September 2004 Edition
Feature Spotlight: Virtual Ticket Custom Queries
Q&A with Technical Support: Associating File Types
Smart Tip of the Month: Formatting Fields for Currency
Third Party Software: End User Training Tool
Support Bookshelf: Bag of SQL Tricks
Feature Spotlight
Virtual Ticket Custom Queries
The searching capabilities in Virtual Ticket 6.0 have been expanded to allow for the creation of custom queries to be used by Virtual Ticket 6.0 users. Previously only in Job Manager, custom queries extend the current searching capabilities of Virtual Ticket by presenting a method for displaying data from multiple tables in the Virtual Ticket database.
For example, each of your jobs contains the customer contact name on the Job Entry ticket. A report is needed which displays the address information of the customer contact for the job in addition to providing information about the job such as the job specifications, job status, etc. A custom query can be used to retrieve information from multiple database tables (contact info and order entry) and display it together in one report.
Q&A with Technical Support
Can specific file types within a folder be associated with the job instead of associating all of the folder contents?
InterSync and Associator users may wish to associate only certain file types within a Job Folder to a file collector on the job. Several methods exist for performing this type of association. In this example, we will assume that only the Job folder follows a naming convention that will allow for the job number to be determined. This type of association requires two different Digital Resource Classification roles to be configured in the Associator: one role to determine the Job Folder and another role to determine if the file is of the specified type AND the file is located in a file role folder. If the file meets all of the criteria it is placed onto the desired file collector window.
On our Jobs server volume, all files are contained in a folder which is named with the Job Number followed by a dash and any string. Our first role, Jobs Folder, will look for the job folder. It’s criteria is:
File is of type FOLDER
Its name matches Job Number – Any String
When folders matching this description are found by InterSync and the Associator, the associator records that the folder matches the Jobs Folder role.
The second role then looks at the type of file and whether it is located inside a folder which belongs to another role. In our example, we are looking for Photoshop files that are located in the job folder:
It is of type Photoshop
It is located in the Jobs Folder role
In the Association Rules tab of the Associator, we choose the file collector field which we need to associate files with from the appropriate folder or document type. Our photoshop file role is selected and the appropriate criteria is entered to match it to the correct job.
For more information visit:
http://www.meta-comm.com/support/knowledge_base/article.asp?id=16174
Smart Tip of the Month
Formatting Fields for Currency
MetaScript provides a great tool for formatting your fields. Formatting your price total fields to include commas and dollar signs can be implemented with a simple MetaScript. This MetaScript examines the length of the number in a specified field, places any necessary commas and places a dollar sign at the beginning of the amount. Knowledge Base article 16173 contains an example form which demonstrates the use of such a script.
To download an example, visit::
http://www.meta-comm.com/support/knowledge_base/article.asp?id=16173
Third Party Software
End-User Training Tool
Looking for a way to train your end-users to fill out your company’s Virtual Ticket forms or how to use the various windows in Job Manager? Macromedia RoboDemo 5 for Windows records your individual mouse clicks and movements as frames of video. These record clicks and movements can be turned into a Flash movie which users can continually refer to for guidance on the proper use of your system. Use RoboDemo to record the proper method for entering your jobs or the necessary steps for filling out your job tickets.
A demo of RoboDemo 5 can be found at:
http://www.macromedia.com/software/robodemo/
Support Bookshelf
Bag of SQL Tricks
A helpful tips and tricks page focusing on the administration of Microsoft SQL Server. Topics covered include: backing up to a network share, collecting SQL server statistics, granting permissions, using views to control user access to data, plus much more.
For full details visit:
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/techinfo/default.mspx
New MetaCommunications Knowledge Base Articles this month:
16157 - Generating and viewing Crystal Reports in Virtual Ticket
http://www.meta-comm.com/support/knowledge_base/article.asp?id=16157
16173 - Formatting fields for currency
http://www.meta-comm.com/support/knowledge_base/article.asp?id=16173
16174 - Associating files of specific types in a job folder with a Virtual Ticket job
http://www.meta-comm.com/support/knowledge_base/article.asp?id=16174
16176 - Creating custom queries in Virtual Ticket
http://www.meta-comm.com/support/knowledge_base/article.asp?id=16176
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