WebCenter 14 release notes - Product Documentation

Transcription

WebCenter14 Release notes
1. Introduction
This document gives a quick overview of the new features and changes in
WebCenter 14. It is only covers the changes since the latest release of WebCenter
12.1 (12.1.2). For those updating from WebCenter 12.0 and earlier versions of
12.1, we advise also reading the release notes of all versions between your
current version and WebCenter 14. These release notes can be found on
http://help.esko.com/products/WebCenter where you can also find this document
and the rest the official WebCenter documentation.
1.1 Contents
1.
Introduction ......................................................................................... 1
1.1
Contents ....................................................................................... 1
2. Release Content .................................................................................... 3
3. Licensing and IT requirements ................................................................ 3
3.1
Licensing ...................................................................................... 3
3.2
IT requirements ............................................................................. 4
4. Knowledge base .................................................................................... 4
5. New features Esko WebCenter 14 ............................................................ 4
5.1
HTML5 Viewer ............................................................................... 4
5.1.1 Requirements............................................................................. 4
5.1.2 Configuration ............................................................................. 5
5.1.3 Limitations................................................................................. 5
5.2
Extended support for Single Sign On ................................................ 5
5.2.1 SSO Definitions .......................................................................... 6
5.2.2 Adding a plug-in to the system ..................................................... 7
5.2.3 Managing Instances .................................................................... 7
5.2.4 Add an SSO Instance .................................................................. 7
5.2.5 Configure SSO instance ............................................................... 8
5.2.6 Admin or Owner Configures SSO User Settings ............................... 8
5.2.7 User configures own settings........................................................ 8
5.2.8 Login Behavior ........................................................................... 8
5.2.9 Re-enter password upon submitting approval ................................. 9
5.2.10 Emergency override mechanism ................................................... 9
5.2.11 SDK .......................................................................................... 9
5.3
Support for CHILI online document editing ...................................... 10
5.3.1 IT Requirements ....................................................................... 10
5.3.2 Configure CHILI Server connection ............................................. 10
5.3.3 Upload a CHILI Package ............................................................ 11
5.3.4 Open CHILI Document in Editor .................................................. 11
5.3.5 Save a CHILI Document ............................................................ 11
5.3.6 Locking behavior ...................................................................... 11
5.3.7 Download a CHILI document ...................................................... 12
5.3.8 Dynamically assign workspaces and constraints to CHILI Documents
13
5.3.9 Loading Assets into the CHILI Editor ........................................... 13
5.3.10 Using and Updating WebCenter Attributes from the CHILI editor..... 14
5.4
Lists ........................................................................................... 14
5.4.1 Adding a new List ..................................................................... 14
5.4.2 Configuring and inspecting a List ................................................ 15
5.4.3 Deleting a List or List Data......................................................... 15
5.4.4 Using lists ................................................................................ 16
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WebCenter 14 release notes
5.4.5 Updating lists from a foreign system ........................................... 16
5.5
Configurable Add Document Features ............................................. 16
5.5.1 Document creation functionality in a template .............................. 16
5.5.2 Document creation functionality in a task type ............................. 17
5.5.3 Document creation settings in a project....................................... 17
5.5.4 Deleting templates.................................................................... 18
5.5.5 Uploading documents in project creation ..................................... 18
5.5.6 Uploading multiple documents in an existing project ..................... 19
5.5.7 Uploading document to the BOM section in an existing project ....... 20
5.5.8 Uploading documents to the task execution page.......................... 20
5.6
Improvements to Attributes and Attribute Categories ....................... 20
5.6.1 Keep session alive .................................................................... 20
5.6.2 No maximum size of text attributes ............................................ 20
5.6.3 New rule “Hidden (keep values)” ................................................ 21
5.6.4 Label on top............................................................................. 21
5.6.5 Set Columns width in cell details style ......................................... 21
5.6.6 Changes to cascading dropdowns ............................................... 21
5.6.7 Checkbox, radio button and image selectors ................................ 23
5.6.8 LookUpAttributes Button: fetches multiple attribute values based on
one or more input attributes ................................................................. 25
5.6.9 Check Unique Value Button: checks whether a certain attribute value
is already used ................................................................................... 26
5.6.10 JavaScript button ..................................................................... 28
5.6.11 Import/export Restricted Sets .................................................... 28
5.7
New Approval features.................................................................. 29
5.7.1 One of Role approval ................................................................. 29
5.7.2 Show detailed approval feedback from My Work and document search
results 30
5.8
Annotations and Approval integration features ................................. 30
5.8.1 Permissions for annotating documents under approval .................. 30
5.8.2 Block approval when an annotation was set/changed on current
version 31
5.8.3 Require approval comments on viewable documents ..................... 31
5.8.4 Require review state on all annotations ....................................... 31
5.9
New Role features ........................................................................ 32
5.9.1 Role re-assignment ................................................................... 32
5.9.2 Role invite delegation ................................................................ 32
5.9.3 Role user representative and indirect role assignment ................... 34
5.9.4 Search on Project Role Assignments............................................ 35
5.10 New Workflow features ................................................................. 36
5.10.1 Create Project node .................................................................. 36
5.10.2 Start Approval Cycle node extension ........................................... 39
5.10.1 Workflow Engine Troubleshooting Tools ....................................... 39
5.11 Printing of Attributes .................................................................... 40
5.12 Project bulk operations ................................................................. 40
5.12.1 Updating Project Due date, Manager or Status ............................. 41
5.12.2 Updating Attribute Category or Project members/permissions ........ 42
5.12.3 Updating Project Role assignments ............................................. 42
5.13 New (Java) Viewer features ........................................................... 43
5.13.1 Custom annotation filter ............................................................ 43
5.13.2 Locked Annotation filter............................................................. 46
5.13.3 Caliper tool .............................................................................. 46
5.14 Automatically set Project Thumbnail from document thumbnail.......... 49
5.15 Managing Group Members by a non-Admin Group Manager ............... 50
5.16 Open ArtiosCAD Documents in ArtiosCAD desktop application ............ 51
5.16.1 Introduction ............................................................................. 51
5.16.2 Preference setup ...................................................................... 51
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5.16.3 ArtiosCAD Document Open method overview ............................... 52
5.16.4 Accessing the feature from the user interface............................... 52
5.16.5 Behavior.................................................................................. 54
5.16.6 Error handling .......................................................................... 54
5.17 Built-in custom reports improvements ............................................ 55
5.17.1 General ................................................................................... 55
5.17.2 Charts improvements ................................................................ 55
5.18 WebCenter usability changes ......................................................... 55
5.18.1 Project permission page ............................................................ 55
5.18.2 More searchable dropdowns ....................................................... 55
5.18.3 Copy project manager option ..................................................... 56
5.18.4 User Management filter extensions ............................................. 56
5.19 Security improvements ................................................................. 56
5.19.1 WebCenter password complexity requirements ............................. 56
5.20 WebCenter SDK changes .............................................................. 56
5.20.1 Tomcat Session ID Length ......................................................... 56
5.21 WebCenter platform changes......................................................... 57
5.21.1 64-bit server ............................................................................ 57
5.22 Installation changes ..................................................................... 57
5.22.1 Complex database password ...................................................... 57
5.22.2 New Installer choices ................................................................ 57
6. Known issues and limitations ................................................................ 61
6.1
Lists on 64-bit ............................................................................. 61
6.2
IIS change needed after upgrading ................................................ 61
6.3
Installation of IIS 8 ...................................................................... 61
6.4
Menu builder ............................................................................... 61
6.5
Indirect Assignment Execution ....................................................... 61
6.6
Search on Project Role Assignments ............................................... 62
6.7
Task Type Import/Export does not handle objects referred to by the task
workflow ............................................................................................... 62
7. Solved customer issues........................................................................ 63
2. Release Content
The Esko Software Suite for WebCenter 14 contains:
● Suite 14WebCenter DVD that includes WebCenter 14 and ArtiosCAD 14en
Enterprise installer 1)2)3)
● Suite 14 Assembly 1 Engines Software Installation DVD 4)
● WebCenter Release Notes (this document; also present on the installation
DVD.)
● ArtiosCAD Enterprise and WebCenter User Documentation (PDF format)
1) An update to ArtiosCAD 14 Enterprise build 124 or later is mandatory for
WebCenter 14 (on the application server only).
2) An update of the License Manager (installed from the ArtiosCAD installer)
is also mandatory.
3) Installation of boards and the English language ArtiosCAD 14 defaults is
mandatory to work correctly with CAD documents in WebCenter.
4) When customer released, the Suite 14 Engines Software Installation DVD
will be shipped with WebCenter 14.
3. Licensing and IT requirements
3.1 Licensing
For WebCenter14 installation, Suite 14 licenses are needed for both WebCenter
itself and the embedded ArtiosCAD 14.
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3.2 IT requirements
WebCenter 14 will be running on 64-bit operating systems only. Only Windows
Server 2008 R2 or later will be supported.
The WebCenter 14 installer optionally allows running the View server as a
separate process.
As a result of moving the view server into a separate process, 3 extra ports will
need to be opened between the application and web server: 11099, 12500 and
14444.
Since WebCenter 14 is now running as 64 bit processes, the memory
requirements have been increased.
We recommend checking the installation manual for more details.
4. Knowledge base
The standard WebCenter help function on
http://help.esko.com/products/WebCenter has recently been extended with a
substantial (and growing) set of knowledge base articles.
You can use knowledge base information to find tips on how to resolve a problem
or utilize your WebCenter installation better.
To get to the knowledge base for all Esko products:
http://help.esko.com/KnowledgeBase
To get a list of all articles related to WebCenter
http://help.esko.com/KnowledgeBase/Search?query=WebCenter
To further limit your search, edit the Knowledge Base Search field to contain both
WebCenter and your own criteria. The special keywords AND and OR can be used
with brackets and wildcard characters (? and *) to refine the search e.g.
WebCenter AND (attributes OR attribute) – all articles about WebCenter and
attributes
WebCenter AND attribute* - another way to get practically the same result
5. New features Esko WebCenter 14
5.1 HTML5 Viewer
To give a faster Graphics and CAD viewing experience and to limit client browser
problems with Java, a new Viewer has been added in WebCenter. On platforms
supporting both the new HTML5 viewer and the Java viewer, users can choose if
they want to use one or the other.
5.1.1 Requirements
Since the new HTML5 Viewer makes use of new browser technologies it only
works on recent browsers. Java is not required to run the HTML5 Viewer. The
table below lists the minimum version of each browser that supports the HTML5
viewer.
Browser
Supported version, Windows
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Supported version, Mac OS
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Internet
Explorer
Firefox
Chrome
Safari
9.0 or higher
-
4.0 or higher
5.0 or higher
-
4.0 or higher
5.0 or higher
5.0 or higher
The HTML5 viewer will run on HTML5 enabled mobile devices, but the user UI and
functionality is not yet optimized to give a good user experience on such devices.
5.1.2 Configuration
By default, all users will continue to use the Java Viewer. To change the preferred
Viewer to the new HTML5 Viewer, either the General or user specific preferences
need to be modified.
To change the default system wide Viewer Type setting, login as an Admin user
and choose Preferences>General from the main menu. In the Viewer
Preferences section, you can pick the preferred Viewer Type, either Java
Viewer or Web Viewer.
To change the Viewer Type for your current user account, choose My
WebCenter>My Preferences from the main menu and select Web Viewer for
Viewer Type.
While using the Web Viewer, it is always possible to switch to the Java Viewer by
clicking the Java icon in the top right corner.
5.1.3 Limitations
The first release of the new HTML5 Viewer does not yet have the same extensive
feature set as the Java Viewer. Following features are not available in the HTML5
Viewer (yet):
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Improved mobile support
View Both (on top of each other) compare mode
Pagelists (multi-page PDF’s are supported)
Digital Film file support (e.g. Screen ruling tool, View/Compensate
distortion)
Info panel
Ruler alignment tool
View widget + advanced features (e.g.
Show
Margins
(trimbox),
Seamless View)
Zoom to fit width/height separately
CAD overlay in compare
Navigator widget
Collaboration mode
Custom filter in annotations
OpenViewer SDK support
5.2 Extended support for Single Sign On
WebCenter 12.x supported (a single) LDAP and simple password authentication.
With WebCenter 14, the single sign on (SSO) capabilities have been significantly
extended to ease the work of managing WebCenter members and to further
improve the WebCenter user experience.
In WebCenter 14 authentication has been transformed to be fully pluggable. This
allows authentication plugins to be developed and deployed independently of the
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WebCenter release cycle. Thus allowing WebCenter to be tailored to a customer’s
authentication needs at a much faster pace than would otherwise be possible.
Obviously it is a goal to make a set of standard plugins that allows connecting to
commonly used authentication providers. A SAML plugin is planned. An OAuth
plug-in (Yammer, Google, Facebook…) is under consideration.
The two previously existing authentication mechanisms (LDAP and simple
password authentication) have been modified to interact with WebCenter in the
same way as the plug-ins. This adds extra flexibility in how WebCenter
authentication can be configured. For example making all users authenticate with
LDAP by default or configuring multiple LDAP servers.
Note that: any configuration that uses more than simple password authentication
and 1 LDAP server requires a WebCenter Advanced License.
The actual end user experience will depend on the plugins and how they are
configured. It will range from, having a single set of credentials for any system
(like LDAP today) to a seamless access of to WebCenter without ever being
confronted with a login page (due to an existing login in a portal or the operating
system).
5.2.1 SSO Definitions
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
WebCenter (WCR)
SSO: Single Sign-on or the ability to use a centralized system for
authentication i.e. being able to use a single credential on many systems.
SSO system (SSO sys): system (mostly external to WCR) providing
authentication, (e.g. yammer, SAML, LDAP)
SSO plug-in (SSOP): the full deployment of an integration with a SSO
system.
Will also be used as synonym for the implementation of the Java
'ServiceProvider' concept to avoid confusion with SSO System, which also
is easily called provider. The ServiceProvider is in fact part of the
deployment of the plug-in.
SSO instance configuration (SSOI conf): Defines an SSO Instance and
its place (priority and availability) in the system.
Plug-in specific instance configuration: Part of the instance
configuration that is not general but may differ depending on the plug-in.
SSO Instance (SSOI): instantiation of the plug-in. One plug-in can have
multiple instances. Its behavior is determined by the plug-in and the
instance configuration.
User Configuration: Configuration information for a specific user.
Instance Specific User Configuration: part of the user configuration
that is not general but dependent on the SSO instance.
Note: it is dependent on the instance and not the plug-in because the
instance configuration might affect configurability at user level.
Standard Login Page Instance (SLPI): SSOI that shows the standard
login page when the user is not logged in.
Custom Login Behavior Instance (CLBI): SSOI that shows an
alternate page (or dialog) when a user is not authenticated.
Default SSOI: SSO Instance that will be selected by default (the instance
with priority 1).
System administrator: person that can administer WebCenter from both
an application point view and from an IT (operating system and database)
point of view.
Administrator: person that can administer WebCenter from an
application point of view.
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•
•
User: person that has access to WebCenter after authentication
Database (DB): a relational database. The primary location for persisting
data in WebCenter.
5.2.2 Adding a plug-in to the system
Plugins that are not shipped with WebCenter as standard can be added to the
system
by
dropping
a
set
of
.jar
files
in
‘<installation_root>/ApplicationServer/JBoss/sso-plugins’. The set of .jar files is
the plugin implementation itself as well as any libraries that it depends on.
5.2.3 Managing Instances
The admin menu has been extended with an item ‘Configuration > SSO
Configuration’. From here you get an overview of the configured SSO instances.
Following columns are available:
• Name: Human readable name for the SSOI. Will be used for display in
multiple places.
• Plugin: Read-only field with human readable name of the SSO plug-in this
SSOI is an instance of.
• Password Recheck: Shows if this instance supports password re-entry
(upon submitting approval), Yes or No. If the column says N/A, the
information is currently not available. This could because the instance is
not enabled or failed to load to memory.
Only if the system setting to re-enter password is enabled and the
instance that authenticated the user supports it, the user will be required
to re-enter the password.
• ID: Read-only internal ID, can be used to address an SSO provider
directly (e.g. when redirecting from an external system, so relevant
information for an administrator).
• Priority: Determines the order in which SSOIs are attempted for
authentication when standard login is tried (and try next is enabled). Also
determines the display order in several places (user settings and login
page).
• Enabled: Means that this instance is operational (loaded in to memory).
An instance needs to be enabled to be able to be used for authentication.
Changing SSOI specific user settings is also only possible for enabled
SSOIs.
• Listed: When a standard login page is shown, a checkmark here implies
that an explicit login button is shown (the button will only show up if the
SSOI is enabled)
• Try Next: If default login is used (no SSOI explicitly selected, by click on
a button or URL), this flags that the next SSOI should be attempted before
login in considered failed (the chain of attempts will stop at the first
enabled SSOI where try next is disabled; respecting priority ordering).
• Configure: Will display a link to the plug-in specific instance
configuration.
• Default: An SSO instance can be enabled, so to allow (some) users to
authenticate. But, a specific SSOI might not be allowed for all users. This
setting defines whether a user is allow to or denied from using a SSOI.
This is the default for all users; the setting can be overridden on a per
user basis in the user configuration.
• Delete: allows deleting an SSOI.
5.2.4 Add an SSO Instance
Open “New SSO Instance” page, provide an instance name and select the plug-in
to be used from a dropdown and press create.
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Once the instance is created you are returned to the instances list where the new
instance is also displayed as last instance.
The mentioned dropdown will display all SSO plugins that are currently available
in this system.
5.2.5 Configure SSO instance
You can access the SSO Instance configuration page from the SSO instances list
by clicking the ‘configure’ link of an instances row. This opens the plugin specific
configuration of an existing SSOI, it can be modified according to need after
which save is pressed.
5.2.6 Admin or Owner Configures SSO User Settings
This can be accessed via the standard user management and entering the
management page of an existing WCR user. The page shows authentication
configuration section for enabled SSOIs. For each SSOI the user can be allowed
to or denied from using the SSOI for authenticating (or the instance default can
be used).
If the user is allowed to use the SSOI, and the SSOI supports user specific
configuration it will display a section here.
When the user modifies some fields and presses save, values are processed and
stored. Processing is plugin and SSOI dependent.
It is possible that submitting is prevented by client side validation (e.g. checking
password rules), also for SSOI configuration fields.
If only basic password authentication is available, the SSOI name will not be
mentioned.
This also applies for user creation.
5.2.7 User configures own settings
A user might still have the possibility to configure some of his own authentication
settings (e.g. setting his password). Only SSOI that are enabled will be displayed.
The configuration elements will likely differ from the admin version (e.g. user
cannot require from himself to change his WCR password at next login).
5.2.8 Login Behavior
Different login behavior can be expected, based upon the configuration. Two are
identified Standard Login Page Instance (SLPI) and Custom Login Behavior
Instance (CLBI). SLPI will show the login page when not logged in, CLBI might do
anything: redirect to a portal, show a dialog…
Which one of the two occurs depends on the configuration of the instances and
which one is the default (priority 1).
LDAP and plain password authentication are of the SLPI type. SAML is expected to
be of the CLBI type.
In any case the login page can still be accessed by directly navigating to login.jsp.
From there the different behaviors can again be triggered if the buttons for the
wanted instances are set to be listed on the login page.
It is possible that a plug-in also overrides the logout behavior (e.g. logout leads
you to a portal).
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5.2.9 Re-enter password upon submitting approval
If the setting “Require password for approvals/rejections” is enabled (admin
menu: Preferences > Passwords), and the SSOI with which the user
authenticated supports this, the user is required to provide his password when
submitting an approval. The password that is required, is the one required for the
SSOI that authenticated the user.
LDAP and basic password authentication support this. For other plugins this will
be judged on a by case basis. It is not expected to be supported by SAML.
5.2.10 Emergency override mechanism
In case the sign-on configuration ends up being broken (e.g. somebody made a
mistake that was not caught by the system or a single external system is
configured and that system is down), WebCenter can still be access using basic
password authentication, but only locally from the web server ( direct access to
the web server’s operating system is required). For this to work of course you
need to remember a basic password authentication password of a WebCenter
administrator user or have enabled the ‘forgot password’ feature.
5.2.11 SDK
Authentication configuration applies for all clients. For real security this has to
include the SDK. This can have one of two implications:
• Either no special configuration is made for the SDK. Then the SDK client
needs to adhere to the same authentication principles as all other
(browser based) clients. e.g. for the SAML (CLBI) case it needs to be able
to cope with authentication redirects, have the capability to log-on to the
external system and be able to be directed back with the proper tokens.
In “LDAP for all” scenarios, the user would have to exist in the LDAP
directory.
•
Alternately special configurations can be made for SDK users e.g. a
combination of LDAP and simple password authentication, where all users
are set to be allowed to authenticate via LDAP and not via simple
password authentication. And the configuration is the other way around for
SDK users.
If the above deny rule is not applied to the user, WebCenter needs to be
told that an alternate SSO instance needs to be used to authenticate this
user. This can be done by adding a parameter ‘ssoiid=<sso_instance_id>’
to the SDK request, to select a specific SSO instance. This is equivalent to
pressing an alternative login button on the login page.
The SSO instance ID can be found on the instance overview admin page.
Currently no support exists to configure SSO user settings via the SDK. This
means only basic password authentication can actually be configured for a user
via the SDK. If no basic password authentication is available AND an alternate
SSO instance requires detailed user configuration, a user created via the SDK will
not be able to log in to WCR until that setup is done via the web GUI.
Note that, in for example an “LDAP for all” use case, where users are allowed to
authenticate via LDAP by default, this will still work (LDAP SSO does not require
detailed user configuration).
A feature to allow SSO configuration to happen via the SDK is under
consideration, but it is unclear if this will be made for WCR14 or even in the near
future.
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5.3 Support for CHILI online document editing
It is now possible to do online editing of documents in WebCenter. Therefore, the
online editor of CHILI Publish has been integrated.
5.3.1 IT Requirements
5.3.1.1 Share between CHILI and WebCenter
To be able to transfer files to the CHILI server, a share is used to temporarily
place files when registering them to CHILI. The share must have read and write
permissions for WebCenter ('BGSYSTEM' user) and read permissions for CHILI.
WebCenter will create a subfolder per CHILI environment under the CHILI share
root folder.
5.3.1.2 Requirements for Reverse Proxy
IIS must have bindings with matching schemes for all schemes/ports for which
we wish to access CHILI over the WCR web server. This because scheme and port
will match between the proxied requests and the request the web server receives.
The bindings are:
• 80 for IIS http
• 443 for IIS https
Additionally, the two https ports must have a certificate attached to it.
The easiest way to make the certificate work correctly is to install a properly
signed certificate, matching the CHILI server hostname (NOT the tricked
hostname) on the CHILI server. That way the SSL certificate will just validate
correctly, when the WebCenter Application Server makes a connection to it. If
that is not an option, a self-signed certificate can be used. Note that self-singed
certificates are NOT supported for the WebCenter Web Server. This has a high
likelihood to lead to SSL validation errors when the WebCenter Application Server
tries to connect to the CHILI server. To make this work the WebCenter LDAP
CertInstall tool can be used.
To do this, in <Installation Directory>\ApplicationServer\LDAP, run the following
command:
CertInstall.bat <chiliserver>:443
When it allows you to select a certificate to install, choose the right one by
entering a digit. After a JBoss restart, the SSL validation problem should no
longer occur. For more details, consult the WebCenter manual.
5.3.2 Configure CHILI Server connection
Administrator users can configure the CHILI server connection in the admin
section under the 'CHILI' menu, 'CHILI Setup' item.
In this page, the following fields must be specified:
• Address to the CHILI server
example: http://chili01/CHILI/main.asmx
• CHILI Share (see 5.3.1.1)
example: \\chili01\chilishare
• CHILI Environment name – name of the CHILI environment
• User login/password – user login and password (defined within the CHILI
environment)
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When the admin user clicks at the 'Save' button, the configuration is stored in the
WebCenter database.
5.3.3 Upload a CHILI Package
In the Document Types page, a new type “CHILI” will be added. This document
type will only be visible if the right license is purchased.
A CHILI Package has the .zip extension. When uploading a zip file in the single
document upload page, you will now get the possibility to select “CHILI Package”
as Document Type. If you upload the CHILI package with the extension .chp, it
will be automatically recognized as a CHILI package, without having to select it.
However, this is not an official CHILI extension. It is a way to make the upload go
easier (e.g. it can be used for multiple file upload).
5.3.4 Open CHILI Document in Editor
When a user opens a document, it will be opened in the CHILI Editor. In the
editor, the user will be able to edit the parts of the document, based on
Workspace and Constraints. These workspaces and constraints are defined in
section 5.3.8.
In the header bar, some document information will be shown. Below, the buttons
“Return”, “Save as Draft” and “Save as New Version” are shown. If the user who
opened the editor is an approver, he can see the approval options and from
there, he can do all available approval actions. When the user approved/rejected
the document, the action button list will be updated.
NOTE: “Save as Draft” button is only available if the current User has ‘CHECKOUT’
permission for the CHILI document; “Save as New Version” button is only
available if the current User has ‘ADD’ permission for the CHILI document.
5.3.5 Save a CHILI Document
When a user saves his document as a draft, it will be saved on the CHILI server.
When he then reopens the document in the editor, the changes are still there.
However, when downloading the document from WebCenter, the changes will not
be visible. They are only visible in the editor.
In the document details page (header), a warning should be shown that there is a
draft version of the document.
When a user saves his document as New Version, it will be saved on both the
CHILI server and WebCenter. The previous version will be restored to its original
state in case there was a draft version.
When saving as a new version, a version comment is required. It is also possible
to start approval and set a due date. When saving a linked document, the user
will also get the option to select in which projects the document needs to be
updated.
5.3.6 Locking behavior
When a user is editing a CHILI document in the editor, the document will be
locked automatically. The document can be unlocked only manually, by saving a
new version or by just exiting the editor without saving your changes as a draft.
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When the editor is opened in read-only mode, however, the document will remain
unlocked.
When a user has no editing rights and has no specific workspace assigned, the
document will be opened in read-only mode. The editor will also be opened in
read-only mode when the document is locked by another user or if it’s not the
latest version of the document. In the read-only mode, the file can still be
viewed, but no changes can be made. The save buttons are not shown, but
approval buttons will still be shown to approver if an approval cycle is ongoing.
The CHILI administrator is able to set up a customized read-only view.
WebCenter will look for a workspace named “Read-Only” on the CHILI server.
Only if that workspace is not found, the default CHILI read-only mode will be
loaded.
Note: Draft versions are saved as long as the document is locked. When the
document is unlocked, the draft version will be removed. To reset the document,
the user can simply remove the lock and start the editor again. To save the
changes permanently, the user will have to save the document as new version.
5.3.7 Download a CHILI document
A user may want (or be allowed by the Administrator) to download different kinds
of output of a CHILI document. Some will want to download the original CHILI
package or the CHILI XML, while others want download a PDF file. An artwork
creator will want the XML to update the master Illustrator document.
When the user wants to download a CHILI document, a page with the available
formats will be shown. Users can have different permissions for different
download formats. The ‘CHILI Package’ format is the default option in places
where an explicit choice of a target Download Format is not available. If a user
has none of the available Download Formats enabled for CHILI document type, he
will not be able to download a CHILI document from within any Project.
NOTE: When a document is being edited (has a draft version), the downloaded
version will not contain the changes of the draft.
5.3.7.1 Setup of different download types for a CHILI WCR Document
In order to maintain a highly secure environment – enabling/disabling CHILI
Download Formats is only available for an Administrator user and is done for
individual User/Group at a single moment. User settings can be derived from a
sum of Groups Download settings for all the Groups that the User is a member of.
When a new Download Type is defined on the system level it is initially disabled
for all Users and Groups in the system.
There are two levels of enabling or disabling CHILI download types. You can
either do this system wide or per user/group.
If you want to disable or enable a download type system wide, you can go to the
page “Admin > CHILI > CHILI Download Types”, where you have a checkbox with
the available Download types. A default setup will have three download types preinstalled which are all enabled by default:
• Chili Package
• CHILI XML
• PDF
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For the PDF output, PDF Export Settings named 'Default' must be defined at the
CHILI server. An additional column is displayed at the 'CHILI download types'
page with the name and availability check (icon) of the PDF Export Settings at the
CHILI server.
If you want to set it per user or group, go to the user or group section and click
on the user/group you want to give download rights. Then go to the download
tab. You will see that the section CHILI Package is added, where all download
types that are enabled system wide can be enabled or disabled (disabled by
default) for that user or group.
For a user, if you click on “Use Group Permissions”, the CHILI download types are
also updated with those of the groups the user is in.
5.3.8 Dynamically
Documents
assign
workspaces
and
constraints
to
CHILI
CHILI workspaces can be assigned dynamically by matching workspace names
with role names. When a user is assigned to a role in the project the CHILI
document is in, WebCenter will look if the CHILI server has a workspace with the
name of that role and assign that workspace upon loading the editor. E.g. If the
user has the roles “Approver and the CHILI server has a workspace “Approver”,
the CHILI editor will be opened in workspace “Approver”.
If no workspace was assigned to the user, and that user has edit rights,
WebCenter will look for the workspace name “Default” and assign it to the user. If
the workspace “Default” was not found, the editor will open in real-only mode. If
a user has multiple workspace/constraint matches, the user will have to select a
workspace before the editor opens.
Note: For linked documents, the available workspaces are accumulated.
5.3.9 Loading Assets into the CHILI Editor
An asset is a WebCenter document that is uploaded in the project document
library. At the Project/Template > Configure > Document Templates page, an
administrator user can select a project or a template to serve as a document
library.
For the CHILI document, documents from the document libraries of all projects
the current document version is linked to can be used as assets. The
documents/folders will be filtered out by the WebCenter security settings. In case
of a project document library, the user must have download rights for the
document/folder, to be able to use it as an asset. There are no restrictions on
using documents from a template document library.
The external assets panel shows a tree structure, where each project/template
represents a top level folder. For each document/asset a thumbnail is shown.
To set this up, the CHILI administrator has to add an "External Assets" panel
within the workspace and leaves point the "Directory List URL" and "Asset List
URL" to the WebCenter SDK with the following calls.
Directory List URL:
http(s)://<WebCenter_URL>/<WebCenter_Instance>/GetDocLibraryDirectoryList
.jsp;jsessionid=%qs_sessionid%?docversionid=%qs_docversionid%
Asset List URL:
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http(s)://<WebCenter_URL>/<WebCenter_Instance>/GetDocLibraryDocumentLis
t.jsp;jsessionid=%qs_sessionid%?folderid=%id%&documentid=%qs_documentid
%
Note: We don't support "Search URL" and "Post URL" options. Note that these
calls can also be used for image variables pointing to external assets.
5.3.10 Using and Updating WebCenter Attributes from the CHILI editor
In a CHILI document, variables can be defined. Filling out those variables will
change certain fields in the document.
When loading the document in the CHILI editor, attributes can be pushed to the
editor. If an attribute in WebCenter (either project or document attribute, where
document attribute gets priority) has the same name as a variable in the CHILI
document, the value in CHILI can automatically be filled out. The user will be
asked if he wants the variables to be updated when opening the editor on a clean
document (without a draft version). After this, the user will always be able to
synchronize the values on demand by clicking the “load attribute values” button.
This update button can be clicked at any time.
Note: This panel and button will only be shown when there are actual matches
between attributes and variables.
When an attribute name and a variable name match, and that variable is edited,
it is possible to save these values back into the attribute category again when
saving as a new version. When saving the Document as a new version, a popup
window will come in which the user can specify a version comment and restart
approval. In the same window you will have two checkboxes to specify if you
want to update project and document attributes. Note that for linked documents,
it is not possible to save project attributes.
Note: For a lot of the variable types, conversions are foreseen in WebCenter.
However, there are some limitations:
- There is no conversion between the WebCenter Rich Text Attributes and
CHILI’s Formatted Text variable.
- Multi-value Text attributes in WebCenter cannot be imported into the
CHILI editor’s list variable.
5.4 Lists
In previous WebCenter versions, Excel based lists could be used for cascading
attributes. Now, in WebCenter 14, the list concept has been improved. List data
no longer resides in Excel sheets on the Web Server, but is added to the
WebCenter database.
This new implementation allows for larger data sets, as previously you were
limited to 64.000 items. Also, you no longer need to access the Web Server to
modify your data. Since list data is maintained in a specific WebCenter project,
you can control who can access this data by setting project permissions.
5.4.1 Adding a new List
The new type of lists can be added directly in WebCenter. To add a new list:
1. Upload your Excel or XML document to a project or template named
ListManager. If this project does not exist yet, create a new one.
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2. Go to the Lists page, by choosing Admin>Attributes>Lists from the
main menu.
3. Click New List, a configuration page will load.
4. In General List Information, you need to specify a List Name.
Optionally you can add a Description.
5. In the section Input Source Properties, specify your list's Input Source
Type. This can be either Excel Document or XML Document.
6. Select your list document from the Select Document list. For an Excel
file, specify the Sheet Name of the Excel sheet that contains your data.
For an XML file, you need to specify the XML Main Node.
7. Optionally enable Flush existing list data before updating the list.
This option will ensure that old data is completely cleared when a new
version of the document associated with the List is uploaded, before the
new version is loaded to the List.
8. Optionally enable Database username and password are required
when deleting data from list. This option is used to add extra security
when data is deleted from the List.
9. Click Create List to save your configuration.
5.4.2 Configuring and inspecting a List
After uploading the XML or Excel file and adding it on the Lists page, you can
further configure your List as follows:
1. Choose Admin>Attributes>Lists from the main menu.
2. Click your List's Name, to go to its configuration page.
3. You will see a table titled List Properties.
The Input Columns and List Properties are displayed in the table; in
the rightmost column you can enable a checkbox to mark a certain column
as a Unique Identifier. Enabling this checkbox means that each value in
the corresponding column in the List has to be unique.
4. Click Show List Data to see all the data available in your list.
1. You can now inspect your List data. It is also possible to filter on a
list column with a specific value.
2. Click Return to List Overview to return to the general Lists
overview page.
5. Click Return to return to the general Lists overview page.
5.4.3 Deleting a List or List Data
After configuring a List, it is still possible to remove the List from the system or to
only remove the List's data.
To delete the List:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Choose Admin>Attributes>Lists from the main menu.
Click your List's Name, to go to its configuration page.
Choose Delete List.
You may need to enter the Database user name and Password.
Click Delete List to confirm.
To delete the List's data:
1. Follow the same steps as previous, but in step 3 choose Delete List Data
instead.
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5.4.4 Using lists
Currently, lists can be used for following features:
• Cascading dropdowns in attribute categories and task type specification
forms.
• Look Up attribute value buttons in attribute categories and task type
specification forms
Please refer to the section Attribute Categories for more information.
It is our intention to provide more use cases for lists in the future.
5.4.5 Updating lists from a foreign system
A new SDK call ManageListData.jsp allows updating a list from a foreign system
like SAP or an MIS system.
The scenario is typically as follows:
1. An administrator puts a sample XML in the project ListManager, creates a
list from it and maps the columns to XML elements in the sample XML.
2. Within the 3rd party system, at regular intervals or based on a trigger
mechanism, an HTTP call ManageListData.jsp according to the WebCenter
SDK is sent to the WebCenter web server, with embedded XML data to
update the list.
3. In most cases these messages will only contain updates of the list (so the
same data is not sent over and over again).
You find more details about ManageListData.jsp in the WebCenter 14 SDK
manual.
Just a sample of use cases are:
• A product list sent from a product life cycle system or ERP system to
WebCenter to serve as master data for cascading dropdowns in a project
creation form or document attribute form. This way, WebCenter data, for
example artwork, can be linked to product data, this way linking the
artwork to the packaging component and the finished products.
• A library of known/approved barcodes is synchronized (one-way) from a
barcode repository to WebCenter, this way allowing to select (only
approved) barcodes in WebCenter forms.
5.5 Configurable Add Document Features
When creating or amending a project template, admin users will be presented
with new options within the template, to enable them to customize the upload of
documents. When users create a project using one of these customized templates
or update a project created in this way, they will be presented with the
customized document upload options of the template. Similar customizable
options will also be available for document upload within task types.
5.5.1 Document creation functionality in a template
When creating or amending a template, an extra page has been added under the
“Configure” tab called “Document Creation”. The existing Document Creation tab
has been renamed to “Document Types”. In the document creation tab, the
Admin user can configure the Add document options as follows:Default:
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With this option, any project created from the template will have the following
upload options: - Browse, Copy, New (when a template library is configured)
Another Template's Document Creation Setup:
With this option, the document creation setup will be taken from the template
that is selected from a list of templates that have a non-“Default” document
creation set up. The effect of selecting another template will be that all projects
that were using this template before will now use the new selected template.
Custom:
With this option, the admin user will be presented with a list of customizable
options. For each row in the list the user will be able to choose:Source: Where the document will be sourced from.
Label: The wording displayed in the link
Details: Extra information dependent on the source
Operation: Dependent on the source. Options include whether we Copy, Move
or Link the document
Sections: Where the configured upload source is available.
Target Folder: The target folder in the destination project.
The admin user can add a new source type by clicking ‘Add Document Source’.
The document sources in the list can be deleted by clicking the minus icon.
5.5.2 Document creation functionality in a task type
When a user with “Create Task Type” rights amends a task type, an extra page
has been added called “Document Creation”. In the document creation tab, the
user has the Default and Custom options which can be utilized in a similar way to
5.5.1. The “Another Template's Document Creation Setup” option is not available.
Once configured, tasks created from this task type are then presented with the
customized document upload options.
5.5.3 Document creation settings in a project
In a regular project, you can go to the new Document Creation page and view the
template from which the document upload configuration is taken. If you want to
use another template’s configuration, you can select the template from the drop
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down list. Only templates with a custom document creation configuration will be
shown in the drop down list. From that moment on, the project will use the
template’s document creation settings.
5.5.4 Deleting templates
When an admin user tries to delete a template that has a custom setting for
document creation and that template is being used by other projects/templates
for document creation setup, the system will display an error message. The
admin user is advised to go to the relevant projects/templates configuration tab
and to select another template. Then, when the deletion is tried again, no
blocking dependency will be found and the template will be deleted.
5.5.5 Uploading documents in project creation
When a project manager creates a project based on a template, the document
creation options as defined in the template are used to build up the links in the
document section and BOM section. The default values are ‘Browse’ and “Copy”.
For a project created from a template with a custom document creation set up,
the following rules will be applied:•
For each row in the configuration, a link is added to the document section
in the order of appearance from the configuration.
•
Depending on the options selected in the configuration’s ‘Section’ column,
the link may be added to the projects: documents section, BOM section,
BOM section in project creation form, Document section in project creation
form.
•
The label of the link is taken from the configuration. If the label is a tag
that is found in the language file, the translated label is shown. If the tag
is not in the language file, the label as such is shown.
•
Behavior of the links are dependent on the operation type as follows :1. Browse. A new line is added to the document section where the
user can upload the file.
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2. Project + Folder. The user can select a project and a document in
that project.
Depending on the operation, the document will be copied, moved
or linked into the project. If a target folder is set up, the document
will end up in that target folder if the user has upload rights to that
folder.
If the document is moved and the original document was part of
more than one project, the document will be deleted from all of the
source projects and will be moved into the current project.
When moving the document, the document can be renamed.
3. Document Templates
When the template has a document library configured, the link
corresponding to the document template will be added in the
project. On clicking this link the user can choose a document from
the template. When executing the operation, a new document,
which is a copy from the template, will be created in the project
and may be given a new name if the user wishes. The attribute
category of the document from the template is maintained.
4. Saved Search
This option allows the user to select a file from a saved search.
When the user clicks the link, a dialog is displayed where the
results of the saved search are shown. If there are extra filter
options configured in the saved search, these are also available in
the dialog. The user can select one or more documents and click on
the configured action. The possible actions correspond with the
operations in the setup of this source. Depending on the operation,
the document will be copied, linked or moved.
Anomaly handling: when the saved search has been deleted, a
message saying that the saved search is not found, will be
displayed.
5.5.6 Uploading multiple documents in an existing project
When a user with upload rights, uploads multiple documents in a project based on
a template with document creation options, the same GUI as in project creation
(5.5.5) is shown. For each entry in the template’s document creation setup, a link
is added to the GUI, with the same functionality as described in 5.5.5.
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5.5.7 Uploading document to the BOM section in an existing project
When a user with upload and change BOM rights, uploads a document on the
BOM page, in a project based on a template with document creation options, the
same GUI as in project creation (5.5.5) is shown. For each entry in the template’s
document creation setup, a link is added to the GUI, with the same functionality
as described in 5.5.5.
5.5.8 Uploading documents to the task execution page
For tasks that allow uploading of documents and are also created from a task
type with customized document upload options, the user who is assigned to the
task is presented with the customized document upload options on the task
execution page. The links for uploading documents follow the setup of the task
type. The configuration of the document creation for task types is described in
5.5.2. When the task type does not have a document creation setup, the setup
defined by the task’s project is used.
5.6 Improvements to Attributes and Attribute Categories
5.6.1 Keep session alive
In the attribute category and task specification definition, you can now check a
checkbox “Keep session alive (avoid that people get logged off due to time out)”.
When checked, pages having this attribute category or task specification layout
will send each 20 minutes a message to the web server to keep the session open.
The message is only sent if the page is in ‘edit mode’. This means that people
seeing the read-only version will not keep the session alive (since there is no
need for it because they can’t change anything). Also the header view has no
effect on the session.
The feature is specifically interesting to fill out long forms, for example when
creating a project.
5.6.2 No maximum size of text attributes
Up until WebCenter 12.1, (simple, non-rich) text attributes were limited to 255
characters. This limitation has been removed in WebCenter 14. You can now
make very long text attributes without creating a rich-text attribute.
The main use case for this is the usage of multi-value attributes. When using
multi-value attributes, the values are concatenated into the database using the |
separator. Consequently, before WebCenter 14, there was a limitation to how
many values you could select for a multi-value attribute. The sum of the length
needed to be smaller than 255 characters. In WebCenter 14, you can easily select
hundreds of attribute values for a single attribute.
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Number-based attributes and date attributes are not affected by this change.
5.6.3 New rule “Hidden (keep values)”
Previously, you could set an attribute to be editable, required, read-only or
hidden. In case you set an attribute to hidden, its value was also cleared. This is
often also what you want (a non-applicable value should be cleared). However
there are exceptions, notably for attributes to guide routing (you don’t want to
have anybody changing them and mostly not even see them).
For this, there is a new option: ‘Hidden (keep values)’. This hides the attribute
but keeps the value, even when you save to the database.
This option mostly only makes sense in the default view. In the other views, it’s
better to just not place the attribute (which has the same effect: values are kept
to what they were).
5.6.4 Label on top
The labels for attributes are by default in a column to the left of the values. Since
WebCenter 14, they can also be placed to the top of the value. This will make the
form share the label cell and the value cell to 1 single cell. Within this cell, you
can manage alignment via the style options.
Tip: You typically only get a nice looking form if you set the labels on top for at
least an entire column.
5.6.5 Set Columns width in cell details style
The Edit Style dialog now has an extra property “column width”.
There was already a width property, which sets the width of the input field and
has some influence on other controls. This had some indirect influence on the
total width of the column but it was hard to control this.
With Column width, an attempt is done to give the entire column in which this cell
sits a fixed width. This is only an attempt. The decision is finally taken by the
browser and is therefore also browser dependent (Internet Explorer may give
different result than Firefox).
Typical effects and tips:
• You won’t manage to set the width smaller than the minimum needed for
certain controls. On Internet Explorer, this is far wider than on other
browsers.
• The total table still takes the full width of the allowed/available space.
Therefore fixing the width of 1 column has an effect on the other columns.
Fixing the width of all columns will mostly deteriorate all columns to
unpredictable results. The typical use case is to fix the first column only,
for example to contain some titles only.
• There is some margin on each column, therefore you typically have to set
the width lower than you would expect.
5.6.6 Changes to cascading dropdowns
From WebCenter 14 onwards, there are 2 types of cascading dropdowns. Those
based on Excel sheets on the web server and those based on WebCenter
database lists. The latter one is new and will over time completely replace the
Excel based sheets. We advise the customers to reconfigure their attribute
categories and task types to use the database lists. The functionality of the old
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Excel sheet based cascading dropdowns is frozen and will become obsolete in
WebCenter 14.1.
5.6.6.1 Advantages of using database lists instead of Excel sheets on
the web server:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Security: The Excel sheets on the web server can be read without logging
on to WebCenter by somebody with advanced knowledge of the setup. You
can prevent this through IIS configuration, but this is often overlooked and
is in any case extra work. The database lists are maintained in the
WebCenter database and are therefore protected by the standard
WebCenter security schemes
Reliability: the Excel sheets on the web server are read by an Excel
reading driver. This driver is system dependent (for example a different
driver is needed for a 64 bit system). In addition, this driver (from
Microsoft) has shown some weaknesses, which has forced us to limit
access to 1 reader at a time. This scales poorly. Database lists are read by
the existing database drivers which have shown their reliability and which
scale with the system resources of the database.
Ease of update: Excel sheets on the web server reside in the custom
folder of the web instance. When updating the configuration, you must
make sure to set this folder aside, otherwise your cascading dropdowns
will stop working.
Ease of administration: Database lists can be fully administered through
the HTML user interface of WebCenter. No physical access to the web
server is needed anymore. Moreover, non-administrators can update the
master data if administrators allow them through standard WebCenter
security schemes (access to project and folders). See the section on lists
for more information.
Form loading speed: Excel based lists are loaded entirely when the form
is loaded. This slows down form loading with up to several seconds
(depending on the size of the data). This also puts a practical limitation to
the size of the data (maximum about 15,000 rows in the Excel sheet).
Database lists are never entirely loaded. Instead the attribute category
loads just enough information just in time. This creates a much smoother
user experience.
Size of the list/sheet: For the reason mentioned above but also because
the driver used is limited to 64K rows, a product list with 100,000 products
could never be loaded. This limitation does not exist for database lists. We
have tested the functionality with up to 200,000 rows of data.
Support for .xlsx files: Caused by the Excel driver used, a hard choice
had to be made for the type of Excel files supported.
5.6.6.2 How to use cascading dropdowns with database lists
Using cascading dropdowns for database lists is very similar to using cascading
dropdowns for web server Excel sheets:
1. Configure your list as explained in the section Lists.
2. Open your attribute category or task type specifications form (make sure
to use Grid layout, this feature is not supported in OneColumn layout. Grid
layout requires the lifecycle management license).
3. Select a Text attribute (or add one first). On the right side you will see
Details for selected cell.
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4. In the details panel, set Restrict Values to List.
5. Select your List's name from the dropdown.
6. Choose a column from the column dropdown
Do this for multiple attributes and you will see the cascading behavior: when you
select a value for one attribute, the other attribute values are restricted to what is
allowed according to the List data.
5.6.6.3 Copy list
It can happen that you want to use the same list data multiple times for multiple
attributes. For example you might need 2 barcode selectors (because there will
be 2 different barcodes on your packaging component).
There is no need to create another list via Admin/Lists. In addition, this would
duplicate the data in the database and it would add additional administration.
Instead, you can create a second cascading dropdown configuration on the same
list. For that, select the list from the list dropdown, and click on “Copy List”. You
will get a new entry in the list dropdown with the name of the list, followed by
(2). You can also make a third copy in the same way. Now you can connect a
second set of attributes to this new list. Don’t worry; this did not copy all the data
on the database. The copies are also only known by this attribute category.
When you save the attribute category without linking any attributes to the copy,
it will be removed.
5.6.6.4 Use the cascading dropdown in search
Cascading dropdowns based on database lists have the same behavior in search
as the cascading dropdowns from web server Excel sheets. Please refer to the
WebCenter 12.1 administration manual and the knowledge base for more
information.
5.6.6.5 Important remark when continuing to use Excel sheets on the
web server
WebCenter 14 is a 64-bit system, which can only use 64-bit drivers. In order to
continue using the web server based cascading dropdowns, you have to install
this 64-bit driver. See knowledge base article xyz (search for xxx on the
knowledge base).
5.6.7 Checkbox, radio button and image selectors
For a restricted set of text type and for a text type attribute which is restricted by
a list, you can decide the rendering of the choices. The default rendering is a
dropdown with the options. You can however decide to show the options as radio
buttons, checkboxes both with our without an image on top of it.
5.6.7.1 Radio buttons and checkboxes
When you don’t have too many options for the value of an attribute, it sometimes
creates a better user experience to present the options via radio buttons or
checkboxes than via a dropdown. Avoid doing this when there are many values.
It’s slow and doesn’t create a useful form.
1. Select the attribute in the grid (this function only works in grid layout). In
the restrict values section of the cell details, set the rendering to
radio/checkboxes. If you don’t have this option, it means that your
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attribute is not a text type or it’s not restricted, or it’s restricted to another
attribute.
2. This will show inside the cell a set of checkboxes or radio buttons, as many
as there are items in the restricted set or valid items in the list column.
Radio buttons are shown for a single-value attribute; checkboxes are
shown for a multi-value attribute. Therefore, you can switch between both
by checking the Allow Multi-value checkbox
3. Set the number of columns. Best results are reached when the number of
columns equals the number of allowed values or one of its dividers. You
best experiment with this by trying different values. When choosing 1
column, you will get all values vertically. You best put the labels to the
right then.
4. Set the alignment option. The columns are by default spread evenly over
the available space “Distribute over Width”. In some circumstances, there
might be a lot of white space between the columns. You can decide
aligning the options to the left, so the space between the column is set to
a minimal esthetical whitespace, leaving all extra white space to the right.
“Align Left”
5. Decide where to put the labels (the labels are the different allowed values
for the attribute). You can have them to the right of the checkbox or radio
button or below.
The radio/checkbox user interface is optimized for non-cascading restricted sets.
They work also for cascading dropdowns but the user experience can be
confusing. Avoid using it when more than 2 attributes cascade and certainly never
use this option for lists with thousands of rows (you will get a form with
thousands of radio buttons, and typically your form will no longer load because
the browser gives up).
5.6.7.2 Image selector
You can further improve the user experience by using images. These come on top
of the radio buttons or checkboxes described in former paragraph. The options
are also identical.
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The images must be placed on webinstance\custom\AttributeValueImages. This
is the same place as used for the images in the Search tree view (Asset Browser)
and in fact the same images can be shared. A pure name match is done (case
sensitive!!!) between the text of the option and the name of the image. The name
is further extended with the Image type.
Example: a text option 50 x 50 cm can be shown as an image if you put on the
above mentioned location an image with name ’50 x 50 cm.jpg’ and put the
Image type on jpg.
Further options are:
Height of Images. You can resize the images by giving them another height.
Resizing is always done proportionally. By default, resizing is always done to 100
pixels. The best quality is reached if you make images with the same size as the
size set here.
Height of Cell: The grid of images can take a lot of space and in some cases you
want it to get a scrollbar. You can do this by limiting the height of the cell. The
cell will then be fixed in height and will automatically get a scrollbar when the
needed size to show all images extends to given height.
Image Type: The extension with which the images are looked up can be fixed.
You can also put this selection to “automatic”. In that case, the system will look
itself for the image type and display whatever it finds. It checks for jpg, JPG,
jpeg, JPEG, gif, GIF, png and PNG. This function however puts extra strain on the
browser and web server and it is therefore better to fix the image type.
Troubleshooting images:
It mostly takes some time before people get the images feature to work. If you
don’t see the images, do following:
1. If you see no images at all: check where you have put the images (every
letter of the location counts). If you have multiple web server instances,
you must have the images on each instance (or at least on the instance
where you try). Remark that there is also a folder AttributeLabelImages.
This is NOT the correct place.
2. Check the extension of the images. .jpg is not the same as .JPG and also
not .JPEG (case sensitive, every letter counts).
3. If only some are missing: Use values and images without special
characters. Space works but most other special characters are to be
avoided (comma, %, … are known problems)
4. Check leading and trailing spaces and number of spaces in the names.
5.6.8 LookUpAttributes Button: fetches multiple attribute values based
on one or more input attributes
A new option has been added, which you can use in case you want to fill multiple
attribute fields based on one or more input attributes without using a cascading
dropdown. In this case, the entire list configuration is done in the details of this
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single button, meaning you don't need to set each individual attribute to be
restricted to a list. Follow these steps to add such a button:
1. First of all, add all your attributes to your attribute category. Make sure
you are in Grid Layout.
2. Next to your input attribute(s), add a button by clicking the
Add
Button icon.
3. Modify the button's details:
1. Change the Label to the text you would like to show on the button.
2. Pick a Style for the button to change its look.
3. Set Function to LookUpAttributes.
4. Set List to your list on the system. Only database lists can be
selected here (no Excel sheets on the web server)
5. Add one or more Input Attributes. Select the attribute from a list
of attributes in your category and match it to the right Column in
the list. Click Add Input Attribute to add more.
6. Enable Exact to only allow exact matches.
Example: Suppose the input attribute is Country, and you want to
fetch country details like country code, country manager, region,…
Then when Exact is set, you will only find country details if you type
‘Belgium’ entirely (not case sensitive). If exact is off, you can type
‘Belg’ and it will find Belgium. If there are multiple matches, only
the first one is taken. So ‘Bel’ can retrieve Belgium but also
Belarus.
7. Add all the Output Attributes. Select the attribute from a list of
attributes in your category and match it to the right Column in the
list. Click Add Output Attribute to add more.
Remark that you can also add input attributes to be output
attributes. This will correct your (typed) input attributes to the
official value. In the above example, typing ‘Belg’ and clicking the
button will complete Belg to Belgium and add the other details.
8. Test the button in the preview section
4. Click Save.
When to use a LookUpAttributes button and when to use a cascading
dropdown?
LookUpAttributes tends to be a better user experience if a lot of properties must
be loaded for something already well-known/unique. The typical example is
loading product details or component details if a unique code is known upfront.
You type the code, click the button and get a lot of details filled out.
Cascading dropdowns tend to be a better user experience if partial/non-unique
information is known. If you don’t know the product code, you can get to it by
selecting some features of it (product line, product name,…) until only 1 product
code is left fitting to it.
5.6.9 Check Unique Value Button: checks whether a certain attribute
value is already used
The typical use case for this is to create a unique name for a component.
The function tends to not be very useful for creating pure numbers (where you
expect some auto-numbering). Use auto-numbering if this is what you want.
This function also does not guarantee that values are unique throughout the
system. It’s only a help to create names which don’t clash with existing names
(avoid human error).
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Steps to configure:
1. Add your attributes to your attribute category. Make sure you are in Grid
Layout.
2. Select the cell of the attribute(s) you want to check. This function does
not work for date attributes or rich text attributes. If you try using it
anyway for one of these types, it will tell you that this is not possible.
3. Click the
Add Button icon. Make sure the button is really added to the
cell of the attribute you want to check. Placing it anywhere else will not
check this attribute.
4. Set the Label to the text you want to see on the button (for example
“Check Value”
5. Select a style (use the preview to judge user friendliness)
6. Select as function “CheckUniqueValue”
7. Save your attribute category
Remark: this function is difficult to test via the preview because the checks are
done based on the current project, document or task you are in. In the preview,
you have no document, project or task.
What it checks for:
• When used in a project attribute category, it checks whether the filled out
value already exists for another project in the system. If so, it will tell you
that the value is not unique and will force you to choose another value
before you can save the attributes or create the project (when you are in
project creation).
• When used in a document attribute category, it checked whether the filled
out value already exists for another document in the system. Versions of
the current document are not checked, so it’s possible to have multiple
versions of the same document share the same attribute value.
• When used in a task type, it checks whether the filled out value already
exists for another task (of any task type!).
• The check happens when you click the button or when you do a save
operation where the checked attribute is saved. It does NOT happen
outside the form where the button has been added. So the check will not
happen if you change the attribute in any of following ways:
o Via a system integration (WebCenter SDK)
o When set via Automation Engine
o When doing a bulk change of attribute values via the project saved
search operations
o When setting the attribute via a workflow
o When setting the attribute via ArtiosCAD
• The check must sit in the currently visible view. This way you can have for
example a check which only happens during creation or in a task type
view.
Remark that a unique value for a task does not guarantee that this value doesn’t
exist for a project. This means that it can be disappointing to use this function to
set project attributes via the function “automatically set project attribute values
from task specifications”.
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5.6.10 JavaScript button
A JavaScript button is an advanced feature allowing Esko solution architects and
advanced administrators to create powerful additional functionality within the
form.
Typical applications are:
• Execute a calculation within the form
• Copy information from the project to a document created in the project
• Automatically fill out values for attributes (typically set read-only)
In all cases, this operation is done within the form and is therefore not as
automatic as some people might expect. For example if you copy project attribute
values to documents, this happens one-time. If thereafter the project attribute is
changed, the document attribute will not follow unless the button is clicked again.
This is a strength and a weakness at the same time. Full synchronization is oftne
not wanted. It’s however important to understand the concept.
This paragraph can’t go into all the details of the possibility of the JavaScript
function. Check the Esko knowledge base to learn more about JavaScript button
and find some nice examples.
We explain only the most simple expressions. In the picture above, you see a
simple calculation where an attribute with name ‘Price Estimation’ is automatically
set based on the value of attributes ‘L’, ‘W’ and ‘Price_per_m2’. Notice the
following:
• There is no need to return a value, just set the value of att[‘MyAttribute’]
• All attribute names must be surrounded by single quotes
• All attribute names are case sensitive
• The attribute name must be used. This can be different from the attribute
label visible in the form
• The property att must be exactly att, not Att or ATT.
• Technical info: att is in fact an associative JavaScript array containing a
copy of the current values for all placed attributes. At the end of the
operation, (only) the changed values are copied back into the form.
Whatever else you have done is dumped.
Security Notice:
• It is good practice to limit the use of this function to people with
understanding of JavaScript.
• The function is protected against misuse by only allowing to change
attributes contained in the current attribute category, and additionally
show message boxes. It can however not change any other data in
WebCenter (for example it cannot execute web calls). `
5.6.11 Import/export Restricted Sets
WebCenter 12.1.x allowed exporting and importing attribute categories and task
types. This missed the feature to export/import restricted sets (you had to recreate these by hand). This is now solved.
To export one or more restricted sets:
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1.
2.
3.
4.
Go to Admin/Attributes/Restricted Sets
Select one of multiple restricted sets
From the Actions pop-up, select Export.
This will download an XML which you save on your local computer
To import restricted sets:
1. Go to Admin/Attributes/Restricted Sets
2. Click the Import link (top right)
3. Browse to a previously saved XML file
4. Click the (orange) Import button
If the restricted set exists, it will be overwritten with the new values. If it does
not exist, it will be created.
Important remark:
This function is automatically also used when exporting/importing attribute
categories and task types. This means that the exported category will also
contain the exported restricted sets (all in 1 file). Importing it subsequently in
another system will first create the restricted sets, and then create the attribute
category.
So there is no need to first export/import the restricted sets separately.
5.7 New Approval features
5.7.1 One of Role approval
As of WebCenter 14 we have three role approver types:
• One of Role (default)
• All of Role – One per Group
• All of Role
One of Role:
This is a new role approver type introduced in WebCenter 14. In this case only
one of the role assignees is required to approve on behalf of the role.
An additional advantage of this option is ‘late binding’. The role is not resolved
when you start the approval cycle, so it is possible to make changes to the role
assignments without stopping the approval cycle. Therefore it often even makes
sense to use One of Role if there is only one role assignee.
All current assignees of a role can see the approvals for their role in their 'My
Approvals' 'My Work' section (with a proper 'assigned to' filter option).
Note: also when selecting One of Role, the role must have at least one assigned
user/group in order to be able to start the approval cycle.
Notifications:
Approval notifications are sent to all current assignees of the role. When
swapping the assignee of a role, the system checks whether this role is a current
approver on documents in this project, and sends out the appropriate e-mail
notifications to the new assignee (approval started).
Approval history:
The 'One of Role' approvals are shown in the approval history similar to the 'One
of Group' approvals. The actual user who submitted the approval is shown in the
'User' column, the role name is shown in the 'On behalf of' column.
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Handling of the role group representative:
You can assign a group and one of its users both to the same role (check the
checkbox invite group in the role assignment). The user is in this case called the
group representative. This has following effects:
• Only the group representative user receives the approval notifications
• Only the group representative user can see the approval in the 'My
Approvals' 'My Work' section when filtering on approvals assigned to 'Me'
• Other group members can see the approvals in the 'My Approvals' 'My
Work' section when the filter is set to 'Me Indirectly' (new option)
• All the group members are able to approve on behalf of the role
If you want to know more about the group representative, check the Esko
knowledge base on help.esko.com and search on group representative.
5.7.2 Show detailed approval feedback from My Work and document
search results
On each of the three approval My Work sections, an Info button has been added
for each document in the list.
Clicking the Info button will open a pop-up window with the same approval
information and controls as available in the Approval section of the document
details.
This allows getting detailed approval feedback and does all approval actions for a
document without leaving the My Work page.
For document search results, the same functionality is available by clicking the
Approval status icon. The approval status can be configured to be visible or not in
the search setup. This is also available when using saved searches as My Work
sections or as custom menu items.
5.8 Annotations and Approval integration features
5.8.1 Permissions for annotating documents under approval
In General Preferences, under the section Viewer Preferences, a new option
“Annotate documents being approved” was added. With this, the administrator
can determine who can set annotations for documents being approved. A
document version is considered under approval as soon as an approval cycle has
been started
Following table explains the effects of the various options:
All Users
All Approvers
and Approval
Master
All Approvers
Pending
Approvers and
Approval Master
All users with view access to a document can
annotate the document while it is being approved.
This is the default setting.
All users (approvers and approval master) defined
in the document approval setup (all stages) for the
current version can annotate the document while it
is being approved.
All approvers defined in the document approval
setup (all stages) for the current version can
Only an approval master or approvers who can
submit an approval state (Approve or Reject) for
the current version can annotate the document
while it is being approved.
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Pending
Approvers Only
Only approvers who can submit an approval state
(Approve or Reject) for the current version can
Note: Project Managers who can only submit a Forced (Approve or Reject)
approval state is not considered an approver.
5.8.2 Block approval when an annotation was set/changed on current
version
In General Preferences, under the section Approval, a new option “block approval
when an annotation was set/changed on current version” was added. When this
checkbox is checked, users who have created an annotation on the current
version of a document will be blocked from submitting the Approved approval
state (without Condition). If Approved with Condition is not enabled, only the
Rejected approval state can be submitted. Also when users have replied to an
existing annotation (of another user), they will no longer be able to approve the
document (without condition).
Note: This setting will also be applied when submitting an Approval Status from
any page outside the viewer. The user will then get the correct feedback.
5.8.3 Require approval comments on viewable documents
In General Preferences, under the section Approval, a new option “Require
approval comments on viewable documents” was added. With this option, the
approvers can be forced to add their comments as annotations on the document.
This only applies to viewable documents.
Prompt
Any Annotation
User Annotation
When the approver rejects or approves with condition, the dialog
shows a comment box where he/she can put a comment.
Adding the comment is not enforced.
There must be at least one annotation (from any user) on the
document version before allowing Reject or Approve with
Condition actions can be executed. The comment field will
always contain the text “Document annotated”.
The approver must place at least one annotation on the
document version before he can Reject or Approve with
Condition actions can be executed. The comment field will
always contain the text “Document annotated”.
Note: This setting will also be applied when submitting an Approval Status from
5.8.4 Require review state on all annotations
In the approval Setup, a new setting “Require review state on all annotations
before approve or reject” was added per stage. With this setting, the approvers
can be forced to review all annotations before being able to submit a review
status. This only applies to viewable documents.
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No
Any reviewer
Current approver
All approvers can submit their Approval Status without having to
review the annotations on the document.
Before an approver can submit a review status, all annotations
need to be reviewed by at least one person. If the approver tries
to submit an Approval Status when some annotations are not yet
reviewed, a warning message will be shown.
Before an approver can submit a review status, he needs to
review all annotations himself. If the approver tries to submit an
Approval Status before reviewing all annotations, a warning
message will be shown.
Notes:
- If a document has no annotations, an Approval Status can be submitted
without a problem.
- The review status “None” will not be accepted as a valid review state.
- This setting will also be applied when submitting an Approval Status from
5.9 New Role features
5.9.1 Role re-assignment
General improvements were done to Role Assignment logic. One of these
improvements is creating an easy and quick solution to change Role assignments
within a Project.
When the ‘Manage Roles’ in page is opened a Project, existing Role assignments
are shown and editable, next to the controls that allow the User to create new
Assignment for the displayed Roles. The existing Role assignments can either be
removed or changed to a different Assignment.
If a certain User or Group, which is being removed from the Role Assignment, is
only invited to the Project via this Role Assignment, he will get uninvited from the
Project completely. Approval and Task related dependencies are checked in this
situation to prevent leaving the Project workflow in an inconsistent or blocked
state. If an existing Role Assignment is changed, meaning that the Role is being
reassigned, all the Task and Approval assignments that are directly assigned to
the current Role Assignee, either a User or a Group, get transferred to the new
Assignee. This transfer of assignments only happens if the current Assignee loses
access to the Project by getting unassigned from the Role.
This functionality is also accessible on the Project Creation page.
5.9.2 Role invite delegation
As of WebCenter 14, not only Project Managers will be allowed to assign a Role
within their Projects, but specific Project Members as well. Such a ‘Role
Assignment Permission’ is granted to a Project Member based on Roles. A user
that is assigned to a specific Role, which is configured in the Admin section to be
able to Assign Members of another Role, will be able to do these assignments on
the “Manage Roles” page.
Specifying which Role’s Assignees are able to Assign Members of which
Roles
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In AdminRoles, select a Role and click on the General tab. This opens following
dialog.
When clicking on the link “Roles can invite following roles”, a page that allows
selecting multiple Roles is shown. All Roles in the system are listed and available
for selection.
Assigning Roles by regular Project Members
A User that is invited to a Project via a Role (or multiple Roles) is able to change
Role assignments for those Roles that are configured in the “Roles can invite
following roles” list. If the user is assigned to multiple roles in the Project, the list
of Roles that the User can assign is will be the sum of those of each separate
Role.
Clicking the ‘Manage Roles’ button on Project Members page takes the User to the
Manage Roles page. If the user navigates to this page without the permissions to
manage any roles, only a message, informing him of his inability to manage any
Roles, will be displayed. A return button will return him to the Project Members
page.
When the User has permissions to assign members of a Role, that user can reassign existing Role assignments, remove assignments completely and/or create
brand new assignments for all the shown Roles on the page.
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If by carrying out Role Assignment actions a normal Project Member effectively
un-invites himself from the Project, a feedback page is displayed with a list of
available ‘next actions’ for him to do.
Visibility of potential Groups/Users for Role Assignment
As this functionality is effective for normal WebCenter Users and not only Project
Managers, some visibility rules have to be applied, as the normal users should
only see a subset of Users and Groups. The following logic is used for filtering
potential User and Group assignees:
Member
type
User
Admin and PM
with full visibility
All
PM with limited
visibility
Visible users
Normal user
•
•
•
Group
All
Visible groups
•
•
Users from his own company (all
locations)
Users who are member of the
project (through individual or
role assignments)
All the users who are member of
a group that is visible.
Groups the user is member of.
Groups that are member of the
project (through individual or ole
assignments)
Further filtering of potential Role assignees can be done in addition to the
visibility filtering – the same RoleGroup Name Matching based filtering logic
applies as it does for regular Role Assignment by Project Managers.
5.9.3 Role user representative and indirect role assignment
Using Roles now allows for an easier support of ‘absence management’.
Fundamentals of User absence issue in WebCenter
If a user is specified as a ‘user representative’ of a Group that is assigned to a
Role, he is considered to be the preferred assignee on behalf of this Group Role
Assignment when the Role is assigned to a Document Approval or a Task. Only
this User gets the appropriate Documents and Tasks in his My Approvals/My
Tasks sections on My Work page and only he receives e-mail notifications on
behalf of the Group (via its Role Assignment) for Task and Approval related
events.
Although all members of the Group are allowed to execute Approval and Task
operations on behalf of the Group>Role, the application does not indicate them to
do so as it is the User representative who is expected to do this work.
A complication in the workflow could then easily arise once this User
representative is absent and cannot perform the tasks he is assigned to in the
mentioned way. Only he is informed by the system that certain tasks should be
taken care of, but his absence makes it less apparent for other Users of the
system.
Solution of User absence by ‘Indirect Assignment’ execution
User absence issue is addressed in WebCenter 14 by a concept of ‘Indirect
Assignment’ execution of tasks.
As mentioned above, although other members of a Group that is represented by
the absent User are now able to execute Document Approval and Tasks, the
system doesn’t easily show them which Documents and Tasks are the ones that
fall into this category. This forces such Users to go searching for the ‘pending’
Document and Task assignments manually and hinders their work efficiency.
A solution for that is the possibility to show Documents, in the My Approvals
section, and Tasks, in the My Tasks section, assigned to the absent User when
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being logged in as a different User, who is a Group member of the absent one
that is representing that Group.
To do that the User has to open My Work page and show My Approvals/My Tasks
section(s). The ‘documents/tasks assigned to’ dropdown filter at the top now also
contains an extra option: “Me Indirectly”. Selecting this filter option displays an
additional dropdown list used to select a specific User. Only Users that share a
Group with the logged in User and are specified as User representatives of at
least one Group Role Assignment system-wide are shown.
Once a User is selected, all Documents/Tasks to which the selected User is
assigned through a Role and on behalf of a Group are loaded.
Since all the Group members are allowed to execute such assignments (not only
the specified User representative) the logged in User will be able to execute the
Approvals from the My Approvals section directly.
Project History will indicate that those Approvals/Tasks were executed on behalf
of the Role that is represented by the Group that both the Users share.
5.9.4 Search on Project Role Assignments
Project Search now also allows specifying criteria for Project Role Assignments.
To specify a Role Assignment search criterion you need to the following steps:
1. On the Project Search Setup page (accessible from the Main Menu >
Search > Projects) click ‘Add Role Search Criterion’ link to generate a
Role Assignment criterion specification row.
2. From the initial dropdown list control select the target Role you are
interested in.
3. Select one of the assignment types from the three radio buttons – User,
Group and ‘Me’ (personal filter similar to that for Project Manager Search
criteria) are the available types.
4. Type a Username (for ‘User’ assignment type), Group name (for ‘Group’
assignment type) to specify the preferred assignee of the Role that you
want to filter on. If ‘Me’ assignment type is selected there is no text field
to specify an assignee  a special dropdown is used to select the personal
filter setting instead.
If no User/Group/Personal Filter is specified for a given Role no filtering on a Role
Assignment will be done when submitting the search but it is still possible to have
the appropriate Role shown on the Search Results page.
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It is possible to specify multiple Role Assignment criteria for a single Project
Search setup – click on ‘Add Role Search Criterion’ link to generate another Role
Assignment criterion specification row. Multiple Role Assignment criteria are
connected with an AND search operator meaning that all the specified Role
Assignment conditions must be met in order for a given Project to get into the
Search Results.
When displaying a Role on the Search Results page, all the current assignments
for the Role in a Project are shown. If there are no assignments for that Role in a
Project or the Role is not even its member the appropriate cell is empty.
It is possible to add a Role search criteria to ‘Search Design Panel’ to be able to
dynamically rerun a search with different Role Assignment specification.
It is possible to make Role search criteria ‘editable’, thus allowing the user to
carry out ‘Manage Role Assignments’ bulk operation from the Search Results
page.
5.10 New Workflow features
5.10.1 Create Project node
In WebCenter 14, a new auto-task "Create Project” is added that allows you to
create projects from within another project at a certain point in your workflow.
You can also iterate the project creation to create multiple projects at once based
on e.g. a multi-value attribute.
The Create Project node is only available when you have WebCenter Advanced.
This means at least 1 Concurrent Power User License. If you don’t have the
license and you open a workflow in the task type with the node, it will be
displayed red (= disabled). You cannot find it back in the Auto Tasks list to drag it
on the canvas and when you run the workflow, the node will fail with the message
that the node is disabled because of settings or licenses not activated.
The node is transparent, meaning the same documents that come in the node
also leave the node.
The options for the node are:
For creating the project (all smart name enabled):
- Project Name:
o The name of the new project. If not specified, auto-naming is
checked in the template (or admin>general>preferences) settings.
If the parameter is missing but was required (no auto-naming), a
“One or more mandatory parameters were not specified” error is
shown.
- Project Name Suffix:
o If the project name is not specified, and auto-naming is turned on
with an Edit Field as suffix, this parameter is used.
- Template:
o The name of the template to create the project from. If missing, a
blank project is created.
- Project Description:
o The description of the new project
- Project Status:
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The initial status of the new project. This list follows the order of
the project statuses as defined in WebCenter and selects the first
one.
Customer/Company:
o The legal name of the company/customer. Defaults to the
customer/company of the current project.
Location:
o The location belonging to the specified customer/company. Defaults
to the location of the current project.
Project Due Date:
o The due date of the new project. Defaults to the due date of the
current project.
Project Manager:
o The project manager of the new project. Defaults to the project
manager of the current project. The smart naming enables to
choose a Group, Role, User, PM of the current Project and an
attribute (document/project/task) or the user can enter the user
name or group name manually.
 If the PM cannot be resolved (e.g. you choose an attribute
and it cannot be resolved because you forgot to add the
attribute to the project), an error “Project manager not
found” is shown.
 If you choose a role, the current project is checked for the
assignment of that role. A unique User or Group should be
assigned to that role or an error “More than one group/user
assigned to role” is thrown.
 If you assign a Group, at least one of the members should
be PM or an error is shown.
 If you assign a User, the user should be PM or an error is
shown.
 If you choose an attribute, the attribute should resolve to
the username of a user or the name of a group.
o
-
For copying the incoming documents to the new project(s):
There is an option to:
- Copy Documents: The documents are copied to the new project.
o Copy as Link:
 If checked, the documents are copied as Link, otherwise just
copied.
o Folder Name:
 The name of the folder. If nothing is filled in, the root folder
is assumed; otherwise if not found a “Folder not found”
error is shown.
- Don’t Copy Documents: No documents are copied to the new project.
The default option is Copy Documents.
For iterating the project creation (creating multiple projects at once):
There is an option to:
- Iterate the Project Creation:
o It has one option Attribute:
 The user can choose a project/document attribute via a
smart name.
 If the attribute cannot be resolved (e.g. it doesn’t sit in the
current project), an “Attribute not found” error is shown.
 The resolved value is used as “iterator value” and can be
used in all other smart names of this node.
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For each value of ‘iterator value’ it will create a project with
the value of ‘iterator value’ filled in in the parameters that
use it.
 If the attribute is from the type ‘Integer’, the iterator value
contains subsequently “1”, “2”, “3”, etc. If the attribute is a
multi-value (text) attribute (e.g. Languages), the iterator
value contains subsequently “Dutch”, “English”, etc.
Otherwise if the attribute is something else, the iterator
value contains that value.
 If the attribute is manually entered (you just type a value
instead of choosing an attribute via a smart name), the
behavior is similar as for an attribute. If it can be parsed to
an integer (e.g. you type 10), the iterator value contains
subsequently “1”, “2”, “3”, etc. If you type in a multi value
attribute format (e.g. “Dutch | French | English”), the
iterator value contains subsequently “Dutch”, “French”, etc.
Otherwise if you type something else, the iterator value
contains that value.
 If there will be more than 100 projects created at once (so
by a single execution, meaning for one token that hits the
node), a “Maximum number of projects that can be created
at once exceeded." error is shown. For a particular customer
that really needs more, the default value can be overwritten
by
setting
a
value
for
the
key
WF_MAX_PROJECTS_CREATED in the Profile_Defaults DB
table.
- Do not iterate the Project Creation: Just one project will be created. The
iterator value resolves to the empty String if still used in one of the
parameters of this node.
The default option is Do not Iterate.

For setting project attributes of the new projects:
- A list of name-value pairs:
o Name is the name of the (project) attribute
o Value can be any smart name/manually entered value.
o The attribute values are set regardless the Attribute Category of
the new project.
o A smart name that is not completely resolved does not fail project
creation: the attribute will not be set in the created project.
o A user can do role assignment via attributes.
For which WebCenter:
- Current WebCenter: the project(s) are created on the WebCenter where
the workflow is executed.
- Other WebCenter: the projects are created on the remote WebCenter. This
implies that all values specified as parameter (e.g. the Project Manager)
should be present on the remote WebCenter or an error is shown.
Documents are also remotely copied, but the user can not add them as
link (that option is ignored).
o The options are:
 URL: The URL of the remote WebCenter (“/” at the end can,
but is not needed).
 Username: The user name used to login to the remote
WebCenter
 Password: The password used to login to the remote
WebCenter for the specified user name. If a user exports a
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task type containing a node with this option, this field is
blanked in the generated XML.
The default option is Current WebCenter.
All smart names for all parameters are resolved over all documents in one token.
Meaning, if a token contains multiple documents, and you select for a certain
parameter a document attribute, it will check in all documents of the token if that
attribute is specified. The first one wins if it is multiple times defined.
For every successfully created project, there is a log in the Project History of the
master (the project in which the workflow is executed) saying “Project x is
created”. If it is created on a remote WebCenter, it says “Project x is created on
http://...”.
A user can filter the project history on the “Project Created” notification type. The
event is always written in the project history, meaning you cannot configure/see
it in the Notifications options to turn it on/off.
5.10.2 Start Approval Cycle node extension
There are 2 options in the Start Approval Cycle node: Use default approval setup
and Use the approval setup of another document. The second one received an
extension in WebCenter 14.
The behavior for the “Use the approval setup of another document” was (and is)
that when the document already has an approval setup (from previous runs of
the cycle, potentially on previous versions), the approval setup is not overruled
by the setting.
Now, there is a new checkbox added “overrule existing approval setup of the
document if the cycle was not started yet for this version”.
This means that when the document already has an approval setup (inherited
from previous versions) and the approval cycle has not been started yet for the
current version, the setup of the other document will still overrule the existing
document approval setup if and only if the option “overrule existing approval
setup of the document if the cycle was not started yet for this version” is
checked. If it is not checked or the approval cycle was already started (and
stopped again) on the current version, the behavior is the same as before (as
described above).
5.10.1 Workflow Engine Troubleshooting Tools
Sometimes, workflows contain loops and make the system crashing, workflows
got stuck, workflows failed to complete, etc. Since WebCenter 14, some tools are
made available to troubleshoot workflows.
5.10.1.1 Workflow Engine State
First of all, what is the Workflow Engine? The Workflow Engine is a component
that runs in the background of JBoss. It allows a worklow to ‘run’ in WebCenter.
Before WebCenter 14, that component was started when JBoss was started. If
someone wanted to restart the Workflow Engine, they had to restart JBoss.
Now, the state of the Workflow Engine can be seen via Admin > Configuration >
Workflow Engine.
The possible states are:
- Started: the Workflow Engine is running (green)
- Starting: the Workflow Engine is still starting up (orange)
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-
Stopped: the Workflow Engine is not running (red)
The state can be changed by using one of the buttons Restart, Start or Stop.
Restart will stop the Workflow Engine and start it again afterwards. Stop will stop
the Workflow Engine if it was started. Analogous, Start will start the Workflow
Engine if it was stopped.
The Troubleshooting Tools page now also includes a test that will report OK if the
Workflow Engine is running, Bad if the Workflow Engine is still starting up, or
Failed if the Workflow Engine is not running.
Besides the state of the Workflow Engine, also the state of the Database related
to the Workflow Engine can be seen on the Workflow Engine page. This state
includes:
- The total number of running workflows in the Workflow Engine
- The total number of tokens in these workflows
- The total number of triggers in these workflows
- The total number of wait triggers in these workflows
5.10.1.2 Troubleshooting Tests
To help to identify ‘problem’ workflows, 12 tests are added to the Troubleshooting
Tool page (Admin > Configuration > Troubleshooting Tool), that will check for
common problems. Each of them will report OK if no problems are found, Bad if it
can find problems, or Failed if something else goes wrong.
If there are ‘problem’ Workflows found, the Details section will give more
information about which Task and Project it goes. There is also a description
given on how to solve the problem.
An Example:
There is a project P with a workflow W that is hanging on a subtask S. The
subtask S is already completed, but the workflow W doesn’t continue.
Test WCR14_WFEngineTS_400 “Missed Task Completed Triggers” will report a
problem:
There are 1 triggers found that are no longer valid because the related task is
already completed. Try Pause/Resume in the workflow or consider restarting the
Workflow Engine to let the workflow continue.
If Details is clicked, a line “Project: P, Workflow: W, Task: S” will be shown.
The solution is either to click Pause and then Resume in the workflow applet, or
the Workflow Engine can be restarted to solve the problem.
5.11 Printing of Attributes
The details attribute pages for documents and projects now contain a link “Print”.
Clicking this link will open a printer-friendly version of the attributes page in a
new tab/window.
5.12 Project bulk operations
Since WebCenter 14, Project Managers can update project information of multiple
projects in one go. You are now able to modify the Due date, Project Manager or
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Project Status of several projects at once. It is also possible to manage members,
permissions and assign roles. These bulk project actions are always limited to
current permissions on the projects involved.
An example: A Project Manager leaves the company, or the delivery date of a set
of orders changes. Using this new functionality you will be able to make these
changes quickly and easily.
5.12.1 Updating Project Due date, Manager or Status
The Project Manager, Due date and Project status can be modified from Project
search results or a Project saved search.
All actions are restricted to current permissions on the individual projects
involved.
In case you are an Admin user, you can follow these steps to create a (saved)
search in which Project Due date, Manager and/or Status can be modified. In
case you are not an Admin user, but a Project Manager, ask your Administrator to
setup a saved search for you first, by following steps 1 through 4. After that, you
can use this saved search as described in steps 5 through 10.
1. From the main menu, choose Search>Projects.
2. Type the parameters you would like to use to filter the search results.
3. Enable the Editable check-boxes for Project Status, Due and/or Project
Manager.
4. To save this search for later use, click Save this search. To run the
search, simply click Search.
For each field that has been made editable, an option has been added
to the Actions menu. For the fields that are shown as a column in the
search results (enable the View (List) check-box), there will be a
pencil
icon next to their title.
5. Select one or more projects from the list by enabling the check-box in
front of their Name.
6. Click the pencil icon for the parameter you want to change. Alternatively,
you can select the desired action from the Actions menu.
7. Change the value of the desired parameter:
1. To change the Due Date, pick a new date and time using the
selectors.
2. To change the Project Manager, first choose whether you want to
select a User or Group. After that, select a user or group from the
list, or start typing to find the one you want.
3. To change the Project Status, pick a new status from the list.
8. Choose Advanced if you wish to assign different values to your selected
projects. You can return to the default mode by clicking Simple again.
9. Click Start and wait for the action to complete, the dialog will indicate
which projects were successfully modified. If there are any issues, these
will be listed as well.
10. Click Close to close the dialog. Your search results will automatically
update.
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5.12.2 Updating Attribute Category or Project members/permissions
It is possible to change the Project Attribute Category of multiple projects from
Project Search results. Also, you can add Project Members to multiple projects
and set their permissions.
These actions are restricted to the current permissions on the individual
projects involved.
In case you are an Admin user you can follow these steps to create a (saved)
search in which the Attribute Category or Project members/permissions can be
modified. In case you are not an Admin user, but a Project Manager, ask your
Administrator to setup a saved search for you first, by following steps 1 through
5. After that, you can use this saved search as described in steps 6 through 9.
3. Click Show Result Layout Options on the right to see more advanced
search options.
4. Enable Allow Changing Attribute Category and/or Allow Changing
Project Members.
7. From the Actions menu choose either Change Attribute Category or
Manage Members/Permissions.
1. To change the Attribute Category, pick an attribute category
from the list.
2. To add a Project Member, first choose whether you want to add a
User, Group or Role. After that, select a user, group or role from
the list, or start typing to find the one you want. Once you have
selected your desired new project member you can immediately
modify the new member's project permissions. Note that if the
selected User, Group or Role is not yet in the project, it will be
invited.
which projects were successfully modified. If there are any issues, it will
be listed as well.
update.
5.12.3 Updating Project Role assignments
It is possible to change the Role Assignments of multiple projects from Project
Search results. It is possible to add members to a role, or to replace members of
a role.
All actions are restricted to current permissions on the individual projects
involved.
In case you are an Admin user, you can follow these steps to create a (saved)
search in which roles can be modified. In case you are not an Admin user, ask
your Administrator to setup a saved search for you first, by following steps 1
through 5. After that, you can use this saved search as described in steps 6
through 10.
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4. Add one or more Role Search Criteria by clicking the Add Role Search
Criterion link.
5. Enable the Editable check-boxes for the role(s) that you want to be
editable.
For each role that has been made editable, an option has been added
to the Actions menu. For the roles that are shown as a column in the
search results (enable the View (List) check-box), there will be a
pencil
icon next to their title.
8. Click the pencil icon for the role you want to change. Alternatively, you can
select the desired action from the Actions menu.
9. Change the value of the desired parameter:
1. Select a User and/or Group to assign to the role
2. It is possible to add multiple assignment using the
and
icons.
3. Under the assignment table, you can select whether you want to
add the members to the group and replace the mambers. Note that
if the members are replaced, all blocking tasks and approvals will
be moved to the first of the new members.
which projects were successfully modified. If there are any issues, these
will be listed as well.
update.
5.13 New (Java) Viewer features
5.13.1 Custom annotation filter
In addition to using the default filter in the filter selector, you can create your
own annotation filter optimized for your needs.
To select the custom filter, open the filter selector and select the "Custom..." item
in the bottom of the list.
If you have no custom filter configured, the "Edit Custom annotation filter" dialog
will open automatically.
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In this dialog, you can combine the basic author and review state filters described
above into a more complex filter with the individual parts chained with a logical
AND operator.
To configure a filter part, select the relevant filter type with the type dropdown in
top.
You can choose between the two simple types "Review State" and "Author" and
the more selective filter type "Review Author and State".
"Review Author and State" allow you to specify both a user and a review state at
once hence narrowing the filter to annotations where a specific user submitted a
specific review state e.g. those that the current user put on Completed.
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In the list of options, you can select one or more items to be matched. The
authors available are limited to those having submitted an annotation entry in the
currently selected document plus any authors saved with the current custom
filter.
You can invert the effect by selecting "is NOT" rather than the default "is" in the
selector to the right of the type selector.
To add a new filter part, click the "Add" button in the right side of the dialog.
To delete a filter part, click the "Delete" button under the filter part. You cannot
delete the first filter part.
In the lower part of the filter dialog, you can see the logical expression for the
current custom filter settings.
The annotation list of the current document will change to show at all times the
effect of the filter changes.
When your filter is set up as you want it, click the Save button to close the dialog
and activate the custom filter.
You can edit a selected custom filter, by clicking the edit button next to the
annotation filter selector. This button is only available when the "Custom..." filter
is selected.
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5.13.2 Locked Annotation filter
You can lock or unlock the annotation filter selection by clicking the "pin" button
to the left of the filter selector.
If the selection is locked, the selected filter will stay active also after changing
active document or even restarting the viewer.
The lock button will not prevent you from change the filter selection manually.
5.13.3 Caliper tool
You can use the Ruler tool to measure heights and widths, but in case you want
to check the height or width of multiple, typically aligned, objects, you might
want to use instead the Caliper tool.
•
Select the Caliper tool:
•
Click on the first point
•
Move to the second point. Note that you can use
all zoom and scroll functions while you are navigating to the first or second
point
•
Click on the second point
While the selection is made, you will see two parallel (horizontal or vertical) lines.
The lines will be horizontal if the two points you selected are more above each
other than next to each other.
Once completed, the area outside the selection will be dimmed to highlight the
selected area.
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5.13.3.1 Checking the caliper measurement:
In the Info panel, you can see the result of your measurement:
The W value is the horizontal distance between the lines (width)
The H value is the vertical distance between the lines (height)
You can change the unit of the W and H values with the pop-up-window, open by
clicking on the small triangle next to the Size value in the Info window.
5.13.3.2 Using click and drag selection style:
As an alternative to the two-click procedure, the Caliper tool also supports a clickdrag-release selection functionality. This is particularly useful when selecting
towards the border of the view area where clicking accurately can be difficult.
With the click-drag-release selection, you can simply release the mouse outside
the view area to snap accurately to the border.
5.13.3.3 Modifying an existing selection:
You can modify an existing selection by clicking (without releasing) on one of the
two lines and then drag the line to the new location.
5.13.3.4 Switching between Free Selection and Fixed Selection mode:
By default the Caliper tool is in the Free Selection mode allowing you to make any
selection. If you want to repeatedly measure the same width or height, e.g. to
check if all text are of a given size, you can switch Fixed Selection mode by
selecting Fixed Selection in the right-click popup window.
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A dialog "Set Fixed Size Caliper Selection" will be opened where you can enter a
new selection in the Gap field. Also select whether you want to measure Height
(horizontal lines) or Width (vertical lines)
5.13.3.5 Reusing a previously made selection:
With the "Set Fixed Size Caliper Selection" dialog open, you can double-click a
previously entered selection in the Recent selections list to make this the active
selection setting. You will get the same result by selecting the wished value
directly in the Caliper tool right-click popup window.
5.13.3.6 Manage Fixed Selections:
In the "Set Fixed Size Caliper Selection" dialog, you can use the Add and Delete
buttons to enter or remove selections.
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The Viewer will remember the 20 most recent fixed selections when the viewer is
restarted.
5.13.3.7 Convert a Free selection to a Fixed Selection
To save an active free selection as a fixed selection, select Save in the Caliper
tool right-click popup menu. Click OK in the "Set Fixed Size Caliper Selection"
dialog to confirm. This will automatically switch to Fixed Selection
5.13.3.8 Clear the current caliper selection
The caliper selection will disappear if you switch to another tool. You can also
clear it explicitly by selecting the Clear item in the Caliper tool right-click menu.
5.14 Automatically set Project Thumbnail from document
thumbnail
A new type “text” attribute “MAKE PROJECT THUMBNAIL” was introduced to
indicate that the thumbnail of a document should automatically become the
thumbnail of the project.
When a new graphics or CHILI document/version is uploaded and is assigned to
an attribute category that contains a “MAKE PROJECT THUMBNAIL” attribute of
type “text” set to “yes”, the thumbnail of the project containing this project will
be set to the document thumbnail after it has finished “checking and registering”.
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Additionally, if a document with the “MAKE PROJECT THUMBNAIL” attribute set to
“yes” is moved/linked/copied to another project, that project’s thumbnail will also
be changed to the thumbnail of this document.
This attribute has no effect when the document’s thumbnail is manually changed
to another thumbnail.
5.15 Managing Group Members by a non-Admin Group
Manager
A new Menu item was added to My WebCenter top menu item  My Group’s
Members. Similar to My Group’s Tasks menu item - it is meant to be used by
Users that are specified (by an Administrator) as a Group Manager of a specific
Group (or multiple Groups) in the system.
Clicking on My Group’s Members takes the User to a page where he can
manage Members of a specific Group he is allowed to manage.
The page shows a list of User’s that are currently Members of the selected Group.
There is an option to filter on User’s Last Name in order to downsize a potentially
long list of Members on demand.
There are two buttons that allow the Group Manager to perform the following
actions:
• Remove User(s): attempts to remove specified Users from the list of
Group’s Members
o Every User in the list has a checkbox that allows selecting that User
for Removal from the Group; only the currently logged in Group
Manager User that is accessing this page has this checkbox toggle
disabled  a given Group Manager is not allowed to remove himself
from a Group he is managing at this moment
o If any (blocking or non-blocking) dependency (i.e. User member is
set as an Approver of an ongoing Approval Cycle; User Member is
assigned to a Task within a Project; etc.) is spotted during an
attempt to remove him from a Group he will not get removed and a
user friendly message is shown to the User informing him about
which User(s) was/were not removed with a suggested solution.
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•
Add Users…: launches ‘Add User to a Group’ wizard that allows selecting
multiple target Users to be added to Group’s Members list
o The same page as when an Administrator wants to add new User’s
to a Group’s Members list within the Admin area is used to perform
this task.
o The selection of Potential Users to select from when adding User’s
to a Group is determined by ‘permission level’ of a Group Manager
User that accessing this page
 Administrator: My Group Management should not be
accessed by an Administrator User as he should be
performing those tasks via the standard Admin area
functionality
 Project Manager: standard Visibility settings filtering
(specified by an Administrator on Admin  Edit User page
for the appropriate Project Manager User) is in effect when
retrieving the list of User’s to be chosen from
 Regular User: only User’s that are associated with the same
Company as the current Group Manager User are available
for selection
o There is an option to filter on User’s Last Name in order to
downsize a potentially long list of Potential User Members on
demand.
5.16 Open ArtiosCAD Documents in ArtiosCAD desktop
application
5.16.1 Introduction
In order to improve user experience when working with ArtiosCAD documents in
WebCenter and at the same time viewing/modifying them in ArtiosCAD desktop
application a new preference is introduced in WebCenter 14 that can be used to
make a shortcut for opening a ArtiosCAD document stored on a WebCenter server
in ArtiosCAD application directly.
5.16.2 Preference setup
Any WebCenter User can change his preferences (using the Top Menu go to My
WebCenter > My Preferences > ArtiosCAD Preferences > Open ArtiosCAD
Documents) and specify to be able to open ArtiosCAD-type documents in the
ArtiosCAD desktop application instead of viewing them in WebCenter.
Administrator User or a given User’s Creator is also allowed to set this preference
on behalf of the given User when editing that User’s details.
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Administrator user can specify a site-wide for this setting in Admin >
Preferences > General. This setting will be considered a default value for all the
Users in the system that did not change this setting in their personal preferences.
5.16.3 ArtiosCAD Document Open method overview
There are three settings for 'Open in ArtiosCAD': ‘No Application’, ‘ArtiosCAD
Standard Edition’ and ‘ArtiosCAD Enterprise Edition’. The default type is ‘No
Application’. Selecting this type means that this feature is effectively disabled
for the appropriate WebCenter User.
ArtiosCAD Standard Edition is used to download an ArtiosCAD document from
the WebCenter site and open it in ArtiosCAD desktop application that is installed
on the user's client machine.
ArtiosCAD Enterprise Edition is used to open an ArtiosCAD document in an
ArtiosCAD Enterprise client application installed on the user's machine through a
defined WebCenterArtiosCAD Enterprise connection. The document is opened
in 'managed mode'. This allows the User to make modifications to the file in
ArtiosCAD and eventually update the document to a new version via the managed
mode connection that links the file being edited in ArtiosCAD with the
corresponding WebCenter document.
NOTE: this setting is only supported with ArtiosCAD Enterprise 14 clients
installed.
5.16.4 Accessing the feature from the user interface
5.16.4.1 Requirements
This feature is effectively accessible on individual Document level where it gets
exposed only if a given Document complies with the following criteria:
• The Document is recognized as an ArtiosCAD Document:
o Design : .ARD
o Manufacturing: .MFG
o 3D: .A3D
• Download of the native ArtiosCAD file is enabled for the current user
(Admin, CAD, CAD Download Formats setup)
• The current user has (project) Download permission to the Document
o NOTE: The only exception for this rule is Document Search Results
page where information about user’s effective permissions on
individual documents is not loaded up front. The ‘Open in
ArtiosCAD’ feature is attempted when the button is clicked and an
error is shown if it is found that the user doesn’t have the required
permission.
• ‘Open in ArtiosCAD’ setting is enabled for the current User by setting the
above mentioned preference setting to either ‘ArtiosCAD Standard Edition’
or ‘ArtiosCAD Enterprise Edition’
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5.16.4.2 User Interface
If all these requirements are met for a given Document, the User is able to open
an ArtiosCAD Document directly. The interface handles this in two forms:
• On Document Details page: there is an custom action button (labeled
Open in ArtiosCAD)in the Document header that replaces the default
Open button
•
On Project Details – Documents overview page: there is a custom ‘action
icon/link’
•
On Task Execution Page – Documents section: there is a custom ‘action
icon/link’
•
shown amongst the other document actions
shown amongst the other document actions
On Document Search Results page: there is a custom ‘action icon/link’
shown next to the Document name; this is currently the only single
document action link available on Document Search Results page for
individual documents row(list view)/cell(grid view)
o List View:
o
Grid View
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5.16.5 Behavior
Behavior of this feature depends on the chosen method.
If ‘ArtiosCAD Standard Edition’ is the currently selected method the browser will
(upon clicking on the described GUI controls; for details see previous chapter)
download the ArtiosCAD file to the client machine and then attempt to open it in
an associated ArtiosCAD desktop application. Having any version installed is
enough for this method to function properly. If ArtiosCAD Enterprise 14 is
installed on the client machine the document file will be opened in a simple/offline
mode.
If ‘ArtiosCAD Enterprise Edition’ is the currently selected method the browser will
generate a custom request (technical note: this action uses ACADE protocol,
which gets installed and registered on the client machine during the installation of
ArtiosCAD Enterprise 14) that launches ArtiosCAD Enterprise 14 desktop
application. Before starting the application the user is prompted for login
credentials for the specified WebCenter server and the User he would like to
represent in the online/managed editing session of ArtiosCAD Enterprise – the
server host should match the server that was used to execute the ‘Open in
ArtiosCAD’ action. Once the login credentials are properly submitted the target
Document is loaded in ArtiosCAD Enterprise workspace in a ‘manage document
mode’ which allows the ArtiosCAD operator to ‘Publish New Version’ on the
associated WebCenter server – by doing this a new Document Version of the
original Document is easily uploaded to WebCenter via the ArtiosCAD interface
during an editing session, thus speeding up collaboration between WebCenter and
ArtiosCAD applications.
5.16.6 Error handling
Not all error handling is under control of WebCenter itself so errors shown will
depend on local settings, browser and OS.
Description and solution suggestions are described in a dedicated Knowledge Base
article: https://wiki.esko.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=83182271
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5.17 Built-in custom reports improvements
Various improvements have been made to the built-in custom reports. This cover
the built-in Approval report, built-in Complex Approval report and built-in Task
report.
5.17.1 General
A number of good practices were adopted in the built-in reports. This includes
usage of 'No Data' band, or correct handling of empty dates.
Other areas of improvements are localization and look and feel (unified color
schema, alignment of sections).
5.17.2 Charts improvements
For the pie charts, we have introduced a minimum percentage per slice. It is fixed
to 2%. All values less than this are included in the 'Other' slice. The graph was
too complex in case there was lot of small slices.
For the bar chart in the built-in task management report we have introduced a
new parameter called "Minimum Number of Days Shown in Bar Chart". By this
you can limit the bars that will be shown in the bar chart. Also the bars are sorted
by the value descending (average task duration days per assignee). The chart
was sorted by the user name previously.
5.18 WebCenter usability changes
5.18.1 Project permission page
The project permission pages are changed to no longer commit (submit) each
change (check-box value selected or de-selected) individually. While effective for
small permission adjustments, this way of working significantly slowed larger
changes.
The project permission pages now all have a Save button that commits in one
operation all permission changes made on the page.
5.18.2 More searchable dropdowns
In WebCenter 12.1, searchable dropdown lists were first introduced on the project
creation page. Instead of scrolling through a potentially very large list of
templates or projects, the user could now simply start typing in a field to show
only relevant results.
In WebCenter 14, more dropdown lists have been replaced with the new
searchable dropdown variant to improve usability. For example:
• The Customer field on the project creation page.
• The Group and User / Assignee fields for role assignment, on the
project creation page, in the project’s Manage Roles page and in the
project search actions.
• The Role field on the Project Search page.
• The User and Group fields in the project search actions Manage
Members/Permissions and Change Project Manager.
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5.18.3 Copy project manager option
When creating a new project from an existing project (or using the copy project
action) a new option is available in the 'Copy setup from an Existing Project'
popup dialog – 'Copy project manager'.
• If checking this option, no project manager selection is given at the
project creation page and the project management will be automatically
set to the project manager of the source project.
• If not checking this option, the project manager selection is shown based
on the settings set in the project creation configuration. If the 'Show
project manager' option is off, the requestor will become the project
manager of the new project. It will be the selected user ("me") or group
otherwise.
5.18.4 User Management filter extensions
When accessing Users overview page (either Admin > Users as an Administrator
User or My WebCenter > My Users as a Project Manager with Create User rights)
the main filter field has been changed.
Before it was labeled “Filter by User’s last name” and as this label suggests
running this filter only considered ‘Last Name’ property of a User.
Currently the filter is labeled “User filter” and the behavior also changed.
If you submit this filter the system will be filtering on multiple criteria at the same
time. The following User properties are now checked when filtering on this page:
• Username
• First Name
• Last Name
• User’s Company Name
• User’s Company Location Name
A User will pass through the filter (resulting in him being shown in the list of
Users once the page reloads after running the filter) if at least one of his
properties mentioned above match the submitted filter value.
5.19 Security improvements
5.19.1 WebCenter password complexity requirements
To follow the standard security recommendations, the minimal length of the
WebCenter complex password has been increased from 6 to 8 characters. Existing
passwords are kept until they are expired.
The complexity requirements for WebCenter passwords can be switched on in the
'Admin' section, at the 'Passwords' page.
5.20 WebCenter SDK changes
5.20.1 Tomcat Session ID Length
For added security the Tomcat Session ID or JSESSIONID has been changed from
16 bytes to 64 bytes in WebCenter 14. This ID is hex encoded so the string length
changed from 32 characters to 128 characters.
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5.21 WebCenter platform changes
5.21.1 64-bit server
To allow better scaling of WebCenter, WebCenter 14 has been optimized to run
on 64 bit Windows only.
As a result, only Windows Server 2008 R2 and later are supported for the
WebCenter application and web servers.
To further improve the robustness of WebCenter, the view server process can
optionally be separated from the main WebCenter JBoss application server service
(installer option).
Note: This change current requires extra ports to be open between the web and
application server: 11099, 12500 and 1444.
5.22 Installation changes
5.22.1 Complex database password
The default password for the 'webcenter' database user has been changed to
meet the Windows password complexity policy.
The 'webcenter' database user is created during the installation (when running
the database scripts). In case the user already exists, the password is also
changed to the complex one.
See next section for handling of database user password in the installer interface
and the implications of the user’s related choice.
5.22.2 New Installer choices
Immediately after accepting the license agreement an installer screen allows the
user to choose between a “Simple” and an “Advanced” installation. Simple is
selected by default.
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In case Advanced is chosen, the user will have access to additional installation
options. In case a Simple installation is chosen, default values will be used for
those two functions and no extra screens will be displayed. This is the same
behavior as for installers preceding WebCenter 14.
When an Advanced installation is chosen an installer screen allows the user to
choose between a “Standard” and an “Extra Large” deployment. Standard is
selected by default.
When an Extra Large is chosen, Tomcat and/or JBoss (depending on the server
being installed) will be able to allocate 3 times more memory as is the case with a
Standard installation.
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When an Advanced installation is chosen, a new installer screen is presented
allowing the user to choose between an “Internal” and an “External” View server.
Internal is selected by default. This screen will only be shown in case of an
Application server installation.
When Internal is chosen the View Server will be running inside the JBoss process.
If External is chosen, an additional process running the View Server will be
started automatically.
Note: For the External view server to work, 3 extra ports need to be open in the
firewall between the web and the application server: 11099, 12500 and 14444.
Esko
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When installing Application server (and using ‘Advanced’ installation) component
the user gets to see an additional screen right after specifying the basic database
server information), which allows the user to choose between a Default and a
Custom password that should be used by WebCenter application to connect to its
database.
Esko
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If ‘default’ option is chosen the DB Updater tool provided by the installer (also
available for manual execution after the installation process has finished within
the installed WebCenter folder on the target disk drive) creates (for clean
installations) or updates (for cases when an older version of WebCenter is being
upgraded) the preferred ‘webcenter’ database user (that is being used to access
WebCenter Database by the application) with the default password value.
If ‘custom’ option is selected the user has to provide a value that the system uses
to configure its database access thus replacing the default password value. The
‘webcenter’ database user will get created/updated with the custom password
value replacing the default one.
6. Known issues and limitations
6.1 Lists on 64-bit
To be able to continue using WebCenter 12 style Excel lists in attribute
categories, you may need to update the Microsoft Excel driver installed on the
web
server
to
support
64-bit.
You
can
find the
driver
here:
http://www.microsoft.com/enus/download/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=13255).
6.2 IIS change needed after upgrading
If you move to WebCenter 14 from WebCenter 12.x, leaving the installation of IIS
intact, a change to IIS may be needed. In IIS, go to Application Pools and open
the Advanced Settings for DefaultAppPool. Make sure that ‘Enable 32-Bit
Applications’ is set to ‘False’. After changing the setting, click ‘Recycle…’.
6.3 Installation of IIS 8
Currently, the installation of IIS 8 is not yet described in the user documentation.
However, you can find a description of the installation process in the following
Knowledge Base article:
https://wiki.esko.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=76723566.
6.4 Menu builder
Creating custom labels (localized via Label Manager) will only work if you have
‘activated’ the appropriate languages (at least the English language) in
custom/customizationConfig.xml (to be found within the Tomcat web instance on
your web server) – if that is not the case your Menu Item will use the entered
value of ‘Language Tag’ field as the ‘simple label’ (non-localized universal label)
instead.
6.5 Indirect Assignment Execution
Submitting of document approval on behalf of a Group-Role by a different Group
member than the User representative (for details see section 5.7.3.) is not
possible from within the Collada viewer or the Java Graphics/CAD Viewer.
Esko
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6.6 Search on Project Role Assignments
-
It is not possible to add Project Role Assignment search criteria to a Task
or Document search. This functionality is only available in a Project Search
context.
It is not possible to make Project Role Assignment search criteria ‘sortable’
on the Search Setup page.
6.7 Task Type Import/Export does not handle objects referred
to by the task workflow
When importing/exporting task types, the workflow might use other tasks,
project, documents or attributes in the workflow. The export will NOT resolve
these dependencies to include them in the exported XML.
Hence, if you want to export a task type that has a workflow referring to other
webcenter objects, you first need to export/import these objects in order to have
a consistent workflow of the imported task type.
Esko
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7. Solved customer issues
The following issues logged or reported by customers have been solved since
WebCenter 12.1.2 r7.
Issue Description
Issue Number
116315
New WebCenter 12.1 default questions
CW182928
119716
Project Status display in Document view
CW204452
122369
WebCenter hanging, not responding
CW229665
122040
Task assignee bug
CW227683
123117
CW234909
119410
When looking at the Saved Search separately, a green
button" Clear this form" is visible - this is not visible
when using the Saved Search via a Document Creation
button.
WebCenter Copy Paste issue
120363
Download over File-Symbol gives false Filename
CW213415
121836
Annotations shifting
CW226426
122282
Connection WCR-AE loops every time a 2nd version of a
document is upload from AE to WCR
WebCenter: Attribute named "Project Name" breaks WF
connection setup
I have just split up a workflow so I reusable workflows get a specific SQL insert error message..
Sub Workflow errors
CW227842
CW234383
122350
If you have more customers as WCR is showing in the
first list, you cannot choose one in a template without
setting a filter
No smart node feedback for data collector and approval
nodes
Reset button for Security Permissions is giving an error "the page cannot be displayed because an internal server
error has
Invalid Parameter. Invalid Doc Version object id
Parameter
At all attribute-fields "float" filled in in ArtiosCAD
Enterprise, there are 6 decimals need a possibility to set
the visible decimals to 2,or 0 or customized
When changing the language of WebCenter to French,
the Menu Builder will not show the option to change the
Project Details menu -screenshots in mail
Show task details issue
122382
My Recently Handled Tasks Loading Failure
CW229555
120164
Redirect issue
CW211659
120804
CW216600
118678
Wants to return to the My Work page/Homepage after
completing a task. Also when being in the saved search
link
Routing does not work
119611
WebCenter shared report error
CW207278
120809
When trying to search through a created search on the
My Work page, page 1 looks ok, you go to page 2 and
when returning back to page 1, page 1 will look different.
Error in Chrome
CW216601
Multi-select attributes - Selector
incorrectly
Search on Active Projects error
CW210031
121978
122138
123204
123023
121009
121777
122849
119585
121883
117437
120112
110356
118513
116520
pop-up
positions
CW203643
CW227199
CW227769
CW233479
CW218022
CW225795
CW233239
CW197500
CW226520
CW229741
CW200244
CW191391
CW138879
Wrong behavior when renaming task and changing
thumbnail
E-mail links to projects fail with the message: No valid
docversion at iPad app
Esko
CW199282
CW183909
p. 63/64
112582
CW152701
120475
WebCenter iPad App: links in mail do not work - error
message: No docversion. No valid docversion found
Replacing users in roles does not work corretly in
Approvals
User Menu issue
110553
WebCenter project creation slow
CW139574
120493
Result missing in search
CW213923
120583
CW214304
121640
Problem when clicking release button - warning "stage
sequence is not in line with stage numbering"
When publishing to WebCenter in large projects,
WebCenter blocks; with small projects it's not a problem.
SDK: Callback missing to approvalcallbackurl parameter
119282
Problem with menu localized to French
CW204304
119297
Error message when trying to remove user from project
CW199400
117100
Problem when trying to synchronize a project with a
predefined server folder with documents if one or more
documents are in more than one project (linked)
Attribute categories broken.
CW186058
CW225633
121568
WebCenter fails with license err message when one of
the consignment licenses run out of time
Filter functions not working correctly in saved searches
115812
iPad viewer failure to login more than once
CW178581
119234
Project files upload but don't auto sync with the AE job
CW198834
120572
Problem with visibility rules in task types
CW212755
122564
One of Annotation Tools not working in viewer
CW231136
121602
SDK: When login by LoginAs.jsp the user loses the login
after two clicks
When creating a project based on a template and adding
a document before creating, a warning pops up
Impossible to modify a task status
CW224590
CW234800
119593
Unable to see the route a workflow has taken during a
project.
Task can't be completed
122189
Button closing tag not working
CW228664
107974
120758
121660
121781
122653
120891
123097
Esko
CW123602
CW214079
CW215805
CW220187
CW225172
CW219366
CW231463
CW217097
CW207110
p. 64/64

WebCenter 14 release notes - Product Documentation

Transcription

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