In the October 2021 release we have enhanced author, extended access control on data sources and dashboards. We've also made it easier to create data sources that cross multiple components or form types. On the more technical front we've extended single sign-on (SSO) to include passing of groups information.

Content Creation

Author

Required Properties

When you are authoring a model we've made it easier to see which properties are required and whether they have been entered. Properties are configured as required because it's either good practice to have the information (for example a description of a process) or with some model types they are required for the working of the model (for example a data source is required on a dashboard chart).

Required properties are now indicated with an asterisk following the Property Name (*). And when the property has not been entered the property is highlighted with a red background. The absence of a required property does not stop the author from saving a model.

Import

When you import a Visio diagram we map shape names between those used by Microsoft and BusinessOptix. As the Visio's imported into a library often follow a similar configuration pattern we learn the mapping over time. When you are first starting you may need to map multiple shapes to the same BusinessOptix shape. This has been made easier in the import user interface by bulk mapping any unmapped shapes.

Dashboards and Data Sources

Data sources have been enhanced in a couple of ways.

Data Access Check

Form and component based data sources now check that the user has access to the model before any data is returned.  This check is applied automatically and the user will only be able to return data related to models that they have either read-only or read-write access to. 

If the data source is SQL based then you can still use the data access check, by telling the data source which column in the SQL is the model URL. Model URL is required as access control is based on either the folder or model url.

Union Data Sources

Component and form data sources are limited to retrieving property and field values from one component or form type. There are some dashboards or forms that being able to combine the data from two or more components/forms would be useful. For example when you want a list of activity, decision and events in a single table of a dashboard. Or if you are using BusinessOptix to track enhancements and issues with a process then it can be useful to return fields from both forms in a single chart. 

Union Data Sources have been created to support these use cases. Union data sources allow you to map fields of different names from each of the data sources. First step is to create the data sources that will retrieve the data for each component or form. And then create a Union Data Source, select from the existing data sources to combine into the union data source. And finally select the fields and field types you want to expose on the union data source.

Content

Process Models

When a process model included an embedded sub-process and an activity was moved from a lane to the embedded sub-process the activity was being mis-positioned on load. This has been corrected.

Organization Charts

Organization charts now support extended transformation properties. In a future state you can now change the properties of the entity including the title, type, full-time, status, description.

[Library Refresh Required]

Workflow

When viewing a model on the Changes table you can now see details of each of the workflow steps the model has been through. 

On workflows using step participants when the workflow was modified to not include them they were still receiving email notifications. This has been corrected.

When entering an approval comment and hit enter in your text this submitted the workflow. This has been corrected.

When a workflow name has multiple spaces in the name workflow failed. This has been corrected.

When the covering note for an email included the hash character (#) the remainder of the covering note was not included in the email. This has been corrected.

Administration

For client libraries that are not using single sign-on we have removed the self-service of email addresses. This is to prevent users from changing the email address to a personal or non-organization address. Library administrators can still change the email address of a user.

For client libraries that are using single sign-on we have extended the SAML configuration to include passing of security groups into BusinessOptix. This allows you to use your organizations identity and access management platform to assign individual users to one or more groups within BusinessOptix. The user's groups will be passed to BusinessOptix each time the user is logged-in. Groups that do not already exist in BusinessOptix will not affect the user's access.

[Contact client support for assistance]