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ACT! Technology Corner
Enhancements to the ACT! by Sage 2009 (11.0) Software Development Kit (SDK)

ACT! by Sage users have enjoyed the ability to customize ACT! for years. From custom controls, to plug-ins, to additional fields, ACT! allows for several different levels of customization with varying technical requirements for each kind of customization needed.

For ACT! 2009 we raise the bar once again and allow the development of a custom control which can be deployed for both the ACT! by Sage Premium and ACT! by Sage Premium for Web products, simultaneously. Add-on developers can now deliver products that support both products with the same features & functionality with no additional development overhead.

Custom controls are supported for both our Contact and Company Layout editors, as well as for Dashboard components. If you have users who use both ACT! Premium and ACT! Premium for Web or want to migrate users to ACT! Premium for Web you will be able to create the same great customized user experience in ACT! Premium Web as you have in the ACT! Premium.

Those customers with existing custom controls for ACT! Premium may need to modify them in order for the controls to be available for ACT! Premium for Web users. Check out the ACT! Developer Network site for information on modifying existing custom controls to make them available for ACT! Premium for Web 2009.

Custom controls are a fantastic tool for businesses to tailor ACT! to their specific needs as these controls leverage the easy layout editors (often just a drag and drop effort by a user) and can provide data from both within ACT! or from external sources. Common uses of custom controls include:

Providing access to intranet portals
Bringing data from back office systems
Combining ACT! data with external data to produce a key performance indicator (KPI)

Custom controls allow users to determine placement for best usability within ACT!.

Now these controls are available for use in ACT! Premium for Web without the need to develop multiple controls or manage different layouts. This flexibility allows customers to tailor ACT! for their business, regardless of their deployment method.

To see a list of currently available add-on products, please visit http://www.act.com/products/solutions/. Bookmark this site and check back often!

For information on becoming an ACT! Development partner, visit http://www.act.com/partners/addonpartners/index.cfm.

Xavier Musy
Architecture
Sage Software

2. In ACT! Premium for Web, customizations must be performed on the ACT! Premium for Web server."

Did you find this article useful? Let us know: angie.stuart@sage.com

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