Adding new members

see the off topic post at the following address
http://www.proivrc.com/index.php?showtopic...amp;#entry18835

Rob has kindly volunteered to add new members manually until a resolution to the spam issue if found. Thanks Rob

PROIV Aurora with Open Client

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fYtcNmR564

We are live on 6.2.35.0

We went live with 6.2.35.0 on Sunday across all our environments (development, unit and systems q.a. and production). We migrated from 5.5. There have been no issues and all is working as it should. We also moved physical machines, migrating from 32 to 64 bit (linux). All our web pages are using the new 6.2 Gateway without issue. Which is more than can be said for our planet press upgrade

PROIV Next Generation

If evidence was required that PROIV are on the verge of greatness again, it was provided at the PROIV technical conference I attended in London two weeks ago. A number of PROIV customers were invited to participate in discussions with the PROIV R&D manager and the engineers. It was a true eye opener to learn what can be achieved in the current product and to discuss the features of future versions. Nothing was off the table for discussion. It was especially refreshing to observer that from the PROIV R&D side, the implementation technicalities of suggested enhancements were never raised as issues. It really was a case of tell us what you want and we will go figure it out.

We were also shown a demo of the new java based framework product (code name Aurora) that allows for the seamless integration of a PROIV application into a browser based dashboard/navigation system. We also saw it in a real application (ResouceLink). It was a humbling experience as it made the applications we have written here at TowerHill, both in PROIV and Java, pail in comparison. I do not want to steel the PROIV's marketing departments thunder, so I will shut up now on this.

On the final day we were invited to the PROIV R&D offices. Those guys are 'in the zone'. An army of developers all content in the knowledge that they have invented something that no ones else is doing. The Margret Mead quote sprang to mind. Never underestimate that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world, indeed it's the only thing that ever has. I think they already know it and left with the feeling that the product enhancements that we put forward were already on their mental drawing board, along with a bucket load of things we had not thought of.

I will be cross-training our 12 java guys onto PROIV in the new year...and yes I did say onto.

See you in the new year...

PROIV Version 6.2 progress update

All of our testing is now complete and we are preparing our environments for the upgrade. We have installed 6.2 on our new development server and four Q.A. servers. We are using the license feature that allows a PROIV server to obtain the license from another licensed server. This will allow us to pool and fully utilize the licenses across all environments.

As an exercise I am re-writing our claims sub-system in 6.2 to take advantage of all the new features. I am specifically writing it with a view to deploying it in the Open Client, although it will also render the same in the Windows client. I thought it may be advantageous to share with you some of the features I have used and some recommendations.

PROIV Developer. Developing PROIV functions using the new PROIV Developer (previously known as VIP) is blisteringly fast. This is especially so in my scenario where I am looking at the source code for multiple functions. The new Developer has the ability to open up multiple functions and they appear as tabs. To navigate from one function to another is as simple as clicking on the function tab. Cutting and pasting is a breeze.

Single click list box event. I used this feature in the main screen that allows for the look-up of a claim. A set of results is returned back to the list box based on the search criteria. Now that I can trap the single click event I then display addition information about the selected item in an area below the list box. Using 5.5 I would have had to pop a dialogue or if using a paging screen, use the expand feature. This is much cleaner and also works with the up and down arrows as well as the mouse.

Using XMLFO feature to create PDF's. In the current system we have a feature that allows users to print pre-defined documents via Word. We use DDE to populate pre-defined book marks. This cannot be used in a browser as it breaks security. Instead I used the XMLFO feature that auto creates and optionally displays a PDF document on the fly. It turned out to be a better solution than the DDE method as we run a single PROIV report with all the fields that we would ever use with the output type of XML to a file. We then set the XML transform depending on the type of document we want to produce. The only caveat is the you have to know a little bit about XML style sheets, but there are some good examples in the Demo functions.

Navigation. There is not a single hard coded exit or error link in the new code. Every thing is data driven. We use a neat utility called Router that came with the menu driver we bought from PROIV. It allows functions to be grouped into routes or transactions that can then be called as units of code. I never have to worry about checking @PFUNCT or setting @LFUNCT ever again. A route can call another route, both dynamically or via the route definition. This is especially usefully when using transaction boundaries to control commits and/or rollbacks. Big shout out to Ged Macky and Colin Wright for developing this all those years ago.

Graphics. I used the graphics from our main application to give a standard look and feel. I have had to scales some of the frame graphics I have used as well as the icons so the edges look a little thick at them moment, but I will have them reworked to the correct size later. A big recommendation I would make if you are planning on revamping your app is to spend some money on decent graphics. I tell you, the first bight is with the eye - it will be the best money you have ever spent. Just ask HRS(Resource Link). They have some pretty cool stuff. If you are a programmer then you are not a graphical artist. That is just the way it is.

Keep the presentation layer clean. There has always been a tendency with PROIV programmers to cram as much as possible onto a single screen. I think this comes from the days when we coded for green-screen. With tabs and single click pop-up dialogues, plus bigger real estate (we use 45 lines by 117 columns) there is no longer the need. I would also recommend that you do not overlap objects (fields or text), especially when using the open client. With set properties and the refresh method there is no need to do this anymore. It also simplifies the code by removing duplicate overlaying fields that are have different behavior switches defined e.g. Mandatory Input and Display Only. The other thing to remember is that unlike the Windows client - where the PROIV engineers had direct control over how it worked - they do not have the same luxury with browsers. I suppose it is sort of like flying a plain via remote control. Do not expect absolutely everything to display the same in the browser as in the windows client, especially with old legacy code that is all over the place. You may have to do a little housekeeping. Saying that we have functions that are 20+ years old that render fine, as they fairly clean.

The style of the layout I have gone for is unashamedly from a mock-up screen shot which I think was created by HRS (ResourceLink). Although it grieves me to say it, they have some excellent application designers and graphics people. I have attached some screen shots of the before (the shots with the green tabs) and after the re-write (with the beige and brown icons/banners). I did all this in 30 hours - and I am not making this up. Lets see a java/.net programmer do the same.