What's New WEBcnx 2018 R1

Design Library

Layer and Project Dialogs

In WEBcnx 2018 we have clientised our Project and Layer views (both for new and existing items) and moved them from standalone pages to Object Dialogs, as seen below.

This has resulted in a significant increase in performance, not only due to the mechanism within the Object Dialog processing data much faster, but also as it is no longer necessary to load a new page when opening a Project or Layer. As explained in the User Interface page, it is now possible to create Database Windows for a "Summary Panel" at the top of the Dialog, which will be constantly visible, regardless of which page is selected from the left sidebar. Clicking on any user fields within these Object Dialogs (such as the "Created By" field in the image above), will navigate to the relevant User. Alongside these changes, we have clientised the Save Project dialog. It will automatically use the data provided within the Object Dialog, and ask only for a Project Folder.

Design GUIDs

Projects and Layers now have GUIDs in WEBcnx as well as IDs. The main benefit of this will be for Enterprise users, where previously it has been possible for two designs to have identical IDs across different sites, causing issues in certain workflows.

Directory

From WEBcnx 2018 onwards, it is possible to add new Customers and Addresses to the database (to be used in both WEBcnx and Impact). Only administrators have the ability to do so, and the corresponding Database Window must contain all required fields (A_DESCRPT for Addresses, CS_CODE and CS_NAME for Customers).

To add a new Customer, click the plus icon in the browser on the Directory:

New Addresses must be added from the Object Dialog of the relevant context (e.g a Customer, User or Site). From the Addresses tab, click the plus icon.

User Interface

The following changes to the User Interface in WEBcnx 2018 continue to refine the overall user experience with ease of use and improved performance in mind.

Dashboard.aspx

In previous versions, each Dashboard had its own page (/TaskManagement.aspx, /DesignLibrary.aspx, etc). In WEBcnx 2018, Dashboards are served from a single Dashboard.aspx page, with a parameter added to the URL to determine the Dashboard in question (/Dashboard.aspx?Id=TaskManagement, /Dashboard.aspx?Id=DesignLibrary). This means that rather than load the full page, including all navigation elements, we only need to reload the browsers within the dashboard, as seen below

Database Windows

In WEBcnx 2018, as more elements have been clientised and ported from standalone pages to Object Dialogs, we have improved the Database Window functionality. As well as the standard "View" Database Window, we have introduced "Summary" windows for each data type. This window can be displayed at the top of the object Dialog regardless of which page is selected in the left sidebar. 

The read-only status of these fields can be set individually when editing the database windows, but this will only apply within the item's own Object Dialog. For example in a Customer Object Dialog, any fields with the read-only parameter set to false will be editable. When viewing the customer tab on a Task, however, all fields will be read-only.

Allow pages in dialogs to be reordered

Clicking and dragging any page in a dialog will allow you to drop it between any other pages to change the page order. This applies to you only so you can personalise the information you see in a dialog, putting the information you use the most where you like it.

Consistent Entry Fields

The various entry field a user sees throughout WEBcnx have had an update to ensure they're consistent. You won't see these on tasks and advanced searches just yet but these are also coming soon!

You will now see that many controls have an action icon on the left side of the entry field; designs, sites, users, addresses, customers, etc. Clicking on any of these will open the dialog for that item. For instance, if you have the company "Arden Software Ltd" selected in a customer selector, the white customer icon is clickable and will then bring up the customer profile dialog for Arden Software. If you have customer management privileges, you can fully manage this customer from anywhere you can access it now, without having to go back to the directory. The same applies to users, designs and any other items that appear in dialogs.

Workflow

Design GUIDs

As mentioned in the Designs Dashboard page, Projects and Layers can now be identified by GUIDs as well as IDs. To reflect this, the CreateTask and ModifyCAD activities have ProjectGUID and LayerGUID properties, these will take precedence over the ProjectId and LayerId fields respectively if both are set.

Single Sign-On

A bug which prevented Single Sign-On/LDAP users from executing workflows correctly has now been resolved. The Workflow Services web.config will need LoginId and Password entries to the <Arden.WEBcnx.Workflow.Services> section, we advise users to use the SCHEDULER login details for best performance

Other workflow changes

• A FindDatabaseItemByName method has been added to the Database object, allowing users to search for Projects on the Name field.
• An "Abandon" option has been added to Workflow Bookmarks within the WEBcnx site admin, allowing users to completely remove old bookmarks
• The PerformValueMapping activity has a ValueMappingId property, meaning users can enter the unique ID for a Value Mapping entry rather than its name. While the ValueMappingName field still works for legacy purposes, we would advise administrators to use the Id field going forwards.

Other Enhancements

• We have clientised and modernised the following dialogs:
  • Task Type Selector
  • Project and Layer view
  • Report Templates
  • Project & Layer exports
• All Object Dialogs now have dedicated URLs, allowing users to send links to specific Customers, Users, Projects, Layers and more.
• The two types of layer viewer have been renamed from "Raster" and "Javascript" viewers to "Static" and "Interactive", respectively
• The Database Window "Usage" field has been renamed to "Location"
• Entries in discussions no longer require a keypress to create, meaning it's possible to paste in some text by right clicking and submitting
• A new mechanism has been introduced to retrieve the document count for Tasks, Designs, Customers, Users and Sites, greatly improving load times for browser rows
• New aspects of the User Interface translated into German and Spanish
• Added support for the following languages
  • Albanian (Albania)
  • Dutch (Netherlands)
  • Bosnian (Bosnia & Herzegovina)
  • Bulgarian (Bulgaria)
  • Croatian (Croatia)
  • Czech (Czechia)
  • Estonian (Estonia)
  • Greek (Greece)
  • Hungarian (Hungary)
  • Latvian (Latvia)
  • Lithuanian (Lithuania)
  • Norwegian (Norway)
  • Serbian (Serbia)
  • Slovak (Slovakia)
  • Slovenian (Slovenia)
  • Ukrainian (Ukraine)

    As our list of supported languages grows, we've added a configuration option to the site web.config to limit which languages do and don't appear. See the Site Configuration page for more information

Administration Features

• Contextual Help - In WEBcnx 2018 we have improved Contextual Help, allowing administrators to include links within Dashboards and Object Dialogs to assist users. These values can be configured within the site web.config file, and operate under a fallback structure. That means, it's possible to set a generic "Dashboard" link that will appear on all dashboards, and a specific "Task Dashboard" link that will override the generic entry. For more information, see our Contextual Help documentation.
• Language Filter - As our list of supported language grows (see Other Notes & Fixes for a list of those added in this version), we have added the functionality to limit which languages appear within WEBcnx. This can be configured by adding a CultureConfigurationSection element to the site's web.config, see Configuring available languages for more information
• Email Templates - WEBcnx 2018 includes new email templates for User Management, meaning Administrators can customise the email sent to new users upon creation of their account, and when their passwords are changed. These emails will only be sent to users who will log in to WEBcnx.
• WEBcnx Administration Tool - In WEBcnx 2017 R2, we incorporated our Workflow Designer and Monitor into our Administration tool, however a side effect of this was that users could only have one instance of the Designer or Monitor open at a time. In WEBcnx 2018, we have enabled multiple instances of the Administration tool, meaning users can now open as many Workflow Designers and/or Monitors as they need.

Reported Bug Fixes

• Design Selector options not displaying when creating a new task with a Layer or Project value mapped in
• Some users receiving notifications for discussions on all tasks
• Errors when creating certain report types
• Broken 'Close' button on the error message when uploading an invalid document type
• Workflow-triggered value mappings do not process Document Custom Fields
• Workflows did not always fire correctly for LDAP (Single Sign-On) users