Innovation and continuous improvement underpin our team's approach to software development.
And whilst we are busy working on new features and enhancements for the next major version, we are of course committed to making each version robust and compatible with all the latest releases of software that DriveWorks interacts with.
This release does include some Enhancements, in particular please read about Specification Macro Consistency.
With the introduction of Specification Macro Consistency Projects opened and saved in DriveWorks 21 SP1 will not open in DriveWorks 21 SP0.
We recommend using the Data Management Pack And Go tool to backup your DriveWorks Data before upgrading.
DriveWorks 21 SP1 fully supports SOLIDWORKS 2024 in addition to 2023, 2022 and 2021.
The Web Theme is available in DriveWorks 21 SP1.
This is fully compatible with the Forms technology implemented in DriveWorks 21 SP0.
Implementations, upgraded to DriveWorks 21 SP1, may see slight visual and style changes as well as enhancements inherited from adopting this technology.
Please see Web-Based Form Technology for more information.
Please see Info: Web Theme And Application Theme For DriveWorks 21 for more information.
Please also review the following information (from DriveWorks 21 SP0) which is still relevant for this release.
This presents an essential upgrade to the technology used to display User Forms.
Previous versions used separate technologies to design on desktop and then emulate for the internet. This led to slight discrepancies between the two formats.
DriveWorks 21 introduces a unified web-based Form technology that ensures the behavior and appearance between desktop and web applications is consistent.
Existing projects, upgraded to DriveWorks 21, may see slight visual and style changes as well as enhancements inherited from adopting this technology.
Please see Web-Based Form Technology for more information.
Lookup Functions support a more logical Nearest Match approach when searching for strings.
When the MatchType parameter is set to TRUE, the closest matching string will be judged by matching the characters at the start of the string and finding the closest next letter.
This allows searching for full or partial text strings in a table.
For example, the table to search in has the following column:
Letters are bold to indicate the found letters from the example below the table.
| PartNumber | ProductLine | MarketingFile |
|---|---|---|
| DWT | DriveWorks Trailer | 001254119.pdf |
| DWSPKL | DriveWorks Service Partner Kit - Large | 001287625.pdf |
| DWSPKS | DriveWorks Service Partner Kit - Small | 001341254.pdf |
| DWSRLT30-M09 | DriveWorks Serial Number (30 Char) - Main Series 9 | 001249824.pdf |
The Lookup function is searching for DWSPKR17-WH9 (which does not exist in the table column).
When Nearest Match searching is turned on (MatchType parameter is set to TRUE), the lookup will match the string starting from the start of the string, and find DWSPKS in the table.
This is because the DWSPK characters match, and the closest match to R is the S (and not the L in the DWSPKL string on the row above).
This applies to the following Lookup Functions:
A full explanation of how Matches and Nearest Matches are calculated for Numeric, Date and String values is given in each topic.
SVG and WebP images are now supported while image types with the extension .tif and .tiff (no reliable browser support for these image types) are no longer supported in the following areas:
The length of time that a specification is allowed to remain inactive before it is timed out (closed) can be set in the Integration Theme.
When the Start Specification Timer Task is used, on a running Specification in the Integration Theme, and the specificationTimeout is triggered before the timer has finished, the Task will be cancelled.
Previously the specificationTimeout would wait for the Timer to finish before cancelling the Specification.
Updates to Form elements will occur during macro execution.
Previously a Form was only updated once the macro had finished.
In most cases, for macros with a quick execution time, there will be no noticeable difference.
But for longer running macros, for example macros that run SQL queries feeding data back into a Data Table, the update will occur at regular intervals during the execution.
The loading overlay, that prevented any interaction during the updating of a Form, has been removed in DriveWorks Live.
This eliminates additional and unnecessary resource overhead and provides a much better and consistent user experience.
From customer feedback we found the situations that caused the overlay to load could be handled effectively using standard Form Design functionality.
Please also review the following information which is still relevant for this release.
DriveWorks v20 SP2 onwards supports provisioning DriveApps on an Azure database.
However, we have found that by default, Azure may select a database that is over-provisioned and expensive to run.
We recommend therefore, that you review the costs of the vCore purchasing model and select the model that matches your requirements.
We recommend switching this to the DTU based purchasing model. Typically 10 DTU's is well suitable for most scenarios.
For customers using the DriveWorks Integration Theme, DriveWorks has released official WordPress plugins to quickly embed DriveWorks Forms into WordPress sites.
These plugins support DriveWorks 17 onwards, where the Integration Theme was first introduced.
See the official DriveWorks WordPress Plugins site for more information.
DriveApps created in earlier versions of DriveWorks will require upgrading to run in DriveWorks 20.
This will need to be done in the DriveApp Administration task, on each tile.
The database for each DriveApp will also require upgrading, see Upgraded DriveApps for more information.
There is a known issue when using this feature. Please see Info: Known Issues for more information.
DriveWorks 19 replaced the use of SQL Compact with SQLite as its underlying database for Individual Groups and exported reports.
Individual Groups created in previous version are automatically backed up when converted.
See DriveWorks Group Upgrades for extension and location information.
From DriveWorks 20 existing Data Grid controls will not be supported on any DriveWorks module or web browser.
Please implement the Data Table control to replace any Data Grid control currently in use.