Integrating Time Matters with. basic Time Matters database structure t and business logic

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Integrating Time Matters with

Third Party Tools and Applications

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basic Time Matters database

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Introduction

• Steve Stockstill,

President Data Equity LLC

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Joined Time Matters in 1999, recruited by the original founders of the company. Brought on to develop the first Enterprise Edition of Time Matters, which was released in the spring of 2000.

During tenure, served as a senior team member on several significant Time Matters development initiatives; Total Practice Advantage, the World Server/Browser Edition, and Billing Matters.

Subsequent to LexisNexis acquisition served as Desktop Development Team Manager, ultimately promoted to Director of Software Engineering for the Time Matters business unit responsible for the development of all Time Matters software products and platforms through the end of his tenure (TM version 8).

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• Data Equity LLC,

a software development firm specializing in developing software integration

solutions for the legal industry. Most notably:

Commercial Software

Commercial Integrations

MobileTM Google Apps QuickBooks

GuestOffice Salesforce.com InfusionSoft

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Session Logistics

• Cell Phones

Please put your cell phones in vibrate mode feel free to text and tweet

Please put your cell phones in vibrate mode, feel free to text and tweet.

• Handouts

Course material will be available online at the PMAC web site or in the download

section of the Data Equity web site at www.dataequity.com.

• Questions

The presentation will have pre determined breaks during the session for questions If

The presentation will have pre-determined breaks during the session for questions. If

you need something repeated or explained in more detail feel free to ask at any time.

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Session Objectives

• Time Matters 3

rd

_{Party Support Roadmap for Applications and Smartphones}

• A Look Inside the Time Matters Database Schema

We will be using the Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio, Windows ODBC Manager and Crystal Reports to identify and understand:

– Important Time Matters Database Tables – System Identifiers (SYSIDs)

– Basic Primary Table Relationships

• Creating Reports Outside Time Matters

Using the information we have learned about the database we will take a look at creating our own custom reports using Crystal Reports.

• Linking Time Matters to Applications in the Cloud

We will continue to build on the previous tasks to extend Time Matters to such cloud applications as NetDocuments and the Microsoft Live Workspace.

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3rd Party Support Roadmap

Desktop Operating Systems V9 V10 Note

Vista 64 Yes Yes

Windows 7 No No Target: v10 SP1

Browsers

IE 8 No No Target: v10 SP1

FireFox 3.5 Yes Yes

SmartPhones

iPhone See Note See Note Outlook/Exchange supported; Native support TBD iPhone See Note See Note Outlook/Exchange supported; Native support TBD New Blackberries (Storm, Bold, etc) See Note See Note Outlook/Exchange supported; Native support TBD

Palm Pre No No TBD

Windows Mobile 6.5 No No TBD

Current Software Versions

TimeSlips 2009/2010 No/Yes No/Yes Testing nearly complete with TS2010; TS2009 TBD

PaperPort 11 Yes Yes

Blackberry Enterprise Server 5 (BES) No No TBD iMange/Interwoven/… Yes Yes

DocsOpen/Hummingbird/…p g Yes/No Yes/No

GroupWise 7, GroupWise 8 No No TBD Windows Server 2008 w/Exchange 2007 Yes Yes

Imminent Releases

Exchange Server 2010 TBD TBD MS Office 2010 TBDv TBD MS Office 2010 TBDv TBD

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The Time Matters Database Schema

• The “Database Schema” consists of the tangible entities of a database; tables, fields (or columns) and the relationships that exist between these elements within database. The “Database Business Logic” is the less tangible logic in which the database schema is implemented for a very specific business application in our case tangible logic in which the database schema is implemented for a very specific business application, in our case Time Matters.

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The Time Matters Database Schema

• Let’s take a closer look at some of the more important tables in the Time Matters Schema.

• Contacts and Matters are designed very similarly in that both have three tables. Each table corresponds to the data on the Primary, Secondary and Additional tabs of their corresponding forms.

• The other primary tables are very easy to identify; they inherit their names from within the application: Events, ToDo’s, Notes, Billing, Phone, Documents, Mail, Email, Web, Message, etc.

• There are a few exceptions to the rule; Outlines need two tables OtlHdr and OtlDtl (outline header and detail respectively) and basic billing Invoice requires TxHdr and TxDtl

respectively) and basic billing Invoice requires TxHdr and TxDtl.

• Time Matters version 9 introduced the new User Defined Record Type (1-5) tables. These tables are respectively named: Usertype1, through Usertype5.

In addition to the primary tables each primary table has a recycle bin table The recycle bin tables are the same • In addition to the primary tables, each primary table has a recycle bin table. The recycle bin tables are the same

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The Time Matters Database Schema

• In addition to the primary tables there are many support files in the Time Matters schema.

• The Prefs table stores the program and staff level options found under global settings.

• There are several default Property files which can be identified by the “Prop” table prefix. The default property table contains field and tab form style attributes. That’s why changing the default property file will impact existing form styles. Form styles are also paired with the Codes table which identifies the existence of a form style in the default property file.

• The Time Matters global audit feature writes to the “Audit Current” table. Every ninety days (by default) this table is saved and a new empty audit log is started.

• The unused property tables and old audit tables can be moved to another database to reduce the active database’s overhead. Providing marginal improvement in backup performance and overall database size.

• Many other tables work to provide business lower level functionality and are beyond the scope of today’sMany other tables work to provide business lower level functionality and are beyond the scope of today s presentation.

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The Time Matters Database Schema

Connecting Tables Using the SYSID

• When using a report writer you may frequently need to connect two or more tables so you can print information from a record other than the currently printing record. For example, you may be printing a Note and you want to print information from the Contact or Matter or you may be printing the Contact record and need information from Contact2 or Contact3.

EXAMPLE 1: When connecting two or more tables you will use the SYSID from the primary table. If you need to connect the Contact, Contact 2 or Contact3 tables you will use the Contact.sysid fields.

EXAMPLE 2: All secondary tables have a field that contains the SYSID of the Contact and/or Matter that were entered into the regarding line (found in form area 1)

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Creating Reports Outside Time Matters

Hands On Demonstration - Creating an ODBC DSN for the Time Matters Database

• Launch the Windows ODBC Manager - Administrative Tools/Data Sources (ODBC) –or- Start/Run “odbcad32.exe” • Add DSN, Select the SQL Server Database Driver

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Creating Reports Outside Time Matters

Hands On Demonstration - Creating a Contact Join in Crystal Reports

• Create a new report, select the Contact, Contact2 and Contact3 tables. • Select the Database Expert, Links tab.

• Click the Auto-Arrange button. If the tables cannot be auto-arranged by key, allow the Expert to arrange by name. • You will now be able to select fields from all three tables to be included in the report.

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Linking to Applications in the Cloud

• What type of cloud applications can be linked with Time Matters?

A few ideas might include:

– Google Applications – Microsoft Office LiveMicrosoft Office Live

– Weather and Mapping Applications – Document Management Systems – and many more?

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Linking to Applications in the Cloud

Hands On Demonstration – Connecting Time Matters to NetDocuments

NetDocuments is a cloud based document management system frequently used by the Legal and Financial industries. NetDocuments

has a very strong API for accessing documents from your online document repository. In addition documents can be saved to and opened from most popular desktop software.

Integration Points

The objective of our task is to show how simple Time Matters can be quickly integrated with a cloud based application like NetDocuments. We will:

– Using an HTML Editor Create a Matter Based Power ViewUsing an HTML Editor Create a Matter Based Power View – Establish a Link Between Time Matters and NetDocuments – Add the Power View to the Time Matters Matter List