Find out about the main changes in our product releases below. |
As an admin, you now have the option to use ready made CONNECT wide default themes as well as colour palettes for charts, in addition to creating both from scratch yourself.
The aggregation editor, where an admin configures aggregations to group submissions for displaying them on dashboard charts, has been redesigned to help you build aggregations in phases.
We added a couple further enhancements to the data import process:
After validation, more granular data on your valid entries is shown: number of new entries and existing entries that will be updated
After validation, by default, you see your invalid entries in the data table to help you either work on them directly or to download them for later. You can use a toggle to display also the valid entries.
If your user account is linked to permission profiles, now also the data on dashboards is displayed according to your permissions, as was the case already with the data table view.
As an admin, when you import questions from another data collection template, the question conditions are no longer imported.
Importing data in excel sheets to your data collections just became easier:
You can download an empty excel template directly from the Import screen
After validating your data, you see a summary of the valid and invalid entries
You are able to finish importing your valid data entries, even if your data set includes invalid entries
You can download the invalid entries and work on them later
The Chart dashboard widget supports now two new use cases:
You can show ‘trend’ on your Number chart, essentially comparing your current value to a data point in the past, and display the change in either percentage or absolute value
“Impact statement” is a new layout for the Number chart, allowing you to add an icon/image and additional text to give context to your data
For dashboard charts in general, you have the option to have several data disaggregations in one single widget and navigate between them using a button bar.
We have added a “What’s New” section to CONNECT for communicating release changes. You can access the release information via a new icon in the header toolbar.
As an admin, you can activate a workflow for your data collection via the Workflow tab under Settings, as long as you have not added any submissions to the data collection. Previously, this was only possible at the creation of a data collection.
As as admin, you now have the chance to display either the question names or codes in the data collection template editor.
The CONNECT platform has a new fresh look and feel!
This release implemented several improvements to the CONNECT configuration process:
Data collections:
After creating a new data collection, you are now taken directly to the Template screen to add questions and the status of the data collection is automatically set to ‘Active’
You have a new admin screen to view all your data collections in a table view
You can archive and delete data collections
Chart templates:
As a new feature, you can create and manage chart templates in a new admin screen and select them for use in the Chart Editor window
On the result dashboard, you have the possibility to expand all results with one click to show all indicators.
Geo question: when you add a polyline to a geo question, the total lenght of the line is calculated and displayed in the question field.
You can trigger recalculation for calculated questions for all submissions in a data collection via the data table menu. This is useful when the data collection template contains referenced values that change.
As an admin, when you create a new data collection template, you can now import existing questions from another template.
As as admin, you are able to delete maps in the Map admin section.
If your CONNECT tenant has multiple workspaces, you can now resolve tasks in any of the workspaces, regardless of where the task originates from.
For admins, the dashboard chart settings editor has been redesigned: you now start by choosing your chart type and only then the data source.
Zoom available for topological map charts
Spanish as a new language option
Indicators dashboard widget: hover over an indicator to see a visualization of the targets
When you upload a picture with location info to your data submission, the geo coordinates are now correctly saved
Polylines are displayed in the map view of a geo question
Dashboard widgets can now be downloaded as image files also on the Next Generation dashboards.
Your results model data, including indicators, can be downloaded in the BMZ (German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development) effct matrix template as an editable text document.
User profiles can now be workspace specific. This will help you for example in setting up a program structure, where your users can have a global view of the collected data as well as project specific views in each of your sub-workspaces.
You can colorize dashboard charts based on data thresholds. This feature was already available for topological map charts and has now been added to bar charts.
All data entry fields across the platform have a new look and feel with an outlined style for easier readability and data entry.
You can now download the visual representation of your result model hierarchy as an image file on the Result Model tab under the Results and Indicators section
Up to now, you have been able to synchronize data submissions from multiple data collections into one collection, within a single workspace. In this release, we are introducing the capability to also synchronize data across workspaces. This feature is especially useful if you have project specific workspaces and you want to create a global or program level aggregated view of your data.
It is now possible to create hierarchies for your data. The current use cases for this feature include geographic and organizational hierarchies that can be applied for data aggregations on dashboard charts. The first implementation is for the Topo map charts: you can use a hierarchy in your data aggregation which will let your users drill down the data.
Administration: as an admin, you now have a user interface to create and manage workspaces and units for your tenant. Previously these tasks were performed by the MIS development team.
The Indicator Details dashboard widget that came out in the 2021.14 release, got a design update for the Next Generation dashboard. Visualizing your indicators' progress is now more impactful, take a look here.
We added a new custom option for defining update frequencies for data collections. You can now define any number of days as the frequency when new submissions should be added to a data collection. The update frequency is used for example to create tasks for users who are responsible for data reporting.
On the subject of tasks, if you are utilizing multiple workspaces in your MIS platform, you will now always see all of your tasks in one list, regardless which workspace you are in and which workspace the tasks are created in.
This release brings the option to upgrade your dashboards to a more flexible and user friendly version. You can keep using your existing dashboards or replace them with the ‘next generation’ version with the following benefits:
Updated look and feel
New flexibility for using various different sized cards to fill your dashboard
Easy drag & drop feature for resizing and moving your cards in dashboard edit mode
Possibility to predefine custom layouts for different screen sizes
In addition to exporting data submissions as Excel files, you can now also download submissions as PDF files. This applies to both single, a filtered selection or all data entries in a collection.
To complement the ‘Last Data Collection Updates’ dashboard widget, we have created a 'Next Data Collection Updates' widget. This widget lists those collections that you have set an update frequency for to help you keep track of the timeliness of data reporting.
For calculated indicators the indicator dashboard now displays a link to the data collection that is used as source for aggregating/calculating the current value.
Tooltips for map charts were enhanced. You now have the possibility to include a link to the data entry that the point on the map is referring to and also to display an image from the submission.
When you manually enter coordinates to a Geo question, you can now open the map and verify the point before saving the data submission.
This release continues the launch of new GIS features:
Administrators are now able to upload topological data to the tool.
When adding a geo point to a Geo question you now also have the option to directly paste coordinates to the form instead of opening the map and either dropping a pin or searching for a geo point / address.
In addition to displaying an overview of all your indicators on a global dashboard, you can now also display individual indicators as their own dashboard cards showing the current and target values with a visualization of the progress.
You can add comments to data submissions. An example use case for the feature is the approval workflow for data submissions: when a reviewer rejects a submission, they can leave a comment to the data reporter explaining what needs to be updated about the data entry.
It is possible now to create calculations for selection questions to, for example, determine a status of an activity based on the responses.
We also enhanced a few of the already released GIS features:
A new ‘Hybrid’ basemap gives you a third visual option, in addition to the existing ‘Map’ and ‘Satellite’ views, to display your data on maps.
The map legend was boosted with some new configuration options, including optional titles and non-numerical thresholds.
Data form editors can now manage all the Geo question attributes in the template editor user interface instead of using the JSON editor.
The feature for sharing data collections across workspaces that came out in the previous 2021.12 release has been enhanced with the following usability improvements:
The system now automatically shares also the references that the data collection you want to share may have.
It is possible to add new submissions to shared data collections from all workspaces.
The default system Yes/No question is automatically shared across all workspaces.
Also the Tasks feature got some improvements related to submission approval workflow:
Data approver - The link in the task for approving a data submission now takes you directly to the submission that needs your approval (or rejection).
Data reporter - If your submission is rejected, you get a task to revise and resubmit your data entry.
Map charts on dashboards have been enhanced with new features:
Set up filters so you can filter data on a dashboard by selecting an area on the map (e.g. a province)
Create your own custom color coding scheme
It is now possible to import GPS coordinates as part of data sets.
Shared data collections enable you to share data sets across your workspaces and remove the need to enter for example structural and institutional data, such as districts and schools, separately for each workspace.
We have added an alternative data entry mode for data collections. The new ‘wizard’ mode guides you through the different sections of the form and lets you Save only at the end of the form thus ensuring completeness of data.
The scope of the Tasks feature was extended to cover overdue data collection updates. A Task is created for the responsible persons when the update frequency is exceeded without a new submission.
Related to the Tasks feature, you can now add multiple responsible persons for both data reporting and submission approvals per data collection. If a data collection has the approval workflow activated, then the persons responsible for approvals will get a Task when a new data entry is submitted for approval.
You can now modify the size of the data entry form dialog window to better fit the amount of content on your form.
It is possible to add navigation links pointing to external websites.
Filters on global dashboards support now also charts with calculations.
Deleting Submissions: You now have the possibility to define per data collection whether approved submissions can be deleted by users with the appropriate permissions. Submissions can be deleted if they are not referred to in another data collection.
Data Collection References: The nested data collection functionality has been improved. For example, if you have participants and events that you link together via a nested data collection, you can now filter the participation list by participant and event thanks to an explicit link between the two. Also, references to other data collections do not have to be displayed in a separate tab on the data collection form anymore. You can now add the references to your template just like any other item or question.
Dashboard Filters: You can now configure filters also for global dashboards that combine analytics from more than one data collection.
“Last DC Updates” Dashboard Widget: Items that have a Next Expected Update date that has passed are marked in red.
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