3. What’s new in OpenPLM 1.3

Warning

OpenPLM 1.3 is still in development, you can read the previous release notes.

3.1. Introduction

OpenPLM is a product oriented PLM solution. A product oriented PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) solution unifies all activities of the company in an ECM which structures data around the product. OpenPLM features a full web and user-friendly interface. OpenPLM is Free and Open Source Software. This means that all our work is free to use, modify and redistribute.

Notable changes:

• Wiki syntax and Page document
• Avatars

3.2. What’s new for users

3.2.1. Wiki syntax

It is now possible to write rich formatted comments and other text (description, technical details, etc.).

The syntax is based on Markdown and it supports:

• titles and subtitles
• images
• bullet and ordered lists
• tables
• special links (to a part, document, user and more)

The syntax is documented on this page.

A visual editor is available:

The compose mode of the markdown editor.

The preview mode of the markdown editor.

The rendered content.

3.2.2. Parts and documents: new description field

Parts and documents have now a description field. Now parts, documents, groups and ECRs have a name and a description fields.

This field supports formatted content and is indexed by the search engine.

3.2.3. Assembly promotion in two clicks

A new button is available to promote a whole assembly. It is no more necessary to promote each individual part in the right order.

This button is available if the following conditions are met:

• the user is the only signer of every parts (or other signers have delegated their right);
• all leaf parts are attached to an official document.

3.2.4. Avatars

Each user can now upload an avatar.

Avatars are visible on:

• each user’s page

  

• each comment

  

• each action of the timeline

  

• each card (browse and navigate)

  

To upload your avatar, simply edit your personal data on your user’s page.

3.2.5. Check-in improvements

A click on the check-in button immediately triggers the file selector. And the file is uploaded when the file selector is validated.

3.2.6. Search: all types, official objects

It is possible to run a query matching any types of object (parts, documents, groups, users, ECRs).

The drop down menu used to select the type is replaced by a left panel. This panel is divised in two sections. The first section gives direct access to main types (All, Part, Document, Group, User and ECR). The second is fold and gives access to part or document subtypes (Document3D, ElectronicPart, etc.).

It is possible to search for only official objects.

Moreover, the search engine suggests a spelling correction when no results are returned.

3.2.7. Timeline: browse by date and filtering

The timeline has been improved. It now displays all events which happened during a given period. The previous version displayed a fixed number of events.

Moreover, it is possible to filter events based on their type (part, document and/or group) and by their author.

3.2.8. Navigate: full screen display

You can now display the navigate view in full screen mode.

3.2.9. 3D view: full screen display and BOM

The assembly tree of a STEP file is now displayed as a treeview.

You can now display the 3D view in full screen mode.

The model is done by Brojt. It is licenced under the Attribution - Share Alike - Creative Commons license.

3.2.10. Other enhancements

• New login page
• The Document3D type is automatically selected if a CAD file is uploaded
• Navigate supports ECRs
• The webdav application is now compatible with Windows 7 client
• All comments have a permalink
• Histories and timeline record comments

3.3. What’s new for administrators

OpenPLM now requires Django 1.5. Some dependencies and the settings file must be upgraded. Read the instructions before upgrading your installation.

3.3.1. Customize default references

It is now possible to customize the default reference of parts and documents. Read References – how to customize generated references for details on how to customize default references.

3.3.2. New application: richpage

The richpage application adds a new type of document, Page which has a dedicated tab to a formatted content.

3.4. What’s new for developers

3.4.1. Django 1.5

Django 1.5 adds custom user model. OpenPLM still uses the User model provided by Django and a separated profile (UserProfile). To get the profile of a user instance, you must now access the user.profile attribute instead of calling user.get_profile().

Static files are now located in app/static/ directories instead of the media/ directory.

HttpResponse which takes a file or an iterator are now instances of StreamingHttpResponse.

All DateTime fields are now timezone aware.

3.4.2. Rich text | Wiki syntax

You can now add rich text support to any TextField. Rich text | Wiki syntax explains how to add this support and how to add its own syntax.

3.4.3. Modules

plmapp.utils is now a package and the modules archive, encoding, unicodecsv, units moved to this package.

A new module, plmapp.utils.importing is available to import a function or a class from a string. It is based on the one provided by Mezzanine.

plmapp.base_views moved to plmapp.views.base.

A lot of views moved from plmapp.views.main to plmapp.views.group, plmapp.views.document, plmapp.views.part, plmapp.views.plmobject or plmapp.views.user.

3.4.4. HTTP API

The http_api has new routes:

• http_api.get()
• http_api.attached_documents()
• http_api.attached_parts()
• http_api.lock_files()

3.4.5. References

The new module references adds functions to parse and generate a new reference for a part or a document.

3.4.6. Celery tasks

Task are now executed after the current database transaction. If the transaction failed, tasks are not executed.

3.4.7. Models

PLMObject has now a description field. If one of your models already has a such field, you should create a migration before upgrading your installation. The software application contains a migration that copies the content of an existing description field.

Document subclasses may implement the Document.get_creation_score() classmethod. It is used to determinate which document type is chosen after an upload.

3.5. Previous versions

• 3.5.1. What’s new in OpenPLM 1.2
• 3.5.2. What’s new in OpenPLM 1.1