TVC 2011.2.0 Release Information

17 June 2011

1. General

1.1. ENOVIA V6R2012

This release of TVC has been qualified for ENOVIA V6R2012. The look and feel of TVC has also been adapted to the new standards as of V6R2012.

If you are using or planning to upgrade to V6R2012, you should pay special attention to the topics below.

1.1.1. Category Tree – Parameters Passed

The category tree has been replaced with a toolbar menu. Commands that previously were shown in the left-hand category tree now appear in a toolbar menu.

There is a bug with the ENOVIA toolbar implementation that results in that the ID of the object is not passed correctly to all toolbar-commands. When you have commands in this menu whose HREF doesn’t contain a reference to a JSP page (like the example below), then the parameters are not added to the HREF as it should.

${ROOT_DIR}/tvc-action/someAction?param=value&anotherParam=value

The work around for this bug is to add a bogus page reference to the HREF as shown below:

${ROOT_DIR}/tvc-action/someAction/abc.jsp?param=value&anotherParam=value
                                  ^^^^^^^

E.g. adding something ending with .jsp will cause the ENOVIA toolbar to add the required parameters. Note that you need an additional slash character before the actual “jsp page” name.

This doesn’t have any impact on TVC itself, since the only important token is what appears after the “tvc-action/” string up to the next slash. The added JSP page is ignored.

NOTE: Commands in the category menu calling TVC should not have the setting “Submit” set to TRUE. This will cause other irrelevant parameters to be passed into TVC possibly overloading parameters typically defined in configuration objects used by the different TVC components (for example page-configurations, grid browser configurations etc.). This setting was not used previously when the left-hand category tree was used, so all commands need to be reviewed to ensure that they don’t have this setting applied.

1.1.2. Category Tree – Appearance on Called Page

The replacement of the left-hand category tree with a category-toolbar also has another impact on existing pages/functionality.

All pages called from the category-toolbar are responsible for re-generating the category-toolbar on each page. This is not something that is done automatically.

There is an ENOVIA setting available to revert from using the new category-toolbar to using the category-left-hand-tree. This is done by adding/modifying the property legacyUI=true within the emxSystem.properties file.

1.2. Theme Framework

As mentioned in the previous chapter, TVC 2011.2 will adopt the UI to be closer to the UI as of V6R2012 if TVC is used together with this ENOVIA version. If TVC is used with an older version of ENOVIA, the standard look and feel of TVC is used.

I.e. TVC will adjust look and feel depending on ENOVIA version used.

To support this, we have added support for so called themes within TVC. Currently, we have two supported themes within TVC:

  • Classic

  • V6R2012

In future releases of TVC, we plan to develop other themes as well.

Unless a specific theme has been configured to be used, the theme-manager within TVC will decide what theme it will use by default by checking the ENOVIA version.

To explicitly specify what theme to use, one can apply the following init-parameter to the TVC servlet in WEB.XML:

<init-param>
    <param-name>tvc.core.theme</param-name>
    <param-value>classic</param-value>
</init-param>

NOTE: You can configure TVC to use the V6R2012 theme even if you aren’t using this ENOVIA version. This should however not be done, since the CSS files within the V6R2012 theme is referring to images that are provided by ENOVIA V6R2012.

It is also possibly to switch theme at runtime. A person with administration privileges can execute the following URL to do so:

${ROOT_DIR}/tvc-action/changeTheme

Calling this URL will give a screen allowing the administrator to select a new theme among the available themes.

NOTE: The support for different themes has resulted in that all stylesheets (CSS files) used across all TVC components have been renamed, moved and divided into several files. If you for some reason have referenced CSS files from TVC, the HREF’s to those CSS files will as of this release be broken and need to be changed. See Core administration guide for details.

2. Core

2.1. Tab Page

The tab page has been enhanced to allow a user to personalize the appearances of the tabs on a tabbed page.

The user can select what tabs to be visible, and the user can re-arrange the tabs through the tab configurator.

Each tab can be closed by clicking the [x] on each tab, see screen shot below:

image

When there are invisible tabs, the right-most tab that allows the user to bring up the tab-configuration will have a slightly different color.

Clicking this right-most tab brings up the tab-configuration pane, allowing the user to hide/show the tabs as well as drag’n’drop to re-arrange the tabs. See screen shot below:

image

2.2. Data Set

A new feature has been added into TVC core allowing an administrator to define complex queries as a so called data-set. A data-set is an XML configuration specifying how to retrieve data; it can for example be an expansion, query, inquiry (among others), and they could be combined so that you could for example first do a query, and based upon the query result you could perform an expansion etc.

Data sets can currently be used by for example the Structure Browser, Grid Browser and the Image Flow to load the data. This feature will be used in more places in future releases.

This feature originates from a similar feature that has been available in the Report Generator for a while used to load data used in reports.

A data set is defined in XML, and added within a folder called “dataset” somewhere beneath the /WEB-INF/tvc folder in your application.

Below is an example how to use a dataset:

<DataSet>
    <RemoveDuplicates>(5)
        <Filter usesBusinessObject="true">(4)
            <Expression>attribute[Unit of Measure] == kg</Expression>
            <EndItems>(3)
                <Expand>(2)
                    <RelationshipPattern>
                        <Relationship>relationship_EBOM</Relationship>
                    </RelationshipPattern>
                    <From>false</From>
                    <To>to</To>
                    <Depth>0</Depth>
                    <Inquiry>(1)
                        <Name>tvc:inquiry/MyInquiry</Name>
                    </Inquiry>
                </Expand>
            </EndItems>
        </Filter>
    </RemoveDuplicates>
</DataSet>

This example will do the following:

1 Execute an inquiry to load some object
2 The objects loaded from <1> is expanded along the EBOM relationship in the TO direction
3 All rows except the end-items are removed
4 The end items are filtered; e.g. only objects having "Unit of Measure" equals to kg will be kept
5 Finally, any duplicate occurrences of an object are removed.

This kind of query would typically require quite a large number of Java code to be written, but with the data-set concept, the task becomes fairly easy.

Consult the TVC Core Administration guide for additional configuration details around data-sets.

3. Structure Browser

3.1. Drag’n’Drop – Re-Arrange

Besides from connecting objects, it is also possible to rearrange/move objects using drag and drop. One or more rows can be rearranged simultaneously by dragging and dropping them between the desired rows.

image

The re-arrange mode can be enabled through configurations on the page configuration object. The user needs to enter the re-arrange mode by clicking on the re-arrange icon. Doing so will open the re-arrange mode with the rows on the first level below the selected object (according to filters used).

3.2. Removal of Duplicate Rows

A new so called post-processor has been added that can be used to remove an object that appears multiple times. This might be the case when the table is loaded through an inquiry, and the inquiry returns the same object two or more times in the result.

3.3. Side Panel – Maximized Height

The side panel has been slightly changed as of this release. The side panel will use the maximum possible height of the Structure Browser window. See screenshot below:

image

In earlier versions of TVC, the side panel only occupied the same height as the content of the table data.

3.4. PDF Export

As of this release, creating a PDF printer friendly page will also include the group headers.

Also, if you have columns in the table whose column type is set to separator, these will appear in a better way in the generated PDF.

3.5. Excel Export

The Excel export has been improved. The color used for the group headers is different than the color in the normal headers.

Also, if you have columns in the table whose column type is set to separator, these will appear in a better way in the generated Excel file.

3.6. Printer Friendly – HTML

The HTML format has been slightly enhanced. The rows and cells are separated with a border.

3.7. Disconnect Button – Flat Table

In flat lists, the disconnect button was never shown in earlier releases. This has now been changed, since a row within a flat list might contain relationship information.

3.8. Forms – Rich Text Editor

A form field can be configured to use the rich text editor to edit attributes containing HTML text. To enable this on a field, configure as shown below:

<Field>
    <Label>Description</Label>
    <MapsTo>description</MapsTo>
    <RichText />
</Field>

Below is an example screenshot when the rich text editor has been enabled for the description field.

image

There are additional settings available to specify what controls that should be made available within the rich text editor. Consult the Structure Browser administration guide for further details.

3.9. Arrow Key Navigation

In edit mode, one can enable the so called arrow-key-navigation allowing the user to go from one field to another using the arrow keys. This mode didn’t support fields of type “textarea” earlier. This has however been improved.

Note that when you have moved focus to a text-area field, the user must use F2 to be able to move the cursor within the field (similar to Excel™). The Escape key can be used to exit this mode.

3.10. SVG View – Printer Friendly (PDF)

When displaying the Structure Browser in SVG mode, the printer friendly function allows generating PDF containing a rasterized view of the SVG image.

This allows the SVG view to be printed easier.

3.11. Using Data Sets to Load Data

Below are some examples when and how you can use a data-set:

Loading data into a flat list:

${ROOT_DIR}/tvc-action/execCustomLoaderToTable?loader=tvc:dataset:xyz/MyDataSet.xml

Loading the root nodes into a structure:

${ROOT_DIR}/tvc-action/navigate?loader=tvc:dataset:xyz/MyDataSet.xml

3.12. Group Header with HTML Text

A new setting has been added allowing specifying if the group header is HTML formatted.

This setting is called “Group Header Is HTML”. Note that if you use HTML text in the group header, the text is not escaped.

If you use XML configurations, the setting is defined as:

<Column>
    <GroupHeaderIsHTML>true</GroupHeaderIsHTML>

4. Grid Browser

4.1. Using Data Sets to Load Data

Below is an example showing how to use a data-set to load data into a Grid Browser instance:

<GridBrowserConfig>
    <Columns>
        ...
        <DataLoader dataSet="tvc:dataset:tvx:enc/Revisions.xml"/>
        ...
    </Columns>
    <Rows>
        ...
        <DataLoader dataSet="tvc:dataset:tvx:enc/FirstLevelEBOM.xml"/>
        ...
    </Rows>
    ...
</GridBrowserConfig>

4.2. Launch from Portal

The launch from portal button has been disabled within the Grid Browser as of this release. The reason is that using this button caused some browser errors.

We might re-introduce this button in a coming release.

5. Report Generator

5.1. Create Multiple Reports

A possibility to create one report for multiple selected objects has been added. If the report that is being created has a pre process page, the pre process page is shown once and all entered values are used when creating the reports.

Typically, the creation of multiple reports is invoked from a table from where the user is allowed to make multiple selections.

5.2. Associate Image to Reports

In the list from where the user can select a report to be created, each report can be given an image. This will make the decision for the user to select the report faster.

5.3. Send to Printer

A new output handler has been added that allows sending the report directly to a specific printer. Along with the new output handler, there is also a possibility to allow the user to select the printer from the pre process page. The selection of printer to be used is shown as the example screenshot below illustrates.

image

To enable the output handler allowing sending the report to a printer, use the value “printer” within the “outputHandlers” list.

5.4. Queues and Agents

A number of enhancements have been made to the functionality for creating reports in distributed processes. They are summarized in the list below:

  • The data model has been changed; some new attributes has been added into existing types and a new type has been added that is used to represent the agent. The agent is represented as a business object in the database and the jobs an agent is processing are connected to this object.

    • This is enabled if the agent is started with an identifier (a string identifying the agent).

  • Possibility to keep jobs in the database after creation

    • In order to be able to retrieve reports that has been created earlier in time

    • The time period to keep the jobs is configured in each queue object

    • There are some clean-up scripts available that can be used to remove old jobs.

  • The agent start scripts have been improved to allow using the same script to start different agents. The script takes the name of the queue and agent as parameters.

  • Possibilities for an administrator to see the jobs in a particular queue from the user interface

  • Possibilities for a user to see his/her own jobs

    • Download of previously created reports is possible to do from this view.

  • Possibilities for an administrator to shut-down an agent from the user-interface.

    • This is enabled if the agent is started with an identifier (and then represented as a business object in the database).

Below is a screenshot showing the user interface available for the administrator to inspect the jobs in the queues.

image

Please refer to the administration guide for further details.

6. XBOM Manager

6.1. XBL – Enable Clipboard / Collection

A new configuration option has been added that allows enabling the clipboard and/or collections from within the XBL view.

This can be enabled within the UI section of an XBL configuration as shown below:

<UI>
    <AddToClipboard>true</AddToClipboard>
    <AddToCollection>true</AddToCollection>
    <ManageCollection>true</ManageCollection>
</UI>

7. Graphic Reporting

7.1. Dashboard – Stacked Charts

A new chart type, stacked columns, has been added that allows displaying data in a stacked/grouped way. See screenshot below:

image