Finding Nemo (Script Debugger)

Bruce: All right, anyone else? Hello, how 'bout you, mate? What's your problem?
Marlin: Me? I don't... I don't have a problem.
Bruce: Oh. Okay...
Anchor: Denial.

As web developers, we constantly need to activate the "Script Debugger" in order to make sure everything works fine and to prevent the browser from hiding errors.

Indeed, on average, 1 page on 5 does contain at least one JavaScript related error. You may not see them, but that's because the browser is kind enough to hide developers' mistakes...

Sometimes, it's not so important, but we can't let this kind of errors in a Web Application. It's fun to see that even web-only developpers like Google can leave such stupid mistakes. The most common error? The string constant that contains quotes...

Personally, sometimes, I feel like I'm doomed and sometimes I send those errors to the webmaster.

Track them! Spam their authors! It will lead to a better world ;-)

Enjoy !

Au revoir, à bientot,

Cedric

The Sixth Sense (Telephony Integration)

Cole Sear: Tell me the story about why you're sad.
Malcolm Crowe: You think I'm sad?
[Cole nods]
Malcolm Crowe: What makes you think that?
Cole Sear: Your eyes told me.

Customers relationships are all about having the "sixth sense". You need to predict, or at least, to feel exactly how the customer feels. This way, you will be able to use the right tone at the right time.

You sure should worry if your customer's feedback is bad, but think it as a blessing to know it and to be able to turn this bad experience into a positive one.

The Efficy CTI Integration (wiki) enables Efficy to handle calls in many ways. One of them is to display, in real time, who's calling, and a bunch of information about the caller:

• What language does he speak?


• Is this a happy customer?


• Has he paid all his invoices?


• ...

This way, even before taking the call, you know all about your caller, and you are prepared to answer efficiently.

Isn't that the real Sixth Sense?

Furthermore, you can even automatically create an action upon pickung up the phone, or display information about the caller's company by clicking on the alert. You decide what should happen.

Enjoy !

Au revoir, à bientot,

Cedric

Widget Jones's Diary (Widgets)

Sulu: Can you give us a status report, Captain? Temperature's still dropping. Now 41 degrees below zero.

Lieutenant Sulu may have been the first one to use Widgets, making him possible to answer promptly to Captain Kirk.

Now, try to imagine it in Efficy. A customer calls, and through the CTI Integration, his information is displayed. Instantly, by looking at his widgets, you can see the customer's current status:

• has he paid his invoices?


• are there any open cases?


• what is his overall feeling about your support?


• ...

Now you can define any "mood indicator" in any entity...

Enjoy !

Au revoir, à bientot,

Cedric

The Bridge on the River Kwai (External Links)

Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant. Mitchell Kapor

One of the many advantages we got as editing a Web Application, is that we can really easily integrate any information from the Internet and make it accessible from our interface instantly.

For example, when displaying a contact, you can click on its address and display the map and any needed itinerary.

Another example, when displaying a company, you can click on its VAT number and display up-to-date financial information. Efficy suggests by default three financial sources, but you can easily customize this and add your favorite source.

As always in Efficy, the sky is the limit.

Enjoy !

Au revoir, à bientot,

Cedric

Secret Window (Popup blocker)

ALF: Willie. If a window was broken in the woods, but there was no-one there to hear it, would it really be broken?

As web software editors, we are constanstly sitting in the middle of the war between advertisers and security software editors. Between those who want to draw your attention to their products (by using popups, adware, ...) and those who want to protect you by any means (anti-spyware, popup blockers, ...).

Our technicians are aware of a lot of security software, some correctly designed, and some that are sometimes worse than the scum they claim to be protecting you from (some of them should actually be condamned to use them...).

On the other hand, we have our part of responsability. We want a clean fresh interface (a.k.a. without addressbar, toolbars, ...), because, after all, we are a true software, not a website. It implies that, until now, we have decided to automatically open the application in a new clean window, without the user having to click on a link.

It seems that it's like declaring the war to the security software products. It's not that important in 99% of the cases because users are always connected through a correctly configured browser. But we had some cases where the user was on a public computer and, therefore, was not able to configure it the way it should be.

That is why we have tried to detect those cases (popup blockers) and to display our software in the original window, letting the ugly address bar in the working environment (Efficy Desktop). It's not quite popup proof, but at least the major functionalities are working without having to configure anything.

Enjoy !

Au revoir, à bientot,

Cedric

Back to the Future (Recents Access)

Dr. Emmett Brown: Don't worry. As long as you hit that wire with the connecting hook at precisely 88mph the instant the lightning strikes the tower... everything will be fine.

Intelligent "Recents" management is a key feature to enhance your working experience. Whether you want to re-call someone that wasn't there earlier or that you go back and forth between two main projects, you will often need to return to an already consulted/edited entity.

That's why, in Efficy, when you display the search window, instead of displaying nothing, you are presented with the recently consulted entities. Saving you precious time and mouse clicks/keyboard keys ;-)

We now introduce the "Omnipresent Recents", which makes it possible for you to access the five most recently viewed items, directly, from within the entity you're consulting.

Enjoy !

Au revoir, à bientot,

Cedric

At First Sight (Memo Preview)

In Efficy, every entity is defined by both specific data and every link to other entities.

The company "Easy Plane" is defined by its labels:
- name
- address
- ...

and its links (details):
- employees
- meetings
- invoices
- ...

Furthermore, each entity has its own "Memo" field, that enables you to store some general remarks about it. Until now, this "Memo" has been considered as one of the details of the entity like any other link.



We thought that maybe the memo should be considered as another "label" field and should always be visible (at least a part of it).

Introducing... the Memo Preview



Au revoir, à bientot,

Cedric

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Efficy already introduces the concept of the perfect browsing through information by linking everything together.

You start with a company, browse among their employees, look at the meetings of one specific employee, display the participants of the meeting, ... It's an unlimited way of navigating through your information.

However, sometimes you will need to access information from scratch, by searching a specific company or a contact you want call.


Efficy contains a complete search engine for each entity and introduces the "Quick Search" feature enabling the end user to always have access to the search engine from his/her Efficy Desktop.




Until now, it was not possible to select directly what kind of information you were looking for. We were assuming that if you were consulting a contact, you wanted to search for contacts, ... Of course, you were able to correct it from within the search results window, but there were no possibilities of selecting it from the start.



Until now. Future Efficy is proud to introduce THE way to directly select the entity you want to search in from your desktop. Simply start typing what you are looking for (contact name, company email, ...) in the "Quick Search" input and a fast popup will be displayed proposing you to narrow down your search to the right module directly.

Au revoir, à bientot,

Cedric

Introducing... Future Efficy

Future Efficy is a project based on the Efficy engine. It aims at demonstrating some of its possibilities and at testing various end-user experiences through new interfaces and features.

The home page is (too) shiny but is intended to show the differences between the pure standard Efficy and the Future flavor of it.

This blog will list the features and design tests and will enable users to interact directly with the authors.

Welcome to the Future !

http://myfuture.efficy.com/
Username: rachel
Password: rachel

Cedric