You can now authenticate App Studio users through a local PIV (Personal Identity Verification) PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) certificate.

PIV was created for use by U.S. federal agencies as a secure and interoperable credential for user authentication. PKI is a protocol for managing, distributing, and revoking digital certificates for public-key encryption.

As of Release 8.1 Version 05M, App Studio offers support for the following new single sign on (SSO) providers, when developing against WebFOCUS environments that are configured to use these providers for pre-authentication:

• Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)
• Central Authentication Service (CAS)

Both SAML and CAS options are now available from the list of supported authentication providers in the WebFOCUS Environments Properties dialog box, which is shown in the following image.

You can now benefit from the flexibility of responsive web design by using the Responsive Design Framework Add-on (RDF Add-on) for WebFOCUS App Studio. The RDF Add-on makes it easy for you to create responsive content that automatically adapts for display on different window sizes and devices. You are not required to know JavaScript or CSS in order to use the RDF Add-on.

If you are familiar with JavaScript and CSS, you can leverage the RDF Add-on using the grid CSS file and a theme CSS file to further control the responsiveness and the look and feel of content created using the add-on.

The RDF Add-on includes 26 App Studio compatible templates that you can use to quickly assemble responsive dashboards or responsive InfoApps.

For more information, see Getting Started with the Responsive Design Framework Add-on for WebFOCUS App Studio.

You can now create conditional formatting and data visualizations for forecast data. This makes it easy to distinguish between actual and forecast values in a column.

Use the new Forecast selection from the Traffic Lights drop-down to create Forecast conditional formatting, as shown in the following image. You can also use this to preview Forecast formatting when the report is open in the Report canvas.

Use the new Data Visualization Conditional Styling dialog box to set visualizations for forecasts, as shown in the following image.

The Autosize Children option resizes all components on an HTML page to automatically fit the maximum available screen space on any monitor or device where it might be viewed. For example, a single component will take up one hundred percent of the available space, while two components will take up fifty percent each.

This option is used so that when your HTML page is run on different devices, components and controls do not appear off the screen and have to be scrolled to in order to use them. To accommodate this, the orientation of components may be different on different devices. For example, a report and chart that appear side-by-side when run on a desktop monitor, may appear stacked one above the other when run on a tablet.

You can prevent the component from becoming too small, using the Autosize: min width and Autosize: min height options. Type the minimum number of pixels for the width, height, or both, in the appropriate fields. When a component reaches the minimum width or height that you specified, a scroll bar appears and the size of the component does not decrease further.

The following image shows a report component and a chart component on the HTML canvas where Autosize children is enabled. Both components share the available space equally.

For more information, see the App Studio Online Help.

The Execute component allows one procedure to execute or call another procedure. The called procedure behaves as a completely separate procedure, with its own context. The Execute component allows you to view and select available procedures, supply values for parameters in the called procedure, and test the called procedure.

Once this procedure is specified, Execute displays these parameters and prompts you to provide values for them. You can provide values for all parameters in the procedure, or you can choose to provide values for only some of the parameters. If you provide values for only some of the parameters, you must provide values for the other parameters using another method. For example, values are passed from another part of the application. After providing parameter values, you can test the called procedure. Execute is available from all development areas of the product.

You can add the Execute component to a procedure from the Procedure View panel. Right-click the component that you want to create the Execute component after, point to New, and then click Execute, as shown in the following image.

You can design content specifically to be used on smartphones, in the App Studio HTML canvas, using the new mobile layout options and enhancements. Content designed in this way is automatically sized, and takes full advantage of the page-swipe navigation and touch-screen capabilities of smartphones.

There are two different layouts for designing HTML output for smartphones, Basic and Advanced.

Basic Mobile Layout. Enables you to build simple smartphone pages that you can navigate using graphical icons and page-swipe. The Basic Mobile Layout displays individual frames from your HTML canvas on individual mobile pages, by default. You can change this as needed.

Advanced Mobile Layout. Offers the same features as the Basic, but also gives you the additional ability to add a table of contents with or without a logo, and add a logo on each page.

You can use the options that are available with these two layouts to modify and view your mobile layout. In addition, you can switch between the two layouts to determine which design fits your application requirements. Both layouts can be applied to new or existing HTML pages.

For more information, see the App Studio Online Help.

When working with controls on HTML pages, you can link the controls so that they automatically default to the same selected value when you switch between multiple pages in the same browser session. To link the controls, you need to assign a common value to the Global name property for each control that you want to link, as this field enables you to save control selections within a browser session.

This functionality enables you to link controls based on commonality. For example, you may have two HTML pages that contain controls with information that relates to regional sales. You can assign a value to the Global name property, such as Region, to each of the controls that you want to link. When you run those pages in the same browser session, and choose a value from one of the linked controls, such as Southeast, the controls on the other pages will refresh and display the information for the Southeast, by default.

When you select a control on an HTML page, you can access the Global name field in the Properties panel, under Miscellaneous. Once you have defined values for the Global name property for the controls that you want to link, save the HTML page.

Note: A selected value is retained as the default only during a single browser session. The value is not retained after you close the browser.

You can now preview your HTML output in different browsers using the icons that are available in the Preview group on the Utilities tab. This allows you to review how your output will display across different browsers, and verify that your content displays correctly.

The Preview group contains browser icons based on those that you have installed locally. For example, if you do not have a local installation of Firefox, the Firefox browser icon is unavailable (grayed out) in the Preview group.

Easy access to the three standard browsers (Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Firefox) makes it easy to compare the display of your HTML output, as shown in the following image.

With Precision reports, you can create perfectly aligned PDF, PS, and DHTML output for a pre-printed form, such as a Bill of Sale. Precision reports offer all of the benefits of the Report canvas, as well as access to specific tools for controlling items on a form, including fields, images, and other objects required by the form. It also offers additional tools and tabs that enable you to precisely match the format of your pre-printed form.

Precision reports are created in the Precision Report canvas by using the Data Matrix layer as the reporting object, and by inserting objects in the other layers as fields. You can then build the layout of the form, and add headings or footings to it, including embedded fields.

You can access the Precision Report canvas by converting an existing report or by creating a new Precision report. The report displays on the Precision Report canvas, as shown in the following image.

Impact Analysis enables you to generate a list that identifies the procedures that access a specific Master File or a single field within a Master File. This allows you to analyze the potential impact of modifying or deleting Master Files or fields and enables you to analyze data, control search criteria, save reports, and interactively open and edit procedures based on search results.

Impact Analysis searches Business Views in addition to WebFOCUS procedures. This enables you to see if changes in the original Master File will impact fields used in the Business View.

Impact Analysis is accessible from the Content and Data Servers development areas of the Configured Environments tree.

A new option, Use short Last Modified date format, is selected in the App Studio Options dialog box, by default, as shown in the following image.

This option displays the last modified date information for a file or folder, in a short format, mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm AM/PM. This date information is available in the Open File dialog box and the Environments Detail panel, as shown in the following image.

Visualizations centralize information by providing different views of data that are pertinent to a particular objective. For example, reviewing trends or fluctuations in data over a period of time or within a region. A visualization provides you with a quick glance of information on a single screen. Visualizations support the use of different types of charts, maps, and grids. For example, you may want to use a bar, pie, and line chart to show different views of the same data. Alternatively, you may want to offset a particular visual by showing other types of related data that employ a different type of visual. You can also add a text cell to your visualization to provide explanatory text or information that other users can reference. Visualizations allow you to monitor changes in data. They also serve to provide information in real-time, based on changes in underlying data or other components. A visualization can be updated, changed, or revised at any time to account for shifts in data needs.

To access the online Help for visualizations, click the InfoDiscovery Help icon , located in the upper-right corner of the InfoDiscovery Workbench.

You can now authenticate App Studio users through a local PIV (Personal Identity Verification) PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) certificate.

PIV was created for use by U.S. federal agencies as a secure and interoperable credential for user authentication. PKI is a protocol for managing, distributing, and revoking digital certificates for public-key encryption.