Crisscott OnForce Client Desktop
October 24th, 2006 by scottHello. I am Scott, one of the developers here at OnForce. I am part of the team that keeps the system running and implements all of the new features. Unfortunately for my social life, even in my spare time I like to write different applications. One that I wrote recently is a desktop application in PHP-GTK 2 that implements the OnForce web services API.
After a few hours of coding, I was able to create a desktop application that lets me put together a batch of work orders while I am offline and send them when I get connected again. Also, when I am online, I can pull down work order data, close work orders, increase the spend limit, and get and add notes. And what’s best is that it is all organized in a way that makes it easier for me to focus on one task or piece of data at a time.
!http://blog.onforce.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/5.jpg!
I like the idea of taking something that is normally web based and putting it on the user’s desktop. This way things can be made a little more intuitive and comfortable for the user because the application isn’t constrained by the web browser any more. Not having to connect to a server to change the current interface or display different data allows the application to organize things differently and break data down into more manageable chunks.
Why did I choose to write the application is PHP-GTK 2? Well, for starters I love the ease and quickness of developing with PHP-GTK 2 (I love it so much that I “wrote a book on it”:1). The simplest PHP-GTK 2 application is only four lines long, compared to 14 lines with Java Swing. PHP-GTK 2 also has a lot of built in features, things that I don’t have to write a single line of code for. For example, sorting and searching the batch of work orders yet to be uploaded is automatically built into the application. I don’t have to write any sorting methods or handle any requests to search the list. PHP-GTK 2 handles all of that for me.
If you’d like to see what the application looks like (or want to give it a try) “you can find it”:2 on the OnForce Developer’s site. I’d be interested to see what other tools you guys can create using the OnForce API. Who knows, maybe your new AJAX enabled way to organize work order data or your Java application to streamline the importing of work orders may just spark some imagination here at OnForce and inspire the next version of our system. Check out the “OnForce Developer’s site”:3 for more information on working with the OnForce API.
_Please be aware that this is not an OnForce supported application. I wrote and provide support for it. If you have questions about it, please don’t call OnForce. Instead, send an email to scott at crisscott.com._
[1]http://amazon.com/gp/product/1590596137
[2]http://developer.onforce.com/api/41
[3]http://developer.onforce.com
November 7th, 2006 at 2:43 pm
I checked out the link but since only buyers have access to API functionality there was no reason for me look further into the documentation as there is no way for me (a lowly tech) to try it out. Maybe modify your post to let people know that if you are not a buyer then all you can do is browse some documentation. Pity you can’t offer techs similar functionality., I hate how the WO display is always being changed around and it would be nice to be able to generate my own consistent view.
October 18th, 2007 at 8:55 am
We need a few provider tools.
Allow us to filter out requests for items NOT in our power profile (ie no TV workorders)
Provide a check box for the buyers if the part must be picked up first (I am not Fedex)
Ask the buyers for an estimated per hour rate. We don’t need it “to a gnats behind” accurate. (Or calculate it based on expected time to complete etc.) This will allow us to filter out hourly rates which are EXPECTED to be under a certain threshold.
Thank you