What's new in Process Commander V5.3 - Application User Interface
Released in July 2007, Process Commander V5.3 offers dozens of new capabilities for developers, application users, and system administrators, and resolves issues found in earlier versions. For an overview, see What's new in Process Commander V5.3.
Twelve new V5.3 features and enhancements are designed to improve the productivity, accuracy, ease-of-use, and look and feel of the application user interface.
- New work object forms for screen flows
- Additional SubHeader options
- Precise control over cell size in layouts
- HTML Property rule for radio buttons
- Read-only when condition support
- New calendar display
- Width parameter support
- Expanded list view features
- Expanded summary view features
- Interactive chart format support
- Two additional interactive chart types
- Image Viewer tool supports scanned images
New work object forms for screen flows support tabbed and tree displays
- The standard harness rule Work-.TabbedScreenFlow is available for tabbed displays, where steps appear as tabs.
- The standard harness rule Work-.TreeNavigation is available to present steps in the left panel, in a tree structure.
Work object forms based on these harness rules allow users to jump forward to future steps. They can:
- Navigate the steps in any order
- Ignore errors and jump to a later step
- Defer a save operation until the final step
When a screen flow rule calls a second, nested screen flow, the tabs for the second level entry points can appear below the top-level tabs.
Additional SubHeader options
Seven different styles are available for subheaders in a harness rule. These operate similarly but provide you with additional choices, and help distinguish levels in complex displays. (The visual differences are subtle.)
| Name | Example |
|---|---|
| Standard |  |
| A |
Displays text with no bar |
| B |  Displays text with underline |
| C |  Contents of the layout including sub header text display within an outline border |
| D |
Displays text with black font and no bar |
| Outline |
Displays contents of layout within an outline border with sub header text in a border |
| None |
No sub header is displayed |
Precise control over cell size in layouts
When the Units field of a layout is is set to px-fixed, you can specify the cell width and height in pixels in the Presentation section of the Label panel, Field panel, and other panels. This gives you control over the alignment of elements in the table.
HTML Property for radio buttons
A new standard HTML Property rule allows you to present user input choices as a rectangular array of radio buttons, rather than an drop-down list:
When configuring a harness, section, or flow action rule with a property that uses this rule, you can control whether the options are presented in rows or columns, and how many appear in each row:
Read-Only When Condition Support
In Version 5.2, developers can mark a cell in a layout (on a harness, section, or flow action rule) as read-only, through a check box. In 5.3, you can further conditionalize the read-only presentation:
- If the cell contains a field, label, section, or paragraph, the read-only status can be controlled by a when condition rule, identified in the Condition field.
- If the cell contains a button, icon, or URL, the check box is relabeled Disabled, and is likewise controlled by a when condition rule.
For example, your application could make an input field read-only for work objects open more than 30 days, or disable a Print button based on a user's role or privileges.
New calendar display
An enhanced standard HTML Property rule DateTime supports faster input of dates and times through the calendar display:
By setting up to 6 parameters for this HTML Property rule, developers have fine-tuned control over the run-time appearance and operation of this control.
Width parameter support
When you use the standard HTML Property rules DynamicSelect, PromptSelect, and PickState, you can set an optional parameter to control the width of the display field (in pixels).
Expanded list view features
Several enhancements are implemented for list view rules:
- A new Hide Column Header check box option on the Display Fields tab suppresses the header display at runtime.
- When configured on the Organize tab, a user can enter, update and delete instances of Data- classes using Microsoft Excel. Additionally, this facility can be used to enter or update simple work objects.
- When a user exports list view output to Excel, the output can be formatted using a different HTML Property rule than is used on the display. New standard HTML Property rules (Export_Integer, Export_Decimal, and others) support attractive and complete Excel output.
Expanded summary view features
Several enhancements are implemented for summary view displays:
- Two options on the Content tab provide greater control over the location and contents of the header. /li>
- Similarly on the Drill Down tab, the header can optionally be fixed. In addition, you can specify the sort order of drill-down details.
Interactive chart format support
The axis text on interactive charts derived from property values can be formatted with an HTML Property rule appropriate to the chart.
Standard summary view rules that support interactive charts, for example Work-.ArrivalsPastEightWeeksIC.ALL, now include the Short Description of the work object class in the display.
Two additional interactive chart types
Two additional interactive chart formats are available.
A gauge chart presents the current reading as a needle or arrow. Combined with colored backgrounds known as thresholds, a manager can quickly determine whether the current reading falls within a desired range. | |
A bubble chart presents three variables in two dimensions, where the X and Y locations of each bubble reflect two variables, and the diameter of the bubble records the third value. |  |
Image Viewer tool supports scanned images
A new standard flow action Work-.AttachFromScanner and a new Image Viewer tool allow users to rotate, crop, and prepare scanned images that are to become work object attachments. (The older Scan Station tool, which operates only on Windows 2000 workstations, remains available.)
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To download the latest 5.3 product documentation, see PRPC 5.3 Release Announcement.
To request an installation kit for the V5.3 release see Process Commander V5.3 is Available.
(Links in this topic marked with the help icon 
access a 5.3 help system topic, adapted for PDN display).
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