New Features and Enhancements
The Apliqo UX 2021.05 release offers its users numerous new features as well as improvements to existing functions, such as export to Excel.
The highlight of this version is the redesign of Advanced Options with a new GUI, which makes using them both straightforward and intuitive and puts all the available options at your fingertips.
The Task Scheduler is a new administrative feature available for members of the APQ Admin group. It allows you to plan automated tasks, e.g. sending a Report(s) to e-mail address(es), downloading report printouts directly to disk, or scheduling a specific TM1 Process to run with given parameters.
The last significant change present in this version is improved Accessibility of the application with improved support for keyboard navigation without the mouse.
As in previous versions access to Advanced Options is available after enabling Edit Mode. To open the new Advanced Options Dialog the user needs to simply click on the Settings (wrench) icon that will appear.
The left hand panel of the advanced options dialog contains a tree of all available advanced options properties for currently selected object (dashboard, view, widget etc.). A blue triangle in the top left corner of the currently selected object indicates for which part of the page the advances options dialog is currently opened.
The Advanced Options Dialog is modeless and can be moved anywhere on the screen so that it does not cover parts of the dashboard which you want to see while editing.
What makes this change powerful is that at this point the user does not have to remember all available options and their possible values. All available options are at your fingertips and can be easily discovered by navigating the properties tree.
You can still view and edit the advanced options settings in a json editor, however it is no longer necessary to know the names, keys and types of the properties and you don't need to write code to manipulate objects.
Most of the options are changeable using simple Yes/No sliders, color pickers and expandable lists, which makes editing even easier. The modifications are applied immediately without closing the Advanced Options panel.
The option to review the full json object of the advanced options settings object is still available if required.
The changes introduced to Advanced Options ensured:
- Uncomplicated widget customization
- Easier formatting of grid widgets and views
- Even quicker TI process action button setup
- Simpler Wizard configuration
A search box is available to help find the right option.
Information about the setup process for new tasks is available in a dedicated Task Scheduler Configuration article.
The task scheduler introduced in the Apliqo UX 2021.05 release expands the administrative capabilities of the application.
The task scheduler feature allows users to create multiple tasks which can either be immediately executed or scheduled to be run at a later time in the background. Various scheduling options are available for reoccurring tasks. 4 different task action types are available:
- Process
- Chore
- Wait
- Report
Multiple different actions can be added to one task.
All tasks can be scheduled on a reoccurring basis. The user can choose from 4 available repeat settings: Monthly, Weekly, Daily and Custom. Additional options will be available after selecting one of them.
Action Types
Report
Report is the most extensive action available in the Task Scheduler. Its purpose is to generate PDF files (other formats are also available) and depending on the option selected by the user:
- save report to disk (e.g. to a defined folder on the web server)
- merge multiple documents to a single PDF
- send an e-mail with multiple attachments
- send one e-email per attachment
A "report" can consist of one or many attachments: Views, Dashboards or Wizards.
There are several customizable options available:
- Name
- Page Size
- Page Orientation
- Output Format
When attaching a wizard, select single Steps and Sub-Steps or choose the option Include All Steps.
The Burst option located in the last tab, allows to generate multiple reports with different filter settings. It can be set by using the existing Subset or adding custom MDX query.
Users can select Instance, Dimension and define Placeholder Name. The {{Placeholder Name}} will be replaced with the corresponding setting service element value from the selected dimension/hierarchy.
Other task types
Remaining available action types that can be added to the task are:
- Process, runs a TI process with specified parameter values
- Chore, runs a classic TM1 chore, that can contain multiple processes
- Wait, allows to delay further actions by specified amount of time
Note:
A task needs to first be set to active in order for the actions to be executed on schedule.
This version includes significant improvements to the export to Excel feature:
- Tables are exported with the cell formatting which has been set in the view or table widget
- Row grouping can be enabled in the excel export to mirror the expand/collapse options available when navigating hierarchies on the row dimension
- Any entered cell annotations are exported and can be displayed as comments in the excel file
- Export of formulas (including DBRW) is supported
Note:
Currently formulas are only included for inserted columns or rows. A full "slice" with SUBNM for filters and DBRW for all cells is not currently supported but is planned for a future release
- Filters set in the application are taken into account when exporting to excel
Additional advanced options are available to allow further edition of the exported files e.g. option to export with all filters (grid widgets).
It's now possible to use the keyboard to navigate to more parts of the application e.g. in the AppBar & dashboard filters.
- Tab, shift+tab, left arrow & right arrow are supported to navigate
- Enter confirms the current selection and navigates to the selected entry
Available now in row context menu is new set of options that temporarily modify the view (after a full refresh changes will be gone):
- Selection of display attribute
- Member selection shortcuts (under the "Element" context option)
New Edit Column Header option available in table context menu allowing to quickly change and save the header of the inserted column.
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