PowerVista GlobalFamily Technical Information

Software Built for Change
PowerVista GlobalFamily was built using PowerVista Bridge. The specialized GlobalFamily Regeneratable Style generated most of the windows in GlobalFamily. GlobalFamily was designed to be an excellent base application for managing communities of international families, and is intended to be customized to uniquely suit each organization's particular needs. 

Why is this important? It's important because organizations looking for packaged software begin by expecting to find an excellent fit - they expect 'everyone' to have identical needs. At some point, it's apparent that each organization is unique. Which is good, because otherwise there wouldn't be room for specialization! This is why there are many applications for the same vertical market, and the primary reason that companies outgrow applications. It's why many organizations spend more on customization than on the original software purchase. PowerVista GlobalFamily starts with this understanding, and then builds on it to make the perfect application -- especially tailored to you! Customization is easy, reliable and continues to extend the application to meet your growing business. The two 'developer' bundles include a customized development environment, source code for GlobalFamily and a database application development toolkit.  Customization can be done by internal programmers, external consultants or PowerVista consultants. The Standard Developer and Enterprise Developer bundles include the customized GlobalFamily development environment and the RollCall source code. Each bundle allows a single developer to alter GlobalFamily in any manner required by the end user. There are no royalty or license fees charged for distribution of the completed application. 

GlobalFamily operates on Windows operating systems, including Windows98, Windows2000 and WindowsXP. Installation and licensing of the Windows operating system is the responsibility of the end user. GlobalFamily contains 52 windows, 36 of which were generated using the RollCall Style. The database contains 28 tables. GlobalFamily exports data in a comma delimited form and includes several templates as examples for merging information to Microsoft Word or Excel. Microsoft products must be purchased, licensed and installed to be used with GlobalFamily information.

The single-user Standard Edition of GlobalFamily uses the PowerVista database. This (free) database has no internal limits on the number of records stored, and will display data from tables containing hundreds of thousands of records. A table may contain up to 256 columns, there is no limit on the size of the record's data. Up to a database under a half million records, the performance a specific RollCall implementation is dependent upon the hardware configuration (disk size, CPU, memory, etc.). A standard configuration at or above 800 mhz CPU, 96 mb memory and disk size capable of installing the operating system, any related third-party software (Word or Excel) can be used to efficiently operate GlobalFamily. 

The multi-user Enterprise Edition of GlobalFamily uses any of the supported ODBC databases to store and retrieve information. Supported databases include MySQL, Access, SQLServer, Oracle and DB2. Support can be added for proprietary databases, contact PowerVista for additional information. The target database must be purchased, licensed and correctly installed prior to operating RollCall. The size and performance a specific GlobalFamily implementation is dependent upon the capacity of the database platform and the hardware configuration (disk size, CPU, memory, etc.). Generally, the database manager requirements will be more than adequate to operate GlobalFamily.

PowerVista Bridge is comprised of a C++ based interpretive engine that reads PowerVista Markup Language and renders interfaces to the computer monitor. Data is connected to the application via an internal (to the interpretive engine) Database Independence layer.  The PowerVista Markup Language (PVML) is a hierarchical language used to describe the graphical user interface (windows) and its behavior. PVML is written using the PowerVista Bridge development environment and compiled into a binary resource for delivery to the end user. The Regeneratable Styles generate PVML to create GlobalFamily windows and their behavior. There are 9 Styles in GlobalFamily, 9 of them generate windows and one generates export definitions. 

Installation Options

GlobalFamilycan be installed as a standalone application using RollCall-Standard Edition. This version uses the PowerVista database, which comes free with GlobalFamilyStandard Edition. 

GlobalFamilyEnterprise Edition is used to install the application on a network for multi-user access and operates on any ODBC compliant database such as Access, SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle or DB2. License and installation of the selected ODBC database is the responsibility of the customer. PowerVista GlobalFamilyconnects to the installed database manager via a user data source name (DSN) set up in the Windows Data Source Administrator. 

PowerVista GlobalFamilycan be installed and operated across the Internet using PowerVista ApplicationServer. This installation option supports an Application Service Provider model of delivery and a single, centralized data repository with remote clients. An operational copy of GlobalFamily Enterprise Edition is required. Then, the ApplicationServer is installed, and remote sites may access, update, print and view GlobalFamily information on the main server.

*Microsoft products must be purchased, licensed and properly installed before they may be used with GlobalFamilydata.

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Last Modified: 6/2/2004