January - February 2013

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In This Newsletter


2013 Ingersoll-Rand Catalogs (U.S. and Canada) Available for Download

AVAproject 2013 - Coming Soon

New Catalog Packaging & Deployment Tool Featured on AVAware Website

A Place for Every Cloud... and Every Cloud in its Place!

AVAproject Tip: Master the Material List with Advanced Reporting Tools



Catalog Updates


 U.S. Price Books:

  • Bradley
  • Cal-Royal
  • Dor-O-Matic
  • Falcon
  • Glynn-Johnson
  • Ives
  • K2
  • LCN
  • Monarch
  • Rockwood
  • Schlage
  • Schlage E.S.
  • Securitron
  • SOSS
  • Stanley E.D.
  • Von Duprin



 Canadian Price Books:

  • CBH
  • Dorma E.D.
  • Dor-O-Matic
  • Falcon
  • Glynn-Johnson
  • Ives
  • K2
  • LCN
  • Monarch
  • Schlage
  • Schlage E.S.
  • Stanley E.D.
  • Von Duprin



2013 Ingersoll-Rand Catalogs (U.S. and Canada) Available for Download


In a huge departure from their usual release schedule, Ingersoll-Rand has released updates to their entire collection of U.S. and Canadian catalogs on the same day.


Ingersoll-Rand’s current hardware library consists of 9 major primary brands, which AVAware maintains in both U.S. and Canadian currencies.

 

  • Glynn-Johnson
  • Ives
  • LCN
  • Schlage
  • Schlage Electronic Security
  • Von Duprin
  • Dor-o-Matic
  • Falcon
  • Monarch

 

The entire set of Canadian price books became effective on Friday, March 1, 2013, while their U.S. counterparts immediately followed them on the 4th (Monday).

Having received the final printed (PDF) versions of all the books from IR in the latter part of January, AVAware’s

catalog team pulled out all the stops to get the entire library updated, online and ready for download prior to their coming into effect in the beginning of March.

In addition to updated product and pricing information, a number of the catalogs also received updates to their associated catalog cut collections.

As part of our usual process of creating electronic versions of the various manufacturers’ catalogs, AVAware’s catalog development team cross checks and verifies all pricing formulas and repeated occurrences of similar products within a given catalog. As a result of their thoroughness and the stringent nature of the process, they routinely identify issues and errors that would have otherwise gone unnoticed in the printed price books. The software used to create our databases is able to

analyze and identify many issues that would be nearly impossible for a human reader to recognize.

AVAware’s catalog developers identified several pricing discrepancies in the U.S. versions of the price books. These observations were passed on to Ingersoll-Rand, who instructed our team to go ahead and make the necessary corrections to our electronic versions in anticipation of amendments they would be issuing forthwith.

All of us at AVAware would like to express our thanks to personnel at Ingersoll-Rand for all of their kind support and assistance in the creation of our electronic catalogs. We very much appreciate all their ongoing efforts and diligent responses to all our inquires. Thank you all, very much!



AVAproject 2013 – Coming Soon


As the days get longer and the weather gradually gets warmer, the bright blue skies and gentle chirping of birds can only signify one thing… the annual AVAproject spring update is almost here!


Shortly after the annual DHI convention draws to a close each year, AVAware’s development team retreats into a secure bunker at an undisclosed location to finalize plans for the next year’s product releases. Our group studies the many notes, observations and suggestions received over the course of the preceding year; this along with our own design plans coalesce into a final vision for the next major release – the spring update.

With each year that goes by, this task becomes increasingly challenging.

AVAware has more product offerings now and often time changes made in one product will have an impact on others. This is inevitable when multiple products share the same data and must work together harmoniously.

AVAproject 2013 will feature a number of technological enhancements that extend to the very foundation of the system, the result of which will be a suite of new features that allow project data to be moved between modules and other ERP/accounting packages like never before. 2012 saw the release of

several Fusion connectors that allowed data to be shared with a number of popular accounting programs; that list will grow even longer in 2013.

AVAproject customers will be notified when the new version is available for download, and a comprehensive list of changes and new features will be published in the release notes.



New Catalog Packaging & Deployment Tool Featured on AVAware Website


Through the use of powerful new server-side compression and packaging technologies, AVAware can now offer catalog subscribers a unique tool for creating custom deployment and installation packages.


AVAproject users that have subscribed to AVAware’s catalog service now have a powerful new means by which to download and deploy updated catalogs with their organization. Although most companies allow individual users to download updated catalogs at their own discretion, many prefer to maintain oversight of the process and assign the task to a single individual or department that would download updated catalogs on behalf of the entire company and deploy them when they’re ready to do so.

In either case, AVAware offers a download facility in the client area of their web site where authorized subscribers can download any or all of the many catalogs offered by AVAware’s development team. In



most cases catalogs can be downloaded individually, while some are bundled as “family” packages for convenience sake. Catalog “families” such as Ingersoll-Rand, Hager and Assa Abloy for example, are offered in neat packages that can be downloaded and deployed with a single file.

AVAware’s new catalog download facility now offers users the ability to create their own custom deployment packages, containing any or all of the catalogs that they have subscribed to. AVAware developers have created a powerful web application that allows

users to browse through the library, sorting it by any of several criteria (ie: name, family, revision date, post date, etc.).

What makes this new facility truly amazing is the server-side compression and packaging technology that drives it. Once a user has selected the catalogs they wish to update, the system gathers them together into a single compressed file; for those that also subscribe to catalog cuts, the corresponding files are automatically attached as well. The system then creates a manifest of the file contents and assembles a self-

extracting executable file containing the catalogs, the manifest and AVAware’s automated catalog installation program.

The resulting file, after being downloaded, can be installed simply by double clicking it. After presenting a complete manifest of its contents, the Catalog Installer scans the configuration of the target system and installs the catalog files in their correct location. (A detailed overview of “Catalog Installation Tool” was featured in the January 2011 edition of AVAwire).




The mere fact that the new system can save a great deal of time and effort (especially when downloading several catalogs) is a tremendous thing on its own, but the potential benefits only begin there. System administrators can create packages containing only those catalogs that have been updated over a given period, or pre-established collection of catalogs that they wish to deploy company-wide.

The new catalog download system will go live on the week of March 11, 2013; users may simply proceed to the usual catalog download page and click on the banner at the top of the page to be taken directly to the new system. Both the old and new systems will be and available for use for next few months before the old one is retired.



A Place for Every Cloud... and Every Cloud in its Place!


In years past, the image of clouds in a system diagram referred to the network segment in between different locations or major components; they basically referred to the wires that linked things together. Those fluffy clouds that used to symbolize empty space have now taken on an entirely new meaning – they themselves have become a vital, functional component of the entire system.


Regular readers of AVAwire have probably noticed that we dedicated a number of articles over the past year to the emerging trend towards “cloud-based” computing. Never has any one single technological innovation had such a profound impact on all aspects of computing; everything from mobile to enterprise and everything in between has been touched in some way by offsite data stores and remote processing. Because of its far-reaching impact, this technology has generated as much debate in recent years as it has innovation. Like all exciting new advancements, the early years are fraught with anxious developers desperate to implement it in every possible situation.

Suddenly the “cloud” was the answer to absolutely everything. The situation is reminiscent of a man receiving a new power drill for Christmas; suddenly there are loose screws and walls in need of shelving everywhere the eye can see. When your favorite solution is a hammer, all your problems begin to resemble nails.

This is absolutely not to say that remote data storage is not an incredibly powerful and compelling technology. In fact, many things have only now become possible given the ability to maintain massive repositories of data that are accessible from virtually anywhere. The caveat comes when developers attempt to “shoe horn” a solution that really doesn’t make effective use of the technology. As cloud-based computing begins to mature, the best thing we can do is carefully observe how industry leaders have chosen to implement it.

 

 

Microsoft Office 2013

 

Microsoft recently made public the details of their new “cloud based” Office 2013 licensing packages. Although this new subscription-based model is centered on “cloud” technologies, it’s interesting to note that Microsoft has decided not to run their applications on web servers or any virtual/hosted environment. The Office group has developed a new, “streaming” web installer that quickly

deposits a “sandboxed” version of their Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) in such a way as to keep it separated from the operating system. Despite this innovation, the deployment methodology is still the same traditional “distributed application” model on which AVAware has based its own deployment strategy.

Microsoft is calling this new Office version “cloud based”, meaning installers and updates are delivered via the internet and documents are saved to their ‘SkyDrive’ service by default. Despite this, they are making it perfectly clear that the applications function perfectly with no internet connection at all.

Naturally, we were very pleased to hear that Microsoft has adopted the same deployment strategy that we have been using and advocating for many years. Despite the fact that Microsoft owns what is arguably the largest provider of virtual web hosting in the world in their “Azure” product, they have elected not to run the new office product from a web server. Although some mobile developers have attempted to run Microsoft Office as a web session in the past, Microsoft maintains that by installing applications directly on the users’ PCs, they are avoiding substantial performance reduction that comes with the web-based alternative.

In addition to having overall performance subject to the quality of the internet connection and the number of users sharing it, there is also the inescapable fact that applications running on a remote server cannot possibly take advantage of the local processing power of each individual PC. Microsoft has chosen to ensure that users of their applications have the absolute best possible overall user experience; it’s for exactly that reason that we have elected to use the same strategy.

This brings us back to the point of effectively utilizing a technology. Here is yet another parallel between the approaches Microsoft and AVAware have taken with deployment: When a user installs Microsoft Office, Windows 8 or AVAproject, each application

completes its “install” process by automatically contacting the developer’s web server and downloading that users’ custom content. In May of 2009, AVAware introduced an automated deployment system that allows AVAproject to download Subscription files and Company Logo Art each time they are updated. Microsoft is doing the exact same thing with user configuration files, desktop themes, etc.

 

 

New ‘Cloud-Based’ Features Coming to AVAproject

 

Building upon our current deployment system, AVAware is introducing a number of powerful new tools to the AVAproject suite, all of which utilize AVAware’s cloud-based technologies.

Amongst them is a package of enhancements that is specifically geared towards multi-user and multi-location companies. The package offers several new tools including a facility that will allow a company’s system administrator to pre-set any of the settings and parameters that govern the operation of AVAproject and deploy them automatically on installation or update. In addition, we have created a number of brand new “company-wide” data resources (ie: View Styles, Company-Wide Hardware Catalogs, etc.) which will also be deployed automatically to all the various users.

The net effect of all of this is a system that enjoys all the performance and fault tolerance benefits of a distributed application model while allowing the same managed installations that you would see in a server-based environment. Most importantly, there is absolutely no work required on the part of system administrators during individual installations. A user can simply run the AVAproject installer and the rest is taken care of automatically. After the application is installed, all the company-specific operating parameters and resources will be automatically downloaded and installed. Each time a change is made to any of the settings or resources, it is automatically propagated to all of the users.





AVAproject Tip: Master the Material List with Advanced Reporting Tools

AVAproject users are constantly finding exciting new ways to use leverage their existing data using the advanced reporting tools found in products like AVAproject Fusion. Many of those same powerful sorting and grouping capabilities are actually built right into AVAproject.

The Material List is clearly one of the most important reports generated by AVAproject; it is the culmination point where all the data in the project comes together. The data it contains drives every part of the workflow process, from ordering and fabrication to shipping and billing. It’s for this reason that the Material List was designed to be as versatile as it is.

Users who have had the opportunity to work with modern reporting or “business intelligence” applications (like AVAproject Fusion, for example) will have become accustomed to having certain tools available for the preparation of their reports. For project managers, the ability to sort, group and bulk data based on different situations and criteria can quickly become an essential part of daily tasks.

Although AVAproject Fusion can absolutely provide a virtually unlimited range of options with respect to generating reports based on the project Material List, there are already many such capabilities built right into AVAproject itself.

When viewing the project Material List, along with the standard view style options, there is also a “View Options” button which provides access to a dialog box containing a number of presentation options for the data.


The following is an overview of some of the options, explains in standard reporting terms:

 

 

Grouping and Sorting

 

In AVAproject Fusion, users can sort data based on any number of fields (columns) and select any one of them to group it all by. All of the data grids in AVAproject even offer the capability of doing an multi-field sort based on any number of fields, arranged in any sequence required.

In the Material List View Options, sort and grouping has been cleverly encapsulated in a single field selection control. This boxes in the View Options dialog offer the ability to “stack” fields in any order and effectively creating a “sort hierarchy” that defines how the product in the Material List are to be arranged.


By default, products are first grouped by “Product Line” (frames, doors, hardware,etc.) and then by “Manufacturer” within that and ultimately sorted by “Product Description”.


These fields can be re-arranged as desired and will change the way the entire report is presented. By placing the “Manufacturer” first, all the products being purchased from a given manufacturer will be grouped together and then broken down by frames, doors, etc. Alternatively, leaving the “Product Line” first will cause all the frames to be grouped together, then all the doors, and so on.

 

 

Filtering

 

One of the most powerful tools offered by any reporting application is “filtering”. AVAproject Fusion allows users to create powerful data filters using a “near-english” interface that ultimately translates the user’s instructions into a standard SQL query.

In the Material List View Options, a number of filters have been pre-loaded and can be invoked by simply selecting them as required. This part of the View Options Dialog provides access to the data filtering options.

Please note that the filter options are presented as a data hierarchy, just as the data itself is. In terms of the Material List, the filter options in this hierarchy refer specifically to the relationships between the data items only. For example, if “Constituent Products” are deselected – their “child” data (Product Adds and Hardware Preparations) are not excluded from the report; they are only indented in order to demonstrate their relationship to the “parent” data and to be consistent with the format of the report itself.


 

 

Nomenclature and Bulking

 

The final group of View Options allow granular control over the way that products are individually identified in the Material List.


When the “Bulk Identical Hardware” option is selected, all of the data connected to that product is combined based on the nature of the data itself. Quantities are added and lists (ie: Opening Numbers) are merged into to provide an complete summary of each product’s role in the entire project – on a line by line basis.

By using all these various View Options, in addition to the countless View Style options offered, there is virtually no limit to the number of variations in which the Material List can be displayed. If, however, your needs extend beyond the options offered by AVAproject alone, AVAproject Fusion will undoubtedly provide any variation one could possibly imagine.


Note: Please remember, the Material List is a fully interactive report. Any changes made on the Material List, in any presentation style, will persist when the report is reformatted to display differently. This powerful feature allows users to organize data in the most efficient way possible for data entry and then reformat it as required for presentation or reporting purposes.



We welcome any questions, comments or suggestions about any topic mentioned in this edition of AVAwire. Please visit our website for more information, or contact us directly at (416) 239-9099.