ImpactECS In-Depth: New Features with Version 7.4
Welcome to our new blog feature, ImpactECS In-Depth. This monthly feature comes from recommendations of our IPAC members and will cover new features and cool functionality available on the platform. On tap for this month, highlights of the current release of ImpactECS.
Version 7.4 is packed with features to improve the model building experience. In this post, we’ll cover some features for model builders and programmers that improve the user experience and model performance.
New features for model builders
Dashboards
Dashboards allows model builders to create visually compelling, interactive reports. These reports often combine key performance measurements from various data sources. Pulling together disparate data into a single dashboard allows analysts to easily monitor the overall performance of items such as product groups, departments or customers. Visualizations such as Charts, Gauges, Cards and Pivot tables allow model builders to represent their data in a meaningful and engaging manner.
Pivot tables
Pivot tables allow model builders to easily summarize and rearrange the data contained in ImpactECS items. This ad-hoc analysis does not require modifying the structure of the underlying items. By design, this feature closely mirrors the pivot table functionality found in Microsoft Excel.
Summary row enhancements
Model builders can now control the aggregate function used in the grid’s summary row. Summary rows currently support the following aggregate functions: Sum, Min, Max, Count, Average and None.
Chart enhancements
An all new chart designer makes it easier for model builders to design and customize ImpactECS Charts. Features like improved navigation and support for dragging-and-dropping data fields greatly improve the overall design time experience. Additionally, ImpactECS Charts now support chart legend check boxes. Chart legend check boxes allow users to interact with their charts to show or hide different result sets or chart series.
Cell action enhancements
Cells displayed as hyperlinks are now editable. Additionally, cell hyperlinks and buttons now support a default text value. This feature helps accommodate scenarios where cell actions are required on individual rows or line items.
New features for programmers
System library
The system library is a collection of predefined Impact items designed to eliminate or significantly reduce the amount code needed to implement specific functionality. This reduction in code helps build models that are cleaner, faster and easier to maintain. The system library focuses on the following solutions: importing and exporting data to relational databases, importing data from Excel workbooks (or csv files), item versioning, archiving message logs and sending email messages.
Open items with context
The System object has been updated to provide a new method called OpenItemWithContext. This method allows programmers to open Queries from Script Modules and automatically initialize any Query Parameters with values found in the factor search path.
New features for core users
New toolbar icons and behaviors
The toolbar icons have been updated to improve their appearance on high resolution screens. Additionally, users are no longer required to save Cost Objects prior to their recalculation.
Grid filtering enhancements
Grid filters allow users to show or hide specific rows based on specific “filters” or logical expressions. This behavior has been updated to dynamically adjust the auto-filter list selection based on any previous filters.
Query execution enhancements
ImpactECS Queries are now executed asynchronously. In rare situations, this allows users to cancel a Query or continue working in the desktop client while a Query runs in the background.
Let us know what you think about the new features in the comments. We want to know if our newest features meet the needs of our customers. Want to learn more about ImpactECS and the benefits for upgrading to version 7.4? Contact our team at support@3csoftware.com or call us at 800-226-2036 to gather upgrade and maintenance information.