Software Built for Change
PowerVista RollCall was built using
PowerVista Bridge. The specialized RollCall
Regeneratable Style generated most of the windows in RollCall.
RollCall was designed to be an excellent base application for managing
the member/student relationship, and is intended to be customized to
uniquely suit each organization's particular needs.
This is an important
benefit. 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. 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.
RollCall is different
- it grows with you as you change to meet the demands of the
educational marketplace, so does RollCall. Customization is easy,
reliable and continues to extend the application to meet your
growing business. We take customer suggestions and add them to the
base product every month (see What'sNew
for a history). The scrolling text to the left
shows the most recent update's contents. If you have very unique requirements, the two
'developer' bundles include a customized development environment,
source code for RollCall 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 RollCall development environment and the RollCall source
code. Each bundle allows a single developer to alter RollCall in any
manner required by the end user. There are no royalty or license
fees charged for distribution of the completed application.
System Requirements
RollCall operates on Windows operating systems, including
Windows2000, WindowsXP and Windows Vista. Installation and licensing of
the Windows operating system is the responsibility of the end user.
RollCall contains 225 windows. The database contains 135 tables. RollCall 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 RollCall information.
The single-user Standard Edition of RollCall 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 that will run Windows XP can be used to efficiently operate RollCall. If
you have a single administrator and 500 or fewer students, the
Standard Edition will work well for you.
The multi-user Enterprise Edition of RollCall
defaults to use Microsoft SQLServer Desktop Engine (SQLExpress
2005) to store and retrieve information. The size and performance a specific RollCall
implementation is dependent upon the capacity of the database
platform and the hardware configuration (disk size, CPU, memory,
etc.). Any server sized to Microsoft requirements
for SQL Server will be more
than adequate to operate RollCall.
RollCall supports QuickBooks 2006/2007/2008 Pro and Premier editions. It supports multi-user access to QuickBooks if the
Enterprise Edition of RollCall is installed.
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.
Installation Options
RollCall can be installed as a standalone
application using RollCall-Standard Edition. This version uses the
PowerVista database, which comes free with RollCall Standard
Edition.
RollCall Enterprise Edition is used to install the
application on a network for multi-user access and installs
Microsoft SQL Express 2005 by default. Alternatively,
you can install using your own SQL Server
license. License and installation of the selected ODBC
database is the responsibility of the customer. PowerVista RollCall
connects to the installed database manager via a user data source
name (DSN) set up in the Windows Data Source Administrator.
PowerVista RollCall can be installed and operated
across the Internet using RollCall
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 RollCall Enterprise Edition is required. Then, the
ApplicationServer is installed, and remote sites may access, update,
print and view RollCall information on the main server.
RollCall Application Server also installs web pages for standard
Internet Browser access by students, instructors, prospects and
affiliated organizations. The web pages are developed in
ASP/VBScript and use a remote ODBC login to connect to the database.
The database and the web pages must be located on the same physical
computer.
*Microsoft products must be
purchased, licensed and properly installed before they may be used
with RollCall data.
|