08. Build 1.1.0 Q&A

BUILD 1.1.0

Build 1.1.0 will be released for testing later today. A notification will be sent out via TESTFLIGHT when the build is available for refresh. The system includes a new module for Q&A Reporting and some minor defect fixes.

Q&A Module

The new module keys off of a new plist file (making it 5 now) which has been added to the download routine (when not in demo) and also for the first time install (where the plists are copied from the bundle into the documents directory of the sandbox area).

Again - emphasis is on SIMPLICITY. Remember this is meant to be a tool for reporting on activity within the host VDR system. The baseline structure I've used for my Q&A data is as shown below...


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<array>
<dict>
<key>document</key>
<string>12.02 iVDR Enablement Pack for Life Sciences</string>
<key>question</key>
<string>In the appendix it includes a sample index. How common is it that clients adopt this structure and in doing so does this speed up the process of getting the project up and running?</string>
<key>answer</key>
<string>We believe that 90% of clients use our sample index. We have plans to expand these.</string>
<key>raisedByGroup</key>
<string>Antwerp</string>
<key>dateRaised</key>
<string>27/06/2012 13:00</string>
<key>raisedByPerson</key>
<string>alexander.crisse@itchypig.com</string>
<key>answered</key>
<string>Y</string>
<key>dateAnswered</key>
<string>27/06/2012 15:10</string>
<key>answeredByPerson</key>
<string>paul.lyrick@ItchyPig.com</string>
<key>published</key>
<string>Y</string>
<key>datePublished</key>
<string>27/06/2012 16:00</string>
<key>publishedByPerson</key>
<string>Admin@ItchyPig.com</string>
<key>publishedToAudience</key>
<string>Group</string>
</dict>

note I've used Document but this can be a folder or any other entity. A question can go against anything, it's up to the VDR to decide that.


1.1.0 DEFECT FIXES

1. Fixed userViewController class so that the search term was cleared when toggling list views (by group, status, role). The search term was showing from the previous search even though the view loading was the default full view.

2. Same viewController as above. Defaulted the search field to show upon initial list load to make consistent with other view controllers and make it more apparent for the user there is actually a dynamic search available.

3. On all list views I now deselect the row touched. It was previously left highlighted (blue) which is not consistent with what the user would want to see happen. This change was not applicable for the UsersLoginsViewController as touching a row on that list view invoked another screen anyway (the userRecordViewController). Likewise for the new Q&A module and its list views.

4. userViewController. Fixed defect whereby I noticed the right hand index (A..Z) would get lost (hidden) if you did a search on the A..Z list view and then switched views to a list which didn't have the index. Now returning to the A..Z view now correctly brings the right hand index back.

1.1.0 CHANGES

1. Q&A

- Home controller now downloads a 5th plist file when not in demo mode.
- Home controller also unbundles and copies a 5th plist file when run for the first time.
- Two new UIs added for Q&A - one for main reports, the other one is a simple flat scrollable one for viewing the Q&A detail that has been selected.

2. websiteViewController

I have added an activity indicator (standard one) for the product information link. This gives some indication to the user that something is happening. This is because the webpage (www.vdrwatch.com)  is loading asynchronously.

MORE ABOUT Q&A REPORTING

The Q&A facility is located in the more section. The first view is a breakdown of the total amount of Q&A. This tells me how many questions have been raised, how many have been answered and how many have been actually published. Additional metrics could easily be added here.

The first view is a summary of the total amount of Q&A activity. It may well be that the host VDR is not having it's Q&A function being used, or it maybe that that's Q&A is an essential part of the transaction. This view simply tells the user if its being used or not and possibly how far behind the sell side team is in terms of responding to questions.

Following on from this then a graph is calculated based on the number of questions submitted by group. This is a clear indication of interest by the groups.

This is a fully searchable view of Q&A arranged by group. Our familiar index is on the right hand side allowing a 'jump' to a particular group. I can search for anything here which will dynamically filter the view. This is demonstrated a little later on as you will see.

Selecting a Question will jump into another flat screen showing more details. The user can thumb up and thumb down as its a UIScroller control.

This view is a a selection of the all the completed Q&A. Completed means the question has been answered and the answer has been published. Again with our search bar we can easily perform a dynamic search across this data set making it a very powerful mobile tool.

This final view shows what is still outstanding. In other words, questions that have either not been answered OR have been answered but have not been published! Again the view is dynamically searchable.

SUMMARY

In summary, this took a round a week to do for me as I had other things going on. I learnt a lot from this though as I added a new data file to the system, spent far too long the other night on working out why my delegate method WebViewDidFinishLoad wasn't being called (basically it was it was just the breakpoint wasn't working properly) and wasted some time on an upgrade to xcode 4.5. Re this upgrade, very frustrating.... I had to upgrade to xcode 4.5 in order for me to connect an ios 6 device for provisioning. When I completed the upgrade my code would NOT link and then after changing some settings would NOT even compile. This led me on a merry dance around the internet for solutions. Seems like others had the same problems. I eventually got it working but did not appreciate the drama the upgrade caused me.

Aside from that... I am very pleased with adding a Q&A module to VDRWatch. If I was a busy sell side participant I would really want an app like VDRWatch thats for sure :-)

07. More

As the tabbarcontroller can only support a limited number of options, further functions are located in the "More..." Section.

This functionality comes out of the box with the iOS cocoa touch framework. View controllers are conveniently stacked up in this way in a more section. The app here provides some further functions as outlined below.

This login activity function allows the user to go back 12 months. The graph area is active unlike the rest which means it can be touched and scrolled in any direction. It will recognise multi touch gestures allowing for pinching to zoom in and stretching to zoom out.

Although the app is very straightforward to use there is a brief help section. This really just describes the main parts of the system. It has been included for expansion or completeness rather than as a requirement as the app is so intuitive in its basic form it does not really it to be brutally honest.

For Build 1.0.4. I changed the Product Information link to point to the blog itself. Previously this was a ppt on my public dropbox area. This makes more sense as I will use the blog more going forward.

06. Documents

The third area of the application shows activity based around documents for each group. 

Look familiar? This is the chart displayed on the home page after the user logs-in to the application.

This expands on the information at the totals level and drills down into the groups.

This is a useful view as it will let me search for a document in the virtual data room and then tell me which group has read this. This could be expanded with deeper metrics of course (e.g. how many times, how long read, printed etc)

05. Groups - Activity

The second area of the application shows activity based around "user-groups". Within a typical Virtual Data Room, users are bundled together into Groups. People who administer a data room are known usually as the 'seller' or 'sell-side'. They like to get activity information at the group level as invariably these groups are working as a team in potentially buying the asset being sold. The different teams working in possibly purchasing the asset are collectively known as the 'buy-side'. This 'buy-side' activity information tells the 'sell-side' who are the credible buyers doing the due-diligence.

This first area is pretty self explanatory and is one of the main things the sell-side want to know. How many documents certain groups have read is a good indication of their level of their interest. If you have worked in the industry you will know that people play games and this type of activity can be doctored by trawling through a room and opening and closing all documents. It happens. Therefore a blended approach is taken. There is nothing set in stone.

most Virtual Data Rooms are 'locked down' in the sense that documents cannot be printed. However it is not unusual for this to change in the latter stages of the transaction. This is because the sell-side can decide to whittle-down (do people still say that these days - I don't know) the bidders (the teams of buyers) down to 1 or 2. In this case a greater degree of trust usually exists and they can then decide to open up more documents for access and also reduce some of the protective measures around them. In this case letting people print them.

A metric that pops from time to time with the VDR providers is knowing how long people have been reading documents within the data room. Of course I know and you know this is somewhat flawed however its accepted in the industry as being reasonably credible so therefore one would expect to see reports for it. This is just an example of that. If the data can come out of the VDR report engine then it can be easily rendered.

Again - pretty straightforward really. This shows all time logins by group. This is quite useful at the beginning of a transaction (the first day or two) as it shows people have received their invites and managed to log-on successfully. These first few days can be quite frenetic and therefore getting people on the system is key. There are reasons why this can go wrong for groups but that is beyond the scope of this post, and this blog come to that.

This is a useful view as its essentially giving a favourites list of each group. The view is searchable which works in a filter sense. In other words if I search for a keyword unique to a document title, then I will have a list of that document as its been read by each group. I can easily compare each groups level of interest with that document.

This is a dashboard type of view giving a textural list of the previous charts. In other words, the numbers in here are the same as the numbers used in the previous graphs. The difference here is that everything is listed in the same screen.

04. VDRWatch - The User Profile & Individual Activity

Once selected the user profile screen is shown. From here we can see some basic profile information plus also email/call the user, see their address on google maps etc. We can also look at the users logging-in activity (graphically or in list format).

This is a simple profile screen for the user (top half anyway). It is easy enough to put some links in here which "do something". For example clicking on the envelope can prompt the user if they want to email this person (their username is an email address). Alternatively touching the phone icon could prompt the user to call that number.

Bottom half of the profile screen. Here similar to above an active hotspot (pin) invokes google earth and shows the location of the users address.

Clicking the login history can show a graphical representation of that users recent activity.

Selecting the index card segmented control can show a list view of this loging-in activity.

03. VDRWatch - The User list

The first tab in the application view is dedicated to showing the users who have access to the Virtual Data Room. The buttons at the very bottom of the display are in this way a common navigation method in iPhone applications and are mounted on whats called a TABBARCONTROLLER. It's a very powerful tool within the development environment. Just above this is a SEGMENTEDCONTROL with 5 buttons, each of these are responsible for their own further option.

The first area by default is the Users area. It is broken into 5 views as such. The first one is a simple overview of recent logging-in activity. This gives a quick view on activity. 

This second area here is a directory of all users listed alphabetically. There is a index structure down the right hand side (a..z) and a search facility at the top of this (the magnifying glass). The user can scroll up and scroll down easily to locate the user they want to look at. Touching on the persons username then goes to the users profile screen. 

This is the view of the directory by group.

This view is of the directory but grouped by status.

And this view is of the directory but grouped into roles.

02. VDRWatch Overview - The Home Page

At the time of writing this post relates to v1.0.3.

Switching off Demo mode and then selecting the option to login will result in the application pulling down the plist files (plist files contain the raw data we need). These are pulled down to the documents directory for the application. If a complete set of data files is downloaded and everything is fine, the user is taken into the application itself, arriving at the home page.

On the home page we are greeted by two simple summary charts. This can be changed to pull in random charts to make the home page more appealing. i.e. the user gets a different view each time they log in. Here we show on the left the total documents as a percentage that have been viewed (opened or printed) and a snapshot of the recent logins to the data room. Both give the user some initial feedback as to the activity occurring for their data room.

 Paul Lyrick 

+44 7969 376 081

PaulLyrick@yahoo.co.uk

01. Welcome to VDRWatch

Welcome to the VDRWatch blog, a  place where I can communicate things about my iOS app development project ... VDRWatch.

VDRWatch is a simple mobile surveillance app for Virtual Data Rooms.

At the time of writing this is just a hobby of mine, borne out of interest in iOS development. It really is just something to develop in my spare time.

If you want to be part of a virtual working group that develops something like this, or contributes ideas what it should cover then please drop me a line and maybe we can collaborate together. If you join  the community here (followers) then you will be regularly kept up to date. 

No drama.

 Paul Lyrick 

+44 7969 376 081

PaulLyrick@yahoo.co.uk