erwin Evolve 2023.1.0 - User Guide

Command Line Publishing

You can if you wish publish your Site using a Command Line operation - which you could use to create a scheduled task, or batch command.

You might want to do this if you have a Static Site and want to ensure your users are viewing the latest data in your Model - so you could re-publish the Site daily or weekly.

To create a batch command for Command Line publishing:

1. In Evolve Designer, right-click the Model node for your Deployment and choose Add Batch Node.

A Batch Node is added below the Model node.

2. Select the Batch Node and configure the settings as follows:

1. Use Node Name to change the name of the Batch Node

2. Use Connection to select the CW repository you want to publish from

   By default the Connection you are using while logged in to Evolve Designer is selected

3. Use CW User Name to enter the name of the CW User you want to generate your Site as

4. Use CW User Password to enter the password for the above User, ensuring you click the Encrypt button

3. Save the Site

4. Right-click the Batch Node and choose 'Copy batch script into clipboard'

The command is copied to the clipboard for you to paste where you need it.

You can now open a Command Prompt and paste the command into it, paste it into a batch file, or paste it into a Scheduled Task configuration.

Use Tabs to Present your Data

Tabs are used as a way of grouping and controlling the way you present different information in your Index Pages and Object Pages.

For example, on an Object Page, you might have a Tab showing the General properties of an object, then use another Tab to show a list of Associated Objects, or Diagrams that the object appears on.

On an Index Page you might want to display some charts and a Table, offering different views of the same information.

By using Tabs you can include much more information than the basic object list or object details, but all content on the page must be displayed on a Tab.

What do you want to do?

Add Tabs to an Object Page

To add Tabs to an Object Page:

1. Under the Object Page node, right-click the Object Type node and choose New Tab Controller.

A new Tab node is added to the tree.

2. Select the Tab node and use the Side drop-down to choose whether you want the tabs to be displayed Horizontally or Vertically in your page.

3. Right-click the Tab node and choose New Tab

A new Tab titled 'Tab' is added to the tree

4. Select the 'Tabo' node and edit the Tab Name to what you want to be displayed in the web page.

Repeat steps 3 to 4 to add multiple Tabs to your page.

5. Save your Site.

Add content to a Tab on an Object Page

Once you have one or more Tabs, you can choose what content to display in them. Within a Tab you can display Property Groups, or Associated Objects displayed as a list, Table, or other layout option.

When you add new content, you use the Tab itself as the parent node.

See  Working with Property Groups to find out how to add Property Groups to a Tab.

See Working with Layouts and Behaviors to find out the different display options within Object Pages.

Add Tabs to an Index Page

If you want to add Tabs to an Index Page, the Tab node must be the top-level node for that page in Evolve Designer.

There are two ways to achieve this:

1. Create a new Index Page, but instead of using the Add Index Page for Object Type option, use Add Index Page

2. Use an existing Index Page, but Delete the Object Type node and everything below it - do this by right-clicking the Object Type node and choosing Delete. All previous content will be lost if you do this.

To add Tabs to an Index Page:

1. Right click the Index Page node and choose New Tabs Controller.

A Tabs node is added below the Index Page node.

2. Select the Tabs node and use the Side drop-down to specify whether you want the Tabs to be displayed Horizontally or Vertically on the page.

3. Right-click the Tabs node and choose New Tab.

A new Tab node is added.

4. Select the Tab node and use the Tab Name field to specify the name of the Tab as you would like it too be displayed in the web page.

5. Right-click the Tab node and choose New Object List > [object-type]

An Object Type node and a Layout node are created.

6. Save your Site.

You can now configure the content in the same way as you would for a normal Index Page without Tabs.

Add content to a Tab on an Index Page

Once you have a Tab on an Index Page, you must create an Object Type node for the Tab - until you have an Object Type node you cannot add any content.

To do this:

1. Right-click the Tab node and choose New Object List > [object-type]

An Object Type node and a Layout node are created.

Once you do have an Object Type node, you can add content just as you would for any Index Page.

See Working with Layouts and Behaviors for instructions on adding the different content types.

Add a new Tab to an existing Tabs Controller

To add a new Tab to an existing Tabs Controller:

1. Right-click on the Tabs node and choose New Tab

A new Tab is added to the bottom of the list of Tabs.

Change the order of Tabs in your page

You can change the order of Tabs in your page by dragging and dropping Tabs to the parent Tab node. When you do this, the Tab you moved is placed at the bottom of the list. By dragging and dropping Tabs in the same order you want them to appear on the page, you can make the tree show them in the correct order.

Delete a Tab

To Delete a Tab:

1. Right-click the Tab you want to delete and choose Delete.

A confirmation dialog is displayed.

2. Click Yes.

The Tab is deleted.

Use Custom Display Strings

On certain page layouts and behaviors you can now build a custom string to display the properties of your objects or associated objects.

So, instead of just showing the Name of an object, you can build a string mixing one or more property values of the object with some standard text.

For example, if you are listing Application objects, and they have a number property titled ‘Cost’, you could specify a custom string to display the Application Name, followed by the Cost – such as ‘Application 1 - $500’.

You can even show some meta data, such as the Object Type Name or Pluralname, or lookup abbreviation.

And, if you have a Custom Site which is configured to support Visual Indicators, you can display them within a Custom Display String.

A simple syntax means it’s easy to build the custom strings, using curly brackets {} to display property values and all other text being displayed as it is.

You can use custom property strings with the following layouts and behaviors:

• Accordions – including when nested

• Simple Lists

• Tables – when listing Associated Objects in a column

• List Boxes

• External Picture layout

• Visual Identity layout.

What do you want to do?

To create a Custom Display String

To create a custom display string:

1. Select the Object Type or Association Type node you want to create the string for

2. Ensure all the properties you want to include in your string are selected in the Selected Properties area

3. Select the Layout node for your page

4. Enter your custom string in the Custom Display String field, for example '{name}: ({type})' to display the object's Name, followed by a colon and its Category in brackets.

Use the following syntax rules:

• Use curly brackets {} to surround Property Type scriptnames, for example {name}

• Scriptnames must be entered in lower case

• All other characters not included in curly brackets {} will be displayed as plain text

• Use {cwobjecttype} to display the Object Type Name, for example, 'Process'

• Use {cwobjecttypes} to display the Object Type Pluralname, for example, 'Processes'

• Use '_abbreviation' after a lookup scriptname to display the Abbreviation for the drop down value, for example {type_abbreviation}

• Use '_id' after a lookup scriptname to display the ID for the drop down value, for example {type_id}.

5. Save your Site.

Use Visual Indicators inside a Custom Display String

If you have a Custom Site which is configured to support the use of Visual Indicators, you can display them directly in a Custom Display String.

To do this, simply insert the reference in the custom string using the following syntax:

{<property-type-scriptname>_image_mapping}

For example:

{type_image_mapping} or {validated_image_mapping}

The image will be displayed within the string alongside any other properties you reference.

Static Pages in a Dynamic Site [2018.0.2+]

Static Pages in a Dynamic Site [2018.0.2+]

What does this mean?

A Dynamic Site offers a read, write access to your model, which means that content is generated as it is requested by users. This generation, whilst highly efficient, can be slow when large volumes of data are requested. Often pages which have large amounts of information, do not contain data which changes often. Such pages could therefore be pre-generated, saving much server time, and make the user's experience much more desirable.
The disadvantages to this method of generation are that the content is not modified until the page is regenerated. Also the page is not access controlled by Roles, so is available to all users.
None the less, this is often a tradeoff worth making for complex pages.

How to make a page Static?

1. Define a page in your site as usual.

2. From the page settings, tick the checkbox, 'Display as Static Page'

3. You will be warned that new content will not appear in the site, until the static page is regenerated.

4. To generate (and regenerate) content for this page, right click on the page in tree

5. Choose the option 'Generate Content - Static Mode Only'

6. The page will be regenerated.
   OR allow your end users to regenerate the page themselves with 'in-page refresh'.