2019 R3 Release Notes

The Eclipse PPM team will be releasing 2019R3 on July 6th. The focus of this release is to address feedback from users as they make the final transition to the current version of Eclipse PPM, with v5 being decommissioned. This release will focus on Customer Driven Enhancements that tie the user experience closer to the previous generation, ease in the use of current functionality and improve upon performance in some grids that are impacted by heavy data calls.

Customer Driven Enhancements

Through the Upland Enhancement Request process and ongoing dialogue with users, the Eclipse PPM product team has delivered 45+ enhancements for this release.

Reference	Description	Notes
ECL-390	Home - My Work - Add filters to the panels (page level in addition to inclusion/exclusion rules)	On the Home Page, we have added a panel filter for the "Projects" and "Tasks" lists. Users can now decide if they want to see regular items, operational items, or both. Benefit: Many customers have expressed concerns that their home page lists (specifically for "Projects" and "Tasks") were too large because they included operational items. Those items are important but typically large and not dealt with on a daily basis. By allowing the user to filter their items to exclude operational items, they can reduce the "information overload" present on these screens.
ECL-1018	Resource Management / Timesheet - Allow users to open projects directly	We have added the ability for a user to navigate directly to a project from the Resource Management Tool and the Timesheet Tool by clicking the context menu action called "Open In New Tab". Benefit: This allows customers a simple way to dive deeper into a project without losing the context of the Resource Management Tool or Timesheet Tool.
ECL-1977	UI - Improve user experience when re-ordering items by implementing drag-n-drop	We have added drag-n-drop re-ordering to several areas of the application including: project properties, program properties, property picklist definitions, and project financial indicators. Benefit: The use of drag-n-drop to manage the order of a list is vastly superior to individual buttons, especially when managing lists larger than a handful of items.
ECL-3120	Hierarchical Views - Remember expand/collapse settings as a user preference	We have added two new options to our expand/collapse controls that will be saved as user preferences. Benefit: This new set of preferences allows a user to have a preferred state, while still allowing them the ability to expand/collapse on an adhoc basis.
ECL-3193	Project - Documents - Allow drag and drop to move documents between folders	We have implemented drag-n-drop on our project documents page, allowing users to re-organize SharePoint documents and Google Drive documents. Benefit: This gives a significantly improved experience over the older method which required users to copy + paste + delete original in order to move a file to a different folder.
ECL-4089	Timesheet - Can we toast the user if they enter data in the future?	We have now added a small popup that will alert a user when they are entering actual time in the future. This popup allows them to accept that and move on (perhaps they are entering vacation time for a future week) or cancel the update and move to a previous week (which is likely what they were intending to do). Benefit: Our tracking shows that customers are evenly split about how they enter actual time. Some enter time as it occurs throughout the week, while others enter it in bulk on the first day of the next week. If they are not carefully watching the selected dates, it's common for them to enter time in the future. This new feature will alert them if that occurs before they've entered an entire week of data that needs to be fixed.
ECL-5565	Home - Allow more configurability of the "My Work" lists on the Home Page	Users have more control over how their "My Work" lists are populated. They can choose exactly what criteria are applied and how items are included /excluded. Benefit: The increased configuration allows users to be more granular in what items appear on their home page. For example, if you don't want to see approvals you submitted, you can turn them off.
ECL-6291	Comments - Add accelerators to select mentions (like we've done other places to pick from hardcoded special searches)	When making a comment, users now have the ability to use filters and other special selectors for mentioning people. Benefit: Instead of having to recall a specific role, or type a long list or names, a user can select a filter to mention people like "Project Owner" or "Approval Submitter" or "IT Engineers".
ECL-6452	Home Page - Allow user to remove specific recent items	Users now have the ability to groom their recent item lists by removing specific items. Benefit: Our usage statistics show that most users will commonly visit recent items several times over a period, and then it will naturally tail off and be replaced by other items. Sometimes during that period you may visit an item once which adds it to your list and potentially bumps off other items. Giving users the option of grooming their list will give them more valuable recent items.
ECL-6584	Comments - Check the "notify via email..." option in comments by default (if there are mentions)	When creating a comment, we allow a user to mention people to ensure they see the comment. We have improved that feature such that the "Notify the mentioned users by email" is automatically checked when a mention is made. Benefit: Several customers requested this minor change because they were forgetting to check the box while mentioning people on comments.
ECL-6826	Dashboard - Portfolio Summary Panel - Add four new columns	In the Portfolio Summary panel of our dashboards, we have added four new data points: - Total Issues - shows the total number of issues linked to the project - Open Issues - shows the total number of open issues linked to the project - Total Risks - shows the total number of risks linked to the project - Open Risks - shows the total number of open risks linked to the project Benefit: While some of this data was already available in the snapshot, having it as part of the grid gives executives a quick view of risk and issues on a project without having to navigate away.
ECL-7101	UI - Add "Select All" to the typeahead multi select property selection control	We have improved our type-ahead controls by adding a "Select All" button that allows the user to pick all items from a static list with one click. Benefit: Let's say a user was building a filter to include 8 of 10 project types. They can save time by clicking "Select All" and then removing 2, instead of selecting 8 individually.
ECL-7107	Project Financials - Finder in financials page	We have added a find control to the Financial Plan Tool that allows the user to locate specific rows within the Financial Plan. Benefit: When editing large plans, it can be difficult to locate specific items. The finder control allows the user to search for specific text like an expenditure number or budget item name.
ECL-7195	UI - Browser Tabs - Add object name to the browser tabs	The new version of Eclipse allows the user to open multiple browser tabs for different items. Prior to this change, the browser tab was labelled "Eclipse PPM". After this change, the browser tab will list the name of the page the user is visiting. Benefit: Users will be able to re-locate a specific tab much faster, instead of having to click through multiple tabs searching for the correct one.
ECL-7207	Email Notifications - "Notify me when "[All My Reports]"have not made any time entries during the previous period"	Description: We have added another new notification that will alert a manager when any of their reports (children or lower descendants) are delinquent with time entries. Benefit: In the 2019R1 release, we added the "My Direct Reports" notification. Managers loved it, but quickly asked for an enhancement allowing them to see further down the organization tree.
ECL-7228	Project - Details - Adjust layout of details page into two columns...	Several fields on the project details page (Identification, Classification, Properties) have been re-organized. Benefit: We have heard feedback that the fields were too large and 'hidden" off the screen on lower resolutions. We have slightly adjust the layout of this page in attempt to get as many fields onto the page as possible without scrolling.
ECL-7350	Adhoc Reports - Allow user to copy existing report (from reports page)	We have added a "Copy" function to the reports page for adhoc reports. Benefit: When building a new report, it is sometimes easier to start with an existing report and make minor adjustments. The copy function allows a user to do just that.
ECL-7417	Notes - Redirect hyperlink from Notes search to project notes page	When clicking the note hyperlink on a notes filter results page, the user will now be redirected to the project notes page, instead of the project home page. Benefit: Users who want to view notes on a specific project can now do so with one less click.
ECL-7602	Resource Management - Provide an extract report for the resource management screen like we had from V5.	Description: When working with the Resource Management Tool, users can now extract the data as they see it on screen into a Microsoft Excel Workbook. The workbook will contain two worksheets, one for the "Effort" data, and one for the "Availability" data. Benefit: User are now able to extract and review effort / availability data inside a spreadsheet where they can leverage the full power of Microsoft Excel.
ECL-7688	Administration - Users - Allow bulk editing for user status	Administrators now have the ability to bulk update the status of a set of users. Benefit: The last thing an administrator wants is to spend time making trivial changes in the application. The new bulk update feature on the users page allows them to accomplish those trivial tasks quickly and get onto more important work.
ECL-8069	Project - Append "Resource Plan Tool" and "Work Plan Tool" to default home pages for projects	We have updated the list of project start pages to include "Resource Plan Tool" and "Work Plan Tool". Benefit: Users wanting to consistently visit those areas of a project can now do so with one less click.
ECL-8322	Canned Reports - Pre-populate resource/resourcetype pickers from project data context when running Resource Extract or Project Schedule Sheet report	When running the "Resource Extract" or "Project Schedule Sheet" report from the context of a project, we are now pre-populating the "Resource" and "Resource Type" pickers like we did previously using the data from said project. Benefit: Users will have one or two less steps when running these reports for a specific project.
ECL-8360	Approvals - Timesheet - Approval buttons in popups	Two small fixes were applied to the timesheet approvals popup when impersonating an approver. - The resolution (Approve / Reject) buttons were (incorrectly) hidden. They are now visible. - The "Approve All" button was hidden if there was only a single approval to be approved.
ECL-8400	Timesheet - Add a user preference to track the "Project/Task" column width	We have added a new user preference to the Timesheet to track the preferred width of the "Project / Task" column whenever it's adjusted. Benefit: Users will be more efficient instead of continually resizing the column width.
ECL-8452	Resource Management - Revisit the "your data set is large" prompt	In our last release, we implemented a quick fix to allow users to recover from poorly set preferences. Some of our users were pulling massive datasets into the Resource Management Tool using poorly performing browsers. We can retrieve the data quickly, but rendering the data causes the browser to timeout. To that end, we added the "large data" prompt allowing them to break the cycle before their browser crashes. The feedback we heard was that it was too obtrusive and users had to click the popup repeatedly. We have adjusted the conditions so that the popup only appears once per tool session. If a users get into a crash cycle loop, they can close the tool and will be re-prompted the next time they open it. Benefit: The user can still get into a crash cycle loop, but now has the ability to recover independently without having to contact our support team for help.
ECL-8576	Project Home Page - Add snapshot style panel to project home page	We have added a "Snapshot" panel to the Project Home Page allowing a user (that has the appropriate permissions) to see key project information like Schedule and Baseline Dates, Percent Complete, Open Risks and Issues, Effort data, and Financial data. Benefit: Users will be more efficient instead of having to navigate away to one or more other screens to get the same information.
ECL-8612	Dashboards - Add a record count to any of the list panels	We have given users a new configuration option on the dashboard list panels allowing them to see a record count. When turned on, the user will see a small piece of text appended to the panel title showing the number of items in the subsequent grid. Benefit: In some scenarios, it's helpful to have the count of items in a datagrid.
ECL-223	Project Filters / Project Adhocs - Cleanup filters by custom project properties	We have improved the filter conditions available when filtering on project properties. Each property type can now be filtered using these additional clauses: - Is Set - will return any project where the property is configured and the value is not empty. - Is Tracked - will return any project where the property is configured (regardless of whether it has a value on the project). - Is Not Tracked - will return any project where the property is not configured. Benefit: These extra clauses allow users to build more powerful searches, for example, "Show me all projects where I forgot to track a specific property".
ECL-5818	Filters - Highlight inactive resources in typeahead results	When picking a resource using out typeahead controls, we have adjusted the appearance slightly to include an indicator if the resource is "Inactive". Typically, you would avoid inactive resources, but there are scenarios where it makes sense to see them (for example planning a future project with a resource that is marked inactive due to maternity leave). Benefit: Having a visual indicator of the resource status allows the project manager to choose valid resources for project work.
ECL-7275	Filters - Fake support for "in" instead of forcing user to have many rules - dropdown	We have made a small adjustment to the filters screen that will group "OR" rules into one line. Let's say you were building search to return risks where the priority was "Low" or "Medium". Prior to this fix, you would build a filter with two rules separated by an OR: _Risk.Priority = Low_ _OR_ _Risk.Priority = Medium_ After this change is applied, you can build this same filter with one rule: _Risk.Priority IN (Low, Medium)_ Benefit: The example above is a trivial one, but you can quickly see how the readability and maintainability of the filter is increased while still achieving utmost flexibility.
ECL-7632	Filters - Do not strip groups from searches	We leverage a new technology called OData for defining filter rules. The parsing engine that we use is smart enough to detect when groupings are logically meaningless and optimize the result.All of the below logical expressions are logically equivalent: _A & B & C & D_ _(A & B) & (C & D)_ _A & (B & C & D)_ _(A) & B & (C & D)_ When we detect this situation, we have added a new alert to warn the user of the optimization. Benefit: As a result of the intelligent parsing, it's possible that a user saves a filter one way and sees a slightly altered view after optimization. The filter results are guaranteed to be remain the same. This is sometimes disconcerting so the alert should help the user and alleviate any confusion.
ECL-7758	Filter Builder - Investigate if we can maintain the users order on filter rules	The rules of a logical expression can be presented many different ways and still achieve the same result. For example the following statements are logically equivalent: _A & B & C_ _A & C & B_ _B & C & A_ _C & B & A_ Prior to this fix, there was no guarantee that filter rules were saved in the order they were defined. We have made some adjustments to ensure the order is preserved as much as possible, though not always (see ECL-7632 about group optimizations). Benefit: A user who defines their filter a specific way will no longer scratch their head when they see rules in a different order.
ECL-1020	Filters - Improve user preferences for selection/order/width/sorting in filter results	We have enhanced the user preferences that are stored for each of the six filter grids (Projects, Risks, Issues, Tasks, Notes, Resources). After this change is applied, a user will be able to define (one set of preferences per filter type): - The columns they want to see - The order of the selected columns - The width of each selected column (including "Auto" to stretch the column across the remaining space) - The sorting used for the data rows All of these preferences can be managed from the preferences popup, or by interacting with the results grid itself. For example, a user can change the column order simply by dragging a column header across the grid. Benefit: Prior to this fix, some of this data was preferenced but not all. Users were confused about having to continually re-adjust their screen to taste.
ECL-4140	Dashboard - Cleanup panel definitions and user preferences across all list panels	We have enhanced the dashboard list panels (Portfolio Summary Panel, Project List Panel, Risk List Panel, Issue List Panel, Task List Panel) to allow the following behaviors: - Grouping -- For a user with edit permissions, they can define the grouping inside the configuration popup, or on-the-fly using the new grouping control above the grid. Any changes made by this user will be saved as the new panel definition. -- For a user without edit permissions, they can only define "adhoc" grouping on-the-fly using the new grouping control above the grid. Any changes made by this user are adhoc, and are not stored. The panel will revert to the saved settings the next time the dashboard is loaded. - Column Order -- For a user with edit permissions, they can define the column order inside the configuration popup, or on-the-fly by dragging the column headers to a new location. Any changes made by this user will be saved as the new panel definition. -- For a user without edit permissions, they can only define "adhoc" column orders on-the-fly by dragging the column headers to a new location. Any changes made by this user are adhoc, and are not stored. The panel will revert to the saved settings the next time the dashboard is loaded. - Sorting -- For a user with edit permissions, they can define the grid sorting inside the configuration popup, or on-the-fly by clicking the column headers. Any changes made by this user will be saved as the new panel definition. -- For a user without edit permissions, they can only define "adhoc" sorting on-the-fly by clickgin the column headers.Any changes made by this user are adhoc, and are not stored. The panel will revert to the saved settings the next time the dashboard is loaded. - Column Widths -- For a user with edit permissions, they can define the width of a selected column inside the configuration popup, or on-the-fly by resizing the column header. Any changes made by this user will be saved as the new panel definition. -- For a user without edit permissions, they can define the width of a selected column that will be stored as their preference. Whenever the dashboard is loaded, it will overwrite the panel definition with their preferred widths. Benefit: Prior to this fix, the panel definitions and user preferences were inconsistently applied, and the most important one (column widths) had to be reset every visit to the page. After this is applied, users will have adhoc control over the lists and some preferenced values.
ECL-6748	Filters - Tasks - Add "Resources" column to two grids (task filter, dashboard task list)	We have added a new "Resources" column to the task filter results page and the dashboard task lists. The column will show a comma separated list of the resources (both named and generic) assigned to the task. Benefit: Managers will appreciate not having to navigate elsewhere to see resources assigned to specific tasks.
ECL-7759	Reports - Remember the user's sort preference on adhoc list page	We have added a new user preference on the reports screen. The sorting option for the adhoc reports grid will be stored per user. Benefit: Instead of continually re-sorting the adhoc list, the user can set their preference once and forget it.
ECL-8428	Dashboards - PSD Panel - Investigate possibility of grouping by a column and not showing the column in the datagrid	In the dashboard list panels (Portfolio Summary Panel, Project List Panel, Task List Panel, Risk List Panel, Issue List Panel) we have given a user the ability to show/hide the data in a grouped column by setting the "Hide data in grouped columns" option. Benefit: This small adjustment allows the user to visually distinguish the data groups without scanning through repeated rows of text.
ECL-7903	Work Plan Tool - "Performance Issues" investigation/POC	Some small technical changes have been applied to the Work Plan Tool to improve performance (keeping the schedule engine loaded in memory, conditional rendering of Gantt, object caching). Benefit: Users should notice slightly improved performance when editing a work plan in the Work Plan Tool.
ECL-7904	Homepage - History panel performance	The algorithm used to retrieve data for the "Activity Feed" panel on the home page has been adjusted. Prior to this fix, the panel would return the top N (based on user preference) significant historical events. This required us to query the entire revisions database to build the list of events and then to select the top N events. The algorithm has been changed such that we limit the scope of revisions to the last three months. This significantly improved the database response time. Be aware that if all changes are older than three months (a very unlikely scenario) the user would see a message indicating there was no activity. Benefit: Users should notice a performance improvement in the response time of the panel.
ECL-7905	Homepage - Comments performance	The algorithm used to retrieve data for the "Comments" panel on the home page has been adjusted. Prior to this fix, the panel would return the top N (based on user preference) recent comments. This required us to query the entire comments database to build the list of comments and then to select the top N comments. The algorithm has been changed such that we limit the scope of comments to those in the last three months. This significantly improved the database response time. Be aware that if all comments are older than three months (a very unlikely scenario) the user would see a message indicating there was no activity. Benefit: Users should notice a performance improvement in the response time of the panel.
ECL-8159	Home - Activity Feed additional performance improvements	A small change was made to the search procedure used to populate the "Activity Feed" panel on the home page. Prior to this fix, the system would execute a bulky stored procedure to grab the list of items that a user followed in order to populate the panel with activity for those items. The fix that we have applied is to use a more optimized procedure for retrieving the followed items resulting in a decreased response time. Benefit: Users should notice a performance improvement in the response time of the panel.
ECL-6203	Work Plan Tool - Auto-Map generic resources (investigation)	We have adjusted the resource mapping feature (used when importing Microsoft Project XML files) to suggest matches on generic resources. Prior to this fix, only named resources were suggested. Benefit: Users that import Microsoft Project XML files with generic resources, will see improved efficiency assuming their generic resource names match a generic resource in Eclipse.
ECL-7588	Work Plan Tool - Advanced Substitute / Find Matches - What effort are we replacing?	We have added a column called "Prospective Effort" to the substitution popups that will show the effort that is to be replaced. Benefit: This helps to complete the picture that the substitution popup is trying to tell. The histogram is optional and prior to this fix, the data was only available as colored bar in the histogram.
ECL-6617	UI - Add an "About Eclipse" menu option that shows a popup similar to other products	We have added an "About Eclipse" popup that allows the user to see the product version number. Benefit: Over the last several years, we have gone through several different product versioning strategies and confused our users about our version numbers. This should help alleviate any confusion.
ECL-6977	Programs (2019R3)	We decided to re-focus the bulk of our 2019R3 development hours on customer enhancements to ensure a smooth transition to our post-Silverlight era. The programs feature is still a priority for us but received little attention during this release. Astute users will notice some small changes that will help them navigate to programs faster: - Recent Items - programs are now stored as part of a user's recent items list allowing quicker navigation to commonly visited items. - Following - programs are now eligible for following which will allow them (eventually) to be used to populate the activity feed and comments panels on the home page. Benefit: Users will be able to navigate to programs by recent items / followed items without having to search for them.
ECL-7699	Home - Add signal notification to update "Approval State" on approvals list.	Prior to this change, an approval that was resolved from the home page was not updated without a manual refresh. Benefit: The user that resolves the approval will see an immediate update of the data in their work list.
ECL-7856	Resources - Adjust "Program Resources" and "Project Resources" table view to look more like register style grids	We heard great feedback on the new "Risk Register" grid that was implemented in the 2019R2 release. Customers asked to apply the same visual style to the Program Resources and Project Resources grid. Benefit: By using a consistent theme across several pages in the application, users feel more comfortable on pages they don't frequently access and we improve our code quality which results in decreased bugs.