User custom methods/exits are the key ExtraView feature that allows programmatic modification and extension of ExtraView’s features, capabilities, and behavior. User Custom exits are methods that are defined in the Java class com.extraview.usercustom.UserCustom and they are stubs which mean that they have empty code bodies and they are designed to be overridden. ExtraView calls User Custom methods at specific points when presenting screens and updating the database. The User Custom methods are permanently registered callback methods and only ExtraView calls them. These callback methods are also referred to as User Custom exits because they are particular points in the ExtraView’s code where it exits/calls other custom/specialized code that a developer can provide. Returning from a user custom method returns to the caller, i.e. ExtraView. You add code to a use custom method by overriding it in your own user custom class. User custom methods have access to the ExtraView environment through –

  • Passed parameters (e.g. ProblemFormParam)
  • Global objects (e.g., Z)
  • Support classes (e.g. TextManager).

The following ExtraView screens have user custom exits –

  • User Sign On
  • Home
  • Add Issue
  • Edit Issue
  • Detailed Report
  • Search / Report
  • Quicklist
  • UDF List Maintenance
  • Report Group Functions
  • User Account Maintenance

Getting a list of user custom methods called by each screen

This works with a Linux / Unix / Solaris operating system command only. First. turn on user custom metrics using the ExtraView administration behavior setting named USER_CUSTOM_ENABLE_METRICS, then open a command window and execute a command like –

tail -f evj.log | grep UserCustomMetrics

Navigate to the various ExtraView screens and observe the output in the command window. You will see a list of each method called in the output from the tail command. Note the class names that indicate the place in ExtraView from which the log entry originated.