The transition from OS 9 to OS X is pretty radical, and there are a number of old technologies that Apple has chosen to let fade into history. Some of them, Helix formerly put to use. While you are waiting for Helix 6 to come your way, there are things you now in order to ensure that your collections handle the transition smoothly. This FAQ document illustrates the changes and gives you advance information so you can prepare your collections for a smooth transition to Helix 6.
If you do not take time to prepare your collections for Helix 6, they will continue to work fine. Things may look a bit different, and some functionality may change, but your collections will otherwise operate normally. And if you haven't ever used any of the features mentioned below, your collections should function the same as when run in Helix 5.
Publish and Subscribe are not supported in OS X. For some of you, this will mean rethinking some of what you have created. Publish and Subscribe commands are available for user menus and in sequences in Helix 5, and collections that actively put them to use may require some Design Mode reworking.
| Publish and Subscribe Commands |
|---|
| Create Publisher… |
| Publish Now |
| Publisher Options… |
| Subscribe To… |
| Subscriber Options… |
When updating a collection to Helix 6, all Publish and Subscribe related commands are simply (and without notification) removed from a collection. This will have no effect on the general functionality of your user icons (they will simply have fewer commands than they used to), but if you had used menu dividers to segregate the Publish and Subscribe commands, your user icons will have an pair of menu dividers one right after the other.
Of more concern is the use of Publish and Subscribe commands in sequences. A command in a sequence is put there for a reason, so if a Publish and Subscribe command is there, it must have been providing a specific function that will no longer work. All other commands in such a sequence will still work, but the Publish and Subscribe related steps will be missing, so the sequence will either give the appearance of working as it did before or the sequence will 'do nothing' leading to unexepected results.
An easy way to search your collections for Publish and Subscribe commands has been provided by Autograph Systems. The Helix PubSub Finder utility generates this information in an easy to read format. (This application is not supported by QSA ToolWorks, LLC.)
If you are currently running your Client/Server database on AppleTalk, you will have to make the transition to TCP/IP when Helix 6 is released. The good news is that the TCP/IP code in Helix 5.3 is the code that was rewritten for Helix 6, so you can run Helix Client/Server in TCP/IP now, and be assured that you are ready for Helix 6.
| Steps to Assure Helix 6 Networking Compatibilty | |
|---|---|
| Upgrade to Helix 5.3 | The TCP/IP code in Helix 5.3 is significantly different than that in Helix 5.0-5.2.1. Helix 5.3 actually contains the rewritten TCP/IP code that was intended for Helix 6, so running Helix Client/Server 5.3 in TCP/IP, allows you to test your network for compatibility with Helix 6. Helix 5.3 is also contains many other bug fixes and feature enhancements, so using it brings you as close to the Helix 6.0 feature set as possible, short of running Helix 6 itself. |
| Test Under AppleTalk | If you are upgrading to Helix 5.3 and you always used AppleTalk in the past, test your collections under AppleTalk for a while to make sure there are no problems related to your upgrade. |
| Test Under TCP/IP | Once you are satisfied that Helix 5.3 is performing as you expect and you have a fairly good notion of how it performs with your database, pick a time when you won't be under too much pressure and switch to TCP/IP. You may choose to approach this as a one day experiment, or as a permanent switch with the understanding that you can always switch back to AppleTalk if something unusual is observed. |
Keep in mind that Helix maintains independent AppleTalk and TCP/IP preference settings for RAMJet and custom caches. If have customized your preferences in AppleTalk and you switch to TCP/IP, you need to reset your preferences.
Although we are aware that some operations are slower (and some are faster) when using TCP/IP, you should find that using Helix with TCP/IP is as fast as (or faster than) AppleTalk on average.
This isn't really a "what you can do now" thing, but it is important enough that it bears mentioning: The Save and Log feature has been reworked, and is transparent in Helix 6 Server. There is a preference setting that allows you to disable logging if desired, but Helix 6 Server will turn in it on by default.
If you are not in the habit of using Save and Log now, it would be good to start using it, or at least read the Helix Reference manual to understand what it does. QSA ToolWorks recommends that logging always be used with Helix Server.