can be added to exceptions
Exceptions could be sorted by time
Warning is displayed if a exception is created that overlaps non-working days

Project horizon:

The user can set a time interval for the project. Events outside the interval are regularly deleted

Misc:

Width of left menu in repository (and in dashboards) is adjustable by the user
‘Notes’ and ‘Tags’ can be added to project details

Project details are available for users with USER role

New project list in table form
Transfer ownership of repositories
Attribute type in project can be converted (string, number, boolean, date)
Project data export can be compressed
Chart recalculation can be invoked in a project from admin app
Users can choose columns to be imported from Salesforce
Added proper soap configuration panel to alert webhook – the user can choose between the old HTTP POST and the new SOAP webhooks
Forecast training can be stopped, as opposed to aborted, in which case the trained model is saved as is at that moment
Added license expiration emails for ACTIVE account – notification is sent 60, 30, 10, 5, 1 days before expiration and on the same day too
Users can configure a cost unit in the cost configuration modal, and it is used everywhere in the app (currently $ is wired in)
Breakdown updates:

Comparison column chart displays the first 1000 columns
Added an ‘Other’ tile representing the sum of rare values (not in top 100 values)
Added more descriptions about the values

Added automatic deletion of user data 30 days after license expiration
Added new EULA in all regions and make user accept ABBYY privacy and cookie policies

Fixes and Tweaks:

General stability improvements

Version 4.7.0

Version 4.7.2

Version 4.6.0

Version 4.5.0

Version 4.2.0

Version 4.1.0

Version 4.0.0

New features:

True real-time data processing / live data streaming:

Provides zero latency in monitoring and alerting to provide real time process monitoring and remediation efforts via webhooks

triggering alerts sms & email, and web calls as the process happens with no delay

As data is streamed, the application goes through the list of active alerts, testing the alert conditions for each timeline. When any timeline matches the condition, the application verifies its alert status and if it has been already reported, it is ignored. If any new timelines are found the system triggers an alert in real time.

Accepting data via:

RabbitMQ – Pluggable authentication, authorization, supports TLS and LDAP
HTTPS – provides for the safe and encrypted transport of sensitive data in motion

Data Transposition:

Added Transpose to operations functionality in ETL in the cloud

Allows users to convert a single record with multiple selected fields into multiple records

Deadline Forecasting:

Predict and forecast if a deadline is likely to be missed
Allows for the ability to alert staff via sms/email or avoid the missed deadline in another system by alerting via webhooks

Fixes and Tweaks:

License management improvements and adjustments:

Changes to manage account types

Accounts settings for authentication:

Added authentication setting options for administrative account type to better manage authentication for account users

ability to select authentication types, authentication methods, set password length requirements, expiration settings, and prohibiting the use of previous passwords

Version 3.8.0

Version 3.7.0

Version 3.6.0

Version 3.5.0

Version 3.4.0

Version 3.4.1

Version 3.4.2

05.09.2024 16:23:54

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Release Notes

Version 6.1.3

Improvements

Task Mining

Recording Service

Fixes

Task Mining

Known Vulnerabilities

Angular vulnerability CVE-2022-25844

d3-color vulnerability

ansi-regex vulnerability CVE-2021-3807

axios vulnerability CVE-2023-45857

Angular vulnerability to super-linear runtime CVE-2024-21490

Version 6.1.2

Improvements

Timeline

Fixes

Timeline

Task Mining

Recorder

Known Vulnerabilities

Angular vulnerability

d3-color vulnerability

ansi-regex vulnerability

axios vulnerability

Version 6.1

New Features

Timeline

Timeline API

New Dashboards

Format improvements for Number charts

Attribute duration metric

OpenID Connect authentication

Email as multi-factor authentication method

Silent installation on Linux

Task Mining

New Definition editor

Form-based timelines

Recording Service

Recording Service scalability

Improvements

Timeline

Changed analysis modules order

Operational board enhancements

Simulation analysis module updates

RegEx support in manifest file for SFTP upload

Automatic set recalculations

Table update time in Repository

Metric multiplication by a constant number

Task Mining

Form and Task editor improvements

Other improvements

Recording Service

Internal mechanism updates

SSL connection to a remote database

Fixes

Timeline

Known Vulnerabilities

Angular vulnerability

d3-color vulnerability

ansi-regex vulnerability

axios vulnerability

Version 6.0.2

Improvements

Timeline

Fixes

Timeline

Recorder