Woke up this morning with thoughts of a virtual obstacle course going through my mind. I remember seeing a movie and the extras after the movie talked about how they put the digital characters through an obstacle course to test to see how well their modeling and simulations were doing (Pixar - Monsters Inc.). Once they could virtually run the whole obstacle course, without problem, they were able to go to the next step.

If we are building out the next level of adilas, code name fracture or adilas lite, I was thinking that we could come up with a good virtual obstacle course of sorts. I was thinking, simple database stuff, one-to-many relationships, users, permissions, roles, settings, validation (server-side and client side), add/edit options, getters, setters, reports, pagination, API sockets, coded using frameworks, etc. I know that sounds like a lot, but a mini version of the things that we do all the time.

This could include, form fields, toggle on/off switches, checkboxes, radio buttons, drop-downs, selectors or choosers, date picker, time fields, text fields, numeric fields, buttons, navigation, dynamic CSS (look and feel), mobile ready or mobile responsive designs, etc. Modals, dynamic help files, aliases, show/hide features, and the list keeps going.

This is just for fun but what about using customers and customer logs (simple CRM stuff - customer relationship management) for one of our virtual obstacle courses? Once again, just an idea. The features listed below are in no specific order. This is both funny and not so funny... We can already do all of this right now (using the current adilas ship A application). We want to rebuild this using our new ship B - fracture or adilas lite code and frameworks.

- Settings, navigation options, turn things on/off - do I want to use certain features or options
- Settings, what to call things (naming convention) - corp-wide settings or high level group settings
- Show/hide field level settings (toggle on/off, show/hide, aliases, rules, defaults, sort order, etc.) - data level settings
- Add/edit customer types - way of organizing and grouping customers
- Add/edit main customer functions and pages
- View single customer page (similar to the customer log page)
- Simple search, display, and drill-down into individual customer records
- Advanced search, pick and choose fields, filter, sort, export, and save reports
- Add/edit customer logs (notes and follow-ups per customer) - allow HTML - be able to sanitize as needed for display (say you had some bad or mal formatted HTML - still make it look good)
- Add/edit additional contacts
- Add/edit additional vehicle to customer assignments (currently being worked on for ship A)
- Aggregated data - log counts, contact counts, vehicle counts, total customer counts by type, individual customer info such as total invoices, quotes, elements of time, payments made, purchase history, items bought, etc.
- Full history of all actions - add, edit, modify, etc.
- Dynamic help files
- API sockets to do all of the functions listed above. Things like add/edit main, add/edit logs, add/edit additional contacts, add/edit additional vehicle assignments, view or get back data on all pieces (together and individually), search, show reports, even alter settings. The current API has a visual show and tell page, the real socket (live interface), and printable/searchable documentation.
- Rudimentary training per section - pages, sections, functionality
- Integrated unit testing
- Photo management
- Upload media/content (files)
- Gallery page - (images, scans, photos - up to 100 per customer with captions and show/hide settings)
- Remote login (ecommerce level) to allow a customer to login and update info, see histories invoice and quotes, be able to upload images from ecommerce, build your own statements, and view log notes out in ecommerce
- Quick search options
- Show log notes and follow-ups on a calendar type interface or view
- Search log notes
- Search additional contacts
- Flex grid tie-ins and limited flex grid tie-ins
- Customer flex attributes
- Doesn't have to be right now, but customer tie to invoices, quotes, and time (naturally).
- Barcode label options for simple customer information and customer id numbers
- Validation - server-side and client-side on all forms (add/edit forms and report filters). Base this off of a data dictionary type interface.
- Mobile ready and responsive web format and styling
- Customers can be tied to loyalty points, discounts, and gift cards
- Customer queues
- Email reports and special email options (custom email settings using corp email settings)
- More options on the customer homepage - tons of links and nav to other sections. Reports, management options, and core update and bulk tools.
- More options on the customer log page - including options for custom paperwork and numerous drill-downs to customer-specific searches and filtered reports.

Just being silly, but I'd like to record all of these pieces, in the old way and then compare them to what and how the new way works. Kinda a side by side view. Depending, it may end up being an old way, a semi-new way, and the actual new way. I'm not sure how fast we can jump from old to new. We may need an intermediate or middle ground step.