We first released ControlCenter in 2015, and since then we have helped several businesses manage and maintain their controlled documents and made numerous improvements to the product to further expand and enhance its capabilities. Earlier this year, we released version 2.0 of ControlCenter which includes several more enhancements, many of which came as direct requests from our existing customers. In this blog post, I will highlight a handful of these new features implemented in the 2.0 release.
Dashboard Personalization
The dashboard is the first thing you see when you enter ControlCenter, so we gave users more control over what they can see and do here. Every user of ControlCenter can now personalize their dashboard by re-arranging and hiding widgets as well as creating new ones based on saved searches, subscriptions, or individual items. Users and administrators can also create any number of text/HTML widgets. This new feature enables users to have quick access to the content that is most important to them, while still allowing admins to create system-wide lists and announcements that can’t be hidden. In addition, certain widgets have actions available with one click, such as going to the review page for a document in workflow or checking in an item you checked out.
Search Enhancements
Search is another aspect of ControlCenter we focused on in version 2.0. Our first improvement: adding search filters. Filters are supported with both Oracle Full Text search and Mindbreeze Inspire, and they work how you would expect – filter your search based on configured metadata to see only results that match the chosen filters. We also added the “search within” box – previously only available through the Browse Menu – to all searches. What’s more, if you have Fishbowl’s WebCenter Content Connector for Mindbreeze InSpire, all searches performed within ControlCenter will leverage Mindbreeze InSpire for improved search relevancy. These enhancements to ControlCenter’s search capabilities will make it even easier for you to find the documents you’re looking for.
Threaded Discussions
A common request we received for ControlCenter was a streamlined way to discuss specific content items. We were able to leverage ThreadedDiscussions (an optional component included with WebCenter Content) to create a more modern discussion interface within ControlCenter. Whereas the built-in discussion interface resembles an online forum, ControlCenter’s discussions are presented like a chat window, complete with real-time updating and indicators for unread posts. The discussion window is shown from the document information and review pages, making it easy to have quick discussions about a document directly within ControlCenter.
Popular and Recent Documents
Speaking of built-in WebCenter Content components, we’ve leveraged Oracle’s ContentTracker component to create two new document views: ‘Popular Documents’ and ‘My Recent Documents’. As the names suggest, these views show documents popular among all ControlCenter users and documents that you have interacted with most recently. These views are also shown on the dashboard, making it easy to get back to documents you’ve looked at recently or items that are viewed frequently.
…And More!
There are many more enhancements I haven’t mentioned yet, such as…
- Actions displayed on the document information page can be re-ordered
- Subscribe to groups of documents based on document metadata
- Targeted quick searches allow for quick metadata searches
- The height of document table rows can be customized
- Administrators can use the full metadata form when checking in or updating content
- Overall performance of ControlCenter has been improved
…as well as several more bugfixes and small improvements to the overall user experience.
If you’re interested in learning more about ControlCenter, email us at info@fishbowlsolutions.com or call us at 1-952-465-3400.
0 Comments