New Product Announcement: HanDBase for Education

[dhaupert]

Hi all,

Hope you had a wonderful weekend! I wanted to share some exciting news- this weekend we launched a brand new product in the App Store: HanDBase for Education.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/handbas ... mpt=uo%3D2

This is a version of HanDBase for iPad optimized for the Education market. As you may know, there are a lot of schools beginning to use HanDBase schoolwide/districtwide/etc and we feel that HanDBase can serve many useful functions in that setting.

This version includes over 20 database designs created by educators and curriculum experts in the public school system and gives a great overview of some of the uses for HanDBase in schools. We hope to release even more samples in updates to come! And of course, schools can design custom solutions with HanDBase quite easily- that's what the program is all about!

The version includes the forms designer (since they purchase and install through Apple's education portal which doesn't support in app purchasing yet) and is priced at 14.99 (the same cost as the iPad version with the forms designer). Of course educational institutions get volume discounts through Apple's education program.

If you're not a teacher, faculty member, or student, you may be wondering what this means for you- good thing! First off, this version contains many of the UI enhancements we have been working on for the main version of the iPad. There are too many to list but here are a few of those enhancements:

- New Choose Database Screen. This version is an iOS7 friendly design and makes managing databases simpler and more intuitive.
- Better Margins and spacing in the List View screen.
- Two line record display in list view so you can see more data without having to open a record.
- New Super Search feature- the Quick Search and Advanced Search feature got together and their offspring is a much simpler and more powerful version than either of it's parents!
- Settings are now live- as you tweak the font settings or themes you can see the changes happen in the background.
- Different record<->record animations, improved alignment in Edit Record screen.
- Many more improvements in this regard!

Aside from that there are also a number of new features in the program:
- Ability to Export a database as CSV and open in Numbers, email, etc.
- Ability to email records or a single record as a CSV file
- New Database receive handler which gives you the option to overwrite or sync with an existing database when you open it from an email, dropbox, etc.
- When you provide a database to others online (ie, via the gallery or via a website upload) and you share that link with others, you provide them with a handbase:// link instead of the http:// link. When you do this, HanDBase handles the download but not only that, it remembers the link it got it from and automatically checks for updates to that database in the background. This means that you can release information to your coworkers, students, etc and they will be able to automatically receive the updates to this database!

and my personal favorite:
Print a form while editing a record. When you're in a record that is a custom designed form, you can print that form to an Airprint printer, attach it as a PDF to an email, or open it in iBooks, Goodreader, etc. You can just imagine the great uses for something like this!

If you are a teacher or faculty member at a school and would like to learn more, please check out the app and consider using for your students and/or staff. If you're a student or know a student, I would highly recommend checking it out as well! Please email me or reply here with any questions.

If you are not involved in this field, hopefully you're as excited about these new features as I am- they will be rolled out to the HanDBase for iPad product, and soon after the HanDBase for iPhone product in the coming weeks!

Thanks for listening..

[dhaupert]

As an addendum to the above, I decided to offer the Education package at a discount for it's introduction. As of now it's priced at 9.99 USD which means that basically you are getting the forms designer for free in this package! Hoping to make it even more affordable for schools and students

[milby7]

Looks outstanding! Can't wait for these features to get rolled out for the regular version.

[renher]

I am a teacher and I bought the standard version because I didn't know about the education version. Do I have to pay for it if I want to change for the Handbase for Education or there is a special consideration for those who already have the other version?

[dhaupert]

Hi there,

Great question indeed! Now that both programs have been updated for iOS7, the only practical differences between the two versions are:

1. The education version already includes the forms. On the iPad version it is an in-app purchase, and since the Education Volume purchase portal doesn't support those, we built it into that version.

2. The 20+ education related databases included in the Education version vs the 7 or so samples in the iPad that are more generic in nature.

I can't do anything about the first item as there are no coupon codes for in app purchases, but I can offer you the databases from #2 free of charge. Just email me and I'll be happy to send them to you!

Here's the documentation on those databases if you're curious:
http://ddhsoftware.com/docs/EducationSamplesManual.pdf

[renher]

Hi. I want to thank again for sending me the Educational version. I have learned a lot from the tables and forms, specially in hoy to use the relational fields. Working with link and linked fields, I need to store the value of a linked field in a text field of the same table so I can use it for a relational field. Is those possible?

[dhaupert]

Hi there,

Thanks for your followup. I'm glad they were helpful. Curious to learn more about your specific uses for HanDBase in your work and whether you'll use any of the sample databases or not, and why!

Regarding your question, the linked field can be used in a relationship without needing to modify it to be in a text field. If you're using it to tie to the other database, just point to the link field in the other database. HanDBase knows that the link and linked fields have matchups so you can point to each of them and then pull whatever value you want. If it's the linked field value you want, you can point to that as the value and it will display. But in a relationship the value is never copied back into the database- it's just referenced. This means it's always up to date and doesn't actually get stored in the database. A 'live' field if you will!

Hope this helps.

[renher]

Sorry for the typing mistakes. "hoy" must be "how" and "those" must be "that"

[craigbrunton1]

As an addendum to the above, I decided to offer the Education package at a discount for it's introduction. As of now it's priced at 9.99 USD which means that basically you are getting the forms designer for free in this package!

Thanks for a great offer for schools and students! I am a school teacher and what information should I provide to prove I am eligible for Education discount?

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