Content:
1. Build Automated OKRs with External Data
1.2. Overview
1.3. How To Use Parameters & Functions?
2. Planning View Improvements
2.2 Compare Planned vs. Actual Progress
2.3 See Current Date & Export Your Planning View Data
3. Apply Cover Image on Cards
4. Unify Dashboard Widgets & Workspaces Order
5. Other Improvements
Welcome to version 10.7 of Businessmap. In our latest release, we’ve got some exciting new additions, including several improvements to the platform.
Let’s get started.
1. Build Automated OKRs with External Data
To further enrich the product’s automation capabilities, we’re releasing the option to populate data in your outcomes through an external source. This happens by switching to the “External” source type when configuring/editing an Outcome rule. Our goal is to give you complete flexibility to source data from anywhere you want (ex., External systems or other Businessmap accounts) and dynamically populate values in your outcomes.
Let’s take a quick look at how you can do that.
1.2. Overview
When setting up/editing an outcome rule, all you have to do is switch to the “External” source type, which enables you to configure a web service invoke.
The configuration window contains the following elements:
1. Method - The request method for contacting an external system. You can choose from:
- GET
- POST
- PUT
- PATCH
- HEAD
- OPTIONS
- DELETE
2. URL – This field contains the URL where you will be making a request to.
3. Authentication – You can choose from one of the following authentication methods:
- NONE
- BASIC
- API Key
4. Headers – Set up custom headers that you want to be sent to the endpoint service
Body – Here, you can choose in what format to send the data to the endpoint service. The available options are:
- Form Data
- JSON
- Advanced (you can write plain text here and use it for more complex JSON strings)
Note: In the Body field, we give you the option to encode your data (key and value). Keep in mind that when using “Form Data” as your body type, the encoding will be in a “URL” format, while the JSON type respectively uses “JSON” encoding.
1.3. How To Use Parameters & Functions?
An important part of configuring your web service invoke is the ability to use parameters. They’re applicable to the URL, Header, and Body fields. With their help, you can dynamically extract a wide variety of card fields from the card that contains the outcome with the respective COV rule.
To start building a parameter, select “@” on your keyboard, which will give you a list of different regular and custom fields to choose from.
For even greater flexibility, we give you the option to add functions to your parameters and apply specific rules to them. Currently, the following functions are available:
1. AFTER EACH - adds a value or plain text after each parameter.
2. BEFORE EACH – adds a value or plain text before each parameter.
3. ENCODE – allows you to encode your parameter in the following formats “base64”, “JSON”, “URL”, “XML”.
4. ENCODE EACH – encodes each element separately.
5. IF_EMPTY – if the parameter is empty, apply “X”.
6. IF_NULL – if the parameter has a null value, apply “X”.
7. JOIN WITH – allows you to join/separate your parameters with a specific field or plain text symbol.
8. REPLACE – replaces your parameter’s value (PATTERN) with a new one (REPLACEMENT).
Note: Once you’re done setting up your web service invoke, you can test it by applying the configuration on a card of your choice.
To learn more about using the external source configuration for outcome rules and check out possible implementation scenarios, see our dedicated article.
2. Planning View Improvements
In our last release, we introduced the Planning View (in Beta) as part of your Initiatives workflows. After gathering your feedback, we’re releasing a bunch of improvements to enhance your experience.
Let’s go over them below.
2.2 Compare Planned vs. Actual Progress
First, you can now visualize both your planned and actual progress of initiatives.
This happens by turning on the “Show Actual Progress” option in the planning view’s settings menu. As a result, a dedicated bar will appear right below the initiatives, representing the initiative’s Actual Start and End dates. Conversely, the regular bars show the Planned Start and End Dates, which allows you to analyze how your work is moving compared to a baseline.
To make that analysis easier for you, we’ve added the Planned Start and End dates, including the Actual Start and End dates, as separate properties that you can visualize as table columns.
Note: The “Show Actual Progress” option applies to initiatives that are “In Progress” and “Done”. Keep in mind that for those initiatives that you’re currently working on, the system will take the current date as the Actual End Date until the initiative is done.
2.3 See Current Date & Export Your Planning View Data
Similarly to the timeline workflow, we’re also releasing a green indicator inside the planning view that shows your current date. If you have more than one Initiatives workflow with a planning view and you have applied a zoom on one of them, clicking on its green line will align and re-scale all of the other views too.
Moreover, for reporting purposes, we’re making it possible to export your planning view’s data in a PDF or a PNG file.
3. Apply Cover Image on Cards
Moving on, to improve your work's visualization, you can now apply cover images on your cards.
From now on, users with permission to manage card attachments can set an attached image (in jpeg., jpg, or png format) as the card’s cover. Clicking on the dedicated option will place the image right above your card’s details.
In addition, you can make the cover appear on a closed card view (except initiative cards) by turning on the new “Show card cover” option in the “Configure Card View” menu.
To get you started with the new feature, here are a few notes to keep in mind:
Note 1. The ability to convert image attachments into card covers supports only local uploads from your computer.
Note 2. When cloning cards that have a cover image, we’ve added a new option to copy the cover image.
To learn more about using card covers, check out our dedicated article.
4. Unify Dashboard Widgets & Workspaces Order
To ensure a unified order of widgets and workspaces across dashboards, we’ve removed the personal order settings. This means that going forward, everybody in the account will see a consistent order of workspaces and widgets based on the way it has been set by users who are dashboard managers.
5. Other Improvements
- UI improvements to Web Service Invoke in Business Rules
To accommodate the creation of more complex JSON strings in the business rule’s web service invoke modal, we’ve made UI improvements to the header and parameter fields which makes them more responsive.
- Zoom Improvement in Widgets
Furthermore, for better visualization of widgets that display data in a bar chart (ex., Throughput, Board Flow Metrics, etc.), we’ve improved the zoom option to cover the vertical (Y) axis too. This way, you will be able to focus your analysis only on a specific set of data, such as a given card count or card size.
That's all we've got in store for you. Enjoy your work with version 10.7, and don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.