OfficePower 2001

Contents

• Introduction
• Summary of new features
  • OfficePower Web
  • Plaza for OfficePower
  • OfficePower for Windows Version 2001
• Detail of new features
  • OfficePower Web
  • Plaza for OfficePower
  • OfficePower for Windows Version 2001

Introduction

OfficePower 2001 is a major development in the OfficePower programme. This release supersedes OfficePower 2000, providing new and better services.

OfficePower 2001 delivers an increasingly rich set of groupware services to Windows users, while continuing to add functionality to the server-based personal applications. The new features added to the core functionality have been developed in close co-operation with customers.

OfficePower 2001 offers new features in:

• OfficePower Web
• Pl@za for OfficePower
• OfficePower for Windows

Summary of new features

OfficePower Web

• Change object permissions
• New "data-entry mode" backend program for Questionnaire type web applications
• Improved default recipients display preferences when sending mail
• New toolbar option for Pl@za access
• New application building tool kit for web based datafile access
• Additional public web search collections
• Referlog when viewing applicable mail messages

Pl@za for OfficePower

• New Document Folders service
• New Discussion Group service
• Comprehensive Help on all Pl@za features
• Business Card enhancements

OfficePower for Windows Version 2001

• New option when using reply or reply cc to a mail message
• New ‘Send phone message’ menu item
• New ‘Open With’ menu item
• Individual records can be sent
• More support for tasklists
• GUI update for UDAP’s

Other new features

• Autorecognition of MIDI files in mail attachments
• Soft key available to get the original message when using reply
• Internet addresses supported in name/address lists

Detail of new features

OfficePower Web

OfficePower 2001 includes version 1.6 of the Web Server. This contains the following new functionality:

• Change object permissions via the Object Details page
• New "data-entry" backend program for questionaire type form-based web applications. Allows records to be added automatically to a public datafile without login to OfficePower. Supports all standard HTML form capabilities.
• Improved default recipients display preference when sending mail. Users can choose between their own distribution list, the public standard one or net/network.
• New Pl@za toolbar option allowing the Pl@za icon to be placed on the main toolbar if required.
• New application building tool kit for web based datafile access. This allows web formbased search applications to be built, for example job shops or holiday booking services. Supports all standard HTML form capabilities.
• Support for addirtional collections in Public Web Search. Up to 10 extra collections can now be added to the Web Search page allowing a search to be restricted to a particular folder (or set of folders). These additional search collections must refer to folders below the main Public Web Search Folder (i.e. be subsets of the original Public Document Area).
• Redesigned login page with hot links to Search, Forum and Pl@za features.
• ReferLog capability when viewing Delivery Reports, View (and Non-View) Acknowledgement messages. The reference number is highlighted as a clickable link which then displays the message from the Log mailbox.

For more information about OfficePower Web, read the manual OfficePower Web Administration Guide - see Appendix A for details on where to find this manual.

Pl@za for OfficePower

OfficePower Pl@za is a set of web based functionality for communities, first released in OfficePower 2000. New features in this release include:

• Document Folders. New service allowing folder browsing, content search, document creation/upload, folder creation, document copy/move/sort within user folders or to public folders. Also allows OfficePower documents to be created directly from a web form page.
• Discussion Groups. These allow topics of messages within groups to be used like a Forum system. Supports new/unread message statistics and list filters. Closed user groups are also available, as is a UNIX shell script API for automatic upload of new messages (can be linked to mail filters).
• Help topics including Overview, Business Cards, Document Folders and Discussion Groups.
• Direct access to Business Cards (via a static URL) without logging into the Pl@za service. The IBC attributes shown depend on the users All setting when designing their Business Card.

For more information about Pl@za for OfficePower, read the manual OfficePower Web Administration Guide - see Appendix A for details on where to find this manual.

OfficePower for Windows Version 2001

OfficePower 2001 includes an updated version of OfficePower for Windows, with many new features including:

• New ‘get original text’ icon when replying to a mail message
• New Server menu item ‘Send phone message’
• New ‘Open with’ action menu item
• Individual or marked sets of records can be mailed via ‘send’ action menu not just the whole datafile
• Records can be copied when in view mode not just update mode
• GUI update for datafiles

At this release the default action on clicking a datafile has changed. You can now update a datafile record using the Windows GUI interface, with a form you have designed for Windows. This is only suitable for simple forms. For complex forms use the OfficePower Terminal interface as in previous releases. To set up an icon on the Toolbar to go straight to data update avoiding menu selection, see directions below.

To invoke Terminal UDAP access

Set up a Toolbar Button

In Workspace, click Options on the menu bar. Select Customize Toolbar. Click the Add button. Choose an icon for data update.

Choose Type = Local, and

  Command = C:\OP4W\Wvt.exe -h host -c "op data share".

Host is the name of your server.

This will open a data update session in share mode on the specified host, asking you to specify the file and form.

Using your own datafile form in OP4W

To use a form you have designed to view or update a record, prepare the form in OfficePower Word, as a normal UDAP form. Download it to your PC, e.g. with WORD: Copy To PC, and bring it up in FormEdit. See formedit.htm on the OfficePower CD for help. It is in directory E:\DOCUMENT\ENGLISH\ACROBOOK and on the OP online web site www.op-online.net. Save the output to your OP4W forms directory, for example C:\OP4W\FORMS\. The name of this converted form should be the same as the name of the datafile it describes, truncated to eight characters if necessary, with a suffix of .~hu, eg

  c:\op4w\forms\datafile.~hu.

If a form of this type exists, it will automatically be used to edit the file when a record is opened. If there is no form, the default form generated from the file descriptor is used instead.

Current limitations

Visual Basic has a limit of 255 on the number of controls allowed on a form. If this limit is exceeded a message "too many fields" appears after opening a data record. If this happens, a PC form with a subset of fields could be used, or a terminal session could be invoked (see above).

The following facilities are not in the current release:

1. Selection fields - just repeats selection number in text
2. Computed fields
3. Picture fields for display