In the previous post containing screenshots I wrote:

I hope to post more screenshots tomorrow and maybe annotate them on how things work.

That was about 15 days ago ;-) Anyway here are some more screenshots:

Click to open large images in a new window

This is the user’s homepage. Information displayed here includes: Upcoming events (today and tomorrow), latest leads and opportunities and unattended opportunities.

This is the month view of the schedule. This is a standard schedule showing timed events. The other two views are day and week.

I am going to repeat my intention to post some more screenshots soon!

I just noticed Wordpress 2.0 is out. I thought of upgrading until I read the docs on upgrading. Doesn’t seem that hard but some plugins may stop working, so I’ll probably do it when I have more free time.

Testing is going well so far. I have tested on a big variety of configurations including:

IIS / PHP4 and PHP 5 / CGI and SAPI
Apache 1.x / PHP4 and PHP5
Apache 2.x / PHP4 and PHP5

Apache was tested on multiple Windows and Linux servers and I have tried various php.ini configurations. Now, combine these with 3 databases (Access, MySQL and SQL Server) and you understand it was no easy task. Finally I feel quite confident it will work correctly on the majority of configurations but I still intend to test some more configurations (lighthttpd being one of them).

Currently I am finishing the second-to-last code-related task: the installer. Honestly I hate doing PHP installers. They usually end up being a mess, plus they are sensitive and error prone. Nevertheless it is a very important part of an application, so I’m trying to be careful.

The last code-related task will be a customer only part of the web site, where customers will be able to download the application, check for available updates, find their serial numbers etc.

This has been a hectic week for me, testing Magna CRM on all kinds of supported platforms: PHP4, PHP5, IIS/CGI, IIS/SAPI, Apache, Windows, Linux, Access, MySQL, SQL Server etc (I’ll write more on that in another post).

In the meantime, I played a bit with Squidoo. I had started a lens while it was on private beta, but now I put some content and published it. Being the unimaginative person I am, my lens is on CRM software.

Squidoo is technically interesting. It’s the most “complete” Ajax web application I’ve worked with (except Google maps). Other services like Flickr or Basecamp have some Ajax features here and there, but Squidoo’s lens editing page uses Ajax for everything. I think I mostly liked its interface as editing was easy and fast. Not that my jaw dropped like when I saw Google maps (or that fluxiom video teaser).

Famfamfam.com has 3 sets of icons, free to use in personal and commercial applications and of professional quality. I was so happy to find them, I even submitted this to WorkHappy.net

Enjoy!

Here are some screenshots of Magna CRM.

Click to open large images in a new window

This is a list, displaying Accounts. The top menu (tabs) and right sidebar are the standard navigational controls. Some things in the right area change (history cycles, some links appear / disappear etc) while the top menu is more or less fixed.

This is a form displaying a Contact. Following are lists of related records like Tasks, Issues, Past events etc.

I hope to post more screenshots tomorrow and maybe annotate them on how things work.

I am very, very close to finishing this! All features for v1.0 are done and now I am doing some miscellaneous tasks plus testing. I believe the beta version will be released by the end of this week.

Version 1.0 can probably be released before the end of the year, although that may not be the case for other reasons: I still need a logo for Rapid Signal, a new site design, maybe an additional layout for Magna, a shopping solution, maybe a tour, certainly an online demo etc

But I feel good right now. I’ll probably publish some screenshots tomorrow.

I just found this new start-up, JadedPixel. They are building an e-commerce application:

Shopify is a hosted e-commerce application designed from the core to be simple, fun and beautiful.

They keep a blog detailing the building of Shopify and their search for investors.

Building a hosted e-commerce system sounds tough (every merchant will want to make customizations to the way the software works) and dangerous (if they go down I lose money). I guess (and hope!) they have thought of these issues and have solutions.

I am wondering if view mode is necessary in web apps and specifically ones with a lot of data manipulation (e.g. CRM software). Forms could show up in edit mode (assuming the user has enough rights) completely bypassing view mode. On the other hand, reading data in text-boxes can be tiresome.

A somewhat nice solution is going into edit mode after double clicking a field (like Flickr does for titles and descriptions). But then again theirs are not full blown, complicated forms. Moreover I recently found Tim Taylor’s site where he displays his work on this front (in place editing).

The truth is it’s too late to even consider doing something like that for Magna (plus I’m not sure it’s a better approach). However I’ll certainly research this more in the future. In the meantime, if you happen to know any application (with many forms) using in place editing, please mail me or leave a comment here.

I use Google Analytics since it went live and I find it quite useful. My main problem are the titles of the various reports. I understand where Google Analytics come from (Urchin) but things are pretty hard for me to find. For instance to find your referrers, you have to follow one of these paths:

• Marketing Optimization » Visitor Segment Performance » Referring Source
• Marketing Optimization » Marketing Campaign Results » Source Conversion

I can’t remember this for the life of me. I would prefer a title like “Referrals” or “Came from”, because now I just click around until I find it :-)