What needs to be reviewed or redeveloped when migrating to Aptify Web from Desktop

• Identifying Web Incompatible Functions
• How to Determine Whether to Redevelop
• How to Proceed Once Determined
  • Code Based Wizards
  • Configured Layout Controls
  • Configured Form Components
  • Pivot Tables
  • Notes
  • Other Custom Plugins

Identifying Web Incompatible Functions

This article details the elements of Aptify Desktop that will not function in Aptify Web. Each of these functions were developed with .NET controlling some aspect of the User Interface or otherwise deprecated Windows functionality. As Aptify Web is not a .NET platform, these functions do not work in Web, without being redeveloped in a Web-friendly language. The following functions need to be evaluated:

• Code Based Wizards (also known as Entity Actions. Not stored under the Wizards service.)
• Configured Form Template Layout Controls (these control the UI using .NET)
• Configured Form Components (Client-specific buttons built in .NET code)
• Pivot Tables (convert to Pivot Grids)
• Notes
• Custom Plugins

For more information on stock functionality, please review: Comparing the Aptify Web Interface to the Desktop Client. 

For more information on Aptify Web Development, please review: Developing for Aptify Web.

How to Determine Whether to Redevelop

First, run the scripts provided at the bottom of this article to determine what will not work in Aptify Web. 

Second, meet with business users regarding these functions to answer the questions below: 

• How often are they used and by how many people (which departments / users use this)? How critical is this item and what business value does it provide?
  • If no longer in use by anyone, then remove or deactive the configuration / view. 
  • If used less than monthly, not critical, doesn't save valuable time to users, or not used by more than one or a few people, can this task be accomplished in a different way?
  • If critical, used frequently, and by many people, determine how / whether to refactor based on steps below.
• The answer to whether to refactor these incompatible items is not always just to redevelop function in Aptify Web, but instead to evaluate whether it can be:
  • Replaced by new Aptify functionality
    • A code-based wizard that executes an advanced search across multiple entities would be replaced by Aptify Web Global Search
  • Replaced by automation and/or process flows
    • An Accountant may use the e-Payment Capture wizard. The e-Payment capture process can be executed by a scheduled task and a process flow, thus removing the e-Payment Capture wizard as an obstacle towards moving to Web.
  • Redeveloped in a better way
    • An example would be a code-based wizard that created a new Campaign record, and simply created the same several tasks linked to the Campaign. This wizard was entirely replaced by the Task Workflow Automation marketplace item, which can be used in a variety of additional ways (can automatically generate new tasks for all other entities based on filters, not just Campaigns) that simply recreating the New Campaign Wizard wouldn't have done. 

How to Proceed Once Determined

Code Based Wizards

Code-based wizards, also known as entity actions, were the preferred method of developing wizards before the introduction of metadata wizards. These code-based wizards are wizards where both the functionality and the UI is defined by code, not metadata. Code-based wizards do not work in Aptify Web, and there is no plan to support them as they are from a different technology (.NET) than what is used by Aptify Web.

Note that code-based wizards are NOT found under the Wizards service - those are metadata wizards. Within Aptify, they are called Entity Actions and can be found on the Entity record directly.

For how to create metadata wizards, visit Administering Metadata Wizards for more details. 

Configured Layout Controls

Layout controls are form template configurations (hence, part of the UI) where .NET code controls either the UI or can set value. Examples: 

• When the Opportunity Status is "New", most fields on an Opportunity record are hidden.
• Set field values immediately, based on another field, while the end user is interacting with the UI.

Since these controls are .NET and control the UI, they will not work in Aptify Web. Most of them should be redeveloped as Form Template Part Bindings (which are metadata/javascript based) - these bindings can control several UI items in metadata, so the rework may require less code than the original item.

NOTE: Just because you have a Layout Control, does not mean you can't use Aptify Web for these specific records. If the Layout Control was hiding unnecessary fields by Opportunity Status, the users can still use the Opportunity forms - they'll just have those extra fields until the Layout Control is redeveloped.

Configured Form Components

Form Components are different types of buttons and items that can exist on an Aptify record. For example, some commonly used stock form component are a text box, a checkbox, the address control on a Persons record, or the attachments control. Stock form components were redeveloped and should work fine as part of Aptify Web.

However, if a client created their own form component (a new type of button, an embedded chart) those will not work in Aptify Web as the UI is coded in .NET. Records that use these form components will still open, it will simply not render the part of the page that contains the configured form component. 

For more details on how to create a form component in Aptify Web, visit Create a Form Component.

Pivot Tables

Pivot Tables were replaced by Pivot Grids, as Pivot Table views used a desktop-only Microsoft Office component. For more details, visit Creating a Pivot Grid View in the Web Interface.

Notes

Notes were deprecated in Aptify Web, the suggested replacement is Contact Logs. Note: please create a ticket to Support for a script that easily converts Notes to Contact Logs. 

Other Custom Plugins

Most other custom plugins should work fine, unless they involve UI controls like popup windows. For more details on other client-side plugins available for Aptify Web, visit Client-Side Plugins.