release notes

Release notes Universal GUI (2021.2.11)

Related products: Universal GUI
Release notes Universal GUI (2021.2.11)

Hello everyone,

here's another release from the Universal GUI team. We've added a first version of the form conditional layout, and a lot more.

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 the Universal GUI.

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

May 21, 2021:

  • Updated beta version is available in TCP:  2021.2.11-b2

May 26, 2021:

  • Changed beta release to full version: 2021.2.11
  • Fixed bug in the beta where the mandatory asterisk would not be visible if the label was empty
  • Fixed bug in the beta where date/time/datetime controls could not be activated properly if they were empty
  • Fixed bug in the beta where fields would not be placed next to each other in non-edit mode
  • Fixed bug in the where the contents of lookup fields would be empty in edit mode

Universal GUI version 2021.2.11

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

  • A modern browser is required to access the Universal GUI, eg a recent version of Chrome, Firefox, Edge, or Safari mobile. Using the Universal GUI with IE is not supported.
  • The Universal GUI must be deployed on the same server as Indicium or it should be an allowed origin in appsettings.json.
  • The Universal GUI only works with version 2019.2 and up of the Thinkwise Platform.
  • Furthermore, make sure you run all hotfixes on the IAM and SF that you plan to use for the Universal GUI.
  • Make sure you are using the latest version of Indicium Universal.

Download the Universal GUI version 2021.2.11 here

New

 

Redirection after expired password

In the 2021.2 Thinkwise Platform release, we added a password expiration policy. To support this feature, Indicium will now automatically redirect a user to the Change password page once their password has expired, and force the password to be changed before access to the application is granted.

 

Filled form fields and form conditional layout

In this sprint, we've added a first version of the form conditional layout. To make this possible, two problems had to be solved first:

  • With the current way form fields were styled it was not clear what exactly would get the background color.
  • Besides, it was hard to discern where a form field starts and ends, especially when a field spans multiple rows and the colored bottom border falls outside of the form's visible part.

To solve these issues, we’ve decided to implement filled form fields. These give more space to the content so you can apply color to the background. Applying a default color makes it easier to see where the form fields start and end.

Since this is a major change, we've decided to make the color optional, so that's disabled by default. To enable it, you have to set useFormFieldBackgroundColor to true in the config.json. The spacing difference is still available to accommodate form conditional layouts.

The conditional layout does not yet support the following controls:

  • Radiobutton.
  • Signature.
  • Checkbox.
  • HTML.

This is what the filled form fields look like:

Filled form fields

This is an example of the form conditional layout:

 

Bold/italic conditional layout for the resource scheduler

It is now possible to use bold and italic conditional layouts in the resource scheduler.

 

"Remember me" checkbox in the login page

It's now possible to stay logged in for two weeks by enabling the *Remember me* checkbox in the login page:

Remember me (for two weeks)

 

Grid: double click task execution

Now the Thinkwise Platform version 2021.2 has been released, task execution by double-clicking a grid record is available. In the Software Factory, use the checkbox Grid double click in a table task to enable this. This checkbox can be found in the menu User Interface > Subjects > tab Subjects > tab Links > tab Tasks. See the Thinkwise Platform 2021.2 release notes. The Universal GUI will choose the first enabled task to execute. This is the same as in the Web GUI, as explained in this blog.

 

Lookup values in the filter form

In the filter form, lookup controls are now enabled. The dropdown field in the filter form will sum up all separate translations of the lookup column available in the current (pre)filtered data set. Dependent lookup columns could be filtered separately but will reduce each other's options, too, when combined.

 

Directly submit a task while scanning barcodes

The barcode scanner control as a task parameter now contains some exclusive logic when it is the last control in the dialog. When the code is scanned and the control receives a Tab key, the task is submitted directly. This can be used to make barcode scanning very fast in a production environment using physical scanners.

 

Changed

 

Autosave is triggered in a parent subject if a child is refreshed manually

Auto-save is now triggered in the parent subject if the child is refreshed manually. This way, the user can force the parent to refresh when the application is in auto-save mode.

The auto-save mode can be set in the menu User interface > Subjects > tab Settings > tab General.

 

Minor fixes and tasks

  • In a process flow, when zooming into a detail was followed by the actions Activate detail or Add/Change row, the last action always started in the first zoomed-in document when the flow was executed repeatedly. This has been fixed. It now selects the correct instance.
  • When a detail tile was open, it wasn't possible to open the menu item from the sidebar. This has been fixed. The result is two open documents, one with the screen type Main and the other with the screen type Zoom.
  • We've fixed that an error appeared after adding a record that fell outside the filtered GUI set. The error was: "Notify record nog found failed. Error: bad_request".
  • The DateTime controls are now visually comparable to the other controls. 

 

What we'll be working on next sprint

The next sprint we'll be working on:

  • Auto-refresh a subject using the specified interval.
  • Process flow actions:
    • Activate form - Follow-up action to activate the form component.
    • Activate grid - Follow-up action to activate the grid component.

    • Set prefilters - Follow-up action to set prefilters.

    • Close document - Follow-up action to close a previously opened document.

  • Work in progress:

    • Offline data.
    • Quick Filter.
    • Pagination.
    • Pivot grid enhancements.

@Diana Kuipers The filled form fields is a great improvement to the GUI! I pressume PI thinks so too, as otherwise you wouldn't have put in the development effort. May I therefore strongly urge you to change the behavior of the setting: by default have the filled form fields ENABLED (without having to add the setting to the config.json) and only if a customer does not wish to use the setting have them add the setting and false value to config.json? This saves the need and risk of having to verify the setting each and every upgrade, and also makes sure new customers enjoy the new setting by default.

 

Two other questions about Conditional layout:

  • We have gotten used to having Conditional layout only in the Grid and not to the Form, and in quite some situations this is actually sufficient. Is there a way to apply Conditional layout only to the Grid?
  • We currently have a Conditional layout setting which is applied to ALL columns (no specific Column is selected under the header Applied to). This does work on the Grid, but has no effect on the Form. Is this expected behavior or a bug?

@Diana Kuipers Additionally it might be good to mention in your blog that late Friday afternoon a second version of the BETA has been released in order to fix an issue with Lookups not being displayed.


@Diana Kuipers Additionally it might be good to mention in your blog that late Friday afternoon a second version of the BETA has been released in order to fix an issue with Lookups not being displayed.

Hi Arie, Diana has a day off today and the new beta release had come available quite late on Friday. This resulted in the Release notes not being completely up-to-date. I have added in the notes, thank you for noting this!


Hi @Arie V 

We’ve made filled form fields opt-in so users can make the choice themselves having too much change at once. I’m happy you like it. Could you make an idea for enabling this by default? It would be interesting to see how many people want that as well.

There is no way to set conditional layout to the grid only. I’ve created an item on our backlog to implement this. I do not yet know when this will be implemented.

Conditional layout applied to the row indeed isn’t applied in the form since this is a single-row component. This is intended behavior.

Kind regards,

Tim de Lang


Hi @Tim de Lang 

Thanks for your clarifications!

I am not going to raise an Idea though, I am an existing customer reading your blogs closely. So we’ll make sure the setting is added to our config.json going forward.
 

To me this is a matter of principle: adding settings to config.json and determining the default behavior is not something that should be determined by your customers, but should be based on a vision from you as Universal GUI supplier: what do you believe is the best way to utilize the Universal GUI. 
 

My recommendation: add ALL AVAILABLE settings to the config.json with a DEFAULT setting you recommend, and properly DOCUMENT behavior for each setting (true/false/removing line). Then each customer sees all options when downloading a Universal GUI version and can determine their preference. This also means that I would expect to see settings like the Install Notification or Login Options by default in the config.json. Also, think about the formulation. For example, the settings “installNotificationDisabled”: true or "loginOptionsHidden": true are not intuitive to read and understand.