ShapeIdeas is a knowledge and concept mapping tool for the education sector. ShapeIdeas includes support for BPMN (Business Process Modeling Notation), UML (Unified Modeling Language) and Mind Mapping as well as inking for use on Tablet PCs and interactive whiteboards.
History
The original version of ShapeIdeas was released as ShapeIdeas Sneaky Peek 2006 in late December 2005.
The next version of ShapeIdeas 2008 is targeted for release on January 14, 2008.
Features
ShapeIdeas features support for two major modeling 'languages' - Business Process Modelling Notation, and Unified Modeling Language, to simplify the creation of process models. It also supports Inking, in the sense that you can 'draw' or write directly into the 'whiteboard', and contains a web browser, for the gathering of external information.
Database Support
The original release of ShapeIdeas Sneaky Peek 2006 only had support for the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 database. However, ShapeIdeas 2008 is planned to support Microsoft SQL Server 2005, Microsoft Access 2003 and 2007 databases, MySQL 4 and 5, and PostGres SQL. Support for the ShapeIdeas proprietary format, ShapeIdeas Information eXchange (.SIX files), which is based upon SQLite, will also be supported.
Currently, there is no way to transfer a database into a different format (eg from Microsoft Access to MySQL). However, this a feature planned for future releases. This feature will be delivered by allowing a ShapeIdeas Repository to be exported to a set of XML files ready for re-importation into another format.
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