WebSoftware Blog

Dutch Label Printer taking WIP-CRM on as their main business tool

2011-11-25T08:49:00.001+13:00

The Dutch company 'EtikettenDrukkerij Noord-Nederland BV' has taken on the WIP-CRM as their business tool to streamline their processes for creating quotes up till invoicing their clients. A whole Job card tracking system at your finger tips.

The WIP-CRM gives you direct access to all your (prospective) clients including the communication (email and phone) with them as well as appointments and notes through a single click. This assures everyone in the company can answer enquiries from the clients more easily without having to ask around what has been agreed etc.
Also through a single click on Jobs in progress the WIP-CRM gives you a plain overview of the status and progress of outstanding jobs. Again, clients can be served with the right answer straight away without having to ask around or guess where a certain job is at.

Soon this application will be extended with an automatic system to grab all incoming and outgoing emails to clients and link them to the system, so no manual logging of email communications is any-more required.
Next to that the system will be linked with the A-Vision Online Document Filing system so that all email attachments will be saved automatically and made accessible from the WIP-CRM. But also will serve as their document archive system for all kind of documents like contracts, accounts payable invoices and more.

Interested ? Please contact us now for more information.

How to check date range cover/overlap

2010-12-04T10:06:00.004+13:00

One of the most common problems when dealing with date ranges is to check whether two date ranges overlap one another. For example 'Does this invoice cover the time sheets?' or 'Does this job cover the vacancy?'

The solution is rather simple and a full/partly cover can easy be calculated using two simple date comparisons.
Let's say that we have the source date range (the one that needs covering) and a destination date range (the one we use for covering the source). The graphical presentation below makes this easier to understand.

Now using the following comparisons we check the following -

Full covered -
(( Destination.Start <= Source.Start) AND
( Destination.End >= Source.End))

This is quite an easy and obvious comparison.

The following is a bit more tricky but still a simple comparison
Partly covered -
(( Destination.Start <= Source.End) AND
( Destination.End >= Source.Start))

These comparisons just give the indication is the date ranges are fully or partly covered, it does NOT tell you anything how much of the source is covered by the destination. These comparisons are especially useful in database date comparisons like MySQL and MSSQL.

CSS3 beautiful buttons and headers with rounded corners

2010-11-21T15:28:00.004+13:00

Even with CSS2 these buttons and headers look beautiful but will miss the rounded corners.
Quite often images are used to make box headers and buttons look nice but here is a way with using a single image to make boxes look like the example below. Another advantage is that you dynamically can assign a color which is very handy for creating a theme based website/webapplication.

The same applies to buttons using exact the same image, this will result in buttons like shown below. The overlay image on the content background also gives the box that extra better look, again a very small image similar to the header overlay image is used, only a bit higher.

CSS3 box header and button styling

See life example and source - http://www.websoftware.co.nz/examples/CSS3-buttons-and-headers/

Verbeterde ondersteuning

2010-04-13T22:13:00.000+12:00

Met een tussentijdse release (V0.7) zijn met name wat bug gerepareerd en de ondersteuning voor het maken van een CV verbeterd. Dis heeft hoofdzakelijk te maken met speciale karakters en opsommingstekens in de verschillende tekst velden.
Verder zijn er wat verbeteringen aangebracht in het administratie gedeelte van de website om sneller en eenvoudiger een match te vinden tussen vacatures en CVs.

Er wordt druk gewerkt aan de zoekfuncties en matchfuncties om zowel de werkgevers als werkzoekenden een eenvoudig overzicht te geven van passende vacatures en CVs. Een eerste release van de zoekfunctie is te verwachten in ongeveer een week.

Nieuwe functies voor werkzoekenden

2010-03-25T11:28:00.000+13:00

Op het ogenblik zijn we druk bezig met het implementeren van nieuwe functies voor werkzoekenden. Een belangrijke functie hiervan is het direct maken en plaatsen van een CV zonder dat registratie noodzakelijk is.

Het registreren als werkzoekende (werkkracht) geeft je echter wel wat zeer interessante voordelen zoals -

Je eigen CV beheren en aanpassen
Meer dan één werkervaring invoeren
Meer dan één opleiding invoeren
Je eigen sollicitatie brief template maken
Je eigen CV als PDF document downloaden voor eigen gebruik

Verdere ontwikkelingen voor de website houden een uniek match-systeem in die er voor zorgt dat zowel werkgever als werkzoekende het beste resultaat kunnen verwachten. We werken aan een systeem dat kwaliteit garandeerd voor de werkgevers en de meeste kans op een baan voor de werkzoekenden.

Meer daarover in een latere nieuws update.

Flexwerkkracht.nl nieuwe functies V0.2

2010-03-13T21:43:00.000+13:00

Met de eerste release van Flexwerkkracht.nl V0.1 website (ongeveer drie weken geleden) hebben we een minimale functionaliteit vrijgegeven om direct te kunnen beginnen met het verspreiden van Vacatures en CVs en het aantrekken van werkgevers voor het gratis uploaden van Vacatures en voor werk zoekenden het gratis uploaden van CVs.

Dit heeft zo z'n uitwerking gehad en we hebben diverse Vacatures online weten te zetten, dit gebeurde altijd nog handmatig door onszelf. Met de vrijgave van deze release bieden wij werkgevers de mogelijkheid om direct en gratis Vacatures te plaatsen ZONDER registratie. De ingevoerde gegevens worden natuurlijk automatisch gecontroleerd en een bevestiging wordt per email terug gestuurd naar de opdrachtgever op het ingevoerde email adres.
Via die email is het vervolgens heel eenvoudig om het profiel compleet te maken en geeft je direct het voordeel om de geplaatste vacature(s) online te beheren.

Open source web based software

2009-11-19T11:19:00.002+13:00

Web based software as we know is written in web programming languages list PHP / Javascript / HTML / CSS / DotNET and is in most cases just plain text. By supplying a client with such software you basically have to submit the source code as well in order to install and run it on their (web) server of choice. Although some languages can be pre-compiled and run on the server personally I see it as a benefit to have the source code available on the server as well as that allows you to easily access and alter the web application from any place in the world whereas an internet connection is possible.
Clearly editing source code is Windows notepad is not the most convenient but in case of emergency you can at least do something.

So you actually have made the source code already available to the client which in fact could alter it as they wish. This is obviously totally different from making a web application open source as than you publish it to the world allowing them to use and alter the software (under a lisence like GPL). With that you allow people to make alterations and supply you with their changes.

The is what we at websoftware recently have done with our Job Tracking System and placed it on SourceForge. From there we are able to inform clients and other interesting parties about changes but also allow other developers to get involved.

About Open Source:

Of benefit to users, Open Source software is licensed so you can download and use the software free-of-charge. The source code for this software is made available free-of-charge, you (or a programmer you hire) can make changes to this software to better meet your needs, and you can release your changed code back to the community passing the benefit on to other users.

How web applications come to life.

2009-03-13T19:22:00.002+13:00

As the internet and user computer working in server – client environment writing information to the internet is for safety reasons not possible. Also as you know do internet web browsers download an internet page once and leave it like that until the user clicks a link or does some other action. In other words there's no real live data showing on the website. Further, to change content on a web page it as to be reloaded which takes time and is annoying for the viewer.
All that together does the internet not make very usable for an application environment. To overcome this there is something called AJAX which is short for Asynchronous JavaScript And XML which has been a real hype a few years ago (2004-2005). What AJAX basically does is retrieving data from in the internet server without the user's interaction. This together with JavaScript DOM programming it is possible to update parts of the visible web page without refreshing the whole page.

For example our new development the Interactive Reliever Placement Software uses a lot of AJAX. When some user changes for example the availability of a user it would not get updated under normal circumstances, however the user who changes the availability automatically records this change in the back-end database. On the other user's computers a background process automatically checks if updates were made every 30 seconds (configurable) by reading from the database. If a change has been detected a front-end script will run (if conditions apply) and update the information shown to the user.

This makes the whole application come to life as it will display the information which is accurate at the time. Especially if the software is running on a local intranet frequent checks for changes on the database is less a burden as the speed is much faster than retrieving information from the internet.

A step closer to better Web Applications with Google Chrome

2009-02-13T17:51:00.006+13:00

As many of you already might know Google has made an open source internet web browser call Google Chrome. And the good thing is that they especially built it with Web Applications in mind. One thing on which a lot of Web Applications rely is the support of Javascript and above all the speed of it. Therefore they have used the enhanced V8 Javascript engine which is fast en reliable. But also each tab of the browser runs in a separate process which means that if one of the Web Applications breaks for whatever reason it does not bring down the whole web browser.
But there's more, a special feature that let you run a Web Application almost like a Desktop Application. See http://www.google.com/support/chrome/bin/answer.py?answer=95710&hl=en how to create a Web Application shortcut using Google Chrome.

So, we're one step closer to the desktop integration with Web Application and sooner or later more and more desktop application will become obsolete or replaced by a decent Web Application.

How is Web Software cheaper

2008-12-24T15:47:00.007+13:00

Web based software applications does have many benefits of which one is proclaimed to be cheaper. But how is that actually realised?

The same way as other software do has web based software application to be developed which of course does cost money. The ease of distributing it however (if accessible via the internet) is way easier as is the installation (if any at all). So that's the first cost cut. It's a different story though if a client wishes to have the web software 'hosted' on it's own local intranet server(s). But even than it is often much less time consuming than installing it on every client computer while it only needs to be installed on a single server.
Another benefit of using web based software applications is that licensing can made very easy. Policy of A-Vision is that in case a developed web application is being installed on the client's intranet server(s) there will be no limitation of user access. That again is another cost cut which can make a huge difference.
Further, as web applications are installed on a central place, updating and maintenance becomes a job which immediately lies with the developer rather than the user. Updating can even in most cases be done without any downtime which is most convenient.

So these are the reasons how Web Software can turn out to be cheaper-

Easy distributing.
Single server installation without client installation.
Per user licensing not really necessary.
Faster, easier and cost effective maintenance and updates.
No (in most cases) downtime for maintenance and updates.

Web application as desktop software

2008-11-19T08:22:00.019+13:00

As we all kow, web applications are running on the web. Obvious, why should it else be called like that. This than also implies that it is running using a web server and normally unable to run on the desktop. However, there are several solution out there to use these application as were they desktop applications.

For example Google Gears allows you to basically store information on your local system rather than on the internet/intranet. It is being installed as a plug-in for a number of browsers but initially it still needs that internet/intranet connection in order to start the web application.

Further there are things like bubbles which is basically a browser like program with some enhanced features. It does however not allow you to store data on your local machine.

So how to really run web applications as desktop software?
A solution for this might be to bring the web server to the desktop rather than having it on the internet/intranet. This can be done by using for example a stand-alone webserver like Server2Go. This does fully support server side scripting and databases and have no need for installing a browser plug-in. You can run it from a USB key and keep all data saved on the USB key so that you can run it on any (Windows) computer system even if there is no internet connection at all.
Other possibilities are for example to create a CD-ROM/DVD-ROM which automatically starts the software. Obviously you can't save any information on the CD/DVD but saving on the computer system is still possible.

The ultimate web application

2008-09-13T19:25:00.007+12:00

How long will it take before we're not running MS Windows anymore on our computers? Imagine that as soon as you power up your system it connects to the internet and automatically loads the Operating System from the internet!

There are a huge number of benefits but of course also a lot of disadvantages with it. Updating the OS will become almost an instant job which only needs to be done by the OS provider without having the client to install anything! You might say that there's absolutely no influence of the user anymore when it comes to what is accessed on your system and unplugging the internet is not possible. Well, although initially the OS is loaded from the internet, that doesn't automatically mean that it needs to stay connected. Even better, after loading the OS it can be stored on a FLASH card for example and the next time you can ever boot without the internet!
But I rather don't discuss the pro's and con's about this concept at this stage as it would be too early to give a good opinion without having systems supporting features like this.

If you think that's way to far ahead, then check this site out (http://www.eyeos.info/)! An on-line Operating System with a whole lot of applications and it's Open Source, so you can even install it yourself if you like.
Here are some screenshots which give a nice picture of how it looks. You can of course try it yourself, registration is free!

It looks pretty awesome, especially if you can maximize the web browser to fill the whole screen (IE Kiosk mode or Opera presentation mode - F11).
I don't say it's common in a couple of years, but the potential is there and as the capabilities of on-line web software increases and the computer systems adapting to that, then there will a good change that with an overall increased speed of the internet there will be systems available supporting this in a decade or so.

I realise that there's heaps more to say about it but I'll leave some room for comments here ...

Are web applications safe?

2008-09-01T22:04:00.003+12:00

One major concern many internet users have is security and privacy. And rightly so, there are lots of fraudulent websites out there who's only intention it is to earn money in a way at the expense of unsuspecting visitors.

So, is it still safe to use web applications? Well of course this merely depends on the nature of the web application and if personal / private information is being used. On the other hand if certain web applications are only to be used within one company, it can perfectly be made safe by running it on the locally on the company LAN or secured intranet (e.g. by using a VPN connection) instead of the internet.

Any other web application which makes use of personal / private data should firstly be using a secure data connection (SSL => https://) in order to use encrypted data transport which makes it very hard for hackers to decode. Beware though that also fraudulent websites will use these types of connections, therefore if you have any doubts always check the provided security certificate!

Secondly always make sure you've installed the most recent security updates of the internet browser you're using. Also beware of web applications which make use of uncommon ActiveX plugins as that often opens an unknown and uncontrollable gateway between your computer and the internet.

The future!!

2008-08-29T15:46:00.003+12:00

As the interest for web based software applications is growing by the day it is quite obvious that the future is settled. Web browsers as well as the web servers are becoming enhanced more and more increasing the abilities of web applications rapidly.

For example think about Google Apps and other providers of on-line web application. So the potential is there,but probably many businesses are holding of due to security involvements of handling documents on-line.

This does not mean though that for the individual businesses there are heaps of possibilities to run web applications on their own private Intranet. And with the increasing capabilities to integrate web applications with existing applications such as financial software the use of web applications will become more common, especially seen the ease of maintenance, upgrading and installation of web software.