Layout, Layout, Layout - if you are an Enterprise Lens Illustrator then think about how you would like to lay out your illustration. The Layout Engine within Enterprise Lens is incredibly powerful but some time up front could save alot of time at the other end.
Google Bookmarks: If there is an Illustration that you use on a regular basis then add it to Google bookmarks by clicking the star at the end of the URL.
Google Bookmarks - Sharing your Illustration: You can share a Google Bookmark and provide an easy way for you and others to open straight to an illustration without having to navigate the Enterprise Lens directory structure. (Assume the person you send it to has access to the directory)
PowerPoint: You can embed a URL to a PowerPoint into any Illustration and open it at the click of a button
Case Sensitive: Everything in Enterprise Lens is case sensitive - usernames, passwords, lens lookup values, data attributes etc.
Zoom: As most Illustration are reasonably detailed, we strongly recommend setting your browser zoom setting to 75%
Ordering: You can order just about everything within Enterprise Lens. You can set order values for most things within Enterprise Lens and even though a Lens or Association or Style Guide entry may not be close internally - visually they are ordered when you go to view-mode.
Naming: Try and use clear names for your Illustration. You may have many Lenses, Box Types and Associations and having clear names will be useful later when presenting your Illustration.
Associations: Do these towards the end - creating associations is quite simple and can be done a number of ways, with the most commonly used being Attribute Value Lookup and Attribute Reverse Value Lookup. These only take a minute or so to create so spending time on Tip 1 is really important.
Multiple Monitors: Where possible, use two monitors when developing an Illustration as you can login into the Illustration on one monitor and login to the same Illustration on the other monitor and use it for reference. Or if doing a new version of an Illustration, have the current Illustration on one monitor and the new version of the Illustration on the other monitor
Associations Render Function: When you create a new association (other than "Default Association"), you should delete the Render Function as it Set Box Property from Attribute and allow default "DefaultAssociation" to set the association color.
Stories: Create these last as Stories save the state of the Illustration, especially new boxes. If you add boxes between stories then they will not display in an earlier story and you will need to use the BOXES left hand menu to enable them.
Default Illustration: Where possible, leverage the default Illustration. It will only continue to get more feature rich, designed to save you time and effort.
Adapt Style Guide: Augment your Style Guide to have the colors and palette of the company you are presenting too.
Company Logo: It is always nice to use the logo of the company you are presenting too. As Enterprise Lens is a SaaS tool you cannot simply paste an image. However you can reference one. If you navigate to your customers website and hit the F12 key, you will be able to locate their company logo for reference.
Style Guide: Create your own Style Guide(s) for use with different client or different Industries and have the naming convention to suit
Contemporary Colours: When designing your Illustration, it is recommended that you use a subtle background colour and lighter fore colors
Colour Help: There are many tools out there than can assist with colors. These are two that are often used: Eva Design system and Material Palette
Colour match: One of the best tools we have found during the creation of Enterprise Lens and colour matching is Snagit by TechSmith
Filters: When creating a Box Type for filters - we suggest you make each Filter their own Box Type. For instance, If you have two Filters eg Risk (with values High, Medium and Low) and Change Readiness (with values High, Medium and Low). If these filter belong to the same Box Type then (if using an attribute value association) when you highlight "Low" both Low (for Risk) and Low (for Change) will highlight.
Badge Numbers: The order of the Badge numbers is important. Particularly with Set Box Badge xx Property . A higher badge number acts like a "bring to front". Eg if you have two badges that display a colour within a Box. The higher badge number will "sit on top" of the lower badge number.
PowerLenses: The parent Box Type and the Child Box Type MUST be different in a PowerLens, else the PowerLens will hide the entire Box Type when you turn it on.
JSON Tools: There are many good JSON tools in the market. If you need some assistance in editing JSON Visual Studio Code or finding the missing comma etc - this one maybe useful JSON Beautifier
Import/Export - Lenses: Consider adding lenses before exporting. If you have several Choice Lenses (ones with a lookup) then when you export these to Excel they will pass through as Excel in-cell drop downs and could be really useful assisting people populating the Illustration during a discovery phase.
Import Excel: - brings in new columns (but not new rows of data)
Import Excel (Canvases): - brings in new columns (but not new rows of data)
Import Child Boxes: - brings in both new Row and New Column data
Illustration Design: When designing an Illustration or dragging parts around, it can be extremely useful to amend the Configuration parameters in the right hand menu. Illustration Width/Height and View and Edit mode spacing
Illustration Edit: The Multi edit tool on the top header menu can select some, part of all of an illustration, allowing you to make mass changes at a single time. This feature also has three modes: Click - selects all children, CTRL-Click selects the Parent and Shift-Click selects the Parents Children.
Microsoft Teams: Enterprise Lens can be used in its current form inside a Microsoft Teams TAB. You can use the main url https://www.myenterpriselens.com or you can use the URL of the Illustration that you would like to share.
Microsoft Excel: There are several handy Excel formulas that make for an easier life. These have been documented in the Admin document.
Performance: Enterprise does the majority of the processing on the client side. If performance is sluggish, look to see if there are any rogue processes running.
Save your Illustration: remember to save your Illustration on a regular basis as it is a SaaS solution and closing your browser will close your Illustration
Save your Illustration: You can use the Import/Export function to copy your Illustration code to the Downloads directory.
Access: you don't need to have your PC to demo the software. As Enterprise Lens is a true SaaS solution, you simply need access to the internet.
Names and Attribute Lookup: - All Associations are DATA DRIVENyou can export these Asscociations to Excel, amend/change these import them back.
Style Guide: Scroll to the bottom of Styles in Edit Box Form - for commonly used ones.
Associations - Rule of thumb
SINGLE: if it's a single FROM value looking up a list then use a Attribute Values Reverse lookup (and it's going to look at any value in the target type looking for the value that you've got),
MULTIPLE if there are multiple FROM values then use a normal Attribute Values lookup and point it at the single value you want to match it with
Boxes UUID's - Looks up the name of the Box you are joining to (you provide the attribute or convert a Lens. If more than 1 name then comma separate them)
Box Reverse Lookup UUID's - Looks at the Box Name you have moused over and Joins it to ANY attribute from Permitted Box Type with the same name
Names Lookup - Looks up the name of the Box you are joining to (you provide the attribute or convert a Lens. If more than 1 name then comma separate them)
Names Reverse Lookup - Looks at the Box Name you have moused over and Joins it to ANY attribute from Permitted Box Type with the same name
Attribute Lookup - Looks up the Attribute Value you want to join to (you provide the attribute name or convert a Lens. If more than 1 name then comma separate them)
Attribute Reverse Lookup - Lookup up the Attribute Value from an Attribute
Did you know that you can convert a Lense straight to an Association
Attributes Values Lookup - did you know you can export your Associations to Excel - amend/create new associations and import them back.
Default Association Attribute - show many joins example and how the Association style is standard. You change it in a single place
If you use Attribute Values Lookup for an association that Joins A To B, then it is extremely likely that you will use attribute values reverse lookup that Joins the same Boxes from B To A. Same goes for Names and Names Reverse Lookup