Standard verticalizations

Application already configured for the IT Governance management, ITIL compliant

Application already configured for the Property and Facility Management and Maintenance Processes

CMDBuild Newsletter n. 51

September 2015

SUMMARY

CMDBuild 2.3.4 is coming

Custom pages in CMDBuild with GUI Framework

New CMDBuild website

CMDBuild on the field: DELTARES (The Netherlands)

CMDBuild READY2USE

CMDBuild 2.3.4 is coming

The release of the new version 2.3.4 is scheduled for mid-October.

The new version includes the following improvements:

configuration within CMDBuild of custom layout pages using the CMDBuild GUI Framework (see more below)
printing PDF and CSV data contained in the SQL views "grid" (as it's already available in the filter views)
LDAP authentication support in REST webservice (as well as in the “mobile app”)
defining default filters for a class/group of users
defining custom user messages for SQL exceptions
new customForm "widget" which improves the current widget"grid"
new Chinese localization
bug fixing

The 2.3.4 release will be the last one of the branch 2.3.

During January 2016 we will release version 2.4, whose main innovation consists in a first set of functions of the complete refurbishment of the Relation Graph.

The 2.4 version will also include a new feature that simplifies the management of second-level localizations, the CMIS protocol support (which will upgrade to newer versions of Alfresco DMS) and additional scheduling features.

Custom pages in CMDBuild with the GUI Framework

gui The GUI Framework, released a few months ago, has quickly become the most used solution by our customers to configure, with custom graphics and functionalies, self-service areas where company staff and IT Department interact.

Within those areas, published on intranet portals, staff can report a failure, ask for new services from a "catalogue", see the list of open requests, check the list of their IT assets, read the IT news, etc.

With the same tool, starting from the new version 2.3.4, you can configure pages with layout and content fully customizable inside the standard interface of CMDBuild.

These "custom pages" will be included in the application menu, and will be subject to all profiling mechanisms similar to those of the normal CMDBuild "classes".

To configure the new custom pages all existing features of the GUI Framework will still be available: javascript language and JQuery libraries, XML descriptors to define the layout, customizable style sheets, integrated authentication, access via the REST webservice to CMDBuild, several predefined graphic solutions (forms, grids, and other widgets), ability to implement new features.

Custom pages can be used to customize the login page, to implement CMDBuild complex dashboards, to gain access to functions, etc.

Also the new relation graph, currently under heavy refurbishment, will come into CMDBuild in a "custom page", simplifying the creation of a specialised user interface.

New CMDBuild website

Since a few days the new website of CMDBuild is online.

Tecnoteca web division has operated a complete restyling of the website, especially of the home page, which is now in line with the latest trends in web design.

The main objective is to make more clear and reachable some information that previously was somehow hidden.

This information has therefore been higlighted in the home page and then developed in a specific internal page:

the general specifications of CMDBuild: 360° configurability, enterprise SOA architecture, Java server-side and Ajax client-side technology, open source, ITIL compliant, multilingual
the basic features of CMDBuild: data model design and workflow engine, reporting engine and dashboard system, relationships graph and GIS, etc, for a total of 18 detail pages

Thanks to these features you can configure complete applications for managing IT Governance, or have already configured solutions such as CMDBuild RREADY2USE.

These solutions are not only a CMDB system, but a complete CMS (Configuration Management System) including Service Desk processes (starting from Incident Management), a relationships graph Viewer, GIS geo-reference, connectors for interoperability with external control systems, etc.

Link utili

CMDBuild e openMAINT sono software opensource realizzati e mantenuti dalla società Tecnoteca, rilasciati con licenza AGPL.

CMDBuild on the field: Deltares (The Netherlands)

In this newsletter we host a testimonial of Jeroen Baten - Deltares.

My name is Jeroen Baten. I work in the ICT-OS (Operational Systems) department of Deltares. Recently we developed a CMDBuild REST interface Python module. This article describes this work.

About Deltares

Deltares is an independent institute in the Netherlands for applied research in the field of water and subsurface, focused on Flood Risk, Sustainable Planning, Infrastructure, Water & subsoil resources, Environment.

About ICT-OS department

At the ICT-OS department we try to facilitate our 600 highly skilled experts with the tools they need to do their work. This means we manage over 500 (a number that is increasing fast) virtual machines on our internal infrastructure.

One of the more popular applications is the platform - independent FEWS (Flood Early Warning System) application that is heavily used internally and at over 40 sites in the world, in which case we can adapt it to client wishes regarding use, database and a number of other parameters.

Most of our internal systems are running on Centos, using PostgreSQL and, of course, in many cases our FEWS application. We prefer to use open source tools as much as possible.

About CMDBuild

For the last 3 years we have used CMDbuild as the tool at the heart of our infrastructure.

We have devised a setup wherein we define “Products”, consisting of one or more “Applications”, containing “Services”, provided by “Service Instances”, provided by “Servers”. We use this to keep track of our rather large inventory of systems and their respective owners.

We also use it to gather all information out of CMDBuild to import into Zabbix to automatically configure the monitoring of our systems. We also use it to check for several, what we call, “violations”. Like: “Is there a valid IP address associated with this server?” or “is there a DNS entry for this IP address?”.

See the full article.

CMDBuild READY2USE

READY2USE

Although it is available only since few months, there is a considerable number of CMDBuild READY2USE installations already started in production environments.

The product has proved itself to be complete in all the needed funcionalities and the activation process for a new customer results therefore very fast.

The necessary preliminary operations are generally reduced to training activities, systemic configuration (mail server, self-service portal and connectors) and application configuration (filling of some specific tables, user profiling), for a total of ten / fifteen working days of our technicians.

To further improve the product there are a number of new functionalities now under development and they will be released at the beginning of next year in the new version CMDBuild READY2USE 1.1. In particular they will be related to:

possibility to dynamically configure workorders beyond the ones already present. These workorders will include customized logic in terms of information treated and automatism to be executed. All this will considerably extend the usage scope of the Service Catalogue and the Change Management processes;
review of the Asset Management process which will be available to use a simplified user interface thanks to the introduction of a new widget "customForm".

The new version 1.1 will obviously include also all the news introduced in the meantime in CMDBuild, includìng the new Relationships Graph.

For whom is interested in further documentation on CMDBuild Ready2Use, there are recently available materials such as an introductory video on a product and eight detailed videos on its main functionalities.