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Appendix B. Customizing BillMax
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Appendix B. Customizing BillMax

Table of Contents

Customizing the Staff Interface
Modifying the Look/Interaction of the Staff Interface
Adding New Functionality to the Staff Interface
Customizing the Customer Interface

Although the developers of BillMax endeavor to provide a complete solution, there may be times when:

This section is a brief discussion on how to accomplish these tasks.

Customizing the Staff Interface

Modifying the Look/Interaction of the Staff Interface

The Staff Interface is mostly composed of templates - files that are processed by ua.cgi before presentation to the web browser. These templates are described in CGI Action Files. The templates may be found in /usr/local/billmax/uatemplates.

By editing a template, one may:

  • Reorganize a web page.

  • Hide, but not delete, form elements of a web page.

  • Modify the interaction of the web page by adding JavaScript.

  • Modify the look of most web pages simply by editing the stylesheet /usr/local/billmax/uatemplates/styles.htm.

    [Note] Note

    This is not effective for all web pages. Some stylesheet information is contained in BillMax executables and therefore is not easily changed. In addition, the look of the web page displaying error messages may not be changed.

Before editing a template, it is recommended that a backup of the template be made.

Adding New Functionality to the Staff Interface

Adding new functionality to the Staff Interface consists of several steps. These are:

  • Deciding if the the new functionality may be accomplished through creating or modifying a CGI Action Files without coding a new executable. If a new executable is needed and the BillMax library routines will be used, make sure that /usr/local/billmax/bin is in the PATH of the developer so that compilation will succeed.

  • Modifying or creating a CGI Action Files to implement the new functionality.

  • If necessary, modifying /usr/local/billmax/cfg/dbschema to add a table to the BillMax database - see /usr/local/billmax/cfg/dbschema.

    [Warning] Warning

    Do not modify BillMax defined tables. Doing so may cause unexpected results including the failure of BillMax processing or generating incorrect results. Although it is possible to add fields to BillMax defined tables, this practice is discouraged. A better solution is to create a table with the additional fields with a one-to-one mapping with the BillMax table.

  • Modifying or creating a template that will give access to the new functionality - see CGI Action Files.

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Document Revision A for BillMax 2.2.0   -   Copyright © 1997-2006 The iSpark Group, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this documentation may be reproduced or transmitted in any fashion without written permission by The iSpark Group, Inc. This documentation is for the sole use of licensees of the BillMax billing software created by The iSpark Group, Inc. Making the documentation available to a non-licensee of BillMax without written permission of The iSpark Group, Inc. is a violation of the use of this documentation.

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