What’s New in Oracle Visual Builder Add-in for Excel
This page provides an overview of changes in recent releases of Oracle Visual Builder Add-in for Excel. It highlights the latest release updates first, then links to prior release summaries.
The sections below summarize what changed in the latest release.
New and Changed Features in Release 5.0
New and Changed Features
| Area | Feature | Impact | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search | Support for searching on descendant fields in BOSS catalogs | Developer and user: include eligible child/descendant fields directly in search conditions for BOSS-backed layouts. | N/A |
| Search | Search on polymorphic discriminator and global segment fields | Developer: add search conditions using eligible searchable discriminator and global segment fields from current or descendant polymorphic business objects. | Use Child Business Object Fields in Search Conditions |
| Business Object Editors | Show business object hierarchy paths in designer windows | Developer: see the current business object context more clearly when editing child or descendant business objects and fields. | Manage Catalogs and Business Objects |
| Layout Setup | Clearer service metadata URL guidance | Developer: the catalog setup wizard provides clearer guidance to help distinguish service metadata URLs from data URLs when creating a business object catalog. | Create a Table Layout in an Excel Workbook |
| Custom Action | Hide selected custom actions from business-user action pickers | Developer: keep harvested actions in the workbook while hiding them from runtime Perform Action and Mark for Action pickers. Configured layouts, such as action tables or tables with custom action payload columns, can still use the hidden action. | Custom Action Configuration |
| Action Table | Create action request rows from a data source | Developer and user: configure an Action Table layout so business users can append pending action request rows based on existing data, then review and upload them later. | Create Action Request Rows from Data Source |
| Ancestor Columns | Use a subset of values in multi-column parent matching | Developer and user: when a dependent layout has multiple direct parent columns, leave selected parent cells with no value and use the supplied values to identify one parent row. | Add Columns from the Parent Layout to Support Row Creation |
| Download | Request total row count for download progress | Developer and user: supported services can provide total-count metadata so large downloads can show percentage progress when configured. | Request Total Row Count for Download Progress |
| Download | Clearer hierarchical download progress | User: during dependent-layout downloads, progress messages identify the current business object and, when separate requests are used for child or descendant rows, the immediate parent business object. Separate-request child or descendant phases can also show approximate progress based on completed parent rows. | Download Data for a Set of Dependent Layouts |
| Lists of Values | Case-insensitive filtering for local list-of-values choices | User: find locally defined list-of-values choices more easily when typing filter text in the popup. | Edit Downloaded Data in the Workbook |
| Date Picker | Date-time support in runtime prompts | User: use the date picker for date-time values in runtime prompts such as Search and custom action dialogs. Choosing a calendar date preserves the existing time component, and invalid typed values remain visible for correction. | N/A |
| Third-party | Microsoft.OpenApi upgraded to version 3.7.0 | N/A | Third Party Licenses |
Fixed Issues in Release 5.0
These issues in prior releases have been fixed in version 5.0:
- In a Form-over-Table layout, incorrect default values no longer appear in child table rows after re-download or clear layout operations. (VBAFE-2818)
- Uploading a new child row in a Form-over-Table layout no longer fails with a 404 error after the workbook is saved and reopened. (VBAFE-2848)
- BOSS metadata parsing now unwraps the
x-searchableextension correctly. (VBAFE-2819) - OpenAPI fields declared as string with the
big-decimalformat are now treated as numbers, rather than strings. (VBAFE-2811) - Download Selected Rows no longer raises an
ArgumentOutOfRangeExceptionfor newly uploaded or shifted existing child rows in a dependent layout. (VBAFE-2821) - In Form-over-Table layouts, Download Selected Rows is now available for eligible child table rows when the child table supports item download, even if the parent form business object does not support collection download. (VBAFE-2952)
- The layout setup wizard now preserves the selected Include Fields option when you navigate back to the layout type page and then forward again. (VBAFE-2815)
- Editing a Help layout no longer clears the worksheet cell immediately below the layout. (VBAFE-2806)
- Creating a new layout after deleting an existing layout from a published workbook no longer raises an unexpected error when the worksheet is protected. (VBAFE-2728)
- Rows are now marked stale correctly after BOSS custom actions when ETag values indicate returned data may not be current. (VBAFE-2813)
- Visual Builder Business Object catalogs no longer show unsupported row finder assignment options. (VBAFE-2825)
- Validation borders in designer dialogs are no longer clipped when a field value is invalid. (VBAFE-2832)
- The Field Editor now shows translated data type labels for subfields in your preferred add-in language. (VBAFE-2930)
- Business object and field titles inferred from metadata now preserve terminal acronym plurals such as
DFFs,GTINs, andMPNs. (VBAFE-2688) - Canceling a long-running download now keeps the progress dialog open, disables the Cancel button, and shows
Canceling...while cancellation finishes, reducing workbook-close errors during cleanup. (VBAFE-789) - Canceling a download now stops dependent layout downloads consistently after the primary layout has finished downloading. (VBAFE-2855)
- Canceling a supported regular multi-row or bulk Table upload now keeps the progress dialog open while already-started upload requests finish, stops starting new requests where possible, and leaves rows that were not sent pending. (VBAFE-180)
- Expanding error details now automatically grows the error dialog to show more detail text. (VBAFE-1198)
- Data validation popups now appear immediately after you commit an invalid single-cell edit without moving the cell selection. (VBAFE-264)
- In dependent Table layouts, removing required parent columns now immediately clears and disables Create Enabled and shows inline warning help instead of leaving a stale checked state. (VBAFE-1667)
- Duplicate row finder variable IDs no longer cause an unexpected error during download. The Row Finder Editor now requires non-empty variable IDs to be unique within the row finder. (VBAFE-1342)
- The Fetch from an Excel Range command in the Values editor now displays the correct Excel import icon. (VBAFE-2973)
New and Changed Features in Release 4.8
New and Changed Features
| Area | Feature | Impact | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search | Support for searching on descendant fields | Developer: include eligible child/descendant fields directly in search conditions. | Use Child Business Object Fields in Search Conditions |
| Custom Action | Allow row status actions that return simple string results to support Gen-AI custom actions | Developer: row-status responses can use either structured items or a simple string message. | Row Status Custom Actions |
| Custom Action | Support for object-based fields with subfields | Developer: helps with map-based parameters by allowing you to configure/select subfields as individual payload inputs. | Custom Action Configuration |
| Layout Setup | Allow developers to specify parent columns during layout setup to facilitate create in dependent layouts | Developer: enable create-ready dependent layouts directly in the setup wizard. | Choose Parent Columns for Dependent Layouts During Layout Setup |
| Ancestor Columns | Support using transient row variables as parent columns to facilitate row creation in dependent layouts | Developer: improves parent matching when no suitable unique set of parent columns is available. | Use Row Variables as Ancestor Columns |
| Ancestor Columns | Allow for case-insensitive matching when connecting child rows to parent rows via parent columns | User: fewer row-matching failures due to case differences in parent-column values. | Add Ancestor Columns to Dependent Layouts |
| Download | Download selected rows | User: refresh only selected rows instead of re-downloading the full table. | Download Selected Rows in a Table |
| Download | Improve reporting of Bad Request errors on download | User: 400 download failures are surfaced as failed downloads in Status Viewer with clearer troubleshooting guidance. | How Do I Resolve Errors From the Service? |
| Lists of Values | In popup windows, improved the message when depends-on field value is missing | User: clearer correction path for missing/invalid depends-on values. | How Do I Resolve List of Values Errors? |
| Workbook Parameters | Enhanced UI to clarify intended usage of the Test Workbook Parameters dialog | Developer: clearer test-only intent and iterative-testing workflow for workbook-parameter-driven download behavior. | Use Workbook Parameters for Download |
| REST | Support “Other” REST services without Oracle REST Standard media types | Developer: catalogs can integrate additional REST services that use application/json without ORDS media types. |
Other Services |
| Third-party | Microsoft.OpenApi upgraded to version 3.4.0 | N/A | Third Party Licenses |
| Third-party | Json.NET upgraded to version 13.0.4 | N/A | Third Party Licenses |
| Third-party | Removed SharpYaml dependency | N/A | Third Party Licenses |
Fixed Issues in Release 4.8
These issues in prior releases have been fixed in version 4.8:
- Invalid dependent LOV filters are now flagged immediately so users can see bad defaults without waiting for later validation (VBAFE-2726)
- BOSS SelfLink handling now guards against URLs that are missing the expected locale segment so link normalization no longer breaks in those cases (VBAFE-2743)
- The attachment popup no longer replaces other primary panels in the Excel popup, so opening attachments does not unexpectedly dismiss other active UI content (VBAFE-2778)
- Designer field lists are now refreshed each time the designer is shown, fixing stale field-picker content after metadata changes (VBAFE-2791)
- Custom action columns in a table now show the required indicator (*) when columns are grouped (VBAFE-2758)
- Fixed NRE when deleting field used by Create-Rows-from-Data-Source (VBAFE-2727)
- Fixed issue with incorrect encoding of space characters in path parameter values, which could cause 404 responses for child table download (VBAFE-2800)