This release is a bit shorter but don’t let that fool you… there are some really exciting updates in this release! Rolling out to most accounts on 9/14, users can now upload PDFs and other file types into Tulip tables!
App Editor
You can now add triggers to input components that fire when the enter key is pressed
This is a very exciting update… you can now store documents in Tulip tables! This includes PDF, XLSX, DOCX, STL files and more. Files can be uploaded directly to Tulip tables or from an app using the file input widget.
Added a FILETOTEXT() and TEXTTOFILE() functions so externally hosted files can be stored in tables.
Added support for over 20 new languages as well as improvements to translations around the app editor
Analytics
The new file field type is supported in analytics
The title and content font sizes can be adjusted when showing a table-style analysis
Stations, Devices, and Machines
Mitutoyo caliper measurements can now be captured on EdgeMC devices
Warnings are now displayed on the machine configuration tab for mapped edge device tags that are out of date
Fixes, Bugs, and Performance Improvements
The app overview page allows you to add an app description
Here’s a quality of life improvement… you can delete all unused variables in a single click from the variable modal!
When you upload the file you can then view the table record field or variable (whichever is holding the file) just like you can view images or videos stored in variables. CSVs, for example, will show up as text that is scaled to fit and can be highlighted. You can also click on the file name and it will be opened up in another window.
Here is an .stl, clicking on the stl filename pops up a new window and asks me where I would like to save the file
Here is a pdf, clicking on the pdf link pops up a new window and allows me to print, download and so on
Does this match your expectations or were you imagining something else (like a button and a trigger that says “open up save modal for variable xyz”)?
@youri.regnaud with regard to the Mitutoyo calipers, there are drivers that you can enable on the Edge device. I’ve uploading the documentation around our feature testing to provide more clarity. PLAT-12613 Test Evidence - Google Docs.pdf (2.6 MB)
Output HTTP connector support image with a url that can be use as a source for variable. If url is a pdf link can you be source for File widget/variable? In other work, can i show in Tulip a pdf store on a cloud storage (AWS S3 bucket, Windchill PLM) if I have a API that give me the link to the file?
Both the file upload widget and the tables UI both support mapping to an eternally hosted pdf, for something like a connector return, a TEXTTOFILE() function exists:
Is it possible for the variable widget to think about enable/disable print and download options when the variable is a file?
Can you tell us max path size? (URL in a Windchill is quite long)
Some API returns directly a Content-Type = application/pdf response. WIll be nice if this new file variable can be also an output format available in HTTP connector and File URL
The Engineering team just checked into this. In short, when another service is hosting a PDF, we are reliant on them populating a content-type to determine if it can be rendered. For Tulip hosted PDFs, this will always be the case, but some other hosting platforms don’t populate this field. I wrote a feature request to guess the filetype based on the file extension (.pdf, for example) but that also comes with drawbacks.
Is it possible for the variable widget to think about enable/disable print and download options when the variable is a file?
Great idea, I just wrote a feature request for this. I see no reason technically this would be challenging.
Can you tell us max path size? (URL in a Windchill is quite long)
The table is just storing a reference to a URL (in text), so within some bounds you shouldn’t ever run into link length issues (if you do, let us know). Technically, when that URL gets above 1gb, Chrome might struggle with available memory, but that’s gigantic.
Some API returns directly a Content-Type = application/pdf response. WIll be nice if this new file variable can be also an output format available in HTTP connector and File URL
Native file support for both input and output of connectors is a hot topic right now. It isn’t something that we are currently working on, but bringing file support to apps and tables may justify the reprioritization of the next ~2 quarters of work.