The future of NorthScope is here!
We take the future of NorthScope very seriously, but we take the feedback we get from our users just as seriously. And this quarter, these two priorities merged into one as your feedback inspired the creation of the NorthScope 3.0 Framework.
You are the reason we make this software so it only makes sense we would want to hear from you. We appreciated your feedback on our user survey so much - we hung on every word and dove into what you said.
This feedback drove us to go back to the drawing board so to speak. We built a new framework from the ground up. Everything will be familiar, but you will notice some differences - and the differences you notice will all be good ones, trust us.
This is only the beginning. We started off “small” and have converted Inventory Transaction Record Views and all the Inventory Inquiries. But don’t worry, we are working diligently to convert more and more pages throughout all of our functional areas and can’t stop won’t stop until all pages in NorthScope have been converted. So, stay tuned and keep a close eye on those release notes as they will keep you up to date on pages moving to this superior framework.
So now that we have you all hyped on this new framework, let’s get into the nitty gritty of what it gives you the ability to do. Just a heads up, this stuff gets us really excited so please pardon us as we geek out a bit in the bullets below.
Pages in general: Pages in this new framework are now created and stored on the server. This means that we don’t take the hit of building the page and then rendering the data to you. We just grab the already built page and render the data. With this, we allow the browser to do its job of caching the things it can, which means loading times are faster after pages have been opened the first time. We also no longer reload the entire page just because you clicked the save button, we just reload the data. This means that saving on the third tab in on a record view leaves you exactly on that tab, the page doesn’t flash, no waiting, just save and go. Oh yeah and if you happen to be in a list and you are filtered and click save, the filter stays.
Inquiries: Our inquiries now do some really cool things behind the scenes. For example, some inquiries have many, many, many, (did we mention many?) columns in them and can return several thousand records at a time. Not only that but different users care about different data points so users can now rearrange their columns, add and remove columns, and save their layout (which we know, you could do before) BUT with this layout, we only download the data that the user cares about to make these inquiries faster than ever. What’s more is that users now have the ability to determine what they search for before we even go off to the database to get data AND THESE SEARCH OPTIONS ARE RIGHT ON THE PAGE. This means that you can see exactly what you searched for at all times. Now what if you always search for the same thing every time you open a specific inquiry? Well never fear because saved search is here: you can save as many searches as you want, and these are just a mouse click away. Did we mention that these inquiries scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll? This means they don’t page - all your data is on one page and one page only. Now about those filters…they are instant! You fill in a filter and click ok and all your data on that one page is filtered for exactly what you want.
Editable Grids: Just about every record view has them and there are several list views that have them. They have been revamped to be better, easier to use and even easier for your browser (yes we care about the browser as well because we find if the browser isn’t happy then our user probably also isn’t happy). Anyways, these grids now might appear to not be editable but the moment you click into a cell that is editable, the row will open for edit and you can go about your business editing row after row if you so desire. Ready for the really cool part? We only save the row(s) you changed which is highlighted by a red arrow in the cells that have had their data changed. This means if you have a transaction with 100 lines and you change just one line, we only pass that line to the database and save the changes to that one line. We love data as much as the next guy, but passing data unnecessarily is not something we like very much so we don’t do it. But what does this mean for you? This means that saves happen incredibly fast. In fact, sometimes while we were testing the page we would wonder if it saved because it was so fast, but we knew it did because those red arrows telling us something changed were no longer visible.
New Controls:
Multi-Select Combo Boxes: You know them, they are the dropdown lists with the checkboxes in them where you can select multiple things. And now you can love them because they’re all new and have an “All” button that automatically selects all in the list, and they have a clear button, so no need to waste your time unclicking all the checkboxes.
Date Range: If you like dates (like the period in time not the other thing) then this box is for you. You can use these boxes to enter in a custom date range like 1/1/2020 – 1/31/2020. Or you can select from the many options: Today, Last 7 Days, Month to date, Year to date, The Previous Month. You also have the options for Specific Date, All Dates Before, All Dates After and Date Range.
Search: You will be seeing search boxes on inquiries and many other pages and these search boxes are awesome. If you want a quick way to search for data, just type it in the search and refresh your inquiry. Say you want to search for a part of an item description, just type it in the search box. Say you want to search for a warehouse lot on the lot balance page, just type it in the search box. Say you want to search for a keyword and you aren’t sure if it’s in the item description, an attribute column or something else, what are you going to do? That’s right, type it in the search box. You can see a bigger, better outline of exactly how powerful this tool is here.
Filter Row and Group By Toggle: Tired of the filter row taking up precious space? We turned it off by default. Want it back? Just click the filter icon in the toolbar. Want it to go away again? Click the filter icon again. Don’t worry, if you want to filter without the filter row, you can do that too. We like options and we like giving our users options and that’s exactly what we did with our filter row. Want to group columns? Turn on grouping with the group by toggle and drag your columns to the group by row and see your grid group instantly. Want to remove grouping? Turn off grouping. It’s so simple and easy to use, you’re going to love it.
Quick Search: As if the cool new search box wasn’t enough, we gave you a way to search all the columns on the fly without having to refresh the data. Don’t want to bother with filters? Want to filter on multiple columns with potentially the same text? We got you and so does the Quick Search box.
But we don’t get to have all the fun. Custom pages can be created by you or maybe someone else, anyways, point being that anyone can create a custom page and add it to NorthScope if you are so inclined. If this sounds a little scary but interesting, stay tuned for a DIY guide to building your own page in NorthScope.
This is just a glimpse at the future of NorthScope. There are so many more cool things on the horizon - like the DIY guide to building your own page in NorthScope, some cool export to Excel features, multi-language support and more.
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions please give us a call, shoot us an email, mail us a letter, maybe send a smoke signal or a carrier pigeon. Ok maybe we don’t know how to read smoke signals and we’re not sure a carrier pigeon would know where to go but the point is, we want to hear from you. You play a big part in making our software better. So as cheesy as it might sound, thank you.