Friday, June 26, 2009
Over the past few months, we have been upgrading parts of GrandView to use the most up-to-date third-party controls to offer the best web experience possible to our users. Most non-standard web controls that we use come from Telerik, a widely known provider of quality, highly functional controls for both web and client applications. The first major update we want to share with you is: The RadEditor.
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RadEditor replaces the RichTextBox, mostly used in the composition of Status Logs. The obvious difference between the two controls is the much improved look and feel.
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In addition to looking great, the RadEditor offers more functionality and expressiveness than was previously possible in GrandView. Some of the most notable changes/additions include:
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Enhanced table editing tools, now merged into their own menu, now allows specifying the number of rows and columns in advance
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The Spell Checker now highlights all misspelled words when activated, and shows alternative spellings when a misspelled word is clicked
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The ability to strip all formatting from text when pasting from either a web page or a Word Document
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The ability to arrange a message in logical parts using Group Boxes, each box with its own header
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A Preview mode to display exactly what other users will see when a message is sent
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A zoom feature to view parts of a message up close, or the whole thing from a distance
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A Code Formatting dialog to insert code in different languages (including HTML, XML, C#, and SQL), with proper formatting and highlighting
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An enhanced Template Manager to display a list of available message templates, allowing a preview of things before inserting it into a message.
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A greatly enhanced Hyperlink Editor, which gives more flexibility when adding either hyperlinks or email links
With so many improvements, sending organized, easy to read, expressive messages to clients and team members has never been easier!
Stay tuned for a closer look at some of the other controls we are bringing to GrandView to make your work easier, including the RadUpload, and the RadChart.
Mark A. Carpenter Jr., GrandView Business Solutions Developer
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Table Editing Tools
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Spell Checker
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Friday, May 29, 2009
The RoviSys Company has grown considerably since its inception nearly 20 years ago. When you have a good project methodology and a vast wealth of experience, which for us includes over a couple thousand projects with a multitude of customers, you start to notice patterns and common questions whose answers can lead to even greater efficiency... and repeat business.
Have we worked on a project using technology ABC? Have we performed service for industry XYZ? When was the last time we completed a project using the specific technology required by our new customer? Who worked on the project and how familiar are they with the specific tools? These questions and more can be answered using the new Category features in GrandView!
Categories in GrandView are essentially labels that can be applied to any Proposal, Project, or Contact. We focus on proposals and projects now, and will discuss contacts in a future post. Categories can be applied to any proposal or project directly -- however, when an order is created from a proposal and the order becomes a project, any categories tied to the proposal are conveniently copied to the resulting project. This process is shown in the diagram below.
GrandView defines four types of project and proposal categories. The Industries > Applications category defines industries in which we do business, while the Services and Manufacturers > Products categories describe services we offer and the technologies we use to implement projects. Finally, the Keywords category is used to apply common labels to projects. Once we have categories applied to our proposals and projects, we can easily search for proposals or projects having a combination of categories using the new Sales > Proposals > Proposal List and Projects > Projects List pages. Or, for a simpler search matching just one category value, you can use the SideBar proposal or project search and select Industries, Services, Technologies, or Keywords in the Advanced search options.
Labeling proposals and projects with specific categories is not a difficult task until you've worked on more than a couple hundred projects, so it's a good idea to start early. As always, if you have any questions using these new features, click the Support link next to your company logo and we'll be ready to help!
Jeromie L. Walters
GrandView Business Solutions Developer
Friday, April 24, 2009
Executing projects consistently and efficiently is nothing less than the secret to successful and profitable projects. At Rovisys, we understand that--we've been doing it for almost 20 years. However, there's always room for improvement. To that end, we have developed a brand new module called "Project Execution." This single tab pulls together those two fundamental keys to successful projects:
- Consistency - Consistency breeds credibility--to your employees certainly, but especially to your customers. We have always had standards on how projects must be executed at Rovisys; now, those standards have been codified into a single workflow that every engineer can easily follow.
- Efficiency - As GrandView has grown over its 15 years of existence, it has become the primary place for all information we have pertaining to a project. While this has always been its intent, it can make finding a specific piece of information a bit challenging. Maybe you need to reread that key status log again, or a you're a new engineer trying to get acquainted with the coding standards in use on a project. The Project Execution tab solves this problem perfectly. It serves as an index into the project, allowing quick access to the most important files, status logs, transmittals, and links. And every item can be commented on, with full history of all changes.
The Project Execution module represents the culmination of decades of project excellence, and is just another way that GrandView is making successful projects simple.
Bryan DeBois
GrandView Business Solutions Senior Developer
Friday, April 17, 2009
In an economic time when most businesses are cash-strapped, having a good handle on your billing process is a necessity. New tools are available in GrandView to help!
New alarms are available to notify when projects are over-billed and aging invoices are unpaid. A new top-level Invoicing tab has been added that not only allows project managers and other invoicing users to view invoices across projects, but it provides a view of uninvoiced and invoiced cost across projects. This allows the ability to quickly and easiy mark invoiced cost (project expenses, hours, and purchases) as a logical step in the process of creating a new invoice. Now you can go to one place to view all of your projects that need invoicing based on your set criteria. Additionally, the Unpaid Invoices view allows you to quickly see which invoices need follow-up for payment.
Another tool that was added to the Projects menu is a Project Financial Summary view that provides order and actual financial information across projects for a quick project financial status. This view is similar to the Project Financial Summary dashboard module. Additional invoicing tools are currently being defined and designed. Look for more information in an upcoming blog post about invoicing updates.
Chris Engelmann, GrandView Product Manager
Monday, March 30, 2009
It's hard to believe it was way back in July of last year that we pondered how Internet Explorer 8 would affect your GrandView experience. Now that IE8 actually HAS been released (though not through Windows Update yet), we're happy to say our verdict now is the same as it was in our initial testing back then: everything's fine.
Our biggest initial concern was that IE8 would be standards-compliant by default, adhering to specific rules defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in an effort to have all web pages display the same in all browsers. This type of consistency is a great triumph for developers and the Internet community but could have been detrimental to our application, which still has a number of pages that do not conform to specific web standards. If IE8 only rendered standards-compliant pages we might have some quick tweaking to do; but fortunately it is still capable of rendering non-standard content and can automatically switch to a Compatibility View mode if it detects that a page has been specifically designed for a previous version of Internet Explorer. In such cases, the broken-page icon to the right of the address bar would be highlighted to indicate that the page is being displayed in Compatibility View mode.
Broken-display concerns alleviated, the good news is that you don't have to do anything to start using Internet Explorer 8 with GrandView. In fact, initial testing indicates that IE8 results in a slight speed boost over IE7, and the following enhancements suggest reasons you may want to start using IE8.
- Improved Security/Privacy:
IE8 touts malware protection and an improved phishing filter (now called SmartScreen) that warns when you visit a site known to harbor malware. The new InPrivate Browsing feature deletes all history, data, temp files, and cookies when closing the browser. The new InPrivate Filtering feature lets you block a site you're visiting from sending info to third-party sites (click the lock/arrow icon in the status bar to enable/disable). Common cross-site-scripting attacks and malicious ActiveX controls are also blocked. Finally, IE8 provides a way to delete all cookies except for sites in your Favorites list, a great alternative to simply deleting all cookies in IE7.
- Better Tabbed Browsing:
Tabs are now organized in colored groups based on how they're launched (see sccreenshot above), and it's possible to close all tabs in a group or close all except the group via the tab's right-click menu. Right-click on a tab to reopen a previously closed tab. If a page on a tab crashes, only the tab (not the entire browser) is closed.
- Enhanced Address Bar:
The address bar can now function as a search box to search using your default search provider. It also looks for entered text in recent URLs and site titles to show a filtered list of your matching Favorites, History items, and RSS feeds. When viewing a site, the address bar now highlights the domain, with the rest of the URL grayed out, so you know for sure which primary site you're visiting (e.g. the site http://paypal.fakesite.com would have "fakesite.com" highlighted).
- New Accelerators and WebSlices:
Accelerators work somewhat like mini-applications, allowing you to perform some action when text on a web page is highlighted. They allow you to do useful tasks such as map a location when an address is highlighted or translate the selected text. The nice thing about Accelerators is that they pop up the map/translation/etc. directly in a small pop-up so you don't have to navigate to another page. WebSlices allow you to subscribe to specific content on a page, such as a stock ticker that updates frequently, so you can access the updated content directly from your Favorites bar. Unfortunately only a few Accelerators and WebSlices are available at this time.
This list simply highlights some features of the new Internet Explorer 8 web browser. For more detailed information, check out PC World's complete review. IE8 is currently only available from Microsoft's website but reports indicate it will be released to all users on Windows Update the week of April 13th and will be available as an automatic update as early as April 27th.
Jeromie L. Walters
GrandView Business Solutions Developer
Friday, February 27, 2009
Recently, the GrandView Team came to the end of a long and storied journey--we retired the final few ASP pages from our application. When I first started working full-time at Rovisys in 2002, GrandView was an application fully entrenched in Classic ASP. We had an n-tier architecture with VBScript accessing VB6 COM objects which in turn queried a SQL Server database. It was a decent architecture (and best practice at the time), but it was plagued with IIS resets, DLL-hell, and frequent strange errors.
In college, I had done a lot of research into Microsoft's brand new .NET platform and its promise of more rapid development, better security, and more powerful applications. I brought that knowledge to Rovisys, and with my encouragement, we began to implement a few key pages in ASP.NET. The beauty of a web application is that, unlike a desktop application like Microsoft Word, each page is like a miniature application and can be upgraded to new technology independently. There were some caveats with this approach, but we managed to make it work. And so, for six years we developed all new pages on ASP.NET, converted older ASP pages when we had the time, and continued to maintain both technologies.
After all of the pain and heartache it had caused us over the years, it was without the slightest regret when we finally converted our last page from ASP to ASP.NET. And because of our methodical testing and deployment policies, from the perspective of our users Classic ASP left GrandView with a whimper instead of a bang.
I remember those first few months of developing in .NET and knowing that this platform was going to be something special. Years later, Microsoft's investment in .NET continues to grow and its use is pervasive throughout Rovisys. Its promises were, for the most part, fulfilled in that GrandView runs with much less intervention than ever before. And that means a more reliable project management system for you.
Bryan DeBois
GrandView Business Solutions Senior Developer
Monday, February 02, 2009
As a part of the GrandView Support Team, we want you to know that you're never alone while using GrandView. We're committed to providing you with excellent support and are continuously evaluating and improving our processes to make sure you have access to the help you need.
One of the quickest ways to get help in GrandView is using the online help. Anytime you see a help icon you can click it to get more information on how to use a data view or dialog. Alternatively, you can click the Help link next to the company logo in GrandView for reference documents on specific topics.
Requesting help from support personnel is just as easy. Clicking the Support link next to the company logo in GrandView displays an online feedback form, automatically pre-filled with your contact information. You can use this form to ask a question, report an error or unexpected result, request an enhancement, ask for help using a feature, or even just let us know how we're doing. Any and all constructive feedback is welcome, and we have support professionals waiting to hear from you!
Email, phone, and fax support are also available. More information about these methods, as well as quick references and a direct link to the online feedback form, can be found on our website. Just navigate to grandviewbusinesssolutions.com and click on the Support menu item.
We look forward to serving you!
Jeromie L. Walters
GrandView Business Solutions Developer
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
One of the most common (and feared) parts of project execution is the "punchlist." This is a list of observed problems with the project deliverable that you created. Punchlists are not to be feared, however. Good Project Managers recognize that there's no such thing as a perfect system, and they see these bugs as an opportunity to show the customer their ability to react effectively and decisively. While GrandView has always had ways to share punchlists with your team (e.g. through file sharing, status logs, etc.), we have decided to make punchlist mangement--or Issue Tracking, as it's known in the industry--integrated into GrandView's already powerful project management capabilities. But, there's no point in creating a new Issue Tracking system from scratch--there are already plenty of high-quality open-source systems to choose from. That's why the GrandView Team will be adding the ability to plug-in select Issue Tracking systems. The first system to be enabled will be Redmine. This full-featured Ruby on Rails-based system has everything a project manager would need to effectively create, assign, and resolve issues. Over the next few months, we will be laying the framework for Issue Tracking directly inside of your projects.
Bryan DeBois
GrandView Business Solutions Senior Developer
Friday, January 02, 2009
image source: raebrune
Back in January, we talked about how the Configuration Management features of GrandView allow you to collaborate with customers through the process of document creation, review, and approval. Now we've extended that concept to tracking your tangible deliverables as well.
Often times, documentation is just one component of the final product for a project. Many RoviSys projects also require building some form of equipment as part of the end result. We may require parts from multiple vendors, or may ourselves be a midpoint in the final chain to delivering some part to a customer. Keeping track of assembled parts, and knowing where they are in the process of shipment to the customer, can be very confusing if you don't have a system in place to record it easily.
Enter the newest addition to GrandView Configuration Management: Equipment and Shipment Tracking. Similar to documentation, equipment (parts) can be entered manually from the Equipment tab. But there's another, perhaps more familiar interface for creating parts as well -- purchase orders! To save you time entering all parts from purchase orders, GrandView automatically displays your existing purchase order parts as equipment! Once parts are received in the Receiving area of GrandView, ideally by your company's receiving manager, they can be shipped to any customer site. Tracking your shipments in the Project Status area of GrandView means your team can locate equipment with a single glance at the equipment view and never again have to wonder "Where's my equipment?"!
Jeromie L. Walters
GrandView Business Solutions Developer
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
The .NET Framework 2.0 contains a vast set of features that GrandView developers take advantage of daily. While it provides everything we need to make GrandView a rich suite of project management tools, newer releases provide an even greater amount of functionality and flexibility that we would like to leverage.
In version 3.0, four new technologies are introduced:
- Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is Microsoft's new user interface subsystem. In addition to supporting hardware acceleration, it can elegantly combine many types of media (including 2 and 3D graphics, animations, audio, and video) into a single client or web application.
- Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) unifies the way applications can communicate and interact, even across networks.
- Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) provides a framework for defining, executing, and managing workflows.
- Windows CardSpace enables people to more easily and securely maintain a series of digital identities without having to remember different sets of usernames and passwords.
Introduced in version 3.5 are a variety of Language Features:
- Language Integrated Query (LINQ) allows for the rapid development of on-the-fly, in-code queries to SQL Server, XML Documents, or other objects.
- With Extension Methods, developers can quickly add custom functionality to their current code, or even modify the .NET Framework's Runtime Library.
- Anonymous Types, Automatic Properties, Object/ List Initializers, and Lambda Expressions simplify development: they limit the amount of redundant or complex code developers need to write, and lets them focus on what's really important - developing new and exciting features for our GrandView users!
- In addition, support for AJAX is now built-in, in the form of ASP.NET AJAX, opening the door for more dynamic web experiences.
GrandView is currently implemented using the .NET Framework 2.0, but shifting to .NET 3.x would require almost no effort or development downtime, as the newer versions are backward compatible.
We are always looking ahead to new and useful technologies that can help make GrandView a more complete and robust project management solution!
Mark Carpenter
GrandView Business Solutions Developer