GroupWise: Enabling Checkboxes in WebAccess!

We want to make GroupWise WebAccess as easy to use and as productive as the GroupWise Windows Client. It is to this end that we began with GroupWise 8 our transition to Web 2.0 technologies and interactions.

 

Web 2.0 technologies today allow the end user to do things in a browser that before were not available. Simple interactions like drag and drop items from one list to another. Ability to scroll infinitely with long lists...mailboxes and contact lists with lots of items no longer need to be navigated 20-50 items at a time. The ability to multi-select using familiar keystrokes like 'Shift-click' and 'Ctrl-click'. All of this functionality was introduced in GroupWise 8!

For some set of our users, these changes were more difficult to adjust to than we expected. There were some performance issues related to these changes - particularly with low-bandwidth connections. Some users simply 'liked' having the ability to see/check boxes next to each mail item in order to perform some action.

So - when we released GroupWise 8.0.2 - back in July 2010 - we re-enabled the ability to have 'checkboxes' in the WebAccess Client. This change really brings the best of both worlds to our user base. All users will still be able to take advantage of 'ALL' of the Web 2.0 technologies. We have not disabled any of them. However, we have provided a configuration option for the Administrator to optionally re-enable checkboxes along side these Web 2.0 interations.

This change will allow you to have a virtual list style interaction - still no 'Next 20' feature - but allow you to check the boxes next to items in that list and perform actions on the checked item - just like before, but better. The check boxes act across the entire virtual list, not just on the items that are currently displayed.

Check boxes are available in the message list and in the contact list controls.

Instructions

To enable this option, please follow the steps listed below:

1. Open webacc.cfg in edit mode
2. Add the property that has been highlighted in the image to this configuration file (if it does not exist already). This change will be automatically loaded after the specified number of minutes (the value set to Config.Update.check in this very same file)
3. To activate this setting instantaneously, Tomcat must be restarted.
4. Once the setting is active, the users logging into WebAccess will see the checkboxes in the message list and the contact list.
5. Once the changes shown above are made, a user will be able to interact with the list using these checkboxes or using the richer keyboard option for a more desktop look and feel.

Note: We have found a small bug, since releasing 8.0.2, that will sometimes select the last item in the list when selecting the first item. This only affects certain versions of IE and will be resolved in the first Hot Patch release of GroupWise 8.0.2. The Hot Patch will be available in the next 4-6 weeks.

That's it! Let us know if this is something you enable.

Dean