Some thoughts on improvements

RocketRod

After having used Aware IM for sometime now I have some suggestions for the package. They are not in any particular order. Hopefully they are not available now and it’s not a matter of my miss understanding! Of course with some of these there are work a rounds that exist now but having options to do some of these things just makes life easier and expands the power of the package. Let me know Suport if you would prefer to receive this sort of information some other way in the future but I wasn't sure where to place it?

On the console provide a facility to view what users are logged on to what BS’s and to provide the ability to send them a message to their screen. This can then be used to ask users to log off for example for publishing a new BS (just some users) or server reboot (all users).
In the console log when you have set incoming mail on messages appear at each scheduled cycle which details the name of the email server. Add to this either the BS name or the mailbox so if there is a problem you know which BS it relates to as they are all working off the same email server!
When using In Line editing on a query allow an option to turn the attribute indicator either on or off. If you have editing turned on for each attribute or query column it can look messy for a user and once they have been trained they know they can edit each column anyway.
Allow for expanded attributes to be displayed automatically so you can have two rows per instance displayed on initial display. Also for the Group option.
Add a new attribute type GRAPH that will display the attribute in either a pie or bar chart form. The attribute to have two options either percentage or absolute. If absolute a maximum value is entered. Can be sized like picture or Goggle map on each form. This could be used to display graphically such things as free disk space or outstanding loan amount or days left on a contract.
Improve the report writer.
Allow the About Aware IM on the status bar to be turned off for all versions of the product.
Have a function SUM that works on the BO instances in context rather than on the whole BO as is the case now.
Add an attribute to incoming email notification to identify it either as plain text or HTML so you can display it correctly more easily than is the case now.
Change the export to excel feature on a query to either export what’s displayed or all attributes. If you have a large number of attributes to display the screen looks messy as you have to place them all there.
For the document attribute be able to set upload, view or delete explicitly on or off on a form. in other words not based on user access.
On the console have an option to show all scheduled jobs for all BS’s and the date time last run.

Cheers Rod

tonyjamero

I have been using and developing business space for a few months and I certainly agree that the Report writer needs some improvement.

aware_support

Thank you for the feedback!

We encourage everyone to provide their thoughts and suggestions, so that we can improve the product further.

nlarson

Good ideas; I would particularly like to see 5 and 6.

#5 would be awesome as described but I wonder if perhaps instead of an attribute it should be a cell type which allows a query to be returned. That way you’re not creating a second unique methodology for handling graphs. Would that do what you’re after Rod?

On #6 I am sympathetic on the report designer as I did a major project on skinning the SQL Reporting Services API to allow our clients to design/publish RDL’s over the web for our SaaS CRM system. We put about 300K into that project over a few years and it’s never quite hit the mark. If I had to do it again I would suggest trying to leverage an open source tool like Jasper Community as the included option, but offer support for the paid products as an optional service.

I also would add these.

Allow forms to have unique properties/mechanics when used as a search:
- Allow dev to define a multi-attribute contains search. from a single field input to great a fast find. This could further be expanded with FTI to make a more google-esq style of search on databases which support FTI.
- Search a range for Date, Number and Timestamp attributes. IMHO I rarely want a specific date and nearly always want a range. It would be even better to have some features to allow common tokens like last 7 days, next 30 days, etc. We did this in the CRM system I was product manager of and users loved it.
- Allow DropDowns and Reference Attributes to populate in Search forms so the user can select the match rather than having to remember and typing in the text value.
Consolidate the toolbars. This is a pet peave of mine with EXT, the share volume of wasted space for header bars is amazing. I believe the Create/Save/Close/Delete/collapse/print/traverse, ect. Should all be in the same tool bar whether top or bottom is selected.
Add a Create and Close function which would create an instance AND close the pop up window. Add it to the toolbar covered in #2
Support LoggedInRegularUser attributes for initial values. For example initial value for BO.RecordOwner to ‘LoggedInRegularUser.DisplayName’.

Overall I continue to be thrilled with this tool, but a few refinements would make me happier still.

nlarson

oh and...

Calculated fields are nearly impossible to read. A better approach would be to use the same styling for Shortcut attributes for all Calculated fields. This is a much better visual AND is cross browser compatible.

Thanks 🙂

RocketRod

On the graph attribute, yes thats an interesting concept and would suffice I think.

A few more things are:

The read only attribute lightness issue is a major issue which to me needs to be addresses ASAP. Users just cannot read the information on the screens and complain continually. Surely there is some way around this as its a major drawback to AwareIM.
When using an existing external table you loose any attribute values you have previously set, such as formats and inital values when reloading the table due to say having added an extra attribute to the table externally.
When editing a BO in the config tool I would like it to display the basic attribute vales without having to edit an attribute. For example the size for text attributes and if its a calculated or must fill.
This one may be a misunderstanding on my part, but I can't see how to preset the AwareIM server memory setting to a value like I can do for Tomcat and JBoss when deploying a runtime version for customers.
When using grouping in a query allow all groups to be collapsed initially or not.
Identify special BO types in the config tool in some way as I always forget and have to edit them to find out. Like appointment BOs.

Cheers Rod

nlarson

This might help on your new items.

For #1 my work around (for now) is to use an HTML cell type with a simple <<bo.attribute>>. This is a pain and does not allow attribute format rules so it's of limited value but better than nothing.

#4 from the control panel go to settings and you can set memory for all 4 parts of the app stack.

nlarson

Just realized you needed read-only which I assume is situational and based on user rights in which case my work around is pointless. I only have calulated fields, nothing is read-only (YET), but it's the same issue for both. Hope that gets resolved soon.

RocketRod

Yes I'm talking about read protect rules which are great but users can't see the data!

Also on memory I'm also talking about presetting it for a deployment in a config file like the startupOptions.props file. Can't see how you set the AwareIM server memory option here although the other three are catered for.

Cheers Rod

tford

10. Change the export to excel feature on a query to either export what’s displayed or all attributes. If you have a large number of attributes to display the screen looks messy as you have to place them all there.

Looks like build 1425 has some improvements in this area.

http://www.awareim.com/changelog/Readme1425.txt

RocketRod

I have just tested it out and it works well. Great that the EXPORT action now supports displayed items on a query. This means that you can now display a limited number of attributes on a query but have a button that calls a process to export the attributes you wish via a second query.

Could I be so bold though to ask for a refinement in that it uses the label and not the attribute name preceded by the BO name. Or even better make this an option? This allows us to present to a user a spreadsheet with meaningful names for them to work from. I can understand the current column naming convention if you wish to import the information back into the application. However a lot of times its only used to export.

A good addition support.

Cheers Rod