Light My Way - Product Documentation

Owned by Anders Axelsson
Last updated: Oct 07, 2024 by Sebastian Widin
43 min read

Version 2024.4.1

Legal Notes

Copyright 2022 by TECHNIA AB

All rights reserved.

PROPRIETARY RIGHTS NOTICE

This documentation is proprietary property of TECHNIA AB. In accordance with the terms and conditions of the Software License Agreement between the Customer and TECHNIA AB, the Customer is allowed to print as many copies as necessary of documentation copyrighted by TECHNIA relating to the software being used. This documentation shall be treated as confidential information and should be used only by employees or contractors with the Customer in accordance with the Agreement.

Preface

Light My Way is the Digital Adoption Solution (DAS) for the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. With the ambition to be recognized internationally as the best way to train and support your users on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.

Digital Adoption Solutions (DAS)

Enterprise platforms (and the business processes it governs) are often complex and hard to learn. Traditional training methods & support is inefficient and costly. On top of that traditional methods causes user productivity loss and frustration.

DAS boost user productivity and adoption while avoiding cost related to excessive and inefficient training or support by providing guidance directly in-app. A good business case with a quick ROI is often easy create and there are general reports available from Gartner, Forrester etc to back it up.

Digital Adoption (DAS) for 3DEXPERIENCE

Light My Way is the only DAS product with 3DEXPERIENCE platform configurations built in. The platform configurations are owned and maintained as supported product by TECHNIA (there will be fixes and improvement over time and there is a dedicated support team).

The built-in, high quality and rich target platform configurations (delivered as a cloud service/SaaS) makes guide recording easy (point & click, no dev needed), setup is done within a minute and the resulting in-app user guides will deliver just-in-time off the shelf. On top of that no extra configuration work required over time as new areas are covered or the platform upgrades etc.

  • 3DEXPERIENCE in-app user training

    • The right instruction at the right time

    • Context sensitive

    • Complex / dynamic processes supported

  • 3DEXPERIENCE in-app training creation

    • Create instruction by point and click

    • Relate instructions to context (object type, UI components etc)

    • Best practices built in

  • Up and running with 3DEXPERIENCE in a minute!

    • Cloud subscription (no infra structure required)

    • No server deployment or dependency to normal release cycle (cloud target environments also supported)

    • No service required (pure software deal / instant value)

Light My Way is a generic software that works with all html based applications, as long as the right configurations is in place (described in the administration chapter).

The software is installed client side in the browser as a web extension providing visual guidance and user training directly in-app. To display the right instruction at the right time each instruction is tied to application state using html identifiers such as ‘xpath' & 'css selectors’. New instructions are recorded through the web extension, data is stored and retrieved in an external service hosted by TECHNIA and made available by subscription.

Supported Platforms

  • 3DEXPERIENCE

    • 3DSPACE

    • 3DDASHBAORD

    • Value Components

      • TVC

      • Helium

Configurations making the Consumer and Author roles work well are built in for the supported platforms. No project specific administration required to get started recording standard use cases using a rich set of built-in and supported contexts and configs.

Platform maturity levels

A more detailed list of all supported targets, contexts and other built-in platform configurations can be shared on request.

Roles

Light My Way supports 3 different roles or types of users. The ‘User guide’ covers the Consumer and Author roles while the ‘Administration guide’ covers the Administrator role.

Consumer

Author

Administrator

Web Extension

Web Extension

Admin UI

Needs guidance using a web application

(user, engineer or similar)

Knows how to use a web application

(technical trainer, support or similar)*

Knows HTML/XPATH/CSS

(developer / system administration)

  • Consumes in app user guides.

  • Gets the right instruction at the right time (based on context).

  • Easily finds and toggles valid process guides relevant for him.

  • Records instructions in app by clicking the UI.

  • Chooses from a list of contexts to control when instructions should show.

  • Lists & maintains instructions over time.

  • Configures the tool to better support (hide complexity) the author.

  • Extend element selection (3DX standards built in).

  • Extends contexts (3DX standards built in).

* does not necessarily need html, css, xpath skills but should have strong enough logical reasoning skills to use built in visibility rules to control when instructions should show in complex flows etc

System Requirements

Client

Supported browsers

  • Chrome

  • Microsoft Edge

If there is a need for Light My Way on any other browser, contact us, we are happy to add it.

Server

The server is hosted as a cloud service and made available to customers as part of the subscription.

Installation

The web extension architecture allows to provide user guidance without dependency to normal release cycles. No access to the server of the target application is required and guides recorded and distributed for CLOUD hosted target platforms is supported. Light My Way has no footprint on the target server application whatsoever and no server-side deployment is required.

Security

  • Data stored in server repository

    • Data classification: Internal

    • Documentation / guides recorded by customer ( ‘click here’ + html identifier)

    • Configurations to recognize 3DEXPERIENCE UI (css / xpath selectors)

    • Subscription audit detail (3DEXPERIENCE user id’s, last use dates etc)

    • No scripts, SQL or executable entries are stores in the data

  • Access control

    • User: JWT token (registry to request header)

    • Author: JWT token (registry to request header) + Passkey

    • Admin: Passport (username / password)

  • Web Extension (Client)

    • Integrity: reviewed, approved, hosted and secured by chrome store

    • Quality assured, scanned and tested before all (releases)

    • Does not load or evaluate any scripts dynamically (css/xpath and safe rich text format)

    • Manifest Permissions: storage, webNavigation, unlimitedStorage, contextMenus

  • Tools

    • Vulnerability scans (dependency track) executed and acted on continuously

    • Controlled build chain (jenkins)

    • Controlled deploy (terraform, docker)

  • Traceability / audit

    • History of configuration changes in admin UI

Protocol

SSL/HTTPS

ISO 27001 (information security)

Certified and audited on a yearly basis. We are continuously following up and mitigating security risk and have a security mindset in everything we do.

Client Installation

The client extension is one and the same for consumers and authors, it includes the default part used for consuming guides and by enabling author mode from the extension popup, the user can start creating guides after also providing an author key.

For web extension side loading by registry, the ExtensionSettings policy is used. For detailed understanding, please refer Detailed guide to the ExtensionSettings policy and https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pT0ZSbGdrbGvuCsVD2jjxrw-GVz-80rMS2dgkkquhTY/edit#!

Specific site limitations

Restricting the extension access to the sites it is intended for is good practice. This so that the panel tabs or evaluation is excluded on all other sites. Site access is controlled using the runtime_allowed_hosts registry entry.

Example

"runtime_allowed_hosts"="[\"https://lmw.technia.cloud\",\"://example.com\",\"://*.3ds.com\"]"

Access Token (Authentication)

To lock down access to the guide data a token can be generated with your account. If activated the token will be required to gain access to guide data.

Access Token - Renewal

For increased security the access token can be renewed on a regular basis, but note that you would also have to deploy a new token to all clients.

The current access token will automatically become outdated as a new token is generated.

Access Token - Distribution

Distribution of the access token to clients is done by managed storage in registry. This means that the same distribution method is used for the access token as for the extension itself. Read more about managed storage here:Manifest for managed storage  |  Chrome Extensions  |  Chrome for Developers.

A managed storage key is only accessible by the extension itself (and those with access to read the registry). The token is added to and passed to the data service call with encrypted request headers.

Note that the proper manifest an managed storage schema configuration is already included with the product and you do not have to bother about that. An example of how to distribute the access token is included with the sample reg file in below chapter.

See below for more properties and settings that can be added to managed storage.

Managed storage keys

Key

Type

Description

Default value

Accepted values

Key

Type

Description

Default value

Accepted values

accessToken

string

Used to automatically authentication the extension to your account.

null

Access token provided by LMW team.

account

string

Used to prefill the account part of the server settings.

null

Your account name (usually company name).

E.g. technia

host

string

Used to prefill the host part of the server settings.

https://lmw.technia.cloud

Full URL to LMW server.

repo

string

Used to prefill the repository part of the server settings.

null

Your repository name (usually company name).

E.g. production

lmw-server-url-editable

boolean

Used to toggle if the user should be able to edit the server settings.

dword:00000001

dword:00000001 = true
dword:00000000 = false

lmw-author-mode

boolean

Used to toggle if the extensions author panel should be visible.

dword:00000000

dword:00000001 = true
dword:00000000 = false

hosted-guides-path

string

Used to connect the extension to self-hosted data file.

null

Full URL to data file.

E.g. https://companyurl/path-to-file.json

lmw-registry-script-executed

number

Used to force all values in the registry entry to be replaced by the content of the registry file.

null

dword:XXXXXXXX
(replace X with numbers)

E.g. dword:00000001

Registry entries using file

Registry entries could be defined using file. Such a file is simply a text file with the .reg extension that will add registry entries when executed.

Installing registry entries using file

  • Users can double click a .reg file to add the registry entries.

  • For large scale distribution, Group Policy Preferences(GPP) allows the administrator to easily import a .reg file into Group Policy with several registry settings.

Uninstalling registry entries using file

Added entries can be removed at any time using the same import method on modified .reg files by adding hyphen(-) before every value. Example:- "installation_mode"=-"normal_installed"

Connecting to the data service

Connecting unmapped data service

It is possible to connect with unmapped server repositories using the Server field in the web extension menu found at the top right of your browser. This could be useful for authors connecting to sandbox guide repositories etc that should not be used by the overall user community.

  1. Click the extensions menu

  2. Click “Light My Way“ icon

  3. Enter server URL with domains and press ENTER

  4. “Connected successfully” should appear in green

 

Server Installation

The normal setup is that TECHNIA will host the data service in the CLOUD and all you have to do is to connect to the account you get with your subscription.

The Web Extension

The Light My Way browser extension UI layer is added to the right side in the target application. Depending on role one or two tabs will be visible. The tabs are rendered on top and will not interfere with the UI. If the tabs for some reason are in the way you can move them by drag and drop. Clicking a tab will expand and display its content so that you can access its features. By clicking the tab again it will collapse to its original state.

Quick disable

If you for some reason want to disable all Light My Way evaluation and rendering there is a quick enable slider available in the web extension menu found at the top right of your browser.

 

Enabling Author

In the web extension popup you can enable or disable the author mode, using the author mode requires that you also provide the secret author key.

 

Toggle panel

It is possible to toggle panel tabs to hide or show depending on preference. Toggle is available in the context menu accessed by right clicking somewhere in the target application. Toggle panel could be useful in case the panel is in the way or if you have set your preferred guides and you are only interested in the callouts.

Reposition

The user can move the panel tabs vertically. Reposition could be useful in case the tabs is in the way. Click and hold the tab and drag it up or down to reposition the tabs.

The new position is persisted so that the user preference is stored over sessions and the user do not have to repeat it.

 

 

Resize

The user can resize the panel by dragging on the resize button in the bottom left corner.

To reset the size simply click on the reset button next to it.

 

The Consumer

To consume in-app guides the web extension is used. The extension present guides recorded by the author based on the application state so that the right instruction is displayed at the right time. The consumer can choose among available guides from a panel tab at the side and guide callouts are presented just in time as the user click around in the application. The consumer will find the ‘LIGHT MY WAY’ tab at the right of the application. This tab will be used to access all guide content and control preference.

Guides

Each instruction belongs to a guide. A guide allows the consumer to enable a series of instructions in one go and is often equal to a use case, a process or a training chapter.

Toggle on/off

The consumer can toggle guides to be displayed on/off. The toggle state is persisted over time (browser local storage) and allows the user to keep his favorite guides on so that the right instruction automatically appears as the application state is right.

 

Available guides

To make it easy for users to find help relevant to the current view the guides, with at least one instruction valid for the current view (contexts) is displayed on top.

By default Show Available Content Only is toggled on and only guides and documentation with at least one valid context will show up.
If the user toggles this off all guides and documentation will be listed.

The user also get aware there is help to get in case the panel tab is minimized. If there is a guide available but it is disabled a shining indication appears on the panel tab.

 

Finding guides

Users can find instruction guides by a filtering functionality. The filter field opens by clicking the search icon. Entered text will filter down the guide matching the text in labels, description and instruction content. The filter function is cancelled by pressing the arrow and any entered text is cleared by pressing the x.

 

Description

A detailed description for each guide can be added by the author and is made available to the consumer by expanding an accordion. A good description makes the guide searchable and makes it easy for the consumer to understand what it is about and when it is made available.

 

Color

To easily differentiate between guides the author can assign different colors.

Guide colors are also displayed next to the guide name in the panel.

Sort Guides

Users can sort guides by color, alphanumerically or “Default sorted” (the order the Author has sorted them by) by clicking the sort icon.
By default the sorting is set to “Default sorted”.

Tags View

By clicking on “Enable TagsView” the guides will be grouped by tags.
For more information about tags see “Tags” below.

 

Documentation

Users can find relevant external resources (e.g. pdf-documentation, videos etc.) by navigating to the Documentation tab.

Clicking these links will open a new tab with that link.

 

 

Instructions

The visual callout elements that guides the user are called instructions.

Just-in-time delivery

To ensure that the right instruction appear at the right time, all callouts reacts and validates as the application state change.

Instructions valid for the current view and application state automatically appears on screen. With the context that its guide is toggled active.

In case of multiple instructions appearing on top of each other. The hovered instruction would go on top.

Dismissing instructions

In case an instruction callout is in the way it can be dismissed by clicking the x. Instruction dismissal is temporary and will appear next session as long as application state and group toggle state still say it should.

If you want a dismissal to be persistent you can click the dismiss-icon. The instruction wont be shown again unless the guide is toggled off and then on again.

 

 

Links

Some instructions can contain links. When a link is clicked the content will open in a new browser tab.

 

Images

Some instructions can contain images. When an image is clicked the image will open in a new browser tab.

Preferences

To increase usability the consumer can control some of the behavior through preferences found at the top right corner of the panel.

 

UI Preferences

Under the preferences option the user can control callout layout and styling.

Use thick tabs

Make tabs bigger when toggled on.

Default tabs

Thick tabs

Minimized callouts

When the cursor is close to the target the callout will be minimized to not distract from the target and the action the user is about to do.

This can be toggled of in the preferences.

 

 

Flip LMW Panel

This is used to switch side of the panel from the right to the left and vice versa.

You can also flip the panel from the browser context menu by right-clicking the page and navigating to “Light My Way“ → “Flip Panel“.

Refresh

Reloads Light My Way with the latest data.

 

 

Start Tour

Start a tour on how to use Light My Way.

This tour is automatically started on every new installation.

 

Tags

Filter listed guides by tags. Toggling tags on/off can be done from the tag icon found at the top right corner. By enabling at least one tag all guides will be filtered down to only include those matching the selected tags. Tag filtering is a good way to hide the guides not of value to you and allow you to focus on the ones that are.

The Author

With the Author mode of the extension guides are recorded easily by point and click, without getting into the technical details, using pre-set configurations for the different platform target elements, contexts and contexts.

For the supported platforms, such as 3DEXPERIENCE, a rich and build-in default configuration is included with the product. The built-in platform configurations allows authors to:

  • Tie instructions to UI elements

  • Control when it should be shown.

The author extension has two tabs:

  • ‘AUTHOR’

    • Used to record new or modify existing guides.

  • ‘LIGHT MY WAY’

    • Used to test the guides exactly how the consumer would see it.

Guides

Listing Guides

In ‘Chapters View’ all guides are listed. Switching to ‘Tags View’ guides can be navigated by tag and could be useful making it easy to find guides.

Deleting Guides

To delete a guide click on the three dots and then the trash bin icon.

Modifying Guides

Clicking on the three dots next to a guide and then the edit icon opens a form that allows modification.

 

Ordering Guides

To change the order of guides simply move the mouse over a guide until you see the movement cursor. You can now use drag and drop to move the guide up or down in the list.

This order will be presented to the Consumer as “Default sorted”.

 

Creating Guides

Click ‘Create Guide’ from the + menu (found at the top right) to open the create form, fill out the form and click save.

Guide type

  • Process - regular step-by-step guides with instructions shown based on the context of the platform. See below for more information on instructions.

  • Tour - step-by-step guides with instructions that have a next and previous button to navigate between instructions.

  • Block - just like process guides but these guide blocks can be reused by multiple guides. Guide blocks are not displayed to user.

  • Link - Presents a link to external resources (e.g. pdf-documentation, videos etc.) based on the context of the platform. See below for more information on Documentation links.

Title

The title is presented to the author and consumer in the list of guides and is used to identify the guide. It is also presented as a header inside the instruction callouts.

Description

The description is presented to the consumer in the list of guides by expanding an accordion.

Chapter

A guide can belong to a chapter. This will show up as folders for both authors and consumers to help structure all the guides.

Tags

A guide can be tagged with one or more tags allowing the consumer to filter out the guides that matters to him. Simply type the desired tags in the tags field to tie the guide with it.

Tags can be maintained in the preference menu later on.

Color

The guide color controls the color of the callouts and also puts a colored circle in guide lists for easy identification.

Blue is the default color.

You can also change the color of a specific instructions by expanding Options and changing the color of that instruction.

Group is the default value, meaning same color as the Guide.

Guide Blocks

Add previously made guide blocks to the guide.

Default Active & Always Active

If Default Active is toggled on the guide will be automatically turned on for all users on new installs / on extension update.

If Always Active is toggled on the guide will be automatically turned on and the user wont be able to toggle it off (useful for important messages, rules and validation etc.).

 

Creating Documentation links

Link

A link to an external resources (e.g. pdf-documentation, videos etc.).

Title

The title is presented to the author and consumer in the list of documentation links and is clickable for the consumer and will open a new tab with the link.

Description

The description is presented to the consumer in the list of documentation links by expanding an accordion.

Chapter

A link can belong to a chapter. This will show up as folders for both authors and consumers to help structure all the links.

Tags

A link can be tagged with one or more tags allowing the consumer to filter out the documentation that matters to him. Simply type the desired tags in the tags field to tie the link with it.

Tags can be maintained in the preference menu later on.

Contexts

To control when a link is shown (when Show Available Content Only is toggled on), it is tied with application state. This is achieved by selecting among a set of built-in contexts valid for the current view.

See below for more information about contexts and application state.

 

 

Creating Tours

Title

The title is presented to the author and consumer in the list of guides and is used to identify the guide. It is also presented as a header inside the instruction callouts.

Description

The description is presented to the consumer in the list of guides by expanding an accordion.

Chapter

A guide can belong to a chapter. This will show up as folders for both authors and consumers to help structure all the guides.

Tags

A guide can be tagged with one or more tags allowing the consumer to filter out the guides that matters to him. Simply type the desired tags in the tags field to tie the guide with it.

Tags can be maintained in the preference menu later on.

Color

The guide color controls the color of the callouts and also puts a colored circle in guide lists for easy identification.

Blue is the default color.

You can also change the color of a specific instructions by expanding Options and changing the color of that instruction.

Group is the default value, meaning same color as the Guide.

Instruction Type

Here the Author can select if the tour should be presented as regular Callouts or Global Info Banners.

Types:

  • Callout: Renders the default callout popover pointing to the selected element.

  • Global Info: Renders a global info overlay on top or bottom of the page (not pointing to a specific element).

Default Active & Always Active

If Default Active is toggled on the tour will be automatically turned on for all users on new installs / on extension update.

If Always Active is toggled on the tour will be automatically turned on and the user wont be able to toggle it off.

Contexts

To control when a tour is shown (when Show Available Content Only is toggled on), it is tied with application state. This is achieved by selecting among a set of built-in contexts valid for the current view.

See below for more information about contexts and application state.

 

 

 

 

Tour instructions

Tour instructions are similar to regular guide instructions but without context (since the context is only evaluated on the full tour and not individual instructions).

Click target on next

There is also an additional option here to automatically click on the selected target when the user clicks “Next” on the instruction.
This is useful for when the tour continues on another page of the application.

 

Cloning Guides

Guides as well as Instructions can be cloned using the “Clone“ or ”Clone as” actions. Where the “Clone“ action will create a copy and keeping the cone name, and “Clone as“ action will let you rename the guide/instruction before cloning.

 

 

Adding Flags

Guides as well as Instructions can have author notes added to them. This is useful to quickly flag a guide or instruction as not yet done or to notify other Authors about something with that guide/instruction.

 

 

Instructions

The visual callout elements that guide the user are called instructions.

Creating instructions

To create an instruction, go to the authoring tab and click the plus icon on the row of the guide you like to record. Added instructions will be added to the end of the list of instructions of that guide.

Modifying instructions

Find the instruction in the group tree list and click the edit icon next to it. For visible callouts it is possible to open the edit form directly by clicking the edit icon.

Ordering instructions

To change the order of instructions simply move the mouse over an instruction until you see the movement cursor. You can now use drag and drop to move the instruction up or down in the list.

 

 

Selecting targets

When adding an instruction, the author is automatically in target selection mode. Press ctrl+click or ctrl+space to submit your selection.

There are two ways of pointing out targets.

Supported targets (green)

The preferred method of selecting target elements is by using one of the built-in and supported green targets. The supported targets identification is carefully considered and maintained as part of the product. Supported targets are quality assured, cleaned off version specifics and html detail so that only a minimum required to identify the element is recorded with the instruction data. The complex and potential changing part is maintained in the configuration as part of the product.

Fall back - XPATH based targets (yellow)

To provide flexibility there is also a fall-back target recording method using xpath. You could see xpath as more of a direct map through the html elements to your target element. Using the flexibility of xpath you can record anything you want but you will also tie your instruction closer to the html and it will be more sensitive to change. More html version specifics will end up in the recorded data. We support this recording method but not the specific targets. Built in with the product is a set of ignored classes attributes etc to generate a good xpath starting point that is likely to work well as a start.

Colored rectangle

During selection a colored rectangle will appear to indicate:

  • The element that is targeted for selection

  • The status of the selection

Rectangle Color

Meaning

Rectangle Color

Meaning

Green

Supported selection

Yellow

xpath based selection

Red

Unable to record

Grey

Displayed in combination with the red rectangle to indicate that the element is not unique.

 

Highlight all supported (green) targets

All supported (green) select targets can be highlighted by pressing ctrl + alt

Submitting your selection

To complete selection hold control key and left click mouse (ctrl + click) or press space (ctrl + space). Control + space is useful in cases when the target platform reacts to mouse click and prevents recording.

 

Re-selecting target elements

To re-select the target element, click the ‘SELECT TARGET’ button below the ‘Target element’ label found at the top of the instruction form.

 

 

Advanced innerText controls

To use advanced innerText controls, select a supported target element that is using innerText, then open the target details form and you will be able to change the behaviour of innerText evaluation. If the target element innerText should be equal, contain, startWith or endWith the chosen text.

 

Callout positioning (anchors)

A callout positioning choice could be done during selection by clicking one of the anchor points (grey small circles) at the edge of the rectangle. For some targets, such has really small ones, the anchor points on target selection are disabled by the administrator.

 

Callout positioning (panel form)

A callout is possible to position in a number of ways. To select the position, use the drop down. Default position is bottom.

Note that the anchor point could be assigned during target selection (see ‘Selecting Target Elements’).

 

 

Advanced positioning settings

Direction

By default the direction will be the same as the anchor but if the Author wants the direction can be changed.

Parent Offset

With parent offset the Author can select a target (e.g. an input field) but move up in the elements hierarchy to the container or another parent element.

Horizontal / Vertical Offset

A callout can also be re-positioned from its anchor position with horizontal and vertical offset (+/- in pixels).

 

Preview instructions

While creating or modifying instruction an instant preview is made available. The preview instantly reacts and displays changes in text just as the consumer would see it.

Resizing callouts

Direct in the preview of the callout you have the possibility to resize it to fit you application or use.

To reset click on the reset-button in the bottom of the callout.

 

 

Instruction text

Instructions has two fields. The title renders in bold and the description renders as paragraph and is suitable for longer texts.
The description field features a rich text editor which allows you to apply basic formatting with links, lists.

Links

To add a link to an instruction simply enter the link text and then click on the link icon in the editor to add the URL.

Images

Images can be added by clicking on the image icon in the editor. Paste an url to an image and it will show up in the instruction.

 

 

Interactivity

Linked guides

Under “Interactivity” you can add linked guides to an instruction.
This will show up as a button in the bottom part of the callout.

Toggle off current guide

If you toggle on “Toggle off current guide” clicking the button will toggle off the current guide and toggle on the linked guide.

If you don’t toggle on “Toggle off current guide” clicking the button will only toggle the linked guide.

 

Controlling when instructions are shown

There are various ways to control when an instruction should show.

Contexts

To control when an instruction is shown, it is tied with application state. This is achieved by selecting among a set of built-in contexts valid for the current view.

Hovering a context in the list will highlight the element in the current view that the context is tied to.

 

 

Parent Contexts

Parent contexts are used to improve performance and limit (scope) the evaluation of all contexts to only evaluate those that have a possibility to be present.

To toggle some contexts the author needs to first toggle the parent context.

E.g. 3DDashboard widgets should only be evaluated in 3DDashboard and not 3DSpace.

 

 

Inside of

There are cases when the target element selection is ambiguous and generates multiple hits in the UI. In such cases you can use “Show inside of” to limit the context.

You can select multiple “Show inside of“ and in that case the callout will be rendered in the first available condition container.

 

Target state

Some target elements could have a state itself. Such elements can be configured with a target state that controls instruction visibility.

Input conditions & validation

Targeting input fields will always present the option to control state. e.g. text field, textarea, checkbox, radio button, select (dropdown), file upload. etc. will all present a state option to the author.

For text fields and textareas the author can use a set of different operators to control if the instruction should show or not. For all except Larger Than and Smaller Than multiple values can be set.

 

Popup context

If you have placed an instruction in a popup window you get the option to add the opener window contexts to control visibility of the instruction.

This is useful since the popup itself usually lack information about the state of the app and with the popup context you can tie the instruction to the state of the app when opening the popup.

 

Manually selected Context elements (Sequencing by state)

If the built-in standard contexts are not enough to control visibility of an instruction, one or more context elements could be used. Target states also apply to manually selected context elements and using it in combination is a powerful way to control sequential flow. Multiple context elements could be used in combination so that all conditions have to be met for the callout instruction to display.

 

Sequencing (Fall-back)

Display one instruction after another with help of making instructions directly dependent on each other. Select the instruction you want to make a dependency to in the dropdowns. In the case multiple instructions are used as display after / before only one have to be shown to fulfil the requirement. The instruction sequence can be followed multiple times by specifying when the sequence should reset.

Instruction Type

You can change type of the instruction under “Options”.

Types

  • Callout: Renders the default callout popover pointing to the selected element.

  • Info: Renders the instructions more compact. Then the user will have to actively click the small info symbol to render the full callout.
    Optional: Under “Display Settings” there are additional settings for the Info type:

    • Open on hover: You can toggle “Open on hover” to have the full callout rendered when hovering the instruction instead on having to click.

    • Pulsating icon (enabled by default): If toggled off the info symbol will be static and not animate.

    • Icon type (Info by default): You can select between multiple different icon types e.g. question mark, warning, arrows etc.

  • Global Info: Renders a global info overlay on top or bottom of the page (not pointing to a specific element).

  • Highlight: Renders a more discrete highlight over the element. Then the user will have to actively hover the element to render the full callout.

Example of highlight:

 

Guide recommendations

If an instruction has “Display when guide disabled” toggled on the instruction will be shown if app is in the correct context but the guide is toggled off.

This can be useful to recommend the user to use a guide when they are in a specific context but might be unaware there are guides explaining the process.

When the guide is toggled on instructions with “Display when guide disabled” will be hidden.

 

 

Move to another guide

You can change which guide an instruction should belong to.

 

Validation

To ensure proper data some validation is applied to the instruction create / edit form.

  • At least 1 context is needed otherwise a warning is displayed

  • Title is mandatory

  • If used recorded XPATH have to be valid (details found when expanding target element)

 

Chapters

To easier be able to group Guides together you can create a Chapter. You can add a Guide to a Chapter form the guide edit form or the action menu. Chapters can also have their own sub chapters.

Password

To ensure unauthorized authoring a password is required the first time the author tab is used. The password will be stored in local storage, so you don't have to enter it the next time authoring using the same machine.

Evaluation status

In order to help you understand if and why an instruction is (or isn’t) visible the status of the evaluation is shown to the left of the instruction.

  • An open eye icon indicates that the instruction is visible

    • If the icon is yellow the instruction is using XPATH-based targets

  • A closed eye icon indicates that the instruction is not visible

    • If the icon is yellow the instruction is using XPATH-based targets

 

The Administrator

To enable authors to record guides easily by point and click, without getting into the technical details, pre-set configurations are used to control how things are recorded for different platform target elements and contexts.

As example these configurations control

  • How target elements are identified

  • The contexts used to control when instructions should show

For the supported platforms, such as 3DEXPERIENCE, rich and build-in default configuration are included with the product.

To allow authors to record new, customized or for other reason modify or override configurations to better fit customer specific needs it is possible to extend these configurations.

 

General

To overview all recorded data, export/import or to better support your authors specific recording needs, there is an Admin UI. In the admin UI you can easily create, edit and remove configuration items (e.g. contexts). The admin UI is web based and available with any supported browser.

 

Config

Edit & Delete

To edit or remove a configuration item simply choose the target platform in the tree list and the configuration item you want to edit or remove.

Add

To add a new configuration item either click on the add button in the tree list under the chosen configuration type or click “+ Add” in the top bar.

History

Check configurations history, e.g. who and when created or modified a context or Target Element.

Targets

Targets are the html elements that an instruction is tied with. The instruction callout is positioned relative to the target and is displayed if the target html element is present only. There are two different methods to identify a target element.

 

Target elements (green targets)

This is the method of the built in and with product supported green targets.

Targets defined this way will be presented in highlight and green to authors (as the supported targets).

Administrators could extend the list of target elements to indicate good target selections to their users.

To create a new target either clone an existing one or add a new one by clicking on the “+ Add” in the top bar and choose “Create New Target”.

CSS-based target formulas

Target elements defined using CSS-based formulas.

Example:

Formula: form[name='frmFormView'] tr{0} td.field
Read value: id

In this case the stored data on the instruction is the id of the parent tr but the selected element will be the child td.field.

This can be done with multiple read values and multiple formulas enabling platform independent targets with different css selectors but same matching unique identifier (read values)

XPATH-based target formulas

Target elements can also be defined using XPATH-based formulas.

Reasons to use XPATH formulas could be that the desired target element has styling: 'pointer-events: none', an overlapping element is blocking the target element with unique identifier or there is some other advanced pathing needed.

Defining a target element using xpath formulas and readvalues is done the same way as with css formulas, however there are some considerations to make a valid xpath.

When using readvalues in xpath formula the index '{0}' is replaced by ` and contains(@attribute, 'attributevalue')` for each readvalue in the formula.

The xpath formula with readvalues must contain some base identifier to make it evaluable without a readvalue.

Examples:

//div[{0}] => //div[ and contains(@attribute,'value')]

//div[@id='topbar' {0}] => //div[@id='topbar'  and contains(@attribute,'value')]

//div[contains(@class,'topbar') {0}] => //div[contains(@class,'topbar')  and contains(@attribute,'value')]

Fields

Name

a unique id to identify this type of target

Display

how to present the target to the author

CSS Formulas

css selector-based formulas used to match the target element and read value

XPATH Formulas

xpath selector formula used to match the target element and read value

Read Values

the unique data used to

  • match the selected target value with the data

  • present it in display to the author

Inner Text

if checked the inner text of the target will be stored as a read value and matched with the selected target

Parent Context

An array of parent context ids. During evaluation, one of the parent contexts need to be found for the target element to be evaluated.

 

 

XPATH based (yellow) targets

To provide flexibility there is also a fall back target recording method using xpath. Using the flexibility of xpath authors can record anything they want but will also tie instruction closer to the html and it will be more sensitive to change. When selecting a yellow fall back element an xpath is automatically generated. Multiple configuration types are used to control how xpaths are generated.

Built in with the product is a set of ignored classes attributes etc to generate a good xpath starting point.

Starting Elements

Starting elements are used to truncate all XPATH before the matching starting element. This to make the stored XPATH nice, clean and less sensitive to context, changes or version.

Starting elements are defined using XPATH.

Fields

Name

A description used to understand what the starting element does

Xpath

an xpath expression, if matched somewhere in the parent structure during target element selection, the recorded data address will start from this point and all xpath beyond this point will be omitted

Ignore Lists

Ignore lists are used to define the class or attribute names to exclude from the recorded XPATH. This to make the stored XPATH nice, clean and less sensitive to context, session, changes over time or version.

Fields

Class

the class to be ignored in the recorded data

Attribute

the attribute to be ignored in the recorded data

 

Ignore By Parent

Ignore by parent is used as ignore lists but will make the configuration valid within the scope of a specific parent only. This would be useful if you like to exclude common attributes like name in a specific scope only but retain it in other places. The name and details fields are used to identify parent elements. Attribute, Classes and Inner text to control ignore behavior in scope of that parent.

Fields

Description

used by admins to understand what is covered

Parent Name

the element type used to identify the parent element

Details Name

the attribute name used to identify the parent element

Details Value

the value of the matched attribute used to identify the parent element

Attributes

the list of attributes to ignore in scope of the matched parent element

Classes

the list of classes to be ignored in the scope of the matched parent element

Inner Text

if checked the inner text of targets within the scope of the matched parent will be included

 

Ignore Anchors

Ignoring anchors points during target selection could be useful for cases when it does not work well. Anchor points could be problematic for very small targets or if the target by script automation disappear as you hover an anchor point and then it makes sense to inactivate it. In these cases you could instead define a default and the author could always control this in the next step using the advanced settings for the instruction.

Fields

Ignore

a list of classes to identify elements that should be ignored

Position

the default position to be used in case of match

 

Controlling when instructions are shown

To make instructions show at the right time, the recordings have to react properly to application state. For this to happen there are some different configurations related. While ‘Contexts’ and ‘Target states’ are presented for the author to choose, the ‘Focus’ condition is silently used in the background.

Contexts

The list of contexts is used by authors to control when an instruction is shown/evaluated. The list of contexts is controlled in the Admin UI and is only presented to the author if available for inclusion with the current target selection.

The contexts are configured using CSS selectors.

Fields

Name

a unique id

Display

how to present the context to the author

Container

the element to use as base for the context evaluation

Type

  • exist to see if one target element is present

  • option to allow author to choose (often used for target states)

Default

the default condition name

Only for target

evaluate the context for selected target element only (see target states)

Read

the unique data used to

  • store the selected context value with the data

  • present it in display to the author

Conditions Name

a unique id for the condition option

Conditions Display

Displayed to author in drop down in case of option type

Conditions Selection Selector

css selector to match the element

Conditions From

The evaluation technology

Visible

Require the context element to also be visible otherwise excluded

Default Enabled

Defaults the context to be toggled for inclusion as the author records

Hidden

Hides the context under expandable more section

Parent Context

An array of parent context ids. During evaluation, one of the parent contexts need to be found for the context to be evaluated.

 

Target states

State specific to the selected target element is used to control when a callout should display when the target itself carries state.

The target states are configured using CSS selectors the same way as contexts, but you simply check only for target checkbox.

 

Focus conditions

Focus conditions are used to limit evaluation within the focused element if present. Very useful to make all other callouts not in the focus group automatically hide as long as the focus condition is fulfilled (e.g. hide background callouts when search is open). Focus is a silent feature and the author is not aware this actually happens behind the scenes.

Focus conditions are configured using CSS selectors.

Fields

Name

a unique identifier

Description

used by admins to understand why it was added

Layer Index

defines priority in case of multiple focus elements is found

From

css query selector currently only supported

Selector

css selector to identify the focus element

Visible

if the focus element have to be visible to be valid

 

Parent Contexts

Parent Contexts control if a target element or context should be evaluated or not.

If a target element or context has parent contexts then one or more of those parent contexts needs to be available in order for that target element/context to be evaluated.

For target elements this is mainly a performance improvement for authors, but for contexts this limits (scopes) the evaluation of all contexts to only evaluate those that have a possibility to be present.
This improves the performance for all users.

E.g. 3DDashboard widgets should only be evaluated in 3DDashboard and not 3DSpace.

Additionally authors also need to enable the parent context first in order for the rest of the contexts to show up. This also improves performance for all users.

 

Overriding the built-in default configuration

Light My Way comes with a rich set of built-in and supported configurations for target platforms. If for some reason like to override behavior of a built-in configuration it is possible to clone it into your target configuration.

Cloned definitions will be styled italic in the admin UI.

 

Server Mappings

Server mappings are used to match each repository with a number of environment URL’s. This to allow web extensions to automatically connect with the correct repository. Server mappings can be added from the Global Admin UI upon request.

Fields

Key

Any unique part of the target environment URL that should be mapped with the data service target.

Be as specific as possible to avoid accidental forwards from domains that shouldn't be covered.

E.g. https://plm.acme.com/3dspace

Target

The repository to map to.

E.g. acme/prod

 

Repository

Repositories are commonly used for separating guides and/or config based on state. E.g. one repository could contain “released“ guides for use in production and one could contain guides that are “in progress“ or not completed yet, before they are moved to the production repo to be used by the consumers. (companyName/prod & companyName/dev).

Switch between repositories from extension is done in extension settings.

Create

Create a new repository by clicking the toolbar “+ Add” command, then selecting “Create New Repository“.

Edit

Edit a repository by clicking the edit icon next to the repository name.

Password

The author keys prompted to authors are controlled in the Admin UI. To modify, add or remove author keys click the edit icon next to the repository. Create a new key by typing the key value in the input field and then click the dropdown entry called Create “keyvalue“.

Settings

Example:

{ evaluateToggledGuidesOnly: false, delays: { mutationCallback: 250, mutationListener: 100, scrollListener: 100, inputListener: 250 } }

Setting (key)

Description

Type

Default

Setting (key)

Description

Type

Default

delays

Used to tune debounce for performance based on your env specifics. A low debounce gives a quick response to the user but a higher performance footprint as evaluation happens more often. All evaluation debounce is controlled inside delays key. Debounce time is specified in milliseconds.

object

 

delays.inputListener

Input fields. e.g. debounce when typing text

number

250

delays.mutationCallback

The time between evaluation

number

250

delays.mutationListener

How often html DOM updates is communicated (per document / iframe)

number

100

delays.scrollListener

When scrolling how long to wait until reposition

number

100

delays.usageListener

Debounce for usage actions used by usage insight feature

number

1000

evaluateToggledGuidesOnly

Depending on your authors recording methodology you might consider a different evaluation strategy. In case you want to record guides in the context it belong only and use the available now feature you will go by the default and evaluate all by context. In case you want to guide users from anywhere to everywhere the available now feature makes no sense but the extra evaluation would only drive load and you should evaluate toggled guides only.

boolean

false

logUsage

Toggle off or on usage logging

boolean

true

logUsageDisabledConfigs

Used to select what configs should be logged into the platform insight

object

 

logUsageDisabledConfigs.focusConditions

List of focus condition ids that should be logged into platform insight

Array<number>

 

logUsageDisabledConfigs.uiConditions

List of context ids that should be logged into platform insight

Array<number>

 

logUsageDisabledConfigs.parentConditions

List of parent context ids that should be logged into platform insight

Array<number>

 

userFeedbackUrl

An url to a form, mailto:email or similar. If present a feedback button will appear in the extension.

string

 

defaultActiveUserPreferences

List of user preferences that should be toggled on by default for all users connected to the repository.

Available preferences:

'lmw-preference-thickTabs' 'lmw-preference-oneGuideView' 'lmw-preference-truncated' 'lmw-preference-transparency' 'lmw-preference-groupNameHidden' 'lmw-preference-autoClosePanel' 'lmw-preference-closePanelOnClickOutside' 'lmw-preference-minimizedCallouts'

Array<string>

 

minimizeCalloutDistance

The distance from the target in pixels from which the callout should minimize.

number

100

Read Only

If “Read Only” is checked the repository wont be editable by the Authors.

 

Data management

Administrators can view and edit all guide and instruction data from within the Admin UI. Accessing data could be useful in collaboration with Authors, troubleshooting etc. The Data view is accessed from the Data tab found in the top bar.

Data entries using xpath is indicated with yellow.

 

Import & export

To allow managing configuration and data in SCM tools or to bulk change efficiently using IDE features, it is still possible to edit the configurations JSON data as in previous releases. To do this

  1. export the database content to the json format

  2. change the files manually

  3. delete the database

  4. import the json data into a new database

 

Configuration export

Configurations could be exported from targets. Export could be useful to back up configurations, bulk modifications or storing it in SCM.

Data import / export

Data can be exported and imported from and to targets. This could be useful when moving data from one target to another or if there is a need to bulk modify data in an editor etc. The data export and import commands are available under the ‘Data’ tab found in the top bar.

Licenses

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