Introduction to LiveView – functionality, usage, and best practice – 2c8 Help center

Note: LiveView is available for users with a subscription or an enterprise agreement. If you are unsure about your current type of agreement, or if you would like to convert your licenses into a subscription, please contact sales@2c8.com or read more about the conversion process by clicking here.

What is LiveView?

LiveView is a new publishing feature where published models are updated automatically, making changes visible without any manual publishing step. This is configured in the server settings via the 2c8 Portal.

Do you want to know how to set up a LiveView publishing site? Click here.

Do you want to watch a video walkthrough of LiveView? Click here.

What is the difference and benefits between a manual publishing site and a LiveView publishing site?

Automatically updated – a LiveView publishing site updates automatically, with no manual publishing process required.
Users can focus on modeling instead of publishing.
Always up-to-date content with no dependency on individuals performing the publishing step.
Improved access control for the publishing site – access to a LiveView publishing site can be controlled via OIDC, i.e. Single Sign-On (SSO).

The following functions are not available on a LiveView publishing site:

It is not possible to generate PDFs for models, lists, or matrices via LiveView publishing.
It is not possible to download export files from the publication.
Lists containing entities do not work.
The “Copy file when publishing” function does not work for documents.
The Stratsys plugin, Flexite plugin, or M-Files plugin do not work.
The feature for notifying subscribers upon publishing will not work.

Search function in the publication

The search function in the LiveView publication is updated nightly at 02:00. This means that if you cannot find specific content, it may be due to the search index not yet being updated.

How should I think when using LiveView?

In LiveView, as described above, the material you create in 2c8 Apps is automatically updated to your publishing site. Therefore, it is important to have a clear approach for which models should be visible to users and which models are still under development.

This is where the web profile becomes relevant, and it is important to carefully consider filtering in the web profile to ensure that the correct information is displayed in your publication. Since published material is updated automatically, structure and quality assurance become an important part of the daily work with a LiveView publishing site.

Approaches for publishing models

Approval flow - 2c8 Approve

One common setup is to only allow approved models to be included in the structure published via LiveView, while work-in-progress material is handled separately.

One advantage of using a governance flow is that you always know that only approved models are published, and you gain version history for your models. For more information about the governance flow.

Fields

Another way to simplify your work in the web profile is to use fields in 2c8 to control what should be published. It is also possible to manually select which models are included in the publication directly in the web profile.

The difference between using fields and manually selecting models is that fields remove the need to return to the web profile each time you want to add or remove models.

Fields can also be presented as a list in the modelling tool, where you can mark serveral which models should be included in the publication. When a field value, such as “To be published,” is set on a model, it is automatically included in the publication.

Key takeaways from this article

LiveView means that changes made to your working material in 2c8 Apps are immediately reflected without the need for manual publishing. This saves time and reduces dependency on manual steps and individuals in the publishing workflow.

At the same time, it is important to carefully design how publishing is controlled in the web profile. You can choose to only display approved models, but it is also possible to publish without an approval flow by using fields if you want a more flexible approach. Regardless of the approach you choose, or whether you combine several approaches, it is essential to have clear routines for what content should be visible, how information is structured, and how content is quality-assured and kept up to date.

By combining LiveView’s automatic updates with a well-thought-out structure for selection and filtering, you get an efficient publishing solution where the right information is always available to your end users.

For questions or support, please contact 2c8 Support