Templates – a new distribution feature
Thursday, April 15th, 2010, by Michael BanzonWrite to the author
It is now possible to save setups as templates in ABC Analyzer.
So what is a template? Basically, it ‘s an ABC project without the data.
Why use templates? Let’s say you’ve loaded data, made filters, formulas and categorizations, and you want to share the setup with a colleague. You can’t send an ABC project – either it is too large because of the amount of data, or your organization’s IT policy won’t allow you to send data via e-mail. If this is the case, templates will be hugely helpful to you.
Furthermore, you may want to make sure your colleagues are using the latest data from your ERP system. Since the template (in contrast to the ABC project) does not contain data, they are forced to add the data every time the template is loaded.
So how does it work? The functionality is located in the application menu:
Clicking it will show a dialog similar to this:
Here, you can select from where the data should be retrieved; undefined, a file or a folder. I’ve chosen “undefined”, since I don’t know where my colleagues store their data. I’ve also given the template a name and added a short description.
The template is now stored locally. In order to share the template across the company; I have to actively share it. This is done in the “Manage Templates” dialog, also found in the application menu.
The dialog will look similar to this:
Right-clicking the template and choosing “Share” adds the template to the “Company Templates” tab.
Now, my colleagues have access to my ground-breaking categorizations and formulas, as all “Company templates” tabs are synchronized with the ABC Softwork server, they will see the exact same templates (of course, conditional on an internet connection).
You’re right – my template setup is not ground-breaking…
Enjoy
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[...] Some time ago we introduced a really useful way of storing your categorizations called ABC project files – if this is a new feature to you, start your reading here. Templates, on the other hand, are brand new. As one of our developer described it: It’s a project file without any data! Curious to find out how this will help you distribute your knowledge in a faster and safer way? Read more about the benefits of templates [...]