PROJECT: Plant Hire Management System

Full management system to manage the hire of plant for a renowned Plant Hire Company in Western Australia.

This project covered the entire life cycle of a project, from initial client consultation, business and requirements analysis, Database Design, Application Design, Implementations and testing, training and support.

The client was using a product that was not fitting their needs for flexibility in pricing and invoicing terms, there were a number of other issues that the application failed to meet the clients needs including integration of the accounting system.

Functionality is still being developed and the main features are:

JOB MANAGEMENT
Follows and manages the management of projects from initial quotation and estimation, plant and labour resource management and allocation. Recording dockets with time and plant usage including sundry items such as fuel and tip fees, and management of Quarry stock piles. Customer management also included in this module.

PROCUREMENT
Managing Purchase orders from request through to supplier payment via integration with the external accounting system. This module assists in recording costs against plant and job as well as including the inventory orders.

INVENTORY
This module manages the inventory items from delivery through to usage, including stock takes, and adjustments, And updating cost pricing from purchase history. 

MAINTENANCE
This module records maintenance and time spent on maintenance of the plant items, this module assists in recording costs against plant and jobs.

INVOICING
Combining all the information from Job Management, On charged purchase orders and inventory, and maintenance costs to charge to the client via flexible rates to job level, and ensuring all information is presented for invoicing.

REPORTING
Using Crystal reports this module allows for custom reports to be developed outside the system if required, and then integrated to allow inclusion within the application.

This product is commercially available.  Details can be found here:  http://www.phoenixsoftware.com.au/

Create a Hierarchical DataGrid in WPF (MVVM Capable)

There are Many Occasions when I wanted to have the ability to have a hierarchical DataGrid for simple recursive tables.

Tree Views did not come up to scratch because they are not easy to two way bind to data and fail on being able to send notifications of changes.

With a lot of gritting teeth I managed to do it in XAML Alone (YAY).

I achieved this by creating an HierarchicalDataTemplate  which refers to itself via DynamicResource.   the IDE does give me a warning that a loop is detected but, other than that it works fine.

So what does it look Like?

With time it will be prettied up :-).

<UserControl.Resources>

 <ResourceDictionary>
   <HierarchicalDataTemplate  x:Key="HeiachyTemplate"  
                                       DataType="{x:Type data:InventoryItemGroup}"
                                       ItemsSource="{Binding InventoryItemGroups}" >
    <DataGrid     

ItemsSource="{Binding InventoryItemGroups,Mode=TwoWay,NotifyOnSourceUpdated=True,NotifyOnTargetUpdated=True,NotifyOnValidationError=True,UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}"   
bhv:DataGridEndEditCommandBehaviour.Command="{Binding ElementName=EditInventoryItemGroupUserControl,Path=DataContext.DataGridEndEditCommand}"
CanUserAddRows="True" AutoGenerateColumns="False" AreRowDetailsFrozen="False"

HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalContentAlignment="Top"

RowDetailsVisibilityMode="Visible" AlternatingRowBackground="WhiteSmoke" 

HeadersVisibility="Row"
RowDetailsTemplate="{DynamicResource HeiachyTemplate}"  >
  <DataGrid.RowHeaderTemplate>
    <DataTemplate>
      <ContentControl VerticalContentAlignment="Top" VerticalAlignment="Top">
        <TextBlock  FontFamily="Wingdings" Text="&#196;" Margin="15,0,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" />
      </ContentControl>
    </DataTemplate>
  </DataGrid.RowHeaderTemplate>
  <DataGrid.Columns>
      <DataGridTextColumn Header="Name" Binding="{Binding InventoryItemGroupName, Mode=TwoWay, NotifyOnSourceUpdated=True, NotifyOnTargetUpdated=True, NotifyOnValidationError=True,UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}" Width="*" MinWidth="400"></DataGridTextColumn>
   </DataGrid.Columns>
  </DataGrid>
          

</HierarchicalDataTemplate>
        </ResourceDictionary>
    </UserControl.Resources>

Now for the data grid

   <DataGrid 

  ItemsSource="{Binding InventoryItemGroupList,Mode=TwoWay,NotifyOnSourceUpdated=True,NotifyOnTargetUpdated=True,NotifyOnValidationError=True,UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}"   
 CanUserAddRows="True" AutoGenerateColumns="False" AreRowDetailsFrozen="False"
 RowDetailsVisibilityMode="Visible" AlternatingRowBackground="LightGray"
 RowDetailsTemplate="{StaticResource HeiachyTemplate}"
 >
 <DataGrid.RowHeaderTemplate>
     <DataTemplate>
        <TextBlock  Text=" " Margin="15,0,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" />
     </DataTemplate>
 </DataGrid.RowHeaderTemplate>
 <DataGrid.Columns>
   <DataGridTextColumn Header="Name" Binding="{Binding InventoryItemGroupName, Mode=TwoWay, NotifyOnSourceUpdated=True, NotifyOnTargetUpdated=True, NotifyOnValidationError=True,UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}" Width="*" ></DataGridTextColumn>
  </DataGrid.Columns>
</DataGrid>

Now That's All she Wrote.... I cannot say if this will work for all situations nor large record sets but it worked for me.. This is my first post, so please if I am missing any information leave a comment. Source Code                  

PROJECT: Contract and Asset Management System

This is a short description of the Contract and Asset Management System that I have been involved in.

Full management of Contracts from a consultant/contract manager focus, including communications , work orders and contractor management. Initially was required to manage contracts for 400+ sites with up to 7 contracts per site, eventually was made flexible enough to be used over a wide range of projects from Property management, Asset Management, Road Management, Reactive Maintenance Contracts.


Modules include:
CONTRACT MANAGEMENT
Setup of contracts including offering for tender, estimation and document generation. Contract types include Scheduled Maintenance, Reactive Maintenance :and Construction Multi Phase contracts. 

WORK ORDER MANAGEMENT
Generation of scheduled contract work orders, as well as ad hoc works orders. Results management for KPI measurements, costing with integration with external accounting system.

COMMUNICATIONS
Recording of communications with full task management, notifications of due tasks,

ASSET MANAGEMENT
Asset registration with hierarchical outlay from building down to to furniture. Asset assessment utilising industry standard best practice systems.

DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT
Recording of relevant documents from contract agreements through to design documents. full linking to ensure document is available for all relevant modules and components.

WEB INTERFACE
Web interface to data to allow clients and contractors ability to view and record relevant information. full security to ensure no data was available that shouldn't be. .