This month brings several new features to the item canvas. Following last month's style change, we've also improved the legibility of several areas in Asset Classic, including the Workflow Editor, Data Explorer and generated report documents.

The update took place during the evening of the 27th of November. For a full list of changes, see v3.1 in the Changelog.

New clone item process 🧬

To create a copy of an item, you can clone it. This provides a quick way to create multiple items with similar data.

When viewing an item in the Asset Management Apps, select the Clone item button in its header to open a new stepped process. This lets you override any aspect of the new item, including its properties, attribute values and geographical location. You can also choose whether linked items are ignored, kept or cloned as well!

New item canvas sections 🗂️

When viewing an item in the Asset Management Apps, its data and relationships are displayed on the item canvas. Each section of the canvas displays different information about the current item.

Two new canvas sections are now available for specific item types. They are displayed by default for relevant items and can be added to any custom canvas views you create for those items.

Applies to

The new Applies to section is available on items of designs that implement the Work Items interface.

A work item defines a discrete unit of work that can be quantified and costed, e.g. a duration of billable work time. By adding a work item to a job, you can create a corresponding job work item containing job-specific values, e.g. 5 hours. This makes it possible to formalise job requirements.

To be useful, a work item must apply to one or more job designs/interfaces. This ensures that only suitable work items can be added to a job, e.g. work items specific to waste collection jobs can't be added to tree pruning jobs.

When viewing a work item's details, you can now use the Applies to section to manage the designs and interfaces that the work item is applicable to.

Permits

The new Permits section is available on items of job designs that implement the Street Manager Works Reference Assignable interface. In other words, jobs affecting streets or roads that require permission to be granted before work can begin.

Our optional Street Works module provides integration with the government's Street Manager service. It enables CausewayOne Asset Management to apply for work permits on your behalf.

When viewing a job's details, you can now use the Permits section to check the job's permit status. If a permit has been applied for, you can view its details and log work start/stop events. The ability to apply directly for permits is coming soon. In the meantime, you can do this via the Street Manager website and link the job to the new Works Reference.

Item canvas templates 📐

You can create custom item canvas views for any design/interface. This defines the order and visibility of the data sections displayed for relevant items. Users can then switch between available views according to their preference.

Make a template

A canvas view can now be converted into a reusable template that new canvas views can be created from. This makes it easy to reuse established layouts and produce canvas views for related designs/interfaces.

For example, you could create a canvas view template for general defects. You could then use it to create similar canvas views tailored towards specific defect designs.

When editing a canvas view in the Designer app, select the 3-dot button and choose Make template.

Create from template

To create a canvas view from a template, open the Designer app, select Create item canvas and choose From template.

Manage templates

When a canvas view is converted to a template, it is moved to the Template item collection. By default, only items of the Live collection are shown in day-to-day operations.

To manage your template items, use the Advanced search panel of the Search window to filter results by collection.