What's New in ARCWAY Cockpit

Select a release to see its release notes.

• Release 3.8
• Release 3.7
• Release 3.6
• Release 3.5
• Release 3.4
• Release 3.3
• Release 3.2
• Release 3.1
• Release 3.0

Release 3.8

New OBASHI Method

• OBASHI BIDs (Business IT Diagrams)
• OBASHI DAVs (Data flow Analysis View)

New support for ARCWAY domains and ARCWAY domain reports

• Document content module
• Domain report designer module
• Enterprise Edition only

Improved renderings

• Element Transparency
• Show Model Element Descriptions in Plan Elements
• Improved Vector Rendering (EMF+)
• SVG Inline Bitmaps

Release 3.7

New Analysis & Report Generation Functionality

• Scripted Dashboard
• Scripted Analysis Views
• Scripted Plan Analysis (Highlights, Projections, Additions)
• New rendering possibilities in reports
  • Smart plan element numbering
  • Fields e.g. for headers, footers and title pages
  • Emphasis
  • Support for multiple languages
• Multiple Documents & Stacked Scripts
• Reports spanning multiple projects
• Section & Plan Filters
• New APIs (Write & File Access, Permissions, Graphics)
• Professional and Enterprise Edition only

Further Improvements

• Project Publishing
• Enterprise Edition only

Release 3.6

Strenght/Weakness/Opportunity/Risik Analysis

• SWOT-Module for Strenght/Weakness/Opportunity/Risik Analysis and Management of derived Actions
• Professional and Enterprise Edition only

Change Documentation Module

• Change Documentation related to Project Content
• Version Management related to Change Documentation
• Professional and Enterprise Edition only

Report Generation

• Plans can be rotated automatically
• Big plans can be spread over multiple pages ("poster mode“)
• Use category icons in reports

Many minor improvements

• Improved renaming dialog for plan elements - prevent from renaming elements that occur on multiple plans
• Show category icons of linked objects in details view
• Show single data before folder data (in module data views)
• Improved canceleability of long running rebot jobs
• MS Word Page breaks can be defined in the format template
• Added ability to optimize reports in order to remove empty lines at the end of table cells and tables
• Extended report API for Sets, Maps and Records
• Extended report API for logging, progess bar, maths and more

Fixes

• On some machines, embedding of PDF documents in MS Word only displayed the first PDF page
• Values of enumeration types of type string could get lost if the value's name was changed in the meta modell after the object was modified and before the values get copied

Release 3.5

BPMN 2.0 Support

• The functionality of the existing Business Process Modeling Notation diagram editor has been extended to provide the complete set of process diagram elements defined in BPMN 2.0. This provides means for creating even more concise diagrams and facilitates a better communication between Business and IT. ARCWAY Cockpit 3.5 does now completely cover the requirements for Process Modeling Conformance as defined in BPMN 2.0 which is the most important part of BPMN 2.0.

Custom-Property Categories

• The possibilty for defining custom properties to enrich the predefined data elements with more attributes has been widely adopted by Cockpit customers. This functionality has been extended to allow for creating subtypes of the predefined data elements, each with its own set of attributes and its own icon. Thus you can transfer the concepts from your modeling domain into the cockpit information model. You could for example create concrete model element subtypes like fileserver, database server, software, ... with their own set of properties. Beyond using this Custom-Property Category information inside Cockpit you can make use this information during report generation to individualize the presentation of the data elements.

Editor for GUI-Sketch Diagrams

• Create GUI-Sketches for better visualisation of your requirements.

Editing files in external editors

• The existing functionality for saving and updating file attachments stored in custom properties has been enhanced, such that file attachments stored in custom properties can be easily edited using the appropriate external editor registered for this filetype.

Failure resilient communication protocol

• The implementation of the protocol used for communication between Cockpit Enterprise Clients and Cockpit Server has been redesigned to be more resilient against temporary communication failures. Users can now continue to work after the communication link has been restored without the need to re-login. The new protocoll is still HTTP based.

Many minor improvements

• Improved performance when importing large data sets
• Improved performance when working with the Professional Edition
• Plan-Editor: New feature for aligning elements
• Plan-Editor: Outline-Shape visualisation for convenient placement of elements

Release 3.4

Editor for BPMN Diagrams

• BPMN editor - Release 3.4 of ARCWAY Cockpit provides a new editor for process diagrams based on the Business Process Modeling Notation. For the purpose of automated process execution BPMN 2.0 has reached an enormous complexity (e.g. 63 different event type), however. Hence we have focussed the BPMN editor in ARCWAY Cockpit on the most important core elements, which are needed to draw analysis and design level process diagrams.

Handling of Model Elements

• New table view for the element repository - For the model element repository a new table view has been introduced, similar to the one which already exists for requirements and open issues. All properties of the model elements are shown now. Additionally, attribute filters can be applied, the table contents can be sorted by the contents of all columns and a full-text search can be conducted via a search field.
• Form editor for modell elements - The editing of a modell element's properties takes place in a form editor, now. In the form editor, links to project data (like requirements) can be created and deleted directly.
• Linked model elements can be displayed in the requirement data view

Working With Reports

• Splitting HTML reports into several pages - When an HTML report is generated it can be splitted into several pages, now. Especially in the case of huge reports, opening a report is hence significantly faster. Navigation between pages is done comfortably via navigational links in the header and footer of each page.
• Insertion of MS Word files - MS Word files, which are attached e.g. to a requirement via a custom property, can be inserted into Word reports directly, now.
• Configuration of page breaks in MS Word reports - For MS Word reports it can be configured, now, whether page breaks are to be added and - if so - which kind of page break is to be added after the title page and after each chapter.
• Configuration of the output format for date values - The output format for date values in reports can be custom defined in the report template, now.
• Generating reports in ODF format - Release 3.4 provides the posssibility to generate reports in ODF format for Libre Office. This way Cockpit Clients running on Mac OS or Linux are also enabled to generate high quality and attractive reports for specification documents, etc.

Management of Open Issues

• Versioning of open issues - The enterprise edition of release 3.4 provides the possibility to view previous versions of an open issue. The previous versions can be compared with the current state on attribute level. For previous versions created with release 3.3 or earlier, the responsible person and the issue notes are not available.
• Prefix of open issues - Analogous to requirement sets, the prefix which is to be used for new issues can now be defined for each issue set. However, if there are different prefixes defined in two projects, the issues can still be copied between the projects without the id being changed.

Many minor improvements

• Rotating texts in the graphical editor
• New wizard page for selecting plan types
• Filters for project names - In Dialogues in which projects on an ARCWAY Cockpit Server are to be selected, the displayed projects can be filtered by typing a part of the project name into a text filter
• Improved resolution for printing plans in Mac OS - The resolution for printing plans in ARCWAY Cockpit on MacOS computers is 300 dpi (previously 72 dpi), now.

Release 3.3

Improvements when working with multiple projects

• When copying a plan from one project to another, the linked unique elements are copied too
• When copying unique elements from one project to another, a dialog assists you in merging the unique element's attributes
• The details view for unique elements now also links to occurences of the unique element in other opened projects

Faster and more flexible reports

• In addition to *.doc and *.html formats it is now possible to create Word XML reports
• Word XML reports can be opened with Word 2003 and 2007 and are created up to 25 times faster than *.doc reports
• A new report template for specification documents can be customized more intuitively and flexible
• The size of images in a report can now be specified in format templates

Various detailed improvements

• The details view can now be printed
• Graphical representation of all types of relationships between unique elements
• Cockpit alway displays the overview perspective at start-up
• Improved performance when working with large project
• Export and Import of URL attributes to and from Excel
• Improved visualization of modifications in the project navigator

Release 3.2

Complete Evaluation of all graphic Model Element Relations

All graphically modelled relations between unique elements are now evaluated throughout the project and can be displayed in the details view or added to reports. Until now this has only been possible for containments.

Simplified Modelling of Business Processes

The handling of the editor for the Event-driven Process Chains (EPC) has been reworked completely and simplified. The creation of a new element and its connection to an existing element will occur in one step, in contrast to the previous version, in which this had to be mastered via templates in two separate steps.

Simplified Requirements Management Module

The number of properties for requirements has been reduced in order to maintain a higher level of clarity in the requirements management module. Missing properties can be added as custom properties. These will now be displayed on the first page of a forms editor without a special separator. Requirements from older Cockpit versions will be imported with all properties that have been set before.
Newly created requirement sets adopt the ID-prefix-settings of their parent set now.

Organizational Charts

The plan editor supports creating organizational charts now. The positions which are modelled in the organizational charts are contained in the Cockpit repository and can be linked with business and application landscapes.

Raster Graphics in Plans

The plan editor supports adding and displaying raster graphics of the formats GIF, JPEG, PNG, ICO und BMP in plans now.

Extended Functionality of the Main Menu

The main menu has been extended and contains a large amount of entries that, until now, have only been available in the context menus.

Presentation of Refinements in Plans

Unique Elements that are refined in other plans can now be found at first sight by an icon when viewing plans.

Table of Figures and References with page numbers in Word Reports

The report generation supports creating tables of figures for MS Word™ documents now. Furthermore references for project contents do now contain the page number for the page where the properties of a data can be found. This feature can help to create sorted tables of certain project contents with related page numbers. This feature can be deactivated in the preferences dialog.

Changing Custom Properties of several Unique Elements at once

With a new tool in the repository view it is possible to change a custom property for more than one unique element at a time. This simplifies the allocation of, for example, boolean values. Opening a dialog for each element individually can be omitted.

Release 3.1

Displaying Alternative Plan Element Names

It is possible to display plans in ARCWAY Cockpit with alternative labelings now. Custom properties will be used for this purpose. You can, for instance, use this features to display your plans in different languages. The feature can also be used for printing and report generation.

Offline Mode*

The Offline Mode enables working with projects in the Enterprise Edition even if no server connection is available. Thus you can present your projects at on-site services with customers and make work more flexible. Cockpit avoids inconsistencies and ensures that changes can be uploaded to the server afterwards.

Import from Aris*

You can import processes to ARCWAY Cockpit that have been created with Aris™. You can import both, single plans and whole directory trees. The directory hierarchy from Aris™ will be carried over to you Cockpit project. You will be able to select which directories, plans and plan elements will be imported and use them as a basis for created further plans, requirements and other information. Layout settings from Aris™ will be imported into Cockpit.

Extended Plan Export

Plans can now be exported with the whole directory hierarchy. Sections that have been created in your projects will be exported as directories in your file system. The file hierarchy will then match your project hierarchy. You will be able to select which plans and sections will be exportet. The plan export dialog has been enhanced.

Extended Plan Import

Event-driven process chains can now be import into your project from Aris™ or Excel. The plan import dialog has been enhanced.

Project History*

A change history can be requested for each project via the properties dialog. The history provides one entry for each upload of changes to the server. Each entry contains the version number, the date of change, the name of the user who commited the changes and the comment for the change.

Report Generation with WordML

Reports can now be created with WordML as well. For that purpose you will have to install an additional Feature using the update manager..

Enhanced Presentation in the Data Views

It can now be configured, which columns of the data view shall actually be displayed. The setting is stored between sessions per project. Also some optional columns to the data views of the modules have been added. E.g. each module's data view is now able to show the default attributes creator, cretion date, modifier and modification date. Additionally, further settings like the column widths, the sorting order and directions and the sorting mode are stored between sessions, now.

Release 3.0

Consolidated repository

The consolidated repository allows for reconciliation of business processes and business- and it-landscapes. The number of element type has been reduced to 3 base types to ensure the simple operability that is typical for ARCWAY Cockpit. The 3 new base types are Function, Information and State.
Those types are sufficient for modelling the relevant aspects of an it-project whilst using the different models and construction formats.
The limitation to 3 base types also leads to a reduction of redundant data. A clear and structured project repository and a reduced expense for documentation are the outcome.

Event-driven Process Chains

The editor now supports Event-driven Process Chains.

New Forms Editor

New forms editors are available for creating and editing project data from the requirements module and from the issue module. They replace the dialogs that have been used for this task until now. Multiple editors can be opened at a time and they do not block other ARCWAY Cockpit features when opened.

Graphs for Unique Elements, Requirements and Use Cases are contained in Reports

It is now possible to integrate unique element- requirement- oder use case-graphs into your reports.

Older Plans feature old Unique Element Names now

Using the history function in older versions of ARCWAY Cockpit forced the names of Unique Elements of old plans to be refreshed to the newest known state. From now on old plans will always show the names of the Unique Elements from the point of time of the latest modification of the plan.

Support for UpdateSite available

ARCWAY Cockpit now supports performing software updates via an Eclipse UpdateSite. You can use this UpdateSite for regular software updates. It is also possible to have ARCWAY Cockpit search for updates automatically.

Links between Use Cases and corresponding Requirements

Use cases can now be linked to their corresponding requirements. Those links can be created and deleted via the forms editor for requirements and viewed inside the details views for use cases and requirements.

Links between Issues and corresponding Project Data

Issues can now be linked to corresponding project data items (in addition to links between issues and plan elements). Those links can be created and deleted via the forms editors for requirements and issues. The links can be viewed within the forms editor and inside the details view of the corresponding project data items.

Excel-Export contains Custom Properties

The excel-export for requirements and issues contains custom properties now.

RIF Export contains empty Sets

From now on the complete requirement structure will be exported to RIF. Other than before the export also includes empty requirement sets.

Short Description Module has been removed

The short description module has been removed. Existing short descriptions can be converted to custom properties of Unique Elements. This has to be done before migrating the project to a new version of ARCWAY Cockpit