One of Bipsync’s many strengths is its ability to support a wide variety of content types through flexible entity management. Our clients regularly work with companies, contacts, funds, ideas and investments, and are free to extend these further with their own custom classifications. Bipsync provides a set of well-defined interfaces to manage this content — but what if a client wanted to expand Bipsync itself to introduce their own functionality and define new sections and navigation?
App-Engine, our latest feature, makes that possible.
Expand Bipsync
Users of our RMS will be familiar with the navigation menu which provides access to the many types of content that Bipsync supports. App-Engine provides a set of APIs which allows our clients to manipulate this menu to define new sections, and then define areas within those sections.
Consider the following example:
In the above screenshot, the “Internal Systems” menu item is being managed by App-Engine. It’s essentially a container for any number of sub-items, which could be links or pages of content. If we were to click on “Internal Systems” we might see something like this:
According to the way this menu has been configured, clicking on any of “PMS”, “Risk Management” or “Performance Metrics” would open the corresponding application in a new browser window. It’s easy to customise each link’s icon, as well as the order in which they appear.
The above represents a neat way to bring together all of an organization’s systems for wider exposure, but of course this is only one potential application of the feature. Links are just one of the supported content types; we can also embed whole new views within Bipsync.
Embedded Pages
Pages can be defined in two ways:
- As HTML
- As an Iframe
Each method has its advantages.
HTML is perfect for static content that rarely changes. It could be used to provide users with some advisory statements, or procedural documentation, or a monthly summary of key upcoming events. The full HTML tag set is supported, making this is a very flexible way to define content.
IFrames, on the other hand, are ideal for dynamic content. They allow applications or websites to be displayed within Bipsync for convenience, context and exposure. Consider the following example:
In the above example we’ve embedded a Tableau dashboard within Bipsync’s main context panel. Users can interact with the dashboard as if it were in its own window or tab. We’ve configured this page to show in “full screen” mode to maximise the space available.
Access Control
Bipsync’s secure sharing model has been extended to App-Engine, which means that both the navigation items and the links/pages within them can be limited so that they are only visible to users within certain groups, if that is required. Each item has its own sharing configuration, and links and pages can be nested beneath each other, so entire hierarchies of content can be tailored to a user’s permissions.
Ready to Build?
Hopefully we’ve conveyed the potential that App-Engine has to transform your Bipsync deployment through the inclusion of personalised links and pages for the benefit of users.
If you’d like to start working with App-Engine, please get in touch to begin the process.
