Tom Sawyer Perspectives, Java Edition

Release 9.0.0

Overview

This release features the new Tom Sawyer Launch Center, improved performance, additional data integration support, improved orthogonal layout quality, additional Model-Based Engineering capabilities, and a Web Application Developer's Guide.

The Launch Center makes it easy to get started with Tom Sawyer Perspectives. With a single click, you can start Tom Sawyer Graph and Data Visualization, Tom Sawyer Graph Database Browser, Tom Sawyer Business Process, Tom Sawyer Model-Based Engineering, and the documentation for each module. You can also use the Launch Center to view licensing details and stop all the web servers from a single dialog.

In Graph and Data Visualization, application start time is reduced by up to 30% and drawing view model update performance is up to 5% faster. Also, you can now use schema extraction for Microsoft Excel data sources and enjoy greatly reduced edge crossings in orthogonal layout.

Model-Based Engineering includes many more customization options including the ability to custom color objects by metaclass and allow to filter the diagram tree to show only diagrams that were previously saved by Tom Sawyer Perspectives. There is also special rendering for bus nodes and the ability to group elements by attribute and place into a nested drawing structure. You can now use the Model-Based Engineering web application without access to the Internet.

Business Process can now automatically create lanes based upon the departments or roles of task owners. And the Graph Database Browser has an improved user interface for the query editor and appearance rules.

The Web Application Developer's Guide describes how to create a web application from a Tom Sawyer Perspectives Designer project.

New

Launch Center

• Added a launch center for the four modules in Tom Sawyer Perspectives: Graph and Data Visualization, Graph Database Browser, Business Process, and Model-Based Engineering

Integrators

• Added Microsoft Excel schema extraction

Model-Based Engineering

• Added ability to control which diagrams are exposed in the web application
• Added ability to display older project revisions from No Magic Teamwork Cloud
• Added ability to choose which property to use for block names by default per diagram type
• Added special rendering for bus nodes
• Added ability to apply user-defined colors to objects using the metaclass hierarchy
• Added ability to group elements by attribute and place into a nested drawing structure
• Added ability to choose a centric element upon diagram open and quickly switch between centric elements

Business Process

• Added automatic generation of lanes based on department or role of task owners

Documentation

• Added a Web Application Developer's Guide that explains how to create a web application from a Tom Sawyer Perspectives Designer project
• Added a tutorial for schema extraction

Improvements

Integrators

• Improved the REST integrator to allow users to accept self-signed certificates
• Improved the auto bind capability to better handle separators and capitalization

Designer

• Reduced application start time by up to 30%
• Added a warning when there is no drawing template associated with a drawing view
• Created default toolbar icons for Select buttons

Views

• Drawing
• Improved drawing view model update performance by up to 5%
• Refined the layout behavior for undirected edges in hierarchical layout
• Greatly reduced edge crossings in orthogonal layout
• Improved edge label positioning
• Added support for constant curvature in curved edges

Model-Based Engineering

• Changed the web application default port setting to a port that is unlikely already in use
• Bundled jQuery and Dojo JavaScript libraries with the web application so it can be used without Internet access
• Improved proxy support for connections to Teamwork Cloud
• Noticeably improved diagram tree loading performance in the web application
• Noticeably improved project tree loading performance in the web application
• Greatly improved layout of Internal Block Diagrams by improving node and port placement which leads to cleaner routing of edges

Graph Database Browser

• The user can now choose transparent borders in the appearance rule for a node
• The query editor is now embedded in the bottom UI panel

Business Process

• Increased maximum length of process and process element names

Documentation

• Updated the Declarative Analysis tutorial to use the Set Special Node feature
• Updated the Declarative Analysis tutorial to apply a root cause analysis

System Requirements

• Added support for Apple macOS 10.15
• Added support for JanusGraph 0.4
• Added support for Apache Tomcat 9.0

Fixes

Designer

• Fixed automatic closure of the Designer upon too many simultaneous web preview sessions. This fix only works if you use Tom Sawyer Perspectives in conjunction with Tom Sawyer Licensing 2.0.1 or later with local licensing. The fix always works if you use Tom Sawyer Perspectives with a hosted license server.

Views

• Drawing
• Fixed strict drawing fitting in orthogonal layout
• Map
• Fixed rendering of OpenStreetMap views
• Tree
• Fixed rendering of dates

Model-Based Engineering

• Fixed search to include port names
• Fixed edge routing from child connectors
• Fixed connector routing to frames in incremental orthogonal layout
• Fixed combined direction calculations of ports
• Fixed inherited connector loading in Internal Block and Parametric diagrams

Graph Database Browser

• Fixed the edit query window to work in Microsoft Internet Explorer 11.0

Business Process

• Fixed overdue activity notifications that were not being sent
• Fixed the process instance filter to work correctly
• Fixed rendering of dates

Issues

• A new dependency was missed in the Tom Sawyer Perspectives documentation. If your application defines custom Spring components you will need to add the following new dependency to your Maven pom file.

  <dependency>
      <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
      <artifactId>spring-context-indexer</artifactId>
      <version>${spring.version}</version>
      <optional>true</optional>
  </dependency>