VidiFlow Release Notes

The following items on the list encompass breaking changes, features, and fixes that are relevant for the major release.

Release 23.2

Setup and Operations

Dependencies and Component Updates

The following central components were updated and will be shipped in the noted version, along with relevant product and service dependencies:

Known Issues

Copy Chunked File - not all files will be deleted

The task Copy Chunked File creates a lot of temporary chunk files on the target storage. The intention is that all these files should be registered to VidiCore and deleted after some short time (like 24 hours). Unfortunately this is not the case for many files, which leads to unhandled files on the storages.

It is planned to fix this issue in a patch release soon.

TranscoderS4M - cix/tix files will not be cleaned up in some special error cases

In some special error cases the cix/tix helper files created by task using TranscoderS4M will not be cleaned up.

Features

New Services, Agents, and Tasks

Rewrap Video File (Version 1.0)

This new task can be used to convert MXF files from one to another container format.

This new task rewraps a video file in a new container format. The container format will be chosen by the suffix of the target file. Allowed values are 'MXF' and 'MP4'."

Set Object Enum Metadata By Key (Version 1.0)

It is now possible to set enum metadata values based on the key instead of the value. If this task will be used consequently in all situations, it is possible to change enum values without any effect on the workflows.

Premiere Project Parsing and Relinking

Two new tasks are introduced to support the restoration of HiRes files. This allows editing in Adobe Premiere based on proxy clips and restoration of the corresponding hires files from an archive or cloud storage before rendering. Only complete restore is supported, partial restore is not possible.

The new service tasks are:

• Parse Adobe Premiere Project File (Version 1.0)

• Relinks an Adobe Premiere Project File (Version 1.0)

Move Shape Direct (Version 1.0 / Copy Shape Direct (Version 1.0)

These new agents copy or move a shape with all attached files to a storage. Using these tasks instead of Move Shape or Copy Shape has the advantage of optimized database operations in VidiCore. The disadvantage is that it is not possible to rename files using these tasks. If this is not required, it is suggested to use / switch to the new tasks.

List of Updated Tasks

Support to set ACLs on mapped groups

The tasks to add or remove user rights (Add User Group Rights, Remove User Group Rights) have been adapted to support the new central setting in Config Portal “UseMappedGroupForAcl”. If it is set to true, both tasks add or remove the ACL directly on the mapped group instead on the connected AD groups if the switch is set to false.

Send email Supports Sender and Reply-to Address (Version 1.1)

It is now possible to define the sender and the reply-to address when sending an email. The SMTP server needs to be configured to allow this.

Analyze File Using MediaInfo Support S3 Storages (Version 1.0)

The task “Analyze File using MediaInfo” also works on files on S3 storages now.

New Parameters for Iteration in Task Get Item IDs of Library (Version 2.0)

Three new parameters (first, number, count) have been introduced to iterate over large libraries.

New parameters “JobName” for Vantage transcoding tasks

The tasks to control Telestream Vantage now allow passing a job name to the task which will be used for the Vantage job. This allows easier differentiation and identification of the different jobs. This affects the following tasks:

• Control Vantage Workflow (Version 3.1)

• Transcode using Vantage (Version 4.1)

• Trim with Vantage (Version 3.1)

New parameter “Chunk size in KB” for Copy File via Agent (Version 1.3)

The task Copy File via Agent support now setting the chunk size for the copy process. This allows optimization of the copy performance for different storage types.

New Parameter “RequireFastStart” for Transcode Item (version 4.1) and Transcoder Proxy Item (Version 3.1)

Both task support now the VidiCore option “RequireFastStart, indicating whether to put the index tables (header) in front of the file or not.

New Parameter “Profile” for Several Media Agent Tasks

The following tasks have a new parameter “Profile” to the muxing profile for an MXF target file:

• Stitch Videos Via Linux (Version 2.1)

• Create MXF File from Binary File Via Linux (Version 2.1)

• Trim MXF File Via Linux (Version 2.1)

• Rewrap Video File (Version 1.0)

Longer Timeout for Transcoder S4M Tasks

The timeout for long-running transcoding jobs with the Transcoder S4M technology was increased from 12 to 24 hours to support very long clips.

Video Profile Configuration: Take Aspect Ratio from Source Video

The tasks based on the TranscoderS4M technology now support the option to take over the aspect ratio from the source to the target video. To achieve this, one has to set the value “-1” in the ConfigPortal use case page for the video profile configuration for the following attributes:

• Video Width

• Video Height

• Video Aspect Radio x

• Video Aspect Ratio y

Workflow Monitor 

Metadata Columns

The Workflow Monitor now allows configuring up to 5 metadata columns to be shown in the main view. These are loaded from VidiCore through a new VidiFlow backend service.

The configuration of the used fields needs to be done centrally in ConfigPortal in the new use case page “User Interfaces \ Workflow Monitor Metadata”. If the configuration is set inactive, no metadata will be loaded - so this can be used to disable the feature in case of performance issues.

Users can enable or disable any of these columns in the Workflow Monitor settings. Sorting based on the metadata columns is supported, filtering based on metadata is not.

It is necessary to design all workflows to deliver a value for “objectID” in order to receive the matching metadata.

Hyperlink for Relation ID in Details View

If a workflow has is relation ID set pointing to another workflow, this will be shown as a hyperlink. Clicking on it opens a new tab and shows it while CTRL+Click only opens the new tab without activating it.

Additional column for log analysis

Users can launch the OpenSearch Dashboard for log analysis from the Workflow Monitor details view. The column “kubernetetes.container_name” is now also enabled in this case.

Workflow Designer

Preview Version for the New Workflow Designer

VidiFlow 23.2 comes with a new version of the Workflow Designer. This version comes parallel to the previous designer and is intended to make the development and maintenance of workflows more intuitive, easier, and thus faster. In a later release, this will replace the previous designer.

In the new toolbar on the left-hand side of the Workflow Designer, users find all necessary BPMN elements such as events, gateways, and different tasks. Special attention was paid to the selection of workflows and VidiFlow service tasks - these can now be selected directly in the toolbox and dragged from there into the BPMN canvas. Filtering is supported based on text and tags.

An option area can be opened on the right-hand side of the screen. This allows the editing of general workflow properties, but also of the attributes of all BPMN elements including their parameters.

Various comfort functions are planned for the near future. The new auto-connect function already speeds up workflow creation when elements are dragged in.

The new Workflow Designer is in the current version not suitable for productive use. Users are very welcome to try out the new approach but not to save any workflows in productive systems or to stage any created workflows for production.

Rule Designer

UI improvements

The screen arrangement was improved to make better use of the available screen size.

VidiFlow Portal

Several links in VidiFlow Portal are updated to fit the current environments.

Performance, Stabilization, and Other Improvements

Replace Kube Cleanup Operator with Kubernetes Cleanup

The deletion of pods that are created implicitly by VidiFlow agents (like the TranscoderS4M tasks) is now done by the automatic cleanup feature of Kubernetes. The existing deployment of the kube cleanup operator should be removed manually.

Log-Export: Limit Size of Generated Files

It is now possible to configure the maximum size for the zip files created by the log export (app settings, Default: 2 GB). If the value is reached, the data is cut off, so the zip file does not contain all the requested data. A message is shown to the users in Workflow Monitor or VidiFlow Portal if that happens.

Be aware: Increasing the value will result in higher memory consumption of the POD.

License File Format

The file to document all used third-party components appears now in a new HTML format and is uploaded to ConfigPortal.

VidiCore notifications

In previous VidiFlow releases, a special VidiCore plugin was provided by VidiFlow for notifications from VidiCore to VidiFlow via RabbitMQ. This is no longer needed as VidiCore has now implemented communication via RabbitMQ in the product.

File Notification service

It is now possible to avoid triggering workflows for new files if an item ID is provided in the NEW file notification from VidiCore. This can avoid unnecessary WF executions to increase the overall system performance.

Additionally, if a workflow is triggered, the item ID is passed as a workflow input parameter.

Fixes