Don Laursen

Helpful Links

DonaldLaursen — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 15:31:00 GMT

I realize a number of you are very familiar with the Captaris Corporate site, and the services, and information provided there, however, I assume that some of you may not be familiar with some of the specific links that are related to the Developer Portal.

These links serve the three Captaris products, but have overlap around typical API work and integrations. Therefore the following are links to be aware of as you build your solution or need assistance:

Technical Support knowledgebase - This link is important in that it may not always be clear whether something is a product issue, or an API issue. Therefore, after searching the Developer Portal, you can broaden your search via the Technical Support Knowledgebase

Technical Training - This link is to register for scheduled Instructor Led classes and to access on-demand training for Captaris customers.

Captaris Partners - Use this link to access our vast library of on demand training and learning resources. (Requires a PartnerPath Login)

Product Updates - This link is important for our Developer Program Subscribers. We provide Developer Editions of our products, but we do not include the updates or patches. It is important that you check this link after installing, and activating your Captaris Product, to make sure you have the latest updates.

First Time Visitor? How to Register

DonaldLaursen — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 16:00:00 GMT

If you are new to the Captaris Developer Portal, or a Member from our former bulletin board, the steps to register are quick and easy.

The benefit of registering with the site means that you will have access to the forums, the blogs, and the ability to download from our general download section.

First, click on the Join link in the upper right-hand corner. This link will present a form where you will create an alias, create a password, and enter your user information. If you are also one of our Developer Program Subscribers, you can enter your Customer Support Contract Number in the field labeled, “Support Contract Number”. This will help facilitate setting the appropriate privileges on your account to access our Developer Kit download section. If you don't have a number you can ignore this field, or, if you haven't yet received it, you can ignore it and we will enter the information at a later time.

Once the form is complete you will need to accept the Terms and Conditions for the site and submit the request. If you do not have a Support Contract Number, your account will be activated within a few minutes. For those with a Support Contract Number, please allow 24 hours for your account to be validated and your account to be activated with the proper permissions.

How to Submit Questions?

DonaldLaursen — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 15:07:00 GMT

I have received a number of questions on this topic and thought it was time to go through the options available and the process. First, in order for this to make sense, and help folks find their place in the process, we need to first discuss the User Roles.

The Portal provides support in a "mixed" community, mixed in the sense that we have members with different levels of access based on their role. The roles are:

1.) Readers (Folks simply viewing the material, no site interaction, referred to as "guests")

2.) Registered Users (This refers to those of you that have created a User account and login to the site. Access to all areas with limited file down-load access)

3.) Developer Program Subscribers (This refers to those of you that have created a User account and also have a Developer Program Subscription (This refers to those of you who have purchased an annual subscription and have a current developer support contract number)

Now, how do we submit API questions to the site based on these roles?

Any Registered User or Developer Program Subscriber can submit a question to the Forum section of the site. The Forum section is a no-fee, peer-to-peer section where developers can post and answer questions on the site. This section does now include Captaris participation, but is provided on a time-permitting basis. The key point here is that there is no guarantee of a question getting answered, or answered within a defined time period.

Developer Program Subscribers (only) have two options, the forum, as an option for submitting questions, and the Developer program email alias. Items submitted to the email alias are added to the Captaris support tracking system, and will receive a incident number along with an escalation path that maps to the program SLA. For those questions that need to be answered in a specific time frame, the email alias is the only option for ensuring that the incident is tracked.

This option is only available to current subscription members, and the Captaris Team will answer these questions first, and then items in the forums second. This process also includes requests for "scheduled" phone support, which is another option for Program Subscribers.

If you are interested in the Captaris Developer Program, you can find the program details in the General download area. For pricing, contact Captaris Sales, or send an email to the site administrator.

Account Migration from Bulletin Board

DonaldLaursen — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:32:00 GMT

For members that had accounts on the former bulletin board, you will need to create a new account and alias. We elected not to migrate over the former accounts because they were created with your email. In general this is not a good practice. With your new account you will have the choice whether you display, or share your email address with other members. To modify your profile, click on your user name in the upper right hand corner once you have signed in to the system.

The process to create your account is quick; simply click on the Join link in the upper right hand corner. Fill out the form and read the Terms and Conditions and click the Create button in the bottom corner. Your account will be active.

If you are also a Developer Program Subscriber you can enter your contract support number in the registration form. This will set your access level in the File download section of the site. If you don't remember your number, or can't locate it, simply sends us an email and we'll work with you to update the system.

Tips and Tricks for a Better User Experience

DonaldLaursen — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 15:09:00 GMT

With the new site I wanted to take a moment and point out a couple of areas that will improve your user experience. First, make sure to click on your name after you have signed in, and fill out your profile. This will allow you to tailor how you appear, and how you exchange information with the site. We have a number of options provided in the profile area that you can personalize.

The other feature that I will recommend is the RSS feed option that you will find on most items in the site. If you have a favorite RSS reader you can subscribe to Forums, to Threads within a forum, to Files and other areas within the site that you wish to track. The new Outlook 2007 has this included in your Inbox view so you can automatically see when new items have been added or changes have been made. A number of the new browsers also have RSS support.

The other area is our Help link. You should be able to find answers to most of your questions. If you can't find something, please let me know and we will collect these and add them to the help file.

New Developer Portal Launch - A Retrospective

DonaldLaursen — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 16:08:00 GMT

It has been a long road to get to this point. As we launch the new site I thought it would be helpful for those members both old and new to do a bit of historical review.

For those members that started out on the RightFax bulletin board, now several years ago, first, I thank you. I am greatful to our community of Power Users, and all the support they have provided in the open section of the site all these years, both prior to its move from Tucson, and on the former site. We are exploring ways to express our thanks, so stay tuned, we know who you are.

For those folks that do recall the former site, our intent here is to return to that time, not in terms of the location or technology, but in terms of the spirit. The success of our products has clearly been in part to our community of developers. You have done amazing things. One of the things I believe we lost as we moved from the old site to the former bulletin board was the sense of community. The partitioning of the forums, the lack of a Captaris presence in the open forum section, detracted from that sense of developers helping developers.

So, we have listened, and, I believe, have defined the site in a way to facilitate communication at all levels. As you will see, the separation of forums based on whether you are a subscriber to the pay program or not has gone away. The site is open to everyone that has registered and the only difference in content between the "registered" user section and the "pay" section are in the downloads. We are now providing the Developer Kits via electronic download for those paying subscribers. The rest of the site will be the same for everyone.

We have also made no separation on the site between our end-users and our partners. This was something that we thought long and hard on and ultimately decided to open the site up to both. Our hope is that everyone is respectful of this relationship and we can continue this approach going forward.

With that I will move on to the next topic, and the exciting look forward.