This section will outline all the generic functionality in ELAG applications. Entire subsystems as modular building blocks are explained under 'Samples'

Claims Management System, main screen, first tab:

Fig 1. A typical ELAG screen

ELAG screens can open as many times as necessary. In other words, you may view 3 different data sets in 3 copies of the same screen at the same time.

Screens have a master list. Master list columns (and combinations) sort ascending or descending. List columns can be changed on the fly at anytime (by ELAG staff). The buttons labelled A-G on the right change the column set for the particular data set being viewed, so that large data sets can be sub-grouped comfortably. Screens have an Export tool, with which to export master list data.Screens have fields, or child lists, or both, editable or read only depending on requirement, whose contents relate to the row highlighted in the master list. These can be arranged directly on the screen, or in tabs. Editing a row in the master will lock that row out to all other users while the change takes place. Buttons are either graphical checkboxes (two-state values with descriptive English for both cases), or momentary 'Action Buttons', meaning that by pressing the button a process - usually a business rule or special output - is triggered, and, optionally, logged.

Screens have selection criteria fields, which determine what data appears in the master list. Selection text boxes use standard asterisk wildcards, and will take any number of phrases up to 256-512 characters (depending on requirement). Phrases to be searched for are delimited by semicolons. Text fields can also implement 'fuzzy' searches - which will yield several parts of speech (phone: phoned,phoning).

Screens allow Font and Font Size selection. saved preferences available but not recommended except in mission-critical output pipelines (mass doc generation, mass shipping, billing etc.).

Note fields (unlimited text) can be freeform (any text can be edited with appropriate permission), audit-trailed (entering a note tags it with your name, time, and date, after which the note is no longer editable), or automated (user picks from a list of frequent phrases, thereby not needing to type and standardizing the sentence). See below.

Fig. 2 An Audit-trailed note tool

All lists have HTML Report Export Function - with layout preferences. Other formats in all lists:

Fig.3 The Export Tool

Reports can be custom-made but with user-defined, dynamic elements, including:

Database roles are simply a way for a database to group users. A user can have many roles (groups), and a role can be within another role. ELAG provides:

Database Role-based, row-level SQL Select security (you only see items you are allowed to).
Database Role-based, Business-Rule Execution-level security (you can only trigger processes you are allowed to)
Roles can be 3 deep (DB user inside a role in a role in a role) - more levels requires a simple modification

Executable-level security: by producing one client executable per role the application guarantees that only the person with that username and password on a specific machine has access (other PCs will not even have an icon for it).

For Internet deployment, Citrix (gotomypc.com) is the most secure distribution method available, since only a rastered, incremental bitmap appears outside the firewall.ODBC/JDBC data pipes stay within the company firewall. Web development IS available, of course.

Row-level, audited edit locking even within multiple instances of a screen in the same application.
Audits auto-save username update time and deleted time, time lock was acquired and released.
Optionally, audits can include the data itself - like a user-defined transaction log with associated GUI/Reporting/Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.

The first ELAG executable is distributed to all client workstations by an Installshield package. An email to employees distributes a link to the package. Included is a loader program which updates executables from a central machine as new versions become available. Subsequent executables just get delivered alone (under 1 MB, maximum 2) and handled by the same loader program. This is one of the features that make continuous rapid prototyping possible.

Over Citrix, the process is similar, but a link to the app must be added to the portal page (with citrix user security settings) .

Citrix Metaframe is the most secure, rapid way of deploying ELAG applications on the Internet. ELAG is not a Citrix reseller, but can set Citrix portals and servers up for ELAG system deployment.An HTML Client is available.

Other custom clients (PHP/ASP/.NET) for more traditional web pages can be developed on request .

ELAG can translate to the following with little change:

Spanish
French
German
Italian
Portuguese

Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish

Multiple currency management - transactions or receivables - available on request

Modules, depending on complexity of customization and size, can be delivered from 2 to 8 weeks from order approval.

ELAG has sets of programming and naming standards for Data Modelling and Procedure Writing. These are enforced by code generation tools, since they output repeated code, but mostly with sheer discipline, oversight and QC. The overriding concept, easily explained in plain English, is that all database tables, fields, view and procedure names are exceptionally long and descriptive, and are named after the very business concepts they model - so much so that if a button is labelled 'Confirm All Invoices Have Printed', chances are the database procedure it triggers is ConfirmAllInvoicesHavePrinted. As straightforward as this may sound, it is the exception, not the rule in the software business. The end result is that when client questions arise, ELAG's technical representative speaks the client's language by design, because the database he is looking at is self-documenting.