Real-time Alerting with Chrome Extension for OpenAir

It’s a fairly well-known fact that, while you can do a lot with scripting in OpenAir, you can’t change the interface. Certainly, you can add fields, change labels, and so on. But truly altering the interface is beyond the scope of what NetSuite’s Professional Services Automation (PSA) will allow.

For the most part, that isn’t necessary. As we continually tout, OpenAir is full-featured, and the customization you can do is incredibly powerful and flexible. Occasionally, there is a need or desire for functionality in OpenAir that does require the ability to manipulate the interface. When a need for real-time alerting within the platform surfaced for one of our clients, we were able to answer that need with a Chrome Extension – functionality that we can also offer and customize for other clients, too. While it’s not a script, per se, the Real-Time Alert & UI Chrome Extension is worth knowing about, and it’s our featured Script of the Month.

The need for and challenges of custom, real-time alerts in OpenAir

The use case seemed straightforward – our client knew that their teams weren’t reviewing the information on the OpenAir Message Board as often as needed and, as a result, were missing timely and relevant information. This information included things like rejected timesheets, which became a growing problem during billing.

They needed to be able to show information to their team within the flow of work. Their desired solution was to display an alert, but OpenAir doesn’t allow you to manipulate the User Interface (UI). They contacted Top Step to see if we had ideas for a solution. Thus the concept of the Real-Time Alert & UI Chrome Extension was born.

What the real-time alert & UI Chrome extension can be used for

This OpenAir Chrome Extension allows you to show alerts within the browser based on activities and information that occurs within your Open Air system. It does more than that, though. Because it’s a browser extension, it isn’t manipulating OpenAir’s UI, but instead is using the browser’s functionality triggered by OpenAir’s data. The extension is not an OpenAir script, but there is a script that works with OpenAir behind the scenes.

This allows the extension to provide control over the OpenAir interface beyond alerts. This can include things like changing the color of the interface, even conditionally.

There are countless ways the extension can be used – a few examples include:

• Alert team members of rejected timesheets
• Notify project managers when projects are reaching their budgeted hours
• Display different colored alerts depending on the severity of the message
• Change the color of the UI to indicate if a user is in the production instance or sandbox
• Alert users to upcoming maintenance
• And much, much more.

What to be aware of with the Top Step OpenAir Chrome extension

Because this solution is separate from your OpenAir instance, it comes with some special considerations outside of the typical OpenAir script for the platform. For example, as a Chrome extension, the solution requires the use of the Chrome browser. Team members using Microsoft Edge Mac’s Safari browser won’t have the benefit of the alerts.

There are other considerations, as well:

• Users must install the extension on their browser: Many people are already familiar with browser extension installation, but this can cause an issue for some. Top Step provides an installation guide to help with this.
• IT team concerns: Some IT teams may express concerns about the stability or security of a third-party browser extension. However, the extension has been fully vetted by Google and is available as a private link through the Google Chrome Extension store – thus meeting their stringent requirements.

There may also be some concerns over usage compliance. This concern is alleviated with the extension’s ability to track usage. You’ll be able to know who has downloaded and installed the Top Step Real-Time Alert & UI Chrome Extension and who has not.

Conclusion

While not technically an OpenAir script, the Real-time Alert & UI Chrome Extension earns a place as our Script of the Month thanks to its flexibility, usefulness, and its ability to do something other OpenAir scripts cannot – manipulate the platform’s UI.

We’ve just begun to scratch the surface of what this OpenAir Chrome Extension can do, and we’d love to discuss your use case to see if it’s a good fit. Just reach out to us and we’ll set up a time to talk about the extension or any other OpenAir scripts that will help you customize your solution and make it more efficient for you and your team.