Prior to signing on to ExtraView, there are a few simple things you must know, in order to successfully take advantage of the many features.
Supported Desktop Browsers
The list of supported browsers can be found here.
Supported Mobile Devices
The list of supported mobile devices can be found here.
Desktop Browser Screen Resolution
The resolution of your desktop monitor or screen on which you use ExtraView should be a minimum of 1280 x 1024 pixels. While ExtraView will work within your browser at lower resolutions than this, you may have to scroll up, down and sideways more than you would like. Note that it is an individual preference to select the size of font you want to view within your browser. If you are using ExtraView’s Workspace feature, it is useful to have a minimum screen resolution of 1600 x 1200 or greater.
Never Use the Browser “Back” and “Refresh” Buttons
Your browser’s “back” and “refresh” buttons do not work within ExtraView. Only navigate by the buttons that are displayed on ExtraView’s menus. The reason is that ExtraView must maintain integrity of its information at all times. For example, if you press the button on ExtraView’s Add Issue screen to add a new record to the database, then press the back button and press the add button again, you will have two records inserted. This is obviously a problem! Similarly, your process to update records may involve a workflow that can be disrupted, if you press the browser back button after a step has been taken.
Turn on Cookies in your Browser
Most browsers have cookies turned on as a default setting. However, if they are not turned on, you must turn them on in order to use ExtraView. ExtraView will warn you if cookies are not turned on, and will not function. Most browsers will work without problem with ExtraView.
Turn on JavaScript
Most browsers have JavaScript turned on as a default setting. If this is not turned on, you will need to turn them it in order to use ExtraView. ExtraView will warn you if JavaScript is not turned on and will not run.
Bookmarks and URLs within your Browser
Many, but not all, pages displayed by ExtraView within your browser may be bookmarked, and shared with other users. Bookmarks are created by using the normal conventions appropriate to your browser. This is slightly different for each supported browser, but simply follow the appropriate steps from your browser manufacturer. For most commonly accessed screens you can copy the URL in the address bar of your browser, and paste the URL into emails or documents and share these with other users. Note that all security permissions are obeyed when you share a URL. If the receiving user does not have permission to a given feature, or to specific fields, they will not be able to use these features or view the fields, no matter the permissions of the sending user. When a user pastes a URL into the address bar of their browser, they are required to sign on if they are not already authenticated. The most common URLs that you may want to share are:
- The Sign On page
- Your Home Page – but note a receiving user will observe their personal Home Page when they use the URL that you send
- Add screens within any Business Area and Project
- The Edit screen of any issue
- The address of any report that can be run – note that there are shortcuts for any report available from the Report screen. When you right-click with your mouse on any report title, there is an option to copy the URL for that report to your local clipboard. Note that you cannot bookmark or share the address of a report being edited, or the output observed when the report is run from within the report editor. Also note that if a saved report which has its output set to anything other than the browser, clicking on the bookmark / URL will always display the resulting report to the user’s default browser
- The output from any report you run – sharing the URL allows the recipient to directly run the report and see the output within their browser. This includes the output from Detailed Reports and Quicklist Reports.
Note that individual administration screens cannot be bookmarked or shared. Also note that URLs that are shared with date/time filters do not work if your personal date/time format is set to use 24-hour time and the user who receives the URL has a 12-hour personal time format and vice versa.
Character Sets within your Browser
ExtraView must work consistently with a single character set, in order that information entered within different browsers across an organization will be compatible, and can be stored on and retrieved from the ExtraView server in a consistent manner. This is less of a problem with languages based on the Roman alphabetic, but is an essential ingredient of correctly configuring a system where users use double-byte languages such as Japanese and Chinese. Your system administrator will have decided on the character set your installation will use. Most likely, this will be a character set named UTF-8, which is universal and supports all languages. You should check that your local browser is set to the value. Your administrator will inform you if this should be changed to a different value.
Note: It is strongly recommended that the behavior setting named HTTP_CHARSET is set to a value of UTF-8, and that all users only set their browser character set to UTF-8, so that characters will be displayed correctly and consistently.
Hardware Considerations
As long as you have configured your browser and other software as described above, ExtraView should work satisfactorily on you computer. However, if you make extensive use of workspaces, with a combination of multiple workspaces and many open panels within your workspaces, it benefits having faster, and/or multiple CPUs, plus a significant amount of memory. Browsers are more efficient in this environment, and will provide a speedier response.