panagenda is proud to announce the release of this new version of ConnectionsExpert, the all-in-one solution for IBM Connections Analytics, Monitoring and accelerating Adoption.
This new version is a major release which includes a ton of new features, improvements and bug fixes big and small! The most notable ones are listed below.
Highlights
IBM Connections Widgets
Two widgets have been added to Connections to support community managers by giving insight into which communities are used and how they are used.
Community details inside the community itself
Overview of owned communities with usage in Profiles
Business Intelligence Enablement
ConnectionsExpert now provides access to its extensive data warehouse through industry standard API's by using panagenda's DataMiner solution. This interface allows tools like Excel as well as business intelligence solutions such as Tableau or Power BI not only read the data, but integrate them on a continuous basis.
Database schema viewer in DataMiner
Alerting and Notifications
This new capabilities comes with a broad range of potential use cases for administrators, community managers and even end users. From an operational perspective, it enables administrators to stay on top of Connections performance and service availability. From a maintenance point of view, it enables them to be informed proactively about potential issues with file library disk utilization, orphaned communities, etc.
For community managers it can be utilized to e.g. notify if a community has not shown activity in a certain period of time, or if the current owner is the last remaining owner, in order to avoid orphaned communities.
IBM's Node-RED as the framework to allow creation of custom alerts and notifications
New Features / Improvements
Application usage: existing charts have been reworked and new content has been added to help get a clearer insight into the topic
Community details: the doughnut chart now displays content depending on the selected time frame in the line graph
Community details: information about the deletion state of the community has been added
Data collectors: several performance improvements have been made to support retrieval of large amounts of data from Connections
Data collectors: it is now possible to import historical activity events for a longer period of time and in a more granular fashion
General: existing tables/grids have been replaced with a new component that offers vastly improved functionality and usability
User profiles: added last login and last contribution date
User profiles: profile extension fields are now being collected. These fields are currently only available via DataMiner
User profiles: information about a user profile pictures is now available. If present, the date of the last change is provided
User profiles: information about network contacts is now available. Details on whom a user is connected to are currently only available via DataMiner
Bug Fixes
Browser compatibility: A number of minor issues have been fixed in IE and Safari
Community activity: An issue has been fixed where the search box would expand to a size that made it impossible to close
File Libraries: Styles have been updated on the tree map page so text is now readable much better at lower resolutions
Operational dashboard: An issue has been corrected where DataSource status would show green in rare situations while there we multiple issues
Structural Changes / Upgrade Path
With this new version, ConnectionsExpert has undergone a number of significant changes in the infrastructure behind the solution:
- Moving to a Docker-based setup which allows more flexibility and aligns better with IBM's own structure
- In preparation for the upcoming changes around Connections Metrics, activity collection has been re-worked
- Installation packages are no longer delivered via DEBZ packages. Standalone installers will be provided for future updates
- An additional layer was introduced in the data warehouse that allows the BI integration listed under Highlights
In combination, these changes result in a severe restriction in regards to upgrading from an existing ConnectionsExpert v1.x installation to v2.x.
The suggested upgrade path is starting with a fresh installation of CE 2.0 and recollecting all events from Connections. This procedure should largely replace the need for porting data from existing CE installations. Please contact panagenda support for more details and further options.
Knowledge Base
We are proud to introduce the ConnectionsExpert knowledge base! In it you will find documentation, technical articles, release notes and downloads around the solution.
Basic Edition Discontinued
The Basic edition of ConnectionsExpert has been discontinued with this release. For all existing users of this feature, it is still possible to continue using it as long as they run an v1.x appliance.
Of course, panagenda continues to offer a trial of ConnectionsExpert! The import of historical data leads to immediate results that will help you to get started even faster.
Visit our site to start your evaluation right now!