Hi all,
We’re pleased to announce a new version of Bulk Updater!
First time you’re using Bulk Updater? Discover how to use it in our Knowledge Base!
There are lots of changes, let’s talk about them.
Core features
Export as reader
We recently introduced the ability to export a library without updating your spreadsheet, but you still had to be administrator of the library to export data…
You now have access to all libraries in the domain, even those in which you’re not an administrator!
As a reader you can’t access the update mode, but you still have access to Bulk Updater’s filters and splitters in advanced mode.
Note: To avoid errors, only library administrators can access the update mode. Contributors can’t access the update mode.
Refresh your spreadsheet on-demand or automatically
If you were to summarize this release in one word, it would be REFRESH. Why? Because with this feature, we’ve answered three recurring issues. Here’s what our users have been telling us:
- “I’m using Bulk Updater to extract some figures from my library, but my spreadsheet is outdated because my colleague has been working on it in AODocs all day. Now I have to create a new export.”
- “Some updates failed, I want to check the current values in AODocs.”
- “I’m using an Awesome Table view to display some corporate figures, but I want to configure when and how often data are refreshed from AODocs."
With the new refresh feature in Bulk Updater, you can do what you used to do with Awesome Table views, but without the limitations.
You can now refresh:
- On-demand: either a simple export or an export with update, from the user interface
- Automatically: within a dedicated web page – you just have to choose if you’re expecting an update every hour, every 4 hours, or at a specific time every day
Move to another folder
This is self explanatory: you can now change the AODocs folder!
Warning: If you create lots of folders that don’t yet exist in AODocs, it may take some time to create all of them.
Customize the export name
Let’s say you’re configuring and generating an export for a specific business case. You can now specify the name of your spreadsheet with your business case, instead of using the document’s location. Just specify the export name in the form!
Note: Once you’ve defined the export name, you can’t change it (for now).
Spreadsheet features
Errors: the reason why
It’s annoying to see that an update is in error without any other explanation than “server error” or “something’s wrong”, right? Where possible, Bulk Updater now displays the reason why the update failed. This may be due to a missing value, an incorrect date format, a category that isn’t dynamic, etc.
Customize the spreadsheet name
Before this release you couldn’t edit the name of your spreadsheet without breaking the update feature. You can now rename the sheet containing the export – everything will be fine!
Sort columns
It’s been a while that you’ve been hearing your colleagues say these kinds of things:
- “Don’t sort your spreadsheet my friend, it will break all of your documents in AODocs.”
- “I heard Mike managed to export, but he had to unhide columns A and B beforehand – I don’t know why.”
And they were right! You had to unhide these columns to be able to sort. Column A was the row identifier and column B was the signature (i.e hash) of the document.
Why did you have to unhide them? Because when a range is reordered in a spreadsheet, only visible cells are reordered, not hidden ones. The information in these two columns is mandatory for Bulk Updater when it reads row by row, so a mismatch was fatal for the update.
Since these two columns are crucial (but mustn’t be modified by the user) we decided to display them towards the end of each row, just before the columns Status and Reason.
Note: No system columns are displayed if the update feature is disabled.
User Interface features
Export page: even easier to use
The export page has been split into two:
- Simple version: enter your domain and library, then your class and view; name your export, and go!
- Advanced version: all of the above, plus advanced features such as filters, queries and splitters
Also, the blocks appear progressively as you fill them out.
Minor features
Revamped user interface
We revamped all the screens. Here’s the new Create advanced export screen.
New menu in Recent exports screen
In the Recent exports screen, we grouped the actions available in a single menu.
Replace All in your spreadsheets works correctly
Bulk Updater now handles the Replace All function in your spreadsheets correctly.
Edit read-only fields as administrator
As an administrator, you can now edit the values of read-only fields in your spreadsheet.
The following properties are read-only.
Administrators can edit their values in the spreadsheet.
Have a new feature idea or request for Bulk Updater? Continue to share your ideas in our community.
Thank you in advance and enjoy this new version! We look forward to hearing what you think.
The Bulk Updater team :)