Developer Resources

Working with Data

At WorkXpress we strive to make loading your data into your application, working with that data to show your users what they need to see, and extracting your data from your application as simple and easy as possible. After all, it's your data; we shouldn't keep you from it.

Importing Data

Our Record Import Tool allows CSV formatted data to be imported into an application. First you will build an import profile, telling the application how to handle each column of each row of data in the CSV. It will then process the provided CSV, handling each row one by one. The CSV can be uploaded to the system directly, or FTP can be used to retrieve the file for processing. Once a record import process is defined, it can also be automated!

Data can also be imported using our SOAP API, or by reading the results of a query against an external MySQL or MS SQL Server database.

Reporting

Once your data is in place, there are always requests to see it in new and different ways. Our robust reporting tools allow you to create charts and graphs to crunch the numbers and give the users what they want. Document and table reports can also be created to power invoices, weekly and monthly inventory reports, sophisticated email bodies, and anything else you need.

Exporting Data

One common way to use a table report is to use it as a data export profile. If you want to get data out of your system and into a CSV, the best way to do it is to create a table report, define the query for the data you need exported, select the data formats for the fields you select, and then run that report exporting it as a CSV, Excel spreadsheet, or PDF.

Your data can be programatically read out of your application through our SOAP API, or you can write insert or update queries to push your data into an external MySQL or MS SQL Server Database.

Application Explorer

Sometimes the Presentation Layer of your application doesn't show the whole picture. Perhaps there are fields in a table that aren't shown on a page, or maybe you're trying to understand exactly what is stored on a record to get an import just right. Try out the Application Explorer to see not only the structure of your application's tables, relationship tables, fields, forms, and actions but you can also use it to see the details of what's stored in the application for each field of a record.

How WorkXpress plays well with others

Integrate with External Web Services

The availability of free, public and commercial, private web services to perform any number of operations from providing up to the minute currency conversion rates to parsing a Word formatted resume into it's data fields, can empower you and your application to do more with less. The Web Service action type allows you to connect to any SOAP based web service you can get a WSDL for, and make calls to that web service from anywhere in the flow of your application.

SOAP web services are also an easy way to extend your application to execute code you wrote and hosted anywhere on the web. Just provide the WSDL to your web service to a web service action, and watch it read the format of your service and allow you to choose what to pass in, and where to store what comes out.

External Database (MSSQL Server/MySQL) Connectivity

Have data trapped in another system that you can access through MSSQL Server or MySQL? No problem! The Read External Database action type allows your application to query another database. Select, Update, Insert and Delete queries can be executed, and when a select completes you decide what to do with each row and column of data returned to use it in your application.

Read data from Excel Files

Microsoft Excel files provide a unique challenge when working with them. They generally follow the row and column format that we're all used to working with, but they've added a depth capability allowing you to create a multi-sheet spreadsheet file. So, when you access data from an Excel file you need to know not only the row and column identifiers, but also which sheet to pull from. WorkXpress allows you to read an Excel file with the Read Excel action type, allowing you to configure which sheet, row, and column you want to pull data from, and then choose where to put that data in your application.

Voice over IP (VoIP) in Phone Number fields

Voice over IP systems are everywhere in business and enabling features in WorkXpress to work with your VoIP system should be easy. Read about how to setup your phone number fields to appear as links that invoke your VoIP system, and for how to trigger a search in your application on a particular user's PC when a call comes into their VoIP workstation.

Google Maps

Storing address data is important, but making that data meaningful is even more important! You can enable automatic links to appear below addresses in forms that open the address in Google Maps. You can enable small map preview's of the address on forms. You can also create Google Maps actions that will open a popup to an address in a map with various Google Maps features enabled (Terrain and Satellite views), or allow routing from a starting address to many destination addresses

Geolocation

Address fields have an optional setting that will enable geo location services for that field. When this is enabled and the field is saved the application will contact a geo location service, and lookup the corresponding longitude and latitude for the address specified. Once this is enabled additional search features appear allowing records to be found with address values within a certain distance of an address entered during the search. This feature also allows for distance calculation expression functions.

Barcode Fields

Both standard and 3D bar code fields are available. Standard barcodes allow one value to be stored on the barcode where 3D bar codes allow up to 16 pieces of data to be stored in one barcode.

LDAP

LDAP, the lightweight directory access protocol is a commonly used protocol for the exchange of security related data between a software application and a directory service. Integrating with LDAP for User and Group synchronization allows for single sign-on features in your application.

Communication integrations

Exchange, POP and IMAP

WorkXpress applications are able to read email from accounts on Exchange, POP and IMAP email servers. The parts of the messages can then be used to create records in WorkXpress. Typically this is used to create a sort of inbox in WorkXpress that may or may not replace the inbox you are already using for your email, but can include the added power of relating these message records to other records in your application. Imagine if you could pull up a Contact in your CRM and see all of the email you've sent to and received from that Contact. These actions can also be used to delete a message from the server once it's been read and processed by the application, or to place a copy of a sent email into the sent box of the sender so they can find it in their email client. Read about best practices for integrating with your email service.

Faxing

While slowly becoming a thing of the past, faxing capabilities are still important to many businesses. WorkXpress has partnered with an e-faxing provider who will receive a fax, convert it into a digital file and deliver it to your application.

SMS Conversations

Send a singleton text message, or have your application converse with your users! The SMS Message action type allows an SMS conversation between the application and an end user as long as the response of the end user is predictable. For instance, at a scheduled meeting time, the application could send a text message to the attendees of the meeting asking “Are you at the meeting location?” and if the user responds “Yes”, then the application marks them as in attendance and response with a simple “Thank You”. If the User responds “No” the application can ask a followup like “Ok. Are you on your way?” and if they answer “Yes” it can mark them as in attendance and send a text out to the attendee's letting them know this person will be a little late.

Other integrations

Docusign

Digital document signatures have been admissible in court for years now, and every business runs more efficiently if they are able to reduce their use of paper. So instead of printing, signing, and storing important documents in a filing cabinet, why not create these documents in Docusign and use your application to request signatures, and store those completed documents? Our Docusign integration allows signature events to be added to your application's workflow quickly and easily.

Amazon Flexible Payment Services

Amazon Web Services offers a payment service for collecting money from consumers with Amazon accounts that's very flexible and robust. Our Amazon Flexible Payment Services (FPS) actions allow for communication with Amazon through their FPS API to process payments, refunds, and transfers through Amazon's payment system.

Network Device Discovery and device deep scanning

Particularly useful for privately hosted clouds, or on public clouds equipped with VPN's, the Network Scanning actions allow a WorkXpress Cloud Server to scan the network around it, looking for computers on it's network that are responding to scan requests. It can also connect to Windows (through WMI), Linux and Mac (through SSH), and Enterprise Storage devices to get hardware details ranging from operating system version, processor, RAM, and networking information to lists of hard drives complete with serial numbers, sizes and configuration details.

User Interface

Tailoring your application's interface to suite your business's specific needs is important to us. We provide a base line user interface that is up to date and stylish, but sometimes changes have to be made and we understand that.

Images

If the library of available icons is insufficient for your needs, you can upload your own icons for use when creating a new table. You can also upload images to use when making a link field, ribbon option, or in many other areas of the application to stylize it to fit your needs.

Styling/CSS

When an application is first created, the builder is given the choice of a skin to use. This skin choice then affects how every page in the application looks. These skins are a collection of CSS and Image files which are provided for your convenience to give a good baseline for what's necessary to style an application. Once chosen a copy of the skin CSS is loaded into the CSS Skin Builder, and from there it can be completely customized.

Programatic Communication : API

The Actions engine in WorkXpress is robust and feature rich. A cornerstone of WorkXpress is to make the construction of sophisticated, automation rich applications easy to do through point and click interfaces and without the need for code. We encourage you to exhaust the possibilities of what you can do through the Actions engine before turning to the API.

API

One of the most powerful tools a developer has at their disposal when working with an application is the API. Our simple, four function SOAP API allows developers to lookup data (records, relationship records and associated fields), add records, update records, and execute actions from outside the application, programatically from any other development language that supports SOAP.

Services WorkXpress

For those programmers familiar with PHP, we have created a PEAR package that contains classes to make creating API request XML, and interpreting a request's response XML easier called Services WorkXpress. This is an open source package that our development team supports to keep working with our platform through the API easier.

PHP Plugins

In cases when you don't have available web servers to host PHP based SOAP services that you want to have an application connect to, we can help by allowing your own PHP code to be hosted on your WorkXpress Cloud Server, packaged with your application and rolled out with them as well. We call these bits of hosted code PHP Plugins.

Contacting the WorkXpress Support Team

Can't find what you're looking for? Feel free to contact us to discuss new kinds of forms, fields, actions or integration's that would make it easier for you to build your application. We are constantly working to improve the capabilities of our platform and welcome your feedback and requests!

Providing supporting information

Whenever you submit a support request, be sure to include:

  • Your Operating System: Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows XP, Mac OS Lion, etc.
  • Your Browser and Version: Internet Explorer 11, Chrome 33.0.1750.146 m, etc.
  • The URL that you used to login: https://myapp.workxpress.com
  • The steps you took, click by click and letter by letter to get from the login page to where you had your problem:
  1. Login
  2. Click the “Admin” application tab.
  3. Click the “Generate TPS Reports” link.
  • What you experienced: No TPS Reports appeared.
  • What you expected to experience: Epic TPS Reports.

In some cases, support may need some additional details to help sort out an issue. Follow the directions below for instructions on how to provide these details:

TODO

  1. Page for Services WorkXpress Documentation and Download
dev resources.txt · Last modified: 2016/09/14 18:19 (external edit)
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