Ragic Web Application Developer Blog http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support Web Applications, Ragic Builder, Javascript, Spreadsheet, Databases, and enterprise IT. Ragic Builder http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support en-US hourly 1 jeff@ragic.com (Jeff Kuo) Quick Data Entry Tips: Better Form Design http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/141/2017/06/16/Quick-Data-Entry-Tips:-Better-Form-Design 2017-06-16T00:00:00UTC 2017-06-16T00:00:00UTC Fri, 16 Jun 2017 00:00:00 UTC Berrin Sun http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/141/2017/06/16/Quick-Data-Entry-Tips:-Better-Form-Design <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Y4VAux9i6U@Quick-Data-Entry-Tips4_nl.png" alt="Quick Data Entry Tips: Better Form Design Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />Your form design for your database sheet affects the amount of time you spend filling them; don't forget that designing your form in the most efficient way is key for quick data entry. Below are a couple tips to keep in mind when you're designing, or re-designing your forms: <h3>Using the Correct Field Types</h3> Using the correct field type in your form design cuts down data entry time significantly. While it's definitely possible to use <a href="https://www.ragic.com/intl/en/doc/17/Field-types#1">Free Text</a> for every field, using different field types that can <a href="https://www.ragic.com/intl/en/doc/17/Field-types#11">automatically generate field values</a>, or format what's being entered automatically is a game changer. <img src="http://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=kb&f=field_types.png" /> If you're interacting in a way that you find yourself entering dates and copy-pasting data often, you're probably doing it wrong. Check out the <a href="https://www.ragic.com/intl/en/doc/17/Field-types">field types available in Ragic here</a>, and make sure you're using the correct field types. <h3>Autogenerating your Field Values</h3> <a href="https://www.ragic.com/intl/en/doc/19/Auto-Generated-Field-Values">Automatically generating field values</a> help immensely while data entry, especially when you need to have a unique ID number for each new record, or need a timestamp along with a prefix for different cases. <img src="https://www.ragic.com/intl/common/img/doc/2-3-1.png" /> <h3>Setting Default Values</h3> <a href="">Setting default values</a> work in several different ways for different <a href="https://www.ragic.com/intl/en/doc/17/Field-types">field types</a>. <img src="https://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=kb&f=2.default_options.png" /> If you are using a <a href="https://www.ragic.com/intl/en/doc/17/Field-types#7">"Select User" field</a> to assign a task for yourself, to avoid having users clicking to select their own username each time, you can just default it to the person who is creating the task. Similarly if you find that a status of a task needs to be "New" from a drop-down menu in a <a href="https://www.ragic.com/intl/en/doc/17/Field-types#2">"Selection" field</a>, you can just default new task records to have a "New" status. Learn more about <a href="https://www.ragic.com/intl/en/doc/61/Default-values">setting default values here</a>. <h3>Applying Formats</h3> A great way of quick data entry, while also ensuring that your data stays consistent is to <a href="https://www.ragic.com/intl/en/doc/63/Date-and-number-formatting#1">set the formatting of your fields</a>. Again, each field type will have a certain way of applying formats, for example, a date field will give you many options to display dates in the way you'd like to view them. A phone number can be formatted to (XXX)-XXX-XX-XX if you need them to be. <img src="https://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=kb&f=Field_Formatting.png" /> An organized and consistent database is a great way to be able to find the data you're looking for in the long run, so make sure that you're fully taking advantage of formatting options. <b>Author's note:</b> This is part 4 of my blog series, <i>Quick Data Entry Tips</i>. <a href="https://www.ragic.com/intl/en/blog-article/128/2017/04/25/Quick-Data-Entry-Tips:-Populating-values-with-formulas">Click here for part 3, Populating values with Formulas</a>. Your form design for your database sheet affects the amount of time you spend filling them; don't forget that designing your form in the most efficient way is key for quick data entry. Below are a couple tips to keep in mind when you're designing, or re-designing your forms:

Using the Correct Field Types

Using the correct field type in your form design cuts down data entry time significantly. While it's definitely possible to use Free Text for every field, using different field types that can automatically generate field values, or format what's being entered automatically is a game changer. If you're interacting in a way that you find yourself entering dates and copy-pasting data often, you're probably doing it wrong. Check out the field types available in Ragic here, and make sure you're using the correct field types.

Autogenerating your Field Values

Automatically generating field values help immensely while data entry, especially when you need to have a unique ID number for each new record, or need a timestamp along with a prefix for different cases.

Setting Default Values

Setting default values work in several different ways for different field types. If you are using a "Select User" field to assign a task for yourself, to avoid having users clicking to select their own username each time, you can just default it to the person who is creating the task. Similarly if you find that a status of a task needs to be "New" from a drop-down menu in a "Selection" field, you can just default new task records to have a "New" status. Learn more about setting default values here.

Applying Formats

A great way of quick data entry, while also ensuring that your data stays consistent is to set the formatting of your fields. Again, each field type will have a certain way of applying formats, for example, a date field will give you many options to display dates in the way you'd like to view them. A phone number can be formatted to (XXX)-XXX-XX-XX if you need them to be. An organized and consistent database is a great way to be able to find the data you're looking for in the long run, so make sure that you're fully taking advantage of formatting options. Author's note: This is part 4 of my blog series, Quick Data Entry Tips. Click here for part 3, Populating values with Formulas.]]> 6 Tips on Getting Your Point Across to Customer Support http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/138/2017/05/24/6-Tips-on-Getting-Your-Point-Across-to-Customer-Support 2017-05-24T00:00:00UTC 2017-05-24T00:00:00UTC Wed, 24 May 2017 00:00:00 UTC Berrin Sun http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/138/2017/05/24/6-Tips-on-Getting-Your-Point-Across-to-Customer-Support <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=JE7O70bVwA@CustomerSupport.png" alt="6 Tips on Getting Your Point Across to Customer Support Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />Troubleshooting issues to customer support might sound straightforward enough, but as part of a team who assists support, I've come across vague comments and nondescript descriptions more often than not. Our team identifies the issue and assigns the correct person in our team to your ticket, whether it's one of our friendly staff members who may redirect you to the right direction, or one of our developers (who you, as a client never really interact with) who fixes things from the back end. Here are some reminders I'd like to make that can be helpful when you're trying to communicate with our team to resolve an issue. <h3>1. A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words</h3> Sending a quick screen shot or screen recording to describe your problem is very helpful in identifying solutions relatively quickly. Most of the time a great description helps, but that doesn't let us see if the most common solution would work, and might lead to an e-mail ping-pong. Instead, a good screen recording will describe the issue and show us how to reproduce it on our own so that we can resolve it faster. I've also had clients tangent to entirely different issues while trying to describe another. It would be perfectly fine to let us know all the problems you come across that you'd like to troubleshoot in one video, but please try describing these separately and precisely. Make sure that you don't end up accidentally sending confidential images or anything else you want to keep secret! My coworker Amy recently wrote <a href="https://www.ragic.com/intl/zh-TW/blog-article/129/2017/04/27/%E5%AE%A2%E6%9C%8D%E4%B8%80%E7%B1%AE%E7%AD%90%E2%80%94%E6%88%90%E4%BA%BA%E5%BD%B1%E7%89%87%E9%83%BD%E5%85%A5%E9%8F%A1">a blog post </a> about a seemingly normal interaction with a client who sent a screen recording, which inadvertently had an IM conversation pop up that included an explicit image towards the end of the video, which led her to feel extremely awkward. <img src="https://d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=967Ri4bAHT@AV-1.png" /> <h3>2. Point to the Correct Direction</h3> Letting us know the URL of your sheet helps immensely when you're trying to describe a problem with one of your sheets without us trying to find it, and is quite faster than just providing the sheet name. If you have a field that is not working as expected, letting us know the fields' location on the Design Mode (such as A45 or J12) works better than just writing the field name, especially when you have dozens of fields. You might be extremely familiar with your forms' layout, but we look at many different forms every day! <h3>3. Precise Descriptions and Detailed Steps</h3> Statements like, "It's not working, fix it!" would naturally lead to more questions from us, such as "what's not working?", "are you able to log in?", "are you able to load www.ragic.com?"... Going back and forth in this way would be more time consuming for you, as you probably want to go back to using your database as soon as possible. Describing which steps you have went through, leading to the issue helps us to see if we can follow what you have done and try reproducing the issue you're running across. Listing any changes that were recently done in the database might help too. What you view on your screen, and what went wrong, along with what you were expecting might also help us to diagnose. A good example for this would be, "I'm having trouble viewing the sheet "Products" under the "Sales" tab linked below, this happened after I changed the design to remove some of the fields." <h3>4. Share</h3> You can authorize the Ragic support staff to have access to your account by clicking the <b>Need Help?</b> link on the upper-right corner, and filling the form regarding what you need help with. This will give us access to the design mode for your sheets. You can remove authorization anytime through your user settings. <h3>5. Device & OS information</h3> Since Ragic is primarily ran on browsers, telling us which browser, along with the version number and your operating software version might be helpful in some cases. If you're using your mobile browser, or any of <a href="https://www.ragic.com/intl/en/doc-kb/11/Does-Ragic-have-a-mobile-app?">our native apps</a>, please make sure to let us know! A few weeks ago I was sent on a wild-goose chase involving images before figuring out that the user was on our iOS app. Once we figured it out, it was a matter of minutes for one of our developers to fix. <h3>6. We usually reply within 12 hours</h3> A good rule of thumb is to wait for a reply from the support staff, we take pride in responding quickly! Sending us multiple messages as replies to several different e-mails, harassing staff members through Skype, finding staff members' personal e-mail and reaching out through there, leaving multiple voice messages generally don't work. (Yes, these have all happened before!) Title stock photo: <a href="http://www.freepik.com/free-photo/smiling-secretary-typing-on-laptop_865251.htm">freepik</a> Have anything to troubleshoot? Write to <a href="mailto:support@ragic.com">support@ragic.com</a>. Troubleshooting issues to customer support might sound straightforward enough, but as part of a team who assists support, I've come across vague comments and nondescript descriptions more often than not. Our team identifies the issue and assigns the correct person in our team to your ticket, whether it's one of our friendly staff members who may redirect you to the right direction, or one of our developers (who you, as a client never really interact with) who fixes things from the back end. Here are some reminders I'd like to make that can be helpful when you're trying to communicate with our team to resolve an issue.

1. A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Sending a quick screen shot or screen recording to describe your problem is very helpful in identifying solutions relatively quickly. Most of the time a great description helps, but that doesn't let us see if the most common solution would work, and might lead to an e-mail ping-pong. Instead, a good screen recording will describe the issue and show us how to reproduce it on our own so that we can resolve it faster. I've also had clients tangent to entirely different issues while trying to describe another. It would be perfectly fine to let us know all the problems you come across that you'd like to troubleshoot in one video, but please try describing these separately and precisely. Make sure that you don't end up accidentally sending confidential images or anything else you want to keep secret! My coworker Amy recently wrote a blog post about a seemingly normal interaction with a client who sent a screen recording, which inadvertently had an IM conversation pop up that included an explicit image towards the end of the video, which led her to feel extremely awkward.

2. Point to the Correct Direction

Letting us know the URL of your sheet helps immensely when you're trying to describe a problem with one of your sheets without us trying to find it, and is quite faster than just providing the sheet name. If you have a field that is not working as expected, letting us know the fields' location on the Design Mode (such as A45 or J12) works better than just writing the field name, especially when you have dozens of fields. You might be extremely familiar with your forms' layout, but we look at many different forms every day!

3. Precise Descriptions and Detailed Steps

Statements like, "It's not working, fix it!" would naturally lead to more questions from us, such as "what's not working?", "are you able to log in?", "are you able to load www.ragic.com?"... Going back and forth in this way would be more time consuming for you, as you probably want to go back to using your database as soon as possible. Describing which steps you have went through, leading to the issue helps us to see if we can follow what you have done and try reproducing the issue you're running across. Listing any changes that were recently done in the database might help too. What you view on your screen, and what went wrong, along with what you were expecting might also help us to diagnose. A good example for this would be, "I'm having trouble viewing the sheet "Products" under the "Sales" tab linked below, this happened after I changed the design to remove some of the fields."

4. Share

You can authorize the Ragic support staff to have access to your account by clicking the Need Help? link on the upper-right corner, and filling the form regarding what you need help with. This will give us access to the design mode for your sheets. You can remove authorization anytime through your user settings.

5. Device & OS information

Since Ragic is primarily ran on browsers, telling us which browser, along with the version number and your operating software version might be helpful in some cases. If you're using your mobile browser, or any of our native apps, please make sure to let us know! A few weeks ago I was sent on a wild-goose chase involving images before figuring out that the user was on our iOS app. Once we figured it out, it was a matter of minutes for one of our developers to fix.

6. We usually reply within 12 hours

A good rule of thumb is to wait for a reply from the support staff, we take pride in responding quickly! Sending us multiple messages as replies to several different e-mails, harassing staff members through Skype, finding staff members' personal e-mail and reaching out through there, leaving multiple voice messages generally don't work. (Yes, these have all happened before!) Title stock photo: freepik Have anything to troubleshoot? Write to support@ragic.com.]]> Using Ragic with Google Sheets http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/136/2017/05/18/Using-Ragic-with-Google-Sheets 2017-05-18T00:00:00UTC 2017-05-18T00:00:00UTC Thu, 18 May 2017 00:00:00 UTC Berrin Sun http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/136/2017/05/18/Using-Ragic-with-Google-Sheets <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=pPld6D5GfF@IMPORTDATA.png" alt="Using Ragic with Google Sheets Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />You can share the links you have generated with the <a href="https://www.ragic.com/intl/en/doc/80/Publish-to-The-Web">Publish to the Web</a> tool directly to allow others to download data in different formats. You may also import your data with third party tools that allow you to import from a URL. <h3>Ragic + Google Sheets</h3> In the example below, we're using <a href="https://www.google.com/sheets/about/">Google Sheets</a> to further analyze our data. You can <a href="https://www.ragic.com/webinar20170511/clients/4">view the example Ragic database here</a>, and <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11fCHpvoz8i478RG0gwh6g8j8t_7zmk8kADirRbJ2DDo/edit?usp=sharing">the example Google Sheet here</a>. Using the <a href="https://support.google.com/docs/answer/3093335?hl=en">IMPORTDATA</a> formula with the .csv format, we can import data into our spreadsheet from our Ragic database sheet. <img src="https://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=kb&f=IMPORTDATA.png" /> Using this data, we can create charts with different criteria using the <b>Charts</b> tool. <img src="https://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=kb&f=Spreadsheet.png" /> This pivot table was created by selecting the range of data on the spreadsheet, and navigating to <b>Data</b> > <b>Pivot Table</b>. <img src="https://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=kb&f=PivotTable2.png" /> Using the <b>Report Editor</b> menu, we can use multiple criteria to group fields, and display values accordingly. On our example, since we can use different criteria and stack them within the pivot table, we're able to group our products in our example under different product categories. <a href="https://support.google.com/docs/answer/1272900?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en">More information about pivot tables on Google Sheets can be found here</a>. You can share the links you have generated with the Publish to the Web tool directly to allow others to download data in different formats. You may also import your data with third party tools that allow you to import from a URL.

Ragic + Google Sheets

In the example below, we're using Google Sheets to further analyze our data. You can view the example Ragic database here, and the example Google Sheet here. Using the IMPORTDATA formula with the .csv format, we can import data into our spreadsheet from our Ragic database sheet. Using this data, we can create charts with different criteria using the Charts tool. This pivot table was created by selecting the range of data on the spreadsheet, and navigating to Data > Pivot Table. Using the Report Editor menu, we can use multiple criteria to group fields, and display values accordingly. On our example, since we can use different criteria and stack them within the pivot table, we're able to group our products in our example under different product categories. More information about pivot tables on Google Sheets can be found here.]]> Quick Data Entry Tips: Populating values with formulas http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/128/2017/04/25/Quick-Data-Entry-Tips:-Populating-values-with-formulas 2017-04-25T00:00:00UTC 2017-04-25T00:00:00UTC Tue, 25 Apr 2017 00:00:00 UTC Berrin Sun http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/128/2017/04/25/Quick-Data-Entry-Tips:-Populating-values-with-formulas <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=A47Sd4Y9yA@Quick-Data-Entry-Tips3_blog.png" alt="Quick Data Entry Tips: Populating values with formulas Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />Quick data entry is mostly achieved by automating your tasks, so that you can spend more time working on your business instead of doing data entry. Adding <a href="https://www.ragic.com/intl/en/doc/18/Formulas">formulas on Ragic</a> proves useful while referring to values in different fields, cutting down time on doing data entry when you fill forms. Below are some useful tips on using formulas to do quicker data entry: <h3>Concatenating Strings</h3> While entering data, you might find that you have some values that are actually a combination of values from different fields on your database sheet. For instance, a "Full Name" would be a combination of "First Name" and "Last Name", or an "Address" might be a combination of more fields, including the "Street Address", "Postal Code", "City", "State", and "Country". In such cases, it's usually easier to add a formula to concatenate these values, so that you can set and forget the field. During data entry, the formula would be calculated by Ragic, and would be applied automatically as you're typing into the fields that are the source for the combined values. In the following example, we're using several fields to populate a customer's title and name, as well as their Full Shipping Address: First we want to make sure that we have all the fields that we need to display the information required. <img src="http://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=kb&f=String+1.png" /> Here we would like to have the field <i>Full Shipping Address</i> to display the title and name of the customer, with the shipping address in the standard postage format. We add the following formula to the field settings to concatenate these fields. <pre>A3+' '+A4+' '+D14+' '+D13+' '+D12+' '+D10+' '+D11</pre> Single quotes and double quotes both work in Ragic for fields that have string values, but it's important to keep consistent with our choice. In the formula above, we're using single quotes to insert a blank space between each field value. <img src="https://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=kb&f=String_formula1.png" /> Now that the Full Shipping Address displays, we can use the information from this field when we only need the full address information, for example when printing labels for shipping. <img src="http://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=kb&f=String+3.png" /> <h3>Referring to other fields with conditional formulas</h3> Conditional formulas are a great way to refer to different fields. This is especially useful if you would like to automatically reflect what the value of these fields mean by editing a value in another field. For example, a simple "Yes" or "No" question might be a check to see if a Billing Address is going to be the same with a Shipping Address value. Based on what is selected in this field, you can configure the values for the Billing Address. The conditions that we are setting can be as simplistic or complicated as we want, depending on what is necessary for our data entry. Remember, when used on free text or selection fields that contain strings .RAW is required to be added to the referenced field name, while this is not needed when used to reference a numeric field. In the example below, we're going to populate a customer's Billing Address from their Shipping Address if a selection field has the "Yes" option selected. Otherwise, the Billing Address would not be populated, in cases where the selection field is either blank, or the "No" option is selected. First, we set up a Selection Field in D10, with the title "Same as Shipping?", and the options "Yes" and "No". Using the UPDATEIF formula, we refer to this field, and set the condition to update the Billing Street field if the "Yes" option is set. The result in our formula is set as A16, which is the Shipping Street field. We're using the formula <pre>UPDATEIF(D10.RAW="Yes",A16)</pre> <img src="https://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Same_as_Shipping_Design.png" /> This formula can be set for several fields, which will result in the entire Billing Address section in our form to be automatically filled with the values from the Shipping Address section. <img src="https://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Same_as_Shipping.png" /> <b>Author's note:</b> This is part 3 of my blog series, <i>Quick Data Entry Tips</i>. <a href="https://www.ragic.com/intl/en/blog-article/125/2017/04/14/Quick-Data-Entry-Tips:-Traffic-light-status-indicator">Click here for part 2, creating a Traffic Light Status Indicator</a>. Quick data entry is mostly achieved by automating your tasks, so that you can spend more time working on your business instead of doing data entry. Adding formulas on Ragic proves useful while referring to values in different fields, cutting down time on doing data entry when you fill forms. Below are some useful tips on using formulas to do quicker data entry:

Concatenating Strings

While entering data, you might find that you have some values that are actually a combination of values from different fields on your database sheet. For instance, a "Full Name" would be a combination of "First Name" and "Last Name", or an "Address" might be a combination of more fields, including the "Street Address", "Postal Code", "City", "State", and "Country". In such cases, it's usually easier to add a formula to concatenate these values, so that you can set and forget the field. During data entry, the formula would be calculated by Ragic, and would be applied automatically as you're typing into the fields that are the source for the combined values. In the following example, we're using several fields to populate a customer's title and name, as well as their Full Shipping Address: First we want to make sure that we have all the fields that we need to display the information required. Here we would like to have the field Full Shipping Address to display the title and name of the customer, with the shipping address in the standard postage format. We add the following formula to the field settings to concatenate these fields. 
A3+' '+A4+' '+D14+' '+D13+' '+D12+' '+D10+' '+D11
Single quotes and double quotes both work in Ragic for fields that have string values, but it's important to keep consistent with our choice. In the formula above, we're using single quotes to insert a blank space between each field value. Now that the Full Shipping Address displays, we can use the information from this field when we only need the full address information, for example when printing labels for shipping.

Referring to other fields with conditional formulas

Conditional formulas are a great way to refer to different fields. This is especially useful if you would like to automatically reflect what the value of these fields mean by editing a value in another field. For example, a simple "Yes" or "No" question might be a check to see if a Billing Address is going to be the same with a Shipping Address value. Based on what is selected in this field, you can configure the values for the Billing Address. The conditions that we are setting can be as simplistic or complicated as we want, depending on what is necessary for our data entry. Remember, when used on free text or selection fields that contain strings .RAW is required to be added to the referenced field name, while this is not needed when used to reference a numeric field. In the example below, we're going to populate a customer's Billing Address from their Shipping Address if a selection field has the "Yes" option selected. Otherwise, the Billing Address would not be populated, in cases where the selection field is either blank, or the "No" option is selected. First, we set up a Selection Field in D10, with the title "Same as Shipping?", and the options "Yes" and "No". Using the UPDATEIF formula, we refer to this field, and set the condition to update the Billing Street field if the "Yes" option is set. The result in our formula is set as A16, which is the Shipping Street field. We're using the formula 
UPDATEIF(D10.RAW="Yes",A16)
This formula can be set for several fields, which will result in the entire Billing Address section in our form to be automatically filled with the values from the Shipping Address section. Author's note: This is part 3 of my blog series, Quick Data Entry Tips. Click here for part 2, creating a Traffic Light Status Indicator.]]> Quick Data Entry Tips: Traffic light status indicator http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/125/2017/04/14/Quick-Data-Entry-Tips:-Traffic-light-status-indicator 2017-04-14T00:00:00UTC 2017-04-14T00:00:00UTC Fri, 14 Apr 2017 00:00:00 UTC Berrin Sun http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/125/2017/04/14/Quick-Data-Entry-Tips:-Traffic-light-status-indicator <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=76qaI56416@Quick-Data-Entry-Tips2_nl.png" alt="Quick Data Entry Tips: Traffic light status indicator Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />If you're trying to display from a set of images that will change according to a certain value in a selection field, the easiest way is to use an <a href="https://www.ragic.com/intl/en/doc/46/Formatting-text-using-BBCode#5">insert image BBCode</a> in the formula on a free text field. Since the image will need to be referred to with a URL, the image will need to be hosted online. This can be on your own website, on a free image hosting service, or even in an <a href="https://www.ragic.com/intl/en/doc/74/Comments#1">attachment you've made in a form comment on Ragic</a>. In our example, we're using <a href="http://imgur.com/a/kYbzo">imgur to host 3 traffic light icons</a>. We would like our project proposals to show a red icon if the project proposal has the status "Rejected", a yellow icon if the project proposal is "On Hold", and a green icon if the status is "Approved". <blockquote class="imgur-embed-pub" lang="en" data-id="a/kYbzo"><a href="//imgur.com/kYbzo">Traffic Light Icons</a></blockquote><script async src="//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script> Using a <a href="https://www.ragic.com/intl/en/doc/18/Formulas#nesting">nested conditional formula</a> on field A5, where our Status Indicator will be, <pre> IF(A4.RAW=='Rejected','[img]http://i.imgur.com/JTH6pcq.png[/img]', IF(A4.RAW=='On Hold','[img]http://i.imgur.com/cVorwf4.png[/img]', IF(A4.RAW=='Accepted','[img]http://i.imgur.com/xqtgvSV.png[/img]','please make a status selection' ) ) ) </pre> the end result is displaying the appropriate icon link with the [img] BBCode tag, and the text 'please make a status selection' if a selection is not made. Selecting the field A4, which is the project status, we're able to view the icon on our form page. <img src="https://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=kb&f=Screenshot+%28255%29.png" /> <img src="https://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=kb&f=Screenshot+%28253%29.png" /> <img src="https://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=kb&f=Screenshot+%28244%29.png" /> The status indicator is also visible from the listing page. <img src="https://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=kb&f=Traffic_Listing.png" /> <b>Author's note:</b> This is part 2 of my blog series, <i>Quick Data Entry Tips</i>. <a href="https://www.ragic.com/intl/en/blog-article/122/2017/03/31/Quick-Data-Entry-Tips:-Entering-data-into-linked-fields">Click here for part 1, entering data into linked fields</a>. If you're trying to display from a set of images that will change according to a certain value in a selection field, the easiest way is to use an insert image BBCode in the formula on a free text field. Since the image will need to be referred to with a URL, the image will need to be hosted online. This can be on your own website, on a free image hosting service, or even in an attachment you've made in a form comment on Ragic. In our example, we're using imgur to host 3 traffic light icons. We would like our project proposals to show a red icon if the project proposal has the status "Rejected", a yellow icon if the project proposal is "On Hold", and a green icon if the status is "Approved".
Traffic Light Icons
Using a nested conditional formula on field A5, where our Status Indicator will be, 
IF(A4.RAW=='Rejected','[img]http://i.imgur.com/JTH6pcq.png[/img]',
	IF(A4.RAW=='On Hold','[img]http://i.imgur.com/cVorwf4.png[/img]',
		IF(A4.RAW=='Accepted','[img]http://i.imgur.com/xqtgvSV.png[/img]','please make a status selection'
		)
	)
)
the end result is displaying the appropriate icon link with the [img] BBCode tag, and the text 'please make a status selection' if a selection is not made. Selecting the field A4, which is the project status, we're able to view the icon on our form page. The status indicator is also visible from the listing page. Author's note: This is part 2 of my blog series, Quick Data Entry Tips. Click here for part 1, entering data into linked fields.]]> Quick Data Entry Tips: Entering data into linked fields http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/122/2017/03/31/Quick-Data-Entry-Tips:-Entering-data-into-linked-fields 2017-03-31T00:00:00UTC 2017-03-31T00:00:00UTC Fri, 31 Mar 2017 00:00:00 UTC Berrin Sun http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/122/2017/03/31/Quick-Data-Entry-Tips:-Entering-data-into-linked-fields <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=A24biD865g@Quick-Data-Entry-Tips_nl.png" alt="Quick Data Entry Tips: Entering data into linked fields Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />Entering data into your Ragic fields are not particularly challenging, but here are some quick tips and tricks on reducing the time you take for data entry. Cutting the time it takes to enter information in your database will help you focus more on your business and what's important. Whether it's a single field linked through the <a href="https://www.ragic.com/intl/en/doc/17/Field-types#4">select from other sheet</a> field type, or a linked field via the <a href="https://www.ragic.com/intl/en/doc/31/Link-&-load#1">link & load</a> that links data from another sheet, the methods below can be used to enter data into linked fields: <h3>Start Typing:</h3> You can type directly into a linked field, which will automatically display related records. <video autoplay loop style="width:800px;"><source src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/intl/common/img/link1en.mp4" type="video/mp4"></video> <h3>Using the link & load pop-up:</h3> Click on the empty linked field value to bring up a pop-up displaying the listing page of your linked sheet. You can use the full-text search bar on the top to show related results, <img src="https://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=kb&f=LinkedField_Freetextsearch.png" /> or filter individual fields with the arrows next to the field headers. <img src="https://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=kb&f=LinkedField_FilterbyText.png" /> Both of these search options behave according to the <a href="https://www.ragic.com/intl/en/doc/57/Filtering-sorting-full-text-search-&-views">search tools available in Ragic</a>. <b>Author's note:</b> This is part 1 of my new blog series, <i>Quick Data Entry Tips</i>, which will cover tips and tricks on data entry on Ragic. <a href="https://www.ragic.com/intl/en/blog-article/125/2017/04/14/Quick-Data-Entry-Tips:-Traffic-light-status-indicator">Click here for part 2, creating a traffic light status indicator</a>. Entering data into your Ragic fields are not particularly challenging, but here are some quick tips and tricks on reducing the time you take for data entry. Cutting the time it takes to enter information in your database will help you focus more on your business and what's important. Whether it's a single field linked through the select from other sheet field type, or a linked field via the link & load that links data from another sheet, the methods below can be used to enter data into linked fields:

Start Typing:

You can type directly into a linked field, which will automatically display related records.

Using the link & load pop-up:

Click on the empty linked field value to bring up a pop-up displaying the listing page of your linked sheet. You can use the full-text search bar on the top to show related results, or filter individual fields with the arrows next to the field headers. Both of these search options behave according to the search tools available in Ragic. Author's note: This is part 1 of my new blog series, Quick Data Entry Tips, which will cover tips and tricks on data entry on Ragic. Click here for part 2, creating a traffic light status indicator.]]> Keeping vigilance against spear phishing http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/119/2017/03/29/Keeping-vigilance-against-spear-phishing 2017-03-29T00:00:00UTC 2017-03-29T00:00:00UTC Wed, 29 Mar 2017 00:00:00 UTC Berrin Sun http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/119/2017/03/29/Keeping-vigilance-against-spear-phishing <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=HVe7g76sfc@31193965246_91e63222b1_k_small.jpg" alt="Keeping vigilance against spear phishing Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />Spotting the signs of phishing e-mails – bad grammar, spelling errors, asking for personal information, and suspicious links or attachments – is what any tech-savvy individual is used to. Targeting individuals by throwing a wide net is still a commonly used phishing tactic. But as we have gotten smarter in spotting these tricks, scammers have started to use more clever tricks that are getting harder to detect. I'm not entirely proud to say that I've fallen for a highly targeted e-mail that contained malware last summer. Since I work remotely with our office in an entirely different timezone, my radar didn't go off when reading this e-mail impersonating an unhappy customer. <img src="https://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=InnocentEmail.png" /> At that time, we had just hired in our small team so I occasionally checked up on to see responses over the live support chat, as well as the support tickets. Moreover, it is not unusual at all to receive documents, spreadsheets or screenshots from potential customers as examples for their current data management practices, or further notes in a document regarding communication with other team members about future database plans. I thought nothing of opening an exported document that was seemingly hosted on Google Docs and ended up getting a virus on my computer. While my case was resolved by running an anti-virus program and losing access to my user profile and having to set up a new one, others might not be so lucky. Phishing, unlike scam e-mails that attach malware, targets real people and seeks information that can potentially have their identity stolen, their credit score destroyed, or have themselves charged for fraudulent activity. Newer techniques, categorised as "spear phishing", are highly targeted, can impersonate trusted contacts; anyone from your friends, colleagues or customers to your bank representative. While it's quite easy to understand not to give out your personal information such as bank account information or your Social Security Number, it's not always easy to spot fake links and login pages that allow scammers to get to this information. <a href="https://www.tomscott.com/">Tom Scott</a>, formerly the presenter of Gadget Geeks, tweeted about a close-call with a Gmail phishing attack. In this occurrence, an image was disguised as a PDF attachment that was only distinguishable because his high-DPI screen made the image look suspicious. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This is the closest I've ever come to falling for a Gmail phishing attack. If it hadn't been for my high-DPI screen making the image fuzzy… <a href="https://t.co/MizEWYksBh">pic.twitter.com/MizEWYksBh</a></p>— Tom Scott (@tomscott) <a href="https://twitter.com/tomscott/status/812265182646927361">December 23, 2016</a></blockquote> Clicking on the image would take the unsuspecting recipient to a sign-in page for Google. Only this page is not an actual sign-in page, but a "data URI", which embedded a file designed specifically to impersonate the Gmail sign-in page and steal log-in credentials once data is entered into the form. Tom was able to see a string of Javascript which was part of the text on the address bar, again, since he had a high-DPI monitor. <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This is disturbingly clever. You get sent to a text/html data URI! Not testing any further but, blimey, talk about using power for evil. <a href="https://t.co/TamVn7DBfW">pic.twitter.com/TamVn7DBfW</a></p>— Tom Scott (@tomscott) <a href="https://twitter.com/tomscott/status/812268998742118400">December 23, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> It appears that this method is used quite often to imitate popular e-mail providers and social media login pages. So what measures can we take when we come across suspicious pages? <h3>1. Enter the URL directly</h3> If you are on your own computer redirected to a log-in page, but should already be logged in, try accessing your account directly by entering the actual URL into your browser's address bar. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/help/phishing">Facebook</a> suggests: <i>When in doubt, type www.facebook.com into your browser to get to Facebook.</i> <a href="https://support.google.com/faqs/answer/2952493">Google</a> suggests: <i>If possible, open the site in another window instead of clicking the link in your email.</i> <h3>2. Don't give out personal information over e-mail or web forms</h3> Your SSN ( can be used for many fraudulent activities from opening bank accounts or taking out loans in your name. The <a href="https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0272-how-keep-your-personal-information-secure#social">Federal Trade Commission</a> writes: <i>Keep a close hold on your Social Security number and ask questions before deciding to share it. Ask if you can use a different kind of identification. If someone asks you to share your SSN or your child’s, ask: • why they need it • how it will be used • how they will protect it • what happens if you don’t share the number Your employer and financial institutions need your SSN for wage and tax reporting purposes. A business may ask for your SSN so they can check your credit when you apply for a loan, rent an apartment, or sign up for utility service.</i> <h3>3. Keep your devices and passwords secure</h3> With the latest technology, it's much easier to wipe your data remotely, keep your passwords encrypted, and lock your devices when they're not in use. • If you don't have <b>security software</b>, it's a wise idea to install a free version for extra protection. • Since it's hard to create secure passwords for all your accounts online, consider using a <b>password manager</b>. <h3>4. Take measures immediately if you suspect identity theft.</h3> This includes calling the companies where you know fraud occurred, contacting one of the three credit bureaus to <a href="https://www.identitytheft.gov/Steps">place a free fraud alert</a>, <a href="https://www.identitytheft.gov/Assistant#1">reporting the identity theft to the FTC</a>, and filing a report with your local police department. Other steps that you can take are outlined in a checklist at <a href="https://www.identitytheft.gov/Steps">identitytheft.gov</a>, created by the Federal Trade Commission. <b>Author's Note:</b> I do hope you have learned at least one new thing about avoiding phishing and measures to take after a phishing attack. Data security is getting increasingly important and we'll be writing more about this <a href="https://www.ragic.com/intl/en/blog">on our blog</a> from now on! Header image credit: <a href="https://colenconsultancy.nl/">Christiaan Colen</a>. Spotting the signs of phishing e-mails – bad grammar, spelling errors, asking for personal information, and suspicious links or attachments – is what any tech-savvy individual is used to. Targeting individuals by throwing a wide net is still a commonly used phishing tactic. But as we have gotten smarter in spotting these tricks, scammers have started to use more clever tricks that are getting harder to detect. I'm not entirely proud to say that I've fallen for a highly targeted e-mail that contained malware last summer. Since I work remotely with our office in an entirely different timezone, my radar didn't go off when reading this e-mail impersonating an unhappy customer. At that time, we had just hired in our small team so I occasionally checked up on to see responses over the live support chat, as well as the support tickets. Moreover, it is not unusual at all to receive documents, spreadsheets or screenshots from potential customers as examples for their current data management practices, or further notes in a document regarding communication with other team members about future database plans. I thought nothing of opening an exported document that was seemingly hosted on Google Docs and ended up getting a virus on my computer. While my case was resolved by running an anti-virus program and losing access to my user profile and having to set up a new one, others might not be so lucky. Phishing, unlike scam e-mails that attach malware, targets real people and seeks information that can potentially have their identity stolen, their credit score destroyed, or have themselves charged for fraudulent activity. Newer techniques, categorised as "spear phishing", are highly targeted, can impersonate trusted contacts; anyone from your friends, colleagues or customers to your bank representative. While it's quite easy to understand not to give out your personal information such as bank account information or your Social Security Number, it's not always easy to spot fake links and login pages that allow scammers to get to this information. Tom Scott, formerly the presenter of Gadget Geeks, tweeted about a close-call with a Gmail phishing attack. In this occurrence, an image was disguised as a PDF attachment that was only distinguishable because his high-DPI screen made the image look suspicious. Clicking on the image would take the unsuspecting recipient to a sign-in page for Google. Only this page is not an actual sign-in page, but a "data URI", which embedded a file designed specifically to impersonate the Gmail sign-in page and steal log-in credentials once data is entered into the form. Tom was able to see a string of Javascript which was part of the text on the address bar, again, since he had a high-DPI monitor. It appears that this method is used quite often to imitate popular e-mail providers and social media login pages. So what measures can we take when we come across suspicious pages?

1. Enter the URL directly

If you are on your own computer redirected to a log-in page, but should already be logged in, try accessing your account directly by entering the actual URL into your browser's address bar. Facebook suggests: When in doubt, type www.facebook.com into your browser to get to Facebook. Google suggests: If possible, open the site in another window instead of clicking the link in your email.

2. Don't give out personal information over e-mail or web forms

Your SSN ( can be used for many fraudulent activities from opening bank accounts or taking out loans in your name. The Federal Trade Commission writes: Keep a close hold on your Social Security number and ask questions before deciding to share it. Ask if you can use a different kind of identification. If someone asks you to share your SSN or your child’s, ask: • why they need it • how it will be used • how they will protect it • what happens if you don’t share the number Your employer and financial institutions need your SSN for wage and tax reporting purposes. A business may ask for your SSN so they can check your credit when you apply for a loan, rent an apartment, or sign up for utility service.

3. Keep your devices and passwords secure

With the latest technology, it's much easier to wipe your data remotely, keep your passwords encrypted, and lock your devices when they're not in use. • If you don't have security software, it's a wise idea to install a free version for extra protection. • Since it's hard to create secure passwords for all your accounts online, consider using a password manager.

4. Take measures immediately if you suspect identity theft.

This includes calling the companies where you know fraud occurred, contacting one of the three credit bureaus to place a free fraud alert, reporting the identity theft to the FTC, and filing a report with your local police department. Other steps that you can take are outlined in a checklist at identitytheft.gov, created by the Federal Trade Commission. Author's Note: I do hope you have learned at least one new thing about avoiding phishing and measures to take after a phishing attack. Data security is getting increasingly important and we'll be writing more about this on our blog from now on! Header image credit: Christiaan Colen.]]> Finding the best HR software for your company http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/113/2016/05/20/Finding-the-best-HR-software-for-your-company 2016-05-20T00:00:00UTC 2016-05-20T00:00:00UTC Fri, 20 May 2016 00:00:00 UTC Berrin Sun http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/113/2016/05/20/Finding-the-best-HR-software-for-your-company <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=0g9m1G5o1R@man-wearing-blue-blazer-on-business-meeting-picjumbo-com.jpg" alt="Finding the best HR software for your company Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />Whether you're using HR software for internal purposes to keep track of your employees performances, or external purposes for hiring and talent management, purchasing an HR software always has certain shortcomings. The goal of implementing a HR system is different for each company, and whether you have a dedicated HR team that has time to evaluate different ready-made software, or you are outsourcing another company to build a new HR software from scratch, keep the following issues in mind to find the best HR software for your company. <h2>Looking for the right HR software</h2> Surprisingly, most of the time, the answer to the question "Is the HR software easily customizable?" is no for off-the shelf HR software. Even though they are usually easy to white-label with your own corporate identity, this does not always mean that it's a one-size-fits-all situation. If implemented correctly, customized HR software for your organization can be the right choice, but this means that you will need to make some commitments about finding input from your team, and spending the time to implement the software. <h2>Customizing your HR software</h2> Before you start to analyze your options for customizable HR software, a good way to figure out what type of custom options you will need would be to talk with your coworkers. Input from outside the HR department is also important to see what different managers require for employee evaluation, such as different fields for quarterly evaluation surveys. For hiring, teams might have different requirements, such as the ability to upload a large portfolio with high resolution images for your art department. <h3>Some questions to ask while customizing your HR software are:</h3> <b>1.</b> What kind of metrics do we need to evaluate when hiring? <b>2.</b> Do we need custom reports for human resource management? <b>3.</b> What templates and methods were used by the HR department in the past? <h2>Using your custom HR software</h2> Keep in mind that even though you might expect the HR department and the IT department are most likely to be doing the customization for the HR software that your company is using, your employees in these departments are generally not the end user. In internal processes, your coworkers will be filling surveys for supervisor evaluation, while the managers will be filling questionnaires for employee evaluation. In external hiring processes, the end user would be filling their details in while job searching <h3>For internal processes, such as evaluation surveys,</h3> <b>1.</b> Make sure that the persons directly involved have input on the forms, regarding what fields are necessary. <b>2.</b> Forms should be short and simple to fill in, you don't need any extra fields for things that you're not going to evaluate later. <b>3.</b> Whether it's an employee evaluation survey or a timesheet being filled, make sure your fields have certain purposes, and the field names are concise. <h3>For external processes, such as hiring,</h3> <b>1.</b> Keep it simple - the person who is filling the form is a person who is likely going through forms similar to yours a few dozen times a day. <b>2.</b> Use uploading to your advantage - usually having separate fields for every single previous job held by an applicant hinders the applicant as they might have to type everything in, instead give them space to upload their resumé or CV directly to the HR software. <b>3.</b> Design your forms according to how you'll search for the data - once you collect many, you might want to search for specific skills in job applications. Make sure you have the fields necessary to filter important information easily. <b>4.</b> Autofilling is a big no-no. Since not all CVs come from the same template, using a software that automatically fills information from the CV to dozens of fields actually does not help the applicant, and will more often than not have many mistakes, leading to the potential new hire to waste time correcting the information. <h2>Making sure that the HR software is being used</h2> After your custom HR system implementation, make sure you get some feedback from coworkers and managers. Check the following items: <b>1.</b> Does the HR software generate useful reports that are used to improve internal processes? <b>2.</b> Is the evaluation smoother, and is feedback given accordingly? <b>3.</b> For external hiring, is the team that needs a new member actively involved in the decision process? The above should help you get started with implementing your HR software and finding the right balance between your team members. <a href="https://www.ragic.com/intl/en/register?campaign=bHR1">Ragic</a> is a great platform to create your custom HR management software, that has a powerful search engine that can search <i>within uploaded documents</i>. Let us know if you use Ragic for human resources management in the comments! Whether you're using HR software for internal purposes to keep track of your employees performances, or external purposes for hiring and talent management, purchasing an HR software always has certain shortcomings. The goal of implementing a HR system is different for each company, and whether you have a dedicated HR team that has time to evaluate different ready-made software, or you are outsourcing another company to build a new HR software from scratch, keep the following issues in mind to find the best HR software for your company.

Looking for the right HR software

Surprisingly, most of the time, the answer to the question "Is the HR software easily customizable?" is no for off-the shelf HR software. Even though they are usually easy to white-label with your own corporate identity, this does not always mean that it's a one-size-fits-all situation. If implemented correctly, customized HR software for your organization can be the right choice, but this means that you will need to make some commitments about finding input from your team, and spending the time to implement the software.

Customizing your HR software

Before you start to analyze your options for customizable HR software, a good way to figure out what type of custom options you will need would be to talk with your coworkers. Input from outside the HR department is also important to see what different managers require for employee evaluation, such as different fields for quarterly evaluation surveys. For hiring, teams might have different requirements, such as the ability to upload a large portfolio with high resolution images for your art department.

Some questions to ask while customizing your HR software are:

1. What kind of metrics do we need to evaluate when hiring? 2. Do we need custom reports for human resource management? 3. What templates and methods were used by the HR department in the past?

Using your custom HR software

Keep in mind that even though you might expect the HR department and the IT department are most likely to be doing the customization for the HR software that your company is using, your employees in these departments are generally not the end user. In internal processes, your coworkers will be filling surveys for supervisor evaluation, while the managers will be filling questionnaires for employee evaluation. In external hiring processes, the end user would be filling their details in while job searching

For internal processes, such as evaluation surveys,

1. Make sure that the persons directly involved have input on the forms, regarding what fields are necessary. 2. Forms should be short and simple to fill in, you don't need any extra fields for things that you're not going to evaluate later. 3. Whether it's an employee evaluation survey or a timesheet being filled, make sure your fields have certain purposes, and the field names are concise.

For external processes, such as hiring,

1. Keep it simple - the person who is filling the form is a person who is likely going through forms similar to yours a few dozen times a day. 2. Use uploading to your advantage - usually having separate fields for every single previous job held by an applicant hinders the applicant as they might have to type everything in, instead give them space to upload their resumé or CV directly to the HR software. 3. Design your forms according to how you'll search for the data - once you collect many, you might want to search for specific skills in job applications. Make sure you have the fields necessary to filter important information easily. 4. Autofilling is a big no-no. Since not all CVs come from the same template, using a software that automatically fills information from the CV to dozens of fields actually does not help the applicant, and will more often than not have many mistakes, leading to the potential new hire to waste time correcting the information.

Making sure that the HR software is being used

After your custom HR system implementation, make sure you get some feedback from coworkers and managers. Check the following items: 1. Does the HR software generate useful reports that are used to improve internal processes? 2. Is the evaluation smoother, and is feedback given accordingly? 3. For external hiring, is the team that needs a new member actively involved in the decision process? The above should help you get started with implementing your HR software and finding the right balance between your team members. Ragic is a great platform to create your custom HR management software, that has a powerful search engine that can search within uploaded documents. Let us know if you use Ragic for human resources management in the comments!]]> Using CRM not working for your coworkers? http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/112/2016/04/18/Using-CRM-not-working-for-your-coworkers? 2016-04-18T00:00:00UTC 2016-04-18T00:00:00UTC Mon, 18 Apr 2016 00:00:00 UTC Berrin Sun http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/112/2016/04/18/Using-CRM-not-working-for-your-coworkers? <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=9rhR0Ci3g1@picjumbo.com_P1000554.jpg" alt="Using CRM not working for your coworkers? Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />You're in for some frustration if the elaborate CRM system you chose or paid to be built isn't actually quite doing what you were envisioning. The reason for this usually boils down to your coworkers – who are ultimately the end users – don't think the CRM system helps with what they want to accomplish. The goal of using a CRM system will be different for each department in your organization, whether it's sales, marketing, or customer service, so keep the following issues in mind to find out and troubleshoot why your employees aren't using your CRM system. <h2>1. You're trying to force all departments to use the same workflow.</h2> Your business has an organic workflow that changes from time to time, and all departments will constantly have a need to experiment with customers to see which approach works better from a case-to-case basis. If your CRM system is too rigid and is following a strict sales funnel structure taught in business school during freshman year, or your CRM system cannot be customized by users, you're in for a problem. A good way to approach this issue is to see if there are any customization options that might help different departments have different ways to store the same data, since an opportunity for the sales team might be in constant contact with the customer service team. Therefore instead of having all your prospects start from a sales funnel, it would be better to see how your teams cooperate with each other in their internal processes. Having clear communication, such as keeping mutual contact records between departments in your CRM, and letting everybody stay in the loop would help impress the customer and have them stick with you for the long run as well. <h2>2. That CRM app is too complicated</h2> If your employees will need to attend a mandatory 3-hour workshop to learn what was supposed to be a simple computer program, and later join additional training that is going to require several sessions that span more than a few weeks, it already is way too complicated for an end user to be comfortably proficient in using the CRM software. The whole idea behind a CRM system is to make customer relationship management easier for your employees, so looking for a simple CRM system that is easier to learn would be the key for this problem. Make sure that <b>A.</b> Forms are short and simple to fill in, <b>B.</b> Each screen your users will see is easy to access and read, <b>C.</b> The navigation and layout is intuitive for users, <b>D.</b> Employees are entering data once without having to check if it updated somewhere else. <h2>3. The CRM software doesn't scale well with the company so your employees slowly dropped it</h2> Sure, every CRM software has some kind of contact list and ways to keep up with prospects, but off-the-shelf products are often alright when you get started. When you notice that the CRM software lacks flexibility in order to let the end users add additional settings, you most likely have already spent some time using it. Sometimes even the simplest option or field that cannot be added leads into your users starting to look for other methods of storing information. The first sign to look for is to see if your users have started trying to keep track of the data about your contacts in your CRM system with additional notes. This can range from written post-it notes to messy excel spreadsheets when the CRM system isn't enough to keep track of your customers. Another sign would be having a look at what your employees are using, such as several productivity apps. If the employees in your company have to spend even more time and energy trying to look up data that <i>should have been</i> kept in the CRM application somewhere else, it's time to find a better fit. <h2>Solving all three issues above</h2> Have a productive discussion with all your team members to see what they are looking to take away from your CRM system that isn't working. Every department has a business workflow that may intersect with others, and a software that is integrated with all departments is the most useful. Let some of your employees, such as department heads or certain team leaders have involvement with the CRM design process, as well as access to edit how the software works, or try out new workflows by simply adding new forms to test out with the data you already have in hand. Make sure that your CRM system design is simple. A simple CRM software helps your users adopt faster, and having a clean and simple CRM often works better than having too much instructions on screen, or too much training for the CRM software. If you want a CRM system replacement, try deciding on the best option by checking the integration options of CRM software, and make sure that your CRM integrates with the main tools that your staff uses daily. This will help you overcome CRM flexibility issues in the long term. Have you circumvented all these issues with <a href="https://www.ragic.com/intl/en/register?campaign=bCRM1">Ragic</a>'s flexible structure yet? Let us know in the comments! You're in for some frustration if the elaborate CRM system you chose or paid to be built isn't actually quite doing what you were envisioning. The reason for this usually boils down to your coworkers – who are ultimately the end users – don't think the CRM system helps with what they want to accomplish. The goal of using a CRM system will be different for each department in your organization, whether it's sales, marketing, or customer service, so keep the following issues in mind to find out and troubleshoot why your employees aren't using your CRM system.

1. You're trying to force all departments to use the same workflow.

Your business has an organic workflow that changes from time to time, and all departments will constantly have a need to experiment with customers to see which approach works better from a case-to-case basis. If your CRM system is too rigid and is following a strict sales funnel structure taught in business school during freshman year, or your CRM system cannot be customized by users, you're in for a problem. A good way to approach this issue is to see if there are any customization options that might help different departments have different ways to store the same data, since an opportunity for the sales team might be in constant contact with the customer service team. Therefore instead of having all your prospects start from a sales funnel, it would be better to see how your teams cooperate with each other in their internal processes. Having clear communication, such as keeping mutual contact records between departments in your CRM, and letting everybody stay in the loop would help impress the customer and have them stick with you for the long run as well.

2. That CRM app is too complicated

If your employees will need to attend a mandatory 3-hour workshop to learn what was supposed to be a simple computer program, and later join additional training that is going to require several sessions that span more than a few weeks, it already is way too complicated for an end user to be comfortably proficient in using the CRM software. The whole idea behind a CRM system is to make customer relationship management easier for your employees, so looking for a simple CRM system that is easier to learn would be the key for this problem. Make sure that A. Forms are short and simple to fill in, B. Each screen your users will see is easy to access and read, C. The navigation and layout is intuitive for users, D. Employees are entering data once without having to check if it updated somewhere else.

3. The CRM software doesn't scale well with the company so your employees slowly dropped it

Sure, every CRM software has some kind of contact list and ways to keep up with prospects, but off-the-shelf products are often alright when you get started. When you notice that the CRM software lacks flexibility in order to let the end users add additional settings, you most likely have already spent some time using it. Sometimes even the simplest option or field that cannot be added leads into your users starting to look for other methods of storing information. The first sign to look for is to see if your users have started trying to keep track of the data about your contacts in your CRM system with additional notes. This can range from written post-it notes to messy excel spreadsheets when the CRM system isn't enough to keep track of your customers. Another sign would be having a look at what your employees are using, such as several productivity apps. If the employees in your company have to spend even more time and energy trying to look up data that should have been kept in the CRM application somewhere else, it's time to find a better fit.

Solving all three issues above

Have a productive discussion with all your team members to see what they are looking to take away from your CRM system that isn't working. Every department has a business workflow that may intersect with others, and a software that is integrated with all departments is the most useful. Let some of your employees, such as department heads or certain team leaders have involvement with the CRM design process, as well as access to edit how the software works, or try out new workflows by simply adding new forms to test out with the data you already have in hand. Make sure that your CRM system design is simple. A simple CRM software helps your users adopt faster, and having a clean and simple CRM often works better than having too much instructions on screen, or too much training for the CRM software. If you want a CRM system replacement, try deciding on the best option by checking the integration options of CRM software, and make sure that your CRM integrates with the main tools that your staff uses daily. This will help you overcome CRM flexibility issues in the long term. Have you circumvented all these issues with Ragic's flexible structure yet? Let us know in the comments! ]]> Managing business travel expenses http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/111/2015/02/10/Managing-business-travel-expenses 2015-02-10T00:00:00UTC 2015-02-10T00:00:00UTC Tue, 10 Feb 2015 00:00:00 UTC Dorrit Kang http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/111/2015/02/10/Managing-business-travel-expenses <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=eGh2RQ3ME6@blog-01-5.jpg" alt="Managing business travel expenses Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />It is inevitable to visit clients in person or attend at least a few business meetings for every employee in your company. As a result of the domestic and foreign business travels your employees and you go through, there will be an increasing need of tracking and managing the expenses, which is also extremely important to your company. Using paper forms to record each business travel expense is one basic way, but on the other hand, managing and storing these as they pile up would be harder, and searching for one single entry amongst your business travel expenses would also be problematic. Moreover, digitizing these records might also become a problem when you have to input everything manually. Therefore, this solution is in no way convenient or efficient. Using third party expense management software could be a solution, but on the other hand, since each company is different, there is no way to track some types of data that you might need, such as having different rates for certain service areas, fuel rates, or covering percantages of different expense types. What your company needs in this situation is a <a href="http://www.ragic.com/">centralised database</a> where all the expense reports would go. <h2>Build an expense management form online.</h2> With <a href="http://www.ragic.com/">Ragic</a>, you can <a href="http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/doc/3/Normal-Process-for-Developing-a-Sheet">create a form</a> for travel expense reports, so that your team can fill it out online from wherever they are. This way, all the entries will be stored in a single location – your database. This also cuts down the amount of time spent turning in paper forms to accounting and waiting for them to process. <img style="width:800px;" src="http://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Expense+Report.png"/> <h2>Search through your expenses faster.</h2> Anybody who has dealt with physical archives know that it's a huge time sink sifting through shelves of binders and folders. Even more so when your paper documents are disorganized. If you have already digitized your expenses on a spreadsheet, this would still be a non-solution, as making queries on spreadsheets don't get you faster results. On the other hand, having a centralised database would help you get to entries immediately, by making queries with a simple keyword input, or by <a href="http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/doc/26/Creating-Filters">creating a filter</a> to get results in a specific category or timeframe. <img src="http://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Sedan.png"/> <h2>Online approval for travel expenses.</h2> Expense management often contains the process of approval, which has to go through a direct supervisor, and the accounting department. When dealing with paper forms, travel expenses get less attention, as they are often buried beneath issues that are more urgent, therefore employees wind up getting their expenses reimbursed much later. To prevent this, <a href="http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/doc/30/Approval">setting up online approval</a> for your travel expenses within your expense form would be the best way for a streamlined approach. <img style="width:800px;" src="http://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Expense+Approval+E-mail.png"/> These are some of the ways of having better travel expense management in your team. Feel free to <a href="http://www.ragic.com">sign up to your free account in Ragic</a> to install the free expense report template shown in the screenshots. It is inevitable to visit clients in person or attend at least a few business meetings for every employee in your company. As a result of the domestic and foreign business travels your employees and you go through, there will be an increasing need of tracking and managing the expenses, which is also extremely important to your company. Using paper forms to record each business travel expense is one basic way, but on the other hand, managing and storing these as they pile up would be harder, and searching for one single entry amongst your business travel expenses would also be problematic. Moreover, digitizing these records might also become a problem when you have to input everything manually. Therefore, this solution is in no way convenient or efficient. Using third party expense management software could be a solution, but on the other hand, since each company is different, there is no way to track some types of data that you might need, such as having different rates for certain service areas, fuel rates, or covering percantages of different expense types. What your company needs in this situation is a centralised database where all the expense reports would go.

Build an expense management form online.

With Ragic, you can create a form for travel expense reports, so that your team can fill it out online from wherever they are. This way, all the entries will be stored in a single location – your database. This also cuts down the amount of time spent turning in paper forms to accounting and waiting for them to process.

Search through your expenses faster.

Anybody who has dealt with physical archives know that it's a huge time sink sifting through shelves of binders and folders. Even more so when your paper documents are disorganized. If you have already digitized your expenses on a spreadsheet, this would still be a non-solution, as making queries on spreadsheets don't get you faster results. On the other hand, having a centralised database would help you get to entries immediately, by making queries with a simple keyword input, or by creating a filter to get results in a specific category or timeframe.

Online approval for travel expenses.

Expense management often contains the process of approval, which has to go through a direct supervisor, and the accounting department. When dealing with paper forms, travel expenses get less attention, as they are often buried beneath issues that are more urgent, therefore employees wind up getting their expenses reimbursed much later. To prevent this, setting up online approval for your travel expenses within your expense form would be the best way for a streamlined approach. These are some of the ways of having better travel expense management in your team. Feel free to sign up to your free account in Ragic to install the free expense report template shown in the screenshots.]]> Ragic is now on your favorite calendar app! http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/110/2014/07/28/Ragic-is-now-on-your-favorite-calendar-app! 2014-07-28T00:00:00UTC 2014-07-28T00:00:00UTC Mon, 28 Jul 2014 00:00:00 UTC Berrin Sun http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/110/2014/07/28/Ragic-is-now-on-your-favorite-calendar-app! <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=9T9o2D8Gcr@calendar_thumb.jpg" alt="Ragic is now on your favorite calendar app! Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />Calendar integration has been one of the most anticipated features on Ragic, and we are proud to say that it's finally here. With our new integration, you can add any of your date fields on your Ragic database sheets to your calendar! <br> To do this, navigate to the <b>Calendar Sync</b> option found under <b>Tools</b> <br> <img style="width:600px;" src="http://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Tools_Calendar+Sync.png" /> <br> Select the fields you would like to add to your calendar from the pop-up menu, and follow the instructions to add these dates to your favorite calendar application. <br> <img style="width:600px;" src="http://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=calendar_popup.png" /> <br> Ragic's new calendar feature is supported on major calendar applications like iCal, Google Calendar, IBM Lotus Notes, and Microsoft Outlook, which means that you'll be able to track the important dates within your Ragic database from all devices. <br> <img src="http://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=calendar+apps.png" /> <br> What should <a href="www.ragic.com">Ragic</a> work on next? Leave us a comment! <br><br> Calendar integration has been one of the most anticipated features on Ragic, and we are proud to say that it's finally here. With our new integration, you can add any of your date fields on your Ragic database sheets to your calendar!
To do this, navigate to the Calendar Sync option found under Tools

Select the fields you would like to add to your calendar from the pop-up menu, and follow the instructions to add these dates to your favorite calendar application.

Ragic's new calendar feature is supported on major calendar applications like iCal, Google Calendar, IBM Lotus Notes, and Microsoft Outlook, which means that you'll be able to track the important dates within your Ragic database from all devices.

What should Ragic work on next? Leave us a comment!

]]> 6 super useful tools to read and write like a boss http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/109/2014/07/17/6-super-useful-tools-to-read-and-write-like-a-boss 2014-07-17T00:00:00UTC 2014-07-17T00:00:00UTC Thu, 17 Jul 2014 00:00:00 UTC Berrin Sun http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/109/2014/07/17/6-super-useful-tools-to-read-and-write-like-a-boss <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Sr5Pdi6s4l@writer's block.jpg" alt="6 super useful tools to read and write like a boss Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />You don't have to be a copywriter or an author nowadays to write an overwhelming amount of content and read even more each day. Whether you are an entrepreneur catching up on your reading, or an SMB owner struggling to keep up with e-mails, here are my favorite lifehacking tools I use to cut time on reading and writing all in a day's work - <i>and</i> they're all free! <br> <b>1. Pocket</b> <br> <img style="width:300px;" src="https://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Pocket_Logo_Small.png"/> <br> You have probably heard about <a href="https://www.getpocket.com">Pocket</a> before, formerly called "Read it Later", Pocket is one of the most popular tools to save links to read later, with an impressive array of supported devices and apps. <br> <img style="width:450px;" src="https://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Pocket+Platform.jpg" /> <br> I personally use the chrome extension to save articles for future reference when I'm doing research, or save links on my iPhone when I want to view long blog posts and videos on my computer. <br> <b>What I like the most:</b> The reader where you can read with no distractions when you revisit an article, which is similar to what blog platforms like <a href="https://medium.com/">Medium</a> and <a href="https://svbtle.com/">SVBTLE</a> are trying to achieve. You can switch to the HTML view of the link anytime, or just go to the link itself. <br> <b>How it can improve:</b> A direct way to save links to Evernote without all the workarounds. <br> <b>2. Squirt</b> <br> <img src="https://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=squirt_logo.png" /> <br> <a href="http://www.squirt.io">Squirt</a> displays text in a fixed spot on your screen, which allows you to read faster with no training, less eye straining, and much less eye movement. The initial 30-second tutorial starts off with 250 words per minute, and later goes up to 450wpm. You can adjust to read much faster, while average readers read between 120 and 200 wpm. <br> <img style="width:400px;" src="https://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=squirt.png" /> <br> I'm already a fast reader, but with squirt I can get my readings done faster, especially if it's a part of a text I would like to skim, or for general ideas of topics. <br> <b>What I like the most:</b> The idea itself, and the design. <br> <b>How it can improve:</b> Right now squirt is only a bookmarklet, which means that you can use it by adding it to your browser's bookmarks. I do hope to see this improve and become something more usable offline in the future as well. <br> <b>3. Unroll.me</b> <br> <img style="width:300px;" src="https://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=unroll_logo.png" /> <br> It's fairly surprising how unknown <a href="https://unroll.me/">Unroll.me</a> still is even though they've just hit their one million user mark <a href="http://blog.unroll.me/one-million-users/">just yesterday</a>, given how useful their service is. Unroll.me shows you a list of all your subscription e-mails, which you have the option to unsubscribe immediately. You can then add the e-mails you actually want to receive to your "Rollup", which is e-mailed to you daily. <br> <img style="width:400px;" src="https://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=daily-rollup-grid.png" /> <br> <b>What I like the most:</b> Instead of receiving tons of subscription e-mails cluttering my inbox, I get to receive one Rollup e-mail from Unroll.me with thumbnails of my subscriptions that takes only a glance to read while sipping my morning coffee. <br> <b>How it can improve:</b> There are a few newsletters I receive on my personal e-mail that I can't seem to add to my Rollup, probably because I subscribed using <a href="https://support.google.com/mail/answer/12096?hl=en">gmail's + trick</a>, hopefully Unroll.me will be able to detect these in the future. Also, you will probably miss out on some time-sensetive offers if you do shopping online. <br> <b>4. Sublime Text</b> <br> <img style="width:120px;" src="https://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Sublime_Text_Logo.png" /> <a href="http://www.sublimetext.com/">Sublime Text</a> is a text editor widely known amongst developers because it supports many programming languages, but it's great for prose as well. I am actually writing this blog post in Sublime Text! <br> <img style="width:550px;" src="https://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=sublime.png" /> <br> <b>What I like the most:</b> Multiple selections and batch editing, which allows you to interactively change many lines at once, having tabs, which is great because I change my mind all the time while writing, and the distraction free mode, which helps me not to. <br> <b>How it can improve:</b> Settings would probably be a little bit hard to configure for non-technical users if they're not happy with the defaults. <br> <b>5. Draft</b> <br> <img style="width:600px;" src="https://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Screen+Shot+2014-07-17+at+17.42.09.png" /> <br> <a href="https://draftin.com/">Draft</a> is a fairly new tool for text editing with version control, which means you can find your old work and won't worry about overwriting and editing while you are writing. <br> <img style="width:550px;" src="https://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=self_diff.png" /> <br> <b>What I like the most:</b> Obviously, the version control feature, which was a major problem that I don't think has been solved before for text editing tools. I also love the "Hemingway Mode", where you enter a mode in which you can't edit the text that you have already written. Draft also has integration to import from and sync to cloud services like <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/">Dropbox</a> and <a href="https://evernote.com/">Evernote</a>. <br> <b>How it can improve:</b> Right now I'm not using this service as much as I would like to because unfortunately there aren't too many options on how I view what I am writing. This means that I can't resize the text which I find a bit too large, but I guess features like these will be added in due course. <br> <b>6. Mailbox</b> <br> <img style="width:300px;" src="https://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=MailboxLogo%2BWordmark_Horiztonal_BLUE.png" /> <br> I have been using <a href="http://www.mailboxapp.com/">Mailbox</a> for quite some time now, and it's a great mail application that helps you to unclutter your inbox and quickly archive, delete, or put off e-mails to deal with later. The e-mails sent to the "Later" return to your inbox when you need them to. <br> <img style="height:400px;" src="https://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=snoozes.png" /> <br> <b>What I like the most:</b> The "Later" settings, which are options like "Later Today", "Tomorrow", and "Someday". You also get to see a different image every day when you reach zero inbox as a bonus. <br> <b>How it can improve:</b> An option to turn off the red notification badge in iOS. Also still waiting for the beta release in MacOS, currently it's only available for iPhone, iPad, and Android. <br> <b>Author's Note</b> <br> I do hope I have made your life easier by listing my favorite tools for reading & writing! Combined, these help me reduce a lot of time reading unnecessary text, and focusing on the right thing amongst all the noise, which is very similar to what we do with data management here in <a href="www.ragic.com?campaign=bprw1">Ragic</a>. <br><br><br> You don't have to be a copywriter or an author nowadays to write an overwhelming amount of content and read even more each day. Whether you are an entrepreneur catching up on your reading, or an SMB owner struggling to keep up with e-mails, here are my favorite lifehacking tools I use to cut time on reading and writing all in a day's work - and they're all free!
1. Pocket

You have probably heard about Pocket before, formerly called "Read it Later", Pocket is one of the most popular tools to save links to read later, with an impressive array of supported devices and apps.

I personally use the chrome extension to save articles for future reference when I'm doing research, or save links on my iPhone when I want to view long blog posts and videos on my computer.
What I like the most: The reader where you can read with no distractions when you revisit an article, which is similar to what blog platforms like Medium and SVBTLE are trying to achieve. You can switch to the HTML view of the link anytime, or just go to the link itself.
How it can improve: A direct way to save links to Evernote without all the workarounds.
2. Squirt

Squirt displays text in a fixed spot on your screen, which allows you to read faster with no training, less eye straining, and much less eye movement. The initial 30-second tutorial starts off with 250 words per minute, and later goes up to 450wpm. You can adjust to read much faster, while average readers read between 120 and 200 wpm.

I'm already a fast reader, but with squirt I can get my readings done faster, especially if it's a part of a text I would like to skim, or for general ideas of topics.
What I like the most: The idea itself, and the design.
How it can improve: Right now squirt is only a bookmarklet, which means that you can use it by adding it to your browser's bookmarks. I do hope to see this improve and become something more usable offline in the future as well.
3. Unroll.me

It's fairly surprising how unknown Unroll.me still is even though they've just hit their one million user mark just yesterday, given how useful their service is. Unroll.me shows you a list of all your subscription e-mails, which you have the option to unsubscribe immediately. You can then add the e-mails you actually want to receive to your "Rollup", which is e-mailed to you daily.

What I like the most: Instead of receiving tons of subscription e-mails cluttering my inbox, I get to receive one Rollup e-mail from Unroll.me with thumbnails of my subscriptions that takes only a glance to read while sipping my morning coffee.
How it can improve: There are a few newsletters I receive on my personal e-mail that I can't seem to add to my Rollup, probably because I subscribed using gmail's + trick, hopefully Unroll.me will be able to detect these in the future. Also, you will probably miss out on some time-sensetive offers if you do shopping online.
4. Sublime Text
Sublime Text is a text editor widely known amongst developers because it supports many programming languages, but it's great for prose as well. I am actually writing this blog post in Sublime Text!

What I like the most: Multiple selections and batch editing, which allows you to interactively change many lines at once, having tabs, which is great because I change my mind all the time while writing, and the distraction free mode, which helps me not to.
How it can improve: Settings would probably be a little bit hard to configure for non-technical users if they're not happy with the defaults.
5. Draft

Draft is a fairly new tool for text editing with version control, which means you can find your old work and won't worry about overwriting and editing while you are writing.

What I like the most: Obviously, the version control feature, which was a major problem that I don't think has been solved before for text editing tools. I also love the "Hemingway Mode", where you enter a mode in which you can't edit the text that you have already written. Draft also has integration to import from and sync to cloud services like Dropbox and Evernote.
How it can improve: Right now I'm not using this service as much as I would like to because unfortunately there aren't too many options on how I view what I am writing. This means that I can't resize the text which I find a bit too large, but I guess features like these will be added in due course.
6. Mailbox

I have been using Mailbox for quite some time now, and it's a great mail application that helps you to unclutter your inbox and quickly archive, delete, or put off e-mails to deal with later. The e-mails sent to the "Later" return to your inbox when you need them to.

What I like the most: The "Later" settings, which are options like "Later Today", "Tomorrow", and "Someday". You also get to see a different image every day when you reach zero inbox as a bonus.
How it can improve: An option to turn off the red notification badge in iOS. Also still waiting for the beta release in MacOS, currently it's only available for iPhone, iPad, and Android.
Author's Note
I do hope I have made your life easier by listing my favorite tools for reading & writing! Combined, these help me reduce a lot of time reading unnecessary text, and focusing on the right thing amongst all the noise, which is very similar to what we do with data management here in Ragic.


]]> New tutorial videos in Ragic! http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/108/2014/07/08/New-tutorial-videos-in-Ragic! 2014-07-08T00:00:00UTC 2014-07-08T00:00:00UTC Tue, 08 Jul 2014 00:00:00 UTC Berrin Sun http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/108/2014/07/08/New-tutorial-videos-in-Ragic! <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=V0nie5i02b@Screen Shot 2014-07-08 at 17.39.57.png" alt="New tutorial videos in Ragic! Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />We have recently renewed the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/ragicvideo/videos">tutorial videos</a> in Ragic, with more to come! If you are new to designing database applications in Ragic, checking out these tutorial videos could be very useful for getting started in no time. <br> The most recent tutorial videos are: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CJMfgpfKBI">1. How a Ragic database works</a> Displaying a Ragic database application, viewing information in a listing page, and detailed information in a form page. <br> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10zyRc8eLXc">2. Creating a simple Ragic application</a> Designing your first Ragic database application would be a breeze after watching this video. <br> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX6DWYX0KYY">3. Linking your Ragic sheets</a> Linking your Ragic sheets with an example: assigning employees to projects, and viewing all assignments' history. <br> You can find our tutorial videos on your start page from the "Learn Ragic" link on the top-right corner, or from your "Getting Started" tab in your account. <img style="width:600px;" src="https://www.ragic.com/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Screen+Shot+2014-07-08+at+17.14.09.png" /> <br> I am currently working on more videos about other linking options, planning to publish them very soon. If you want to view additional tutorials and tips, you can <a href="http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=ragicvideo">subscribe to our youtube channel</a>. <br> Make sure to leave a comment to let me know about your tutorial requests! We have recently renewed the tutorial videos in Ragic, with more to come! If you are new to designing database applications in Ragic, checking out these tutorial videos could be very useful for getting started in no time.
The most recent tutorial videos are: 1. How a Ragic database works Displaying a Ragic database application, viewing information in a listing page, and detailed information in a form page.
2. Creating a simple Ragic application Designing your first Ragic database application would be a breeze after watching this video.
3. Linking your Ragic sheets Linking your Ragic sheets with an example: assigning employees to projects, and viewing all assignments' history.
You can find our tutorial videos on your start page from the "Learn Ragic" link on the top-right corner, or from your "Getting Started" tab in your account.
I am currently working on more videos about other linking options, planning to publish them very soon. If you want to view additional tutorials and tips, you can subscribe to our youtube channel.
Make sure to leave a comment to let me know about your tutorial requests!]]> Excel: still not a database. http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/107/2014/07/02/Excel:-still-not-a-database 2014-07-02T00:00:00UTC 2014-07-02T00:00:00UTC Wed, 02 Jul 2014 00:00:00 UTC Berrin Sun http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/107/2014/07/02/Excel:-still-not-a-database <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=es5TwGM6r1@excel-worlds-most-used-database.jpg" alt="Excel: still not a database. Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />The reason Excel still holds the throne as most popular "database" is simply because it's simple. <br> Yes, writing things in tables is the easiest way to go if you're making a list with a few categories, and there is nothing wrong with that. It just works, especially with formulas and a few types of sorting. <br> On the other hand, it gets out of hand <i>very</i> fast. <br> Two of the most common problems that we hear all the time are slow loading time due to having too many rows and columns, and a proneness to human error. According to Software Risk Management Consultant <a href="http://www.louisepryor.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/pryor-eusprig-2003.pdf">Louise Pryor's study</a>, a whopping 80% to 90% of spreadsheets contain errors. This paper was published 10 years ago, yet when we do a quick google search for "Excel database", we come across a plethora of recent tutorials and how-to guides. <br> There are many experts who repeatedly point out that spreadsheet applications are not database tools, and even an establishment called European Spreadsheet Risks Interest Group (or <a href="http://www.eusprig.org/">EuSpRiG</a>), that hold an annual conference. We are looking very forward to read their proceedings of this years', which is held tomorrow. <img style="width:250px;" src="http://www.eusprig.org/images/logo.jpg" /> <br> All in all, the fact that millions of people are already using spreadsheets to manage their data has been a good start and inspiration for us. Spreadsheets have become a common ground that all business people share, so we make the experience of designing a database system a lot like editing a spreadsheet, something everybody knows how to do, and make using the database application a lot like editing a spreadsheet too. The reason Excel still holds the throne as most popular "database" is simply because it's simple.
Yes, writing things in tables is the easiest way to go if you're making a list with a few categories, and there is nothing wrong with that. It just works, especially with formulas and a few types of sorting.
On the other hand, it gets out of hand very fast.
Two of the most common problems that we hear all the time are slow loading time due to having too many rows and columns, and a proneness to human error. According to Software Risk Management Consultant Louise Pryor's study, a whopping 80% to 90% of spreadsheets contain errors. This paper was published 10 years ago, yet when we do a quick google search for "Excel database", we come across a plethora of recent tutorials and how-to guides.
There are many experts who repeatedly point out that spreadsheet applications are not database tools, and even an establishment called European Spreadsheet Risks Interest Group (or EuSpRiG), that hold an annual conference. We are looking very forward to read their proceedings of this years', which is held tomorrow.
All in all, the fact that millions of people are already using spreadsheets to manage their data has been a good start and inspiration for us. Spreadsheets have become a common ground that all business people share, so we make the experience of designing a database system a lot like editing a spreadsheet, something everybody knows how to do, and make using the database application a lot like editing a spreadsheet too.]]> 8 Pro-tips for creating beautiful looking database sheets with Ragic http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/106/2014/06/25/8-Protips-for-creating-beautiful-looking-database-sheets-with-Ragic- 2014-06-25T00:00:00UTC 2014-06-25T00:00:00UTC Wed, 25 Jun 2014 00:00:00 UTC Berrin Sun http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/106/2014/06/25/8-Protips-for-creating-beautiful-looking-database-sheets-with-Ragic- <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=U0A6mj98Rn@image in form.png" alt="8 Pro-tips for creating beautiful looking database sheets with Ragic Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />With my interactive graphic design background, I love how versatile Ragic is while designing database sheets. Here are some pro-tips to check out for beautiful looking forms. <br> <b>1. Add your company logo</b> It's always a great idea to customize Ragic to fit your company's look & feel. If you are using Ragic's professional or on-premise plan, you can replace the Ragic logo in the top-left to your company's logo. (if you're using a different plan, check the next tip!) Go to your <b>Company Setting</b> under your <b>Account Setup</b>. You can upload your company logo on this page so that it'll show up on every page. <img style="width:500px;" src="/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=change_logo.png" /> <br> <b>2. Add images to your form design</b> Adding a header or footer on paper or on digital forms usually works great to establish your corporate identity. Same goes for banners and your logo. The design elements you add here will be displayed in the printer-friendly version as well. <img style="width:500px;" src="/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=image+in+form.png" /> To add a default image that will always display on all your forms, simply add a static text field with an HTML image tag containing a link to your image. Learn how to do this by following the simple instructions <a href="http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/doc-kb/90/Adding-a-default-image-on-a-form">here</a>. <br> <b>3. Mix and match your colors</b> You can change the style of static text fields as well as the headers of regular fields to fit your company's corporate identity. Whether the colors you choose match your logo or your website's color scheme, editing the colors will add a sense of integrity to your overall design. <img style="width:500px;" src="/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=color+picker.png" /> <br> <b>4. Make the columns fit just right.</b> Whether it's your listing page or form page, having overset text is pretty unseemly. To avoid this, you can drag the edges of the column header from the design mode to fit your field header, or the width of your field values. <img style="width:500px;" src="/intl/common/img/doc/1-12-2.png" /> Additionally, you can <i>change the field header text</i> from the design mode of your listing page. <b>The changes made for what is displayed on the listing page will not reflect to the form page, and vice versa</b>. <br> <b>5. What about the rows?</b> If you'd like to keep everything on one line, you can have a field span multiple columns from the <b>Basic</b> tab while designing your form page. <img style="width:500px;" src="/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=color_picker.png" /> If you'd rather have a paragraph-like field that would expand as you enter more data, you can resize the height of the row, just like editing the width of the columns in the design mode. <img style="width:500px;" src="/sims/file.jsp?a=kb&f=height.png" /> <br> <b>6. Add some space</b> It's always a good idea to leave some white space for better readability, like how you'd leave a margin when composing a text document. I've discovered that the best way for this in Ragic is to leave an occasional empty column (for me a 50-px width looks great) between fields in the same row in the form page. <img style="width:500px;" src="/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=space1.png" /> <br> <b>7. Keep your listing page clean.</b> One of the best features that comes with using Ragic is the powerful search engine — you can search for values that aren't displayed on the listing page with any of the <a href="http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/doc-kb/74">search tools</a>. You can also click on individual entries to go to the form page and view the details of each entry. This means that you don't have to display most of the fields on your listing page, save the important data. You can <a href="http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/doc-kb/92/Fields-Displayed-in-the-Listing-Page">choose which fields are displayed as columns in the listing page</a> from the design mode. before: <img style="width:500px;" src="/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=listing_before.png" /> after: <img style="width:500px;" src="/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=listing_after.png" /> <br> <b>8. Be consistent.</b> However you wish to design your forms, make sure that the design of your forms are consistent with each other to avoid confusion. <img src="http://webstyleguide.com/wsg2/page/graphics/4.04.gif" /> <br> Did you find these tips useful, or have your own tip? Leave a comment! With my interactive graphic design background, I love how versatile Ragic is while designing database sheets. Here are some pro-tips to check out for beautiful looking forms.
1. Add your company logo It's always a great idea to customize Ragic to fit your company's look & feel. If you are using Ragic's professional or on-premise plan, you can replace the Ragic logo in the top-left to your company's logo. (if you're using a different plan, check the next tip!) Go to your Company Setting under your Account Setup. You can upload your company logo on this page so that it'll show up on every page.
2. Add images to your form design Adding a header or footer on paper or on digital forms usually works great to establish your corporate identity. Same goes for banners and your logo. The design elements you add here will be displayed in the printer-friendly version as well. To add a default image that will always display on all your forms, simply add a static text field with an HTML image tag containing a link to your image. Learn how to do this by following the simple instructions here.
3. Mix and match your colors You can change the style of static text fields as well as the headers of regular fields to fit your company's corporate identity. Whether the colors you choose match your logo or your website's color scheme, editing the colors will add a sense of integrity to your overall design.
4. Make the columns fit just right. Whether it's your listing page or form page, having overset text is pretty unseemly. To avoid this, you can drag the edges of the column header from the design mode to fit your field header, or the width of your field values. Additionally, you can change the field header text from the design mode of your listing page. The changes made for what is displayed on the listing page will not reflect to the form page, and vice versa.
5. What about the rows? If you'd like to keep everything on one line, you can have a field span multiple columns from the Basic tab while designing your form page. If you'd rather have a paragraph-like field that would expand as you enter more data, you can resize the height of the row, just like editing the width of the columns in the design mode.
6. Add some space It's always a good idea to leave some white space for better readability, like how you'd leave a margin when composing a text document. I've discovered that the best way for this in Ragic is to leave an occasional empty column (for me a 50-px width looks great) between fields in the same row in the form page.
7. Keep your listing page clean. One of the best features that comes with using Ragic is the powerful search engine — you can search for values that aren't displayed on the listing page with any of the search tools. You can also click on individual entries to go to the form page and view the details of each entry. This means that you don't have to display most of the fields on your listing page, save the important data. You can choose which fields are displayed as columns in the listing page from the design mode. before: after:
8. Be consistent. However you wish to design your forms, make sure that the design of your forms are consistent with each other to avoid confusion.
Did you find these tips useful, or have your own tip? Leave a comment!]]> Introducing RagicDocs: Making your Dropbox work for work. http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/104/2014/06/20/Introducing-RagicDocs:-Making-your-Dropbox-work-for-work 2014-06-20T00:00:00UTC 2014-06-20T00:00:00UTC Fri, 20 Jun 2014 00:00:00 UTC Berrin Sun http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/104/2014/06/20/Introducing-RagicDocs:-Making-your-Dropbox-work-for-work <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=B7PaR5KV7x@logo_docs.png" alt="Introducing RagicDocs: Making your Dropbox work for work. Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />We've just made document management on Ragic easier with our new application RagicDocs. The only thing you'll have to do is to link one of your Dropbox folders to your RagicDocs sheet, and you're good to go. <br> <img style="width:550px;" src="/intl/common/img/featDoc_nodropbox.png" /> <br> An awesome <i>and very useful</i> update we've done for Ragic during this implementation is the ability to search the content of your uploaded files. No more sifting through folders to find that one file with the name that escapes you. <br> <img style="width:600px;" src="/intl/common/img/featDoc_search.png" /> <br> We've also adapted all the features you've come to know and love in Ragic, such as setting access rights to users and user groups, and included them as fine-tuned sharing options for your documents. <br> <img style="width:600px;" src="/intl/common/img/featDoc_sharing.png" /> <br> You're welcome to try RagicDocs out! For existing Ragic users, you can add RagicDocs to your account from the app library under your "Getting Started" tab. <br> Non-Ragic users are welcome to sign up to RagicDocs through <a href="http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/homeDoc?campaign=blog20140620">this link</a>. <br> What other integrations would you like to see in the future? Leave a comment to let us know! We've just made document management on Ragic easier with our new application RagicDocs. The only thing you'll have to do is to link one of your Dropbox folders to your RagicDocs sheet, and you're good to go.

An awesome and very useful update we've done for Ragic during this implementation is the ability to search the content of your uploaded files. No more sifting through folders to find that one file with the name that escapes you.

We've also adapted all the features you've come to know and love in Ragic, such as setting access rights to users and user groups, and included them as fine-tuned sharing options for your documents.

You're welcome to try RagicDocs out! For existing Ragic users, you can add RagicDocs to your account from the app library under your "Getting Started" tab.
Non-Ragic users are welcome to sign up to RagicDocs through this link.
What other integrations would you like to see in the future? Leave a comment to let us know!]]> Ragic Shortcode Plugin Available on Wordpress.org http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/103/2014/04/24/Ragic-Shortcode-Plugin-Available-on-Wordpressorg 2014-04-24T00:00:00UTC 2014-04-24T00:00:00UTC Thu, 24 Apr 2014 00:00:00 UTC Berrin Sun http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/103/2014/04/24/Ragic-Shortcode-Plugin-Available-on-Wordpressorg <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=wordpress_org3.png" alt="Ragic Shortcode Plugin Available on Wordpress.org Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />If you use wordpress and want to embed your forms or listing pages from your database, you're in luck! The Ragic shortcode plugin is now available on Wordpress.org in their <a href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/ragic-shortcode/">Plugin Directory</a>. You can use any of the <a href="http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/doc/13/Embedding-on-Your-Website">web embed functions</a> available with this plugin. If you use wordpress and want to embed your forms or listing pages from your database, you're in luck! The Ragic shortcode plugin is now available on Wordpress.org in their Plugin Directory. You can use any of the web embed functions available with this plugin. ]]> Ragic can now be installed on your QNAP NAS server http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/102/2014/02/14/Ragic-can-now-be-installed-on-your-QNAP-NAS-server 2014-02-14T00:00:00UTC 2014-02-14T00:00:00UTC Fri, 14 Feb 2014 00:00:00 UTC Berrin Sun http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/102/2014/02/14/Ragic-can-now-be-installed-on-your-QNAP-NAS-server <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=collaboration_en.png" alt="Ragic can now be installed on your QNAP NAS server Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" /><p>Ragic can now be installed in the <a href="http://www.qnap.com/i/en/app_center/index.php?kw=ragic">QNAP Application Center</a>.</p> <p>With a QNAP NAS server, you can install Ragic on your own enterprise private cloud, instead of a public cloud. This is especially helpful for those of you who has special concerns on the privacy of your data, or would like to manage the server yourselves.</p> <p>The ease of installation of Ragic on QNAP with the Application Center is one of the best features of QNAP NAS servers. This is incredibly convenient compared to installing the conventional LAMP stack, which you will need to start from installing Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP, and configure each of them correctly for your application to work. Instead, the one-click installation of Ragic is ready to use, which is especially friendly to small businesses with limited IT resources.</p> <p>Ragic currently uses a TS-239 Pro server for our own private testing and usage. With a high performance database architecture, most enterprise database applications can be served with a single NAS server for companies under 1,000 employees and hundreds of concurrent users. You only need to consider higher end models or adding more QNAP servers when you have a higher load for clusters. You can also get an additional server for active-standby to reduce the possible downtime caused by hardware failures.</p>

Ragic can now be installed in the QNAP Application Center.

With a QNAP NAS server, you can install Ragic on your own enterprise private cloud, instead of a public cloud. This is especially helpful for those of you who has special concerns on the privacy of your data, or would like to manage the server yourselves.

The ease of installation of Ragic on QNAP with the Application Center is one of the best features of QNAP NAS servers. This is incredibly convenient compared to installing the conventional LAMP stack, which you will need to start from installing Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP, and configure each of them correctly for your application to work. Instead, the one-click installation of Ragic is ready to use, which is especially friendly to small businesses with limited IT resources.

Ragic currently uses a TS-239 Pro server for our own private testing and usage. With a high performance database architecture, most enterprise database applications can be served with a single NAS server for companies under 1,000 employees and hundreds of concurrent users. You only need to consider higher end models or adding more QNAP servers when you have a higher load for clusters. You can also get an additional server for active-standby to reduce the possible downtime caused by hardware failures.

]]> Ragic App Library http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/100/2014/02/10/Ragic-App-Library 2014-02-10T00:00:00UTC 2014-02-10T00:00:00UTC Mon, 10 Feb 2014 00:00:00 UTC Berrin Sun http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/100/2014/02/10/Ragic-App-Library <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=library screenshot1.png" alt="Ragic App Library Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />You may have noticed that we have a new application library in Ragic, where you can install from a wide variety of professionally designed database apps for your business. As usual, users are free to modify and build upon these applications through the design mode. You can view more information about these applications including sample screenshots by clicking their name in the app library. You may have noticed that we have a new application library in Ragic, where you can install from a wide variety of professionally designed database apps for your business. As usual, users are free to modify and build upon these applications through the design mode. You can view more information about these applications including sample screenshots by clicking their name in the app library. ]]> Comments for Ragic Blog http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/81/2012/11/29/Comments-for-Ragic-Blog 2012-11-29T00:00:00UTC 2012-11-29T00:00:00UTC Thu, 29 Nov 2012 00:00:00 UTC Jeff Kuo http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/81/2012/11/29/Comments-for-Ragic-Blog <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Screen Shot 2012-12-05 at 11.58.19 AM.png" alt="Comments for Ragic Blog Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />Disqus comments are added to our blog system. Now you are free to add comments to any of our blog posts. We've thought about keeping our "eat your own dog food policy" and implement the blog comments with Ragic ourselves, but Disqus actually integrates pretty well in every way with our blog built with Ragic. So we'll keep it around and see how they work. Disqus comments are added to our blog system. Now you are free to add comments to any of our blog posts. We've thought about keeping our "eat your own dog food policy" and implement the blog comments with Ragic ourselves, but Disqus actually integrates pretty well in every way with our blog built with Ragic. So we'll keep it around and see how they work. ]]> Template application Ragic Pet Store will be installed to new registrations http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/80/2012/11/07/Template-application-Ragic-Pet-Store-will-be-installed-to-new-registrations 2012-11-07T00:00:00UTC 2012-11-07T00:00:00UTC Wed, 07 Nov 2012 00:00:00 UTC Jeff Kuo http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/80/2012/11/07/Template-application-Ragic-Pet-Store-will-be-installed-to-new-registrations <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Screen Shot 2012-12-05 at 11.57.31 AM.png" alt="Template application Ragic Pet Store will be installed to new registrations Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />Newly created accounts will now contain a "Ragic Pet Store" application inside your account when it's first registered, to give new users an idea of what a Ragic application looks like and what it can do. You're all free to delete them if you are already experienced with Ragic. For new users, feel free to play around with the application, add entries, go to its design mode and change the design of the application. If you are designing an application, and want some feature that you saw in Ragic Pet Store, just go to the design mode of this sample application and see how it's configured. It's always to have a nice example to get you started on a new thing, right? Newly created accounts will now contain a "Ragic Pet Store" application inside your account when it's first registered, to give new users an idea of what a Ragic application looks like and what it can do. You're all free to delete them if you are already experienced with Ragic. For new users, feel free to play around with the application, add entries, go to its design mode and change the design of the application. If you are designing an application, and want some feature that you saw in Ragic Pet Store, just go to the design mode of this sample application and see how it's configured. It's always to have a nice example to get you started on a new thing, right? ]]> New BBCode and Google Map supports in cell content http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/79/2012/10/22/New-BBCode-and-Google-Map-supports-in-cell-content 2012-10-22T00:00:00UTC 2012-10-22T00:00:00UTC Mon, 22 Oct 2012 00:00:00 UTC Jeff Kuo http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/79/2012/10/22/New-BBCode-and-Google-Map-supports-in-cell-content <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Screen Shot 2012-12-05 at 11.56.40 AM.png" alt="New BBCode and Google Map supports in cell content Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />HTML does not work on Ragic fields because of security concerns. But sometimes it's nice to add colors, images, or widgets to the form to make them more useful. Now we added support to some of the BBCode formats that's often used on Internet forums. We've only picked some BBCodes to ensure that the formatting will not mess up the layout of most forms. We will be adding support for more BBCode types, and you're free to suggest additions to support@ragic.com Color : [color=#880000]red[/color] Google Map：[addr]350 5th Avenue, New York, NY[/addr] Please note that HTML "IS" supported in design mode when you use field descriptions. You can freely add most HTML if you're the designer of the application. HTML does not work on Ragic fields because of security concerns. But sometimes it's nice to add colors, images, or widgets to the form to make them more useful. Now we added support to some of the BBCode formats that's often used on Internet forums. We've only picked some BBCodes to ensure that the formatting will not mess up the layout of most forms. We will be adding support for more BBCode types, and you're free to suggest additions to support@ragic.com Color : [color=#880000]red[/color] Google Map：[addr]350 5th Avenue, New York, NY[/addr] Please note that HTML "IS" supported in design mode when you use field descriptions. You can freely add most HTML if you're the designer of the application. ]]> Getting Started tab for application designers http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/78/2012/10/06/Getting-Started-tab-for-application-designers 2012-10-06T00:00:00UTC 2012-10-06T00:00:00UTC Sat, 06 Oct 2012 00:00:00 UTC Jeff Kuo http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/78/2012/10/06/Getting-Started-tab-for-application-designers <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Screen Shot 2012-12-05 at 11.54.02 AM.png" alt="Getting Started tab for application designers Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />New tab "Getting Started" added to your top navigation bar. It's designed to assist all Ragic developers to get started on building Ragic applications. The tab item will only appear for users under the group "SYSAdmin", so don't worry if your users will be confused by this. Inside there are getting started action items and achievement style badges that you can earn. We want to make learning Ragic a little more fun! Again, these achievement badges will only pop up for users under the group "SYSAdmin", so it will not affect the daily usage of your users. New tab "Getting Started" added to your top navigation bar. It's designed to assist all Ragic developers to get started on building Ragic applications. The tab item will only appear for users under the group "SYSAdmin", so don't worry if your users will be confused by this. Inside there are getting started action items and achievement style badges that you can earn. We want to make learning Ragic a little more fun! Again, these achievement badges will only pop up for users under the group "SYSAdmin", so it will not affect the daily usage of your users. ]]> System Query http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/77/2012/09/17/System-Query 2012-09-17T00:00:00UTC 2012-09-17T00:00:00UTC Mon, 17 Sep 2012 00:00:00 UTC Jeff Kuo http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/77/2012/09/17/System-Query <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Screen Shot 2012-12-05 at 11.53.46 AM1.png" alt="System Query Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />Personal query is one function that has been around for quite a long time, but only used by more experienced users. If you query for the same filter conditions very often, you can save a set of filter conditions as a personal query, so that you can query your form with that condition with a single click in the future. However, a lot of users don't even know about this feature or didn't realize how much this could help them. We've added another type of feature called "System Query", which the application designers can save a set of query conditions for all users of the form to use. This way their users can get a taste of the convenience without needing to setup the query criteria themselves. You can create multiple views of the data that all users share without duplicating the form. If you are a Ragic developer, try this out and let your user know about it. Personal query is one function that has been around for quite a long time, but only used by more experienced users. If you query for the same filter conditions very often, you can save a set of filter conditions as a personal query, so that you can query your form with that condition with a single click in the future. However, a lot of users don't even know about this feature or didn't realize how much this could help them. We've added another type of feature called "System Query", which the application designers can save a set of query conditions for all users of the form to use. This way their users can get a taste of the convenience without needing to setup the query criteria themselves. You can create multiple views of the data that all users share without duplicating the form. If you are a Ragic developer, try this out and let your user know about it. ]]> Date picker http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/76/2012/08/23/Date-picker 2012-08-23T00:00:00UTC 2012-08-23T00:00:00UTC Thu, 23 Aug 2012 00:00:00 UTC Jeff Kuo http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/76/2012/08/23/Date-picker <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Screen Shot 2012-11-29 at 10.46.18 PM.png" alt="Date picker Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />Date fields now have a date picker available when users click on the cell. We probably should have added this long time ago but we chose not to for some reasons. The main reason for adding this feature so late is that most of our users enter a lot of data, and when you enter a lot of data, using a date picker is really not the fastest way to enter a date. Using your keyboard to enter is much faster, and with the auto formatting feature in Ragic, there's almost no reason for experienced users to use a date picker. But we've found that a lot of new Ragic users finds it a bit confusing when they are trying to enter a date, when there is no visible tool to assist them. So we added a date picker to help them, while keeping all of the existing keyboard date entry features intact. If you're comfortable with keyboard date entry, you can simply ignore this function. But we think this should make new users having an easier time trying out Ragic for the first time. Date fields now have a date picker available when users click on the cell. We probably should have added this long time ago but we chose not to for some reasons. The main reason for adding this feature so late is that most of our users enter a lot of data, and when you enter a lot of data, using a date picker is really not the fastest way to enter a date. Using your keyboard to enter is much faster, and with the auto formatting feature in Ragic, there's almost no reason for experienced users to use a date picker. But we've found that a lot of new Ragic users finds it a bit confusing when they are trying to enter a date, when there is no visible tool to assist them. So we added a date picker to help them, while keeping all of the existing keyboard date entry features intact. If you're comfortable with keyboard date entry, you can simply ignore this function. But we think this should make new users having an easier time trying out Ragic for the first time. ]]> Evernote Integration http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/75/2012/08/21/Evernote-Integration 2012-08-21T00:00:00UTC 2012-08-21T00:00:00UTC Tue, 21 Aug 2012 00:00:00 UTC Jeff Kuo http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/75/2012/08/21/Evernote-Integration <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Screen Shot 2012-11-29 at 10.49.36 PM.png" alt="Evernote Integration Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />If you are a heavy Evernote user, you're in luck. Ragic now supports data sync from Ragic to Evernote. You can choose "Evernote Integration" from the "Export" button in your Ragic form, follow the instructions, and we will automatically create a notebook on your Evernote account and put each entries in the form as a note in your notebook. Whenever there's a new entry, or there's an update to the entry. We will sync the changes to your Evernote notebook, and you can have access to all your data on your Evernote anytime anywhere. If you are a heavy Evernote user, you're in luck. Ragic now supports data sync from Ragic to Evernote. You can choose "Evernote Integration" from the "Export" button in your Ragic form, follow the instructions, and we will automatically create a notebook on your Evernote account and put each entries in the form as a note in your notebook. Whenever there's a new entry, or there's an update to the entry. We will sync the changes to your Evernote notebook, and you can have access to all your data on your Evernote anytime anywhere. ]]> Interactive Tutorial http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/74/2012/08/15/Interactive-Tutorial 2012-08-15T00:00:00UTC 2012-08-15T00:00:00UTC Wed, 15 Aug 2012 00:00:00 UTC Jeff Kuo http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/74/2012/08/15/Interactive-Tutorial <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Screen Shot 2012-11-29 at 10.50.01 PM.png" alt="Interactive Tutorial Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />For a really long time, the biggest problem with Ragic is that it's really hard to teach someone how to develop with Ragic without a short face to face training. Even though the concept is really simple, but often it still requires some guidance in order for user to get this simple concept. We've always though, if only there's a way that we can guide users through building a simple application, then they must have a much better grasp of Ragic development. Videos? Very few people would take the time to look at the video from start to finish, especially the video will need to be at least 10 minutes. Training documents? Did I just say that people don't even watch videos? Then came along a new idea, why don't we use our great programming skills and create a program that guides users through the each steps of Ragic development. This way if the user follows the interactive tutorial step by step, he will definitely know how to build simple Ragic applications. It's just like having one of our consultants taking your through each steps of development personally. We're really excited about this new form of training, try it out and let us know what you think! For a really long time, the biggest problem with Ragic is that it's really hard to teach someone how to develop with Ragic without a short face to face training. Even though the concept is really simple, but often it still requires some guidance in order for user to get this simple concept. We've always though, if only there's a way that we can guide users through building a simple application, then they must have a much better grasp of Ragic development. Videos? Very few people would take the time to look at the video from start to finish, especially the video will need to be at least 10 minutes. Training documents? Did I just say that people don't even watch videos? Then came along a new idea, why don't we use our great programming skills and create a program that guides users through the each steps of Ragic development. This way if the user follows the interactive tutorial step by step, he will definitely know how to build simple Ragic applications. It's just like having one of our consultants taking your through each steps of development personally. We're really excited about this new form of training, try it out and let us know what you think! ]]> New Ragic setup application to configure your Ragic account to replace config.xml http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/73/2012/08/04/New-Ragic-setup-application-to-configure-your-Ragic-account-to-replace-configxml 2012-08-04T00:00:00UTC 2012-08-04T00:00:00UTC Sat, 04 Aug 2012 00:00:00 UTC Jeff Kuo http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/73/2012/08/04/New-Ragic-setup-application-to-configure-your-Ragic-account-to-replace-configxml <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Screen Shot 2012-11-29 at 10.52.25 PM.png" alt="New Ragic setup application to configure your Ragic account to replace config.xml Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />One decision that we've made in the early days of Ragic is that since we believe Ragic is the best way to develop database applications, then we shall not use any other ways to develop databases in Ragic besides Ragic itself. So as a result, from the user and account registration, to group management, to even blogs, forums and applications stores on Ragic. They are all totally built on Ragic Builder! Some of it have customized interface using the Java API, but every bit of data is stored on Ragic. The administration function that you use to create new users for your account was build on Ragic but we used the Java API to create a more customized interface. This is necessary in the beginning because Ragic does not have enough features to create a fully functional user registration module. But as our product grew, we begin to face problems that applications "NOT" built with Ragic faces, because we used a customized interface rather than Ragic. It's that we'll need to put more and more effort on the user registration function development because of different feature requests like paged listing of users, filtering users by status, or adding new fields. Does these features begin to sound familiar? Yes, they're all functions already provided by Ragic. The great thing about using Ragic is that you can build rock solid applications really fast in a flexible way. So it's time for us to look back and see if Ragic now have enough capability to manage the users in your account and manage your configurations, and the answer is yes. Now on all new registered accounts we will install a "Ragic Setup" application, you can use it to manage users and groups, or configure your account privilege and feature access settings. The old user management function in the top account tab will remain where they are for now. But please use the new Ragic Setup application to manage your users and configuration, we will remove the user management in the admin tab in the future. One decision that we've made in the early days of Ragic is that since we believe Ragic is the best way to develop database applications, then we shall not use any other ways to develop databases in Ragic besides Ragic itself. So as a result, from the user and account registration, to group management, to even blogs, forums and applications stores on Ragic. They are all totally built on Ragic Builder! Some of it have customized interface using the Java API, but every bit of data is stored on Ragic. The administration function that you use to create new users for your account was build on Ragic but we used the Java API to create a more customized interface. This is necessary in the beginning because Ragic does not have enough features to create a fully functional user registration module. But as our product grew, we begin to face problems that applications "NOT" built with Ragic faces, because we used a customized interface rather than Ragic. It's that we'll need to put more and more effort on the user registration function development because of different feature requests like paged listing of users, filtering users by status, or adding new fields. Does these features begin to sound familiar? Yes, they're all functions already provided by Ragic. The great thing about using Ragic is that you can build rock solid applications really fast in a flexible way. So it's time for us to look back and see if Ragic now have enough capability to manage the users in your account and manage your configurations, and the answer is yes. Now on all new registered accounts we will install a "Ragic Setup" application, you can use it to manage users and groups, or configure your account privilege and feature access settings. The old user management function in the top account tab will remain where they are for now. But please use the new Ragic Setup application to manage your users and configuration, we will remove the user management in the admin tab in the future. ]]> Workflow debug console for server-side Javascript developers http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/72/2012/07/31/Workflow-debug-console-for-serverside-Javascript-developers 2012-07-31T00:00:00UTC 2012-07-31T00:00:00UTC Tue, 31 Jul 2012 00:00:00 UTC Jeff Kuo http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/72/2012/07/31/Workflow-debug-console-for-serverside-Javascript-developers <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Screen Shot 2012-11-29 at 10.54.17 PM.png" alt="Workflow debug console for server-side Javascript developers Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />Right now most of us use response.setMessage to debug the server-side Javascript programs. But it's not as convenient as it could be. We've now added a workflow debug console that you can turn on for developers. log.setToConsole(true); //first add this line to turn on the debug console log.println('debug message');//then use this to print any debug message that you want This will create a big panel at the bottom of your Ragic application when you save an entry and execute the Javascript workflow. In the panel it will print the debug messages that you wrote in your program. Server-side Javascript is still new, online editing is also very new, so we'll keep looking for good ways to help developers debug. If you have some suggestions for us, write to me at jeff@ragic.com Right now most of us use response.setMessage to debug the server-side Javascript programs. But it's not as convenient as it could be. We've now added a workflow debug console that you can turn on for developers. log.setToConsole(true); //first add this line to turn on the debug console log.println('debug message');//then use this to print any debug message that you want This will create a big panel at the bottom of your Ragic application when you save an entry and execute the Javascript workflow. In the panel it will print the debug messages that you wrote in your program. Server-side Javascript is still new, online editing is also very new, so we'll keep looking for good ways to help developers debug. If you have some suggestions for us, write to me at jeff@ragic.com ]]> New SDBQuery filter methods in Javascript workflow and Java API http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/71/2012/07/17/New-SDBQuery-filter-methods-in-Javascript-workflow-and-Java-API 2012-07-17T00:00:00UTC 2012-07-17T00:00:00UTC Tue, 17 Jul 2012 00:00:00 UTC Jeff Kuo http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/71/2012/07/17/New-SDBQuery-filter-methods-in-Javascript-workflow-and-Java-API <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Screen Shot 2012-11-29 at 10.55.08 PM.png" alt="New SDBQuery filter methods in Javascript workflow and Java API Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />When you use the query object to query data, which is the SDBQuery in Java API or the query object retrieved through the db.getQuery method in the Javascript workflow engine. If you want to add a query criteria according to a field, you used to have to do this: SDBQuery q=...//existing query SDBQuery subQuery=new SDBQueryFull(worker); subQuery.go(queryFieldId); subQuery.filter("filterConditionString"); q.filter(subQuery,false); We now provide you with a series of convenience methods like SDBQuery.filter(int fieldId, String filterValue). All existing filter methods you can now add an int argument as the query field, so you no longer have to create a subquery to filter a query on another field. Now you only need to do this: SDBQuery q=...//existing query q.filter(queryFieldId,"filterConditionString"); This should save you a few lines of code each time you filter something with our API. When you use the query object to query data, which is the SDBQuery in Java API or the query object retrieved through the db.getQuery method in the Javascript workflow engine. If you want to add a query criteria according to a field, you used to have to do this: SDBQuery q=...//existing query SDBQuery subQuery=new SDBQueryFull(worker); subQuery.go(queryFieldId); subQuery.filter("filterConditionString"); q.filter(subQuery,false); We now provide you with a series of convenience methods like SDBQuery.filter(int fieldId, String filterValue). All existing filter methods you can now add an int argument as the query field, so you no longer have to create a subquery to filter a query on another field. Now you only need to do this: SDBQuery q=...//existing query q.filter(queryFieldId,"filterConditionString"); This should save you a few lines of code each time you filter something with our API. ]]> Auto complete suggestion for full text search http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/70/2012/07/06/Auto-complete-suggestion-for-full-text-search 2012-07-06T00:00:00UTC 2012-07-06T00:00:00UTC Fri, 06 Jul 2012 00:00:00 UTC Jeff Kuo http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/70/2012/07/06/Auto-complete-suggestion-for-full-text-search <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Screen Shot 2012-11-29 at 10.55.54 PM.png" alt="Auto complete suggestion for full text search Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />When you try the full text search function this morning, you may find that we've added auto complete suggestion panel below the full text search box. It will show possible search results according to the query term that you have typed so far. A little like the google suggest feature. Although it's not perfect yet, as it can only show you matched words but not phrases, but it should really help you when you don't know the exact spelling of the term that you're looking for, for example if you're looking for some quotation that starts with Q-201210, you can use this to quickly locate the entry that you're looking for. Also if there's multiple possible matches, you can pick the item that you want right away rather than another search result screen. Try it out! We want to make finding what you want as easy as possible! When you try the full text search function this morning, you may find that we've added auto complete suggestion panel below the full text search box. It will show possible search results according to the query term that you have typed so far. A little like the google suggest feature. Although it's not perfect yet, as it can only show you matched words but not phrases, but it should really help you when you don't know the exact spelling of the term that you're looking for, for example if you're looking for some quotation that starts with Q-201210, you can use this to quickly locate the entry that you're looking for. Also if there's multiple possible matches, you can pick the item that you want right away rather than another search result screen. Try it out! We want to make finding what you want as easy as possible! ]]> Open ID Log in, guest authentication in your application http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/69/2012/04/18/Open-ID-Log-in-guest-authentication-in-your-application 2012-04-18T00:00:00UTC 2012-04-18T00:00:00UTC Wed, 18 Apr 2012 00:00:00 UTC Jeff Kuo http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/69/2012/04/18/Open-ID-Log-in-guest-authentication-in-your-application <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Screen Shot 2012-11-29 at 10.56.44 PM.png" alt="Open ID Log in, guest authentication in your application Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />If you registered your account with GMail, Yahoo, or the same e-mail you use for Facebook, you're in luck! We've just introduced open id log in for Ragic! Now you can log in Ragic without entering your e-mail and password. Just by clicking on which type of open ID log in that you would like to use, and accept the open ID authentication request. And you have just logged in Ragic without entering your password. The great thing about this feature is that sometimes when your application is open to the public, and the users may not have a Ragic account. But as they create an entry, leaves and come back, you'll need a way to authenticate their identity so that Ragic know they are the one creating this entry, and gives them the access right to view or edit this entry. Without open id, the old way would be to use the "E-mail Id." attribute, and users will receive an e-mail with a link to identify themselves next time they want to use Ragic. With Open ID, they can use Ragic without this type of E-mail URL, they can simply log in Ragic with open ID, choose not to create an account, since they are just users of your application, not creating an application of their own. This way when they come back, Ragic can know they are the creator of this entry and give them the access right they need to see or edit this entry, according to your access right setting in the form. If you registered your account with GMail, Yahoo, or the same e-mail you use for Facebook, you're in luck! We've just introduced open id log in for Ragic! Now you can log in Ragic without entering your e-mail and password. Just by clicking on which type of open ID log in that you would like to use, and accept the open ID authentication request. And you have just logged in Ragic without entering your password. The great thing about this feature is that sometimes when your application is open to the public, and the users may not have a Ragic account. But as they create an entry, leaves and come back, you'll need a way to authenticate their identity so that Ragic know they are the one creating this entry, and gives them the access right to view or edit this entry. Without open id, the old way would be to use the "E-mail Id." attribute, and users will receive an e-mail with a link to identify themselves next time they want to use Ragic. With Open ID, they can use Ragic without this type of E-mail URL, they can simply log in Ragic with open ID, choose not to create an account, since they are just users of your application, not creating an application of their own. This way when they come back, Ragic can know they are the creator of this entry and give them the access right they need to see or edit this entry, according to your access right setting in the form. ]]> Vote for the Ragic feature that you would like to have! http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/68/2012/04/12/Vote-for-the-Ragic-feature-that-you-would-like-to-have! 2012-04-12T00:00:00UTC 2012-04-12T00:00:00UTC Thu, 12 Apr 2012 00:00:00 UTC Jeff Kuo http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/68/2012/04/12/Vote-for-the-Ragic-feature-that-you-would-like-to-have! <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Screen Shot 2012-11-29 at 10.57.39 PM.png" alt="Vote for the Ragic feature that you would like to have! Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />We're constantly getting great feedbacks on how they're using or designing their Ragic applications, and it would work so much better if our engineering team can add X, and Y features. While a lot of these features sounds great, we have an engineering team, not a genie in the lamp. So we've decided to let you decide what our team should work on next! <a href="/intl/en/vote">Feature Voting</a> Here you can submit new ideas that you think we should work on, vote up great ideas submitted by you or others, and track how our engineering team's progress on these features. You get 6 votes every month, so make all of them count! You can freely choose between giving 6 great ideas one vote, or put them all in a feature that you really think that would help you. It's all up to you! We're constantly getting great feedbacks on how they're using or designing their Ragic applications, and it would work so much better if our engineering team can add X, and Y features. While a lot of these features sounds great, we have an engineering team, not a genie in the lamp. So we've decided to let you decide what our team should work on next! Feature Voting Here you can submit new ideas that you think we should work on, vote up great ideas submitted by you or others, and track how our engineering team's progress on these features. You get 6 votes every month, so make all of them count! You can freely choose between giving 6 great ideas one vote, or put them all in a feature that you really think that would help you. It's all up to you! ]]> New Excel Form Style, setting display density and font size http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/67/2012/03/21/New-Excel-Form-Style-setting-display-density-and-font-size 2012-03-21T00:00:00UTC 2012-03-21T00:00:00UTC Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:00:00 UTC Jeff Kuo http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/67/2012/03/21/New-Excel-Form-Style-setting-display-density-and-font-size <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Screen Shot 2012-11-29 at 10.58.32 PM.png" alt="New Excel Form Style, setting display density and font size Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />When you log in today, you may notice that all your forms look a little different, hopefully a little prettier. We've made quite a few adjustments to our default stylesheet to render your Ragic application, to make them a little less like Excel spreadsheet, and a bit more like Web pages. We've learned that while spreadsheets are awesome to use, but it's not exactly the prettiest application that you find on the Web. To make the best of both worlds, we will keep trying to make the UI a bit more less spreadsheet-like, while preserving all the great features that you find on spreadsheets. Another features is that you can now click on the wheel button at top right of your application and adjust the display density and font size of your sheets. We want everyone to be comfortable and happy when using their Ragic applications. When you log in today, you may notice that all your forms look a little different, hopefully a little prettier. We've made quite a few adjustments to our default stylesheet to render your Ragic application, to make them a little less like Excel spreadsheet, and a bit more like Web pages. We've learned that while spreadsheets are awesome to use, but it's not exactly the prettiest application that you find on the Web. To make the best of both worlds, we will keep trying to make the UI a bit more less spreadsheet-like, while preserving all the great features that you find on spreadsheets. Another features is that you can now click on the wheel button at top right of your application and adjust the display density and font size of your sheets. We want everyone to be comfortable and happy when using their Ragic applications. ]]> New Ragic Homepage http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/66/2012/03/29/New-Ragic-Homepage 2012-03-29T00:00:00UTC 2012-03-29T00:00:00UTC Thu, 29 Mar 2012 00:00:00 UTC Jeff Kuo http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/66/2012/03/29/New-Ragic-Homepage <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Screen Shot 2012-11-29 at 10.59.53 PM.png" alt="New Ragic Homepage Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />How do you like our new Ragic Homepage? New features and pages include: 1. Ragic Support Center : You can find all the technical documents, blog posts, and submit ticket requests here. 2. Ragic Solution Store: Find all the templates that we created for experienced or new developers to get started quickly! We have a platform to put applications that any one of you developed in the Ragic Solution Store quickly! Contact me if you would like to submit an application to the Ragic Solution Store at jeff@ragic.com 3. Navigation menu adjustments, it should be easier to find most items now. How do you like our new Ragic Homepage? New features and pages include: 1. Ragic Support Center : You can find all the technical documents, blog posts, and submit ticket requests here. 2. Ragic Solution Store: Find all the templates that we created for experienced or new developers to get started quickly! We have a platform to put applications that any one of you developed in the Ragic Solution Store quickly! Contact me if you would like to submit an application to the Ragic Solution Store at jeff@ragic.com 3. Navigation menu adjustments, it should be easier to find most items now. ]]> Excel Import enhancements http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/65/2012/02/07/Excel-Import-enhancements 2012-02-07T00:00:00UTC 2012-02-07T00:00:00UTC Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:00:00 UTC Jeff Kuo http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/65/2012/02/07/Excel-Import-enhancements <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Screen Shot 2012-11-29 at 11.00.32 PM.png" alt="Excel Import enhancements Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />1. Ragic will now try to automatically determine the default mapping of your Excel sheet by using the header names to guess which field that it should map to. 2. Full text search index will now be updated when you upload data via Excel. 3. The key field no longer needs to be the first field of the spreadsheet. The key field will be determined by the form definition. 4. If the field mapped to the key field of the form is empty, the record will be skipped to avoid multiple entries with empty key fields. 5. Added check to make sure key field is mapped, and no duplicated mapping. 1. Ragic will now try to automatically determine the default mapping of your Excel sheet by using the header names to guess which field that it should map to. 2. Full text search index will now be updated when you upload data via Excel. 3. The key field no longer needs to be the first field of the spreadsheet. The key field will be determined by the form definition. 4. If the field mapped to the key field of the form is empty, the record will be skipped to avoid multiple entries with empty key fields. 5. Added check to make sure key field is mapped, and no duplicated mapping. ]]> Embedding Ragic forms in your web site or blog http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/64/2012/01/18/Embedding-Ragic-forms-in-your-web-site-or-blog 2012-01-18T00:00:00UTC 2012-01-18T00:00:00UTC Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00:00 UTC Jeff Kuo http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/64/2012/01/18/Embedding-Ragic-forms-in-your-web-site-or-blog <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Screen Shot 2012-11-29 at 11.02.00 PM.png" alt="Embedding Ragic forms in your web site or blog Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />Whether it's an online order form, or a service ticket request, a lot of time you would like to embed a Ragic form in your website. This is extremely simple to do with Ragic, and we've made it even easier now. Go to the form that you would like to embed, and click on the button "More" and choose "Embed This Form". There will be a pop-up with the HTML code that you can copy and paste into your web page. This way users can simply go to your webpage and fill out the form, and the data will be stored in your Ragic database. Please remember to set the user access right setting and make sure that Everyone have access right to this form that you've embedded into your web page. <img src="/sims/img/accessRightScn.gif" /> Whether it's an online order form, or a service ticket request, a lot of time you would like to embed a Ragic form in your website. This is extremely simple to do with Ragic, and we've made it even easier now. Go to the form that you would like to embed, and click on the button "More" and choose "Embed This Form". There will be a pop-up with the HTML code that you can copy and paste into your web page. This way users can simply go to your webpage and fill out the form, and the data will be stored in your Ragic database. Please remember to set the user access right setting and make sure that Everyone have access right to this form that you've embedded into your web page. ]]> Ragic HTTP API now supports full text search http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/43/2012/01/09/Ragic-HTTP-API-now-supports-full-text-search 2012-01-09T00:00:00UTC 2012-01-09T00:00:00UTC Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:00:00 UTC Jeff Kuo http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/43/2012/01/09/Ragic-HTTP-API-now-supports-full-text-search <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Screen Shot 2012-11-29 at 11.03.46 PM.png" alt="Ragic HTTP API now supports full text search Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />If you use the full text search API a lot, you can use them in your custom applications integrating Ragic. Just add the query string parameter fts=<query term>, and you can get the results using our full text search engine. We've also done some performance enhancements on searching for one single entry with exact keywords on large data sets. If you use the full text search API a lot, you can use them in your custom applications integrating Ragic. Just add the query string parameter fts=, and you can get the results using our full text search engine. We've also done some performance enhancements on searching for one single entry with exact keywords on large data sets. ]]> Download and restore database definitions, URL tricks http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/42/2012/01/05/Download-and-restore-database-definitions-URL-tricks 2012-01-05T00:00:00UTC 2012-01-05T00:00:00UTC Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:00:00 UTC Jeff Kuo http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/42/2012/01/05/Download-and-restore-database-definitions-URL-tricks <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Screen Shot 2012-11-29 at 11.04.13 PM.png" alt="Download and restore database definitions, URL tricks Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />1. When your database gets really big, it takes longer and longer to use the account backup feature to backup the whole database. But sometimes you just want to backup the database design that you made this week and test it out on a test server. Now the account backup function have a checkbox to specify that you just want to download the database definitions. With this checkbox, the downloaded .ragic file should be significantly smaller (but without data file of course). 2. You can add some query strings to the form URLs that you give out to users. For example if you add ?new to a URL like this www.ragic.com/demo/sales/1?new When user clicks on the URL and sees the form, he will be in edit mode ready to create a new entry directly, without needing him to click on "New Entry" button. ?new : Go to "New Entry" in this form ?edit : Go to "Edit Data" in this form entry 1. When your database gets really big, it takes longer and longer to use the account backup feature to backup the whole database. But sometimes you just want to backup the database design that you made this week and test it out on a test server. Now the account backup function have a checkbox to specify that you just want to download the database definitions. With this checkbox, the downloaded .ragic file should be significantly smaller (but without data file of course). 2. You can add some query strings to the form URLs that you give out to users. For example if you add ?new to a URL like this www.ragic.com/demo/sales/1?new When user clicks on the URL and sees the form, he will be in edit mode ready to create a new entry directly, without needing him to click on "New Entry" button. ?new : Go to "New Entry" in this form ?edit : Go to "Edit Data" in this form entry ]]> Clone Entry http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/41/2011/12/28/Clone-Entry 2011-12-28T00:00:00UTC 2011-12-28T00:00:00UTC Wed, 28 Dec 2011 00:00:00 UTC Jeff Kuo http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/41/2011/12/28/Clone-Entry <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Screen Shot 2012-11-29 at 11.04.27 PM.png" alt="Clone Entry Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />Cloning entry is here! Now if you want to create a new entry much similar to an older entry, you go to that entry, click on "More" and click "Clone Entry". You will enter Edit Mode, as if you're creating a new entry, but all the fields are pre-filled by the contents of the entry that you're trying to clone! This should be a huge time saver if you tend to have huge forms and takes like 30 minutes to create a complicated entry with tons of subtable entries. Cloning entry is here! Now if you want to create a new entry much similar to an older entry, you go to that entry, click on "More" and click "Clone Entry". You will enter Edit Mode, as if you're creating a new entry, but all the fields are pre-filled by the contents of the entry that you're trying to clone! This should be a huge time saver if you tend to have huge forms and takes like 30 minutes to create a complicated entry with tons of subtable entries. ]]> Static content on Google Application Engine CDN http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/40/2011/05/26/Static-content-on-Google-Application-Engine-CDN 2011-05-26T00:00:00UTC 2011-05-26T00:00:00UTC Thu, 26 May 2011 00:00:00 UTC Jeff Kuo http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/40/2011/05/26/Static-content-on-Google-Application-Engine-CDN <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Screen Shot 2012-11-29 at 11.05.40 PM.png" alt="Static content on Google Application Engine CDN Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />Hey this is pretty cool to us too. You can use Google Application Engine as a cheap CDN?! It's actually pretty simple, just upload your static content to your Google Application Engine, and point all these static resources to GAE URL, and voila! You have started using Google GAE as your CDN service. If you are using Ragic private server, and is planning on updating your server. Please remember to make sure that the CDN_URL property is not set. Or you will not be able to modify static content feeding from your own server. If you would like to know more about how to use GAE as a CDN service, just contact me at jeff@ragic.com Hey this is pretty cool to us too. You can use Google Application Engine as a cheap CDN?! It's actually pretty simple, just upload your static content to your Google Application Engine, and point all these static resources to GAE URL, and voila! You have started using Google GAE as your CDN service. If you are using Ragic private server, and is planning on updating your server. Please remember to make sure that the CDN_URL property is not set. Or you will not be able to modify static content feeding from your own server. If you would like to know more about how to use GAE as a CDN service, just contact me at jeff@ragic.com ]]> Addons for custom reports and forms http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/39/2011/10/20/Addons-for-custom-reports-and-forms 2011-10-20T00:00:00UTC 2011-10-20T00:00:00UTC Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:00:00 UTC Jeff Kuo http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/39/2011/10/20/Addons-for-custom-reports-and-forms <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Screen Shot 2012-11-29 at 11.06.13 PM.png" alt="Addons for custom reports and forms Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />You can now add any URL to the left sidebar like a Ragic sheet. The URL will be loaded as an iframe at the right area. This feature is great for putting the customized reports and forms that you made with Ragic Java API or HTTP API inside Ragic to give users a seamless user experience. Right now we have not added a direct UI to add this type of add-ons, but you can use the account backup feature to download your account database definition only, open it with a RAR unarchiver, and modify the config.xml inside your application. The format should look something like this: <module> ... <addons> <addon seq="10" url="http://www.cnn.com/">CNN</addon> <addon seq="11" url="http://www.google.com/">Google</addon> </addons> </module> Please assign a seq number not used by any of your sheets. You can now add any URL to the left sidebar like a Ragic sheet. The URL will be loaded as an iframe at the right area. This feature is great for putting the customized reports and forms that you made with Ragic Java API or HTTP API inside Ragic to give users a seamless user experience. Right now we have not added a direct UI to add this type of add-ons, but you can use the account backup feature to download your account database definition only, open it with a RAR unarchiver, and modify the config.xml inside your application. The format should look something like this: ... CNN Google Please assign a seq number not used by any of your sheets. ]]> Prettier Excel download, HTML download http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/38/2011/12/16/Prettier-Excel-download-HTML-download 2011-12-16T00:00:00UTC 2011-12-16T00:00:00UTC Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:00:00 UTC Jeff Kuo http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/38/2011/12/16/Prettier-Excel-download-HTML-download <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Screen Shot 2012-11-29 at 11.06.47 PM.png" alt="Prettier Excel download, HTML download Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />Our Excel download was plain, simple. But it doesn't reflect the form descriptions, number format, date format, row and column heights that you set in the design mode. Now it's going to change. We've tried our best to make the Excel downloaded version to look as much like your online version as possible, and we think we've done a pretty good job. Please try out our new "Download as Excel" function at the form page or the listing page of your Ragic sheet. We've also added a new "Printer Friendly" version. It's basically "Download as HTML". But HTML web pages loads a lot faster than Excel. If you just want a printable version of your data, but not needing to do much calculation afterwards. I think you will enjoy the "Printer Friendly" feature. Our Excel download was plain, simple. But it doesn't reflect the form descriptions, number format, date format, row and column heights that you set in the design mode. Now it's going to change. We've tried our best to make the Excel downloaded version to look as much like your online version as possible, and we think we've done a pretty good job. Please try out our new "Download as Excel" function at the form page or the listing page of your Ragic sheet. We've also added a new "Printer Friendly" version. It's basically "Download as HTML". But HTML web pages loads a lot faster than Excel. If you just want a printable version of your data, but not needing to do much calculation afterwards. I think you will enjoy the "Printer Friendly" feature. ]]> Update for Ragic private servers : Root redirection, simple server initialisation process http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/37/2011/11/15/Update-for-Ragic-private-servers-:-Root-redirection-simple-server-initialisation-process 2011-11-15T00:00:00UTC 2011-11-15T00:00:00UTC Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:00:00 UTC Jeff Kuo http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/37/2011/11/15/Update-for-Ragic-private-servers-:-Root-redirection-simple-server-initialisation-process <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Screen Shot 2012-11-29 at 11.08.06 PM.png" alt="Update for Ragic private servers : Root redirection, simple server initialisation process Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />1. Added the configuration "ROOT_REDIRECT" to the ragic.properties file. You can set any URL path on the Ragic private server here, and when user reaches the root directory of your Ragic server, he will be automatically redirected to this location. Great for some customised portal page. 2. When Ragic administrators installs a new Ragic private server, it will show a few pages to guide administrators to setup his Ragic server properly. This should make installing Ragic server even more easy. It will also create an account called "default", so developers can get started instantly without even registering for an account. You can simply use the ROOT_REDIRECT config to redirect the root directory to this default account after you're finished developing. 1. Added the configuration "ROOT_REDIRECT" to the ragic.properties file. You can set any URL path on the Ragic private server here, and when user reaches the root directory of your Ragic server, he will be automatically redirected to this location. Great for some customised portal page. 2. When Ragic administrators installs a new Ragic private server, it will show a few pages to guide administrators to setup his Ragic server properly. This should make installing Ragic server even more easy. It will also create an account called "default", so developers can get started instantly without even registering for an account. You can simply use the ROOT_REDIRECT config to redirect the root directory to this default account after you're finished developing. ]]> Full text search, e-mail notification rules enhancements http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/36/2011/10/29/Full-text-search-email-notification-rules-enhancements 2011-10-29T00:00:00UTC 2011-10-29T00:00:00UTC Sat, 29 Oct 2011 00:00:00 UTC Jeff Kuo http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/36/2011/10/29/Full-text-search-email-notification-rules-enhancements <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Screen Shot 2012-11-29 at 11.13.01 PM.png" alt="Full text search, e-mail notification rules enhancements Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />1. We've modified the e-mail notification rule so that for all users that edited the entry, or commented on the entry, will be receiving notifications on new updates and comments of this entry. Yes, sort of like the Facebook notifications. We have so many users too familiar with Facebook notification rules and always assumed that they should received notifications in the same way. 2. Full text search will now use "." as a token separator. This way you can search for web site URLs much more easily. 3. We now support the bracket notation in entry comments too. Here's the old posting on bracket notations in case you didn't catch the intro: A really cool way to use full text search is to annotate search keywords as user enter data with double brackets. For example, you can enter something like "For more information, please see the issue ID [BUG-0058931]", and [BUG-0058931] will be translated into a link when the cell or comment is saved. If a user clicks on the link, Ragic will use the full text search function to search for "BUG-0058931", if there's exactly one match to this search, the click will take the user to that entry directly. If there are more than one entry that matches, the list of entries that matches this search term will be listed for user to pick. 1. We've modified the e-mail notification rule so that for all users that edited the entry, or commented on the entry, will be receiving notifications on new updates and comments of this entry. Yes, sort of like the Facebook notifications. We have so many users too familiar with Facebook notification rules and always assumed that they should received notifications in the same way. 2. Full text search will now use "." as a token separator. This way you can search for web site URLs much more easily. 3. We now support the bracket notation in entry comments too. Here's the old posting on bracket notations in case you didn't catch the intro: A really cool way to use full text search is to annotate search keywords as user enter data with double brackets. For example, you can enter something like "For more information, please see the issue ID [BUG-0058931]", and [BUG-0058931] will be translated into a link when the cell or comment is saved. If a user clicks on the link, Ragic will use the full text search function to search for "BUG-0058931", if there's exactly one match to this search, the click will take the user to that entry directly. If there are more than one entry that matches, the list of entries that matches this search term will be listed for user to pick. ]]> Ragic on your mobile device! http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/35/2011/09/15/Ragic-on-your-mobile-device! 2011-09-15T00:00:00UTC 2011-09-15T00:00:00UTC Thu, 15 Sep 2011 00:00:00 UTC Jeff Kuo http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/35/2011/09/15/Ragic-on-your-mobile-device! <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Screen Shot 2012-11-29 at 11.13.44 PM.png" alt="Ragic on your mobile device! Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />Ragic has always kind of supported mobile devices, because we're an online application and basically Web. But spreadsheet is not a really friendly UI for mobile touch devices. Just try to use Numbers of iWork on an iPad, it's really frustrating to use. You can simply go to http://www.ragic.com/mobile and log in with your Ragic account to use the mobile version, or Ragic can also determine that you're using a mobile device automatically when you access your account URL. You will see a list of accounts that you are a user of after you log in, usually just one for most users. But you can always add more accounts here that are open to public even if you’re not a user of. It’s pretty straightforward after you’ve chosen an account to view, just pick an application and form to view the data, or use the query button at top right to search. The neat thing about this application is that our development team took advantage of the HTML5 offline storage functions to store your data locally. So if you click on a form, and go back up a level to form listing, you will see the date and time the data in the form was last synced. Later on you can access your data even when there’s no Internet connection on your mobile device. Ragic has always kind of supported mobile devices, because we're an online application and basically Web. But spreadsheet is not a really friendly UI for mobile touch devices. Just try to use Numbers of iWork on an iPad, it's really frustrating to use. You can simply go to http://www.ragic.com/mobile and log in with your Ragic account to use the mobile version, or Ragic can also determine that you're using a mobile device automatically when you access your account URL. You will see a list of accounts that you are a user of after you log in, usually just one for most users. But you can always add more accounts here that are open to public even if you’re not a user of. It’s pretty straightforward after you’ve chosen an account to view, just pick an application and form to view the data, or use the query button at top right to search. The neat thing about this application is that our development team took advantage of the HTML5 offline storage functions to store your data locally. So if you click on a form, and go back up a level to form listing, you will see the date and time the data in the form was last synced. Later on you can access your data even when there’s no Internet connection on your mobile device. ]]> Account XML config, Global workflow http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/34/2011/08/02/Account-XML-config-Global-workflow 2011-08-02T00:00:00UTC 2011-08-02T00:00:00UTC Tue, 02 Aug 2011 00:00:00 UTC Jeff Kuo http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/34/2011/08/02/Account-XML-config-Global-workflow <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Screen Shot 2012-11-29 at 11.14.40 PM.png" alt="Account XML config, Global workflow Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />1. You can modify your account config XML file from [Account Tab] => [Account Setting]. We include an online XML editor for you to edit this config file for your account. Right now this config file includes configuration for company logo, group privilege setting on which tabs and functions to see. 2. Global workflow : Developers can define "Global Workflow Functions", where javascript workflow functions defined here can be called by workflow program on any forms. This should be a great place to put the shared libraries of each form. With the global workflow function in place, we imagine the workflow program for each form should be very short. Mostly just a few calls to the global workflow functions. 1. You can modify your account config XML file from [Account Tab] => [Account Setting]. We include an online XML editor for you to edit this config file for your account. Right now this config file includes configuration for company logo, group privilege setting on which tabs and functions to see. 2. Global workflow : Developers can define "Global Workflow Functions", where javascript workflow functions defined here can be called by workflow program on any forms. This should be a great place to put the shared libraries of each form. With the global workflow function in place, we imagine the workflow program for each form should be very short. Mostly just a few calls to the global workflow functions. ]]> JSONP support for Ragic HTTP API http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/33/2011/07/28/JSONP-support-for-Ragic-HTTP-API 2011-07-28T00:00:00UTC 2011-07-28T00:00:00UTC Thu, 28 Jul 2011 00:00:00 UTC Jeff Kuo http://www.ragic.com/intl/en/support-article/33/2011/07/28/JSONP-support-for-Ragic-HTTP-API <img src="//d1xwzo8jmziphi.cloudfront.net/sims/file.jsp?a=blogman&f=Screen Shot 2012-11-29 at 11.15.59 PM.png" alt="JSONP support for Ragic HTTP API Icon" style="max-width:100%;max-height:100%;" />We've added support for JSONP in our Ragic HTTP API. Just use the parameter callback=<function name>, and you can execute cross domain AJAX requests to api.ragic.com <blockquote> JSONP or "JSON with padding" is a complement to the base JSON data format. It provides a method to request data from a server in a different domain, something prohibited by typical web browsers because of the same origin policy. Under the same origin policy, a web page served from server1.example.com cannot normally connect to or communicate with a server other than server1.example.com. An exception is the HTML <script> element. Exploiting the open policy for <script> elements, some pages use them to retrieve JavaScript code that operates on dynamically generated JSON-formatted data from other origins. This usage pattern is known as JSONP. Requests for JSONP retrieve not JSON, but arbitrary JavaScript code. They are evaluated by the JavaScript interpreter, not parsed by a JSON parser. </blockquote> For more information on what is JSONP and what it is for, please see <a href="http://json-p.org/">here</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSONP">here</a>. We've added support for JSONP in our Ragic HTTP API. Just use the parameter callback=, and you can execute cross domain AJAX requests to api.ragic.com
JSONP or "JSON with padding" is a complement to the base JSON data format. It provides a method to request data from a server in a different domain, something prohibited by typical web browsers because of the same origin policy. Under the same origin policy, a web page served from server1.example.com cannot normally connect to or communicate with a server other than server1.example.com. An exception is the HTML