How do I get started?

There are several resources available on this website that will help you get started.

• Look for the online Quickstart Guide. In 10 minutes this will show you the basics of setting up and administering ExtraView
• The complete documentation is available for download
• If these do not help, email support@extraview.com.

As a top level summary, take these steps:

• Sign on the ADMIN user, enter Administration and create your own user account with administrative privileges
• Create the other users who will use ExtraView initially, giving them access to the role that best suits their use of the system
• If you do not want to use all the pre-configured Business Areas, go to Administration, Fields, Grant Security Privileges and use the *All areas keys* to turn off the areas you do not want. You can always turn them on again later, or can create new ones.
  

How do I add a user?

Enter Administration, Users, User Account Maintenance, and press the Add a new user button. Enter the user's personal details, and any personal options. Make sure you assign the user to the user role that fits their usage of ExtraView. Press the Update button.

How do I create my list of products?

Products are maintained in a list. Many other fields are stored in similar lists. To create your list of products, enter Administration, Lists and press the link for Products. Click on the Add button and enter the product details. Note that the required fields for the Fixed database name and Title to display are highlighted. Fixed names are used as an internal reference by ExtraView while the title is what will appear on screens as you add, update and report on issues. Enter the information for your first product and press Update. Repeat for other products.

Note that the Module field is dependent on the Product field. For each Product you can create any number of Modules within the Module list.

How do I add and update issues?

New issues are created by clicking on the Add button on the main navigation bar, completing the form and then clicking on the Add to Database button. The screen can be configured to have as few or as many fields as are needed, the contents of each select list may be modified, and relationships may exist between fields. There is the administrative capability to alter all the screens to meet your purposes.

Once an issue has been created, the user may (with permission) edit and update the information within the issue. The permissions that control who may edit and update an issue are set by the administrator. The permissions can be set at the level of being able to update complete records, or as fine as being able to update individual fields.

How do I control the list of statuses and my workflow?

The individual status values are completely configurable within Administration, by going to the Lists section and choosing the Status list. You can add additional steps to your workflow, or remove steps that are not needed. Note that you cannot remove values from the Status list, without first removing all dependent data such as issues that use the value, or status change rules that use the value.

If you are utilizing multiple business areas as independent tracking systems, you can set up different lists of Status values for each business area, with some values in common, and some being unique within a business area. This is achieved with the Allowed Values function, using the business area as the parent field, and Status as the child field.

Within the Workflow administrative tab, you can enter the Status Change Rules section, and provide the valid status transitions, for each role, and for each tracking application you have configured.

Once configured, each user role will only see the values in the Status list at each point in your process, that are valid to transition to.

How do I assign an issue to someone?

This is most commonly achieved by using the ASSIGNED_TO data dictionary field. If you are using the MODULE_ID field within the PRODUCT_NAME field, you can assign the module owner automatically, based on the person's name you enter. When entering or updating an issue, the ASSIGNED_TO field will then take on the value of the module owner.

In most installations, you can allow the user to override this, and to choose a different person.

It is also common to use other methods to assign an issue to the correct person. For example, you can set up Allowed Values with the ASSIGNED_TO field being the child field. In this way you can constrain the user's names shown in the list to be only those that are appropriate to some condition you set up, for example to be dependent upon the PRODUCT_NAME or some other field.

How do I create reports?

On the main navigation bar, choose the Query button. Several types of reports are available, assuming the user has been given the appropriate permission:

• Quicklist Reports - The administrator will have decided on which columns to display in this report. You can select query filters, then press the Go button to see your filtered results
• Detailed Reports - Once again, the administrator will have decided on the presentation of fields on the report, and after choosing query filters and pressing the Go button, the user will see a detailed view of the results.
• Column Reports - When you choose to design a new column report, you are able to select which columns you see on the output, as well as being able to select the query filters for the records you want to see
• Summary Reports - Similar to column reports, you choose which columns you want to view on the output. However, ExtraView will give you a count of issues within each column you select. For example, you could set up to see a count of issues assigned to each person, by status, by product
• Charts - These allow you to design and draw charts based on Pie, Line or Bar formats.

Column Reports, Summary Reports and Charts that you prepare can be saved for future use. They are then displayed on the Search / Report screen and simply clicking on the title of the report will allow you to run a report. Note that if you want to choose the current date as a filter, and save this for the future, you can enter $$SYSDATE$$ into the field.

All reports with the exception of charts can be created in your browser, in Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word or as text. If you want to copy a chart to a different program, right click on the chart, and choose the Copy option. Within the remote application, paste the chart.

When does notification get sent?

Notification gets sent to users when a new issue is added to the database and when an existing issue is updated. Fundamentally, email notification is sent to all users whose names appear in any user list field. In addition, you may set up interest lists based upon the values in a list. For example, send notification to the Vice President of Support when a Critical issue is updated, or send email to the Product Manager when his product is chosen in an issue.

It is possible to refine these email notification rules extensively. Please consult the Administration guide, or contact ExtraView support for more information.

How do I create a new field?

To create a new User Defined Field (UDF), access Administration and the Fields tab. Then click on the Data Dictionary. From within the Data Dictionary, click the Add button, and you can add a new field of any display type such as List, Text or User.

If the field has a display type of List, Tab or Pop-up, you can provide values for the field from within the Data Dictionary, or via the List section of Administration.

Once you have created the field, you should visit the Grant Security Privileges section and give the field read or write access across each user role.

Lastly, on each of the layouts on which you want to use the new field, edit the layout, add the field along with any attributes needed, and save each layout.

How do I delete fields that are not needed?

If you have used a field within your process, and data is stored within the database for the field, it is suggested that you do not delete the field, but you simply remove the field from all layouts. In this way you will have preserved the data within the field, but the field will not be visible.

If you really want to delete the field, then you must first eliminate all the data stored against the field. Typically you achieve this by by using the mass update facility and updating all the fields that contain the field with values, to have a null value. Once this is achieved, you can delete the field from the data dictionary.

What is a layout?

A layout is a representation of the fields that will be displayed on input or update screen forms, or a representation of the fields on reports. Layouts can also be defined across all user roles, or can be defined separately for each user role. Also, layouts can be defined at a master level, and are then available within each subsidiary business area and /or project that is defined. This is a powerful mechanism that allows you to define a separate layout for each user role, each business area and each project. However it is more likely that you will use this mechanism to define some unique layouts with each business area, while you share other layouts across the system, or at least across a business area and its projects.

Each layout is typically a matrix showing the fields from the data dictionary that make up the layout. The layouts may also have layout cell attributes defined for different fields or combination of fields on each layout, to provide conditioning and logic. For example, you may make a field visible or invisible based on the value of another field.

What is a Business Area?

A business area is the highest level unit that you define within ExtraView. Each business area is typically a self-contained tracking system. Examples of business areas are Bug Tracking, Customer Calls, Assets and Knowledgebase items.

Each business area may have its own workflow and process management, or you can define a workflow that can be shared across business areas.

There is no limit to the number of business areas that you may create. Individual business areas can be made visible or invisible to each user role. For example, your technical support engineers may see the customer issues and bug tracking areas, but not be able to see an asset tracking area.

Each business area can be split into several individual projects. Once again, each of these projects may have its own workflow, or all projects within a business area may share the same workflow.

How do I remove a Business Area?

This is possible, if you follow the sequence below, but it is much more common to simply use the Grant Security Privileges feature to remove access to each business area for all user roles, thus preserving any data.

To remove a business area:

• Remove all issues that belong to all projects within the business area, or move the issues to a different business area
• Remove all workflow status settings associated with the business area and its projects
• Change all users default roles who are defaulted to work within the business area you want to remove
• Remove any file import templates designed for use with the area
• If any allowed values use the AREA field as a parent, remove all references to the area you want to delete
• Delete all projects that exist within the area, including the default project
• Finally, delete the area.
  

How do I add my own company logo?

Within the Administration module, click on the Display & Reports tab, then click on the entry named Upload your Company Logo. Note that the logo you update will not be resized. The image you upload should be of a suitable size. If you are using a vertical navigation menu bar, it should be no wider than the behavior setting named MENU_SIZE. If you are using a horizontal navigation menu bar, its height should be no more than the behavior setting named MENU_SIZE. If you are unsure of the size, please try a logo that is about 100 pixels wide, and 50 pixels high. Only images with a type of GIF can be uploaded.

After uploading your new logo, you must refresh your browser page in order to see the new image.

What is a user role?

A user role is created to identify a group of users who will all share the same access privileges within ExtraView. For example, Engineers, Managers, Quality Assurance, and Administrators are examples of user roles.

You may create any number of user roles within ExtraView, and each role may have a very different set of permissions to the functions and fields of Extraview.

How does security work?

There are many elements of security within ExtraView. The principal ones are:

• User authentication - Each and every user must sign on to ExtraView with a valid combination of a user ID and a password
• Security permission - Every object within ExtraView, such as every field and every screen is protected with a security permission key. Each key can be given read or write access independently, allowing the administrator to completely hide a field from a group of users, or allow them read-only access, or allow the user role to both read and update the object
• Privacy groups - Individual users may be assigned access or no access to privacy groups that you create. As issues are inserted or updated they may be assigned to a privacy group. Only users who have access to a privacy group may see issues that are assigned to a privacy group. This is most commonly used to create a mechanism whereby all users within a single customer may see their own issues, but not other customer's issues. However, your own internal users may see all the issues. You can also create two other categories of issues, those that are Private and can only be seen internally, and Public, that can be seen by every user.
  

How do I simplify my system?

As delivered, the ExtraView implementation may be more than you need for your organization. You can easily remove individual fields from the layouts to simplify your system. Alternatively, you can use the Grant Security Privileges feature to turn off the fields you do not want to see.

How do I add new features to my system?

You can add any number of additional fields and business rules or logic to your system.

In the event that you need to add functionality not available within the "off-the-shelf" product, there are several options available, using "user custom" Java and JavaScript.