What's new in WorkZone Client

Unit configurations now can be applied to all subunits

A new type of unit configurations, Unit configuration with inheritance for subunits, has been added. These unit configurations will apply not only to the users directly in the unit, but also to the users in all subunits and sub-subunits down the hierarchy. Unit configurations applied only to the unit itself (bypassing the subunits or sub-subunits) are now known as Unit configurations (no inheritance).

To apply a unit configuration to all subunits, you must save this unit configuration as Unit configuration, with inheritance for subunits in WorkZone Client, and enable the new Configuration inheritance setting in WorkZone Configurator (Configurator > Feature settings > Client > Configuration inheritance. This setting is disabled by default).

See Configuration types and priorities and How configurations merge for more information.

Customize the text field's height on detail pages

In configuration mode, you can now define the text field's height (in rows) for configurable text fields on the case, document, and contact detail pages. See Configure a detail page .

No changes in this release.

Expanded data logging on custom fields, custom types and custom type fields

Data logging in WorkZone has been expanded to include custom fields, custom types and custom type fields.

In previous versions of WorkZone, only changes made to standard WorkZone fields were registered in the log tables. Now, changes made to custom fields, custom types or custom type fields are also saved to the respective tables.

Only changed values are stored, not entire sets of data.

When new custom fields, custom types and custom type fields are created, they are automatically added to the log tables. Custom fields are not automatically displayed in the Life cycle detail tab in WorkZone Client and must be added manually.

Data logging and performance

• For standard WorkZone fields and custom fields: There will be no appreciable performance impact as only changes made to the field values are registered. If changes have not been made to custom fields, nothing will be logged.
• For custom types and custom type fields: Change logging may cause a small performance loss if custom types are extensively used for large data sets which conforms to the usual behavior regarding custom types and large data sets.

If you are using WorkZone QueryBuilder to create queries and view results, the following tables are utilized as log tables:

• Cases: FileAudits
• Contact: NameAudits
• Document: RecordAudits
• FileContacts: FileContactHistories
• Objects<Custom.MyType>: ObjectAudits<Custom.Audit.MyTypeAudit>

No new features in this release.

No new features in this release.

Custom types can inherit the referenced case or contact’s access rights

Custom types that reference a case or contact can be protected by the access codes of the referencing case or contact. If a custom type contains multiple custom type fields that reference a case or contact, the custom type will inherit the access codes of all the referenced cases and contacts that inheritance has been enabled for, similar to WorkZone access code functionality.

Select the Protect by option on the custom type field parameters form to enable Access code inheritances for the custom type. The Protected by option is only accessible for custom type fields that reference cases or contacts.

Only custom type fields referencing cases and contacts can inherit the referenced case or contact’s access right. Custom type fields referencing document cannot not inherit the referenced document’s access rights.

Manually assign access rights to custom types

WorkZone users can also manually assign apply access codes to custom type records.

A system administrator must select the R/W Access code option in the properties of the custom type to enable users to set access rights on the custom type.

Access rights inherited by or assigned to custom types are applied throughout WorkZone, for example to search results performed in WorkZone QueryBuilder.

Improved security for WorkZone Client configuration data

Access codes have been added to the tables storing WorkZone configuration data so configuration data can only be updated by properly authenticated users.

Ribbon configuration

Customized ribbon button labels can be created by users for all supported languages in WorkZone. When a display language in WorkZone is selected, any customized button labels will be displayed instead of the default button labels for the selected language. If custom button labels have not been created for the selected language, the default button labels will be used instead.

New button labels can be up to 256 characters long, but it is recommended to use short labels as a long label text may not be correctly displayed in the ribbon.

Users can freely create custom button labels for their own personal configuration, but must be assigned the CONFIGADM access code to edit and save configurations other than their own Personal configuration.

Custom button labels are part of the ribbon configuration and can therefore also be distributed to other users, units or to the entire organization as a part of a customized WorkZone configuration.

Users can export the customized button labels of a language in the configuration they are working on and only the customized button labels for that particular language. In this way, only customized button labels will be exported and as a result, only customized button labels will be imported by other users, enabling users to distribute only customized button labels to other users. 

Hidden custom fields and customizing detail pages

Custom fields can be marked as hidden when creating or updating the custom field in WorkZone Configurator. Hidden custom fields are not displayed in the Available fields pane when customizing the respective detail pages or when customizing searches and can therefore not be selected or added to detail pages or searches. Hidden custom fields are also not displayed when selecting Show all fields in searches, when displayed in lists or when used in Group by or Aggregate by fields in dashboard widgets.

If custom fields that already are displayed in their respective detail pages are hidden, WorkZone Client must be closed and reopened to hide the custom field. If a custom field was set as mandatory and then hidden, the field will no longer be mandatory.

Hidden custom fields can still retain data and can still be referenced by scripts and calculations.

Hiding a custom field

The Selectable radio button in the custom field parameters form in WorkZone Configurator is used to display (On) or hide (Off) the custom field.

The Label control

A new Label control has been introduced for the page designer and can be used to display a text on the detail page, either as a normal caption or as a header text.

Other field controls can be placed under the header, creating the illusion of field groupings on the detail page.

The label control parameters can be used to define the text to be displayed as well as how the text is displayed in the label control.

Custom icons

System administrators can add customized icons to WorkZone and assign them to case, document or contact elements as well as assign them to custom types in WorkZone.

Custom icons can be used to either replace the existing standard WorkZone icons, for example replacing the standard WorkZone icon for a document with another icon more relevant for your organization. You can also use custom icons to visually represent specific conditions relevant for your organization, work process or goals, for example changing the standard WorkZone icon for a case with a nearly identical icon, only colored yellow and applied to all cases 7 days short of their deadlines.

Custom icons can be added to WorkZone in WorkZone Configuration Management > Client > Icon collections and assigned to WorkZone elements (Case, Document, or Contact) in WorkZone Configuration Management > Client > Icon assignments.

Icon assignments can be removed and icons can be deleted, as long as there are no current assignments on the icon to be deleted.

Validation rules on Webpage and Email fields

Standard WorkZone validation rules are now applied to input on the Webpage and  Email fields on the contact detail pages. Previously, both these fields contained their own validation rules which were not always aligned with the standard field validation rules used in WorkZone Configurator when creating custom fields.

New advanced PDF viewer and editor

The Advanced PDF viewer, a 3^rd party PDF reader and editor, can be enabled and made available to users who wish to edit PDF documents more extensively. The advanced PDF viewer is installed but not enabled during initial installation of WorkZone. In addition to enabling the advanced PDF viewer in WorkZone Configurator > Global  Feature settings > Client features, WorkZone Client configurations must also be edited to make the viewer functionality available to users. The advanced PDF viewer can be set up to be the default PDF viewer in WorkZone Client.

The advanced PDF viewer uses the PDFTron viewer engine to edit and save PDF documents.

System Messages

System administrators can create, edit, maintain and delete system messages. System messages are message fields or display boxes that are displayed prominently to all WorkZone users in either WorkZone Client only or in all other WorkZone products.

System messages can also be targeted specific users, based on the assigned access codes of the users, and can be limited by date and time as well as made persistent so users can't close them. System message texts (title and content) can be localized to the supported languages in WorkZone and can be deleted when no longer needed.

WorkZone Configurations

Streamlined and simplified configuration editing

The functionality for editing and deploying (previously called distributing) WorkZone configurations has been simplified and streamlined. The functionality, menu options and user interface texts have been re-done for improved usability and ease-of-use.

Users assigned the CONFIGADM access code can edit and reset their own and other users’ configurations as well as Unit and Organizational configurations.

Configurations are no longer distributed to users, but saved as another user’s configuration, saved as a Unit configuration or saved as an Organizational configuration. Configurations that contain customizations are suffixed with a gear icon. Saving configurations in this fashion overwrites the original configuration and automatically makes the configuration available to the user, unit or entire organization, depending on the configuration type.

The Import/Export menu option is not accessible if you are currently editing a configuration. You must import/export the configurations first and then edit each configuration (if necessary).

As a result of the changes to configuration editing, the Clear distributed configuration and Import user configuration menu options have been removed and their functionality replaced with the new configuration editing functionality. The contents of WorkZone configurations, priority and merging rules as well as importing/exporting configurations as files have not been changed.

Filtered tabs and the default dashboard

Filtered tabs and the default dashboard cannot be removed (meaning deleted from the configuration). You can chose not to display a filtered tab or the default dashboard, but you cannot remove them.

Lock Main ribbon elements

When editing configurations, users assigned the CONFIGADM access code can lock changes made to the Main ribbon. This allows administrators to single out and prevent user access to specific Main ribbon elements - for example updating the Unit configuration to only display the creation of certain case types to unit members.

Locked Main ribbon elements cannot be unlocked by users that are not assigned the CONFIGADM access code even though all users can edit their Private configuration's main ribbon.

Change the display order of the menu options in the Main menu

Administrators can change the display order the menu options in the Main menu when editing WorkZone configurations by dragging the menu items to new positions. This enables administrators to fine-tune the main menu to better reflect the every-day workflows by manually grouping and placing the most used menu items in logical positions in the menu.

Custom Types

Custom types can now be connected to other custom types as well as to a case, document, contact, unit, employee or address. Custom types can also be created independent of any connections and can thereby be used to create a detail page - detail tab structure similar to the detail page - detail tab structure for cases, documents and contacts.

Custom detail pages

Custom types now have their own detail page where users can create new records in the custom type the same way new cases, contacts or documents are created. If a custom type is connected to another custom type, a custom type detail tab on the custom type detail page will be displayed once the main custom type record has been created.

The custom type detail tab can be configured like any WorkZone detail tab - meaning additional tabs can be added or removed and columns (fields) can be displayed or hidden from view. The custom type detail page is opened from the main ribbon > More button.

The More button is a new addition to the main ribbon and displays all created and active custom types. It is used to open the custom type detail page for the selected custom type where users can enter data. The More button is not displayed by default and must be enabled manually by editing the main ribbon. The More button is also locked for editing by default.

Custom type searches

You can create and save custom type searches similar to other searches and the saved custom type searches can be used to create lists or generate data for widgets in the dashboard.

Custom type searches can be accessed from the main ribbon by clicking Search > More.

The More search menu option is not displayed by default and must be enabled manually be editing the main ribbon. The menu option is also locked for editing by default.

Descriptive text in custom types

Custom types cannot by default display a description or label in connection with the record number, unlike cases for example, which can be displayed by a number of meta data such as Case ID, Case number, Case title, Case handler and/or Case type. When referring to a record made in a custom type, only the record ID is by default displayed in widgets and in drop-down lists in fields.

You can add a description to the custom type ID which will be displayed when users look-up a custom type field value in a drop-down list in a detail field or search field or when users analyze custom type data displayed in dashboard widgets.

Custom types and performance

Custom types should not contain large amounts of data and are not architecturally designed to do so.

If large amounts of data is stored in custom types, either in one custom type that contains large amounts of data or many custom types each with significant amounts of data, overall system performance may be noticeably reduced. The specific amounts of data that will cause reduced performance will depend on the hardware, software, network configuration and work policies implemented in your organization.

WorkZone Process notification settings for Units

WorkZone Process notification settings can be defined for WorkZone units on the unit detail page and can be used to customize which WorkZone Process notifications are received by a unit.

Units are considered a separate contact with their own WorkZone Process notification settings and in some situations, their own email account. Users can therefore receive notifications to their email account based on their user notification settings as well as receive notifications to their unit's email account based on the notification settings of the unit.

Like the user WorkZone Process notification settings, the notification settings of the unit will override the organization's global WorkZone Process notification settings.

No changes in this release

Custom types

The Custom case lists that were introduced in WorkZone 2019.2 have been expanded to cover contacts and documents as well and renamed to Custom types.

Custom types are collections of customized fields which can be used to store additional data on cases, documents or contacts. They can be considered to be an extra database table associated with a case, document or contact, enabling an additional level of data to be stored for cases, documents or contacts. Custom types can be defined specific to your organization's requirements and are created and set up by a system administrator in WorkZone Configurator.

Custom Contact lists

Custom case lists have been renamed to Custom types and have been expanded from being able to create custom fields can now be created for Contacts as well as Cases and applied to WorkZone configurations. Custom Case lists were introduced in WorkZone 2019.2.

Define filter on Custom contact fields

A filter to the custom contact field can be defined when creating a WorkZone configuration to limit the number and type of contacts a user can define in the field. This helps the user to locate and select the relevant and correct contacts. The types of contacts the field can accept as valid entries must be defined for the filter. Previously, when a user entered a new value in a custom contact field , all existing contacts were present in the droplist and could be selected. This resulted in very large droplists as well as illogical options, such as selecting a building for a field intended to contain persons.

Global access rights (*) and assigning access rights to others

The global access code (*) now enables you to assign access codes to another employee, department, or unit that you are not assigned rights to. Previously, in addition to the global access code (*), you also had to be assigned sufficient access rights to the department or unit you were assigning rights to for other employees.

Unique custom field type

You can use the new custom field type called Unique to create case, document or contact fields that can only contain one value, for example if you are registering a case per car registration number or car chassis number or each contact must contain a unique employee number.

New custom field types

The following types have been added to the custom fields in WorkZone:

• Address
• Case
• Document
• Contact
• Employee

Change the sort order of Case category, Case types and case states

Organizations can change the sort order of the items in the drop-down lists in the following Case fields:

• Case category
• Case types
• Case states

The default sorting order in these drop-down lists is by descending alphabetical order, but system administrators can change the sorting order by defining a new sort order (called Rank) in WorkZone Configurator > Cases > Properties for a specific case category, case type and/or case state. All items assigned an identical rank will be sorted in a descending alphabetical order.

This also affects the drop-down list in the Case button in the main ribbon, enabling an organization to display cases which are created more often than other cases first in the lists.

Installing WorkZone Client

All WorkZone Client features are now installed automatically when you install WorkZone Client. You still have to manually set up database access during installation. The installed WorkZone Client features can be individually activated or deactivated in WorkZone Configurator.

If you uninstall WorkZone Client, all WorkZone Client features will also be uninstalled automatically.

Installation information moved

You can now find information about installing WorkZone Client in a common WorkZone Installation Guide that covers installation of all WorkZone products.

See WorkZone Installation Guide.

Ribbon configuration

You can apply ribbon customizations to the current ribbon you are configuring or distribute the changes to all major ribbons. Only changes made to global ribbon options can be distributed to all major ribbons. Changes to local ribbon options can only be applied to the ribbon you are currently configuring.

To facilitate this, the ribbon options have been divided into two types: global ribbon options and local ribbon options.

Global ribbon options (displayed with a G) enable you to deploy your customized ribbon configuration to all major ribbons while local ribbon options (all other ribbon options) enable you to deploy your customized ribbon configuration to the current ribbon only.

You can also reset the current ribbon configuration, removing all customizations and reverting to the default ribbon configuration. If you have distributed your ribbon customization to all major ribbons, you can likewise reset all ribbon configurations for major ribbons, removing all customizations and reverting to the default ribbon configuration.

Configurable WorkZone controls (fields) are clearly displayed

When defining a WorkZone configuration, all configurable WorkZone controls (fields) are displayed with the Configure control icon in the upper right-hand corner of the control. This enables you to quickly gain an overview of which controls can be edited on a detail tab page.

If you click the Configure control icon, a menu is displayed, listing the menu options relevant for the active control, for example Default, Required, Read-Only and/or Advanced. Previously, you had to right-click the control to open the menu and the configurable controls were not clearly displayed.

Access codes

The Read access and Write access fields for the case and document detail pages can be customized to display the read or write access code applied to the case or document instead of the access code text. The access code text is still displayed by default.

If you want to display the access codes only, edit your configuration and select the Display access code only check box.

• List selectors for the Case, Document and Contact detail pages can be customized, adding, re-arranging, and removing search fields for the searches for the following detail tab pages:
  • Parties
  • Case references
  • Document references
  • Child cases
  • Parent cases

  For more information, see Configure list selectors.

• Multiple contact types can be defined for the Primary party field on the case detail tab page when customizing the configuration. This enables you to broaden the selection list of values for the Primary party field from only one contact type to many contact types.
  For more information, see Configure party role and type on a case detail page

Office Online Server support:WorkZone supports Office Online Server which enables a user to use Office Online products to create read, edit and save office documents (Word, Excel, Powerpoint and OneNote) internally on the company's own internal network without having to access the internet and without having a local Microsoft Office suite installed on each machine. Multiple users can work concurrently on a document and each can save their changes concurrently. For more information, see The Microsoft Office Online Server

• The MULTIEDIT access codes has been added. The access code contains rights that enable a user to edit up to 500 items in a list at a time.
• The CONFIGADM access code has been updated and now contains rights that enable a user to edit report templates as well as distribute WorkZone Client configurations.
• The DATAADM access code has been updated and now contains rights that enable a user to define or edit the default retention policy.
• The PROCESSADM access code has been updated and now contains rights that enable a user to configure WorkZone processes and service workflows.

• Custom fields with integer and decimal values can be added to the case, document, and contact detail pages. See how to configure custom fields in WorkZone Configurator.

• If you want to import the organizational configuration, but it is located below numerous personal and unit configurations, start typing "Organizational" or "Organisatorisk" to quickly find it.

• A new option to export WorkZone Client configurations has been added. Now you can export configurations only of selected users or units.
• A new option to import WorkZone Client configurations has been added. Now you can choose whether to merge the new and existing configurations or to apply the new configuration only (the existing configuration then be fully disregarded).

• The Case activities module has been added to the WorkZone Client Setup wizard.

• A new Working with WorkZone Client configuration section has been added. This section provides guidelines on how to create, import, configure, distribute, and reset WorkZone Client configurations for individual users, units, or for the whole organization.
• The Installing WorkZone Client section has been updated and extended with additional information such as silent installation.