This month, we've added attributes to the Jobs interface, drag-and-drop item attachments to the Alloy Apps and a new button to the Maps app. The update took place during the evening of the 31st of July. For a full list of changes, see v2.74 in the Alloy Changelog.

Upload attachments in the Alloy Apps 📎

You can upload files to Alloy and attach them to items for easy reference. Photos are great for recording an asset's condition, especially when reporting a defect or documenting completed work. It can also be useful to store documents containing instructions, procedures or diagrams related to an item.

When viewing an item in the Alloy Apps, you can now upload a file attachment directly to the item. Simply drag the file over the item's canvas and release it over the Upload file zone that appears. Alternatively, open the top-right Item Menu and select Attach.

The uploaded file will appear in the item's Gallery section, where you can preview images and manage the item's attachments.

Create items in the Maps app 🗺️

The Maps app lets you view the location and geometry of your items, superimposed over basemap imagery. You can browse the items within a particular area, measure distances and select items to view their details in an unobtrusive side panel.

We've added a handy Create item button to the bottom-left corner, enabling you to create new items of any design (regardless of which layers are enabled), without having to open another Alloy app. A small but valuable addition!

Display URLs in item forms 🌐

When configuring the properties of a Text attribute, you can tag it as a Url. If you add a Text input control for the attribute on an item form, it will now display a globe button when viewing/editing a relevant item in the Alloy Apps. This opens the URL in a new browser tab.

We've also added a new Text URL Label control, which lets you include a URL on an item form without having to add an attribute to the relevant design/interface.

Job Budgets and Total Costs 💰

We've made a couple of changes to the Jobs interface:

• Two new attributes named Total Estimated Cost and Total Actual Cost. They display the sum of the Estimated Cost and Actual Cost attributes on all job work items belonging to the job. The totals are automatically computed whenever a job work item is added, edited or removed. They aren't shown when creating/editing a job, or when the job has no job work items.
  
  
• A new Budget attribute. When set or unset, it will overwrite the Budget attribute on all job work items belonging to the job. The Estimated Cost or Actual Cost of each job work item is then deducted from the value of the relevant budget period (if defined), based on the job's most relevant Date Time attribute, e.g. Raised Time.
  
  While it's still possible to set the Budget attribute separately on individual job work items, bear in mind that they can be overwritten if the budget is set for the whole job.

These changes will affect all new job items going forward. Your existing job items will be unaffected until they're next edited. We don't expect any negative side effects but as always, contact Support if you experience any issues.

Populate standard path placeholders ➡️ ↘️ ↗️ 

Designs and interfaces can have standard paths, which are shortcuts to attributes on connected designs/interfaces (reachable via the Pathfinder).

On interfaces only, it's possible for a standard path to have no path! This is an abstract standard path. It serves as a placeholder shortcut that only describes the type and design/interface of the target attribute.

If designs implement the interface, they must override the abstract standard path with a real path, which can be different on each design. If other interfaces implement the interface, the override is optional. This provides a single point of reference that workflows, reports and other Alloy features can use to target an attribute connected to multiple designs/interfaces, even if the path from each one is different!

In the Designer app, when adding an interface with abstract placeholders to a design, you will now be prompted to set a path for each one to continue. If using Alloy Classic, the operation will fail with a descriptive error message.