The Web GUI has entered the End of Life phase.
As per runtime component lifecycle policy, the release of Thinkwise Platform version 2023.3 is the last version to support the Web GUI. In this blog, you can read about the impact of this change in runtime component support.
Impact
Any Web GUI that is still in use today will continue to work. However, upgrading to any upcoming Thinkwise Platform version will not be possible. The Web GUI will not support version 2024.1 and up.
Thinkwise will only provide critical security updates for about 1.5 years. When Thinkwise Platform version 2023.3 is no longer supported, the Web GUI will enter the End of Service Life phase. Note that the underlying technologies for the Web GUI are aging, security patches may not always be possible.
Furthermore, there will be no further updates to support new operating systems, browser versions and such. The Web GUI may cease to function when the operating environment is subject to change.
More information about this lifecycle policy phase can be found in the online documentation.
Successor
Active development on the Web GUI has ceased for several years. The Web GUI has been in the End of Development phase since 2020.
With the upcoming User Preferences capabilities in Thinkwise Platform version 2024.1, the Universal GUI will be able to match the functionality offered by the Web GUI. Many of the Universal GUI features exceed the capabilities of the Web GUI. A few examples include:
- OpenID and user provisioning
- Domain input constraints
- Inclusive prefilters
- Screen type breakpoints
- User notifications
Additionally, over 30 additional types of process actions which were exclusive to system flows can be used directly in user process flows when using the Universal GUI.
The Universal and Indicium are optimized for usage in the cloud. Secure, stateless, resource efficient and optimized for horizontal scaling.
If you are still using the Web GUI, we encourage you to switch to the Universal GUI soon. You can read more about considerations when switching to Universal here.
Retrospective
Despite the name, the Web GUI was the second runtime component that offered Thinkwise application capabilities via browsers. The Web GUI was launched in 2012 as the successor of the Java Web GUI which used JavaServer Faces (JSF) technology.
The Web GUI used ASP .NET framework to offer a stateful, classic web experience. A shared back-end codebase between the Web GUI and the Windows GUI improved both maintenance and development speed. This shared codebase later became the basis for the Indicium service tier.
In the early days of the Web GUI, browsers were not as mature as they are today. Differences between the various browsers made it quite an effort to keep support stable across the board. Updates of browsers were sparse and automatic updates of browsers were not yet a thing. Compatibility with early versions of Internet Explorer were some of the main challenges of the Web GUI.
Technical capabilities such as database connection pooling allowed the Web GUI to offer new features such as IAM authentication. Performance on web has always been key, which led to sweeping performance improvements that were not strictly necessary for the Windows GUI.
The Web GUI offered many insights that we have applied to Indicium and Universal. After serving many customers, applications, and end users, it will now retire and take its place in the history of the Thinkwise Platform.
Free the world of legacy software