11/19/2020
The focus of this release includes a number of features that improve your visual experience. This includes a new 3-Dimensional chart, an all-new builder toolbar, new chart properties, and much more!
Recorded Webinar
Service Releases
New Features
- New 3D Chart: This is a pretty cool chart. We've been using it internally for a number of reasons and it's very fun! But it's still a secret, so here are a few covert screenshots:
- New Dashboard Designer Toolbar: When NextGen arrived (v10.0+), we carried forward some previous designs that came from our original Flash interface. Recently, the toolbar has been revisited and we are making improvements you will enjoy. Below is a prototype screenshot.
- Button Labels: Labels have been added because our buttons/features are not common to the general industry
- Toolbar Width: Due to the wider nature of this toolbar (because we now show labels), we developed a few crafty ways to handle those with screen resolutions that aren't capable of showing the entire toolbar:
- Auto-Collapsing Labels: First, we implemented the ability for labels to programmatically turn off...section by section. First we hid the labels on the right and then work our way to the left. At some point in time, all the labels will be hidden and your browser might still be too small. So we implemented a second feature as described below:
- Auto-Scrolling: This will allow your cursor (or mouse wheel) to scroll the toolbar left-and-right so all buttons can be seen. By default, this feature will function when the browser is narrowed to a certain dimension. However, this behavior can be turned on, per user, which will also force the button labels to stay on regardless of the browser size
- Removed sub-menu options: We previously nested some populate buttons like Dashboard Parameters and Dashboard Properties...well not anymore!
- Categorically Organized: The old toolbar was constructed over ~7 years of evolution...which means new buttons were added to the right. The new toolbar is identified by 3x major sections: Dashboards, Charts and Tools - and the sub groups help organize the buttons even better
- Animations: We've added some functional animations and we're going to be adding even more!
- Improvements to Bar/Column Charts: A new property, called Bar Color Type adds the ability to utilize a specific color per-bar! Previously, bars could only be colored per Y-Axis Color or by Range Color.
- Chart Title Margins: This feature adds the ability to adjust (or remove) the TOP and BOTTOM margins for ALL chart titles. Below is a before/after screenshot based on zero margins versus default margins. Due to the critical nature of being able to globally set these two values and have them affect the entire dashboard experience, the mechanism for setting these values is as follows:
- Edit the ivizgroup.properties file
- This file can be found in the ivizgroup home directory of iDashboards (as identified in the Admin > System > About page)
- Add two new properties:
- chart.title.margin.top=
- chart.title.margin.bottom=
- The default value for iDashboards NextGen is:
- chart.title.margin.top=12
- chart.title.margin.bottom=12
- The legacy value for iDashboards Flash is:
- chart.title.margin.top=9
- chart.title.margin.bottom=4
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Rules:
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Any values that are not an integer from 0 to 12 will be ignored, and the default value of 12 will be used.
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iDashboards NextGen will use the default 12&12 unless one of these properties exists.
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- Edit the ivizgroup.properties file
- Input Parameter Widths (Vertical Layout): We improved the vertical layout of input parameters by making them a uniform size.
- Input Parameter Widths (Horizontal Layout): We improved the horizontal layout of input parameters by making their width customizable by the builder. For dropdown lists, the width will be determined by the longest value (up to 200px wide) and for non-dropdown values, the width is customizable by setting the pixel width, as shown below.
- Data Forms: Forms was released in v10.5 and we have been adding many new features to the form building, and form using, experience:
- Customizable Button Color: When placing a form on a dashboard, there are now 5x options for customizing each button color. This will support your vision for specific branding and color scheme usage.
- Field Groups: We realize there may be some common fields that consistently are needed per-form. Therefore, Field Groups are pre-determined fields in a particular layout and configuration that you can drag-n-drop onto your form for quickly making progress with your form design. My personal favorite is the Metadata group which will easily add multiple pre-configured and hidden fields onto your form. This is a great way to collect important information without cluttering up the appearance of the form.
- Move Forms: A small but handy feature, the ability to move a form from one category into another.
- Chart Property Retention: When changing the chart type, within the same family of charts, all customized properties will be retained if they are compatible! This is going to be a great time saver for when you want to switch the chart type and keep your investment on properties that have been updated. If this is not something that you enjoy, we have kept the Reset button within the Chart Designer so there is a way for a chart to become un-customized.
- Dashboard Switching Thumbnails: We added dashboard thumbnails to the Viewer screen for when you are switching between opened dashboards.
- Improved Legend: This is the first part of more to come. In this update, we have improved the appearance of the legend (as seen on the left). In the near future, we will be updating the legend to remove the titlebar when applicable.
Administrative
- Page Loading Performance: All of the administrative pages (of the iDashboards and Data Hub application) have been updated with a new design that can support far more records than we ever planned for. Therefore, if you have 25,000 named users, the page will load quickly and the searching will be efficient and effective.
- Password Reset: This new feature will allow a user to reset their own password! Because most implementation of iDashboards are not cloud/hosted, there will be a few requirements you'll need to meet before this feature is available and functional.
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Password Reset Requirements:
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SMTP configured
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If not configure (SMTP host field is blank) do not show the Forgot Password? button
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If configured, incorrectly, assume it works and show the button
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If configured, correctly, assume it works and show the button
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the user email field must be populated
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!! Currently, email field is not unique !!
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disabled if using LDAP
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- Alert Count: The administrative screen can now view the alert count and explore the alerts from within the Alert Severity page
Upgrading
To upgrade please use the Support Download Site to download the CDROM files, for new clients, you will download the Production Installer. If you have used the Support Download Site in the past, you will use the same credentials. If you have not, please contact your Client Success Manager and we can help you obtain your credentials. It is often found in your license update emails, below the licensing information, you will see download URL, username, and password.
Enterprise Release Notes are created by Development and Updated by the Support Services Team. If you find anything we missed, then please contact iDashboards Support for further assistance and they will update the article.
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