InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
| September 8, 1997 |
Web-Ready Forms
Products turn paper forms into intranet applications
By Alyson Behr
I looked at two recently released products that, when used in tandem, can create such applications-Caere Corp.'s Omniform Internet Publisher Versi
on 2.0 and WebBase Web Server with ExperForms by ExperTelligence. The InformationWeek Labs testbed for this review was a Micron Millenia MXE running Windows 95 with a P200 processor, and a Micron 17FGx color monitor.
Omniform Internet Publisher
Internet Publisher's manual includes four tutorials that walk you through loading and filling a form, editing and designing an existing form, designing your own form, and working with a database in Omniform. A Form Assistant wizard is also available to prompt you through six basic procedures.
There are three ways to load a form into Internet Publisher: with any TWAIN-compatible scanner; by fax machine and your PC's modem; or
by importing an image file. OmniForm recognizes PCX and TIFF image formats.
Toolbars that run across the top of the user interface in the Fill mode or vertically down in the Design mode contain Text/Font formatting, Field Creation and Drawing tools.
There are a number of features that make this product particularly useful. AutoCalculation recognizes typical field headers, creates formulas that apply, and drops the result in the appropriate field. The calculation builder lets you create your own formulas, much as you would in a spreadsheet
application.
A Scrapbook feature provides you with a place to store pre-built fields and images. The Scrapbook also helps maintain your corporate style and minimize construction time. Other must-have features for a business product are the Spelling Tool, and the Hidden and Password field options. The Validation option lets you designate fields that the viewer must complete without having to write your own CGI scripts in OFML. Validation is performed client-side
in an OFML form file while HTML forms are validated by the server.
OFML has many nice features, but it has its drawbacks. In order for users to see and use forms, they must download and install the Internet Publisher browser Filler plug-in. Additionally, year 2000 problems in its validation haven't been resolved-for example, forms using credit-card data rejected 21st-century expiration dates and defaulted to 1997.
OmniForm Internet Publisher is available on CD-ROM for Windows 95, or for NT 3.51 or 4.0. You need at least 11 Mbytes of free hard-disk space, 8 Mb
ytes of RAM for Win95, and 12 Mbytes for NT. You'll also need an SVGA or VGA monitor and a TWAIN-compliant scanner if you plan to scan paper forms.
Internet Publisher achieves database connectivity and collection through CGI scripts, Windows NT's Internet Information Server database connectivity features, InfoPoint's cgigen, or WebBase Web Server with ExperForms by ExperTelligence.
WebBase Web Server 4.1
Webber/Active is a project-based tag editor that lets you group a
ll files together in a project. E-Merge, another add-on, lets you send E-mail directly from a form. WebWizard is a collection of wizards that can save you time and show you around the server environment.
WebBase 4.1 supports a large number of ODBC-compliant databases, including Sybase, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access and Excel, FoxPro, Btreive, dbase III and IV, Paradox, and Oracle6 and 7. It also supports formatted text files.
When I attempted to find the ExperForms software and its operating reference in the installation kit, the User Guide provided with the software did not provide any direction. I was able to download a 43-page reference manual from the Web that took substantial time to print out. Although the manual claimed that ExperForms was user-friendly, it took quite a bit of trial and error to achieve a useful result. ExperForms is not simply point and click, as the manufacturer would have you believe.
I found the most efficient way to publish forms to a Web site was to create
and edit several forms at a time in Internet Publisher, then import the first form into ExperForms using a browser with the Internet Filler Plug-in enabled. I chose Netscape Navigator 3.0 for the task. ExperForms created a new Web site with the information I gave it initially. When I completed one form, I chose Restart and imported the next form, repeating the process until I finished.
It's fairly easy to customize the imported forms to fit your company's needs. One of the simplest ways is by re-specifying the Required and Optional default values that ExperForms must have to build your site.
WebBase needs a computer with a Pentium chip running Windows 95 or Windows NT 3.5 or higher. You'll need at least 16 Mbytes of RAM and a TCP/IP network connection and software, as well as an ODBC database and compatible drivers.
These products are not entry-level and take time to master. They do deliver a reasonably priced all-inclusive solution to organizations that need to make their forms available to cus
tomers and employees via a TCP/IP network connection and have the completed data in hand with a keystroke or two.
Alyson Behr is a freelance technology journalist. She can be reached at
alyson@behrcomm.com
.
|
inancial and insurance institutions are among the companies that rely on information they receive from completed forms to conduct commerce. For this type of business, a library of electronic forms available on a Web site or intranet can increase personnel productivity, lower telephone charges, and provide added convenience for customers. Products that take existing form libraries and convert them or that design Web-ready forms can substantially increase the Web site's value as a business tool-especially when coupled with database connectivity and design function.
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