SpecLink-E: An Overview

Over the past few quarters this newsletter has published several articles describing our forthcoming SpecLink-E (SLE) product in some detail. As we approach the first beta release of this product, we thought it would be useful to provide an overview that also explains why we are making such a substantial investment. As we started development, we identified six areas where we thought we could achieve significant improvement over the SpecLink+ product. These included database technology, performance on the network, interoperability with other industry products, word processing tools, data updating processes, and product installation management. This article summarizes our efforts in these areas.

Database Technology  SpecLink+ (SLP), our current product, was built as a desktop application serving smaller firms, using the Microsoft Access database format. It was gradually adapted to run on networks in larger firms. The new product, SLE, uses the Microsoft SQL Server database management engine and is designed to run well in every environment, ranging from a single computer to a wide area network of computers, to computers linked only by the Internet. SQL Server is an enterprise class system that can run on a single computer, although it is designed for simultaneous use by hundreds of users in multiple locations. SQL Server is a separate piece of software, but it comes preconfigured with SpecLink-E, is built into the SLE install, and does not require a separate purchase or a database administrator. Using SQL Server, projects are stored, copied, shared and edited in a single large database. They can be backed up as well as archived and are more easily managed in this single database system.

Network Performance  The move to a SQL Server-based system facilitates a new system architecture that is expected to significantly increase productivity when users are editing projects over a network. SLE should make it easy to edit projects and documents over WAN’s (wide area networks) and VPN’s (virtual private networks). When you edit a specification section in SLE, the new system brings the entire document, including the master version of the document, to your desktop and lets you work on it there, saving it to your disk as necessary, without making time consuming “trips” over the network to get or save data. Once the document is complete you can check it back in, saving it back to the single Projects database.

Interoperability  SpecLink-E is being constructed to participate in the building information modeling (BIM) environment with a number of industry connections planned. Initially, SLE is being built to exchange data with Autodesk’s Revit Architecture 2008 system. BSD is developing a pivotal application dubbed LinkMan-E (LME) that is designed to act as an intermediary, a “dashboard” displaying the status of products and assemblies in multiple collaborating applications. In the first round, these applications include SpecLink-E, Revit, and BSD CostLink/AE.

To do its work, LME maintains a library of “generic” assembly objects comprising “generic” product objects. LinkMan-E connects assemblies it recognizes in Revit to its generic assemblies and similarly links its generic products to those referenced in SLE. It displays the relationship between the two and, depending on the user’s preference, can actually select products in SLE. Using SLE’s linking system, a specification can be essentially “pre-edited” based on the content of the Revit project. LME will operate similarly to create links to and from CostLink/AE assemblies. The initial release of the LinkMan-E product is expected three to six months after the release of SpecLink-E.

Word Processing Tools  BSD licenses third party word processing components to provide core functionality in SpecLink+. For development of SLE, BSD has licensed an internationally recognized word processing component that is highly programmable, allowing BSD to add its tools, linking technology, choice fields and other features in seamless fashion. The word processor is an MS Word-like component that supports full tables management, embedded images, page view (print layout), and editing with WYSIWYG header-footer creation. The new component will allow us to import and export the Microsoft Word .DOC format and print to PDF.

Related to the word processor upgrade, SLE is expanding the four standard project templates (CSI, Military, Block and Line Numbering) to allow any number of user-defined templates. Each template is a set of paragraph styles, each style comprising a selected font, numbering format, paragraph indentation scheme, and line spacing. Styles are then assigned to each of 10 outline levels. By default, the selected project template applies to all documents (sections) in the project, but in SLE any document can be assigned its own template that overrides the project template for that particular document.

Data Updating Processes  Today, we provide quarterly updates to both software and data in a process that requires each and every computer to replace both data and software every quarter. In SpecLink-E we are separating the data updating (whether it be on a network or a single machine), from the software updating on every computer. The new Master database updating will be performed via the Internet. As the editors at BSD make a round of changes, or add a new document, or heavily update an existing one, the completed change will be queued on BSD’s server as a package waiting for pickup.

Meanwhile, at the customer’s site, SLE’s server software will periodically poll BSD’s server and download newly available packages, applying the change to the customer’s Master database. Since the SLE server software runs continuously, this activity could be scheduled to take place in the middle of the night or on weekends, when it would least hinder other office activity. Keeping projects up-to-date with changes to the Master will work similarly to SpecLink+. Once changes are posted to the Master database, the server software will mark each project (that has not been marked with a permanent “Do Not Update” flag) with the changes, and the project manager will decide if and when to apply the changes to the project.

Product Installation  The server software will be installed with installation techniques that are more or less standard. However, the software that runs on each user’s computer, referred to as client software, will use a new technique that Microsoft has named Click Once installation. The customer will need to make a single installation to a location on the local or wide area network that all users can access. For the very first installation on each user’s computer, the user will need to run the setup file from the network install. Administrator rights are not required to run this install and no questions are asked during the install. The software is installed automatically to a subdirectory deep in the user’s Local Settings directory. The Click Once installation technique is a new, Microsoft-recommended and supported approach to network installs and also works on a standalone computer.

When BSD delivers an update to the Click Once client install, either by download or CD, the customer will need to install it to the same location on the network used for the original installation. Each client installation automatically checks this location at each start-up of the client software and, on finding a new version, automatically updates itself. Users are not required to do anything. It is also possible to rollback a client installation once performed if, for example, there is a problem with the new version.

And More  There are of course more new features. For example, there is a new optional security system that lets you assign an administrator and set up user roles for specific users that determine the user’s access to the software and to certain important commands. It’s also possible to set up project level security to determine which users have access to a given project and in what role. But we don’t want to spoil all the surprises.

If you are a current SpecLink customer or are willing to become one, you can sign up to participate in the upcoming Beta Program. You need to be willing to work with software that is not production ready, and you need to fill out anomaly reports as you run into problems. You will likely run into problems but you will also get a feel for what is coming down the pike, and what the future holds for SpecLink users. To apply for the beta program send an email to support@bsdsoftlink.com with the words “SpecLink-E Beta Program” in the subject line. For current subscription customers, you will receive the SpecLink-E upgrade as part of your subscription. There are no additional charges, although subscription prices are expected to rise somewhat as we move forward.