Available since May, Release 35 introduces a significant update to the Aras Innovator® user interface, delivering a modern and streamlined look and feel throughout the platform. These changes aim to improve clarity while keeping the layout similar enough to be familiar. In addition to the UI changes, we'll go over a handful of nice-to-have features in this blog.
New UI features
As you can see, the platform's general look has shifted slightly, but not enough that you’d be unable to navigate as expected. As seen below, things like forms and search grids also got a facelift.
Additionally, new helpful messages appear when there is a lack of data in the system. Now it’s instantly clear why a grid might be blank:
For example, the above grid is empty because the Manufacturer Parts relationship has no data in that relationship, while the below icon is shown before you initiate a search in the main grid.
Theme customization
New in R35 is the ability to theme your instance of Aras Innovator. New properties in the Global Presentation Configuration allow you to set your instance's primary, secondary, and branding colors. This will change the default color of things like buttons, grids, and some client theming.
Pick related type-ahead
When adding an existing item as a relationship, you can search directly for the item you want with an embedded smart type-ahead search box. If you know what you're looking for, this will save you the effort of going through an additional modal search dialog.
Rules-Based Grid Display
This release introduces a no-code interface that empowers administrators to define rules for dynamically formatting data within tabular grids. Now, you can easily color-code critical information based on specific conditions. Highlight lifecycle state values, flag numerical data exceeding defined thresholds, or apply sophisticated styling based on complex combinations of properties – all without writing a single line of code.
In the toolbar of an ItemType, there is a new Manage Rules button, which will open a dialog for setting rules for individual properties. Here’s an example:
This quick example, which is provided out of the box, will highlight your Lifecycle State in green when it matches the condition provided. This works very similarly to our responsive forms rule editor and can be utilized for some very powerful, low-effort improvements to your team’s effectiveness. Here’s what the result looks like in the search grid.
The formatting of released parts is immediately noticeable. This isn’t limited to the state of the item; any property could be used to have some conditional formatting.
Takeaways
Those are the major improvements in Aras Innovator Release 35. It’s important to note that we also just made the open release 2025 available. This will allow you to download the newest version for free and test it out. What’s your favorite addition?
I’m excited to see how people utilize the new rules-based grid customization. Feel free to use the comments below to share interesting ways of using it!
