We are excited to announce the arrival of Ravenblack Dynamic Widgets (RBDynWidgets). This product extends our rich tool box of WebReports enhancements to make Smart View development using WebReports widgets significantly more powerful.
For nearly 10 years, OpenText Content Server has included a user interface called Smart View. Most customers and partners have found ways to use this UI in their business solutions, but in our experience, they have not been able to achieve the same level of customization and configuration they can achieve in classic Content Server with WebReports, ActiveView and other products.
After Resonate KT was acquired by OpenText, we became part of the Smart View evolution and we contributed by creating some widget types capable of running WebReports, thus introducing some flexibility in widget development that doesn’t require working with the Smart View development kit. This capability is frequently used, but it does have some limitations. Firstly, the widget size and content are fixed at the time of creating a perspective—one could say they are static. Secondly, these widgets can’t interact with each other, thus each widget can only be a self-contained piece of functionality.
Enter Dynamic Widgets. Our product installs as a “CSApp” (no Oscript module) and provides a flexible extension of the WebReports HTML widget, that also includes a unique JavaScript API. This JavaScript API allows any widget to dynamically control its visibility, size, expansion, and content. It also allows widgets to control other widgets, and each widget header can have unique controls attached in addition to any links or buttons you create in your unique widget.
This functionality truly allows you to create fully fledged applications within the Smart View interface—with only WebReports knowledge and our simple API.