Library Vulnerability Report

October 2023: Update

In order to enhance the integrity and security of deployed Omnis Studio libraries, and to address the library vulnerability reported to us in July (see below), the mechanism used to lock classes in a private library has changed in Omnis Studio Revision 35659.

Consequently, all libraries opened in Omnis Studio 11 revision 35659 or later WILL REQUIRE CONVERSION, INCLUDING LIBRARIES CREATED WITH ALL PRIOR REVISIONS OF OMNIS STUDIO 11 (as well as Studio 10 or earlier libraries). THE LIBRARY CONVERSION PROCESS IS IRREVERSIBLE. THEREFORE, AND IN ALL CASES, YOU SHOULD MAKE A SECURE BACKUP of all existing Omnis Studio 11 libraries BEFORE OPENING THEM in Omnis Studio 11 Revision 35659 or later. Go to Downloads for more information and to download the latest revision of Omnis Studio 11.

July 2023

An issue with the integrity of the class locking process in Omnis Studio has been reported to us. We would like to assure everyone that we take matters of this nature very seriously, and as soon as we received information on this, our development team acted to consider approaches to mitigate this situation. We have thoroughly investigated the issue and have successfully implemented changes that will be available in Omnis Studio 11 Rev 35439, to alter the behaviour that made this operation possible.

Case summary

We become aware of a technique being used on Omnis libraries in an 'always private state’, to enable in specific circumstances library access and to unlock classes. In the process that was demonstrated to us, whilst the process of unlocking the class was completed, this method resulted in the library being left in a potentially corrupt state with unpredictable consequences then occurring during reading, writing or execution.

The upcoming Omnis Studio 11 Rev 35439 patch makes libraries in an 'always private state’ more secure by implementing additional support offering further restrictions. These additional restrictions can now be set in this latest patch of Studio 11.

It is recognised that the integrity and security of Omnis Studio Libraries is an ongoing project, and future scheduled work will enhance both the class lock & 'always private' library system.

If you have any further questions or need any additional information, please don't hesitate to reach out. Thank you for your continued support and understanding.

We have begun immediately investigating the report as circulated 31st July 2023. We will of course update you on this as soon as our investigations are completed.

.NET Support

Sept 2022

Support for Microsoft .NET is provided in Omnis Studio using the .NET Objects external component. You should note that this component is now deprecated in Omnis Studio 10.x or above, and is currently only provided for backwards compatibility in existing Omnis Studio libraries that use .NET. You should not use the .NET Objects external component for new applications in Omnis Studio 10.x or above.

Apple M1 & macOS Monterey support for Omnis Studio 10.2 Rev 31315

Nov 2021

Omnis Studio 10.2 Rev 31315 on macOS is a 'Universal build' meaning that it will run natively on M1 (arm64) and Intel (x86_64) based Apple computers. There are a number of enhancements that support Omnis Studio running on M1 based Macs or macOS 11+ in this release, plus it is certified to run on macOS 12 Monterey. Please see the Readme and Whatsnew102.pdf for further details.

macOS Big Sur (version 11) support for Omnis Studio 10.2, 10.1.x and 8.1.x

Dec 2020

Omnis Studio 10.2 Rev 28632 fully supports macOS 11 Big Sur. Omnis Studio 10.2 Rev 28632 was released in December 2020 and is certified for use on the release version of macOS Big Sur.

Studio 10.2

We released Omnis Studio 10.2 November 10, 2020, just before the official release of Big Sur. It is possible that there will be compatibility issues, including some drawing anomalies, when running the release version of Omnis Studio 10.2 on Big Sur. Drawing support changed with each beta release of Big Sur that Omnis engineering was working with, but all these issues have been addressed in Omnis Studio 10.2 Rev 28632 and developers should upgrade to this version.

Studio 10.1

Omnis Studio 10.1 will operate on Big Sur, but it will not be a certified or supported configuration. We therefore recommend that you upgrade to Omnis Studio 10.2 Rev 28632 (or above) as soon as possible.

Studio 8.1

Big Sur is a large step forward in architecture and developers should note that older applications such as Studio 8.1 cannot simply be adjusted for immediate use on this new version of macOS.

We therefore recommend upgrading to Omnis Studio 10.2 Rev 28632 (or above) if you believe there is a business need or individual use case for you or your end users to use macOS Big Sur.

macOS Catalina (10.15) support for Omnis Studio 10.0.x and 8.1.x

Nov 2019

Apple released macOS Catalina (version 10.15) in October 2019. To support this latest macOS upgrade we have released patch/upgrade files for Omnis Studio 10.0.0.3.2 and 8.1.7.2. These releases are available for macOS only and are certified to run on macOS Catalina (10.15). The upgrade DMGs are FULL trees so must be installed into a new folder, and they are available here:

https://www.omnis.net/developers/resources/download/updates/upgrade.jsp

Please note that the Omnis Studio 10.1 release is certified to run on macOS Catalina (10.15).

Java Legacy Integration

July 2019

Oracle has changed the way it licenses Java. Therefore, in order for you to avoid the ongoing use of Java in connection with Omnis Studio, we no longer provide support for various Java files in the Omnis Studio 10.x tree and consequently we have removed various Omnis libraries or features that rely on Java. (See the Whatsnew10x.pdf for more details.)

If you wish to reinstate the Java Legacy files in Studio 10.x, please download the files from:
https://omnissoftware.box.com/v/JavaIntegrationSupport
and

1. Copy the 'java' folder from the zip to your AppData install location.
2. Copy the single file inside the 'startup' folder (wsc.lbs) from the zip into the 'startup' folder into your AppData install location.
3. Copy all the files inside the 'xcomp' folder from the zip into the 'xcomp' folder in the Omnis Program Files install location.

Note that the use of Java 8 in Omnis Studio 8.1.7 was the final configuration that we verified & supported.

8.0.x support for High Sierra (mac OS 10.13)

Sept 2017

We wish to inform you that Omnis Studio 8.0.3 or earlier will not support macOS 10.13, known as High Sierra. Omnis Studio 8.1 or higher will support High Sierra and if you wish to create and run applications on macOS 10.13, we recommend you upgrade to Omnis Studio 8.1.x.

Apple to deprecate support for 32-bit apps

August 2017

Following their WWDC in June 2017, Apple announced that macOS High Sierra (10.13) will be the last macOS release to support 32-bit apps without compromise; beyond that, macOS will start to warn customers running 32-bit apps and then at some point they will no longer be supported. Apple published a short note about this:

https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=06282017a

We strongly urge you to move all your development and deployment of all macOS applications to 64-bit to continue supporting your customers going forward, which means you should upgrade to Omnis Studio 8.1.

Legacy Java runtime is requested when using Omnis Studio with Java on Mac OS X/macOS

October 2016

If Omnis is attempting to start the Java Virtual Machine this may result in a Java dialog being shown by the system which has the following text;
To open "Omnis" you need to install the legacy Java SE 6 runtime.
This dialog will be shown if attempting to start Java with a 32-bit version of Studio ( 6.1.3 and earlier ) when the legacy Apple 1.6 SDK is not installed. Clicking the More Info button on the dialog will open the legacy 1.6 SDK page from where it can be downloaded and installed.
However, this dialog can also be shown when trying to start an Oracle JVM under a 64 bit version of Studio, i.e. Studio 8.0 and later. The default instructions set within a 64-bit version of Java do not allow it to be started from a JNI bundled app (e.g. Omnis). This will cause it to fail when Omnis tries to start the JVM and this displays the fallback legacy system dialog message.
This can be remedied in one of the following ways.

1) Install the legacy 1.6 SDK which by default sets up Java to allow it to be started by JNI bundled apps. This will solve the issue when using either a 64 bit JDK or JRE version of Java. Note that when upgrading to a new major release of OS X/macOS the legacy SDK is removed and will need to be re-installed.

2) Edit the Info.plist in an Oracle JDK to allow the JVM to be started from JNI bundled apps (e.g. Omnis). The Info.plist for a JDK is located at,
/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdkX.X.X_XXX.jdk/Contents/Info.plist ( where X.X.X_XXX is the version, e.g. 1.8.0_101 ).
This should follow the same JDK path as used in the jvm entry in the Studio config.json file.
To allow JNI bundled apps to be used change the key:
<key>JVMCapabilities</key>
<array>
   <string>CommandLine</string>
</array>
to:
<key>JVMCapabilities</key>
<array>
   <string>CommandLine</string>
   <string>JNI</string>
   <string>BundledApp</string>
</array>

The plist file can be edited in a plain text editor such as TextEdit.
Note that if no JDK is present, i.e. a JRE version of Java is being used, then use the solution in 1).

Dropdown Lists on Windows

April 2016

Following an update Microsoft issued (KB3145739 - 4/12/2016), dropdown lists were not performing correctly in some Omnis applications. The drop list was appearing behind the main window so it appeared not to be dropping down at all. We have remedied this in a patch, Omnis Studio 5.2.3.1, which you can download here: Studio5231 (Windows only)

Patches to earlier versions of Omnis Studio (4.x & 5.0.x) are not being considered at this time.

Omnis Studio 5.X and Mac OS 10.10 (Yosemite)

November 2014

Removal of the Open Transport network layer from Mac OSX 10.10 means that versions of Omnis Studio prior to version 6.0 will not work on this platform. Data Access Modules and networking functions are affected.

Please be advised that you should not upgrade to Mac OSX 10.10 (Yosemite) unless you are using or plan to use Omnis Studio version 6.0 or later. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause our developers.

Mac OS X support for Omnis Studio 5.x

October 2013

Please note that the PostgreSQL DAM in Studio 5.1 has compatiblity issues with Mac OSX 10.9 and later. This is because Open Transport was removed from the Core Services Framework in the OS X 10.9 Mavericks SDK.

To use the PostgreSQL DAM with Studio 5.1 & Studio 5.1.1, a replacement DAM is required (available from the ODPP download area). If using Studio 5.1, a replacement libpq.dylib is also required. This may be obtained from the ODPP download area or copied from a later version of Studio if preferred).

This issue does not affect Omnis Studio 5.2.

Mac OS X support for Omnis Studio 4.x

October 2013

Please note that Omnis Studio 4.x is not supported with Mac OSX 10.9 and later. This is because Open Transport was removed from the Core Services Framework in the OS X 10.9 Mavericks SDK.

As a consequence of this, the Studio 4.3 WebEnabler and FileOps components no longer work. Omnis commands TCPConnect/Send/Receive/Close, HTTP..., SMTP..., POP3, MailSplit, HTTPSplitHTML and FTP... are also affected. The trace log will warn that the web enabler external fails to load and any web enabler commands will replaced by tokens (X2345678...).
Although it may be possible to rewrite some of these commands to use TCPTalk functionality, there is no automatic process in place to achieve this. In these cases, upgrading to Studio 5 may be preferable.

This issue affects Omnis Studio versions 4.3, 4.3.1 and 4.3.2.x. Studio 5.0 and later use a more recent SDK and are not affected.

Omnis Studio oOLE2 Component

December 2014

As of Omnis Studio 6.1, the OLE2 component is no longer shipped with the product. If you wish to restore support for OLE2, please download the oole2.dll and place inside the Omnis\xcomp folder.

Further information on the OLE2 component can be found in the Extending Omnis Manual.

Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS) 2011

May 2011

Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS) 2011 includes server class applications such as Exchange, SharePoint and SQL Server, which can contend for system resources. Based on the level of usage of the Microsoft applications, Omnis Studio may perform at a level lower than required.

If Omnis Studio running on SBS 2011 does not perform to your requirements, it is recommended that Studio be installed on a dedicated Windows server. If you have any questions regarding the use of SBS 2011, please contact Microsoft Support.

JPEG & PNG images on Mac OS X platforms

September 2010

With the assistance of Michael Mantkowski of Cleintrax Software, we have discovered a limitation of the drawing code on the Mac OS X platforms (Intel & PPC).

The problem is occurring because the row size of the picture data when converted to 4 bytes per pixel pixmap is larger than 0x3FFE (16382) bytes.

We will only be able to resolve this matter when Omnis Studio for the Mac OS X platform is ported to Cocoa in the future. In the meantime, the workarounds are to ensure that you use smaller JPEG & PNG images, or re-size the existing images with a suitable third party tool.

Omnis Studio and 64-bit Operating Systems

January 2011, updated December 2014

Omnis Studio has been tested and is certified for use with Windows 64-bit operating systems: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 2003 Server and 2008 Server, as well as 64-bit editions of Mac OS X (10.5 & 10.6).

Please note that the 32-bit edition of Omnis Studio is not interoperable with 64-bit software and vice-versa. For instance, the 32-bit edition requires use of 32-bit ODBC Administrator plus 32-bit clientware with any DAMs used.

Update: Please note that as of Studio 6.1, support for Linux is 64-bit only. Versions prior to 6.1 are 32-bit only.

File Locking Issues under Mac OS X

Click here for important information regarding the use of Omnis datafiles on OS X.