What's New in Version 12.5 - February 2012

This topic lists the additions and improvements incorporated in InfoAsset Mobile version 12.5 which were not available in previous versions.

Please note that this new version also includes various enhancements and bug fixes that are not described in detail here.

Maps and Layers Enhancements

The map and layer functionality has been rationalised in this version of InfoAsset Mobile so that maps and layers are managed in the same way as applications and forms. The Configure Layers, Configure Maps and Configure Map dialogs do not exist anymore and have been superseded by the Manage Map Layers and the Manage Maps dialogs:

• Layers can be created, edited, deleted, or restored to a previous version in the new Manage Map Layers dialog.
• Maps are created via the New map option of the Maps menu and configured in the Map Designer.
• Maps can be copied, deleted or restored to a previous version in the new Manage Maps dialog.
• Maps can be edited by selecting the new Edit map option of the Maps menu and selecting the desired map from the list.
• a Map can be selected as default for the current application in the Map Selection dialog, which is accessible via the Select map... option of the Application menu

In addition to this rationalisation, the most significant changes are that image and local dynamic layer types are now supported, as well as the existing static and dynamic formats. All these types are available for selection at layer creation time, in the Configure Map Layer dialog. Also layers can now be unmanaged, i.e. locally maintained by the user instead of being managed and stored by the InfoAsset Mobile server. The latter option is still available and is the default option. Unmanaged layers have the advantage of not requiring a connection to the server but must be located in the Unmanaged map directory, which can be configured in the Directories page of the Options dialog.

Other improvements to maps and layers are detailed in the sections below.

Ability for forms to be map-aware

Editable properties allowing forms to be map-aware or geographically enabled have been added to the definition of forms.

For InfoAsset Manager forms, these fields are automatically set by InfoAsset Mobile upon saving the form, and their configuration is based on the metadata of the associated InfoAsset Manager object:

• GeometryCountField and GeometryField - set for line / polyline InfoAsset Manager objects (e.g. general surveys and dye tests).
• XCoordinatesField and YCoordinatesField - set for point-based InfoAsset Manager objects (e.g. manhole surveys and pipe cleans).

Non InfoAsset Manager forms do not have these properties automatically set by InfoAsset Mobile, but as for InfoAsset Manager forms, it is possible for the user to manually edit/set these properties.

Map-aware properties can be found in the Map section of the Property Box in the form designer, and can be edited by clicking on the adjacent button. This displays the Geometry dialog, the Geometry Count dialog, the Map X Coordinate dialog, or the Map Y coordinate dialog, depending on the property.

The main advantage of map-aware forms is that related reports can be created directly on maps by using the Create report on map or the Create report on map at point functionality, available via the map toolbar or the Reports menu. See section below for further details.

Ability to create reports on map

Users now can create map-aware reports directly on the map. Map-aware forms are forms that are geographically enabled. See section above for more details.

This functionality is available via the Map toolbar and the Reports menu:

• New Create report on map () and Create report on map at point () buttons, as well as a form dropdown list have been added to the Map toolbar.
• New Create report on map , Create report on map at point and Create report using options have been added to the Reports menu.

By using these new tools, users can create at a specified location a map aware report, populating the relevant geographical fields (X,Y location or geometry) automatically.

The first option (Create report on map) is meant for InfoAsset Manager reports objects (i.e. pipe repair or manhole survey) that are based on underlying network objects (i.e. pipes or nodes) as it not only populates any coordinates but will also fill in the related fields, for example, US/DS node id and link suffix automatically. Conversely, the Create report on map at point option is to be used for all reports that have X and Y coordinates (which may or may not be InfoAsset Manager. InfoAsset Manager reports with an X and Y coordinate are usually point-based objects) and automatically populates the X coordinate and Y coordinate fields and nothing else.

Ability to center maps on reports

It is now possible to center a map on a map-aware (or geographically-enabled) report. There are two ways of doing this:

• by using the new Center the map on report button () of the map toolbar on an open report
• by selecting the new View on map context menu option of the on the Saved, Completed or the Schedule tab, for a selected report.

This allows the map to be zoomed to that report, with it centered on the report. This functionality can be useful when capturing map images.

Please refer to the Ability for forms to be map-aware section above for the definition of a map-aware form or report.

Image Capture of the Map in reports

A new button, the Capture the current map image button, , has been added to the map toolbar to allow the capturing of the map image. When this button is clicked, the Select Map Image Destination dialog is displayed, allowing users to configure capture parameters. The map can be attached to suitable controls (images including logos, sketches and attachments) inside an open report or saved locally on the user's computer or on the network. See Capturing a Map Image and Pasting it into an Open Report or Saving the Map in an Image File for further details.

Ability to copy the X and Y coordinates from maps onto reports

A new button, the Use/Copy Coordinates button, , has been added to the map toolbar to allow the copying of the X/Y values at the cursor location on the map onto suitable fields on a report. This functionality applies to open reports with no map, using the main map (displayed in the Map tab) and open reports with an embedded map. This should be particularly useful to users wishing to map surveys, incidents or repairs. When this button is pressed and a location clicked on the map, the Coordinates Destination dialog is displayed, allowing users to select the destination report and fields.

Please refer to Copying X and Y Coordinates from Maps for Pasting into Open Reports for further details.

Ability to add reports as layers on maps

Reports can now be added as layers on maps. This is achieved by created local dynamic layers based on these local forms / reports and adding them to the current map. InfoAsset Mobile automatically adds the reports to the map layers and places them in the Report section of the map list in the Map View or Map Designer. These layers are managed like any other layer, via the Manage Map Layers dialog, and can be customised by the user (symbol, theme, labels, visibility, etc) in a similar manner.

Improvements to Map zooming and panning

It is now possible to use the cursor keys to pan or zoom around maps:

• Press + to zoom in.
• Press - to zoom out.
• Press Home to zoom the view in or out to show the entire map (full extent) within the map view.
• Use UP ARROW, DOWN ARROW, LEFT ARROW and RIGHT ARROW to scroll around the map.

See Zooming on the Map View topic for more information.

Layer themes supported

In this version of InfoAsset Mobile, layers can have themes that will display on the map the "state" of an object based on field values or a simple SQL-style statement. This is very similar to InfoAsset Manager where layers have themes to graphically show on the GeoPlan a particular parameter for a network object.

For example, in InfoAsset Mobile, the saved/completed status of a report can be shown on the map. Layers themes can be set up using the new Setup Map Layer Feature Themes dialog and Expression Editor.

Map Search functionality now available

A new button, the Find item on map button, , has been added to the map toolbar to enable users to search for objects in layers. Clicking on this button displays the new Map Layer Search dialog.

This dialog allows two types of search to be carried out : a basic search to be used for simple searches, when users know which objects to look for, and a more advanced search where expressions can be used. Results are shown in a grid in the Map Layer Search dialog, and a context menu provides extra options such as centering of the map on the selected object, or copying the selected cell or row. Alternatively, double clicking on an object in the returned results selects the object and zooms to it on the map.

New configurable user role restrictions available for viewing and completing scheduled reports

Two new properties have been added to applications and are available for configuration in the Application dialog. They can be used to apply user level restrictions on the completion and viewing of scheduled reports:

• ScheduleCompleteAllocatedReports - This property is defaulted to None and when set, it defines the user level at which users can only complete reports assigned to them. In other terms, only users that are the schedule resource for a report can complete that report. The rule applies to users at the specified level or below. Such users may still be able to edit or save reports allocated to others (depending on the settings of the ScheduleFilterByAllocatedReports property below) but they will not be able to complete them. Please note that the matching is performed on the username.
• ScheduleFilterByAllocatedReports - This property is defaulted to Engineer and prevents users at the specified user role or below from seeing other resources' scheduled reports. Such users cannot turn off the Filter by allocated options usually accessible from the View menu or the context menu (in the Saved and Completed tabs) as these are not made available to them. Unassigned scheduled reports can be seen by any user.

More GPS fields being shown in InfoAsset Mobile

When a GPS device is attached the following information will be displayed in InfoAsset Mobile if supported by the device:

• Latitude
• Longitude
• Altitude
• Bearing
• Speed
• Time
• Status
• HorizontalDoP
• VerticalDoP
• Magnetic Variation
• Fixed
• Fix Mode
• Fix Precision Estimate
• Fix Quality
• Fixed Satellite Count
• Fixed Satellites

See the GPS section of the Property Box topic for further details.

New Attachments control, allowing the management of multiple attachments

In the current version of InfoAsset Manager, network objects are no longer restricted to a fixed number of image/photo fields. It is now possible to include multiple attachments of any document type to all asset, survey, repair, zone and incident type objects. In line with these changes, a few adjustments have been made to InfoAsset Mobile. A new Attachments object has been introduced and replaces the obsoleted Attachment object.

If Attachment items are being used in existing forms or reports, in a Report Grid object, they will be treated as text. Also, Documents objects can no longer be allocated to InfoAsset Manager objects (they are still available to pick from the generic toolbox) therefore the ExtrasDirectory property of the application has been removed. Existing HyperLink->URL objects have changed to be Text box fields with the new option of displaying a hyperlink and allowing it to be launched from the software.

The new Attachments item is available to both InfoAsset Manager and non-InfoAsset Manager forms and is therefore selectable from the generic, Collection and Distribution toolboxes. Thanks to the Attachments object, user can now attach multiple files/directories to a report and view them using either a picture viewer or the embedded Windows Media Player, as well as being able to launch them out to external applications as required (Image files can still be edited using the internal image editor for red lining). Please refer to the Property Box topic for information on the Attachments control properties.

Images, sketches and photos on the form are now automatically attached to the Attachments object and have a new property, KeepFirstImageLocally. This property is specifically intended for InfoAsset Manager forms and defines if the first image is to be kept locally. Enabling KeepFirstImageLocally will save the first image in the original location in InfoAsset Manager then put the other images in the Attachments object.

Enhancements to user fields

User fields such as user date, user number and user text fields are now network dependent. A new attribute has been added to the property box of all user fields for each InfoAsset Manager network object. The UseInfoNetUserFieldConfiguration property controls if changes to the user fields' names in InfoAsset Manager are used in InfoAsset Mobile. This will occur if the name in InfoAsset Manager is changed from the default and UseInfoNetUserFieldConfiguration is set to True. Overrides are performed at run-time, which means that they will only be visible in InfoAsset Mobile once a report is generated.

Improvements to the process of downloading reports

dialogs dealing with report download, such as the Download Reports and the Report History dialogs, can now remain open after download of reports is complete. This is possible thanks to the new Close after download option, which has been added to both dialogs and whose default behaviour is enabled, to keep in line with the original behaviour of InfoAsset Mobile. The state of the checkbox is remembered across sessions whenever the user stays connected to the same server. Users may find useful to disable the Close after download option so that the dialogs remain open, thus preventing users from having the re-set the view filters.

Improved usability when changing server

It is now easier to change server if this server has previously been accessed. Users just need to select a different server name in the Server submenu of the Server communications menu in the Log in dialog or in the Server submenu of the File menu. InfoAsset Mobile now lists all the servers that have previously been accessed in these two submenus, allowing users to very easily swap servers to connect to, if required. The new Manager servers... option, accessible via the File | Server submenu in InfoAsset Mobile or the Server Communications | Server menu item of the Log In dialog should be used to create and edit connections.

As part of these changes, the Setup Communications dialog has been superseded by the Manage Server Connections dialog.

Archiving of previous report versions

To help database administration and manage database sizes, archiving of previous report versions and deleted reports has been implemented in this version of InfoAsset Mobile.

The archiving is carried out automatically in the background by the MDS_S service. Reports are archived to separate databases (One per year including the current year and also a catch all pre_2005).

Each database will contain a table for each network. A report is archived to the year based on the time its successor was saved on the server, not the time the actual report was saved.

For example, if we consider a pipe repair that was created on the 1st Jan 2004 at version 1, version 2 was created 25th June 2005 and version 3 on the 12th October 2011. On initial archiving, version 1 would be moved to the database for 2005, version 2 into 2011 and version 3 would remain in the current database.

Please note that these changes are invisible to the end user and require no extra user interaction or additional knowledge.

Enhancement to report deletion process

Users should notice a significant improvement in the speed of the report deletion process in this version of InfoAsset Mobile.

Automatic choice list export

To avoid having to manually export choice list data when a new network is added to InfoAsset Manager, enhancements have been implemented so that InfoAsset Mobile now checks on start up or upon stop/restart that choice list data is available for all available networks in InfoAsset Manager. If there appears to be an omission then the choice list data is automatically exported into InfoAsset Mobile and processed.

Improvements to the Report History dialog, including enhancements to the comparison of report versions

The Report History dialog now shows local report versions with a light grey coloured text and locally edited versions with an asterisk (*), to help users identify these reports more easily.

Also, the behaviour of the Report History dialog has been rationalised. In previous versions of InfoAsset Mobile, the check boxes adjacent to report names were only meant to be used for downloading, not comparing report versions. Now, report selection for downloading or comparing is done in the same way, by ticking the related check boxes. Users can compare the two selected report versions or a single checked/selected report version against the current version, i.e. the version used to invoke the version history functionality. This is particularly useful for comparing the current edited version of a report against the version of the report on the server.

As part of these changes, the Local Value and Server Value column headers of the Compare Reports dialog have been renamed to Version A Values and Version B Values, respectively.

Option to check that a report about to be edited is the latest version of the report

A Check report version before edit option has been added to the Application page of the Options dialog. This default enabled option applies to synchronized reports and is effective when the server connection is available. When enabled, its checks if a newer version of a report about to be locally edited exists on the InfoAsset Mobile server. If it is the case, the user is offered the choice to either download the server version, edit the local current version or cancel the editing operation.

Report version added to schedule report tooltip

The report version has been added to the tooltip of scheduled reports in the Scheduler. Up to this version of InfoAsset Mobile, it was not being displayed and this information is believed to be useful when multiple versions of a report are downloaded.