Project & Workflow Management
Features in Virtual Ticket 2010 Standalone Edition
Create New Records from Find Results NEW
Small improvements to how someone works can often make for large improvements in results. For example, many Workgroups users spend a significant portion of their days searching for and creating new records. By adding the ability to create new records from Find results, users can work more naturally and efficiently without changing windows or contexts in their application.
On-The-Fly Reports NEW
Any form in the Virtual Ticket module of Workgroups 2010 can now be printed as a multi-page report and output as either PDF or perfectly formatted Excel documents. These reports include a smart conversion technology that allows reports to be dynamically formatted based on information in the system. As a result, the actual layout and information in the reports is tailored as the report is printed.
Ticket Zooming on Mac OS X and Windows NEW
The Virtual Ticket module's desktop client applications now support form zooming to ensure that a form is equally legible on high resolution and low resolution monitors. Zoom settings are saved as a user preference, ensuring that once set, the system provides a consistent and accommodating environment in which to work.
MS Office MetaData NEW
Microsoft Office 2007, including PowerPoint, Word, and Excel, is now fully supported by our built-in metadata engine. Content and thumbnails are captured for many Office applications. As always, text content is fully searchable from within the application.
Outlook, Entourage & Apple Mail Support NEW
The new Document Organizer feature includes support for MS Outlook, MS Entourage and Apple Mail. Users can simply drag & drop emailed attachments, or even the emails themselves, onto the file collector to have them automatically copied to the specified folder location.
Custom Queries
Workgroups includes a technology called Custom Queries that allows you or a developer to create custom windows that can be published to users based on permissions. This level of customization provides you with the ability to enhance and extend the standard solution to meet your unique current and emerging needs.
Customizable Electronic Job Tickets
Get off the endless paper trail with customizable electronic job tickets that simplify, organize and drive the work that goes in to your projects. No more lost instructions. No more confusion. No more mistakes because information was received too late or due to illegible handwriting. Electronic job tickets give your entire team simultaneous access to the most up-to-date information related to each project, and are easily customized to accommodate your diverse needs and workflows.
Digital Art Catalogs
Powerful digital asset management capabilities include traditional image cataloging with innovative features that enable you to quickly build catalogs of images for specific customers, brands, product shots, corporate artwork, or individual themes of your choice.
Customizable Event Notifications
Event notification tools provide a fail-safe and efficient way to communicate critical information related to your projects:
- Notify users of important new or changed information.
- Ensure critical updates are noticed by your team.
- Drive workflow processes using automatic notifications generated by changing production information.
Solution Libraries NEW
Solution Libraries are designed to enhance and extend the core functionality of Workgroups and can include tickets, searches, scripts, and reports. Use Solution Libraries to add substantial functionality to your system: for example, a full CRM or a Help Desk solution. Each may be easily customized with built-in tools, giving your organization the flexibility it needs to adapt the software to your unique environment. Most Solution Libraries are downloadable free of charge at the MetaCommunications Developer Center.
Upgraded MetaScript NEW
MetaScript, the scripting language used by Virtual Ticket, has always been based on industry standard JavaScript. Now we’ve upgraded it to support all the features of JavaScript 1.8, giving developers even more capabilities to create robust solutions quickly.
Document Organizer NEW
Perhaps one of the most powerful features in the Workgroups 2010 release is the Document Organizer, a new folder mode in file collectors. With this new mode, users can use file collectors placed in their tickets to organize their files and keep everything in the right place! Files, emails, email attachments, scanned documents, and even entire directories can be dropped into these new file collectors and the system will automatically copy them to the correct location in the file system. This location can be set by the user or determined programmatically. For example, use the Virtual Ticket module to automatically create the correct folder on the file server for each new Job. Then, use the file collector's new folder mode so that everyone working on the job has a single place to drop their job-related files, emails, attachments, etc... The file collector automatically copies these resources to the right folder on the server and the system indexes, thumbnails, and extracts all the metadata. Not only do misplaced files and a poorly organized file repository become a thing of the past, but achieving this for your team, department, or workgroup is as easy as dragging and dropping!
Copy/Paste File Management NEW
Users can take any digital resource (files or folders) and copy/cut and paste it into a file collector. If the file collector is set to the new folder mode, the files or folders will be copied or moved automatically. It’s that simple. No file system navigation to tread through to ensure your files are placed in the right location.
Folder Searches NEW
Right mouse-click on any file collector and search its contents. The system will automatically build a find that searches the referenced locations and can also help you add additional filter criteria to make finding your files even easier.
Desktop Application Deployment Page NEW
Using just a standard web browser, users can automatically download, install, and log in to Workgroups through the Virtual Ticket module. A web server has been embedded into Workgroups to serve a deployment page complete with the appropriate desktop installer and a simple link to automatically log in to the correct server and database. The deployment page may be distributed to users via a simple URL, or the link can be sent through an auto-generated email invitation.
Visual Database Editor
Design and develop your MS SQL Server database without knowing Structured Query Language (SQL). An advanced visual database editor provides even non-programmers with a point-and-click means for designing and developing the databases for their workgroups, teams, and businesses.
Plug-ins for Popular Graphic Design Tools
Use automation plug-ins for QuarkXPress, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, and the Mac OS X Finder. These integrated plug-ins provide users with the ability to access the Virtual Ticket module's capabilities right from within their native graphics applications. Look up job tickets, find digital assets, copy images from job tickets, and more!
Plug-in for AutoCAD NEW
A new AutoCAD Plug-in extends the features of the Virtual Ticket module directly into your AutoCAD environment. This Plug-in is the latest addition to a collection that includes Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, QuarkXPress, and the Mac OS X Finder.
Plug-in for Mac OS X Finder
Quickly look up file metadata and even archive files and folders directly from the Mac OS X Finder. Using a plug-in integrated into the familiar Finder application, users have instant access to the Workgroups database while working in their desktops an navigating their local and network file systems.
Support for AppleScript
Use the powerful AppleScript language to automate activities in the Virtual Ticket module or to drive any number of the hundreds of AppleScriptable applications directly from the system. Your scripts can even be stored centrally in the Workgroups database, distributed, and then executed by individual client computers or offloaded to the server for processing.
Cloud Hosted NEW
Virtual Ticket 2010 is now available for installation on site or as a new hosted subscription service through Workgroups.com. Hosted services are quick to implement: no server software, setup or hardware is required to get up and running. For customers interested in working from the cloud and reducing their IT overhead, subscriptions start as low as $39 per user, per month (plus server fees).
Sign up for service now.
Email Invitations NEW
Simplify your life, and that of your users with the new Email Invitation feature. When creating or editing users, administrators can now send email invitations that contain a link to the application deployment page. From the deployment page, users have a quick and simple point and click interface to install the desktop application and log in. No more manually setting up user systems. Now it's just a check box and a click.
Integrated Report Authoring NEW
Report authoring and editing just got easier. Microsoft’s Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) is now included and fully integrated with the Virtual Ticket module's Windows development environment. Administrators and developers can easily build informative and useful reports complete with charts, graphs, and other elements that help make interpreting data simple for all Workgroups users.
Automatic Report Creation NEW
Easily convert your forms into complete multi-page dynamic reports with just a few clicks. Once converted, administrators can use the advanced reporting capabilities found in Microsoft's Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) to enhance the output by adding graphs, charts, variable-size fields, and more. Once saved back to the system by the administrator, users can then print these reports (as they would any form) as PDF or Excel documents.
Administrators can further leverage this automatic report creation capability to publish multiple tickets in one report. This is achieved by converting each ticket to a report, consolidating the layouts in BIDS, and uploading the consolidated report back to the system as a separate report that can be printed on-demand.
Custom Application Menus NEW
Now developers can set up a custom application menu used for organizing their solutions. Menus can be placed in a toolbar in the Virtual Ticket module and arranged hierarchically - in fact, the menu text itself can be dynamically generated using MetaScript. Additionally, MetaScript actions can be assigned to menus in order to perform almost any operation, including importing data, opening windows or finds, running reports, and even opening third-party applications. Using permissions, menus can be further tailored to a user or group of users… giving them a focused and easy to use interface. †
Cross Platform Development Environment NEW
The Virtual Ticket module for Workgroups 2010 contains a brand new cross platform (Mac OS X and Windows) development environment for building and deploying your Workgroups applications. A built-in editor provides syntax highlighting, brace matching, advanced navigation for SQL and MetaScript files, and straightforward development tools to ensure that you can implement your functionality efficiently.
Full-Size Document Previews
View full-sized multi-page previews and extensive document metadata, right down to the fonts being used, box size, and text content for all files and documents. Preview extraction is performed automatically by the system. Once captured, these previews are available regardless of whether the files are stored online, near-line or offline.
Find Files by Custom Metadata
Use the built-in search capabilities to find files based on file metadata including extracted text, keywords, associated customer information, related project information, and more. With Workgroups 2010 there are more ways to quickly locate the documents you need, based on the information you’re likely to remember.
Forms Editor
Use a built in electronic forms editor to replace and improve upon your existing paper-based workflow. No programming is necessary to create and deploy stunning and effective forms for your projects, teams, and workgroups. Familiar drawing tools allow non programmers to quickly develop forms by easily placing shapes, text, buttons, images, and controls on forms.
