User Custom Guide - Product Documentation

This documentation covers the functionality of ExtraView User Custom programming. The User Custom extensions to ExtraView allow the programmer to extend, complement or replace the functionality of many parts of ExtraView.

If you intend to modify the behavior of ExtraView with User Custom programming, you will need to be skilled in coding with the Java and JavaScript languages. Most likely, you will also need skills in programming with SQL, to perform database access. In addition, ExtraView administration skills are required to configure many of the functions offered. If you are using User Custom to integrate ExtraView with other applications, you may also need to understand the ExtraView API. It is strongly recommended that you attend the User Custom Programming training course from ExtraView Corporation before attempting to build your own customizations within ExtraView.

ExtraView strongly recommends that experienced programmers are utilized in developing User Custom extensions to ExtraView.

There are two principle ways of extending ExtraView with custom code:

User-Defined JavaScript – this is typically used when you need to provide additional validation code, or need to submit a screen form to the server based upon a data value in your form. The characteristics are that the execution appears to be very fast to the end-user, as no trip to the server is involved, but you cannot perform coding to extract information from the database
User Custom Java code – this is used to perform the “heavy-lifting” work, where you need to make appreciable alterations to the functionality of ExtraView. This work is performed on the server, after the user takes an action to submit or refresh a form within their browser.

Note: ExtraView can be customized with sophisticated rules that use a proprietary scripting language. These rules are much simpler to develop than custom code, and can perform many of the functions required to extend ExtraView. As a general principle, always consider using a rule before you consider custom code. They are much simpler and faster to develop, and are generally very efficient and simpler to maintain. Almost all common extensions can be accommodated via the use of rules.