DataViews Corp.
47 Pleasant Street
Northampton, MA 01060
Ph: 413-586-4144
Fx: 413-586-3805
Web site: www.dvcorp.com
E-mail: [email protected] 

Price: $11,700 ($3,000 more for each additional user).

Inspecting DV-Draw, an interactive drawing editor for creating customized user interface screens, seemed to us the fastest way to acquaint ourselves with DataViews, a suite of programs for developing real-time data visualization applications. This suite of programs also includes DV-Tools, a subroutine library that lets you manage and manipulate displays created with DV-Draw, and WebData Views, which provides Web deployment for remote monitoring and control options.

While all of these components help you develop and deploy dynamic data visualization applications, DV-Draw is the component that actually translates quantitative information, whatever its source -- user input, databases, and/or custom connections to monitoring equipment -- into instantly understandable displays. For example, with DV-Draw, you can control the movement of an image or marker on a map, grid, or graph. Or you can create an object that changes color, rotates, expands, or shrinks. And all of these visuals reflect the status of whatever it is you are monitoring, and they register any changes in real-time. That is, any change in system status can be presented immediately and continuously to your system end user.

Incidentally, the end user needn't be a passive observer. End users can actually participate in your development efforts thanks to DV-Draw's drawing editor, which offers simple point and click functionality. The simple interactive commands let any member of a development team create customized graphical user interface screens. Thus, DV-Draw draws users into the design process, which can cut down on development time. (Consider an alternative approach: You design a complete interface and then invite user comments. You might as well invite yourself back to the drawing board.)

According to DataViews, industry research shows that up to 80 percent of the time invested in application development is spent prototyping and building the application user interface. Consequently, any time saved during this phase of development can expedite deployment of an in-house project or accelerate time-to-market for a commercial project. With DV-Draw, which requires no programming expertise to build displays, nonprogrammers can build and test user interfaces. And with DV-Tools, DV-Draw's complement, programmers can connect the graphics to the underlying application.

INSTALLATION
We installed DV-Draw from a CD-ROM disk, and were presented with three options: the typical installation, the compact installation, and the custom installation. The option we chose, the typical installation, provided for a one-step process, which was completed in just a few minutes. Still, the program is big. It occupies 80 megabytes worth of valuable disk space.

Before we could use the software, we had to secure DataViews' approval. We called DataViews, supplied the appropriate codes, and received an authorization sequence. (Fortunately, when we called, a human answered the phone. In fact, a human answered every time we called.)

DOCUMENTATION
The documentation was extremely detailed. In fact, the manuals couldn't have been more comprehensive. (Well, perhaps they could have, if they actually showed us how to code, but that would be going too far...)

We examined each of the four manuals, one on installation, one on ActiveX, one on usage, and one on plug-ins. There was, in addition, a separate "read me first" booklet. Every piece of documentation was well organized and written in a style that could be understood by programmers and nonprogrammers alike. In addition, each of the manuals was packed with screen shots and charts.

We particularly liked the user's guide, which included 18 chapters designed to be read in the order presented. That is, each new chapter builds on the one preceding it. Seldom does documentation flow so logically and coherently.

We particularly liked the opening chapters and the four appendices, which provided a lot of information that nonprogrammers would appreciate. We should also point out that the manual is available online, in a searchable help format.

FEATURES AND GUI
DV-Draw has so many features that listing them all here would be impractical. However, we will list a few at the end of this section. But before we do that, we would like to emphasize a couple of features that really make DV-Draw distinctive.

The program's GUI seems something of a CorelDraw-AutoCAD hybrid. You can draw nearly any shape you can imagine, provided it doesn't require three dimensions. There are good grid and snapping features, as well as the usual options -- mirror, rotate, and the like. In addition, the GUI provides a highly customizable layout. The toolbars are customizable too, and can all be docked or left floating.

DV-Draw is notable for its demonstration programs. These programs apply to many different industries and realistically illustrate how you might apply the software to your own. For example, you could make a program that detects failures in telephony or FAX boards, or a program that monitors a WAN for bottlenecks and other traffic. Whatever your use, there's a demonstration file that seems to do something similar, and which you can use as a template.

Other features include:

• Extensive object manipulation tools.
• Function, memory, and constant data sources.
• Merging views.
• Graphing.
• Object dynamics.
• Rules and prototypes.
• Expressions.
• Now-level coding.
• Buttons, sliders, and text forms.
• Vector fonts.

OPERATIONAL TESTING
Because our time was limited, we didn't actually write any monitoring software, but we did try out most of the program's basic features. We're happy to report that all the features we worked with are within the competence of an average user. More advanced users will find that they can always edit the code to create even more functionality.

The program's intuitive GUI helped us feel at home right away. We suppose it would do the same for others, including developers who come from the Unix world. Regardless, anyone who has ever used a Windows CAD, painting, or desktop publishing package would have no difficulty learning the DV-Draw (and DV-Tools) system.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
We have only one criticism: The software was tediously slow. For example, redrawing took lots of time, much more time than we would have expected from our experience with other graphically intensive programs. We suppose the program's size could be a factor here.

We would have mentioned something about adding more native Windows controls to the product, but DataViews beat us to the punch. The new version of the product, DataViews 9.9, includes a full set of standard Windows controls that function seamlessly with DataViews graphics, the mechanism for generating C++ code associated with DataViews graphics, and an integration with Visual C++ Developer Studio.

CONCLUSION
Since we didn't actually develop an application with DV-Draw, we decided not to include any ratings with this review. Nonetheless, from what we saw, DV-Draw is an impressive product. We especially liked the ActiveX Control Pad and the HTML support.

We look forward to more features -- and hopefully better speed -- in the next version (or in the next major release). Also, we hope DataViews continues its excellent online help documentation, without discontinuing the printed versions, an option taken by many other companies. But the documentation is only one way DataViews makes its product user friendly. If DataViews can keep its product user-friendly, despite all the enhancements it has planned, the company should have a winner on its hands.