News & Blogs

News and blogs on our products, services, and events

  • 144 Topics
  • 271 Replies

144 Topics

Frank Wijnhout
Thinkwise blogger
Frank Wijnhout
published in News & Blogs

Retrieving identity values in T-SQLBlog

We often insert data in a table and afterwards we need the identity values of the new records for certain tasks. At Thinkwise most developers use the function [b]SCOPE_IDENTITY()[/b] to do this. Although this function works fine, it’s only useful when you insert a single record because [b][i]SCOPE_IDENTITY()[/i][/b] is a scalar function and returns only one value. Many times we create statements that insert more than one record at a time. In those cases we need another method to retrieve all new identity values. The solution for this situation is the [b][i]Output[/i][/b]-clause (available in SQL Server 2008 and higher). An [b][i]Output[/i][/b]-clause returns information from, or expressions based on, each row affected by an [b][i]Insert, update, delete or merge[/i][/b] statement. In other words, with the [b][i]Output[/i][/b]-clause you can retrieve all data that was in the inserted and deleted tables during the statement. So the [b][i]Output[/i][/b]-clause does not only retrieve iden

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Frank Wijnhout
Thinkwise blogger
5 years ago
V
Moderator
Vincent DoppenbergModerator
published in News & Blogs

Excel-style filteringBlog

Version 9.8.15 of the Windows GUI introduces a new feature – Excel-style filtering. The feature is named Excel-style filtering because it aims to offer users a filtering experience which is similar to that of Excel and feels familiar and intuitive. Excel-style filtering provides a way to filter individual columns on multiple values, something which is frequently requested by our users. This feature is not available for the Web GUI at the moment, but it will be added in the future. [h3][b]Where to find it[/b][/h3]Excel-style filtering can be accessed through a new menu which is available on the column headers of the grid. This menu can be opened by right-clicking a column header or by clicking on the menu button on a column header, shown in the image below. The column header menu also provides a new entry point for existing features such as grouping, sorting, opening the filter dialog and clearing all filters. [img]https://uploads-eu-west-1.insided.com/thinkwise-en/attachment/5f29d7b1-

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V
Moderator
5 years ago
Anne Buit
Community Manager
Anne BuitCommunity Manager
published in News & Blogs

Troubleshooting Mobile development & proxy service tiersBlog

[b]Troubleshooting[/b] There is a small chance that you might run into some difficulty along the way. Since Mobile uses technologies that most developers at Thinkwise are not very familiair with, this troubleshooting chapter should help with the most common problems. Pinpointing the problem is the most important activity, since the vast majority of all problems have nothing to do with the mobile GUI but instead are caused by the proxy service tier, the model, the database or a setting in IAM. [b]'My service tier won’t run!'[/b] If instead of an authentication pop-up an error page shows up, something could be wrong. However, if you entered correct credentials, you might get a 404-not found, because there is no website at this location. Anything other but an authenticaton pop-up or a 404 should not happen. If the authentication pop-up keeps showing up even though you entered valid credentials, the database configuration might be wrong. Re-check the web.config and make sure the webser

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Anne Buit
Community Manager
5 years ago
T
Moderator
Tim WaalewijnModerator
published in News & Blogs

Working with attachments in the Thinkwise Exchange ServiceBlog

Starting with version 3.00 of the Thinkwise Exchange Service it is possible to sync attachment files from exchange items such as emails, appointments, contacts and tasks. Currently attachments can only be synchronized from Exchange to the database, not from the database to Exchange. [h1]Syncing attachments[/h1]The binary data of an attachment isn’t retrieved automatically while syncing. Instead, when an item is synced from the exchange server to the database, any attachments the item might contain are converted into a formatted string containing the metadata needed to retrieve the actual attachment file from the server. The reason for this is that it makes synchronization lighter since the metadata of an attachment is almost always smaller than the file itself. This metadata is sent to the database through an [b][i]exh_attachments[/i][/b] parameter in the applicable [b][i]exh_from_exh[/i][/b] stored procedure (e.g. [b]exh_from_exh_add_email)[/b] and is formatted in the following

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T
Moderator
5 years ago
Anne Buit
Community Manager
Anne BuitCommunity Manager
published in News & Blogs

This file is disconnected from the Software Factory. Changes will not be saved.Blog

One of our most fervent bug-reporters mentioned that it’s truly annoying to get a [b]pop-up[/b] in SQL Server Management Studio most of the times you open a new template. Developers see this pop-up because the file contents are updated. This happens when the file is no longer monitored by the Software Factory. A line is added to notify the developer that the file is disconnected. SQL Server Management Studio detects this change in the file and provides you with the pop-up as seen below. [img]https://uploads-eu-west-1.insided.com/thinkwise-en/attachment/2ad96999-a05e-4f6b-9f65-9ed43112f0b9.png[/img] And it’s true, this disturbs the workflow. Some developers even gave up on opening templates directly from the Software Factory and instead resorted to copy-pasting templates. [h1]The good news[/h1]The good news is that you can actually turn this pop-up off! Go to [i]Tools – Options – Documents[/i] and check [i]Auto-load changes, if saved[/i]. [img]https://uploads-eu-west-1.insided.com/thi

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Anne Buit
Community Manager
5 years ago
Serhat Sahin
Apprentice
Serhat SahinApprentice
published in News & Blogs

Advices are dead, long live recommendations!Blog

Every morning when you get up, you make your bed. When you grab your toothbrush, you put toothpaste on it. When you’ve washed your face, you wipe it dry. After you’ve had breakfast, you tidy up the table. Life would be so much easier if these morning rituals could be done automatically. Well, we can’t help you with that, but what we can do is make your job life easier with user preferences. In fact, we can make it very easy by setting these preferences automatically for you, when you generate and apply [i]recommendations[/i]. User preferences allow actions to be done automatically, such as opening a screen when you start an application, filtering for specific data by creating prefilters, and more. For many of those preferences it is possible to generate recommendations in Intelligent Application Manager (IAM) based on your work behavior. [h2][b]Recommendations[/b][/h2]Recommendations are simply user preference suggestions in IAM based on the user logs. Users can generate new reco

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Serhat Sahin
Apprentice
5 years ago
Tim de Lang
Moderator
Tim de LangModerator
published in News & Blogs

Creating an awesome application with themesBlog

In 2016 we’ve started to improve the layout of the Project Portal (which has since been dubbed ‘Thinkwise Insights’). Some of the changes were already possible with layouts in the G9.8 SF. We’ve made full use of those possibilities and we’ve added a lot more options to the SF. One of the most noticeable changes is that we’ve renamed layouts to themes, so from now on I’ll be talking about themes. If you’re still on a version of the SF that uses layouts, you can substitute layout. Our goal was to make it easier to create a modern, fresh and usable look and feel for your application. In this article I’ll tell you what options you have and how to best utilize them to create a usable, clean, modern and awesome-looking application. [h2]Grid[/h2] [h3]Alternating rows[/h3]You’ve never had the option to change the color of the alternating rows in the grid. The GUIs calculated a color for you, and that was it. You could remove the alternating background colors with a little trickery; b

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Tim de Lang
Moderator
5 years ago
Martijn Grefhorst
Community Manager
Martijn GrefhorstCommunity Manager
published in News & Blogs

How to decorate a tree (in 4 easy steps)Blog

Creating a tree view for subjects has always been a struggle, until now. All that is needed in release 2017.1 is setting up the tree model for your subject and assigning a screen type with a [i]TreeView[/i] component. [h2]Tree properties[/h2]Just like the grid and form the tree is now fully configurable through the Subject modeler. The [i]tree display column[/i] is the text column shown in the tree. When leaving it blank the look-up display column will be used. The [i]icon column[/i] presents the icon in front of the display column. There are two [i]tree types[/i] to choose from: hierarchical and column grouping. These will be explained later on. A new feature is the [i]default expanded[/i] property. When set, the tree will automatically expand to the provided level of nodes. [img]https://uploads-eu-west-1.insided.com/thinkwise-en/attachment/500ee583-b287-4f7c-a7b4-15da31422ca7.png[/img] [h2]Hierarchical grouping[/h2]Previously, a self-reference was needed to show an hierar

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Martijn Grefhorst
Community Manager
5 years ago
Anne Buit
Community Manager
Anne BuitCommunity Manager
published in News & Blogs

Retrieving identity values in T-SQL – AdvancedBlog

A while ago, a [url=https://office.thinkwisesoftware.com/blog/retrieving-identity-values-t-sql/]blog[/url] was published about retrieving identity values in T-SQL using the [b][i]Output[/i][/b]-clause. This blog continues on this subject for a more advanced scenario. [h2]The case[/h2]There are some situations where you don’t just want the identities as output, but you also want to match them to related records which were used in the insert statement. For instance, when copying multiple [i]order[/i] records including the [i]order_line[/i] records, you need to match the new [i]order_id[/i] with the source [i]order_id[/i] in order to copy the [i]order_line[/i] records properly. Now don’t get me wrong, there are other ways to achieve our goal of mapping the inserted [i]order_id [/i]identity with the source [i]order_id[/i]: [list] [*]We could store a foreign key called [i]source_order_id[/i] in the newly created [i]order[/i] record. However, this would require a data model change and we

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Anne Buit
Community Manager
5 years ago
Serhat Sahin
Apprentice
Serhat SahinApprentice
published in News & Blogs

Code reviewBlog

[h3]Review required[/h3] In the Software Factory 2018.1 release, a new ‘Review required’ setting has been added to the SF configuration. This setting is turned on as default in the installation or upgrade of the Software Factory. [img]https://uploads-eu-west-1.insided.com/thinkwise-en/attachment/0471171c-a559-43e2-9104-cda087f32d89.png[/img][i]Review required setting[/i] [h3]Ready for review[/h3] With review required turned on, the task to complete a control procedure will be replaced by a task to set a control procedure ready for review. [img]https://uploads-eu-west-1.insided.com/thinkwise-en/attachment/710aee2c-0da1-498f-bb87-ad0a4a1f8b93.png[/img] [i]Task to set a control procedure ready for review[/i] This task will set the status of a control procedure to a new status ‘Review’ and create a changelog entry. Like in the previous version, the changelogs, including the code changes, can be found in the ‘Code changelog’ tab page. Two new tasks have been added to code changelog. [im

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Serhat Sahin
Apprentice
5 years ago
V
Moderator
Vincent DoppenbergModerator
published in News & Blogs

Check out these new process flow features!Blog

In the 2018.1 release of the Thinkwise Suite we have followed up on 2017.1’s major modernization of process flows, and have introduced some more cool features. [h2]Deep linking[/h2]As of version 2018.1, our Web GUI supports deep links. A deep link is a link which doesn’t just point to the location of an application, but also a location within that application. For instance, a deep link could direct a user to a certain subject, a certain record within that subject, and perhaps start a task or report for that record. At this point you might be wondering what deep linking and process flows have in common. Well, we wanted our capabilities for deep linking to be rich, without making the links themselves long and complicated. We concluded that the features we wanted to be ‘deep linkable’ were exactly the same features as those offered by process flows. Because of this, our implementation of deep linking is simply being able to trigger a process flow through a link. This gives developer

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V
Moderator
5 years ago
Ester
Moderator
EsterModerator
published in News & Blogs

Squash your data conversionBlog

During development of a project, often many project versions are created to facilitate for data-model changes. After development is complete and the production database needs to be upgraded, it is desirable to create a single script to upgrade the current production version to the final project version. This requires that the data conversion definition for all intermediate project versions is merged, or [url=https://github.com/blog/2141-squash-your-commits]squashed,[/url] into a single data conversion from the first to the final version. [h3]How does it work[/h3]Let’s see how it works with an example. We start out with the table [i]customer[/i] in version 3.80. This table is renamed to [i]clients[/i] in version 3.90, for which we create a data conversion record. [img]https://uploads-eu-west-1.insided.com/thinkwise-en/attachment/8e3e8079-ec98-41e3-b789-6fbb26ef89c7.png[/img] In version 4.00 we rename the table [i]clients[/i] to [i]client[/i] (because we always use singular noun

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Ester
Moderator
5 years ago
Jasper
Administrator
JasperAdministrator
published in News & Blogs

The Next Generation Thinkwise Platform – Part 1: IndiciumBlog

Technological innovations follow each other at an ever-faster pace, and the challenge to keep up with this digital transformation is increasing. It is set in motion by the rise of the 3rd Platform; the inter-dependency between social, mobile, cloud and analytics. The 3rd Platform architecture is transforming IT much faster than the first (mainframe) and second (client/server) platforms ever did, changing the way people interact with technology and disrupting existing business models across industries.   Digital Transformation and the 3rd platform To help our customers keep up with this digital transformation and maintain their competitive advantages, we are investing heavily in improving the Thinkwise platform as a 3rd Platform development tool, in which the new Thinkwise application tier (“Indicium”) plays a crucial role. The Indicium application tier is a generic service tier application, which uses model interpretation to provide the required logic and functionality. It replaces an

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Jasper
Administrator
5 years ago
Jasper
Administrator
JasperAdministrator
published in News & Blogs

The Next Generation Thinkwise Platform – Part 2: Indicium in-depthBlog

The previous article showed [url=https://community.thinkwisesoftware.com/blogs-21/the-thinkwise-secret-part-1-99]an overview of the Next Generation Thinkwise Platform[/url]. In this article, we’ll zoom in a bit more on the Indicium Application Tier and explain our vision for Indicium’s architecture and its key features and properties. [h2]Architecture[/h2]Two of the core concepts of Indicium’s architecture are [i]extensibility[/i] and [i]modularity[/i]. It is our goal to make it easy to extend Indicium by plugging in custom components that adhere to predefined interfaces. At the same time, we also want to make many of Indicium’s standard components modular. This makes both adding custom components and omitting standard components easy, allowing you to create a tailored version of Indicium that meets all your requirements without having any unnecessary features. Another goal of Indicium’s architecture is maintaining cross-platform support for Indicium’s core services. The modulari

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Jasper
Administrator
5 years ago
Jasper
Administrator
JasperAdministrator
published in News & Blogs

Barcode scanning with your cameraBlog

Starting from version 2018.2, the Mobile GUI is equipped with one of the most requested features: barcode scanning. This cool new feature allows you to fill in fields by scanning a barcode or QR code with the camera of your mobile device! How does it work?To enable this feature, set the Control of the field you want to fill to “Barcode scanner (mobile)”.  The field can have any datatype, but will be displayed as a text field with a scan button in it.  When you click the button, the camera is opened with an overlay indicating the scan area. Once the barcode scanner recognises a barcode or QR code inside the scan area, the encoded number or text will be instantly inserted in the barcode field.        TechnologyThe barcode scanner control uses the Phonegap Barcode Scanner plugin: https://github.com/phonegap/phonegap-plugin-barcodescannerThe following barcode types are currently supported:    External barcode scannersA couple of Thinkwise customers already use external barcode scanners. Th

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Jasper
Administrator
5 years ago
Ester
Moderator
EsterModerator
published in News & Blogs

How to anonymize sensitive dataBlog

With the introduction of Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, it is more important than ever for companies that their IT environment is secure and meets the legal requirements for privacy protection. To help our customers comply with this new legislation, we added a new feature “Data sensitivity” to the Thinkwise Platform to automate the anonymization of personal data in any Thinkwise application. This feature can not only be used for personal data, but also for other sensitive data like passwords or credit card numbers. With this new feature, we enable you to set the sensitivity for each data column of your application in the “Data sensitivity” modeler. View-columns, calculated fields, and identity fields are not data columns and therefore are not shown. A prefilter is provided to suggest which columns are sensitive, based on keywords or because columns with the same name or domain are also marked sensitive. [img]https://uploads-eu-west-1.insided.com/thinkwise-en/attachm

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Ester
Moderator
5 years ago
Jasper
Administrator
JasperAdministrator
published in News & Blogs

SVGs and ICOsBlog

The icons you use in your applications for tables, prefilters, tasks and reports often show up in multiple locations in the application, like the menu, tab pages, the ribbon, button bars and the context menu. These locations require different icon sizes, and the user interfaces would scale the supported Bitmap (.bmp) or Portable Network Graphics (.png) icons to the required size. This, however, causes the icons to become blurred. With the latest release of the users interfaces we’ve added support for two new image formats to solve this problem. [h2]Scalable Vector Graphics[/h2][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalable_Vector_Graphics]Scalable Vector Graphics[/url] (.svg) are images based on vectors instead of pixels, allowing them to be scaled to any size without getting blurry. Another advantage of SVGs is that, because SVGs are XML-based, it is easy to adjust the properties of the image. In the Universal GUI, for example, we will be able to adjust the color of an icon to t

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Jasper
Administrator
5 years ago
A
Rookie
AliRookie
published in News & Blogs

Add new rows using the gridBlog

Previously, you always had to have a form component on your screen to be able to add new rows. This is no longer necessary, because the grid now also supports adding new rows. This feature is released with version 2018.2 of the Thinkwise Platform (Windows GUI only). [h2]What’s new?[/h2]When adding new rows is enabled for a grid, an empty ‘add row’ is displayed at the top of the grid. Be aware that only the values of columns that are visible in the grid can be filled in. The ‘add row’ is positioned directly under the grid column header, so it is clear which input field belongs to which column. It is also possible to only show the ‘add row’ while adding or copying. This can be configured in the Software Factory. [img]https://uploads-eu-west-1.insided.com/thinkwise-en/attachment/a7f4f11f-612b-48d0-a18c-8c67bebfa2ac.png[/img] A new row can be created by clicking on a cell of the ‘add row’ or on the ‘Add’ (Ctrl+Plus) or ‘Copy’ (Ctrl+Alt+Plus) buttons in the ribbon. If the screen type has

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A
Rookie
5 years ago
Anne Buit
Community Manager
Anne BuitCommunity Manager
published in News & Blogs

T-SQL features you might have missed - Part 1Blog

While SQL Server 2008r2 is currently the minimum version for SF and IAM, products created using the SF can use any version (up to 2017 at the time of writing). In this blog, I’d like to share some of the introduced language features in versions 2012 up to 2017 and explain how you can use them in your products. This blog focuses only on Transact-SQL syntax features you can use in your own application logic. Features such as new database management functions, new data types, new types of database objects or optimization features will be saved for another time. [h2]SQL Server 2012[/h2]Eventually we will set the minimal version of SQL Server to SQL Server 2012. This provides us with the opportunity to use language features introduced in SQL Server 2012 in the Software Factory, the Intelligent Application Manager and in Indicium and the GUI’s when accessing the databases. The following features are discussed: [url=https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg699618(v=sql.110).asp

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Anne Buit
Community Manager
5 years ago
Anne Buit
Community Manager
Anne BuitCommunity Manager
published in News & Blogs

T-SQL features you might have missed - Part 2Blog

[h2]SQL Server 2012[/h2]In case you missed[url=https://community.thinkwisesoftware.com/blogs-21/t-sql-features-you-might-have-missed-part-1-108] part 1[/url] of the new features. [h3]Window function frames[/h3]This feature is a really cool enhancement to window functions which fills a niche gap for queries of a cumulative nature. A window function can be applied on a limited set in regards to the partitioning, the ordering and the current row. [h3][img]https://uploads-eu-west-1.insided.com/thinkwise-en/attachment/8947f0b9-9ec9-4f72-a273-8db2082c2c3d.png[/img][/h3][h3]Other language features[/h3]The parse function has also been added which can be used to parse data using culture-specific settings. The try_parse function will provide null-values when this fails instead of causing an error. New functions such as datefromparts, timefromparts make it very easy to create a date or time object by providing years, months, days, minutes, etc. instead of a date or time string [

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Anne Buit
Community Manager
5 years ago
Jeroen van den Belt
Administrator
Jeroen van den BeltAdministrator
published in News & Blogs

Roles in SF - Considerations and possibilitiesBlog

Hello everyone! Lately I get asked a lot which project I am currently working on at our Product Innovation department. I tell them I am working on moving the roles out of our Intelligent Application Manager (IAM) into the Software Factory. Most of the times they nod slowly and say “Right!”. Let me begin by clarifying that by saying roles, I actually mean the configuration of roles and their corresponding model rights. However, you can imagine that some extra explanation is still required. Roles are already an important working part of IAM. Why would we want to move them to the Software Factory? It is mainly because of the importance of these roles that we have decided to move them. We consider them as an important part of the model, which is the domain of the developer. Since the model belongs in the Software Factory, why not also the corresponding role rights? In our opinion moving the roles to the Software Factory is the next logical step to take the concept of Role Based Access Cont

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Jeroen van den Belt
Administrator
5 years ago
Frank Wijnhout
Thinkwise blogger
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

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Frank Wijnhout
Thinkwise blogger
5 years ago
Anne Buit
Community Manager
Anne BuitCommunity Manager
published in News & Blogs

Bye-bye SOAP service tiers!Blog

With the upcoming release of 2019.1, we are discontinuing support for generating Java and C# service tiers. The Windows GUI will no longer be able to use these service tiers as a back-end. This blog describes the reasoning behind this and the (better) alternatives that are available. It is important to note that the generated SOAP service tiers have done a great job in advancing the Thinkwise Platform. At the time when these service tiers were released, they were state-of-the-art and solved some important challenges. Many applications have used these service tiers in production environments. But like any technology, it must eventually yield to a successor. The true power of the Thinkwise Platform lies in the fact that a technology switch like this can actually be made. [h3]Why get rid of them?[/h3]The main reason to use the generated Java and C# service tiers was to support Mobile. Mobile GUI’s cannot directly connect to the database and needed the service tiers as proxy. Vers

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Anne Buit
Community Manager
5 years ago
Jasper
Administrator
JasperAdministrator
published in News & Blogs

Thinkwise Product Roadmap 2019Blog

This product roadmap provides an overview of the planned developments for the Thinkwise Platform in 2019. It highlights the main themes we are committed to and describes several projects related to these themes.The input from the Thinkwise community has been essential for the creation of this roadmap. Submitting your ideas and voting on ideas in the new Thinkwise Community will play an important role here, to gather and determine the value of new ideas. In addition, we closely monitor developments in the market, provide technology updates, conduct research into new technologies and innovations, and validate the roadmap with customers, Forrester and Gartner.This roadmap is not a comprehensive list of all new features but is intended to provide some visibility into our key investments. The mentioned feature sets and timeframes are current at the time of writing and subject to change. ThemesIn the past year, we have taken a slightly different direction at Thinkwise. Besides doing transfor

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Jasper
Administrator
5 years ago
Moller Toma
Captain
Moller TomaCaptain
published in News & Blogs

How to become a superhero!Blog

When we were young we all wanted to be a superhero, now it's our chance to become one! We believe that every member of the Thinkwise Community has the potential to become a superhero who saves the day. If you're a new member of the community, you're still a [b]rookie[/b], but that's no problem, right? It's your time to show the world your skills, and when you do, you choose the path of greatness and start your journey from [b]apprentice[/b] to superhero. Superheroes are not afraid to ask questions or enter into discussions and to become a [b]sidekick[/b] of a superhero, you also need to develop this skill. Your proactive attitude is appreciated within the community, make sure you give this appreciation to others as well, but remember a [b]vanguard[/b] is a group of people leading the way in new developments or ideas, so make sure you do that, because that's your opportunity to become a [b]warrior[/b]. A warrior never shy away from a challenge and beats every challenge our commun

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Moller Toma
Captain
5 years ago

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