(polls)
The GM+View tab is a web-based tab that can provide views of external data or views/reports of internal GoldMine data all within GoldMine itself. For example, use GM+Views to allow customer service reps to access order history and order details. Or, create your own application and link it to GoldMine thru the GM+Views tab. You can even track packages through UPS or FedEx without ever leaving GoldMine!
With the GM+View tab you have the ability to connect GoldMine’s data to the data from other applications in “real time”. Using a GM+View, data from GoldMine can be co-mingled with related data from an accounting program, production control program, shipping program … you name it! You can have as many different Views as you want!
With GM+Views you can create custom views of data, and control access and limit the ability to edit the information. Plus, this way your GoldMine users can stay in GoldMine yet be able to access outside data without having to log into another application.
So now that you know what the GM+View Tab is and what it can do you’re probably wondering how do you make it work. Well that requires knowledge about GoldMine’s database structure as well as the database structure of the application you’re trying to link GoldMine with as well as a good understanding about web programming languages such as asp, .NET, php, and/or java to name a few. In a nutshell its not something your typical GoldMine end user will be ab and its not something that can be setup with a click of a button. With that said, it is still a fairly friendly feature for those with the right skills.
Example: UPS Tracking Number
In the following example we are going to create a simple GM+View which will pull a UPS tracking number from a field in GoldMine and display the UPS Tracking Information on UPS’s website inside the GM+View tab. (See image)
To start lets go to UPS.com’s website and enter a tracking number, dont forget to agree to the terms and conditions. If you entered a valid tracking number you’ll be redirected to a page that has a URL like the following:
http://wwwapps.ups.com/WebTracking/ processInputRequest?HTMLVersion=5.0
&loc=en_US
&Requester=UPSHome
&tracknum =1ZAE56110333009440
&AgreeToTermsAndConditions=yes
&track.x=30
&track.y=8
Notice the &tracknum=1ZAE56110333009440 this is the crucial part to getting the GM+View to work.
Now open up GoldMine, and inside of GoldMine paste the UPS Tracking Number into the Key5 field. This is the bottom field of the lower right hand quadrant of the GoldMine contact window, be sure to enter just the tracking number ie. 1ZAE56110333009440.
Now its time to create the GM+View.
1. In GoldMine click FIle > Configure > GM+View Tab. The GM+View Tab Settings window will display.
2. Click on the New button to create a New GM+View.
3. In the Template Name: text field enter UPS Tracking Number
4. In the lower white window right click with your mouse and select Edit HTML Source
5. You will see the HTML Source for the GM+View. Look for the following code <DIV></DIV>6. Place your cursor between the two <div> tags and hit enter a few times. The code should look something like this:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN”>
<META content=”MSHTML 6.00.2900.2769″ name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<HTML><HEAD>
<STYLE type=text/css> P, UL, OL, DL, DIR, MENU, PRE { margin: 0 auto;}</STYLE>
<BODY leftMargin=1 topMargin=1 rightMargin=1><FONT face=Tahoma size=2>
<DIV>
</DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>
Now we are going to enter our own code to display the UPS website inside the GM+View browser and display the UPS tracking information for the tracking number we entered in to the KEY5 field.
Start by inserting the following code into the space between the <DIV> and </DIV>
<SCRIPT>
window.location.href = ” ”
</SCRIPT>
This is a Javascript to make the website location property of the browser what ever value or web address we enter into the space between the quotation marks. If you guessed it, we’re going to enter the UPS Tracking URL:
http://wwwapps.ups.com/WebTracking/processInputRequest?HTMLVersion=5.0 &loc=en_US &Requester=UPSHome &tracknum=1ZAE56110333009440 &AgreeToTermsAndConditions=yes &track.x=15 &track.y=9
However, we want to be able to display the Tracking Number that is displayed in the GoldMine KEY5 field. So were going to replace the Tracking Number from the URL with the GoldMine Merge code for the KEY5 field. The merge code is <<KEY5>>. However, we cant just enter <<KEY5>> in place of the Tracking Number in the above URL. We need to URL encode the <‘s and >’s because these have special meanings when entered into the URL. The URL Encoded value for < is < and for > is >
So to review:
< = <
> = >
<<KEY5>> = <<KEY5>>
So now we can replace &tracknum=1ZAE56110333009440 with &tracknum=<<KEY5>>
So the final code for displaying the UPS Tracking Number inside GM+View is:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN”>
<META content=”MSHTML 6.00.2900.2769″ name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<HTML><HEAD>
<STYLE type=text/css> P, UL, OL, DL, DIR, MENU, PRE { margin: 0 auto;}</STYLE>
<BODY leftMargin=1 topMargin=1 rightMargin=1><FONT face=Tahoma size=2>
<DIV>
<SCRIPT>
window.location.href = “http://wwwapps.ups.com/WebTracking/processInputRequest?HTMLVersion=5.0
&tracknums_displayed= 5
&TypeOfInquiryNumber=T
&loc=en_US
&InquiryNumber1=<<KEY5>>
&AgreeToTermsAndConditions=yes
&track.x=10
&track.y=9″
</SCRIPT>
</DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>
Save the View by clicking the Yellow Save icon or by right clicking in the window and selecting save. Then close out of the GM+View Settings. When you go to the GM+View tab in GoldMine you can right click and choose the UPS Tracking Number view and you should see the tracking information for the Tracking Number in the Key5 field.
Now if you were to enter a different tracking number for a different contact and view the GM+View tab you’d see the information for that contacts Tracking number. For better use, create a custom field to store the UPS Tracking Number or even Multiple Custom Fields to Track Multiple Tracking Numbers per a customer.
In addition, there is a product that can take a lot of the leg work and time out of developing a GM+View application. It’s called DbNetGrid and its sister product is DbNetEdit.
DbNetGrid is a fully encapsulated HTML grid component designed for use in Intranet and Internet development. It has been designed as a fast and flexible way of presenting and updating database information in a browser environment. DbNetGrid has been designed to fully exploit the features of the IE5+ family of browsers. DbNetGrid can be used as a simple grid component integrated with your own applications, a web-reporting tool or as a fully functional web-application.
For a personal demonstration/consultation and to read more information about DbNetGrid and DbNetEdit please visit our website or email us.
