Complex, bespoke tracking applications and products can also be developed using ExtraView as the core platform. The key is that ExtraView will follow your processes and your workflow and will not impose itself upon your business. Rather, it reflects your business. Multiple tracking applications can be configured within a single database.

Multiple Business Areas
"Importantly, multiple tracking applications can be operated within a single database, each with its own business rules and workflow."

ExtraView's architecture gives you the ability to build multiple tracking systems within a single database. Each tracking system may have its own screen layouts, business rules and workflow. Your enterprise can build its entire tracking solution set upon the one product, without compromise.

ExtraView's Business Area technology allows the administrator to configure a single database that handles multiple tracking applications. Issues can be simply moved from one Business Area to another. For example, a customer support issue can be converted to a defect with a single mouse click.

This architecture and its data hierarchy allows you to efficiently build multiple tracking systems within a single database. This is possible through ExtraView's use of inheritance to define attributes at a high level that can be reused throughout the system, but overridden at any point where you want to provide unique functionality.

Within each tracking system, or over the entire system, you may define user roles that have common characteristics for the users within the role.

Leading Product Architecture
ExtraView is comprised of a highly scalable Java Servlet application, which serves up HTML pages to the end user. At its center is a workflow engine that allows the building of simple or complex tracking applications.

Truly Web-Based
Unlike many products, ExtraView was designed from the ground up with a full and complete web architecture. No compromises. ExtraView delivers the full promise of an enterprise-level web system with no client software. Only a browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator is needed to access the full power of ExtraView. This includes all administrative functions, as well as the powerful user interface which manipulates issues. In addition, the ExtraView API uses the web HTTP protocol to interact with other applications.

Scalability
ExtraView measures its scalability both in the ability to support millions of issues and tens of thousands of users, as well as in the simplification of highly complex business solutions. Virtually every resource is unlimited. This applies to the number of fields that are processed, to the number of values populating any list, to the number of complete tracking solutions that can reside in a single database.

Configurability
ExtraView goes beyond most comparable applications in allowing most features to be configured on-screen, within a standard browser. An unlimited number of fields can be created across an unlimited number of applications. Different workflow can be created for each of the applications, including the definition of different workflows for different user roles within your organization. When an organization requires a process or workflow that cannot easily be defined within ExtraView's extensive in-built capabilities, additional Java and / or JavaScript code can be added to the environment. ExtraView preserves your investment in this code, as future upgrades will not require the re-writing of this code. The ExtraView base code always remains separate from your "user custom additions". Configuring the product within an enterprise includes its easy integration with enterprise systems such as LDAP and SSO.

Reliability
Whether hosted on your servers or used as a ExtraView Corporation-hosted solution, ExtraView regularly achieves 99.999% uptime even with live administration and configuration changes. Administration changes to fields, layouts, business rules, and other aspects of ExtraView are immediate and retroactive. These changes do not require down time or user productivity loss. All configuration changes, including saved reports, layouts, field-level logic, etc. may be exported to XML and then imported at any other time. This includes moving metadata from a test instance to a live production server.

Security and Administration
Beyond user-level activity and audit trails, ExtraView offers multiple levels of administration, complete sign-on activity logs, administrative change logs, and sign-on denial thresholds. As a customer facing, role-based and web-based application, ExtraView has built in security that controls who see what elements of your design. For example, any field may be given read, write, or no privileges for any defined role in the system. ExtraView also offers filtered layouts, email content, and record-level security through privacy groups.

Flexible Reporting
ExtraView has a very simple interface that allows for creation of custom statistical and summary reports. From a simple keyword search to a structured query with complex filters and Boolean logic, all search criteria can be stored for later use as a public or private report. ExtraView reports may be produced in html, text, charts, Adobe PDF, XML, Microsoft Excel, or Microsoft Word formats.

Fully Localizable
ExtraView has the distinct advantage of being internationalized from the beginning of its design. Japanese, Chinese, German, and other character sets are fully supported in ExtraView. However, the capability of displaying any UTF-8 and 16-bit Unicode character set is only the beginning.

Compliance with Industry Standards
A few of the standards used within the ExtraView platform are:

• JDBC – Java Database Connectivity standard defining all access to relational databases
• Java – the standard Java language and virtual machine from Sun Microsystems
• Java Servlet API 2.2 – Java application programming interface supported by all application server containers for java servlet implementation, a subset of J2EE
• XML data interchange

Standard SQL Databases
ExtraView operates on top of SQL databases. Both Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server are supported. ExtraView is designed to support millions of issues in the database, with tens of thousands of users. The ExtraView application connects to the database through JDBC drivers. The database may reside on the same or on a different hardware server to the ExtraView application and its hardware server. Similarly it may reside on the same or a different hardware server to the web server.

Multiple Levels of Access and Integration
Whether your requirement is as straightforward as integrating with standard enterprise applications such as LDAP or SSO, or as complex as integrating with custom-developed ERP or custom manufacturing systems, ExtraView offers a rich variety of opportunities to communicate with other applications. Integrations can be simple, utilizing ExtraView's methods of sending or receiving URL's, or can utilize batch or immediate processing. The ExtraView API and CLI offer a rich medium to integrate with enterprise applications.

Integration: URL Integration
URL's can be used to drive ExtraView from an external source, either to call up screens from a remote application, or to complete full actions through the API. URL's can also be generated from within ExtraView. These buttons can be set to call any URL, while passing the contents of any field or fields on the screen to the remote script or application.

Integration: Email Interface
The notification system within ExtraView can be used to communicate to and from other applications. Mail generated automatically by other applications, or mail entered directly by a user can be sent to ExtraView. Users can email an address recognized by ExtraView. This incoming email can be scanned automatically, and inserted as a new record into ExtraView. The new record can then be routed to the person monitoring incoming requests. Existing records can be updated easily with this same mechanism, with ExtraView having the intelligence to extract the new portion of an incoming mail and update the original issue to which the mail refers. Administrators can also leverage tools such as Microsoft Outlook Forms, which can provide an off-line record creation tool for new records within ExtraView.

Integration: Programming Interface
ExtraView's rich API contains more than 50 functions. These functions perform most of the tasks that can be performed within the web interface. The API's wide range of functions allow the authorized user to:

• Insert issues
• Update issues
• Perform queries
• Run Reports
• Perform many administrative tasks

Integration: Command Line Interface
The ExtraView Command Line Interface (CLI) is implemented on top of the API. The CLI provides a rich range of functions to insert and update issues, as well as perform queries and run reports. Many administrative tasks are also available. The CLI is implemented with the Perl scripting language. The CLI commands can be embedded within your own code, to perform a wide range of integration tasks. Many customers have engineers who are comfortable within the world of character terminals, as opposed to working with graphical user interfaces and browsers. These users can access ExtraView from a character-based telnet or ssh session.

Integration: User Custom Extensions
The ExtraView code base can be extended with "user-custom" Java classes. These classes take advantage of more than fifty points in the process of inserting and updating issues and in reporting, allowing the ExtraView administrator to add functionality into the environment. This new functionality can either replace functionality within ExtraView, or it can complement the functionality of ExtraView. Your investment in writing custom classes for your ExtraView application is preserved through upgrades of ExtraView. The interfaces to the classes are preserved as ExtraView Corporation enhances the base product code. Custom code can perform virtually any task; the tasks can operate at a form or a field level of processing, before and after or instead of ExtraView's own processing. The custom code you write can be as simple as additional data validation, or as complex as building an entire application that leverages ExtraView's architecture.

Backed by ExtraView Professional Services Team
Our professional services teams are expert in the architecture, design and building of complete tracking systems from start to finish, including requirements definition, project management, quality assurance, and corporate staff training.