CMDBuild Newsletter nr. 78

The way of living and working basically all over the world, from China to Europe to the United States, is nowadays changing due to the spread of COVID-19.

Italy in this period is particularly involved in this unprecedented emergency.

As a precaution, sense of responsibility and respect of government rules, we have been working in smart working for days, continuing all daily activities from our homes.

The availability of cutting-edge technologies allows us to continue the development of CMDBuild, keeping the project roadmap unchanged.

We are regularly working on the development of the CMDBuild “core”, on the implementation of the standard vertical products CMDBuild READY2USE and openMAINT, as well as on the support activities for our customers.

Anyhow obviously we all hope to return to normality as soon as possible.

After having released CMDBuild 3.2, we are working on the new CMDBuild 3.3 version, currently planned for mid/late summer.

In the next news you will find more information on the several new features.

In the meantime, we have also carried out some bug fix and small implementation activities on the code of the 3.2 version, with the aim of releasing them in a minor 3.2.1 version, in the second half of next April.

Small implementations include:

• completion of the control page in the Administration Menu of the various services used by CMDBuild, and possibility of consulting/downloading the log files;
• completion of the password management, with the possibility of blocking it in the event of repeated failed authentication attempts and not proposing its modification function in the case of centralized authentication;
• GIS improvements, with display of the list of elements around the “clicked” point and with an icon for the direct passage from the GIS Tab card to the corresponding card;
• possibility to limit, in the Administration Module, the extensions allowed for the attached files;
• possibility to configure, in the Administration Module, the list of languages ​​proposed at login.

We are as well working in parallel on our two standard vertical products CMDBuild READY2USE and openMAINT, since it is expected the release of the 2.1 versions during the summer.

For CMDBuild READY2USE, we will update the VCenter Connector to the latest API version, we will extend the SLA management and we will implement new reports and dashboards, aimed at checking the quality of the data present in the CMDB.

For openMAINT, we will extend the operational management methods of maintenance activities and we will implement new features for the economic management of real estate assets.

In the CMDBuild 3.3 version, to be released in mid/late summer, there will be many new implementations already under development, and others that will be evaluated in the coming months.

Already confirmed new features include:

• retrieve of the massive modification function of the data cards, and implementation of the new mass cancellation function;
• retrieve of the task for the scheduled sending of emails with attached reports;
• new GIS features for importing floor plans, based on new import templates configurable in the Administration Module;
• improvements for the import of IFC files (BIM models);
• possibility of inserting data card hierarchies with configurable filters in the navigation menu;
• entry page in the Administration Menu, with a dashboard of indicators on the entities configured in the system;
• new permissions on custom pages, custom components and GUI controls;
• improvements in the user interface: page help in the data cards, possibility of presenting some groups of attributes closed by default, opening in full screen mode of the HTML editor for text-type attributes;
• improvements in the CSV import/export function (import in ADD mode, use of current filter in export);
• improvements in the attachment management;
• refactoring of some parts of the server code.

Last month we started the implementation activities of the new CMDBuild Mobile APP, completing the rewriting of all the components of the new project started with the release of CMDBuild 3.0 last spring.

We are currently in the study phase of the technological and architectural aspects, which we are investigating both with general considerations and with the help of some early prototypes already developed.

It is still early to talk about functionalities and user interface details, aspects that will be mentioned in the next newsletters.

However, we can anticipate that the main objectives of the new APP will be the following:

• support in general for the new features of CMDBuild 3, with the use of the new REST V.3 web service;
• particular attention to usability and ease of use, following the guidelines of material design;
• full support of custom pages, which will be used extensively in vertical applications, and in particular in CMDBuild READY2USE and openMAINT, to optimize the work of operators by simplifying the interface and reducing the number of operations;
• offline mode operation, guaranteed by the possibility of exporting the set of useful data for a day's work and reimporting them at the end into the system with appropriate merge mechanisms;
• management of georeferencing functionalities.

The APP, like the previous version, will be available for Android and iOS devices.

On the www.tecnoteca.tv website there are several videos, created by Tecnoteca, which illustrate the functionality of CMDBuild, CMDBuild READY2USE and openMAINT.

There are also available extracts from the Webinar recordings that Tecnoteca organizes periodically.

A video extract of the last Webinar, which was held on February 25^th, during which the CMDBuild 3.2 version was presented, is also available.