Dovetail Agent is extremely customizable. All of the forms are basic HTML, with ASP code added. The HTML code can be edited directly in an ASCII editor or with a web page design tool. Most customers modify a few small look/feel items in Dovetail Agent, if nothing else. These items include colors, headers, logos, etc.
The following are common customizations:
Move/resize controls on forms. This can be accomplished in the HTML code without much trouble. Again, you can use an automated tool to help with this task.
Remove data fields from forms. This is easy to do, and, in general, will not cause problems. Make sure, however, that no code directly uses the field you have removed.
Add new data fields to forms. Existing controls can be copied/pasted, and then modified to meet your needs. As with the previous step, you will have to make sure to modify any code that may reference the new control.
Add new forms/functionality to the base system. This can be a bit trickier, depending on where/when the new forms will post. However, using existing forms as a template will greatly reduce the complexity of this task.
Modify fonts and colors. This can be accomplished by modifying the webagent.css stylesheet.
Add tabs to forms. Many customers choose to add tabs to existing forms. The tab_builder.js script is generalized so that this is not difficult to do.
Contact us if you have any questions about customizing Dovetail Agent or about adding functionality to the application.
Internet Explorer Compatibility Considerations
The 4.6 release of Dovetail Agent is compatible with Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 8, 9, 10, and 11.
If your instance of Dovetail Agent already has been customized or is to be customized in the future, the following rules must be followed for all custom code, if it is to be used with Internet Explorer version higher than 8:
Remove DOCTYPE statements and certain meta tags. All DOCTYPE statements must be removed, except those in any plug-in code, like jQuery or spellcheck. Also, all meta tags with http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" property set to enforce certain compatibility level must be removed.
Change the handling of 'required' property Dovetail Agent uses the 'required' property on HTML elements for highlighting and enforcing of values for data fields that must have some value before being saved. Before HTML 5, the 'required' property was a custom one, but now it's part of HTML specification. Unfortunately, IE 10 has a bug and ignores this property, rendering it useless. This impacts the detection method and forces the following coding rules:
use only 'required=true' in HTML code, don't use 'required=false'
don't use just 'required' without '=true' in HTML code
if this property must change dynamically, it can be set by use of .setAttribute("required","true") or jQuery equivalent. Just remember to never set it to "false", should you need to do it – remove the attribute instead.
Discontinue the use of 'required' and 'errShow' properties within styles. Because of the abovementioned problem with 'required' property in IE10 we are also removing the ability to specify both 'required' and 'errShow' properties within style definition for an HTML element. They may be left there if present but they will no longer have any effect. To make them work, move them from the inside of the style string to the outside, so they are at the same level as the style property itself.
Remove '<!–[if IE ...]>' This conditional statement is no longer supported. Redesign all code dependent on it.
Remove empty href values for all HTML anchor (link) elements. Properties like href="" or href="#" unnecessarily trigger beforeunload event, which interferes with other functionality. Delete these properties from the code.
Modify the way how code is executed when a link is clicked.
This allows for proper triggering of the expected events.
Set sdc_flag to 1 manually when submitting a form on a page different then the current one. New variable sdc_flag is used to properly interpret user's intentions for 'dirty' pages, and invoke the Save/Discard/Cancel dialog when necessary.
When you need to do something like this: $("#frmRefresh",window.opener.document).submit();
set the flag first. The new code would look like this: $("#sdc_flag",window.opener.document).val('1'); $("#frmRefresh",window.opener.document).submit();
Important Notes:
Dovetail Agent ships with several third-party plug-ins and utilities. Avoid upgrading these libraries to any higher level. Should this be necessary for some reason, an extensive testing of the application is required to verify IE version compatibility.
The 4.6 release of Dovetail Agent contains code to verify IE compatibility mode on every page. Please instruct the users to refrain from manipulating IE compatibility mode manually. Should this happen (e.g. via F12 Tools), a message will be presented to the user to revert the settings to the proper level, which is:
Browser Mode must be set to the highest value available.
Document Mode must be set to the value marked as (Page Default).
Running Dovetail Agent in a mode different than the above may result in incorrect rendering of pages and code malfunction.
