News & Blogs

News and blogs on our products, services, and events

149 Topics
299 Replies

149 Topics

During our work on the Universal GUI Styling Update, we’ve had several discussions and deep-dives about topics like the form and grid suggestions of the Styling blog with some of you. In those meetings, and as an extra assignment, we investigated improving the data density of our Universal GUI. A common topic on the Community and during conversations is that predominantly the height of several components demands too much space.Our challenge from the perspective of UX is finding the balance between functional presented data and preventing a visual cluttered interface. We are in the midst of trying to reduce the height of components such as form fields and grid rows, but we also think that we have to look into other options, where data may be offered in a different way.Let’s take a look at the suggestions in order of expected impact. Grid elementsThe current Universal default row height is 36px. We want to bring that down to a default of 28px.On the left, the current Universal Grid (defa

2005

13 hours ago

Robbert van TongerenThinkwise blogger

published in News & Blogs

Prevent lock escalations with merge statementsBlog

As we all know, merge statements are ideal for executing multiple actions in a single statement—an insert, update, and delete with one statement and one source query.This blog is intended to help you make a well-informed decision about when to use a merge statement and when it’s better to avoid it. There is no right or wrong choice, but be aware of the consequences of using a merge statement and the consequences of using separate statements.When using a merge statement, you must take into account that the source and target tables can be locked. These locks are larger than with separate statements due to lock escalation, which increases the likelihood of deadlocks. You can (partially) prevent this by using a CTE (Common Table Expression) to make the target table smaller, thereby reducing the size of the locks, and by placing the source table in a temporary table so that it doesn't cause a lock during the merge.For example:-- Collect data to mergeselect j.product_id , j.product_namein

450

8 days ago

Jasper

published in News & Blogs

Crystal Reports fails to connect

As of Windows Server 2019, Microsoft disabled the encryption protocols TLS 1.0 and 1.1 by default, and requires all connections to, for example, SQL Server instances on Windows Server 2019 to use TLS 1.2. This can cause problems with Crystal Reports documents that use the default SQL Server drivers included with Crystal Reports, instead of the Microsoft OLE DB Driver.To resolve this, you need to replace the drivers used by each report with the latest Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server, which you can download here. To update the driver in the report file:Open the Set Datasource Location dialog from the Database menu in the Crystal Reports designer. Select the connection to replace and click Make New Connection to create a connection using the Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server or select an existing MSOLEDBSQL connection. Do not use the Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server (SQLOLEDB). Select Update to replace the connection.Repeat this for all Crystal Reports files. An altern

30773

16 days ago

Marit BlomThinkwise blogger

published in News & Blogs

Thinkwise Summit 2024 - October 2, 2024Event

Join us for the fourth annual Thinkwise Summit on October 2, 2024! This year, we’re embracing the theme 'Innovation Without Compromise' - empowering you to drive IT innovation effortlessly and precisely the way you envision it. The event will be hosted in Dutch. We’ve designed two specialized tracks: a business track featuring inspiring sessions and real-life case studies, and a tech track with deep dives into technical topics. Register now for the Thinkwise Summit 2024 on October 2 at Orpheus Apeldoorn. Button: https://www.thinkwisesoftware.com/nl/thinkwise-summit-2024?utm_source=Thinkwise_Community&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=Summit Why attend? Session Highlight: From GUI to LUI! From Screen to Voice! Imagine interacting with your enterprise data not through a screen, but with your voice. Sounds like a distant future? Join us at the Thinkwise Summit and discover U.T.A., a revelation that will transform your ideas about the future of data interaction. Networking Opportuni

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21 days ago

Jasper

published in News & Blogs

Upload multiple files using the Universal GUI

There is a lot of demand from the Thinkwise Community for easy uploading of multiple files via the Universal GUI; see this idea for example.For the Web GUI, @Harm Horstman developed a great solution that leverages a custom upload page in a preview component, but unfortunately this solution is less suitable for the Universal GUI as it bypasses Indicium and requires a separate application to be installed on the web server.Fortunately, it is relatively easy to develop a similar component that uses the Indicium API to upload files and integrate it in the Universal GUI. In this blog post we'll show you how to do that. Click to enlargeConfiguring the preview componentTo display a custom component in the Universal GUI, we use the preview component as described here. In this preview component, we will display a URL pointing to our custom HTML page that contains the upload functionality. The first step is to model a screen containing the preview component. To do this, we create an upload table

143625

27 days ago

Remco KortThinkwise blogger

published in News & Blogs

Natural language search using generative AIBlog

Search is one of the most used functions of any software application. But there are many ways to implement it. In this video I want to highlight a new way of implementing search using the large language model embedding integration that the Thinkwise Software Factory provides. This allows users to search by using natural language.

3794

1 month ago

Erik BrinkModerator

published in News & Blogs

Grid task linksBlog

In my previous blog I made a promise that more possibilities would soon come available to start task actions from the grid component, so here we are with the next one. The grid component of both the Windows and Web GUI now supports translated links to execute a task with.The idea is to create a better user experience by placing important tasks of a subject at a more intuitive location, so the user can find it more easily. Also, this will require less clicks to get the required task executed on a (inactive) record so users can do their work faster. You can choose to execute a process flow after the task execution to guide the user through a series of actions. Let's see how we should configure the Software Factory to use those links: Two model extenders are used to assign a related task and translation to a domain of the column containing the task link. To let the GUI know this column is a “task link”, we added a new control type “task_link” to the domain.This domain should be assigned t

4758

1 month ago

Frank Wijnhout

published in News & Blogs

Data modelling guidelinesBlog

Data modeling was originally intended as a tool for database design, but has become a fundamental requirements technique for business analists, as it is relevant for anyone working with data structures, application logic, user interfaces and business processes. The guidelines in this document aim to ensure that Software Factory developers set up high quality data models. High quality means: [list=1] [*]Consistent [*]Logical [*]Well structured [*]Unambiguous [/list] This document has guidelines for the following subjects: [list] [*]Data modeling [*]Diagrams in the Software Factory [/list] [h2][b]Data[/b] modeling[/h2] To create well structured data models, a distinction is made between: [list] [*]Strong entities [*]Weak entities [/list] An entity is [u]strong[/u] when it’s existence does not depend on the existence of any other entity in a database. A [u]weak[/u] entity depends on a strong(er) entity for its existence. In the following section Strong and Weak

3672

1 month ago

Jasper

published in News & Blogs

Common DevOps integrations

The Thinkwise Platform is the core of professional DevOps ecosystems in many organizations. But in modern fast-paced development landscapes, it never stands on its own. Integration with specialized third-party DevOps tools is essential for automating DevOps workflows, gaining deeper insights, and expediting deployments.In this article, we highlight some of the proven DevOps-related tools and integrations that will help you streamline and manage the entire software development and operations process with the Thinkwise Platform. Many of those tools are also used by ourselves, for example for the development of the platform - which is itself a Thinkwise application - and the automated deployment of the ThinkLab environment.For an overview of integrations to improve and enrich your Thinkwise applications, check out this post.DevOps LifecycleFor each of the eight phases of the DevOps Lifecycle, we list the third-party DevOps tools that are either natively integrated in the Thinkwise Platfor

2671

2 months ago

Jasper

published in News & Blogs

Securely Deploy Your Thinkwise Applications

Ensuring the security of all our customers' applications is a foundational element of the Thinkwise Platform. To maintain the integrity and security of our platform components, we have regular penetration tests conducted by a third party, designed to identify potential vulnerabilities before they can be exploited. We are proud that no exploitable vulnerabilities have ever been found during these tests, reflecting our commitment to security. However, ensuring security does not end with the platform components. The infrastructure on which these components are deployed plays a crucial role in maintaining a secure environment. One key aspect of this infrastructure is the web server configuration. Even the most secure platform can be compromised if the underlying web server is not configured correctly. The Importance of Web Server Security HeadersAmong the critical elements of web server configuration are security headers. These headers provide an additional layer of security by controllin

1916

3 months ago

Edo SpijkerModerator

published in News & Blogs

Devexpress Reports concat function breaking changeNews

Hello all. We’ve previously upgraded our DevExpress component in the Windows GUI, Indicium, DevExpress Report Designer, and we want to inform you about a breaking change in the DevExpress component. Specifically regarding the Concat function.The DevExpress upgrade is included in our products starting from version 2024.1.13.0 (around April this year). This Concat function was only available and could only be used inside the DevExpress Report Designer. Previously, passing a null argument to this function would return an empty string. However, following our recent DevExpress update, this is no longer the case.The new behavior will not return an empty string when a null value is passed to the Concat function. This change may affect the output of your reports, potentially causing unexpected results if null values are involved.To ensure your reports continue to function as expected, we recommend reviewing and updating any code that relies on the previous behavior. You can find more informati

520

3 months ago

QuidoRookie

published in News & Blogs

Deployment with DockerBlog

In order to easily package, ship, and run applications as lightweight, portable, and self-sufficient as possible, there is Docker. Docker allows us to run applications virtually everywhere. Therefore this blog post gives some guidance on how Thinkwise applications can be containerized.There are numerous approaches in how you might want to set up your Docker environment, so we will mainly focus on:Running Universal independently; Running Indicium independently; Running Indicium and Universal together.At the end of this post, we will uncover our future plans and what we're currently researching/developing. PrerequisitesTo follow along, you'll need to have:Docker installed on your desktop or server (for Linux containers); Universal downloaded from TCP; Indicium downloaded from TCP.Please note that for certain scenario’s with Docker you’ll need a license. The Docker FAQ is a good source to read upon these questions. Scenario'sThe scenarios covered here can be followed separately. 1. Runnin

4904

3 months ago

Jasper

published in News & Blogs

Windows Security Update (KB5035853) errors

Hi everyone,The latest Windows security update (KB5035853) has been linked to instances of Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) errors for Windows 11 users. These errors can also occur when using the Thinkwise Windows GUI.More information here: Windows 11 Update Causing Serious Problems For Millions Of PC Users (forbes.com)For users who have not yet installed the update (KB5035853), it is recommended to postpone the installation until Microsoft releases a possible fix. For users currently experiencing BSOD errors or Thinkwise application issues after installing the update, we recommend uninstalling the update using standard Windows update uninstall procedures.Microsoft has acknowledged that it is investigating these issues and is expected to provide a fix in the near future.

92912

4 months ago

Jasper

published in News & Blogs

Common integrations with Thinkwise applications

The Thinkwise Platform offers a wide range of integration options, allowing you to connect your application to virtually any third-party application, tool or service.In many cases this can be done using out-of-the-box integrations: ready-made components, controls, and connectors to integrating with, for example, Microsoft Exchange, Maps, OpenID, AI and barcode scanning. For all other integration needs, the platform provides generic connectors that allow you to connect to web services or APIs, databases, cloud services, and more.We are often asked which integrations have already been realized by us or our customers, and whether there are any solutions that we recommend for specific use-cases. In this blog post we list a number of implemented integrations that are known to work well in combination with the platform.This article focuses on functional integrations with Thinkwise applications. In addition, the platform also offers many DevOps-related integration options to streamline the so

5951

5 months ago

Bart MetselaarUI/UX Designer

published in News & Blogs

The Thinkwise UX Hall of FameUX Panel

Dear Community,We had a blast at the Thinkwise Developers Event 2024! Great to see all your faces again.There were a lot of ideas presented to us, like the advantages of AI. We’ve also invited you to register for our UX panel:‘The Thinkwise UX Hall of Fame’.Many of you did! For those who could not attend or still want to register, click here to go to the registration form.By participating in our UX panel, we can contact you to cooperatively share ideas and opinions about the development of our products.This will be done by informing you, through this panel, about the newest features and designs of our products. This gives us the opportunity to invite you to, for example, interviews or brainstorm sessions about these features and designs, which allows you to provide feedback directly.We look forward to your input and feedback, so don’t hesitate to share your opinions!Kind regards,The UX Team

3030

5 months ago

EstherModerator

posted in News & Blogs

Knowledge Session: AI Integration in the Thinkwise Platform: Unveiling the Power of Process Flow Connectors

The next knowledge session is scheduled on Tuesday the 23rd of April, hosted by Theo Neeskens who will present about AI Process flows connectors.Welcome to an exciting journey through the latest release, 2024.1, packed with cutting-edge AI features within the Thinkwise Platform. Among these groundbreaking enhancements are:GitHub Copilot Integration Elevating your coding experience right from the Software Factory. AI Code Review Streamlining and enhancing your development workflow with intelligent code analysis. Upcycler AI Enrichments Empowering your applications with advanced AI-driven enhancements. AI Process Flow Connectors Unveiling the potential of AI within process flows.We'll explore each of these features briefly, with a very special focus on the AI Process Flow Connectors.Rather than diving into complex functional solutions, we'll provide practical insights into how you, as a developer, can leverage these connectors effectively.Through straightforward technical demonstratio

5 months ago

EstherModerator

published in News & Blogs

Thinkwise Developer Event 2024 - 18 April in AmersfoortEvent

We're excited to invite you to the Thinkwise Developer Event 2024 on April 18th at Van der Valk Amersfoort-A1 in Amersfoort. Expect a day filled with the newest features, opportunities to connect with fellow users, and practical sessions aimed at boosting your skills.Please click here for more details and to confirm your attendance.Schedule: 09:30 - 10:00 Walk-in 10:00 - 10:15 Welcome 10:15 - 11:00 Navigating the Next Wave of AI Innovation with Vincent Everts 11:00 - 11:15 Short Break 11:15 - 12:00 Unlock the potential of AI for your business 12:00 - 12:15 Short Break 12:15 - 13:00 Embrace Universal, starting today 13:00 - 14:00 Lunch 14:00 - 14:30 A Rapid Switch to Universal 14:30 - 15:15 Supercharge your Development with the 2024.2 SF 15:15 - 15:30 Short Break 15:30 - 16:00 Thinkwise Roadmap 2024 16:00

2381

5 months ago

Jasper

published in News & Blogs

[UPDATE] Apple's iOS 17.4 breaks Progressive Web Apps

UPDATEApple has reverted its decision and will continue to support Progressive Web Apps 🎉.Update on apps distributed in the European Union - Support - Apple DeveloperOriginal messageWith the latest beta release of iOS 17.4, Apple has restricted the functionality of Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) for users in the European Union. Apple claims that this change is necessary to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the European law that regulates the behavior of large tech companies and prohibits companies from giving their own products or services an unfair advantage over those of their competitors.To comply with the DMA, Apple now permits the use of alternative browser engines - other than WebKit - for dedicated browser apps and in-app browsing experiences with iOS 17.4. But instead of allowing PWAs to run in all these browser engines, Apple claims they have not been able to pull that off and were forced to disable PWA features altogether, including for their own Safari browser.So, onl

7152

7 months ago

Jeroen van den BeltAdministrator

published in News & Blogs

Detecting identical aliases in your SQL join- or where clauses

Hi all,Who hasn't experienced this? You're testing your SQL code, only to discover that you're getting more results than expected. In some cases, accidentally using the same alias within the same join- or where clause can lead to this scenario. For example, “where t1.customer_id = t1.customer_id”. This effectively creates a condition like “1 = 1”, which is always true.In this small blog, I'll guide you through detecting this situation throughout your branch's codebase. To effectively follow this blog, you'll need access to a code editor that has built-in support for regular expressions. If anyone knows a more efficient way to achieve the same results, please share it in the comments. Hopefully this helps!Software FactoryGenerate the code files using the Software Factory:Start up your Software Factory. Switch to the desired model and branch, for which you want to check identical aliases, by starting the task Models > Switch branch. Go to the screen Deployment > Creation. Generate

1052

7 months ago

Anne BuitCommunity Manager

published in News & Blogs

Switching from SSMS to Azure Data Studio - Tips & TricksBlog

SQL Server Management Studio has been the backbone for writing queries and managing SQL Server databases for a long time now. I’ve been using SSMS for well over a decade.A new kid on the block - Azure Data Studio - is gaining popularity. This IDE has been around for a couple of years now and is a close relative to Visual Studio Code. And with the possibility of plugging in extensions such as GitHub Copilot, I’ve recently completely switched to Azure Data Studio.In this blog, I’ll highlight some of the features of Azure Data Studio and suggest some key binding changes which I did make the transition from SSMS to Azure Data Studio easier. Familiarize yourself with F1Not unlike Visual Studio Code, virtually all commands, actions and settings can be done in Azure Data Studio via the F1 menu. If you want to do something and you don’t see a button - always press F1.The F1 menu of Azure Data Studio Tab display sizeThis may be a personal preference - I always ensure tabs are back to their orig

370710

8 months ago

Anne BuitCommunity Manager

published in News & Blogs

Drag-drop of recordsBlog

When I leave my house every morning, I pick up my car keys from the counter and put them in my pocket. To me, this is a very common way of interacting with an object. I grab the keys, move them into my pocket and let go of the keys. But when it comes to our software, this would happen very differently. I would select the [i]Car keys[/i] record, put it in edit mode and change a field indicating the location from [i]Counter[/i] to [i]My pocket[/i]. I would then save the record and.. [b]*[/b]Poof![b]*[/b] – The keys are now in my pocket. Very unnatural if you ask me. Editing the car keys? I sound like a locksmith! This new feature, however, will bring our applications one step closer to the real world: Drag-drop of records! [h2]Model-driven drag-drop[/h2]As with every feature, the definition of drag-drop is a part of the model. To keep things as easy and accessible as possible, no new logic concepts were introduced. The existing concepts of tasks and corresponding context logi

15857

8 months ago

Anne BuitCommunity Manager

published in News & Blogs

Web GUI is now End of LifeNews

The Web GUI has entered the End of Life phase.As per runtime component lifecycle policy, the release of Thinkwise Platform version 2023.3 is the last version to support the Web GUI. In this blog, you can read about the impact of this change in runtime component support. ImpactAny Web GUI that is still in use today will continue to work. However, upgrading to any upcoming Thinkwise Platform version will not be possible. The Web GUI will not support version 2024.1 and up.Thinkwise will only provide critical security updates for about 1.5 years. When Thinkwise Platform version 2023.3 is no longer supported, the Web GUI will enter the End of Service Life phase. Note that the underlying technologies for the Web GUI are aging, security patches may not always be possible.Furthermore, there will be no further updates to support new operating systems, browser versions and such. The Web GUI may cease to function when the operating environment is subject to change.More information about this life

2230

8 months ago

Mark JongelingAdministrator

published in News & Blogs

Sending smooth progressBlog

Hi everyone!Applications built with the Thinkwise platform are usually quite large. Whether that means the application has a lot of screens, tables, users, or anything else, there typically are processes in the application that take a while. To inform users of the progress, you can use the procedure tsf_send_progress. ChallengeThe tricky part when having 10, 20, or even more statements inside the process, is to determine how far the process is in its execution. You would rather not manually place the send progress function before or after every statement and assign a progress value. When new statements are added, or removed, all the progress should be recalculated. However, you do want to inform the user and keep the user up-to-date. How to solve this?This exact scenario occurred in the Software Factory application development. The export model task in the Software Factory is a lengthy process that involves all tables that are part of the model; 295 to be exact at the time of writing.

1773

8 months ago

Anne BuitCommunity Manager

published in News & Blogs

(Re)design your rolesBlog

Thinkwise Platform version 2019.1 migrated the maintenance of roles from the Intelligent Application Manager to the Software Factory. This migration is in a way symbolic – The developers are fully responsible for creating and maintaining the roles within the application. Before role-based access control was introduced, rights would be granted directly to user groups. When upgrading an older version of the Thinkwise Platform (G9 or earlier), temporary roles would be automatically created based on the user groups to ensure nothing changed for end users. Not everyone replaced these temporary roles with proper roles. An [url=https://community.thinkwisesoftware.com/blogs-21/the-role-of-zombies-77]earlier blog[/url] was written around the time of the 2017.1 release, which introduced roles and presented global guidelines. Today, I’ll be providing more detailed guidelines for role administration within your application, even if it was built before roles were introduced. [h2][b]Wha

10371

11 months ago

EstherModerator

posted in News & Blogs

Join Jasper Kloost next week at the Thinkwise Summit 2023!

Mark your calendar for October 4, 2023, as Thinkwise proudly presents its third annual Summit, "It Takes More Than Tech to Transform." We are excited to introduce the Thinkwise Platform in a Roadmap session, featuring our esteemed CTO, Jasper Kloost. During this exclusive session, Jasper will provide a sneak peek into the future developments of the Thinkwise platform and will speak about artificial intelligence, developer and user experience, and digital process automation. Come see how Thinkwise is leveraging the potential of artificial intelligence to boost productivity, streamline processes and open new doors of opportunity for businesses. For event details, registration information, and the latest updates on our lineup of speakers and workshops, please visit our event website. 📅🔗Join us at #ThinkwiseSummit2023! Thinkwise Summit 2023 (thinkwisesoftware.com

1 year ago

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