[en] New in Label Management Systems

[en] NiceLabel 2019 provides an improved user experience while installing the NiceLabel Control Center product in high-availability environments. Many companies that install NiceLabel LMS Enterprise decide to deploy NiceLabel Control Center database on an existing Microsoft SQL Server running in a failover cluster to avoid any unplanned downtime.

[en] For years, NiceLabel LMS Enterprise supported such installation scenario with an installation process that required the use of the external tool. The administrators had to understand the installation workflow and use external NiceLabel tools to install the database first, and then to install the Control Center.

[en] NiceLabel 2019 streamlines the installation process by integrating the database setup tool into the main installation.

[en] NiceLabel 2019 provides the familiar Document Management System (DMS) features with a reorganized user interface. The main intention behind visual changes was to make the user interface simpler and more intuitive:

[en] Figure 10: New layout in Control Center

[en] The cloud and on-premises editions of LMS differ in a few details. The cloud LMS does not have features that are on-premises related (such as Automation, Archiving and Application Users). For more information, see the KB article Differences in NiceLabel 2019 compared with NiceLabel 2017.

[en] NiceLabel LMS ships with a few preinstalled workflows to help you manage the label lifecycle. The available workflows include a simple approval process, in which a single approval is required, a two-step approval process, in which two different users must approve documents, and a delayed publishing approval process, in which documents can be approved today are published automatically at a specified time in the future.

[en] Figure 11: Defining rules for a custom approval workflow

[en] If the built-in workflows do not provide enough flexibility for the company’s environment and needs, NiceLabel 2019 provides an easy way to create custom workflows. Customers can create new workflows that perfectly fit their approval processes, which might vary for different types of documents. New workflows can also be used to allow different groups of people to approve different documents.

[en] Each time a step in the workflow process changes for a file, the system sends out notification emails to the next person(s) in the workflow process. These alerts minimize the chance of a delay while processing the files to their published state.

[en] Figure 12: Selecting individual approvers who receive a notification email

[en] When changing a workflow step, you can see a list of emails to which notifications are sent, if you configure the workflow that way. The list derives from the workflow definition. By default, all emails are selected. If you want to send notifications to a subset of recipients, select them using checkboxes.

[en] At least one email address must remain selected.

[en] The familiar Print management functionality in Control Center continues to provide real-time monitoring of printers and printing queues even in the largest LMS environments with several hundreds of printers.

[en] Figure 13: Updated view of all licensed printers

[en] These are the Print management changes in NiceLabel 2019:

[en] NiceLabel 2019 provides a new tool for restoring the print history that was archived in the past. The tool reads all records from the selected archive Microsoft Access file(s) and copies them back to the main Microsoft SQL database. The archive files remain unmodified. The restored records are accessible for analysis from the History tab together with the new records.

[en] This feature makes it easy to prepare the system for audit inspections or simply to create views of consolidated data across several years.

[en] Figure 14: Tool for importing the archived records back to live database

[en] The restored print history occupies your live database. When you no longer need to access the old records, the tool can also remove them from the live database. You can repeat the restore/delete operations as many times as you need to.

[en] NiceLabel 2019 provides a new centralized option in Control Center to manage the replacements for database connection strings. Connection strings contain parameters that inform NiceLabel about the database location and how the data can be retrieved.

[en] The design of the labeling solution in NiceLabel is usually done in the development environment, in which you work with the development copy of your data. After the testing is done, the solution is transported into the production environment. This environment contains a live product database with the same structure as the development database, but with a different location. The live product database is located on a different server and possibly requires different user credentials.

[en] Figure 15: Defining connection string replacement

[en] The new option in Control Center allows you to define the database connection string replacements centrally and to apply them over the entire production environment. The solution configured for the development environment connects to the live database in the production environment automatically. You do not need to create a copy of the solution to adapt connection strings to the production environment. Each replacement executes a simple search/replace command that is configured using “find text” / “replace with” parameters.

[en] Database string replacement works with NiceLabel clients that connect to the same Control Center (NiceLabel Print, NiceLabel Automation, NiceLabel Web Client).

[en] Document Management System already indexes each label that your store in the system. Having all metadata pre-indexed dramatically improves the search speed, particularly when your DMS stores many labels.

[en] NiceLabel 2019 delivers performance optimization for “search by file content” operations. Now, the system executes search requests on the Microsoft SQL server, returning the results in real-time.

[en] NiceLabel 2019 adds another security check to prevent the users from locking themselves out of the system. For Label Cloud, you cannot save access role configuration change unless you define at least one user with the Administration access role. For the on-premises installation, you cannot enable authentication until you assign at least one user with the Administration access role.

[en] Control Center remembers the currently selected folder in the Document tab. After you navigate to some other tab within Control Center and return to the Documents tab, that same folder remains selected. The same folder is also selected by default when you are selecting a file to be used for Web Applications.

[en] The folder is remembered within the same user session. This small change makes a big impact on the user experience in Control Center.

[en] An important change was made in the security permission for reverting labels to the previous revision. Reverting labels is useful if you want to scrap changes made on the current label version. If you revert, you make a duplicate of the previous revision and set it as the latest version.

[en] In NiceLabel 2019, all users with read-write access to the labels can also revert labels to any previous version. Designers oversee the label design and are typically the ones that need to revert the label to previous versions. Previously, only members of the Administration access role held the permission to revert.

[en] With NiceLabel 2019, archiving is configured in the Administration tab. The old desktop configuration has been retired. All database configuration is done using the Control Center user interface.

[en] Figure 16: Setting up archiving in Control Center

[en] The new Archiving option in the Administration tab gives you control over the archiving process. The history log of print details is growing along with printing activities. The more you print, the more space is required in the database.

[en] In non-regulated industries, you might not need to keep the print history for long. You can configure the data retention details for the records you need in the database. One option is to simply delete the old records. The other option is to archive the old records in an Access database.

[en] NiceLabel web printing system allows you to instantly deploy a standardized label printing process across departments, factories, locations, and even business partners. The core functionality for the design and execution is not changed, you still use Document Storage with version control and workflow processes.

[en] NiceLabel 2019 introduces a new configuration approach, but the functionally retains the already familiar Web Printing. Provisioning for the labels and solutions has been improved significantly. We introduce the concept of Web Applications, which use labels or solutions from Document Storage. You can give access to the same Web Application to single or multiple users. When you add users, they automatically receive an invitation email with details on how to connect to the shared Web Application.

[en] Figure 17: List of Web Applications

[en] Web Applications extend label printing access from your co-workers to external users. The same user can access multiple Web Applications. After you open Web Client it runs your solution immediately. If you are assigned to two or more labels/solutions, the Web Client displays a list of available items for you to select.

[en] Figure 18: Properties of a Web Application

[en] You can keep the Web Application’s default settings for all users, but you can also configure settings per user, such as the available number of printers, initial values for data sources, and print logging.

[en] Powerful search allows you to quickly find the Web Application by its name, description, and solution/label file.

[en] Before starting Web Applications, NiceLabel authenticates the users and validates their access permissions. Authentication enables NiceLabel to know who you are, and which Web Applications you are authorized to use.

[en] In NiceLabel Label Cloud, the users are identified using external authentication providers. For more information, see chapter Authentication and authorization on page 7.

[en] The on-premises editions keep the existing support for Windows and Application authentication types.

[en] Cloud Trigger is a bridge between cloud-based data and on-premises printer infrastructure that eliminates the need to expose your LAN to the internet or to open any inbound communication in the firewall. Cloud Trigger runs in on-premises NiceLabel Automation and provides fast data processing on the local infrastructure and access to on-premises printers.

[en] Label Cloud administrator gives the external integrator access to the NiceLabel API in the cloud that enables secure and encrypted communication between the cloud business system and Cloud Trigger.

[en] Figure 19: Architecture diagram for Cloud trigger integration

[en] Cloud Trigger deployment building blocks are:

[en] There is a load-balancing mechanism built into the Cloud Trigger. You can run Cloud Trigger with the same unique ID on multiple servers. All active triggers are registered in the Label Cloud account. The logic in NiceLabel cloud API determines which of the registered servers receives the data for processing.

[en] Scheduler trigger works as a timer that starts the execution of actions in your configuration after a time delay. You would use the scheduler trigger to set up repetitive automated execution of time-dependent actions.

[en] Figure 20: Configuration for the Scheduler trigger

[en] Scheduler trigger is an active trigger. This means that it does not wait for an event change but starts executing the assigned actions as soon as the defined time interval ends. You can define the trigger to start in intervals (seconds, minutes, hours), daily at a specific time, and on specific days.