Release notes

New in Universal (jan 2021): More process actions, grid summary row, easy access to the Indicium DB log and more

Related products: Universal GUI
New in Universal (jan 2021): More process actions, grid summary row, easy access to the Indicium DB log and more

Hello everyone. Happy new year from all of us from Universal. This sprint we've added more awesome features we think you'll like.

We've had an extra release with support for 2021.1. You can read more about it in this blog. This also mean that our versioning scheme has changed to be consistent with other Thinkwise products. So rather than 1.9, the versions will be something like 2021.1.11.

As always, we've made a demo for you: try it here. Before trying it out, press 'Clear Cache' on the login screen. You can read the GUI user manual to get familiar with Universal.

We'll keep you updated regularly about Universal's progress.

Universal version 2021.1.11

Like with every blog, we've released a version so you can test Universal out for yourself. Don't forget the documentation and be sure to keep the following in mind:

  • Edge has been updated to use Chromium, which greatly changes the way it works under the hood. We now also recommend this browser to be used for Universal.
  • Universal must be deployed on the same server as Indicium or it should be an allowed origin in appsettings.json.
  • Universal only works with version 2019.1 and up of the Thinkwise Platform.
  • Furthermore, make sure you run all hotfixes on the IAM and SF that you plan to use for Universal.
  • Make sure you are on the latest version of Indicium Universal.

Download Universal version 2021.1.11 here

Process flows

This sprint we've implemented two suggested actions: start report and activate document. This is a nice addition to the suggested actions we already support.

The activate document process action
The show report process action

We also fixed the activate detail flow when the detail is a sibling tab page.

Grid summary row

We've added a summary row to the grid. The supported aggregation types are:

  • Sum
  • Min
  • Max
  • Average
  • Count

This is what it looks like:

A grid with a summary row

Indicium DB log

Indicium provides access to a database event log. This is only possible when using the SF or when the user is explicitly configured for developer mode in IAM.

The database event log can be a bit hard to find for developers. To solve this, a menu item has been added. This is comparable to the Windows GUI where the database event log is also available in the developer ribbon. The menu item is available in SF version 2021.1+.

This is what it looks like in the user menu:

The new button in the user menu

When you press that button you'll see a screen like this:

The actual DB event log

Apple splash images

We've removed the additional Apple images so it's easier to customize Universal to your branding. This means you'll no longer see a splash screen by default with the Thinkwise logo on Safari (when added to your Home Screen). If the splash screen on Safari (while added to the Home Screen) is necessary, you can edit the index.html file and add the following line to the HEAD tag.

 <link rel="apple-touch-startup-image" href="%PUBLIC_URL%/placeholder.png"

When added, you can place the splash screen image in the Universal folder. In the example above the filename of the image is placeholder.png, but you can call it what you want. The HEAD tag and the filename should match.

Unit tests

In the past three weeks we've added another 25 unit test cases to the components and inner workings of Universal. We also removed many unit test cases that were obsolete due to 2021.1 support. This brings us up to 1783 test cases in total.

Lots of minor fixes/tasks

Bugs

  • The install notification is now disabled when the config properties are missing
  • Clearing a lookup control will now also focus the lookup control

Technical

  • Security fixes for 3rd party components

What we'll be working on next sprint

The next sprint we'll be working on:

  • A simple pivot component for the cube view
  • Barcode scanner control
  • Making the grid more performant
  • A few process actions
    • Show task dialog (without context)
    • Show report dialog (without context)
  • Exporting all data to a file
  • Squashing some bugs

@Tim de Lang Could you clarify expected setup and behavior of the install notification after your bug fix?

Based on the info in the Universal 1.8 (dec 2020) blog we have updated the config.json to include 2 additional lines (see below) but it does not seem to trigger anything. Is something wrong with below code or is the functionality not working at all now?

{
"defaultApplication": "",
"defaultPlatform": 3,
"loginOptionsDisabled": false,
"installNotificationDisabled": false,
"installNotificationExpirationInDays": 30,
"serviceUrl": "xyz"
}

We have seen the install notification pop up in our UI in earlier versions without adding those lines, most likely that was the 1.8 version. Our current version is 2021.1.11.

In addition: is this notification based on device and/or user? What kind of behavior can we expect if a user is working on multiple devices or if multiple users are working on the same device?


Hi @Arie V 

it appears you've found a bug. We're working on a fix, I'll let you know when it'll be available.

This functionality works per device, not per user. So a single user will get the notification on multiple devices. And multiple users on the same device will get it once.

Kind regards,

Tim de Lang


@Tim de Lang Works after installing the 2021.1.12 Universal GUI final version, seems you guys managed to squeeze this in after the beta version release :thumbsup:


@Arie V You are absolutely right 🙂 I'm glad it's to your satisfaction