What's new in the Opus Solution Environment, version 1.0 release

Explore what's new in the Opus Solution Environment, version 1.0 release. To learn more about the Solution Builder, version 2024.2 app that powers the solution, see What's new in the Solution Builder, version 2024.2 release.

Release information

This document describes the TraceLink capabilities included in the Opus Solution Environment, version 1.0 release, which is available on Validation and Production on 12 Sep 2024.

The following solutions are impacted by this release and will be updated to the version listed:

• Opus Solution Environment, version 1.0

  Apps that support this solution version:

  • Solution Builder, version 2024.2

The features below are in order of functional relevance (i.e. the typical order in which a user executes a function or task).

Revisions

Features

The following new or updated functionality is included in this release.

Introduction of Opus Solution Environment: TraceLink's Next Generation Solution Design Product

This release introduces the Opus Solution Environment (OSE), which is the next generation of TraceLink's product for creating, searching for, and configuring Company Solutions for a company's licensed TraceLink products. OSE provides a no-code development environment where Solution Designers can drag and drop components onto a page in their Company Solution and configure the elements in the solution with an intuitive user interface.

TraceLink offers three types of solutions:

• Standard Solutions are pre-installed by TraceLink and available for any company to use. These solutions provide baseline functionality that addresses common needs across multiple companies. They cannot be directly configured by users, ensuring consistency and reliability in their deployment.
• Marketplace Solutions offer a broader range of functionality designed to meet specific business needs. Solution Partners and TraceLink's own Professional Services and application development teams create Marketplace Solutions with the intention of solving complex challenges both within a company and across its trade partners. Users cannot directly configure Marketplace Solutions.
• Company Solutions are highly configured and tailored to a specific company. Solution Designers configure Company Solutions to meet their company's specific needs and processes. Company Solutions are usually created by saving a Standard Solution or Marketplace Solution, but can be created from scratch. Solution Designers can currently add and configure pages, menus, roles, business objects, and workflows in their solutions. Future releases of OSE will provide functionality to also configure policies and notification templates.

Create and Configure a Company Solution Based on Another Solution

Solution Designers can create and configure a new Company Solution by saving a copy of a Standard Solution or a Company Solution. Company Solutions allow for extensive configuration of pages, menus, and roles, providing a flexible and adaptive solution that can evolve with the company’s changing needs. This configuration ensures that the solution aligns perfectly with the company's business demands.

Impact analysis

• Interface options:
  • Web UI
• Business segment impacts:
  • All business segments (both Owners and Partners)

Create and Configure Pages in a Company Solution

Solution Designers can create, search for, and configure pages in a Company Solution in a no-code environment by leveraging a set of page types. Page types leverage an object-driven approach that allows OSE to automatically render data in the appropriate field type on the page, which ensures consistency across all pages in a solution without requiring the Solution Designer to perform extensive manual configurations. Using page types accelerates time-to-market, reduces costs by decreasing the time required to create a solution, and enhances the end user's experience.

OSE offers the following page types:

• Search pages, which provide a means for viewing, searching for, and creating new object instances. Users typically land on a search page when first navigating to a solution. A Search page contains a table where each row represents an object instance, a Filter push panel that narrows the contents of the table based on specific criteria (e.g. only the purchase orders created within a given date range), and a toolbar with page level functions.
• New pages, which are used to create new objects.
• View/Edit pages, which provide functionality to both view the current values of an object and edit them from the same page.

All Pages

This release provides the following functionality for all page types:

• Usability enhancements for all page types:
  • When editing a page, Solution Designers can select the Panels button to view a list of the panels included in the current page.
  • Lookup by Reference fields can include clickable hyperlinks to the View/Edit page of the object whose name is selected in the field.
  • When creating or editing a page, Solution Designers see sections, collection lists, or collection tables without any items along with a message saying that the element is empty.

Search Pages

This release provides the following functionality for creating and editing Search pages:

• Create a Search page in a solution: Solution Designers can add, view, and configure Search pages in a Company Solution.
• Add operations to a Search page: Solution Designers can add and configure the Filter, View More, and Delete operations to a Search page, which extend the functionality of the Search page and allow users to perform additional actions on a Search page.
• Display formatted data in a Search page: When a Solution Designer views a Search page in OSE, the field values are formatted according to their field type. This allows Solution Designers to see the page exactly as the solution's users will see it without needing to deploy the solution, reducing the time required to view and test the page.

New Pages

This release provides the following functionality for creating and configuring New pages:

• Create a New page in a solution: Solution Designers can add, view, and configure New pages in a Company Solution.
• Display nested groups in a New page: When a New page contains a group, Solution Designers can add a nested group within the existing group, with fields that are configured like any other field in a group. By allowing nested groups, New pages can support more complex object types without requiring complex configurations by leveraging simple field types.
• Display nested collections as tables in a New page: When a New page contains a collection displayed as a table, Solution Designers can add another collection that appears as a nested table inside the original. By allowing nested tables, New pages can support more complex object types without requiring complex configurations or separate components for different types of tables.

View/Edit Pages

This release provides the following functionality for creating and configuring View/Edit pages:

• Create a View/Edit page in a solution: Soution Designers can add, view, and configure View/Edit pages in a Company Solution.
• Display formatted data in a View/Edit page: When a Solution Designer views a View/Edit page in OSE, the field values in the page are formatted according to their field type. This allows Solution Designers to see the page exactly as the solution's users will see it without needing to deploy the solution, reducing the time required to view and test the page.

New and View/Edit Pages

This release provides the following functionality for configuring both New pages and View/Edit pages:

• Add object operations to New and View/Edit pages: Solution Designers can add object operations to a New or View/Edit page that are available for the business object type the page is designed for.
• Add Text, Number, and Boolean fields to New and View/Edit pages: Solution Designers can add and configure Text, Number, and Boolean fields on New and View/Edit pages, ensuring that data is consistently displayed across all Company Solutions without requiring advanced configuration.
• Add Percent, Text Area, DateTime, and Process Status fields to New and View/Edit pages: Solution Designers can add and configure Percent, Text Area, DateTime, and Process Status fields on New and View/Edit pages, ensuring that data is consistently displayed across all Company Solutions without requiring advanced configuration.
• Add Lookup By Value fields to New and View/Edit pages: Solution Designers can add and configure Lookup By Value fields on New and View/Edit pages, allowing users to select the value of a field in a related object from a list. These fields also provide typeahead functionality.
• Add Lookup By Reference fields to New and View/Edit pages: Solution Designers can add and configure Lookup By Reference fields on New and View/Edit pages, allowing users to select a related object from a list. These fields also provide typeahead functionality.
• Automatically populate data in New and View/Edit pages: Solution Designers can automatically populate fields in New and View/Edit pages based on the value of a Lookup by Reference field in the same page, reducing the risk of human error and eliminating the need to manually update related fields.
• Display collections as lists in New and View/Edit pages: Solution Designers can choose to display the contents of a collection as a list in a New or View/Edit page, offering flexible data presentation while eliminating the need for advanced configurations.
• Display collections as tables in New and View/Edit pages: Solution Designers can choose to display the contents of a collection as a table in a New or View/Edit page, offering flexible data presentation while eliminating the need for advanced configurations.
• Display formatted data in New and View/Edit pages: Solution Designers can specify conditions on New or View/Edit pages to make fields invisible, uneditable, or required. These conditions can be applied to individual fields by Solution Designers as needed, using simple configurations that reduce the risk of human error and provide granular control of the conditions on fields in the page.

Impact analysis

• Interface options:
  • Web UI
• Business segment impacts:
  • All business segments (both Owners and Partners)

Configure the Menu in a Company Solution

Solution Designers can use OSE to create and configure the menu that appears in the side menu panel on the left side of their Company Solution. The menu features a two-level hierarchy, where the submenu, which can be tailored based on the preferred context, is at the top level and menu items are grouped below. Menu items are associated with a business object (e.g. Receipts, Purchase Orders, Recalls, Compliance Exceptions), and pages can be associated with menu items to enable end user navigation. The contents of the menu are determined by the user's role, and menu items that the user cannot access are automatically hidden.

Impact analysis

• Interface options:
  • Web UI
• Business segment impacts:
  • All business segments (both Owners and Partners)

Create and Configure Roles and Policies

Solution Designers can create, search for, and configure roles and policies in a Company Solution. Roles are collections of permissions that govern what a user can and cannot do within an Opus solution. Instead of assigning individual permissions to users, roles allow Solution Designers and Administrators to assign the same permissions to a group of users, reducing the risk of human error and ensuring that all user of the same type have the same level of access. Policies supply the logic for the permissions assigned to the role. An authorization is the combination of a policy and an enforcement point, which is the point in a process where TraceLink checks that user has permission to perform the attempted action.

This release provides the following functionality for creating and configuring roles and policies:

• Create a role in a solution: Solution Designers can view, search for, and add roles to a Company Solution, allowing them to configure roles specifically for their company's business needs.
• Grant access to submenus and menu items in a role: Solution Designers can configure roles so only specific submenus and menu items are visible in the menu for users with that role. This ensures that only users with the correct permissions can access objects and allows users to focus on the objects relevant to their role.
• Grant access to object operations for standard object types in a role: Solution Designers can configure roles to permit or deny access to object operations for each standard object type in the solution, which ensures that only users with the appropriate permissions can access the object operations (e.g. Search, New, Edit).
• Grant access to object operations for custom object types in a role: Solution Designers can configure roles to permit or deny access to object operations for each custom object type in the solution, which ensures that only users with the appropriate permissions can access the object's custom operations.
• Configure policies for a role: Solution Designers can add, view, and configure policies in a role. They can also update a policy if their product requires security logic that is not supported by existing permissions.

Impact analysis

• Interface options:
  • Web UI
• Business segment impacts:
  • All business segments (both Owners and Partners)

Resolved issues

Opus Solution Environment 1.0.0

There are no resolved issues in this release.

Known issues

Opus Solution Environment 1.0.0

There are no known issues in this release.