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What's New?
VisuaLinks 4.2 is on its way! We plan to release our latest (and, we think, greatest), before the end of this year. This release includes a great deal of backend performance and stability enhancements to make this version the fastest and most reliable ever.
In addition, the release will include a number of new capabilities and enhancements to existing features:
General Interface Enhancements
The 4.2 release introduces a number of changes to the VisuaLinks Client interface. These changes are intended to make the VisuaLinks Client even easier to use.
The Main Toolbar icons have been grouped to reduce the appearance of "clutter." In this example (of an Enterprise installation), you can see that some of the service icons have a "…" after the name. The "…" indicates that the icon is an organizer - that additional options are available. Hovering your mouse over one of these icons displays the options.
For example, the Query organizer displays these options:
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By default, these options are displayed anytime your mouse rolls over the Main Toolbar icon. You can also opt to display these options only when you right-click on the Main Toolbar icon. |
The "roll-over" is also used in the View toolbars to group related features.
For example, basic editing tools are grouped together in the View Toolbar. |
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When you select a tool, the icon used to represent the menu changes to reflect the current selected tool. |
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The Toolbox Shortcuts have been modified.
A few tools have been removed from the Shortcuts area - such as the View Filter and Notes. These tools have been moved to the View Services Toolbar where they can be accessed quickly while working with data in the View.
Additionally, the Mail and Shared Browser tools have been moved into the Shortcuts area so that you can open them only when you need them. Whenever you receive mail (result notifications) from VisuaLinks, an alert displays in the right-hand side of the status bar.
Clicking the alert opens the Mail dialog to display the notifications waiting for you.
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The 4.2 release includes a wide variety of these types of enhancements. We hope you'll find that these changes make your experience faster and more efficient.
Personal User Profiles
The 4.2 release lets each user personalize the interface to suit their individual needs. The Profiles tool lets you create one or more profiles that specify which services, menus and tools are displayed. Create as many profiles as you'd like to create the interactive experience that best suits your needs or preferences.
Details Report Memo Enhancements
The Details Report Memo has been greatly enhanced to make working with the individual values contained in your data even easier.
Specifically, the Detail Table has been modified to include a "grouping" feature that lets you create an expandable/collapsible list of similar values.
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Simply choose the attributes you want to use to group data in the list. You can group data within groups by selecting more than one attribute.
VisuaLinks redraws the table to display the groups based on shared attribute values.
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The grouping options are available whenever a details table is displayed - in the Details Spreadsheet, in the Query Results and in the Favorites.
Point-to-Point Walk
The 4.2 release introduces a new mode - the  Point-to-Point Walk. This new mode lets you select data in the View and perform a "Walk" to other data in the View. This lets you quickly see how the selected items are related, if at all.
Trash Can
VisuaLinks 4.2 includes a temporary delete queue. Whenever you remove an item from your data, you can now elect to go ahead and remove it entirely or place it in the  Trash Can - a queue from which you can retrieve it at any time.
DIG Connector
The 4.2 release completely revamps the previous implementation of the Digital Information Gateway (DIG) connector. This new implementation creates a more stable, faster connection between these two technologies and enables virtually all of VisuaLinks' services to execute against any and all data accessible from your DIG Server.
Web Services Connector
VisuaLinks 4.2 includes a new data driver implementation that provides, among other advantages, for web services searches. This allows you to create models on web-based content. The release also includes two sample data sources (Yahoo Web and Yahoo News) along with a sample model (Web-Search) to demonstrate this capability against the Yahoo!™ web services.
Database Monitoring
The 4.2 release includes the ability to keep track of all data records retrieved and displayed by individual users. This new feature creates a "monitoring" database that writes the key and type of each object displayed by individual users. Items are logged whenever they are displayed to a user - such as after a successful query or a Load service execution.
Modeling Enhancements
The VisuaLinks Modeler introduces several enhancements, including the ability to set which services a particular model is available under and a new drag and drop object/association editor.
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...that you can change the default location of automatic VBase backups?
VisuaLinks comes with a wide variety of default settings - to make the administration of the system as quick and simple as possible. These defaults are entirely configurable. One of these settings has to do with the automatic VBase backup. VisuaLinks is set to back up your VBase daily - and by default, stores the backup file to the serverresources/backup sub-directory of your Visual Clarity Server installation directory.
You may want to change the location of the backup for a number of reasons - not the least of which is redundancy. For example, if you change the location to a different drive, the backup files will be available if something should go wrong with the original drive.
To change the default backup location, you simply need to modify a couple settings in the ServerResources.properties file.
1. If the Visual Clarity Server is running, shut it down.
Be sure to check for active connections before shutting it down!
2. Create a directory on the drive where you want to store the backup files.
3. Open the ./serverresources/ServerResources.properties file in a standard text editor.
4. Search for backup/restore.
5. Change the following properties to indicate the drive/directory where you want to store the backup files and add a forward slash ( / ) to the end:
javaldap.backup.path =
javaldap.restore.path =
For example, you might want to store the backup files to a VBaseBackups directory on your D drive. In this case, your entries would look like these:
javaldap.backup.path = D:/VBaseBackups/
javaldap.restore.path = D:/VBaseBackups/
6. Save and close the file.
7. Re-start the Visual Clarity Server.
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The VisuaLinks Disambiguator is a powerful data transformation tool. It provides a wide variety of functions to help you integrate
and standardize your data. Not only does the Disambiguator provide a large number of built-in transformation tools, it supports
custom functions as well. These functions can be used in combination to modify the format or behavior of data values loaded into
VisuaLinks.
The Disambiguator is most often used within a model definition to transform data returned to users after a successful service
(Query, Walk, Summary) execution.
The following example represents just one of the many ways you might use the Disambiguator to modify data values.
In this example, we'll assume that one object's attributes contains relative paths to external files. In this example,
the files are either PDF or SWF (compressed Flash) files. This example could, however, be applied to virtually any file type.
This figure shows an excerpt of the table from which the object's attributes are derived. At the moment, we're focusing on the
files column.
The values in the files column represent relative paths to individual files. Using the Disambiguator, we can configure these
files so that they can be opened from VisuaLinks when the object's attributes are displayed using the Details mode.
The VisuaLinks Details mode includes an option to open files recognized by the local machine - based on applications available
on the machine. Using the current value format, VisuaLinks would be unable to open these files because these values represent
paths relative to the database location - rather than absolute paths or paths relative to the Visual Clarity Server. Using the
Disambiguator, we can modify these values to include a full path, allowing VisuaLinks to open the files when the object's details
are displayed.
To apply the necessary functions, open the object's model definition through the VisuaLinks Modeler.
In this example, the bright green highlight indicates that we have already set a Disambiguator function on the type
attribute. In fact, the type attribute is duplicated, allowing us to permit searches on the type
(the first, "Searchable," instance) and set the icon displayed based on the type (the second, "transformed," instance).
To apply our new functions, we click the  Functions icon in the files attribute to open the Disambiguator.
In the list of Available Functions, locate and double-click the Evaluate JavaScript Expression function.
In the Properties area, we'll modify the "result" value to include the full path to the files. You can do this in one of
a couple ways - depending on the access to the files:
- If the files reside on individual user machines (i.e., the path is to a file that would be present on each user's
machine, and is in the same location), you can add an absolute directory path, e.g., C:/path/...
- If the files reside on a web server, you can append an HTTP call to the file names, e.g., http://Server_Name/path/...
- If the files reside on a different machine or server, you can add the path in the following format, e.g., \\\\Server_Name\\path\\...
Note that, in this format, multiple backslashes are used. This is to "escape" the literal backslash, i.e., for every one backslash you need, you must enter an additional one.
In this example, the files reside on a server accessible by everyone in our local network. We'll add the file path values with the server name and path information.
In addition to this function, we'll also add the Convert to Document Path function to indicate to VisuaLinks that the value represents an external file
that can be opened by the user if the application used to create the file is present.
Once we've defined the appropriate functions, we simply click OK to save the settings. When we return to the object attributes,
the files attribute now displays a bright green button to indicate that transformation have been set.
After saving the model, we can load the data into a VisuaLinks Client to view the behavior of the transformations.
Using the  Details mode to select an item will now open that particular item - in whatever program typically launches the item's file type.
For example, detailing the Starting VisuaLinks Demo object will open a browser to display the demo.
 And, detailing the VisuaLinks Installation Guide object will open an Adobe Acrobat application to display the file.
The Disambiguator is designed specifically to add value to your data. Experiment with its various functions to see how much
more meaningful your data can be.
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| Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) and governments around the world have stepped up their oversight and
regulation of different financial industries. A fundamental issue being addressed is the compliance of these regulated
institutions to properly, timely, and accurately submit the required information. Recently, in the United States, there
has been a heavy crackdown on different violations including failure to monitor accounts or file reports,
inadequate Anti-Money Laundering (AML) procedures to detect and report suspicious activity, the inability to designate
a compliance officer, and failure to implement a client identification program. The following are examples of some
of the more recent fines imposed:
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| Oppenheimer & Company | US $2.8M |
| ABN AMRO Bank, N.V. | US $80M |
| Israel Discount Bank | US $25M |
| Bank of New York | US $38M |
| Banco de Chile | US $6M |
| Arab Bank Plc | US $24M |
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There have been serious concerns raised throughout financial industries regulated by various governments involved in
AML operations, to remain compliant with respect to the required filings. In fact, a new wave of "defensive" filings
has flooded many FIUs because the institutions want to cover any item that may be of concern. Many of these defensive
filings are not appropriate, but the institutions do not want to be liable for criminal penalties or fines that could
easily reach millions of dollars.
Additionally, in the U.S., due to strict Patriot Act requirements, including Section 312, many financial institutions
are dropping correspondent accounts and private banking clients or even complete industry classes (such as Money
Service Businesses - MSBs) to avoid exposure to compliance or reporting deficiencies. Closing these accounts by the
institutions to prevent these penalties is often based on generic guidelines rather than specific issues, violations,
questionable behaviors, or unusual activity.
This is due in part because MSBs have traditionally been hard to regulate because they are often franchised businesses and
individually receive minimal oversight with respect to their compliance and operations. In fact, there are many MSB
operations that are fully aware of the nature of the illegitimate transactions they conduct; however, these monies also
represent a primary revenue stream for the franchise. Therefore, they are easy to corrupt with large tips (kickbacks) to
the tellers who turn a blind eye to the multiple driver licenses presented, large frequency of transactions, or excessive
dollar amounts conducted by the perpetrators. MSBs have traditionally represented a less stringent and more effective
vehicle by which to launder money.
As Law Enforcement strives to tighten their grip on the flow of illegal currency, criminals continue to look for ways
of moving their ill-gotten gains. Knowing that MSBs are often favored by certain types of criminals, a proactive
investigation was started by an FIU looking for a specific pattern of money movement into towns near an international border.
The case started with two reports and a name (shown in Figure 1) that fit into the pattern of currency flow being
investigated. In this situation, the subject only reported the currency after being questioned by Customs
officials at a port of entry check-point. While the investigators thought this was suspicious, they were unable
to find enough data to continue building their case.
Through VisuaLinks ability to link seemingly unrelated documents and a review of the associated text of the reports (e.g., the narrative), it was determined that there was a pattern of money moving to the same individual from several different states. The subject was providing altered names on the reports but was identified and linked by the associated data found by VisuaLinks (Figures 2 and 3).
The network grew as the case developed. Soon, other reports from states that were not part of the initial proactive targets appeared. The pattern of money-flow was the same even as the scope of the case changed - and the total amount transferred to this person now exceeded over $500,000. Essentially, this person was crossing the border (out of country) to collect the money and then came back into the country without declaring it.
Outside sources of data added weight to the case. The information was returned to Customs for a full investigation based on the results presented in Figure 4. It was determined this person was involved in an alien smuggling ring and the money was laundered through a used appliance business.
For additional information on this type of pattern, see our May 2003 issue of the LinkLetter.
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