Release Notes Archive

These are the release notes for older versions of the ExcelWraps server and WrapCreator. 

ExcelWraps is a computer environment hosted on the Microsoft Azure infrastructure that provides database and computational resources to Wraps.

WrapCreator is an add-on to Excel for Windows that is used to develop and maintain Wraps.

This page summarizes the major changes in older versions. For more recent versions, please see the Release Notes page.

ExcelWraps server 131 January 2022

  • When exporting and importing wraps, the default file format is now Excel .xlsx files. This is the recommended format.
  • The new xlsx export file format includes signature metadata like the username and timestamp. For security reasons, signatures and their metadata cannot be imported back into the database.
  • MyWraps now supports the sw() operator to filter wraps where a field starts with a certain string.
  • If you just enter text into a MyWraps column filter, a co() operation – giving a match if the field contains the filter’s text in any position – is performed automatically. For performance reasons, you should use the eq and ne operators instead of co and nc if possible, in particular when filtering a large number of wraps.
  • A warning may appear when you copy a MyWraps link that has a slow co or nc filter.
  • When you set up a MyWraps report for a wrap with many cells, you can just begin typing the cell name and it will automatically complete it for you. This can save time when the list of cell names is very long.
  • We have made it much faster to open wraps, especially if there are many roles and users.
  • The Server Recalculation Queue offers additional information for recalculated wraps. The way we run recalculation jobs has been made more reliable.
  • Admins can recalculate frozen instances when formulas are changed in an early version of a wrap template in a way that does not invalidate existing signatures.
  • When you use Wrapstack, and an update operation detects a frozen wrap, it now just skips the frozen wrap and moves on to the next wrap. Previously, the entire row in the WrapStack Instance Data Table was terminated and rolled back.
  • The final calculation of a TeamWrap after it has been frozen is now more reliable.
  • When wraps are exported as PDF files, a 10 mm page margin is used.
  • The Initialise Instances action for Wrap templates has been removed. We previously used this function to pre-fill the Unique Keys for a group of new wraps. This method of adding many new wraps has been superseded by the WrapStack widget.

WrapCreator 10.12 January 2022

  • The new ImageGrid widget lets the user click to select a certain part of an image, e.g. to mark a seat that has stains. The developer creates the clickable area by superimposing a resizable grid over the image. A setup wrap is created with WrapCreator and uploaded to the wrapsite. The grid is configured online with a web browser. The grid configuration is copied to the inspection wraps. The user of the inspection wrap can report a new stain or see what stains have previously been reported for the same location.

ExcelWraps server 130 October 2021

  • When signatures are used to initiate the generation of a PDF file, the name and time for the signature are now included in the PDF Log.
  • Wraps can have a modification date from 1970 which is an internal code used when recalculation has been requested and is pending for the wrap. After recalculation is complete for a wrap, its last-modified timestamp is for the recalculation event.
  • The IsLastFrozen filter in MyWraps allows you to retrieve only the most recently frozen wrap for the report when filtering for the LastFrozen AutoNumber. This removes the previous need to raise the MaxRows setting.
  • MyWraps now has an Action for AdminUnfreeze of wraps, which can be useful if someone accidentally AdminFreezes a wrap. If a wrap is frozen by a signature, you cannot use this action; a signed wrap has to be unsigned by someone with the authority to do so, and then automatically also becomes unfrozen.

WrapCreator 10.11 September 2021

  • The Dynamic Dropdown widget now supports the selection of multiple options in a list.
  • When you design a MyWraps2 function call that contains the special WrapUrl column, it is displayed by ShowTable as an “open in new tab” icon.
  • The rows of a ShowTable now have alternating colors for increased legibility.
  • A family of TeamWraps can now be updated by a Bulk Action wrap.
  • TeamWraps users have a new, easy way to invite other users of the same shared TeamWrap to a chat session.
  • The Google Map widget now has a Helper Tool to make it easier to design maps.

ExcelWraps server 129 August 2021

  • The Action menu in MyWraps lets Administrators perform administrative tasks also from MyWraps.This makes it easier to operate on individual wraps.
    • The MyWraps Action menu has been reordered for clarification, and many actions have more descriptive names.
    • The actions that create or delete wraps are now restricted to Roles that have Create or Delete permissions.
    • The Bulk Create PDF and Bulk Export PDF operations are restricted to users with the corresponding ExcelWraps feature permissions.
  • MyWraps report links can become very long and complicated. To increase clarity, the parameters are now sorted in a predefined order.
  • When using ShowTable to present a MyWraps report inside a wrap, each row in the table can link to its source wrap using an automatically generated WrapUrl column.
  • When managing wrap templates, you can search for wrap templates using their name and/or their wrap group.
  • Clarification: The MaxRows parameter for MyWraps applies to primary filtering, not to the number of wraps in the result.

ExcelWraps server 128 July 2021

  • Enhanced import and export when working with large data volumes.
  • Enhancements to the Wrap History tab.

WrapCreator 10.10 June 2021

ExcelWraps server 127 May 2021

  • Enhanced import and export of wrap data.
  • Faster and more reliable background processing on the server will reduce its impact on interactive users.
  • When there are many active users, additional server capacity is added automatically to ensure consistent response times.

WrapCreator 10.9 April 2021

  • You can access the PDFs for a wrap directly on the wrap page, or on the Wrap Instances page.
  • If you use a Dynamic Dropdown widget with a lot of choices coming from a delimited list, users can now enter text to filter the list of choices.
  • A Dynamic Dropdown widget using a delimited list can allow users to assign a free-text value to a cell if none of the choices in the dropdown is suitable, e.g. to enter a city name that is not in a list of cities.
  • A Dynamic Dropdown widget using a delimited list can be made Required, making it impossible to save the wrap unless the user has made a choice in the dropdown.
  • Generates wraps that load faster.

ExcelWraps server 126 April 2021

  • We are gradually providing administrator functionality also in MyWraps, e.g. for easier filtering.
    • You can request a PDF printout of selected wraps.
    • You can request that selected wraps are recalculated.
    • You can delete selected wraps.
  • You can delete PDFs from the PDF Log for a wrap.
  • Much simplified import and export with a new format.
  • We made it easier to use the Wrap Exports page for exported wraps and PDFs.

WrapCreator 10.8 February 2021

  • This release constitutes the formal introduction of TeamWraps, the ability for two or more users to open the same Wrap instance at the same time. Several teams can inspect a train and simultaneously report their findings in the same database record. TeamWraps also greatly reduce the risk of data loss, since all data entered by different users is saved continuously, often surviving also local power cuts or network disconnections.
  • The new functions LockRowIf and LockColumnIf conditionally lock all input fields of the row or column where the function is located. Signature fields have their own controlling cells and cannot be locked by any locking mechanism in ExcelWraps.
  • The new function RegExpTest returns true if a regular expression is matched.
  • The new function RegExpSearch returns the position of a match within a string.
  • The new function RegExpReplaceFirst locates the first occurrence of a regular expression and replaces it with something else.
  • The new function RegExpReplaceAll locates all occurrences of a regular expression and replaces it with something else.
  • The validation of worksheet names has been extended. You cannot use a worksheet name that starts with a cell reference in the R1C1 notation. Example: “C5_Overhaul” is an invalid worksheet name. The converter now automatically renames the worksheet and all references to it.
  • The validation of cell names has been extended. A cell may only have one name. If cells are merged, the merged cell may end up having more than one cell name, which is not allowed. Cells with more than one name will be flagged and the conversion terminated.
  • Users with appropriate permissions can create new instances using the plus button for a WrapLink. We have removed the confirmation dialog related to this. If you create a new instance by mistake, just delete it using the Delete button in the toolbar.
  • If an input or output cell has the Wrap Text property enabled in Excel, WrapCreator automatically enables its Auto Height property for the cell. When output, the cell will be rendered with the height required to make all its contents visible, without a scroll bar. Auto Height is also a manually selected option for any Text or Utility widget.

ExcelWraps server 125 February 2021

ExcelWraps server 124 December 2020

  • The Print to PDF on Signature function has been greatly extended. The PDF can include also an instance’s “children” when Wraps have a hierarchical relationship. You can suppress PDF generation for intermediate signatures and only generate a PDF for freeze signatures. You can regenerate the PDF manually for selected instances. Read more in the help for Print to PDF.
  • The TinyMCE web page editor in the Orchard CMS has been updated to the latest version, with a much-improved user interface. This is the web page editor that opens for Admins when they press the Edit button for a section of the Wrapsite. Read more on the help page for Wrapsite administration.

WrapCreator 10.7

  • When you open a Wrap, you now pass an interim page that says “Verifying the wrap… Please wait.” This is to give the Wrap time to verify all the conditions that control the show/hide visibility of tabs, rows, columns, and cells before the Wrap is displayed on the screen.
  • An update to the Chromium browser engine used in Google Chrome, Edge, and many other web browsers made it impossible to use Print Preview unless the Wrap had Print sheets. This is now compensated for. If you get an uninformative “AW Snap error” error when using Print Preview with a Chromium-based web browser, please convert the affected Wrap again using WrapCreator 10.7 or later and it should work as expected.

Known issues

  • The Print Preview feature in Chromium-based browsers may appear to lose all tabs except the first one if you change any of the settings in the preview dialog. If you press cancel after having made changes in the dialog, then open the print preview again, all the visible tabs in the Wrap should appear again.
  • Version 10.7 includes an experimental preview of TeamWraps, an evolutionary step allowing two or more people to simultaneously update the same wrap instance.
    • If you are testing TeamWraps, your browser’s connection to the TeamWraps server may fail on the first attempt. If this happens, just refresh the page until a connection has been made.
    • Removing media from a Media upload widget does not always remove the media from the screen of other users working with the same Wrap instance.

ExcelWraps server 123 October 2020

  • If you need to roll back an unwanted modification of a Wrap instance, you can restore the instance to a previous version from the instance history described on the Wrap administration page.
  • If you delete an instance by mistake, you can now undo the delete from the deleted instance history described on the Wrap administration page. You can restore an instance even if you deleted it long ago, and you can restore any previous version of it.
  • If you need to revert to a previous version of a Wrap, you can download any previous version of its source from the Wrap’s import history described on the Wrap administration page.
  • New Excel-friendly export format for instances described on the Wrap administration page.
  • You can download up to a week of Audit Trail entries at a time in the form of a zipped XML file. The Audit Trail window opens considerably faster.
  • WrapStack improvements like autonumbers, permissions and undo.
  • MyWraps supports the ge, gt, le and lt filters also for text data.
  • All data is copied from your Live to Staged wrapsite every Saturday to simplify testing.

WrapCreator 10.6

  • WrapCreator supports delimited lists for some operations, e.g. to provide options for the Dynamic Dropdown widget. When working with this kind of aggregated string values, the new TextSplit function allows you to parse the string and use each segment separately.
  • Multiple tabs are shown side by side on laptops by default. You can force the old single-tab layout using a new setting on the Sheets tab.
  • The QR code used to open a Wrap in a phone is now hidden by default. Click on the new QR code icon to open and scan the QR code.

WrapCreator 10.5

  • If you click on the tab icon for a Wrap, the layout changes to a new columnar view with one tab visible in each column. You just click on a tab to make it appear as an additional column on the screen, and again to hide it. Having access to multiple tabs at the same time makes it much easier to compare numbers or copy information between tabs.
  • On phones, tabs can be visualized as a list of headings. In this accordion view, you just click on a heading to expand its content, and again to close it. Clicking on another heading hides the content for the previously opened heading and shows the content for the new one.
  • WrapCreator now supports the Concat and TextJoin Excel functions. Concat lets you concatenate cell values, e.g. within a range, like =CONCAT(B1:B10). It can save you time by not having to join each cell address with a separate “&” operator. TextJoin is similar but allows you to specify the separator and can skip empty cells, like =TEXTJOIN(“|”, TRUE, B1:B10). (Note: When using WrapCreator 10.13 or later with versions of Excel that don’t support the TextJoin function, you can use the built-in TextGlue function instead.)
  • Some Wraps don’t save anything and thus don’t create instances. Providing a Save button for them can be confusing to the user. The Wrap tab now offers a new NoSave Wrap Type that lets you generate Wraps without a Save button if they don’t need one.

ExcelWraps server 122b September 2020

  • Standard Wrap code and style sheets used to be generated and saved with each Wrap. Now you can run these shared Wrap components from a single shared web location instead. If the shared components are updated in the cloud, your Wraps will automatically use the updated versions – no rewrap required, just clear the browser cache. The re-use of shared code in the cloud reduces the size of Wraps by up to 75%.
  • The facility to save KPIs now has support for the Network Rail Control Period.
  • The list of Users now has additional columns for Company, Location, Workgroup, and Roles. The new columns can be used to filter the User list.
  • You can now easily download the xlsx source file for any Wrap directly from the list of Wraps, eliminating the need for Dropbox or other file-sharing facilities between Wrap developers.
  • To increase data integrity, we have changed the way Wraps and instances are deleted.  The Wraps and/or instances that you have selected are now queued for deletion in the background, after which you are taken to the server queue where you can follow the job that was created.
  • Wrapsite administrators can also queue instances for deletion using a new Action item on the MyWraps toolbar, enabling a more complex selection of instances also from multiple Wraps.

WrapCreator 10.4

  • The HideColumnIf function hides a column using a function in a cell on the column.
  • You can copy a range of cells from a table in Excel to a table with the same dimensions in a Wrap. This enables you to quickly fill a Wrap instance with information copied from Excel. When pasting, select the upper left-hand field in the instance and all the cells affected by the paste will be highlighted. Press Ctrl-V to confirm and perform the paste. Your browser may require your initial permission to let the Wrap access the clipboard in this way.
  • A Utility widget can span over two or more lines, e.g. when used with a function that returns a variable amount of text.
  • A new Auto Height option for the Text and Utility widgets allows a multiline text field to dynamically expand or contract with the contents. If you don’t enable this feature, the field has a fixed height and a vertical scroll bar will appear when it becomes full to enable users to scroll back and forth across the field’s contents.
  • When you view a Wrap instance, you can save content from it as a spreadsheet in xlsx format using the Export to Excel widget.
  • The Dynamic Dropdown widget can use a delimited list of options, e.g. ABW|AFG|AGO|… for three-letter country codes.
  • The WrapLink widget supports the createdby parameter, e.g. to make a new instance of a sensitive Wrap private to a specific user.

ExcelWraps server 122 July 2020

  • You can automatically save key performance indicators or other business intelligence data on a regular basis, e.g. to save periodical KPI data for easy use in tables or charts.
  • You can save all critical events on the server in the Audit Trail and review past events later.
  • A new instance may be created as a result of a WrapLink. If the link contains field/value pairs that are not part of the Unique Key, this data is used to pre-fill the corresponding fields in the new Wrap instance. The ownership of the new instance can be set with the createdby parameter in the link, e.g. to make a new instance of a sensitive Wrap private to a specific user. The createdby value can also be set for instances created with WrapStack.
  • In MyWraps reports, you can place filters also on columns that are not included in the report. It is now easier to navigate in a report using AutoNumber. MyWraps should be considerably faster in this version.
  • The WorkgroupSelector function can be used also in Wrapgroups that don’t belong to a Workgroup. This allows you to use a common Wrap for all your suppliers. When a new instance is created, the WorkgroupSelector is set to the supplier’s Workgroup, which hides the instance for all the other suppliers.
  • The UserSelector widget is now aware of Workgroup membership. If an instance has been trusted to another Workgroup, the users of the trusted Workgroup also appear in the UserSelector, if they have the designated roles.
  • We now allow users to save updates to an instance even when it doesn’t fulfill recent validation criteria. It can have an item selected in a list, e.g. a depot, but that item is no longer an eligible choice. The instance may be signed but the current signature enabling logic would not have permitted the signature because an additional processing step has been added since the instance was signed. The instance may reference a User that is no longer active. In all these situations, most database systems would prevent you from saving the instance. With ExcelWraps you can still save instances with previously accepted values that are no longer valid.

WrapCreator 10.3

  • The Media Upload widget no longer requires that you press a button to upload documents.
  • The dialog for a WrapSignOff widget now states “I hereby certify that all information is true and complete”.
  • The help for input cells has been extended to clarify what you should do when merging two or more named cells.

WrapCreator 10.2.8178.0

  • The HideRowIf function hides a row using a function in a cell on the row.
  • The UserRole function assigns a User Role temporarily, from a Wrap.
  • Support for more than one Print Sheet.
  • Use Ctrl-S on a PC to save a Wrap, Cmd-S on a Mac.
  • Use Ctrl-Spacebar on a PC to work in expanded view with all tabs stacked vertically, Cmd-Spacebar on a Mac.

WrapCreator 10.2.8150.0

  • The WrapStack widget has a new option to perform either bulk updates or bulk inserts. With updates, all Unique Keys must already exist. With inserts, all Unique Keys are new and must not already exist. There is also a new option to omit the recalculation of added instances.
  • If an input cell is permanently hidden, i.e. it is in a row or column that is hidden in Excel, or a sheet that has been marked as hidden on the Sheets tab, it is not included in the Wrap and will not be saved in the database. You will receive a warning message during the conversion.
  • If you merge two or more named cells, the merged cell will have two or more names. This is not permitted. Only the name for the upper left-hand cell of the merged cell will be kept. You will receive a warning message during the conversion.
  • The Wrapsite Administrator can customize the logo, header background color, and QR code color of a Wrapsite. Go to Administration dashboard > Settings, select ExcelWraps, and scroll down to Settings Dictionary.

WrapCreator 10.2.8044.0

  • The official launch of the WrapCreator add-in for Excel.
  • WrapCreator no longer requires ExcelWraps staff to convert and install Wraps on their behalf. Users are doing things for themselves!
  • Wraps with extended reach using a new permissions model. A contract-specific Wrap can now cover every contract. Fleet-specific Wraps can now cover every fleet.
  • Bulk action wraps – This feature works like a Wrap macro so that just one signature updates many Wraps in one go.
  • Support for responsive design to “fold” wide layouts to fit narrow screens
  • New interactive charts.
  • The WrapStack widget lets you create many new instances in bulk.
  • The WrapLinkMedia widget can link to photos, PDFs, and other media uploaded to another Wrap.
  • The WorkGroupSelector widget allows you to trust a single instance of a Wrap to a different Workgroup.