The following summarizes the remaining queries from our Build with Aras Experience sessions. Thank you for the great questions.
The questions below are from Session 3 of the Build with Aras Experience titled Expand Your Vision and Leverage the Aras Community.
Q: When creating a custom sidebar button like the one from today’s session, is it possible to define when that custom sidebar button is available?
A: Yes. You can define if a button is available only to specific users or roles, or you can limit the button to certain classes of items. You can also implement your own logic for when the button will appear with a little code.
Q: What happens to the information that was entered into the meeting notes created before you changed it to the rich document? Does it require data migration or is that information still visible if accessed after the change?
A: There are a couple options. You could either implement a content generator that takes the original notes and displays them inside the document or you could migrate the data via a method or simply allow users to copy/paste.
Q: Is there a particular source code management application that is used with this environment? A: Any source code management tool can be used with Aras Innovator. Internally we use Git, but any source control system should work.
Q: Can Action Items be setup to show up in the my Inbasket for people.
A: Yes, this would be part of the workflow implementation. By creating a workflow for each Action Item, the assignee would get notification in their InBasket.
Q: Is it possible to use a template in the TDF Editor?
A: Yes. You can pre-define content like lists or tables to insert into your document. This makes it easier for users to enter common content.
Q: Is it possible to change the font and/or color for the text in the TDF Editor?
A: You can configure elements in the TDF schema to either strictly follow the style presets or allow end users to make certain style changes. This balances the need for consistency with the need for custom styles in some scenarios.
Q: CUI is so intimidating. Is there a trick to finding the item you want to edit in that huge list?
A: My advice would be to follow the examples from the existing applications for now. We're working on making it easier to configure CUI via new administrator UIs. You can also visit the Aras community forums to talk to the experts.
Q: What language would you use to write a button Click method for CUI?
A: Since the user interface is inside a browser, Javascript is used for these methods. There are plenty of examples included with the standard Aras applications.
Q: How difficult is it to create a schema for TDF? What kind of elements can be included?
A: TDF schemas are based on the standard XML Schema format. You can include all the things you would normally see in a word processor, like text, images, tables, bulleted or numbered lists, etc. The big difference is that you can enforce more control over which content can be included by the author, as well as standardizing the styling.
Q: Where can we find the TDF documentation features?
A: There is a bunch of documentation available, including a user guide and administrator guide. These are included in the Aras Update package as well as on the FTP site. There are also a bunch of relevant blog posts on the community site.
Q: You mentioned something called a Content Generator. Can you explain what this is?
A: A content generator is a method that takes information stored as items, properties and relationships and converts that data into something you might see in a document. For example, you might want to take the data from a Bill of Material stored in the database and turn it into a table in the document. The table in the document can be automatically updated when the underlying BOM changes.
Q: Mobile App is interesting. Is it only developed as of now for Inbasket Voting?
A: There are several apps that have been developed and available as open source. You'll see apps for entering Problem Reports, participating in Visual Collaboration, etc. We're always looking for more ideas. Please continue the conversation on the community site.