Vitalware 2.0.03

Details

Release Date: 23 November 2007

Requirements

Updates / New Features

  • Auditing facility: A general purpose auditing facility has been added to Vitalware 2.0.03. The facility generates an audit trail record for each registered event that occurs in Vitalware. The following events may be registered on a per module basis:
    • change - record insertion, update or deletion
    • search - query records
    • display - view, sort or report on a record
    • login - access to the module
    • all - any event associated with the module

    Audit trail records are loaded into the Audit Trails module where users with the appropriate permissions can view them and perform analyses as required. The audit facility also provides an archiver that allows all audit records to be saved in a file on a daily basis for archival purposes or for use as raw data to load into another system.

    The Audit Trails module provides convenient access to all audit trail records in the familiar module environment. Reports are provided that allow administrators to produce audit listings detailing changes made on a per user basis, within specified time constraints. The image below shows the Summary tab for a typical audit trail record:

    audittrail.jpg  

    Every module in Vitalware has had an Audit tab added that displays a listing of all audit trail records concerning the current record. The listing provides a convenient mechanism for determining all uses of a record. The image below shows a typical listing:

    auditlisting.jpg 

    For a complete description of the new audit facility see the attached pdfAuditing Facility documentation.

  • Multimedia component: A new component has been designed that allows the attachment and display of multimedia resources to be added to any tab in Vitalware. The component allows multimedia to be embedded with contextual information rather than just as a media resource. The component supports both thumbnail and full image view.
  • Limit Multimedia downloads:A series of Registry entries have been added that allow the maximum size of media downloads to be set. The previous limits that used the image size are still supported. Separate entries are available to control:
    • images
    • audio
    • video
    • documents
    The format of the new entries is:

    System|Setting|Multimedia|Audio|Maximum|size
    System|Setting|Multimedia|Video|Maximum|size
    System|Setting|Multimedia|Images|Maximum|size
    System|Setting|Multimedia|Images|Maximum|width:height
    System|Setting|Multimedia|Document|Maximum|size

    where size is the maximum size of the media file that can be downloaded in kilobytes (Kb). Width and height are the maximum width and height of an image in pixels that may be downloaded. This Registry entry replaces the now defunct Maximum Viewer entry.

    A new entry has also been added to set the default size of image downloads when viewing them in Vitalware. The format of the new entry is:

    System|Setting|Multimedia|Images|Default|size
    System|Setting|Multimedia|Images|Default|width:height

    where  size is the default size of the media file that can be downloaded in kilobytes (Kb). Width and height are the default width and height of an image in pixels that may be downloaded. This Registry entry replaces the now defunct Launch Viewer entry.

  • New audio and video sub-system: The audio and video sub-systems used to play sound and movie media have been upgraded to use the Microsoft DirectShow drivers. The drivers provide direct hardware support allowing for a more accurate rendering of the media. The number of codecs supported has been increased, with the new sub-system configuring itself automatically to handle all installed drivers.
  • New Groups module: A module interface has been added to the Vitalware grouping facility. The module allows users to retrieve and view groups registered in Vitalware. The module supports three types of groups:
    • Static - the group consists of a list of IRNs used to identify the records that make up the group.
    • Terms - the query terms used to retrieve the records are stored. When the group is retrieved a query is performed using the saved terms.
    • Query - the texql statement used to locate the records is saved. The statement is re-executed when the group is retrieved.

    Using the new module, users can manipulate groups directly by attaching records to or removing records from the list that make up the group. It is also possible to create a group based on complex texql statements.

    mod_groups.gif 

    For a complete description of the new Groups module see the attached pdfGroups Module documentation.

  • Group Permissions: The permission model used by the groups facility has been replaced with the standard record level security settings. The owner of a group may now change the security settings to allow other users to alter the contents of the group. The record level permissions available are:
    • Display - who is allowed to see the list for retrieval
    • Edit - who can add records to and remove records from  the group
    • Delete - who can delete the group

    The permissions can be changed from the Security tab in the Groups module only. When a group is created only the owner is assigned Edit and Delete permissions.

  • View Attachments submenu: A new Registry entry has been added that allows a module name to be added to the View>Attachmentsmenu. When the module name is selected all records in the module  that refer to the current record (or selected records) are retrieved for viewing:

    mod_viewattachments.gif

    In the example above, the selected menu command will retrieve all Pos records that refer to the current Parties
    record. The format of the new Registry entry is:

    Group|Default|Table|table|View Attachments|attachtable|collist

    where  collist is a semicolon separated list of columns in the attachtable table that are searched when the command is selected. The keyword Allattachtable may be used to refer to all attachment columns within the attachtable module. If a column name is prefixed with a minus sign, the column is not searched. For the example above the following Registry entry was used:

    Group|Default|Table|eparties|View Attachments|epos|All 

  • Data Dictionary report: The Field Help module has had a number of reports added that provide data dictionarylistings of all modules and associated fields within Vitalware. In particular an Excel report provides a complete data dictionary listing including field help comments and hyperlinks for reference fields.

    ss_excel_datadictionary.gif

  • New module shortcut: Using CTRL+CLICK on a button on the Command Centre will start up a new instance of the module even if the module is already open.
  • QLD - Added ability to define a set of maintenance fields that could be set to readonly.
  • CAMB - Added ability to record historic amendment numbers against record maintenances.
  • Added new reverse item menu function to allow for selecting the order to be reversed.
  • Added ability to refund via other methods than just cheques.

Issues Resolved

Issue Resolution
If emuhelpload is used to populate an empty Field Help module the loaded records will not contain any descriptions or property values.

All descriptions and property values are loaded correctly into an empty Field Help module.
The list of acceptable audio and video file types will be empty for users who are logged into Windows using a non-administrative account.

The list of acceptable audit and video file types is now shown correctly for all users.
The emuperms command may not function correctly on new versions of Red Hat linux due to changes with the find command options.

emuperms has been modified to work correctly on Red Hat linux machines.
You may be placed into trong>Edit mode while in Detail view when visiting the Registry tab in the Registry module.

Viewing records in the Registry module will no longer enter Edit mode without a character being input.
When using the Import tool to batch load multimedia files, the multimedia cache is not flushed until the load is complete. For users with limited free disk space this may cause an issue.

 The multimedia cache is flushed on a regular basis (as determined by the system options) while an import is underway.
If a Richedit control has a maximum length and the text value is that length, the value may be displayed as RTF when the tab containing the control is visited more than once.

The Richedit control will now display the text correctly regardless of the length of the value.
Read-only Richedit controls may not display the correct grey background when displayed for the first time.

The correct background colour is now displayed for read-only Richedit controls.
If you have Internet Explorer 5.0 installed as your web browser, you may get an "Access Violation" message when trying to access the HTML tabs in the Field Help and Narratives modules.

All HTML based tabs now function correctly with Internet Explorer 5.0.
If you change the default colour of text for Edit mode, the text may not be shown with the new colour until the tab is viewed for the second time.

The correct colour is now displayed when the tab is first shown.
If multiple thumbnails appear on the Multimedia tab, the captions may not update correctly when moving to another record.

The thumbnail captions are updated correctly when moving to another record.
Right clicking in a Linkgrid control to display the context menu may not result in the cell in which the click occurred being selected.

The cell in which a right click occurs is now selected.
When switching from List mode to Detail mode while on a selected record, the IRN and Summary Data text is shown in black rather than white.

The IRN and Summary Data text is display in white for selected records.
If field shortcuts are enabled for a given module, you may receive the message "Operational privileges are not defined" when opening the module.

The message is no longer displayed when opening a module with field shortcuts enabled.
When switching the display language the module caption in the title bar is not switched.

The title bar language is now updated correctly.
If a field has a Registry entry indicating that a value is Mandatory and an Insert Default Registry entry sets the field to empty, an error is displayed indicating correctly that a value must be supplied, however the module does not enter Insert mode.

When adding Insert Default values mandatory checks are disabled. Any field left empty will be detected when the record is saved.
If the Delete key is pressed while the default value for a Linkgrid cell is specified (while defining default values), an "Access Violation" message may be displayed.

Hitting the Delete key will no longer generate an "Access Violation" message.
Users may set default values for read-only fields. Using this feature it is possible to override read-only defaults designed to restrict access to records.

Read-only fields cannot have default values assigned to them unless they are set in the Registry module directly. This restriction still allows Insert Defaults to be set.
If you have Internet Explorer 7 installed and you visit the HTML tabs in the Field Help module, Vitalware may stop functioning (infinite-loop).

Support for Internet Explorer 7 has been added to Vitalware.
It may not be possible to save the output of a Crystal report that contains images in either Word or PDF format.

The crystal viewer has been updated to fix support for Word and PDF saving of reports.
An "Access Violation" message may be displayed when saving a record where a Richedit control has highlighted a matching term.

The "Access Violation" no longer occurs.
The "Reports List" dialogue box can be shrunk so that some of the buttons no longer fit and so overlap other controls.

The dialogue box minimum size has been increased so that buttons can no longer overlap.
If the Security tab is resized, the "Add" and "Remove" buttons may become invisible.

The "Add" and "Remove" buttons are now displayed correctly.
The "Add Resolution" button found on the Resolution and Document tabs in the Multimedia module invokes the Multimedia module rather than showing the Windows open file dialogue box.

The correct dialogue box is now displayed.
The message displayed when another user is changing a record does not contain the name of the person making the changes.

The message has been updated to include the name of  person making the changes.
If the Multimedia>Update Resources>Selected Records command is  invoked on TIFF images, the EXIF metadata embedded may not be extracted correctly.

The EXIF metadata is extracted correctly.
When running a report that contains a large number of images, a memory leak may cause your computer to stop operating.

The memory leak has been corrected.
Options set for sorts in the "Sort Properties" dialogue box may not be saved correctly when he sort properties are updated.

The sort options are now saved correctly.
Updating of the Field Help module when installing a new version of Vitalware was slow and may result in incorrect updates.

The Field Help update script has been re-written to provide efficient and correct updates.
When a record was deleted it was not removed from any groups of which it was a part.

Deleted records are now removed from all groups in which they are a member.
If a user tries to save a report file on their local machine via the "Open" button on the "Reports Properties" dialogue box, the report may not download and save correctly.

The report file will now download and save correctly.
When changing the order of fields in the "Report Properties" dialogue box, the second last field cannot be moved to the bottom.

The second last field can now be positioned at the bottom of the list.
When changing a value in a Linkgrid control you cannot enter SHIFT+SPACE to add a space character.

SHIFT+SPACE will now add a space character.
If running a proximity query and you follow it with another proximity query, the words matching the first query are highlighted along with the words of the second query.

The matching words of the second query are now the only words highlighted.
If field shortcuts are enabled and the prompt language is changed, the prompts in the shortcut grid are not updated until you move to another record.

The prompts are now changed when the language is switched.
It is not possible to cut or copy text from or paste text into the Value Richedit box in the Registry module.

Support for cut, copy and paste has been added.
When the value in a Richedit, Combbox or Linkgrid control is updated by formula the resulting value may not be  highlighted as per the users edit options.

The calculated value is now displayed with the correct highlighting.
When moving to another record in Detail mode the cursor may shift from the current control to the first control on the tab.

The cursor is now left on the current control when moving to another record.
If a value is entered into an attachment field and then a Linkgrid control is clicked, an "Access Violation" may occur if an attachment is not found.

The "Access Violation" no longer occurs.
The Value field in the Registry module does not resize when the module is resized.

The Value field is now resized correctly.
Minimum age at death calculation was 1 day. Age now allows hours and minutes.
When validating age at death an exception could be thrown if birth date was not a complete date. Age calculation returns without exception.
Under certain circumstances it was possible to issue a certificate and then cancel a record. A record may only be cancelled after a certificate is produced if authorised by a supervisor.
It was possible to cancel a counter cash transaction. A cash transaction may only be cancelled if authorised by a supervisor.
The total price for a transaction could be incorrect where an order was reversed but still contained an amount. The total price of the transaction is now calculated correctly.
Under certain circumstances a cannot focus disabled window message would appear which could result in duplicate order records for a transaction. The cannot focus message no longer appears.
A refund of a fee waived transaction resulted in a refund being generated. A refund is no longer generated.

Upgrade Notes

The upgrade from Vitalware Version 2.0.02 to Vitalware 2.0.03 involves a number of steps. Please follow the instructions below carefully.
Do not skip any steps under any circumstances.
Before proceeding with the update please ensure that a complete backup of the Vitalware server exists and is restorable.

In order to set up the new auditing facility please read the Auditing Facility documentation before commencing the upgrade.

  1. Install TexAPI 3.1.011 or greater.
  2. Install Perl 5.8 or greater.
  3. Log in as vw.
  4. The following steps need to be repeated for each client installed on the Vitalware server.
    Please ensure that no one is using the system while the upgrade is underway.
  5. Enter client client
  6. Enter upgrade-2-0-03
  7. Enter upgrade-2-0-03.tabs   (adds Audit tabs to all modules)
  8. Configure the new Auditing Facility by enabling extra levels of auditing (via emuaudit).
    Auditing can be disabled for a module via the AUDIT=no entry in the table's emuoptions file.
  9. Go back to instruction 6 to commence upgrading the next client, until all clients are complete..

Vitalware 2.0.03 does not require the new Windows client to be installed on every machine for network installations. Updating the network server will install all parts required to access the new image, video and audio libraries. For standalone installations a new client is required on each machine.