May 16th 2023, RME | Release Note | Replace in Recipes as Asynchronous Operation, Recipe Description/Menu Description Max Length Configuration Option

Summary

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Release date for all features: May 16th 2023

Replace in Recipes, New Asynchronous Method for Improved Performance

• Enabled by Default? - No
• Set up by customer Admin? - No
• Enable via Support ticket? - Yes for early adopters, then will be enabled for all customers by default
• Affects configuration or data? - Yes, affects data processing
• Roles Affected: - if applicable

What's Changing?

Improvement in system performance for the 'Replace in Recipes' operation.

Reason for the Change

'Replace in Recipes' is a popular method for RME customers to update multiple recipes in a single workflow. As customer datasets grow and the number of variables requiring recipe calculations increases, the recipe recalculations have become more demanding of system resources. To improve system performance, this feature will move the recalculations from their current implementation to a background task. 

The Replace in Recipes function will no longer be a synchronous function.  Instead, it will be asynchronous.

The benefit of the asynchronous process is that the application will allow access to other functions whilst the Replace in Recipes operation is completed in the background.

To check the status of the Replace in Recipes request, go to the new Replace in Recipes Request Status page.

Customers Affected

As part of the scheduled RME deployment on 13 June 2023, this functionality will be enabled for all customers using the 'Replace in Recipes' functionality.  

Release Note Info/Steps

After the new functionality has been enabled, two new options will be displayed on the Tools screen:

1.  Replace in recipes*

The original 'Replace in recipes' page will be hidden when the new one is enabled.

2.  Replace in Recipes Request Status

This is a new page to track the status of the 'replace' operation.

Fig.1 - On the Tools page, the improved Replace in Recipes function displays as 'Replace in Recipes*'. 
The new Replace in Recipes Request Status page is also available on the Tools page.  

Each recipe included in the 'replace' request will generate its own 'background task'.

The 'replace tasks' will go into a 'task queue' and will be completed in the background thus enabling other functions to be accessed while the replace tasks are processed.

• To check the status of task completion, go to the Replace in Recipes Request Status page

Many background task requests will result in the queue taking longer to process. Don't expect immediate completion of recipe recalculation with big datasets.

Data will display on the stats page for 30 days from when a request is made.

The page displays the following data:

Request Action = item replaced / replacement item
Affected Recipes = number of recipes selected for replace action
Request Status = status of the request, can be 'new', 'in progress' or 'completed'.
Request Date = Request date of RiR operation
Last Updated Date = Date when the request status was last updated

Fig.2 - Replace in Recipes Request Status displays details about the requested replace action and the status of the replace operation.

Recipe Description/Menu Description Max Length Configuration Option

• Enabled by Default? - No
• Set up by customer Admin? - No
• Enable via Support ticket? - Yes
• Affects configuration or data? - Yes (optional)
• Roles Affected: - if applicable

What's Changing?

Recipe Description and Menu Description fields can be configured to limit a maximum number of characters.

Reason for the Change

To increase ease of use so that these fields are less prone to error (due to excessive number of characters) when used in third-party systems.

Customers Affected

Available to all customers.

Release Note Info/Steps

To limit the number of characters allowed for these fields, please raise a request with Fourth's Support team.

Fig.3 - Recipe 'Menu Description' and 'Description' fields on the main recipe 'Details' tab

These fields can also be configured as 'mandatory for all users', meaning that recipes will not be able to be saved unless the Menu Description and Description fields are populated.