Release notes - i2 Analyze 4.4.4
A high level overview of the release, listing new features, the system requirements, and any known issues.
Important notices
⚠️ i2 Analyze
When i2 Analyze is configured to use OIDC authentication, it is not compatible with Analyst's Notebook clients earlier than version 10.0.2. Users with earlier versions of the Analyst's Notebook client will be unable to upload charts to the chart store.
To ensure all users can upload charts, either:
Upgrade all Analyst's Notebook clients before upgrading the server (recommended).
or
In the i2 Analyze toolkit file
configuration/liberty/server.extensions.xml
add the parameter<webAppSecurity postParamMaxRequestBodySize="-1" />
and then runsetup -t deployLiberty
. This will allow earlier versions of Analyst's Notebook to upload charts. These clients must be upgraded as soon as possible to ensure full compatibility and support.
Features
Release highlights
The following new and updated features are available in this release:
Web client |
---|
Extended source reference image display |
Visual Query sharing |
Visual Query logical operators and conditional blocks |
Chart item importer |
Chart item palette |
Editable chart records |
i2 Analyze server |
---|
Modernized icon set |
Connector Designer |
Dynamic connector configuration updates |
Visual Query termination and audit |
Release highlight details - web client
Extended source reference image display
Source reference images are now displayed in search result lists providing immediate visibility of images associated with records.
Source reference images can also be used as marker icons in i2 Maps.
The option to display source reference images as marker icons in i2 maps is available from Chart Settings in the web client and i2 Analyze Settings in Analyst's Notebook.
Where there are multiple source reference images for an entity, the latest image on the lead record will be used.
Visual Query sharing
A user can now select whether a Visual Query is saved for their own use only, or they may choose to share it with specific users, all users, or defined groups of users.
To help organize saved queries, hierarchical folders can be created to categorize both private and shared queries.
Access levels control how saved Visual Queries can be used and modified once shared.
Note: Sharing requires system administrators to configure user provisioning appropriately when they deploy or upgrade i2 Analyze to version 4.4.4. For more information, see the i2 Analyze documentation.
Visual Query logical operators and conditional blocks
Visual Queries now give the ability to combine AND/OR operators when defining conditions allowing the user to create powerful multi condition searches. The addition of Conditional blocks makes it easy to treat multiple conditions as a single group, visually conveying how the conditions interact with each other.
Individual conditions can be rearranged within the query or within blocks to make it easy to restructure without the need to delete and recreate query conditions.
Chart item importer
An importer tool is now available in the web client to allow users to directly import structured data from csv text files into web charts, giving the user the ability to create chart information from a new source to supplement existing data or to simply create standalone charts.
Identity matching within the data to be imported can be controlled by choosing which properties to compare.
Regular Expressions (Regex) can be used when creating import specifications to perform input data transformation.
Import specifications that have been created can be saved for future reuse with similarly structured source data. A user can save an import specification for their own use or share it with all users or a defined group of users.
Access levels control how import specifications can be used and modified once shared.
To help organize import specifications, hierarchical folders can be created to categorize saved import specifications.
Chart items created using the web client importer can be shared with other users using the Share Records capability of Analyst's Notebook and the web client.
Chart item palette
The web client now provides a chart palette giving the user the ability to manually create entities and links on a web chart. The available palette item types are controlled by the information store schema and by the connector gateway schema.
These manually added chart items enrich the chart with new information or inferred intelligence not available from the connected data sources or by importing.
Manually created chart items can be shared with other users using the Share Records capability of Analyst's Notebook and the web client.
Editable chart records
The records of web client chart items may be edited in the Record Inspector giving the user the ability to add additional information or correct source data errors in the web chart. The ability to edit chart records is limited to records created manually or with the web client importer, and external search results.
Changes to record properties are persisted in saved web charts and can be shared with other users using the Share Records capability.
Release highlight details - i2 Analyze
Modernized icon set
The icons in Analysis Studio have been updated with all new icons to give charts a more modern look.
Additional icons have been introduced to cover inclusion and diversity, business process modelling (BPMN), as well as new technologies, social media, dating apps, crimes and activities.
The new icons are available for i2 Analyze information store and connector schemas, and are used for charting in Analyst's Notebook and the web client.
Connector Designer
This release of Analysis Hub introduces Connector Designer, a "code free" visual tool for creating and modifying simple external searches against third party data sources. Connector Designer gives an Analyst with experience of working with REST services or SQL databases the ability to setup connections and simple searches without needing coding skills or using external consulting resources.
Compatible with REST endpoints and Microsoft or Oracle SQL databases.
Connector Designer is included with i2 Analyze. Details on how to deploy Connector Designer are available at https://docs.i2group.com/ah/ah-connector-designer.html
Installation of Connector Designer requires Docker Engine and an internet connection.
Note: We are excited to introduce the new Connector Designer. While we have worked to ensure a smooth launch, you may encounter some minor issues. If you do, we would greatly appreciate your feedback as we continue to refine and enhance the experience.
Dynamic connector configuration updates
It is now possible for i2 Analyze to dynamically manage connectors through connector configuration providers.
Connector configuration providers, such as the Connector Designer, are web services that oversee a set of connectors and their configurations. These managed connectors complement those configured in the i2 Analyze deployment files (topology.xml or connectors.json for example).
A connector configuration provider can use the /reload endpoint to force a refresh of the available connectors. If a change is detected, i2 Analyze will automatically update the gateway and the i2 clients to reflect the change.
Visual Query termination and audit
Long running Visual Queries, for example complex queries running over large amounts of data, can be cancelled by the user if they do not wish to wait for the results to be returned, or would like to refine the requirements of the query to obtain a more concise result set.
In addition, new system auditing events allow an administrator to trace the server activities associated with Visual Queries, providing monitoring of the kind of queries users are creating and their impact on the system. An optional timeout control is also provided to automatically cancel long running queries after a designated time period defined by the administrator.
Integrated product versions
Product included | Version |
---|---|
i2 Analyze | 4.4.4 |
Connector Designer 1 | 1.0.0 |
Open Liberty 24 | 24.0.0.6 |
Eclipse Temurin JDK 17 | 17.0.11 |
1 The Connector Designer and deployment guidance are available at https://docs.i2group.com/as/as-connector-designer.html.
Upgrading
To ensure compatibility, i2 recommends that the i2 Analyst's Notebook desktop client and i2 Analyze server are upgraded to the latest versions at the same time.
i2 do not support mixed version deployments, but to assist with larger deployment upgrades it is possible to use the i2 Analyst's Notebook desktop client or an i2 Analyze server from a previous version with the corresponding latest versions in this release, however some functionality might not be available in these configurations. Mixed version deployments should be aligned as quickly as possible to ensure product support.
Contact i2 Support to understand which versions can be used together in the short term for an unsupported mixed version deployment.
Fixed and known issues
The issues that have been fixed in this release, and remaining known issues.
Fixed issues
Issue number | Component | Issue title |
---|---|---|
DT00310 | Web client | Links disappearing on chart as items selected |
DT00311 | Web client | The 'Download all as .xlsx' feature in the web client may not work when one or more item type names include ':' or '/' |
DT00350 | Web client | Charting to the web client may hang after schema changes have been made |
DT00355 | Web client | Need 'i2.Notebook' permission to copy 360View results to chart |
DT00298 | i2 Analyze | On Postgres (only), if any row in the staging table except for the very last row, results in an error/rejection during the validation process, then the ingestion will fail with an exception |
DT00223 | i2 Analyze | WebUI: Display of operators in VQ is incorrect if the first operator is "is not" |
DT00305 | i2 Analyze | Upgrading to 4.4.3 fails if display names in schema have been changed |
DT00306 | i2 Analyze | Solr index upgrade can leave system administrator stuck in a loop |
DT00322 | i2 Analyze | Seeds have 360 view links even when not from InfoStore |
DT00329 | i2 Analyze | Solr 9 batch script doesn't cope with special characters in passwords |
DT00363 | i2 Analyze | Cannot run clearData on Postgres RDS |
Known issues in this release
Issue number | Component | Issue title |
---|---|---|
Limitation | Connector Designer | Editing a source (even without making changes) results in the mappings between the source data and connector properties being deleted |
Limitation | Connector Designer | Connector Designer does not support the SELECTED_FROM and SUGGESTED_FROM logical types in version 1.0.0 |
DT00222 | i2 Analyze | InfoStore parameter queries treat trailing spaces differently depending on DB server |
DT00372 | i2 Analyze | When i2 Analyze is configured to use OIDC authentication, it is not compatible with Analyst's Notebook clients earlier than version 10.0.2 |
Download information
Customers who have entitlement can request copies of i2 products.
For more information, see Where can I download the latest i2 products?
Operating systems - i2 Analyze Server
The following tables shows the system requirements for this release, and previous releases. These system requirements should be used to ensure that the setup you are running is fully supported. Ensure that existing deployments are upgraded to currently supported versions of all the software required.
OPERATING SYSTEMS | i2 Analyze 4.4.4 | i2 Analyze 4.4.3 | i2 Analyze 4.4.2 | i2 Analyze 4.4.1 |
---|---|---|---|---|
Microsoft Windows Server 2022 Datacenter Edition | ✅ | ✅ | 🆕 | - |
Microsoft Windows Server 2022 Essentials Edition | ✅ | ✅ | 🆕 | - |
Microsoft Windows Server 2022 Standard Edition | ✅ | ✅ | 🆕 | - |
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Datacenter Edition | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Essentials Edition | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Standard Edition | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Datacenter Edition | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Essentials Edition | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Standard Edition | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter Edition | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials Edition | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard Edition | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
Linux Red Hat Enterprise V9 and fix packs 2 | ✅ | ✅ | 🆕 | - |
Linux Red Hat Enterprise V8 and fix packs 2 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Linux Red Hat Enterprise V7 and fix packs | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
2 Support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Server on POWER Systems is restricted to IBM Db2 and SOLR as part of a distributed deployment.
Note: i2 products are supported on hardware virtualization environments that run any of the operating systems that are listed in the detailed system requirements. When you run in a virtual environment, any issues that can be replicated by i2 in a supported operating system are addressed by using the standard support policy.
Installation of Connector Designer requires x64 Linux, Docker Engine and an internet connection. See https://docs.i2group.com/as/as-connector-designer.html for full details.
Installed Software - i2 Analyze Server
INSTALLED SOFTWARE | i2 Analyze 4.4.4 | i2 Analyze 4.4.3 | i2 Analyze 4.4.2 | i2 Analyze 4.4.1 |
---|---|---|---|---|
Open Liberty 24 (24.0.0.4) | 🆕 | - | - | - |
Open Liberty 23 (23.0.0.9) | ❌ | 🆕 | - | - |
Open Liberty 23 (23.0.0.5) | ❌ | ❌ | 🆕 | - |
Open Liberty 22 (22.0.0.12) | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | 🆕 |
Note: Supplied and installed by the i2 Analyze toolkit.
Supported software - i2 Analyze Server
SOFTWARE PREREQUISITES | i2 Analyze 4.4.4 | i2 Analyze 4.4.3 | i2 Analyze 4.4.2 | i2 Analyze 4.4.1 |
---|---|---|---|---|
PostgreSQL 16 - on Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) | ✅ | 🆕 | - | - |
PostgreSQL 16 | 🆕 | - | - | - |
PostgreSQL 15 - on Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) | ✅ | ✅ | 🆕 | - |
PostgreSQL 15 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | 🆕 |
IBM DB2 Standard Edition 11.5 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
IBM DB2 Advanced Edition 11.5 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
IBM DB2 11.1 Workgroup, Enterprise, Advanced Workgroup, Advanced Enterprise | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Microsoft SQL Server 2022 | ✅ | ✅ | 🆕 | - |
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Microsoft SQL Server 2017 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Hardware - i2 Analyze Server
Hardware Requirements | Minimum |
---|---|
Disk space | 4GB |
Processor | 2 GHz x86-64 dual-core |
Memory (Application server) | 16GB |
Memory (JVM) | 8GB |
Note: The minimum hardware specifications specified in the table will allow customers to install and deploy i2 Analyze on a single machine using the example deployment shipped with the on-prem toolkit. Hardware specs for an optimal i2 Analyze deployment are dependant on the expected amount of data to be loaded and user usage.
Supported Browsers - Web client and Investigate client
Supported Web Browsers |
---|
Google Chrome (latest version) |
Microsoft Edge (latest version) |
Mozilla Firefox (latest version) |
Mozilla Firefox ESR (latest version) |
Language support
i2 products are tested on a number of various regional variations of operating systems. In addition they are translated into a number of different languages.
Operating system language support
i2 supports this product on the following regional versions of the supported operating systems:
Language Group/Language | Language Collection | Support Status |
---|---|---|
Western Europe and USA | Basic | ✅ |
Central Europe | Basic | ✅ |
Baltic | Basic | ✅ |
Cyrillic | Basic | ✅ |
Turkic | Basic | ✅ |
Arabic | Complex Script | ✅ |
Japanese | East Asian | ✅ |
Korean | East Asian | ✅ |
Traditional Chinese | East Asian | ✅ |
Simplified Chinese | East Asian | ✅ |
Thai | Complex Script | ❌ |
Vietnamese | Complex Script | ❌ |
Greek | Basic | ❌ |
Hebrew | Complex Script | ❌ |
Indic | Complex Script | ❌ |
Georgian | Complex Script | ❌ |
Armenian | Complex Script | ❌ |
Dhivehi | Complex Script | ❌ |
Galician | Complex Script | ❌ |
Gujarati | Complex Script | ❌ |
Kannada | Complex Script | ❌ |
Kyrgyz | Complex Script | ❌ |
Mongolian (Cyrillic) | Complex Script | ❌ |
Punjabi | Complex Script | ❌ |
Syriac | Complex Script | ❌ |
Telugu | Complex Script | ❌ |
Data support
i2 products support unicode data.
Translations
The following languages are supported:
Translations | i2 Analyze 4.4.4 |
---|---|
Arabic | ✅ |
Brazilian Portuguese | ✅ |
Bulgarian 3 | ✅ |
Czech | ✅ |
English | ✅ |
French | ✅ |
German | ✅ |
Hungarian 4 | ✅ |
Italian | ✅ |
Japanese | ✅ |
Korean | ✅ |
Polish | ✅ |
Russian 3 | ✅ |
Simplified Chinese | ✅ |
Slovak 4 | ✅ |
Spanish | ✅ |
Traditional Chinese | ✅ |
Turkish | ✅ |
Ukrainian 3 | ✅ |
3 Help available in English only.
4 The Information Store and External Searches capabilities are not translated for these languages.