Wanna perfect printed invoice? Let's find the system that can!

You’ve put all information into your system and it’s time to generate documents like letters and invoices. So, how do you get your data out of system and put it into a slick and readable document?

In upcoming series of posts I am going to compare methods different systems use to create such type of documents.

I will check if any business user has an opportunity to create such a document all by himself and make any changes in it in the future if needed.

While testing I’ll focus my attention on 2 peculiarities:

• How the document is generated for master-detail bind (for example the invoice with variable number of line items in it)
• The possibility to insert images stored in the database into the document (for example images of product)

These are key issues that need to be investigated and I am going to shed some light how web based services offer to do this. We will find out shortly.

Force.com Free Edition is quite challenging, isn’t it?

Recently a big player of SaaS market has challenged the rest of competitors. The offer is really tempting.

From now on there is an option to create an account on Force.com, that can be deployed by 100 users for free.

Force.com Platform offers a whole lot of things such as a database, integration, business logic, reporting, user interface, API, configurable UI and more. I think Force.com is still a platform more oriented on developers, then business users.

So, the Terms & Conditions attached to the Free Force.com account:

• 100 Users
• 10 Custom Objects per user
• 10MB storage per user (so 1GB in total)
• Various restrictions are Sites and processing time

I guess Salesforce won’t enforce these limits, making it customer’s responsibility to check if the particular user can access more than 10 custom objects, etc. I suppose Salesforce will audit those accounts and in case the limits are violated pushing them purchase a full-version license.

Frankly, I think that current pricing 50$/user/month is too expensive for a simple app. So, Salesforce decision to offer a free version is really a good idea.

Besides, it must influence the policy of other vendors somehow. They must be pretty concerned. What are they thinking about this?

WHAT?! You didn't divide by zero, did you?

Recently in TeamDesk blog I’ve stumbled on post about divide by zero and couldn’t help but check if there is a stark contrast handling it in different web-based systems. My aim is to find out what tactic each vendor uses through a quick test.

So, in each system I will use the same example. Let’s input 2 numbers A and B, divide one by another and see what happens when divide by zero.


I am kicking off with TeamDesk, the instigator of the test:


The system correctly displays the result division by zero happened.

What about Dabble DB?


One can see a blank as result. We have the same situation with QuickBase:


In Zoho Creator Divide by Zero results in 0:


In TrackVia we have blank as the result, and the system explaines in the field history that divide by zero occurs:


And, finally, WorkXpress. The system recognized divide by zero happened, but couldn’t handle it well:


Conclusion:

In general systems are capable of managing the issue somehow. I don’t think it’s a good idea to deliver 0 as a result of division by zero as Zoho Creator does. Not everything is clear with WorkXpress in this case. I wonder if it’s normal reaction of the system to any error or just to division by zero.

Choosing data driven app? Jump start from the right foot.

I've been asked oftentimes what system is better to choose for solving particular task and what system will serve best for each specific need.

So, I’ve tried to summarize the experience personally I had exploring functionality of below listed web-based apps. This is a brief description in alphabetical order:

Your front-end must be completely integrated into your web site? Are you a newspaper? A lot of your competitors are already using Caspio Bridge. You can be the next. If you are curious how MS Access would look if it was completely made on web-browser check out Caspio Bridge.

In case you need easy to use tool for data analysis over the web Dabble DB is your choice. This is not some useless web-based Excel clone, but a system with its own approach and philosophy. I think you’ll like it.

Are you searching for not that expensive solution as Salesforce? Check out LongJump. The system may even surprise with more powerful functionality than Salesforce in some areas. But I guess its complexity makes the system not so good for small business.

Looking for a solution from a mature vendor? Your budget isn’t strictly limited? Want a system with a time tested functionality and opportunity to create a full-fledged app? Try QuickBase. Besides, no developing skills needed.

Want to build a complete application, but QuickBase is too much for your budget? Check out TeamDesk. Salesforce styled interface and robust functionality is there for building a complete solution. If you can write few formulas in Excel, than you'll handle TeamDesk easily.

Looking for something simple to manage a couple of tables? Try TrackVia. Easy to use and learn, but in case you’ll need something more complex in the future, no way to do this within the system. I think the system is a bit costly for such a limited functionality.

Can’t reckon it up: tested not that much. It takes some effort to master a non standard interface though. From the first sight I can tell the WorkXpress is robust enough, but is no Salesforce killer and won’t blow your mind as developers promise.

If you are a programmer or pursue it, but PHP or ASPX scare you try Zoho Creator. Mastering Deluge Script is not easier, but you can do a lot with scripting.

Of course, this is my personal opinion and vendors can disagree at some points. Anyway, it never hurts to take it into consideration in case remarks are really reasonable. Well, we'll see if any...

Updated

Due to Treff LaPlante (WorkXpress President & CEO) concern:

"Further, when compared with the other reviews, it places us quite falsely in a negative light. If your intent is to print an incorrect review, then please let it stand; time will reveal the truth. If you acknowledge that maybe others who have spent more time with the platform overcoming the "non standard interface" are seeing some potential here then I encourage you to amend your review to focus on the lack of time you’ve spent with it."

Corrected. We’ll see what time reveals.

Want to use Dabble DB globally? Go!

Like it or not but one of the most important criteria of any web-based evaluation is its capability to go worldwide. This time I am about to find out how Dabble DB solves the issue of globalization and localization.

Without further ado let’s get down to actual testing. So, the way Dabble DB treats dates, numbers and money is controlled by Locale Setting tab from Admin menu:


These settings are valid for all your apps. In addition you can specify currency type for a given field:


Dabble DB has no problem with data input in different languages and displays its correctly as well:


This is what I eventually got. The data is correctly recognized and there are no issues I should warn you about in case you need to deploy your app globally. With Dabble DB you won’t need any assistance in this.

Conclusion:

So, DabbleDB is really ready to go worldwide. There is just one thing the user should remember: all you apps share same locale setting. In general DabbleDB proved its capability of global use.