CMDBuild newsletter n. 35

January 2013

CMDBuild is a configurable web application to model and manage a database containing assets (CMDB stands for "Configuration and Management Data Base") and handle related workflow operations.

CMDBuild is promoted by the Municipality of Udine and developed by Tecnoteca srl.

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Work in progress

Our work on the new version of CMDBuild 2.1 is going on.

First of all we are working on a full refactoring of the DAO section (Data Access Object) and this activity is getting a lot of time; once completed the new DAO we will be able to implement the specific functions for the “views” management in the most natural and effective way.

Then, we decided to extend the cards’ “advanced search” function, by adding also the possibility to save a search as reusable filter. Such filter will be available for the user who generated it, but it can also be provided by the system administrator to other users groups.

The “advanced search” system will be at the base of the new functionality which will allow the definition of a “view” as result of a search filter. Plus you’ll get the editing of the selected data cards and the relations navigation.

Furthermore, you will be able to define complex “views” based on joins of several read-only classes, by associating them to PostgreSQL functions that will be preconfigured in the database.

At last, the permission system of CMDBuild will be extended. It will reduce the access permissions defined on a class for a certain users group, both on rows (through the search filter) and columns (by showing which attributes should be maintained accessible).

CMDBuild for BIM project

Since last year, we have been working on CMDBuild for BIM project (Building Information Modeling), whose main aim is the interoperability of CMDBuild with external BIM-compliant systems.

This project is currently developed by a team of Tecnoteca technicians and by Professors and researchers of the University of Udine.

In the last months the group was focused on the preparatory study for the standards that will be implemented (in particular IFC and CityGML), on the research of open source tool usable in the project (in particular BIMServer) and on the definition of implementation specifications of new CMDBuild functionalities.

The realisation of a first prototype is expected to be released within March. It is made up of partial versions of the following components:

• connector for the import and synchronization in CMDBuild of IFC files exported by external tools for the BIM design (e.g. Autodesk Revit)
• connector to export to IFC format information existing in CMDBuild. Some of that information is completely managed internally (IT assets, furnishings, etc.) and some is managed externally and saved as read-only (infrastructural elements, plants, etc.)
• display of 3D-BIM drawings in the web user interface of CMDBuild.

CMDBuild on field

The “Istituto agrario San Michele all’Adige”, also called “Fondazione Edmund Mach”, was founded in the Province of Trento in 1874 in order to promote the agricultural development in Tirol. Edmund Mach was its first director.

This foundation includes high schools and Master’s programs, an Experimental research centre with a strong international presence, and a Technology Transfer Centre that gives technical advice to the agricultural companies of Trento.

Considering the dimension of the Institute, an Asset Management tool was necessary to manage in a different way both IT assets and laboratory equipment owned by the research centre.

Togaf

We are thankful to the University of Bologna and to SIAE for the periodic updates they supply to us about the synchronization plugin development that connects CMDBuild to Archi.

The plugin aim is to populate CMDBuild starting from the architectural TOGAF plans designed with Archi, and vice versa to display in Archi data structures shaped in CMDBuild.

The interaction between these environments was achieved through the realization of a new webservice that implements the CMDBf standard (CMDB Federation specification).

The plugin will be probably released together with the 2.1 version of CMDBuild, expected for April.

CMDBuild at EMIT

The Executive Master in IT Governace & Management (EMIT), started two years ago in Rome, at the Luiss Business School, in cooperation with HSPI. Its purpose is the development of management competences for the lifecycle of IT services.

The program of the Master is organized in eight modules (Service Assurance, Demand and Service Development, IT Service Management, etc.), one of those dedicated to the knowledge of the software tools that support the IT Governance.