Custom Views :: Rationale

Dilemma #1: Features vs. Complexity

As a software product matures, new features and flexibility are added to meet the needs of its users. These new features tend to make the user interface more complicated. Whilst this complexity may be acceptable for desktop software, it can be damaging for a customer facing web application such as rap-X, whose benefits are proportional to its inclusivity.

One solution to this problem is to make the user inteface highly responsive by hiding and showing certain elements depending on who is logged on. However, this merely shifts the complexity onto the administrator.

Dilemma #2: Ease of Setup vs. Customisabiity

Most organisations have an exisitng investment in a brochure website, which has been carefully designed to reinforce a corporate identity. When rap-X is implemented, it should reflect the look and feel of the existing website as closely as possible.

The primary rap-X web application enables the administrator to upload a company logo, and to customise much of the content. However, it is often not possible to reflect exactly the existing website design.

rap-X Solution: Custom Views

Custom Views enable the rap-X implementor to create a mini subsite which displays only the information which end users require and which can exactly reflect the look and feel of an existing website.

A Custom View is a mini-website that displays the information that your end users require in exactly the format you specify. A Custom View consists of HTML based template files and one configuration file packaged together in a ZIP archive for easy portabil. These files are packaged together