About this web site
This web site is dedicated to helping make a ServiceCenter developer's life easier. The initial contribution I could make was to figure out a way to output ServiceCenter "tailoring"/"customizations"/"code" in a format that is easy to read. Many ServiceCenter sites have the Crystal Report writer, but Microsoft Word is nearly (or should I say "virtually") universal.
It was a long road to research Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE), how to use Microsoft Word as a DDE server, and discover the right sequence of commands to make ServiceCenter talk to Word via DDE. There is a great deal of potential using DDE beyond exporting SC customizations to MS Word. For example it is possible to execute a VBA macro in Word via a DDE script in SC.
I have plans to write additional scripts to output other aspects of SC such as RAD applications. I will also be exploring creating output in other formats such as html and Word XML (see Future page). I will also be adding other bits and techniques which make a developer's life easier (see Cool Bits page).
Although I use MS Frontpage to add content and manage this site, I have tried to handle most of the layout and formatting with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). I currently do not have any javascript or vbscript in any of the pages. All the effects are done with CSS. I find it quite amazing. If you are interested then I recommend anything you can find on the topic of CSS by Eric Meyer. If you like hands-on tutorials, try "Eric Meyer on CSS" from New Riders.
The demos were produced using a product called Camtasia Studio from TechSmith, the makers of SnagIt. Very easy to use and flexible. However, I have not been able to produce an mpeg version that both compressed and played well. Probably something I haven't configured correctly. So I hope you will forgive me for the huge demo files.
It is not my intention that this site be a ServiceCenter forum. There are others that serve that function. But if you have a ServiceCenter customization or utility that you have found useful and would like to share with other ServiceCenter gurus, I am willing to put it on this site or add a link to your site. Feel free to contact me at sryburn@exporttoword.com
About Me
My name is Sam Ryburn. I live out in the country in Loudoun County, Virginia, about 50 miles west of Washington, D.C. The first version of ServiceCenter I used was version 1.3. I have been a SC Consultant/Contractor since 1999. Before that I worked with a product called "ServiceEdge". And before that I worked my way up from manning the phones to managing a support operation.
I'll admit that I'm a ServiceCenter fanatic. I think/know/believe that you can find a way to do just about anything you could ask a helpdesk system to do. And 99.99% of it can be done without adding/changing RAD applications especially with the tools available in ServiceCenter today. Don't get me wrong. I love that I can view and trace the RAD code. I think it is brilliant that most of the code and all of the customization is kept in the database. And those people that whine about P4 not being "relational" just haven't been around long enough to realize that the real world isn't exactly relational anyway.
©Copyright 2004-2005 Samuel B. Ryburn, Jr.
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