Sedna - Still MIA

I watched the Sedna webcast on Migration yesterday, and I think I have seen it before, around November time.

What struck me when I was watching it was the bits that we haven't seen yet.

• Queries and reporting - promised in the next webcast
• Import tool - the replacement for the good old Pivotal import routines
• Pivotal Agents replacements - I remember (not sure where I got this from) that there was a planned replacement for Pivotal agents, using something similar to Biztalk Workflow. This will greatly aid those non-developers out there that love agents.
• Pivotal Agent Explorer - mentioned lots of times, but no visibility yet
  

The other think that is not quite MIA, but moving backwards, is the release date. First week in March is the current plan, wonder what is causing them issues?

Also, the release in March will not be capable of being sold to new customers. I assume that this is because the CMS is not up to scratch yet. What level of CMS will be included with the first release?

I, like others I am sure, will be downloading the code as soon as it becomes made available. Work commitments permitting, I will report back as soon as it is installed.

Sedna Webcast - Migrating to Sedna

Link to the latest webcast, all about Migrating.

https://cdcsoftware.webex.com/cdcsoftware/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=714228893


3pm GMT or at other times later.

Enjoy

Webex Player link

Especially for Sumit

Below is a link to the Webex player which you need to use to play any of the pre=recorded webexes on Sedna or any other topic.

http://www.webex.com/downloadplayer.html

Sedna - Client / Server Tasks - My thoughts

After watching the client / server tasks yesterday afternoon, I am getting more excited.

The "soft required" functionality is pretty cool, and really a good way to prompt users what is required for a function to operate, gives you more of an indication that a normal error message.

I assume the messagebox that was being used is going to be replaced by a more aesthetically pleasing version like the CMSMsgbox, but we wait and see.

The flexibility of Client and Server tasks will be the great benefit of Sedna, even more so than the flexibility of 5.X, which I see as it's key feature and a killing selling point if you are going some where that the OOB (including the Financial / Housing versions) don't go.

Overall, I think the presentation was poor. I know it was a hard task to get through a very techie topic, but I thought the presenter should have been more clear on what he was doing and the results, as well as using best practices rather than written constants everywhere, but I did get a lot out of it.

Bring on the release. I may have time to get it installed next month.

Sedna Webcast - Client / Server Tasks

Just a link to the latest webcast, 3pm GMT today, Wednesday 13th February, all about Client & Server Tasks in Sedna.

https://cdcsoftware.webex.com/cdcsoftware/onstage/g.php?d=713618959&t=a

There is also one later in the day for those in the Americas.

I am looking forward to this one, trying to grasp how client scripting has been changed is essential to allowing customisers to really get the best out of the application.

See you there (well, not really)

Sedna Again - Form Design

Forgive if you have already know this, but there is more and more information coming out of Vancouver about Sedna.

If you log-in to eservice.pivotal.com or epartner.pivotal.com and select Product Downloads \ Upgrade Kits and search for Sedna, there are currently 4 download-able zip files containing one or more webcasts showing how to do things within Sedna.

One of them is Installation and administration, which I have already discussed.

The Form Design one got me quite excited. Seeing someone create a Smart Client form from scratch and add functionality to it (all be it basic stuff) was quite exciting.

I love the way you can drag information from Parent tables (they demo showing the email address of a Contact associated with a Support Incident) without creating a field or disconnected field as in RC 5.X.

The integration of .NET form design with Pivotal functionality seems rather good, and easy, allowing simple tasks to be done quite easily. You also seem to be able to get at more properties, such as background and foreground colours, without resorting to using the DOM explorer.

The tab sequence definition is also straight forward, as well as creating forms in multiple languages. Not that I see that often in my current role, but good to know it is there.

Above all, I love the freedom a customiser will have to make the forms easy to
use by the end users.

Maybe all of this is taken for granted to current .NET bespoke application developers, but for someone who has been restricted to the current Pivotal restrictions for so long, I am getting excited. Roll on February 28th.

Sedna Webcast - Installation & Administration

Viewed the latest webcast for Sedna yesterday, and I have to admit thinks look like they are falling into place.

Installation seems just as easy as with 5.X, though the ease at which the deployment of portal pages is still a worry. I will wait until I use it in anger to pass a real judgement. I like the fact that they are using .NET 3.0, which for once is the latest and greatest.

I have one outstanding question, in that will a normal user require administrative access to their own machine to allow the installation / update of the Smart Client code? Will there be a silent install option for installation and update?

Administration seems more intuitive, all in one place, without the need for the administrator to have a licence. The PAC (Pivotal Administration Client) or eREM to his mates is another TLA I will have to learn to use instead of the previous one.

One thing that did impress me is that they have removed the licensing restrictions on customisation systems and increased the demo licensing to 50 users (+ 20 mobiles) which is great news for everybody, and will probably reduce the administration of licensing within Pivotal as well.

Sedna Webcast Schedule

Just received a notification that there is a series of Webcasts scheduled over the next 4 weeks to showcase parts of Sedna. Not sure that this has gone out to all customers / partners / prospects, so hopefully more of you will know about them now.

Link to the first below

https://cdcsoftware.webex.com/cdcsoftware/onstage/g.php?d=716872026&t=a
at 3pm GMT or other times if you are not east of the US.

The schedule is

6th Feb - Installation & Administration
13th Feb - Client task and Server tasks
20th Feb - Migration to Sedna
27th Feb - Reports and Queries; Search Results

Will post my thoughts as soon as I can, as well as links to the next ones when I get them.