THE VISIBLE EDGE

Issue: October 22, 2004

Visible Spotlight
- Razor 5.0 Released!

Razor
- Enhanced IssueWeaver Templates
- Sales Promo
- Users Forum
- Tech Tip

LCSIS
- Is Your Product Development Streamlined?

Developer
- Visible Developer 4.0

Puzzler...

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Visible Spotlight - Feature Story
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1. Added "Live Links" functionality between Versions and Issues. Live Links is an improvement to the integration between versions and issues. In previous releases of Razor, the Activity window was static. The addition of Live Links
allows a constant connection between issues and the files that were changed for each issue.

2. When a laptop is not connected to a network, the power saving features of the operating system typically shutdown the network interface card (NIC). This can cause the 'razor id' utility to obtain an (invalid) Razor licensing ID consisting of all zeros. This new addition to the Razor code provides a workaround.

3. Newer Linux distributions lack 'compress' and 'uncompress' utilities. When manipulating binary files the Razor server will substitute 'gzip' for 'compress' and 'gunzip -c' for 'zcat'. Users may use scripts
$RAZOR_UNIVERSE_DIR/Scripts/compress and $RAZOR_UNIVERSE_DIR/Scripts/zcat to override this behavior.

Added definitions for '_COMPRESS_' and '_ZCAT_' to $RAZOR_HOME/scripts/system_setup for each OS. Scripts in
$RAZOR_HOME/scripts and $RAZOR_HOME/examples now reference '$_COMPRESS_' and '$_ZCAT_'.

4. Added License Utility scripts, rz_start_license_debug and rz_gen_license_stats scripts to the $RAZOR_HOME/examples directory.

a) rz_start_license_debug is a Bourne shell script used to start the Razor license manager in "debug" mode. The output from the log statements are captured in a log file. The log file is saved in the $RAZOR_LICENSE_DIR/Logs directory.

b) rz_gen_license_stats script is a Perl script used to analyze the log file and generate statistics. The output is displayed to the screen. This script depends on the Time::Local Perl module. The script also accepts several command line parameters including the log file name.

The script expects Perl to be loaded at /usr/bin/perl

Additional information on the statistics tool can be accessed by running the script with the "help" option.

rz_gen_license_stats -help

5. Corrected password message inconsistencies with Razor and IssueWeaver.

6. Corrected bug in system_setup script for XP.

7. Corrected bug in shortcuts to Versions and Threads for XP.

8. In Issues/file attachments, corrected problem viewing an attachment with spaces in the file name.

9. In Threads, corrected a bug with renamed files being dropped from a thread and/or not found by a thread script.

Please note, Razor 5.0 supports the following operating systems only:

Solaris 2.5 (Sparc), Solaris 2.6 and higher (Sparc & Intel), HPUX (10.x), IRIX (5.x & 6.x), IRIX 6.5 (64-bit), AIX (3.x & 4.x), Linux (2.2.x, 2.4.x and 2.6.x), Windows 98/NT/2000/2003/XP (client), Windows NT/2000/2003/XP (server & client).

Razor 5.0 available for download at:
http://www.visiblesystemscorp.com/Download/Razor/razor_download.htm

Visible Systems is planning a series of webinars designed to help Razor customers realize more value from the Razor product suite. The first planned webinar will focus on IssueWeaver and will be presented during December and January.

Webinar Subject: IssueWeaver

Duration: 1 Hour

Scheduled Times:
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Tuesday, December 7th at 1:00pm EST
Tuesday, December 14th at 1:00pm EST
Tuesday, January 11th at 1:00pm EST
Tuesday, January 18th at 1:00pm EST

Webinar Registration: http://www.visiblesystemscorp.com/Products/webinars.htm

IssueWeaver (IW) is the web enablement of Razor and is sold as an add-on to Razor. This how-to webinar will focus on IssueWeaver's capabilities and how it can be tailored to your environment. This webinar will demonstrate current and newly added capabilities, which include:

• Installing and Upgrading IssueWeaver
• Industry Specific Example Forms Created in IssueWeaver
• New capabilities of IssueWeaver
• Customizing IssueWeaver for Your Environment
  • IssueWeaver Stock Forms
  • Modifying Stock Forms
    

A. 5 additional licenses of Razor - You receive a total of 15 licenses of Razor.
B. IssueWeaver - Razor's web based interface to the problem tracking tool, Issues.
C. Razor Training - Certificate to attend one week of our Razor training session in FL.

The 2004 Razor Users Forum will be held on December 7th and 8th in Denver, CO. Denver is a great location, especially for Razor's west coast users. We only have 9 open registration slots left. If you are interested, please contact Liz Goetz at razor_forum@oneida.visiblesystemscorp.com for more information.

Registrants will receive a Denver accommodations map, lodging information and more information on security requirements via email.

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Razor Tech Tip
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The file attachment panel in 4.3e allows users to add, remove, view, and export file attachments. The Razor access list may be used to tailor each of the file attachment related operations for a given user. The new access list template includes these new operations:

ISSUE_ADD_FILE_ATTACH *
ISSUE_REMOVE_FILE_ATTACH *
ISSUE_VIEW_FILE_ATTACH *
ISSUE_EXPORT_FILE_ATTACH *
ISSUE_VIEW_FILE_ATTACH_HISTORY *

A user may modify (i.e. add/remove) attachments only when the issue is locked for modifications. The default behavior allows all users to add, remove, view, and export file attachments. Customers with existing databases should edit their access list to tailor use of these operations. Users can also view the file attachment history from this panel.

Visible Systems' LCSIS is a dynamic, Enterprise Data Management System that is designed, from the ground up, to meet the specialized needs of product development. The LCSIS system enables the effective integration, structuring, and dissemination of the critical product and process data associated with Product Development, Engineering, Production, Customer Service and Support.

LCSIS promotes cross departmental synergism and optimal use of organizational resources by combining a robust data management environment with an easy to use interface to increase productivity, improve standards compliance, and build overall competitiveness.

LCSIS offers comprehensive product data structure, workflow task processing, versatile communication links, and ironclad data vaulting and access control -- all in an easy to use, interactive network environment. The powerful features of LCSIS allow besieged product managers and engineers to quickly gain control of their data and accelerate their delivery cycles while meeting industry standards such as ISO 9000, CMII & Mil-Std 396.

LCSIS is affordable, scalable, and easy to use in your enterprise. Why not contact us at www.visiblesystemscorp.com for a demo copy or join us for our one of our LCSIS webinars?

LCSIS... Streamlining the PDM process for the 21st Century.

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Visible Developer 4.0
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Visible Systems Corporation (http://www.visiblesystemscorp.com), a leader in enterprise software development for over twenty years, will soon announce the release of its highly popular Developer 4.0, an intuitive enterprise software design and
code generation tool.

Visible Developer is an add-in to both Visual Basic 6.0 and Visual Studio.NET that generates 3-tier business applications in a layered architecture directly inside the IDE (integrated development environment). Each layer within the generated application follows a well defined structure implemented by the template-like "code patterns."

Visible Developer 4.0's enhancements provide enormous business benefits to the enterprise user, including the ability to perform the following:

Develop applications rapidly, not recklessly: The encapsulation of a business object's definition and implementation enables it to be deployed and used as a self-contained software component. One or more business objects can be quickly packaged and deployed as a single software component.

Scale business application without rewriting code: The separation of functionality and responsibilities between the application layers makes the application highly scalable. It is possible for different types of user interfaces to request the services of a business object. The presentation layer (user interface) does not have any idea of how the business object is implemented. It only knows what the business object can do and how to request those services. Fat clients as well as thin clients use the same logical business object. Business objects have no preconceived notions about the presentation styles used and how the data is displayed.

For example, both the ASP.NET user interface and the Windows forms interfaces generated by Visible Developer, use the same business object.

Integrate and combine data from several different database schemas into a single business object. Cross-schema relationships are created by relating tables from 2 different data sources. The business object designer identifies the two related tables and incorporates them into the business object's definition, creating a single integrated business object. The integration process is seamless and Visible Developer handles the plumbing required to pull data from the data sources. In addition, lookup tables created in different Visible Developer schemas could also be used by a single business object.

Make maintenance easier and predictable: Visible Developer's structured code generation makes software maintenance faster, reliable and efficient. The costs of software maintenance are significantly reduced.

Obsolete business objects can be easily reengineered and replaced with new ones. Business objects are self-contained entities, so they can be modified without breaking an existing application. There is no need to rewrite the entire application.

Focus on adding business value instead of sweating the technical details: A 3-tier distributed architecture has many technical details that need to be addressed. Visible Developer implements it and allows focus on adding business value rather than trying to figure out technical details.

Achieve significant savings in software development and software maintenance costs. Since Visible Developer generates over 90% of a typical business application, the development costs are greatly reduced. Because the generated code follows a predefined structure, software maintenance is predictable and easy which further translates into cost savings over the life of the application. http://www.visiblesystemscorp.com/Products/Developer/ROI.htm

Haretown and Tortoiseville are 40 miles apart. A hare travels at 9 miles per hour from Haretown to Tortoiseville, while a tortoise travels at 1 miles per hour from Tortoiseville to Haretown.

If both set out at the same time, how many miles will the hare have to travel before meeting the tortoise en route?