By now, you've probably realized that I've spent the past few days working on some SDK Samples, and, here's yet another OnTime SDK Sample. I tried to focus on SDK Examples that were both educational about the SDK, as well as the possible uses of the SDK. Our previous SDK Examples were more focused on the actual use of the SDK, and not the practical uses of it -- such as Integration with Microsoft Office Tools (Outlook, Project, etc), and so, here's another practical use for the OnTime SDK.
For those of you who may wish to be notified about OnTime items being assigned to you, when they become assigned to you, this little example will be a great starting point. Basically, the purpose of this example is to try to mimic the "You've got new Mail" functionality of most common email readers. This sample would most likely find itself extremely useful in Help Desk related positions where response times are critical to the success of your Help Desk.
Now, onto the eye candy.... cause we all know, I can say 100 different things, but these pictures say 1,000,000 :)
Here's an example of the 'Notification Window'
Here's the "Quick View", with a Grouped List Box
Here's the Tray Menu
Here's the Options Window
Here's the "Quick View" with Tabs Enabled
Here's the Notification Window, you can't really tell, but it's Fading Out
Oh and, since we got new Tasks, they are Highlighted
and you can see the 'Mark as Viewed' option as well
Requirements:
Time Invested: 6 work hours (2 hours research, 4 hours code)
To create this sample, I searched Google for an example of Fading Windows, and found a CodeProject.com resource called Diffuse Dialog. I then created a C# Windows Project in Visual Studio, and started adding my Web References to the Task, Defect, Feature, Incident and User Services. I used the User Service to retrieve the UserId of the specified user -- I then modified the Diffuse Dialog example a little, to extend the period of time the window stays 'up', and I created a Notifications List which stored a reference to my 'notifications', which were simply just text and item types so I knew what type of message to display --- if only one item exists, you got a nice "You have a new Task" message -- if you had 4 tasks, you get a nice "You have new Tasks" messages, if you have a mixture of Tasks and Defects that are new ... "You have new Items". Which, worked out quite well.
So, basically, it's just a little application that sits in your system tray (next to the clock) and checks the OnTime SDK every X minutes to see if you have new items. It also allows you to see a "Quick View" of all your assigned items at a glance (using a Grouped List Box). Double Click any item in the Quick View, and the item is launched in your default Browser right to the 'View Item' page in OnTime Web.
To download the full source to this sample, goto the
download page.