Enhanced Collaboration with BusinessOptix Author

We understand the importance of collaborative efforts in capturing valuable business information. That's why we’re thrilled to introduce an enhancement to BusinessOptix Author – enabling real-time collaboration. Now, multiple authors can work on and edit the same model simultaneously.

Real-time Synchronization: As soon as two or more authors start editing the same model, BusinessOptix Author then each user's changes are instantaneously synchronized across all sessions. Additionally, we've introduced features that allow you to easily track and understand the modifications others are making.

Identifying Contributors

You can spot the initials of contributors at the top of the page, showing who's made recent changes.

Navigating Edits

If a collaborator wants you to review a particular change, simply click on their initials, and the system will direct you to that specific part of the model.

Conflict Resolution

On the off chance that two authors edit the same property concurrently, the edited property will highlight in the color corresponding to the other user's initials.

Reviewing Edits

A dedicated tray titled "Other users’ changes" is now available in the Model Explorer. One click on a change, and you'll be directed to the associated part of the model.

Undo/redo functionality

You have the ability to undo or redo only your edits. While you can view changes made by others, their edits are not part of your undo/redo sequence. If you believe a collaborator's amendments need rectification, simply adjust the property value, and it will sync across sessions.

Revisions

Revisions remain unchanged.  Whilst the changes are being synchronised between authors they are saved in the same way as currently. Autosave continues to automatically create a revision every two minutes. If you have Autosave turned off your will continue to receive changes from other authors, but they will not receive your updates until the model is saved.

Taking control

Embarking on intricate edits? You can check out the model to temporarily restrict other authors from making changes. And yes, you can do this even if another author has already begun editing. Remember to check the model back in once done.

Activating Enhanced Collaboration

To experience these collaborative features in BusinessOptix Author, they need activation for each library. Keen to explore? Reach out to our customer support team to activate Collaboration for your library.

Other Changes

Additionally in the September release the following enhancements and corrections have been developed.

Library

On the My Settings page a user can now see the license they hold.

Import

Visio impoter was not always detecting the shape to be imported. This has been improved. Excel files with a blank first row where not being imported correctly, this has also been improved.

Output

If you assigned a role name to one of your model stakeholders we were not showing this in your model output/PDF. This has been corrected.

Configuration

Folders a user has access to - in a data source you may have a requirement to know which folders the user can access. There is now a SQL function (named fnGetFolders) that accepts the user name as a parameter and returns the folder hierarchy the user has access to.

Fixed sort order for components - in some model types you may want the order of the components to be pre-defined and not allow an author to change the order. When configuring a stencil you can now fix the sort order and when a new component is added to the model it will be created in the correct place. 

Semantic Versioning - in some use cases you may want a three level versioning (commonly called semantic versioning) and not the two level of major, minor available by default. Semantic versioning is available as a configuration option, along with changes to workflow to be able to increment the major, minor and patch.