SELECTserver received an overdue facelift for the latest SELECTserver. The interface has been modernized by doing
away with the long list of links on the left. These have all been consolidated into menu pull-downs across the top of
the interface. This opens up more real estate for important things such as reports and management tasks.
The reporting functionality of SELECTserver has gone through the most evolution for
the SELECTserver 9 release. The goal with reports was to make them more efficient and user friendly. To that end, adding features such as “sticky parameters”, scheduled reports, and graphs to our most used reports has a large
impact.
All reports have a consistent configuration interface to create, save and run a report. This report configurator is now always available to the administrator even after a report is run. This allows for quick tweaks to report parameters so reports can be regenerated quickly and efficiently without resetting to the top level of the report configuration.
Once familiar with the vast array of reports, administrators will key in on a select few reports they frequently run. Saving the report parameters allows the administrator to quickly generate and regenerate the report(s) whenever the need arises.
Often when researching usage, or simply running multiple reports, the parameters may not change, or if so, only slightly. To add efficiency, SELECTserver now retains the report settings during the session. As such changing from report to report is effortless.
As efficient as running a report can be, having SELECTserver take care of it and email the results is about as efficient as one can get. The interface mimics that of setting up a reoccurring meeting. As such, reports can be setup
quickly and sent via email in Excel, Word or PDF format.
Report tables are helpful to determine usage trends and finding sources of use. Adding a graph option to applicable reports makes reading and interrupting the data more user-friendly. Color coded bars indicate the source of usage,
pooled, checked out or TRUST use.
Since the beginning, SELECTserver has provided methods to restrict who may post usage to SELECTserver. This has been accomplished by only allowing designated users, machines, domains and IP ranges/addresses to post usage.
Controlling how usage is posted has been done by white-listing; meaning if the user, machine, domain or IP address are listed, they are allowed to post usage. The latest SELECTserver has the option to either make a list a white-list or a black-list. Those black-listed will be denied the ability to post usage.
Bentley Update, part of the new BentleyConnect client, allows the user to receive product updates from Bentley as soon as they are available. Similar to the Windows Update Service, Bentley Update monitors for new product releases and updates, and alerts the user if an update is available. The latest SELECTserver gives the administrator control over what updates are made available to users. The administrator can lock to a specific version and/or generation (no future updates will display) or allow for the latest and greatest versions to be presented to the user.