PrimeObjects Latest Improvements

Generic Site List

Gary Zhang — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 18:30:45 GMT

PrimeObjects improved the presentation, usability and features of the list in a more functional way.

The new list will have 3 zones. The Zone 1 is a Category zone allows user to easily filter records in the list by category. The Zone 2 is the list itself. The Zone 3 is the preview of the selected record that allows read detail information of a record without opening it.

The whole new design relies on one dashboard and four reports in the plaform. It brings the highest flexibility to customization.

Dashboard:

Generic List

Reports:

Generic Category Tree
Generic List Preview
Generic Category Cloud
Generic Tag Cloud

The preview content of a list will be shown based on the format defined in "Generic Side Preview" report. However developer can design different preview report for different entity. For example, developer can design a special report called "Sales Order Side Preview" to preview a sales order record in the list.

The following SQL Statement can associate a special report to a entity as the list preview report

UPDATE EntityUI SET PreviewReportId = 'C581C284-A553-434D-9FCD-F86864175708' WHERE Name='Sales Order'

There's a few parameters need to be defined in the url of page that renders the Generic List dashboard.

Parameter Name	Required	Description
EntityName	Mandatory	This tells the entity of the lists.
CurrentFocusId	Optional	Sometimes we want to only show the records filtered by a focused record in the list. For example, we want to show a list of documents regarding a specific Project. In this case Project is the focus when showing the documents. We need to pass the project ID as the value of the CurrentFocusId parameter.
CurrentFocusAttributeName	Optional	This parameter works with CurrentFocusId parameter. When we pass a ID as the filter value, we need to define on which attribute the filter should apply. In the exsample above, the attribute name used to filter a document could be InstanceId attribute of the Document entity.

In a business solution developed on PrimeObjects Platform, the default.aspx page usually is the page rendering a dashboard. The URL of showing a generic list of all documents will be look like this. (note: c26b1d3b-8c72-44cf-9dd3-726a83cf2d9f is the id of the Generic List dashboard).

http://domainname/appname/Default.aspx?EntityName=Document&DashboardId=c26b1d3b-8c72-44cf-9dd3-726a83cf2d9f

How to change the ID of a record

Gary Zhang — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 18:54:17 GMT

In case the user may want to change the ID of a record, the following steps can be followed. This function gives user more flexibility and control to the record.

Click the Record Information Button on the form of a record.
Click the Update record ID button on the Record Information Dialog
Put the new Record ID into the input text box and click Update button

A better inline editing feature is designed to avoid popup window when updating a record.

Gary Zhang — Fri, 28 May 2010 20:51:19 GMT

IsLocked feature allows you lock your record from unexpected changes.

Gary Zhang — Fri, 21 May 2010 14:29:08 GMT

Based on the feedback from clients, a "IsLocked" feature was developed to improve the control of the data in the PrimeObjects system. In many cases, user may want to keep a special record safe from unexpected updates or deletes. For example a Financial Model that was created by a Sr. financial advisor for his clients or Jr. financial advisors can be locked from any changes. Although properly applied security settings can also protect a certain record from any changes, IsLocked feature makes this kind of protection easier.

Control calendar by the parameters in the url

Gary Zhang — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 22:45:12 GMT

Parameter	Value	Description
fc	true/false	fc=false: The date picker panel and caledar group panel on the left side of the full calendar will be hidden. fc=true: Show full calendar
dt	yyyy-MM-dd	Define the default date on the calendar. for example: dt=2009-02-03 means the Feb 3, 2009 will be the default date of the calendar.
cals	Calendar IDs	This parameter is used to define the filter so that the calendar will only show the activities in the specific calendars by default. i.e. cals=a9b85cde-0fa5-41e2-b61d-c6f1872d2ea2,b1a53044-0068-4abd-8858-c101547bcb77 When the cals parameter is provided in the query string of the url, the default calendar group will be set to "All Calendars".
iid	Regarding ID	If iid parameter is provided in the query string of the url, the calendar will only show the activities regarding this specified record. The activities will be filtered on the Regarding field (InstanceId attribute) of the Event, Appoint and Task records.
calgrpid	Calendar Group ID	This parameter is used to define the filter so that the calendar will only show the activities in the calendars included in the specific calendar group by default. When the calgrpid is defined, the cals parameter will be ignored.
tabs	Calendar Tabs	The tabs parameter will define what tabs the calendar should display in which order. i.e. tabs=y,m,w,d,a will show the different calendar views in the different tab based on the following order Year, Month, Week, Day, Agenda
tab	Default Tab	The tab parameter defines which tab should be selected by default when loading the calendar at the begining. i.e. tabs=y,m,d,a&tab=d, the Day view tab will be the default tab and displayed when the calendar is loaded at the first time.
appointment	True/False	The parameter primarily is used to hide the appointments from the activities shown in the calendar. i.e. appointment=false
event	True/False	The parameter primarily is used to hide the events from the activities shown in the calendar. i.e. appointment=false
task	True/False	The parameter primarily is used to hide the tasks from the activities shown in the calendar. i.e. appointment=false
session	Session ID	This is used for single signon in the case of integrate calendar in a seperate 3rd party web application.
allowguest	True/False	By default, the calendar only work for a valide user who has signed into the system with an active session. If the calendar is show to public, the allowguest=true will allow the anonymous visitors to see the calendar. To make the calendar accessible by the public, the calendar record need to be published.

Approved Signup and Self Signup

Gary Zhang — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:53:20 GMT

The signup dialog box provided by PrimeObjects platform allow external and internal user to self-signup the web applications built on PrimeObjects platform. The "Allow Auto Signup" (Attribute Name: AutoSignUpNeedApproval) setting on the organization will tell whether the organization allow the user to activate their login user by themself. If the "Allow Auto Signup" is true, an email will be sent to the user who requested a user account by filling the signup form and allow the user to activate user account by clicking the link included in the email. If the "Allow Auto Signup" is false, an email will be sent to the "SignUp Administrator" and only the administrator can activate the user account by clicking the link included in the email.

Note: A system user becomes the "SignUp Administrator" if its "Is SignUp Administrator" (Attribute: IsSignUpAdministrator) setting is true on the System User record.

YadaURL.com

Gary Zhang — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:42:09 GMT

Are you sick of posting URLs in emails only to have it break when sent causing the recipient to have to cut and paste it back together? Did you run out of space because of long URL in twitter post or in a piece of web content? Then you've come to the right place. By entering in a URL in the textbox, we will create a tiny URL that will not break in email postings and never expires.
Check it out http://yadaurl.com

Web Safe Colors in Color Picker

Gary Zhang — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:39:52 GMT

Some years ago, when computers supported max 256 different colors, a list of 216 "Web Safe Colors" was suggested as a Web standard, reserving 40 fixed system colors.

The 216 cross-browser color palette was created to ensure that all computers would display the colors correctly when running a 256 color palette.

This is not important now, since most computers can display millions of different colors. However we borrowed it to provide a predefined color list in our Color Picker, so people can easily select a standard color.

000000	000033	000066	000099	0000CC	0000FF
003300	003333	003366	003399	0033CC	0033FF
006600	006633	006666	006699	0066CC	0066FF
009900	009933	009966	009999	0099CC	0099FF
00CC00	00CC33	00CC66	00CC99	00CCCC	00CCFF
00FF00	00FF33	00FF66	00FF99	00FFCC	00FFFF
330000	330033	330066	330099	3300CC	3300FF
333300	333333	333366	333399	3333CC	3333FF
336600	336633	336666	336699	3366CC	3366FF
339900	339933	339966	339999	3399CC	3399FF
33CC00	33CC33	33CC66	33CC99	33CCCC	33CCFF
33FF00	33FF33	33FF66	33FF99	33FFCC	33FFFF
660000	660033	660066	660099	6600CC	6600FF
663300	663333	663366	663399	6633CC	6633FF
666600	666633	666666	666699	6666CC	6666FF
669900	669933	669966	669999	6699CC	6699FF
66CC00	66CC33	66CC66	66CC99	66CCCC	66CCFF
66FF00	66FF33	66FF66	66FF99	66FFCC	66FFFF
990000	990033	990066	990099	9900CC	9900FF
993300	993333	993366	993399	9933CC	9933FF
996600	996633	996666	996699	9966CC	9966FF
999900	999933	999966	999999	9999CC	9999FF
99CC00	99CC33	99CC66	99CC99	99CCCC	99CCFF
99FF00	99FF33	99FF66	99FF99	99FFCC	99FFFF
CC0000	CC0033	CC0066	CC0099	CC00CC	CC00FF
CC3300	CC3333	CC3366	CC3399	CC33CC	CC33FF
CC6600	CC6633	CC6666	CC6699	CC66CC	CC66FF
CC9900	CC9933	CC9966	CC9999	CC99CC	CC99FF
CCCC00	CCCC33	CCCC66	CCCC99	CCCCCC	CCCCFF
CCFF00	CCFF33	CCFF66	CCFF99	CCFFCC	CCFFFF
FF0000	FF0033	FF0066	FF0099	FF00CC	FF00FF
FF3300	FF3333	FF3366	FF3399	FF33CC	FF33FF
FF6600	FF6633	FF6666	FF6699	FF66CC	FF66FF
FF9900	FF9933	FF9966	FF9999	FF99CC	FF99FF
FFCC00	FFCC33	FFCC66	FFCC99	FFCCCC	FFCCFF
FFFF00	FFFF33	FFFF66	FFFF99	FFFFCC	FFFFFF

Pass OnLoadJS in the parameter of the form

System Administrator — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:12:34 GMT

The OnLoadJS field on the EntityUI record allows us to define the customized OnLoad javascripts to a form. However in some senarios, we may want to pass the OnLoad javascript in the parameter of the form url to make the form behave differently based on different OnLoadJS values in the parameter. For example, when rendering a new Task form for collection the feedback or issues submitted from customer, we want to simplify the Task form by only showing the subject and content. To achieve this, we passed OnLoadJS=OnlyShowContent() in the parameter of the query string so the form will call OnlyShowContent after loaded and hide all unwanted form fields. The whole url will look like this http://www.primeobjects.com/form.aspx?ename=Task&OnLoadJS=OnlyShowContent().

Note: The OnlyShowContent function need to be defined in a javascript file used by the Task entity.

Change the theme of the system

Gary Zhang — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 18:48:55 GMT

A theme is a collection of predefined property and style settings that allow you to define the look of controls, pages, forms and the whole experience of the PrimeObjects Enterprise Application System. The theme can be changed by the user of the system and will be kept in the user's profile.

Chose from themes, we have two themes at this moment and there are more themes coming.