ShareAspace 1.6
User Interface Enhancements
New Logotype
Updated Styling
Introduced with the release of ShareAspace 1.6 the user interface of ShareAspace has gone through a vast overhaul. Aligning the design of the complete user interface into a more consistent, more easily navigable and more easily readable user interface. We hope to make it a better user experience when working within the user interface.
Personal favorites & object browsing history
With ShareAspace 1.6 we are bringing back two concepts from ShareAspace 7; the personal favorites and the object browsing history.
The personal favorites allows the user to pin objects to the home screen for quick access, the favorites are persisted between sessions.
The object browsing history is simply an interactive breadcrumb over the objects and modules the user has visited during the session.
For more details, please refer to the documentation by following the links below.
Documentation:
Object Comparer
Sometimes it can be hard to determine which metadata has changed between versions of an object, or maybe you just need to compare the information between to different instances? With the object comparer view the user can easily bring up two objects (or versions of the same object) and get an indication of which attributes differs between them.
Documentation:
Multi update operations
In earlier versions of ShareAspace the recommendation has been to perform an import when you need to update multiple objects in one transaction. This approach was however limited to updating the attributes of the objects and execution of actions on the object like lock/unlock, maturity-promote etc. was not possible. With ShareAspace 1.6 we have opened up for executing edit and update operations when multiple objects are selected.
The supported operations are:
- Edit of metadata through a common form
- Promote in Maturity Systems
- Lock/unlock of objects
- Deletion of objects
Documentation:
SoftTyping Enhancements
Multiple target types on SoftType reference port
For the configurator we have added the possibility to target multiple SoftTypes on a reference port. This new feature will allow for simplifying the configuration and decreasing the amount of duplicate similar objects in the template.
Documentation:
Support for relationships-to-relationships in SoftTypes
For the configurator and the custom template builder we now allow for declaring “references to relationships” in the SoftType configuration. An example of this is typically an Activity pointing to an occurrence of an object in a context (like a structure) rather then pointing to the object in itself.
Documentation:
Introduced concepts
Background events
With ShareAspace 1.6 a new Event Engine is introduced. The event capabilities are now enhanced to handle events on the transaction level in addition to the API level that was made available in version 1.3. This means that where you earlier could only subscribe to events executed by a user, you can now subscribe to changes on objects originating from DataExchange imports and API integrations.
With the new Event Engine you are also given vast configuration abilities in order to define triggers on a much more detailed level, including all PLM data and all operations on the PLM data. It is now also possible to signal any data from your configured SoftTypes in the Event signaling methods (including email and messages to custom extensions).
For product packaging, like the InReach Knowledge Transfer, you now have all trigger and event capabilities as before with the addition of subscribing to Events for creating and altering Parts and Documents. As a user you will be able to configure filtering on the triggered events.
More detailed information can be found in the ShareAspace Documentation, see links below.
Documentation:
Document management
A lot of new and powerful Document Management features are introduced to the ShareAspace platform in 1.6.
Preview of images
Support for direct viewing of images known by the browser without having to download them first.
More detailed information can be found in the ShareAspace Documentation, see links below.
Preview of documents
Support for an optional component for rendering previews of a series of document types that can then be viewed directly from the Web User Interface.
The document preview supports previewing of multiple pages of the documents (up to 100 pages).
Support for additional document types are possible.
With the first release the committed files types are:
- Word - .doc/.docx
- Excel - .xls/.xlsx
- PowerPoint - .ppt/.pptx
- PDF - .pdf
- Rich Text - .rtf
- Text Files like .txt
Supported formats and more details can found using the documentation links below.
Documentation:
Document content search
Support for document content search. Supported by optional components for indexing and searching the contents of documents in the managed file vault. The search capability supports phrase search. The search can be used via the ShareAspace user interface and allows you to find PLM objects that contains documents with a matching search phrase.
Supported formats and more details can found using the documentation links below.
Documentation:
Personal locks on information
Introducing the capability of placing a personal lock on an object and by doing so preventing other users to update it. In addition to placing locks ShareAspace also support the capability of delegating an acquired lock to another user. When the user receiving the delegated lock releases it - it will return to the initial acquirer. ShareAspace also support force-releasing of locks for administrative users.
More detailed information can be found by following the documentation links below.
Documentation:
Deletion of objects
With ShareAspace 1.6 we are now supporting a new way of deleting consolidated information while keeping the referential integrity of the same.
We foresee that we will support a number of states-of-removal in the future, but for 1.6 Delete is implemented.
States-of-removal:
Active:This is the default state of a UoI, it is searchable and operational.SoftDeleted:The UoI is soft-deleted, removed from end user access. No longer part of uniqueness checks. Can only be found via navigation to the object. Cannot be reactivated.Deleted:The UoI is hard-deleted. The internal data are removed. Only entry related meta data partially remain to maintain external reference integrity. This is also called a "tombstone." Cannot be reactivated.Destroyed:The UoI has been removed in its entirety and can never be reactivated. Not implemented and would not be visible.
Documentation:
Extension enhancements
Updated Framework for Secure Extensions
As a result of the introduction of optional document management components like the file-preview and document content indexing we have updated and enhanced the extensions framework for ShareAspace.
The extension framework allows you to connect to other external systems. These could be:
- Host your own ShareAspace Nova Modules while relying on the Web user interface configuration framework for integrating them into your installation
- If you just miss that last custom view of the data inside the info-box the external view control allows you to create and host this extension
- External services for handling of events that are triggered, this could be custom services but also webhooks into other software, like a Microsoft Teams connector or a Microsoft Logic App
- ShareAspace specific extensions with a defined interface for managing external validations (for SharePack and Maturity Systems)
- ShareAspace specific extensions for managing events
- ShareAspace specific extension for executing custom mapper implementations within a DataExchange Job
Many of these extensions also allows for impersonation. i.e. the possibility for an extension to act as a user within ShareAspace.
A better Architecture for extending ShareAspace
With this new approach to extending a ShareAspace installation - the installation it self can be kept "Vanilla". Only out of the box packaged code and components are executed by the ShareAspace server. Any custom implementations are hosted and executed else where.
This increases the maintainability and upgradability of a ShareAspace installation.
Controlled and secure way to integrate with external services
The extension framework has a high focus on security. The Collection Administrator is responsible for registering URLs that are allowed to be used for these extensions. From within the Collection Administration UI, the Collection Administrator can easily add, activate/deactivate, and remove extensions at runtime.
Documentation
Technical Internal
Model reviewed and diagrams re-created
The alignment and simplification of the model diagrams, that are now also sorted under capabilities, will in combination with its inclusion to the web based documentation, enhance the browsing/reading experience for the business Modeler or Configurator.
Uniqueness rules reviewed and summarized into separate conceptual document
To enhance the level of predictability when consolidating information in ShareAspace the underlying uniqueness concepts has been broken out into a separate document describing the core mechanisms of ShareAspace.
Consolidation rules redesigned and documented
The ShareAspace import data consolidation rules settings have been redesigned in a way so that they should be easier to understand and use. The consolidation rule settings are all documented with detailed examples of their workings.
Additional rules will be added moving forward.
Documentation:
Net core 2.2.1
Many of the core components of ShareAspace Nova have moved to .Net Core 2.2.1 and now has the framework bundled in the MSI so that less pre-configuration of the servers need to be made before installing ShareAspace. This is also a step moving forward to future deployment options for ShareAspace.
Separation of collection and space. Separate file-vaults per space
Introducing the capability of indexing spaces separately and also the capability to physically separate file-vaults per space.
Migration
Tools and documented migration paths for moving from ShareAspace 1.5 to ShareAspace 1.6 are provided. This includes tools for migrating both the ShareAspace data store as well as tools for migrating ShareAspace configuration templates.
Documentation:
- Migrating from 1.5 to 1.6