Ghant for .NET 3.0 Includes Scheduling Engine for Custom Application
Development
ILOG®, a leading provider of enterprise-class application components and
services, has announced ILOG Ghant for .NETT 3.0, the industry's first
Ghant chart graphics tool for the .NET environment with a customizable
pre-built project management capability. The latest addition to its
award-winning visualization suite, Ghant for .NET 3.0 will increase flexibility
in the creation of custom, feature-rich project timeline management
applications that meet the budget and business requirements.
Today, thousands of companies rely on project administration software
applications for project management, allocation of resources, and reporting of
information. To deliver these software, software solution authors have been
relying on pre-built, off-the-shelf programs that may not adapt to their unique
organizational needs or budgets; or have been forced to build home-grown
programs that can be costly and time-consuming. ILOG Ghant for .NET was devised
to help accommodate this important need.
Custom Project Management
The new "project management Option" in Ghant for .NET provides a comprehensive
tool set for designing a visually-rich user interface and a scheduling engine
that adds project scheduling capabilities to a Ghant chart. This functionality
provides the foundation for a pre-built project planning and scheduling
software application that can be deployed across the entire enterprise "as-is"
or customized to the organization's own specifications in Visual Basic or C#.
It also allows application engineers to expeditiously create and deploy custom
project softwarein a more cost-effective and time-efficient manner. For
example, a programmer can easily implement a new way of managing custom
calendars for special working hours and days (i.e. vacations, holidays), so
that tasks are automatically adjusted and assigned to available people.
Through seamless integration with Visual Studio .NET, application developers can
now modify the data connection, scheduling algorithms, user interface and
interaction and rapidly configure and deploy the appropriate project management
solution. The "Project Management Option" in ILOG Ghant for .NET 3.0 also
includes server-side and client-side support allowing deployment to the Web or
the desktop, so the software can be shared with customers, partners, or
suppliers -- a feature not available in the off-the-shelf automated solutions.
More Intuitive and More Interactive Ghant Charts
In addition to the custom "project management Option", other key new features in
ILOG Gantt for .NET 3.0 include flexible "TreeTables" -- a new interface option
which makes the grouping of tasks easier because users can group rows according
to user preferences. In addition, new workforce scheduling and reservation
controls allow resources to be aligned with available working hours and project
time. The new version also includes more expressive styles, for example when
the project reservation unit takes less than 100% of the assigned resource the
activity bar can become semi- transparent, making it clearer for the end-user.
More Services with Less Code
Interactions in the Ghant chart are now based on the style definition enabling
easier editing of data with less code. For example, when a style defines a bar
for displaying the "PercentComplete" property, no code is required to edit this
property, the interaction is set automatically. In addition, ILOG Ghant for
.NET 3.0 now enables user-defined properties to be added to the model so that
it is automatically supported by the SDXL format. This facilitates easier
localization of the final application so when it is deployed to different
countries, the provided resource files can be translated with a tool that
automatically creates the satellite assemblies for that location.
W2G, a leading provider of building design software, developed a new
construction management software application, Integra(TM), using ILOG Ghant for
.NET to chart and schedule every aspect of the complex building process.
"ILOG's Ghant for .NET drastically reduced the time and cost required to build
the Integra software application," said W2G Development Manager, Paul Usher.
"In addition to the product's rich functionality, ease of use, real-time
charting capabilities and overall quality, we've been able to save at least six
months' development time just in not having to worry about doing feature
control. It's an absolutely awesome product!"
ILOG has invested more than a decade creating sophisticated graphics tools and
engines that enhance decision making speed and ability by making vast
quantities of complex data more comprehensible and manageable for users.
Through its Java, .NET and C++ graphics libraries and components, ILOG provides
the industry's most comprehensive set of graphics tools that support everything
from air traffic control and homeland security, to ensuring the reliability of
the most demanding telecommunications networks. With each of ILOG's
visualization products, application engineers can save 50 to 80 percent of
development time in creating user displays.
Launched in January 2004, ILOG Ghant for .NET was the first Ghant chart
available for the C# programming language. ILOG Ghant for .NET 3.0 is available
immediately.
