Stadium4 Release : 4.1.2084.4655

Build 4.1.2084.4655 is available for download. It includes:

• A better looking chart control
• Datainput fields have new width property
• Install now adds all neccessary security rights to configuration folder
• Added MaxHttpCollectionKeys setting to default web.config
• Users can specify a custom setting for URL property of RSSFeedViewer control
• Fix for format conditions on grid not working
• Fix for issue with RDL viewer not working
• Fix for issue with menu displaying incorrectly
• Fix for server side paging
• Fix for issue that occurred when using GridIterator and IterateCurrentPageOnly in combination
• Fix for issue that was causing dependant values to be lost when opening Chid Grid Editor
• Fix for formatconditions not working when grid has filter
• Fix for menu item seperator property not working

A look at LightSwitch

I have spent some time looking at LightSwitch, a Microsoft product that is in some ways similar to Stadium.

How does it create value?The primary aim of LightSwitch is to create business applications in a rapid manner.

Target users

LightSwitch is primarily targeted at developers who need to rapidly produce business applications.  It is very much part of Visual Studio and the application designer uses the Visual Studio IDE.

There are however contradicting statements from Microsoft regarding the target user:

Marketing saying it is aimed at at non-developers:

http://bit.ly/HbylAG

Jason Zander, corporate vice president of the Visual Studio Team in the Developer division says it is aimed at developers:

http://bit.ly/HM5rdv

Microsoft is sending out a very confusing message but my impression is that it is definitely aimed at developers. In order to achieve anything substantial, coding is required.

Data and Screens

LightSwitch is focussed on building business applications and most business applications consist of at least two things:

• Data
• Screens

There is a clear split between these two in LightSwitch. User first defines the data for an application by creating an 'entity'.

Entity

This 'entity' can be linked to a new table in the database or an existing table. The user can then design the screen and link to it to the entity.

I like this clear separation between data and screens.

Screen designer

LightSwitch's screen designer does not have a WYSIWYG editor and I find the model very confusing. Here is an example of how the model looks:

It is not easy to map the design time concepts to the final screen and this requires some serious effort.

Screen templatesWhen user creates a new screen, user can choose from a list of templates. This is a great way the speed up the design process and I like this approach.

Business Logic

In order to specify business logic, code must be written, as specified below:

'Our goal with LightSwitch is to remove a lot of the “plumbing” work and instead allow you to concentrate on the core business logic of your application so that the code you write is exactly what you want to write and no more.'

Web applicationThe final web application is a Silverlight 4.0 application and can be hosted in a browser or a desktop application. I am baffled why Silverlight and not HTML 5.0?

Here is how the the final output looks like:

Report Viewer Timeouts

Stadium has a Report Viewer control that allows a user  to view a report that is being hosted by Reporting Services.

The benefit of using Reporting Services Reports is that they are much more visually appealing, may contain graphs, and off various methods of exporting the data (Excel, PDF, CSV etc.) in an efficient manner.

Once you've uploaded the report on the Reporting Services Server and tested that it successfully generates you may find that the report still fails to generate from within Stadium with the error:

 "An error has occurred: Request timed out."

You have probably checked that the timeout values for both the SQL queries within the report as well as the timeout value on the Stadium's Report Viewer control are set to a sufficiently large number to prevent timeouts but you still get the error.

This error is occurring because the ASP.NET request to the Reporting Services Server is timing out. The 'ExecutionTimeout' setting in web.config can be changed/added to prevent this timeout.

The execution time-out refers to the number of seconds an ASP.NET page is given before the operation is assumed to have failed and the page terminated. In the example web.config file below the executionTimeout is set to one hour.

<system.web>
<httpRuntime executionTimeout="3600" />
<sessionState timeout="60" />
...

Further information : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/e1f13641(v=VS.90).aspx

Stadium3 Release : 3.3.1960.4332

Build 3.3.1960.4332 is available for download. It includes:



Bug fixes

• Unable to add column to child grid error
• Index outside the bounds of array error when deleting a row in a grid
• Javascript error when clicking on messagebox
• TreeView's click event not fired when clicking on it more than once

A More Desirable Stadium

We made the buttons on the screen look so good, you'll want to lick them. - Steve Jobs on Mac OS X's Aqua UI

There is a much-loved, widely-used (online and at conferences and the like) diagram called the User Experience  Honeycomb. It looks a bit like this:

User Experience Honeycomb

It was first drawn up by Peter Morville in 1994 in an attempt to illustrate the facets of user experience - and why it is important for product development teams (that's us!) to move beyond usability.

Throughout the course of its lifetime, Stadium has grown and improved in all of these aspects except one: desirability. Here, desirability refers to the image, branding and emotional design of Stadium. During Stadium user research, including usability testing and interviews, one of the most commonly voiced sentiments was that Stadium's applications looked outdated and, well, a bit less than desirable.

We decided that it was time for a change. We wanted to make Stadium applications, if not lickable, then at least attractive. We also wanted a solution that would not add to our implementers' workload. Their area of expertise is the design and implementation of business solutions. They should not be burdened with graphic design considerations. Therefore we decided that we would create complete, packaged themes that could be used as is.

The first themes we have implemented were determined by considering our biggest clients' branding and colour palettes.

And so, without further ado, here are a few glimpses of the four new themes for your perusal and hopefully, your enjoyment. We would love to hear from you, so please drop a comment and tell us what you think!

Default theme filter and grid

Forest theme filter and grid

Charcoal theme filter and grid

Burgundy theme filter and grid

Stadium 4.0 Beta is ready!

Finally the day has come! Stadium 4.0 Beta(4.1.2047.4570)  is available for download. Stadium 4.0 Beta has the following:

• A complete redesign of the user interface

We have focussed on improving the aesthetics of Stadium for this major release. This is simply because we believe 'attractive things work better'
and this latest redesign will go a long way in improving the user experience.

• Upgrade to .Net framework 4.0

We have also upgraded from .Net framework 3.5 to framework 4.0 to take advantage of  the latest technological advances provided by Microsoft.

The focus of this release has been on the end user and has been quite an experience for the development and user experience teams. We have been focussed on this for past two months and it has been a huge team effort, a big thanks guys. Well done!

I am encouraging all Stadium users to download it and take it for a test drive. We are still at early stages so your feedback is needed! 

There will further posts regarding the design changes soon from our awesome user experience team.

Case Study - Deposit exceptions

STADIUM is used at Allan Gray to identify and manage investment deposits made by their clients into Allan Gray bank accounts.

What is the deposit exceptions process?

When an Allan Gray client makes an investment, an investment instruction together with proof of payment is sent to Allan Gray. The Allan Gray back office staff process the investment and as part their compliance checks, then have to confirm that the investment amount stated has been received in Allan Gray's bank account.

The application provided in STADIUM allows users to match deposits. Users match deposits that are made into Allan Gray's bank accounts to a particular investor's transaction. The solution is called the 'Deposit Exceptions' process as it includes only deposits that could not be auto-reconciled by BankRecon,  Twenty57's cash reconciliation product.

Allan Gray administrators typically know what deposits should be made based on investment applications that have been received. Users usually search for the deposit amount and ensure that the deposit is allocated to an investor.

This process will result in a deposit being allocated to a unit holder (or client) number. The deposit can then be reconciled by Finance during cash reconciliation using BankRecon.

Users: There are mainly three types of users who interact with the application:

• Admin invest
• Admin authorise
• Finance group

Process flow

Deposit exceptions is a typical workflow process.

User in Admin Invest role will daily:

• View Admin Invest screen to see list of transactions that have not been reconciled
• Creates new service request on Siebel.  Siebel is Allan Gray's CRM system.
• This service request would trigger a workflow in Siebel and it will get a unit holder number (UH number).  
• Save service request number against corresponding transaction in STADIUM
• Admin invest user then changes the status to indicate it needs to be reviewed by Admin authorise user.

User in Admin Authorise role will daily:

• View Admin Authorise screen to see list of transactions that need authorisation
• Unit holder number will be automatically updated by Siebel
• User confirms all is in order, and changes status of transaction to indicate it is ready for recon
• Transaction will be then be reconciled by BankRecon

User in Finance

• Can perform all tasks typically carried out by Admin invest and Admin authorise users
• Can also override statuses for transactions
• Handle cases where the deposit cannot be identified and follow up with banks/investment company to get further information

In addition to this:

• Audit records are maintained for each status change
• Notes can be added by any user

Application size and scope

• Total number of transactions: 250 000
• Bank Accounts: 27
• Active Users: 391
• Average number of transactions per day: 160
• Number of transactions processed on busiest day: 636
• Number of STADIUM application pages: 42

About Allan Gray: Allan Gray is a South African investment management company. Allan Gray was a pioneer of performance related investment management fees and today the overwhelming majority of their clients’ assets are managed on this basis.