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FirstClass 8.0 And RAD Applications
RAD applications are a great way of adding value to the "out of the box" FirstClass product. When we develop an application, we are either looking to add functionality not already available, or enhance an existing function.
A big release of the core FirstClass product often includes significant new functionality, and change to existing functionality. Core product changes may impact on the RAD applications we develop, or in some cases, even make them redundant. Such is the case with the FirstClass 8.0 release.
Significant Impact
FirstClass 8.0 adds some great functionality around the delegation of user management. Specifically:
- you can now assign user management to other users - effectively the same functionality as our UserDetails application. Accordingly, our UserDetails application will not be supported beyond FirstClass 7.10
- users can now create their own, private (unlisted) conferences, and share them with their own ad-hoc groups of users. Accordingly, our MakeAlias application will not be supported beyound FirstClass 7.10
High Impact
FirstClass 8.0 makes many changes, including a few "under the bonnet" type changes that impact on the majority of our applications. Specific impacts are detailed below for each application.
Except for MakePGML and Answersheet, all of our installers try to install the application files in folders under the FCPO folder. With FirstClass 8.0, the FCPO folder has been renamed to FCNS. The workaround is to allow the installer to create the FCPO folder, finish the extraction process and then copy the files into the correct location.
Userbase and Answersheet both use ODBC connections to locate their respective databases. With the renaming of the FCPO folder to FCNS, these connection strings will need to be updated to point to the new location in the FCNS folder. The Data Sources (ODBC) folder can be found in the Administrative Tools folder of the Control Panel on the FirstClass Server.
Medium Impact
Userbase extracts the fields of information off of the user info form and writes it to the Userbase database. The current version will continue to work with FirstClass 8.0, but will not extract the new fields of information introduced in FirstClass 8.0 until the database is updated (we will do this as soon as the new field numbers are public knowledge).
No Impact
The MakePGML application has just been released. Accordingly, we were able to test it against the new FirstClass 8.0, and are happy to report it has been developed to work across all versions of FirstClass since v6.0 - including FirstClass 8.0
Work In Progress
As mentioned above, we need to do some work on out installers to make them FirstClass 8.0 friendly. Several applications also have ODBC connections that need to be updated. As we work through the necessary changes, and make them available, we will update our compatibility chart available here. | |
