Blogs, How-to, New features
Combine the strength of Boltrics’ new web portal with the App Platform
Date
12 January, 2023
Reading time
4min. reading time
In an earlier blog, we wrote about how you can display data quicker, safer, and more appealing to your customers with Boltrics’ new web portal. Ensuring you and your customers higher performance, more insights, and next-level security. However, up until now, you could only use the new portal to display data. Read-only. Now, the possibility is added to integrate the web portal with the App Platform. In other words, use the input of your customers in your workflows. As a result, the new web portal now has all the functionalities you were used to in the former version and you need to support your logistic processes. Only better! No surprise the new web portal is the new standard for the Boltrics peloton.
Access the App Platform via the web portal
The web portal is a powerful tool to share data and insights with your customers. Think for example of the current inventory or the status of orders. But the web portal itself does not have the ability to interact with this data. Therefore, your customers would not be able to enter an order themselves. This is where the App Platform comes in. Via the web portal, you can directly make a screen available in the App Platform. On that screen, your customer can interact with its data.
Flexible and freely configurable
The biggest advantage of redirecting to the App Platform is that all functionalities of the App Platform are directly available. And you are not limited by developments that must first be done in the web portal. The screens are fully configurable and there are already many functions available in the library to interact in any way with the input of your customer.
Directly link to the App Platform
There are two ways in which you can link to the App Platform: directly from the menu or from a specific record. The second method is used to work on a specific record in the App Platform that is visible in the web portal. For example to do a time slot booking on the shown receipt.
In the image above, you see an example of the second method. The highlighted pictograms show for what records a link to the App Platform is available. By clicking on these pictograms, the App Platform opens directly.
Configure actions on the web portal yourself
The link to the App Platform is configured as so-called action. On an action, you can configure what pictogram must be used (1), you enter a category code when the action must be shown on the menu directly (2), and you determine a source table when the actions must be shown on a list (3). The given display name is used as the tooltip of the action. Furthermore, you can decide what screens must be opened on the App Platform (4) and what session variables must be initialized (5).
Add actions to list views
A defined action can be added to list views. Furthermore, a condition can be added regarding the availability of the action. In this example, the action is only available when the status of the record is ’35-PROCESS’. That means your customer can only click on this action when the specific record is in this specific status.
Ready for the future
Technological developments never stand still. Therefore, the web portal is never finished. As Boltrics, we want to keep innovating our products. That is why, with every new functionality, we ask ourselves the question: how does this fit future customer demands? And that is why the technological basis of the web portal is not limited to the integration with the App Platform alone.
Unlimited possibilities
The functionalities of the new web portal are developed with the idea of executing actions in Business Central. The action can have a result, and that result should be returned to the web portal. In this blog, the action is initiating a session in the App Platform by clicking on a link in the web portal.
However, via the same principle, it is also possible to define a redirect to a track & trace page and link from the web portal. Or to other websites. But also other links could be added in the future. For example, generating a report and returning the download to the user.
If any of these possibilities bring ideas for solutions to a concrete problem? Let us know! We gladly help you out!