Best Of

I see another dev practice change with the imminent release of 10.5.0 which is the loss of multiple sessions with the same login credentials when using desktop. I will really miss this feature as to be able to log into several models and make comparisons simultaneously is a fantastic feature. To be able to immediately stop what one is developing and log into another model to assist a power user is so useful as I’m less likely to forget where I had gotten to before needing to assist a user. Also, being able to log into the same server after a model crash to check task manager has helped greatly. With 10.5.0, one will have to either save their progress to open the relevant model, use support software like gotoassist, or use another licence for accessing the same server; who’s company will give a developer 2 if those rather expensive DEV licenses for each server?. I am quite upset at this as I see it to be a backward step in versatility and a little erosion to BOARDs USP.

Hi Hannes.  Are you referring to the defaulted header titles which appear as soon as you create and add a cube a dataview, with an entity aligned by column?  If so, no - I don't think so.

In these instances I use a workaround, like a headerless dataview for the data and a 'false' header structure, usually a custom cube, on top to show customised headings; the custom cube allows me to more easily control the column widths of both objects.

Unless anyone else knows a way, I hope at least I've helped you to know that there is not a simple 'overtype' solution to your question.

Hello William Le.   I have had such errors in the past but have managed to 'blunder' my way through to a solution.  Consequently, I have never noted what actually causes them.  I have tried to delete an entity, cube and relationship and none have resolved to this error.  Your question is a good one and I would like to actually analyse the issue to identify a solution but as there are many ways to cause this error, can you remember exactly how you caused it?

If you can let me know, I'll look into it for both us and the community at large.

Hi Dinesh Chand.  I have a system where users can select properties from a search session.  This final list of properties is then stored in a cube with only the property entity and the user entity.  Once saved, users can apply the selection to any screen they like, or remove it. Whilst this is a developed solution, I think the principle is one that you could use.

To do this, create a cube with just the entity setting you want to capture.  Create a procedure which will dataflow the selected items to this cube which will result in only the selected items obtaining a value of 1 against each.  Once this has been achieved, you can use this cube in a procedure to select entity based on a cube.  With  a pager on the target screen, you would be able to cycle through the list of values on that screen.

Let me know if you would like to discuss this solution further and I will put something together.

Hey Sebastian,

LOL, Please please don't judge me on the use of pies and doughnuts - "It was the clients, they made me do it, honest!".  I've spent half a lifetime trying to irradiate such objects and use best practice data visualisation methods.

Next up - I totally appreciate that I have not diagnosed the issues creating the 'whiteouts' and there are some pretty inconsistent reasons for why they occur in 10.3 but and I only had a bit of time over the weekend to carry out some compatibility testing before I had to return the server to 10.1.4.  However, I did identify that a very general rule was to not overlap where possible, hence the post.  I will be analysing all the upgrade issues I come across more thoroughly in the coming weeks, as I prepare our upgrade strategy and development plans.

(Corrected following observation from Ray Martens, Thanks Ray)

Hi Peter,

Your post appears to be asking the following questions:

1. Can multiple BOARD instances be open at the same time by the same user with the same licence?
2. What is the best practice for promoting a model from Dev Server to Production Server.

I will first deal with the multiinstance question.  I will then post a separate response to question 2 regarding promotion best practice

MULTI INSTANCE

BOARD desktop and BOARD WEB both support multi instance.  This allows a user to open multiple instances of Board from the same server, regardless of capsule and database.  There is one important point to note which is that a multiple instance cannot exist on both platforms.  That is to say that a user cannot open a desktop instance and then a web instance with the same licence.  Doing so will cause the previous instance to close/fail/lock/stop functioning.

CREATING MULTIPLE INSTANCES ON BOARD WEB

1. To create a multiple instance on web:
2. Log into BOARD WEB using your BOARD URL
3. Open a capsule
4. Open a new Web Tab
5. Navigate to your usual BOARD URL
6. Select another capsule to open.
7. Repeat from Step 4 for additional instances from the same server

NB: If you copy the URL of a board capsule, you can create another capsule/database model and paste the URL into a viewer object.  Doing this would allow you to operate 2 (or more)  separate capsules in one WEB instance.  This could be useful for Dev/Admin work where a security model is shared by various capsules, or for the creation of 'Managerial peek through' screens.

CREATING MULTIPLE INSTANCES ON BOARD DESKTOP

1. Navigate to your BOARD Win Client; it should be found here: C:\Program Files (x86)\Board\Board Client
2. Right click on BoardWinClient.exe
3. Select 'Send to Desktop (Create shortcut)'
4. Go to Desktop
5. Right click on 'BoardWinClient.exe - Shortcut'
6. Select 'Properties > Shortcut'
7. In the line for 'Target', navigate to the end of the script and enter a single [space].
8. The image below shows that after the text you should type '/multiinstance' (Without the single quote marks). 
9. Using the edited shortcut, double click it to open a server BOARD instance with usual login and open a capsule (or not, it does not matter).
10. Navigate to the desktop and double click the shortcut again.
11. Open another instance of BOARD, either the same server or another server host.
12. Select Host and log in.
13. Continue to repeat from step 10 until bored :-)

Image: Update shortcut icon properties (EDIT: Use a forward slash [/] and not a backslash as erroneously shown in the image below)

(EDIT: blue italic text added)

(Ha ha,with replies to replies, this thread is becoming quite difficult to read.)

Björn Reuber is thanked for providing a technical explanation as to what the new web page sizing feature is doing.  In summary, on my servers, several of which are hosted on azure using iis and one local network server, the new BOARD 10.3 page sizing features scale down a screen.  A point to note is that it scales down all screens, regardless of whether they already fit the current resolution or not.

  Also, the setting is non-persistent, in that it requires setting each time a specific setting is desired, contrary to the release notes.

The practical impact of this new feature for me is twofold.  Firstly, I will continue to develop for a standard Laptop resolution of 1366x768 and use the Lock Screen function.  The second point is that, if I were to upgrade our production servers to BOARD 10.3, I would need to advise all users and our external clients that they should disregard the page-sizing feature.  I could make use of a scale up feature to any screen, as Microsoft Office365 Word does.

By way of illustrating the main feature above, using two capsules on two display devices and resolutions, I have compared the three settings and displayed the outputs below in a table.  Both capsules were tested first on ACTUAL SIZE.  Each was then set to FIT WIDTH and FIT TO PAGE to observe how the capsule was effected by each setting.  The comments are my own subjective view.

I do acknowledge that other users may have a different experience with this feature.  It is for this reason that I have also raised a Service Ticket.

Capsules:

1. BOARD db Log - a small screen size below 1366x768. Whilst this is a very old BOARD capsule, it was optimised for BOARD 10.3 by saving after opening in order to make it BOARD 10.3 compatible.
2. GVA test capsule - A large screen optimised for the HD resolution of 2560x1440. NB: figures have been pixelated.

Display devices: 

1. Laptop at 1366x768
2. Monitor at 2560x1440

DEVICE	ACTUAL SIZE	FIT WIDTH	FIT TO PAGE
Capsule 1 with Device 1: LAPTOP with small screen model
Comment	WORKABLE - Readable but with unused screen area, as expected.	Difficult to read and large unused screen area	Very difficult to read and use and very large unused area
Capsule 1 with Device 2: HD Monitor with small screen model
Comment	Readable but with large unused area	Readable but large unused area	Readable but with larger unused area
Capsule 2 with Device 1: Laptop with large screen model
Comment	WORKABLE - Readable but user must scroll to see all of screen	Almost unreadable but most of model seen	Unreadable and wasted screen area to the right and below
Capsule 2 with Device 2:HD Monitor with large screen model
Comment	WORKABLE - Whole model optimised for large screen resolution	WORKABLE - No change, as expected.	Screen almost unreadable as model has reduced in size for an unexpected reason and leaving wasted screen right and below.