Profound Logic Forums

Hello,

We are new to profound, and we are wanting to see if anyone can share tips/pointers on some good standards to put into place at the start of using profound that will help our company in the long run. We are open to any/all suggestions on implementation and standards. Thank you all in advance!

Ethan,
You'll find ProfoundUI is a great product with a lot of options so setting some standards is definitely called for. I do recommend after converting a screen to try the available property settings and even show end users the different options as to how they might want things to look and work. I'm sure standards will differ from company to company but I can recommend some that we used in modernizing our ERP software several years ago. Some suggestions are general in nature but hopefully helps get you thinking about making a standard for it.

• #1 was to set some standards, so you are off to a good start.
• For support purposes having some of the program data structure fields on the screen (hidden or visible) comes in handy.
• We use the LDA extensively and having some of that data on the screen (hidden or visible) supports some frequently used javascripts.
• Standardize how you convert and label function keys. Show the Fkey label or not, placement/order of the buttons and/or let auto arrange.
• If not using database driven dropdowns then develop a program as a template for providing dropdown choices and values (we like the UDFs for this.)
• Use onrowclick on subfiles for the default action. Standardize how you provide for additional actions, drop down a select field, icons, etc.
• Determine your standard for Yes/No fields - use radio buttons, checkbox, dropdown? We use checkboxes most places.
• Consistency in error messaging technique, screen level, bubbles, colors.
• Once developing a standard then document an example of it. Once you use it you many never have to look at it again but to remain a standard its critical to have for new programmers or if enlisting professional services in the future.

Hope this helps. Would be interesting to see some others share theirs.

Kevin Hunter

I would say that the thing that has helped us the most was taking the time up front to create our custom css classes and custom widgets. Also, if you will be converting green screens to rich display files, take the time to fine tune your conversion theme to get the converted screen as close as possible to what you want your final screen to look like. The time spent up front on that will save you so much time on each conversion as well as help you have the same look and feel on every screen.