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Larry Ellison's NetSuite Goes Full AJAX with Its Version 11

NetSuite unveiled, what the company calls 'a stunning new user interface' based on AJAX technology

Larry Ellison's NetSuite, Inc. unveiled, what the company calls "a stunning new user interface" as part of its NetSuite Version 11.0 release. "NetSuite's AJAX user interface moves the technology beyond personal productivity and into functional product areas such as reporting, graphing, scheduling, Excel-like editing and document management."

In 2002, NetSuite pioneered the use of AJAX in on-demand business applications, adding Windows-like navigation in NetSuite Version 8.0. Version 9.0 and 10.0 continued to build on this foundation with real-time Dashboards featuring drag-and-drop personalization. Today, NetSuite furthers its leadership by leveraging AJAX on every application page, delivering the most usable business application on the market.

NetSuite Version 11.0 now takes AJAX beyond navigation and the Dashboard, and into core functional product areas, dramatically improving ease-of-use and productivity. These important functional areas include:

  • AJAX-Powered Reporting: Major changes to reporting include a new dynamic, graphical interface, enabling users to preview the report exactly as it will appear when run, as they build it—what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG). This powerful new report builder allows users to easily manipulate data columns, grouping levels and formulas within reports. The new AJAX-powered reporting capabilities also help run businesses more effectively with the ability to search within report results, drag-and-drop adjustable column widths, mouse-over "jump to" links for quick report navigation, expand/collapse all hierarchical levels, expand/collapse to a specified hierarchical level, and pagination-free scrolling through results.

  • AJAX-Powered Schedule Management: An all new group scheduler facilitates easy scheduling of service calls or group events with instantaneous, graphical availability feedback, drag-and-drop slider bars for selection of time slots and the ability to add event invitees on-the-fly.

  • AJAX-Powered Document Management: File storage and organization is now as easy online as on the Desktop with a new easy-to-use hierarchical tree navigation and expand/collapse capabilities at any level of the File Cabinet folder organization. Just as in reporting, search results for files are displayed inline, allowing for quick follow-up access.

  • AJAX-Powered Excel-like List Editing: Historically in Web applications, users are forced to drill into records to view them and toggle between that view mode and a separate edit mode. AJAX-powered list editing blows away that limitation and allows data to be edited directly from the list, just like an Excel spreadsheet. No drill-through is required and productivity is greatly increased.

  • AJAX-Powered "Above the Fold" User Interface: A common complaint among users of traditional Web applications is that the need for complete information forces them to scroll endlessly on a page. The Version 11.0 AJAX-powered user interface has been optimized to eliminate this need for scrolling with Dashboard portlets that can be expanded or collapsed individually, re-designed data forms that intelligently group related information in tabs, and the strategic use of hierarchical trees to navigate into detailed levels of information.

    In addition, graphical report snapshots and trend graphs have been enhanced to make Dashboards extremely easy to read. Bar graphs include data on each bar on mouse-over while allowing for drill down to a specific bar for more details, or the complete summary report for more data. Every Dashboard now also has a "Create New" bar that links directly to the most popular tasks, and is fully customizable so common workflows are accessed with one click.

More Stories By RIA News Desk

Ever since Google popularized a smarter, more responsive and interactive Web experience by using AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript + XML) for its Google Maps & Gmail applications, SYS-CON's RIA News Desk has been covering every aspect of Rich Internet Applications and those creating and deploying them. If you have breaking RIA news, please send it to RIA@sys-con.com to share your product and company news coverage with AJAXWorld readers.

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SYS-CON Belgium News Desk 04/06/06 09:55:57 AM EDT

NetSuite unveiled, what the company calls 'a stunning new user interface' as part of its NetSuite Version 11.0 release. 'NetSuite's AJAX user interface moves the technology beyond personal productivity and into functional product areas such as reporting, graphing, scheduling, Excel-like editing and document management.'