Version 2.5 is Live: 12 New Features Requested by ISVs

Press release:

Rollbase Launches version 2.5 of its Platform with 12 New Features Requested by ISVs
Complete Set of Dashboard Gauge Components, Hosted Code, AJAX and server-side SQL Query APIs, UTF-8 support, Import from MS Access, Powerful New Trigger Capabilities, Enhanced Formulas Engine, and More

SARATOGA, Calif., January 24, 2010 -- Rollbase, Inc., an innovator in cloud application and platform as a service (PaaS) technology allowing the rapid design, development and deployment of on-demand business applications, announced its latest 2.5 release now available to all customers and partners. The 2.5 release provides significant functional additions and enhancements requested by Rollbase's growing base of ISV resellers.

"With Rollbase 2.5 we have delivered significant new dashboarding capabilities via a new set of gauge components, introduced powerful new SQL Query APIs for both client and server-side usage, further improved the capabilities of formulas and triggers, enabled accessibility to a broader global audience through UTF-8 support, and much more. All of the new features and enhancements in 2.5 are the result of direct feedback from our successful customers and resellers who are helping us raise the bar on what Platform-as-a-Service can deliver out of the box," said Matt Robinson, co-founder and CEO of Rollbase.

The following is a summary of major new features and enhancements delivered in 2.5:

• Dashboard Gauges: A new set of gauge components that provide professional graphical presentation of important business data. Data provided to gauges are powered by the enhanced JavaScript formula engine and can include calculations based on the new SQL Query API to deliver a highly customized result.
  
  
• Hosted Code: Now developers can upload files such as custom JavaScript, CSS, images, documents, Active-X components, etc, that can be referenced by any application and portal, providing significantly more power and flexibility in overall application and portal construction capabilities by hosting and running third-party and custom code within Rollbase.
  
  
• SQL Query API (AJAX and Server-side): A new SQL Query API allows both client-side (Script and Template components, page layouts, and field event-handling code) as well as server-side (formulas, conditions, validations, reports, etc) to perform SQL queries to retrieve specific data necessary for the task at hand.
  
  
• UTF-8 Support: Now ISVs can market and sell apps to a broader global audience with full Unicode support for languages such as Korean, Japanese, etc.
  
  
• Import from Microsoft Access: Given an existing MS Access database, Rollbase can now walk the user through uploading that database and converting it into a working Rollbase application through an intuitive wizard.
  
  
• New "Validation" Trigger Type: A new trigger type called "Validate Record Data" allows developers to specify a condition or set of conditions which must be met for the trigger to run. If the overall condition is not met a customizable error message will be displayed to users.
  
  
• New Trigger Timing Options: Rollbase now allows triggers to be invoked both before and after record create, update and delete events.
  
  
• Enhanced Trigger Condition Capabilities: New merge field tokens in formula conditions allow developers to access field values from both before and after create and update commits, allowing powerful "before and after" comparisons for all types of triggers.
  
  
• Find Duplicates: A new duplicate search feature is available allowing users to quickly identify potential duplicates and then use the Merge feature to eliminate duplicate data.
  
  
• New "Queue" Object Attribute: A new Object definition attribute called "Queue" has been added enabling developers to quickly add typical queuing capabilities to objects such as is found in CRM and other applications for managing Cases, Leads, etc.
  
  
• Enhanced Formulas Processing: In addition to the new SQL Query API available in formulas with a new #EVAL[] merge field type, the underlying formula processing engine has been upgraded to eliminate previous restrictions on JavaScript code such as defining for and while loops, using eval to execute code, and defining arrays.
  
  
• Inline Field Editing: Now many fields allow quick one-click editing from a record's view page, eliminating the user's need to go back to the edit page of a record to make quick changes.
  
  

Rollbase has also recently migrated its public user and developer forums to a new provider allowing greater collaboration and discussion. Users from 15 different companies have already posted over 70 topics. To access the Rollbase forums go to http://getsatisfaction.com/rollbase.

Version 2.5 is immediately available to all on-demand and enterprise Rollbase customers. For more information contact Rollbase at sales@rollbase.com.

About Rollbase

Rollbase is a cloud platform for development and delivery of software as a service (SaaS) business applications using point and click, drag and drop tools within a standard Web browser. Rollbase brings the power of rapid application development to business users, IT professionals, and Web developers who may not have the time, resources or expertise to create on-demand applications using traditional software development methods. As a state of the art Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Cloud Application Platform, Rollbase enables businesses to focus on application innovation rather than the software and hardware infrastructure behind it. Rollbase provides ISVs and resellers with a robust white label program making it easy to deploy applications under any brand or identity. The Rollbase platform requires only a browser and an Internet connection. Rollbase is also available as a licensed product. Founded in August 2007, Rollbase is privately held and funded by angel investors. For more information please visit http://www.rollbase.com.

SOURCE: Rollbase, Inc.

Rollbase
650-265-4282
info@rollbase.com

Rollbase Integration with Google Apps

Today we launched the first integration of Rollbase with Google Apps, press release below. For a demonstration video see: http://www.rollbase.com/support/googleapps.shtml

Rollbase Announces Integration with Google Apps
Delivers Google Calendar Synchronization, Gmail and Docs Integration for all Rollbase Applications

SARATOGA, Calif., November 24, 2008 -- Rollbase, Inc., an innovator in Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) technology for business users, today announced the delivery of three new capabilities integrated with the Google Apps(TM) suite of communication and collaboration products. The integration of the Rollbase platform with the products from Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) enables companies of any size to reap the benefits of cloud computing (no hardware or software to download, install or maintain), and allows any Rollbase-native application to become integrated with any customer's Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Docs accounts.

"We are happy to have quickly leveraged the open Google APIs to bring powerful collaboration features to the Rollbase platform," said Matt Robinson, founder and CEO of Rollbase. "Now any application created with Rollbase can automatically use Gmail to send email, synchronize any event information with Google Calendar, and export application data directly into Google Docs & Spreadsheets, increasing the productivity of any Rollbase and Google Apps users."

Google Apps Integrations for Rollbase

Rollbase designed, developed and integrated the following three solutions with Google products:

-- Rollbase and GMail(TM) - to use the customer's GMail account to send any outbound email from within Rollbase, and storing that email in the user's Sent Items for historical reference within GMail.

-- Rollbase and Google Calendar(TM) - to enable the synchronization of all types of events in any Rollbase application with each user's Google Calendar

-- Rollbase and Google Docs(TM) - for sharing Rollbase data views and reports and making it available to internal and external audiences through Google Spreadsheets

Each of these integrations is now available to every Rollbase customer at no additional cost. For more information and a demo video about these new features see: http://www.rollbase.com/support/googleapps.shtml

About Rollbase

Rollbase is an on-demand application development and delivery platform for businesses to rapidly find, create, customize and share web-based applications using point and click, drag and drop tools within a standard Web browser. Rollbase brings the power of rapid application development to business users, IT professionals, and Web developers who may not have the time, resources or expertise to create on-demand applications using traditional software development methods. As a state of the art Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Cloud Computing Platform, Rollbase enables businesses to focus on application innovation rather than the software and hardware infrastructure behind it. In conjunction with the Rollbase Platform, the Rollbase Application Directory is an on-demand application ecosystem where users can browse, test drive, and install business applications built and published by experienced Rollbase users and partners with a single click. Rollbase requires only a browser and an Internet connection. Founded in August 2007, Rollbase is privately held and funded by angel investors. For more information please visit http://www.rollbase.com.

Google, Google Apps, GMail, Google Calendar and Google Docs are trademarks of Google Inc.

SOURCE: Rollbase, Inc.

New Platform Features This Week

Over the past few days we've deployed another batch of powerful new features (as usual, contact us for more details until we step back from R&D to update our docs). Some of this week's new features include:

HTML template based Reports
Now you can build sophisticated, highly customized HTML document template based reports using merge fields and the standard Rollbase token syntax to generate professional looking results including tabular data as well as totals, averages, percentages, etc. When an HTML report is run it can be dynamically filtered and popped out into a separate window for easy printing. We will soon be showing examples of this powerful functionality in the form of videos and new website content.

Ability to publish Roles with applications
Rollbase now allows you to attach any number of Roles to be published with your applications. In many cases applications are designed with a very specific target audience in mind, such as HR Managers and Recruiters. It is therefore quite useful to be able to predefine Roles and all related out-of-the-box application permissions, and then publish those Roles as part of the applications they are used in.

Ability to mark Questions as publishable with applications
Now that Rollbase provides a flexible framework for questionnaires via the new "Survey" and "Survey Taker" attributes, we quickly found that it would be very useful to deliver a default set of Questions with any Survey object when it is published. For example, a Requisition object representing job openings might come with a pre-defined library of 20 to 30 questions of different types that recruiters and hiring managers could draw from when setting up questionnaires for applicants.

Ability to publish object records with applications
Also new as of this week is the ability to mark specific object records as "Seed Records" which will be published and installed as part of any application the object is used in. This is quite useful when you want to include seed or sample data with your published applications. (Note that only Rollbase Support representatives can mark object records as seed records so please contact us to accomplish this before publishing your app; we purposely implemented this limitation to prevent the publishing of oversized applications.)

New "Time" field allowing selection of a Time value
A new field type called Time is now available allowing users to select a time value. This field consists of two small adjacent picklsists allowing selection of an hour and minute value. The available hours will vary based on the user's date format preferences. (Note that Time field values are not treated like Date and Date/Time values with respect to automatic time-zone adjustments. Because there is no day component, it is not practical to adjust Time fields to the current user's time zone. Keep this in mind when deciding whether or not to use the Time field type.)

A Plethora of New Features

Over the past few weeks we've been very busy wrapping up a large number of new platform features. Below are summaries of some of the more significant items we've deployed recently, although not a comprehensive list. Until  we have time to update documentation and record a new set of Rollbase videos, please contact us if you need help diving into any of these features:

• Sequential and Parallel Approval Processes
• Online Surveys, Survey Takers, Questions Library and Ranking
• Multi-Column Page Layouts
• Tabs in View Pages
• Posting Records to Portals
• Mass Upload (Import and Parse Documents)
• Unique Indexes
• Dynamic View Filtering
• Detailed Search Component
• Grid Edit Component
• Filtering by Related Fields
• Ability to Filter by Viewed/UnViewed and Flagged/Unflagged
• ZIP Code Radius Search
• Global Portal Pages
• Document Template based Reports

Sequential and Parellel Approval Processes
A new Approval object attribute enables you to create new Workflow Actions to invoke a sequential or parallel approval process for any record by triggering sequential emails to either the first assigned approver or all approvers on the list respectively. When an approval process is initiated on an object record you can optionally change the list of assigned approvers at runtime.

Only users who have been assigned the new "Approver" option can be added as approvers to any Workflow Action or record on the fly. In addition, by defining an appropriate number of Workflow Actions for approvals you can have predefined lists of approvers based on location, function, department, etc.

Online Surveys, Survey Recipients, Questions Library and Ranking
New object attributes "Survey" and "Survey Taker" allow you to build question and answer capabilities into any two related objects. For example you may want to build customer survey functionality into your custom Rollbase CRM application. To do this you might create:

- An object called Customer Survey with the new "Survey" attribute. This attribute enables a  "Questions" library for that object allowing you to create any number of questions which can be attached to any record to form a questionnaire. Each question's answer can be ranked to assign kind of score or ranking to survey responses.

- An object called Customer Response with the new "Survey Taker" attribute. This attribute enables a related Survey record's assigned list of questions to be embedded in a portal or backend page where recipients can provide answers to the questions.

Questions are like special kinds of fields whose values are designed to be ranked and added to form an overall survey score. The following Question types are currently supported:

• Checkbox
• Group of Checkboxes
• Currency
• Date
• Date/Time
• Email
• Integer
• Picklist
• Picklist (Multi-Select)
• Radio Buttons
• Text
• Text Area
• URL

Multi-Column Page Layouts
While the contents of any page Section can be organized in 1, 2 or 3-column layouts, up until recently Rollbase pages could only present Sections in a single column. Now in Generic pages you can specify whether to use a 1 or 2 column page layout. If a 2-column page layout is used each section can be placed in the left or right column, or you can choose to have a section span both columns.

To enable multi-column layout on any generic page:
1. Edit the page by clicking "Edit this page"
2. Click on the page title
3. In the Properties box change the new "Columns" property to 2
4. Now select any section and change the new "Alignment" property to Left, Right or Span
5. Notice that the page editor will update in real-time to show you a WYSIWYG layout preview

Tabs in View Pages
As your applications become more sophisticated, record view pages can become very long with large numbers of sections containing fields and many related lists below. To address this from a usability standpoint, now Pages can be organized into any number of tabs. You can create and manage page Tabs within the Page Editor, and easily move sections between tabs as well as re-order tabs as necessary.

To enable Tabs in any view page:
1. Edit the page by clicking "Edit this page"
2. Click on the page title
3. In the Properties box select the new "Enable Tabs" property
4. You will now see tabs at the top of the page. Click "Add Tab" to add as many tabs as you'd like
5. Click on any tab to go to that tab in the editor and use the Properties box to change the Tab label
6. Select any section and assign it to a new tab by changing its' "Tab" property
7. Notice that the page editor will update in real-time to show you a WYSIWYG preview

Posting Records to Portals
A new "Postable" attribute allows you to define objects whose records can be "posted" to specific portals. For example, you may have multiple portals representing product catalogs. By enabling the "Postable" attribute you can choose which portals each record should be shown on. In addition, in some cases you can also specify which "New" form is used to respond to any posted record. For example, you might select which request information form should be used when a prospect wants more info on a product in one of our catalog portals.

In addition, a new Workflow Event type called "Post/Unpost on Portal" allows you to control when certain records are posted to or taken down from specific portals based on any criteria and time delays you define.

Mass Upload (Import and Parse Documents)
Now any object with the Document as well as Contact and Location attributes provides a new menu called "Mass Upload". This new tool allows you to place any number of Word, RTF, PDF or TXT files into a queue and then upload them via AJAX. Rollbase will parse each document and create a new record by attaching the document and populating name, contact and location related fields with information gatherd from the document. You can watch the process take place in real-time through a dynamic user interface.

Unique Indexes
As you may already know, many fields provide an advanced property called "Do not allow duplicate values in this field". By enabling this property no two records of that object type can have the same value in this field. By enabling this on more than one field you can define significant duplication protection. However, until recently you could not combine fields together to form a more advanced dup validation mechanism.

Now each object definition has a new component called Unique Indexes. A Unique Index is basically a list of fields which form a combined value that cannot be duplicated and hence, prevent duplicate records from occurring. For example, if a Unique Index consists of fields X, Y and Z, then no two records can have the same values for X and Y and Z. However, for example, this does not prevent two records having the same values for X and Y but different values for Z. This is a very powerful new way to define duplicate prevention based on your specific application needs (you can even use Lookup fields to define unique indexes).

Dynamic View Filtering
You may have noticed a new "Filter" link associated with currently selected Views. This activates the filtering component directly above the View on the current page you are viewing allowing you to qucikly filter and refresh your selected View without having to switch to full View Edit model and committing yourself to any changes to your filter criteria. This same type of dynamic filtering is also available for Reports.

Detailed Search Component
A new Detailed Search component can now be embedded in any Generic pages in Portals as well as backend Pages. This component allows you to provide a small object-specific search form allowing users to locate records based on specific criteria relevant to the situation at hand. For example, you may place a Detailed Search comoneont in the home page of a product catalog portal to allow users to search for products based on price range, availability, type, brand, etc. Like other page sections, this component can be configured to display fields in 1, 2 or 3-column layouts. In addition, for each field chosen to appear in the component you can specify the operator used in the search such as "equals", "greater than", etc.

Grid Edit Component
Now you can create and edit related records in a dynamic grid component in any New and Edit pages. Simply drop the "Grid Edit" component into any New or Edit page and save your changes. Then click "Configure" to select which fields should be used as columns in the Grid.

Grid Edit allows you to create multiple related records at the same time you are creating a parent record. For example, when creating a Purchase Order you might use a Grid Edit component to add an arbitrary number of Line Item records associated with the PO you are creating. (We will cover this new component in more detail in a future post.)

Filter by Related Fields
In all Views, Charts, Reports and anywhere else you can filter data in Rollbase you can now also filter on related field values. For example, suppose you have a Customer object related to a Partner object and the Partner object has a User lookup field called Partner Owners. Now Rollbase will let you create a filtered Customers View filtered by Partner Owners. This seamingly small addition greatly broadens the ways data can be filtered in Rollbase.

Ability to Filter by Viewed/UnViewed and Flagged/Unflagged
Up until recently you could not search for or define filters to find or hide records that have been viewed, not viewed, flagged or not flagged. This is now available in the filter mechanism for Views, Charts, Reports and object-specific Search.

ZIP Code Radius Search
The object-specific search page for each Object with the "Location" attribute now includes a new ZIP code radius search capability allowing you to find records within a certain mile-based radius of any given US ZIP code. This can be useful for finding nearby leads, contacts, etc.

Global Portal Pages
All portal pages can now be shared among any number of portals. For example, you may want to use the same New Lead form in three different portals without having to duplicate it. Rollbase now allows you to assign portal pages to the specific group of portals you'd like to use them in.

Document Template based Reports
Rollbase now allows you to go beyond 1, 2 and 3 layer Tabular reports to build custom document (HTML, TXT Word and Excel) templates to be used for report generation. Using a robust set of merge fields including filterable functions such as SUM, COUNT, etc, Rollbase now provides a powerful mechanism for generating reports in a format specific to each customer's requirements. (We will cover this new functionality in more detail in a future post due to the extensive merge field options available and the virtually limitless display and formatting capabilities.)

AJAX type-ahead Lookup fields

As of this weekend's release all Lookup fields (including User selection fields, Location, Department and Function lookups) now allow you to type the name of the record you are looking for with auto-suggested matches appearing in a popup below the field:

Most users may be familiar with this type of behavior when typing an email address into GMail, Yahoo Mail or Outlook. In Rollbase suggestions will first appear after you enter your third character and the list will continue to narrow as you enter more characters.

This enhancement was identified some time back as important for speed and ease of use. While you can still click on the lookup icon to invoke a selector dialog for navigating records in a more traditional and manual fashion, the ability to choose between these navigation methods based on the situation at hand is something we've been looking forward to rolling out.

(We are currently in the process of adding this functionality to all functions in Rollbase where selection of one or more email recipients is involved.)