Community Spotlight: Developer Super Package

Community Spotlight: Developer Super Package

We recently released a new Community Project to make developing within Aras Innovator even easier. The Developer Super Package is a combination of useful projects to streamline some of the tasks of Aras Innovator administrators and developers.

Here's a quick rundown of each project included in the package, and how they make your development and admin workflow run a little more smoothly.

Custom Search Mode

This project contains two examples of how you can create a new search method within Innovator.

The first is a simple example that uses two fields to allow users to search on Parts by their Item Numbers and Names. This search mode is explicitly limited to the Part ItemType.

The second demonstrates an example that allows users to search on items based on the Parent Package they are in. This search mode is intended to be used to search upon administrative items like ItemTypes, Methods, Forms, etc, but it is not explicitly limited to any specific ItemTypes.

If you have modified an existing ItemType during your custom development you can't add it to any new package . In a situation like this, locating the modified item within the package structure can be challenging. The second example in this project would allow you to easily determine which package contains your item. 

Find Active Debuggers

This project will go through all your methods and look for active debuggers. Running this action before you do any packaging is recommended. Debuggers are one of a developer’s greatest tools, but they should only be included during development.

Find Parent Package

Find Parent Package is an item action you can run which will tell you which package the specific item you chose belongs to. This project is very useful for packaging, to verify that any custom development is in the correct package.

Method Editor Theme Preference

This project allows you to choose between a handful of themes for your method editor. The selection includes dark modes, for developers who would prefer a more classic “night mode” to the standard method editor. Many developers find dark modes easier on the eyes, especially when trying to debug a method for extended periods of time.

Run Client Method

This action allows you to run your client-side methods from the method editor. There is already an action in place for running your server-side method. This is useful for debugging your client-side methods, however it won’t work with all client-side forms. The context item of a client-side method is much more variable than server-side, and not all of them can be run out of context. This action will also not work with client-side methods which manipulate forms.

Even with its limitations, this action can be incredibly useful when testing your client-side logic. 

Tree Grid View Sample

This project includes a very simple demonstration of Aras Tree Grid View (TGV) functionality. The import package adds a TGV to the PackageDefinition ItemType and displays the package structure in a relationship tab on every PackageDefinition item. The user can also open individual items that belong to the package directly from the TGV. 

Since the sample uses the PackageDefinition ItemType, the project is also incredibly useful for packaging. It allows for you to see all the contents of a package without navigating through each individual ItemType. Using this project to quickly check the contents of your package will help avoid exporting unnecessary items. 

We would love to add to this collection with more helpful projects. Which community projects do you find helpful when developing within Innovator? Leave any suggestions in the comments of this post. 

Installation Note

This project uses Github sub-modules to package all of the individual projects. Because of this, the "download as zip" functionality does not work. You must clone the repository using a Git client, and update the sub-modules using your Git client of choice. GitKraken automatically prompts you to clone the sub-modules, where other Git clients may require additional steps. 

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