Survey closed, see topic for results: using the Model content (Full model) screen

Survey closed, see topic for results: using the Model content (Full model) screen
Jeroen van den Belt
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Userlevel 5
Badge +8

Introduction

The Software Factory provides a menu item where it is possible to access screens related to a large part of your model, named “Model content” (formerly “Full model”).

Because these screens are not shown in the context of a particular process, all available data in the screen is shown. This results in a lot of tab pages that display a lot of information.

These screens are also present on another place in the SF, where the are optimized for the process they are part of. Think of:

  • Data model > Tables: when you want to create a new table. At this stage you don't need to worry about the UI aspects of the table.
  • User interface > Screen types: when you want to change a screen type. This screen contains a handy designer which can be used to visualize what your screen will look like.
  • Processes > Tasks: when you want to introduce a variant for a task. The screen type here is set up hierarchically, which means there will be enough space to work with when a variant is introduced.

Survey goal

This survey focuses on how often “Model content” is still used, and especially, for what purpose. This allows our Product Development department to think about what can or should be offered in the regular screens to achieve the same effect.

Questions

  1. How often do you use “Model content”?
  2. Which screen(s) in “Model content” do you use the most?
  3. What actions do you perform here in particular?
  4. Would you be able to perform the same actions in the regular SF screens?
    If so, what is the reason you still use the “Model content” screens?

I would love to hear from you all!

16 replies

Erik Brink
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Userlevel 5
Badge +5

For me there is no need to keep it.

Feel free to vote this if you agree with me.

M
Rank
Userlevel 1
Badge +4
  1. Not often but it is pretty usefull for ux/ui
  2. All screens that have icons
  3. Its easy to search on similar terms to see if there are icons used for the same filter or task or report or table. To create a uniform look in your application it is usefull to have a full overview of used icons for which object.
  4. With filters this is not possible. because there is not a full list of all prefilters in the application like tables, tasks and reports
Arjan Sollie
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Userlevel 4
Badge +13

Hi Jeroen,

These are my answers to your questions:

  1. How often do you use “Model content”?
    1. I use it multiple times per week
  2. Which screen(s) in “Model content” do you use the most?
    1. Code files
    2. Columns
    3. Task parameters
    4. Report parameters
  3. What actions do you perform here in particular?
    1. I use code files to select generated code (created within the creation screen) which I would like to copy to the MS Management Studio to alter before executing (or partly execute)
    2. If I have renamed a subject in my model, I need to change this on column, task parameter and report parameter level. These screens in model content give me an overview and allow me to filter over the full set of columns and parameters
  4. Would you be able to perform the same actions in the regular SF screens?
    1. Not for as far as I know in regards to the columns and parameters. 
    2. The selected of the code files is possible within the creation screen, but is also quite slow therefor full model/model content is preferred.
  5. If so, what is the reason you still use the “Model content” screens?
    1. N.A.
Harm Horstman
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Userlevel 5
Badge +20

I am using it quite often, mainly for global filter/search/update actions in following tables:

  • Templates
  • Task- / Report- / Subroutine- parameters
  • Columns
  • Tables (because don’t like the split of functionality in Tables and Subjects)
  • References
  • Prefilters

For these kind of details tables, except Tables, this will never be possible in regular screens, I expect. 

I wish there was one screen like this to search thru all objects in a tree structure with a sort of super search engine behind it. 

J
Rank
Badge
  1. How often do you use “Model content”? Sometimes. Not very often, just for specific features which are not provided elsewhere in the SF.
  2. Which screen(s) in “Model content” do you use the most? Columns and Extenders.
  3. What actions do you perform here in particular? Columns: for searching in all columns without the context of a table. Extenders because, as far as I know, it is not found elsewhere.
  4. Would you be able to perform the same actions in the regular SF screens? No. I dont think so.
    If so, what is the reason you still use the “Model content” screens? See previous answer, feature is not available elsewhere in the SF.

Extra suggestion: make a screen available for all Tags within a model. 

B
Rank
  1. How often do you use “Model content”?

Every day at least one time.

  1. Which screen(s) in “Model content” do you use the most?

Templates.

  1. What actions do you perform here in particular?

Looking for specific code which I wrote earlier or if I want to change a specific value or code in different templates without the context of any control procedure.

  1. Would you be able to perform the same actions in the regular SF screens?
    If so, what is the reason you still use the “Model content” screens?

No. I don’t think it is possible right now.

J. de Lange
Rank
Userlevel 3
Badge +4
  1. How often do you use “Model content”?
    • Maybe once every two weeks
  2. Which screen(s) in “Model content” do you use the most?
    • Columns, prefilters, process variables, templates
  3. What actions do you perform here in particular?
    • To search and compare objects without having to go back and forth through detail tabs
  4. Would you be able to perform the same actions in the regular SF screens?
    If so, what is the reason you still use the “Model content” screens?
    • I don’t think displaying these without their context is preferable in the regular screens
Theo Neeskens
Rank
Badge +2
  1. How often do you use “Model content”?
    - Never
  2. Which screen(s) in “Model content” do you use the most?
    - Not applicable
  3. What actions do you perform here in particular?
    - Not applicable
  4. Would you be able to perform the same actions in the regular SF screens?
    If so, what is the reason you still use the “Model content” screens?
    - Not applicable
Ricky
Rank
Userlevel 3
Badge +8

Yes a lot - I hardly use the menu on the left side - only for starting the full “Model content” and the tasks that are in there like “switch branch”. The Model content is also highly configurable as the menu is not/static. So I configured the Model content to my liking. (Please do not consider throwing the “Model content” away please)

 

E
Rank
Userlevel 6
Badge +16

I mainly use it to check the columns for when I want to change a translation and be sure it is not used somewhere else. It's also possible via the translations menu but takes a lot more clicks. 

 

Marius Korff
Rank
Userlevel 4
Badge +4

To answer all questions; I barely use it.
Though when I use it I usually use the tabs that are not available via the menu like: 

  • columns
  • references
  • prefilters
  • task/report parameters
  • extenders
  • runtime configurations
John Sangers
Rank
Userlevel 1
Badge +1
  1. How often do you use “Model content”?
    Always. I do everything using the “Model content” module, I (allmost) never use the modelers in the other screens.
  2. Which screen(s) in “Model content” do you use the most?
    Tables, Columns, Tasks, Templates
  3. What actions do you perform here in particular?
    Manage Tables and Tasks, searching code in Templates
  4. Would you be able to perform the same actions in the regular SF screens?
    Maybe, but I like the way I can manage all Table settings and all Column settings in one screen.
    If so, what is the reason you still use the “Model content” screens?
    I’m an old-school SoftwareFactory user, in v1.4 the “Full Model” was the only screen available.
Jochem Pieper
Rank
Userlevel 2
Badge +1
  1. How often do you use “Model content”?
    1. A few times a week
  2. Which screen(s) in “Model content” do you use the most?
    1. Columns
    2. References
    3. Task parameters
    4. Report parameters
    5. Indexes
  3. What actions do you perform here in particular?
    1. Because the screens are within the context of the branch, it is sometimes useful to mass update records rather than writing a query to do this.
  4. Would you be able to perform the same actions in the regular SF screens?
    If so, what is the reason you still use the “Model content” screens
    1. See above answer. I think it is useful to see the objects combine to perform mass updates or check if a column or parameter is used more than once through the application.
    2. Sometimes these regular SF screens are not available, so that's why model content can be useful.

All in all, I really hope this feature will not be removed from the menu. I do understand that not all details will need to be visible within the screen, so maybe a summarized version would be great for overview.

Behind every SQL template, is a story
R
Rank
Badge +3
  1. How often do you use “Model content”?
    1. A few times a week
  2. Which screen(s) in “Model content” do you use the most?
    1. Columns
    2. References
    3. Task parameters
    4. Report parameters
    5. Indexes
    6. Prefilters
  3. What actions do you perform here in particular?
    1. Getting these details out of context to analyse or mass update
  4. Would you be able to perform the same actions in the regular SF screens?
    If so, what is the reason you still use the “Model content” screens
    1. No.
H
Rank
Userlevel 2
Badge +3
  1. How often do you use “Model content”?
    1. on average once a week
  2. Which screen(s) in “Model content” do you use the most?
    1. tags
    2. columns
    3. task parameters
    4. prefilters
    5. references
    6. extenders
  3. What actions do you perform here in particular?
    1. find where a tag is assigned
    2. troubleshooting
    3. refactoring
    4. finding similar columns or parameters that have different domains
    5. finding cascading references
    6. create model extenders
  4. Would you be able to perform the same actions in the regular SF screens?
    If so, what is the reason you still use the “Model content” screens?
    1. Cardinality, for tags and such
    2. being able to go directly into the table itself, for columns or parameters for instance
Jeroen van den Belt
Rank
Userlevel 5
Badge +8

Hello everyone, I am happy to share an update with you regarding this topic. 😀

First of all, I want to thank you all for your contribution to this survey! It highlights that most users only use Model content for specific tabs, although some use it extensively and others do not at all.

Our product development team analyzed the feedback and identified two main criteria for using tabs within Model content:

  • Tabs out of their parent context: these contain objects that are not shown in their parents’ context, such as 'Columns’, 'Task/Report/Subroutine parameters’, ‘Indexes’, and 'Prefilters'. They can be used for global actions such as filtering, searching, analyzing, comparing, and (mass) updating data.
  • Tabs that serve a unique purpose: these cannot be found as a screen elsewhere, such as 'Code files’ and 'Extenders'.

Conclusion

Tabs that meet these criteria will be retained. While improvements might be considered later, such as relocating these tabs elsewhere, the current decision is to keep them as they are. This means that the menu item Model content will also be retained for now.

Tabs that do not meet these criteria will be removed*, which will keep Model content nice and clean. This will also relieve our development team from frequently updating these tabs to match improvements in their process-optimized screens, which are already available from the menu. You can even further adjust those optimized screens yourself based on your user preferences.

* With the exception of ‘Model settings’ and ‘Tables’

In some cases, the process-optimized screens lack a tab Tags, even though the Model content tab has one. We will ensure that these tabs are added to prevent you from losing this option.

If you are still missing something in the process-optimized screens, feel free to submit an idea on how to improve this.

These changes will be made in the 2023.3 release, which is expected at the beginning of October. For a list of Model content tabs that will be removed, you can check out the following overview:

Model content tab

Process-optimized screen

Application languages

Group Model overview > item Branches > tab Application languages

Domains

Group Data > item Domains
Partition schemes Group Data > tab Tables > field Partition scheme (look-up)

References

Group Data > item Data model > tab References

Data sensitivity

Group Data > item Data sensitivity

Sequences

Group Data > item Sequences

Data migration

Group Data > item Data migration

Menus

Group User interface > item Menus

Platforms

Group User interface > item Menus > tab Platforms

Screen types

Group User interface > item Screen types

Cubes

Group User interface > item Business intelligence

Maps

Group User interface > item Maps

Schedulers

Group User interface > item Schedulers

Themes

Group User interface > item Themes

Messages

Group User interface > item Messages

Translations

Group User interface > item Translations

Icons

Group User interface > item Icons

Help index

Group User interface > item Help

AutoML

Group Machine learning > item AutoML

Process flows

Group Processes > item Process flows

Subflows

Group Processes > item Subflows

Tasks

Group Processes > item Tasks

Reports

Group Processes > item Reports

Custom screens

Group Processes > item Custom screens

Control procedures

Group Functionality > item Control procedures

Group Enrichment > item Dynamic model

Subroutines

Group Business logic > item Subroutines

Mock data

Group Quality > item Unit tests > tab Mock data

Validations

Group Quality > item Validations > tab Maintenance

Roles

Group Access control > Item Roles

Post synchronization code

Group Deployment > item Synchronization > tab Post synchronization code
Group Deployment > item Deployment package > tab Post synchronization code

Runtime configurations

Group Maintenance > item Runtime configurations

 

 

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