Axosoft Community Site

Fear the Bug, Episode 24: OnTime 8.1 Beta

MichaelR — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:00:00 GMT

The release of OnTime 2008 v8.1 is nearing, and this week we have a preview that includes a look at some of the coolest new features: wiki in Customer Portal, the new Email Tab, noficiation and alert updates, and more...

If you're interested in trying these out yourself, you can download the OnTime 8.1 Beta here.

Click here for the iTunes link.

Fear the Bug, Episode 23: Authentication

MichaelR — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:00:00 GMT

There are two different methods of Authentication in OnTime, and each method has two different ways that the authentication can take place. This week we talk about these forms of authentication.

Click here for the iTunes link.

Fear the Bug, Episode 22: Item Locking

MichaelR — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:00:00 GMT

OnTime has a secure item-locking system to make sure that while you are editing an item that no one else has access to it. This week’s podcast focuses on some of the settings that administrators can control and some of the behaviors that users can understand when it comes to item-locking in OnTime.

Click here for the iTunes link.

Fear the Bug, Episode 21: Security Roles (UPDATED)

MichaelR — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Security Roles are templates of privileges that you can assign out to your users--one or many. This week's podcast walks through the creation of a role and applying them to separate users.

UPDATED: Fixed a mistake about reporting security roles.

Click here for the iTunes link.

Fear the Bug, Episode 20: Backup & Restore (UPDATED)

MichaelR — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Did you know that OnTime includes tools to help you backup and restore your OnTime database? This week's podcast covers the basics of restoring and backing up a database through the OnTime system.

UPDATED: Added note about needing to backup from the SQL server itself.

Click here for the iTunes link.

Set the Leopard Free

Angelo Coppola — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 22:49:00 GMT

Those following Hamid's blog over at ShipSoftwareOnTime.com have probably already come across the iPhone Desktop article he published. If not, check it out; it's better than this article. It's more detailed, laying out some of the specs we conjured up. This article's more of a behind the scene's look at how we ended up with the idea and the mock ups.

Since its earliest days, Axosoft has promoted its version of Google's "20% Time" -- time developers are encouraged to explore side projects and new technologies. This time, the side project was more of a non-developer thought experiment. Hamid and I wanted to throw around some ideas, mostly for fun, just to see what we would come up with if we tried to design a feasible computer for the not-too-distant future. We spent about a day on it.

Axosoft actively tries to ensure we aren't the candle company working day and night to produce slower-burning, smokeless wax while the guys across the street are inventing the light bulb. Sure, no company's road map is crystal clear, and spending too much time "figuring out" the future is a waste of time (as if). But, jumping into "futurist" mode is great fun for some people, and it has the potential to spark great new ideas.

So, if you try this thought experiment at home, I bet one of the first axioms you'll probably settle on, like we did, is that computers have always gotten smaller and faster and will continue to do so. No huge revelation there...just take the Computer History Museum's guided tour, and it's pretty clear. Or "walk" through their virtual timeline, and you'll see computers shrinking from room-filling mammoths to Ataris, PCs, Laptops, and the MacBook Air or the OQO.

Our initial discussions seemed to persistently take us down roads that kept leading to the iPhone: Small; Internet everywhere; All-in-one device; Powerful enough to satisfy the "mainstream;" A true combination of mobility, ease of use, versatility, and power.

But it also needed to be something people could actually work on. For example, if a new cell phone the size of nickel is unveiled today, would you necessarily want it? Probably not. Would you need a needle to dial phone numbers? We still have human-sized hands and ears, so phones are only only going to get so small. At least until there's some huge convergence of technologies that makes a nano-phone embedded in your clothing a viable option.

Likewise, near-future personal computers can only get so small before they're unusable. I don't think anyone would replace a laptop with an iPhone for full-time computing, no matter how powerful it becomes, because it just wouldn't be comfortable. Even with a bluetooth keyboard and mouse, you're still staring at a 3" monitor. That obviously won't cut it.

But, what if you could dock it into a workstation? Our idea started off as a docking station you'd plug your iPhone into at home or at the office. But, wait a minute, those workstations could be anywhere -- or everywhere -- actually: Starbucks, the airport, the library, your hotel room, etc. You could work on any number of docks, but it would always be YOUR computer. How cool would that be?

I doubt we were the first people to think of this -- but we didn't come up with a match on Google. We did find a Dvorak article, though, where he wrote about why the iPhone would never replace the desktop computer...the antithesis of our conclusion. Obviously, we think he's wrong.

So, we decided to do a relatively detailed article with a Photoshop mockup to back up our vision. It only took a few minutes for us to spec it out and to realize the iPhone would probably be inserted directly into a monitor versus standing in a cradle next to it. After a few hours and about 70 image layers, I got it looking good enough to accurately convey what the iPhone Desktop we envisioned was all about.

For kicks, here's the iPhone Desktop image with some of its layers scattered about:

Then, we had to come up with a name and a tagline. iPhone Dock was no good, because it already exists -- Apple sells a charging and syncing station that goes by that name. So, we quickly settled on iPhone Desktop.

The tagline was a bit more challenging, but we didn't spend too much time on that, either. We came up with four off the bat:

Set your Leopard free.
Unleash the Leopard in your pocket.
The Leopard's out.
Is that a computer in your pocket?

We settled on #2, and slapped it onto the image, Apple-style (though the font is definitely off a bit). We picked the price-point out of mid-air, but we both think it's feasible.

I'd have to spend at least a week to fully flesh out all of my thoughts and to create proper images to help convey them. For example, I think the dock I placed in the OS is all wrong. I'd expect those applets to appear in the Dashboard when in Desktop mode. The dock would be used for beefier software. There would probably be fantastic Dashboard / iPhone integration, in fact.

I think Hamid's article conveys a good 80% of what we talked about, and the last 20% would take way too much effort, for our purposes. And, that's what Apple engineers are for, anyway.

Final thought: after mulling over the concept, sketching and spec'ing it out, thinking about all of the possibilities -- it no longer seems like a question of "if" but a matter of "when." If Apple's NOT already working on some variation of this idea, I'd be surprised. What about you? Do you think this is the model for the future of computing (the next 5 - 10 years or so)? If not, where are we headed? After all, if it's not this, it's something.

Fear the Bug, Episode 19: Worklogs

MichaelR — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Worklogs are the time sheets of OnTime. They help track the time your developers spend working on bugs and features, or the time that tech support staff work on incidents. There are several ways to interact with worklogs and this week's podcast covers them in detail.

Click here for the iTunes link.

Fear the Bug, Episode 18: Field Template Basics

MichaelR — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Did you know that field templates can be applied two different ways? And that the two "edit" buttons on the main interface tie directly into how these field templates are used? This week's podcast discusses these topics and how to control such permissions through security roles.

Click here for the iTunes link.

Fear the Bug, Episode 17: Reporting Shortcuts

MichaelR — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Last week we talked about filtering reports through the main interface by clicking on projects, filters, text searches, and column sorts. These four different data modifications can be inserted into a report "shortcut" and run with one click of a button. Learn about reporting shortcuts inside.

Click here for the iTunes link.

Fear the Bug, Episode 16: Reporting Basics

MichaelR — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Need some help getting started running reports? This week's podcast covers the basics of running reports and sending data to those reports. Did you know there are four ways you can manipulate what data is sent to a report without any direct report customization? Check out the podcast!

Click here for the iTunes link.

PureChat demo video at Mix 08

Jonas — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 21:58:00 GMT

Dan and I were at Mix 08 this year, and we had an opportunity to film a short video showing installation and use of PureChat 1.1.

Enjoy:

http://visitmix.com/blogs/OpenSpace/Demo-of-PureChat-from-Axosoft

Fear the Bug, Episode 15: Custom Fields in Action

MichaelR — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:00:00 GMT

This week's podcast is for new users who want to see custom fields in action. Watch this video to see the usage of custom fields inside field templates.

Click here for the iTunes link.

PureChat v1.1 Released!

Jonas — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 21:11:00 GMT

At the end of January, we unveiled our first release of PureChat. Today I'm happy and proud to announce version 1.1 of PureChat, available for download at http://www.axosoft.com/products/purechat.aspx.

Version 1.1 includes some very cool new features, the most notable of which is we've done away with the requirement that the hosting site be an ASP.Net web site. You still need a .NET 2.0 or 3.5 server to install PureChat, but the site that you want people to request chats from no longer has to be ASP.Net based. What we did for 1.1 was remove the web user control, and replace it with a very small snippet of HTML and javascript. Just drop that snippet anywhere on your web site, and you are all set. :)

Another announcement is (I believe) a first for Axosoft, in that we are also selling the source code, both for single-site licensing, as well as for redistribution. Now if you want to add things like database functionality, or include PureChat in your own application for redistribution, you have that capability.

We're looking forward to the next few months to see what overall response is, and what new features we'll be adding to PureChat down the road.

Fear the Bug, Episode 14: Customizing Sections

MichaelR — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 16:00:00 GMT

This week's podcast shows how the major and sub tabs on the main user interface can be renamed and removed. Also, we show how to add tabs that are large text fields.

Click here for the iTunes link.

Fear the Bug, Episode 13: History and Audit Trails

MichaelR — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:00:00 GMT

This week's podcast focuses on how you can see the history of your defects, features, tasks, and incidents, as well as project wiki pages.

Click here for the iTunes link.

Fear the Bug, Episode 12: OnTime 2008 Resources

MichaelR — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:00:00 GMT

There are lots of free resources that are available on the web for those interested in OnTime 2008. This week's podcasts points out all of these resources for those who are new to OnTime. Take a listen to hear about forums, blogs, training classes, live demos, and more!

Click here for the iTunes link.

Fear the Bug, Episode 11: Configuring E-mail

MichaelR — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 16:00:00 GMT

When users want their e-mail to integrate with OnTime 2008, there are a couple settings to activate. This week's podcast covers those settings to help your e-mail send and receive properly through OnTime.

Click here for the iTunes link.

Axosoft PureChat

Jonas — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 20:27:00 GMT

At Axosoft, after we ship major releases of OnTime, we typically have some time to unwind and work on other side projects. These have been ways for the developers here to learn new technologies, or to try out new features and additions to technologies we're currently using. So after we launched OnTime 2008, we had to come up with something else to do to try and let our brains cool down for awhile. :) We also wanted to try and work on something that may have more practical uses in the future, rather than working on purely theoretical ideas.

One of the ideas we came up with was a web-based chat application that could be used for things like technical and pre-sales support. With that in mind, I'm thrilled to be able to announce that we're launching our first product other than OnTime for commercial release: Axosoft PureChat.

There's plenty of other places where we will talk about PureChat from a marketing and sales standpoint, so I wanted to highlight some of the technical aspects of the product.

PureChat is written entirely with C# and javascript, against the 2.0 .NET framework. It uses Microsoft's ASP.Net AJAX, as well as selected controls from the AJAX Control Toolkit. Before I go any further, I just want to say that the Atlas (I think I'll always call it Atlas, it's shorter and sounds better) javascript framework really adds a lot of value and productivity for doing any sort of extensive work in javascript. Major kudos go out to that team at Microsoft.

When we were thinking about the initial goal for PureChat, the main goal was simplicity of use and installation. Everything in PureChat is web-based, there are no thick client apps to install or run, for either the chat operators, or the end users that are requesting chats. As far as installation, there is a small dll (around 520kb as of this writing) that is the PureChat assembly. If your web site does not currently use ASP.Net AJAX or the AJAX Control Toolkit, we provide those assemblies as well in the release. There are also a dozen or so files you will have to copy in to your website architecture. These are the markup pages, user controls and other support files that make PureChat run. To get PureChat up and running, all you have to do is drop the markup for a user control onto your page (typically this would be a master page or a control that resides in a master page, for example a header control). Once that's done, we provide starter images that you can use to represent when an operator is available for a chat. A chat will only be available to be requested when there is an operator logged in and present, ready for incoming chat requests.

One of the more interesting things we were able to, from a developer's standpoint, was the creation of grids and treeviews completely in code, and then sending the resulting HTML to the client. We use the built-in gridview and treeview controls that come with ASP.Net on the operator's console, to display things like the list of pending chats, the operators that are currently logged on, and other pieces of information. We create these objects completely through code, render them to a string, and then return the string as part of class that gets returned to the client, serialized as a JSON object.

Again, we're very excited about this new product. Please leave any comments you might have here, or on the forums.

Fear the Bug, Episode 10: Tips for Upgrading to OnTime 2008

MichaelR — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:00:00 GMT

This week is for anyone who is still on OnTime 2006 or 2007 and wants to move to the latest and greatest version of OnTime 2008. These quick tips will get you upgraded with ease.

Click here for the iTunes link.

Fear the Bug, Episode 9: Custom Fields for Customers

MichaelR — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Tracking customized data for your customers and the individual contacts of those companies can be very important to your business. Learn in this week's podcast how easy it is to add custom fields for customer and contacts in OnTime 2008.

Click here for the iTunes link:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=270249439

Fear the Bug, Episode 8: Applying Filters

MichaelR — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Filters are a powerful mechanism in OnTime used for searches and other forms of data manipulations. In this podcast we focus on more advanced applications of filters: archiving, alerts, customer portal, and reporting.

Click here for the iTunes link:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=270249439.

Fear the Bug, Episode 7: Filters Overview

MichaelR — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Filters are a powerful mechanism in OnTime used for searches and other forms of data manipulations. In this podcast we focus on the simplest application of filters: searching data in your main grid in OnTime 2008.

Click here for the iTunes link:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=270249439.

Fear the Bug, Episode 6: Import and Export (Part 3 of 3)

MichaelR — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:29:00 GMT

Part 3 of 3 on a series describing importing and exporting in OnTime 2008:

Importing and exporting are pretty easy in OnTime, but there are always questions that come up regarding the process. This week's episode focuses on importing customer and contact data into OnTime 2008.

Click here for the iTunes link:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=270249439.

Fear the Bug, Episode 5: Import and Export (Part 2 of 3)

MichaelR — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 17:08:00 GMT

Part 2 of 3 on a series describing importing and exporting in OnTime 2008:

Importing and exporting are pretty easy in OnTime, but there are always questions that come up regarding the process. This week's episode is the start of a multi-part series to help new users understand the basics of importing and exporting items across the OnTime 2008 system.

Click here for the iTunes link:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=270249439

Fear the Bug, Episode 4: Import and Export (Part 1 of 3)

MichaelR — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 15:00:00 GMT

Also, starting this week we are on iTunes! Click here for the link:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=270249439