stSoftware July 2015 Release Notes

New Distribution Method to distribute Published Website Articles via email:

Now you can publish an article to your website and easily distribute it via email to a list of Contacts.

The new distribution method uses Email ReST Variables which identifies and automatically adds the email Subject and email Body to be distributed to the Recipients. For example if you have a monthly Newsletter Article which you create this can be Published to your website and now it can also easily be distributed via our ReST service as an email to your chosen list of recipients.

See How to distribute a published article via email

Enhanced the Automated Screen Behaviour based on Access Control Limits (ACLs):

Our team has been adding automated Screen Behavior so that a user's access level and user group will automatically change screen behaviour without customisations. For example it will automatically hide the iCal and Email buttons when the user doesn't have Permission to use these features.

This 'smart' behaviour is expanding the boundaries of the personalised user experience which can be further enhanced with customisation.

ACLs are very important to our clients as it gives secure access tailored to users/usergroups.

Our clients can also use ACLs with User Groups to restrict access to sensitive data or securely allow their clients or partners to login to update their record or enter requests. 

Contact us to learn more about convenient secure customer access

Drag and Drop file upload speed and user interface (UI) performance improvements:

The old logic to drag and drop to upload a file uses very old technique and uses a lot of client side memory, if your computer is slow or has low memory it would be very slow to upload the field and the browser wouldn't respond if it was a big file. We changed the drag and drop logic to use a new technique which is very fast and doesn't need a lot of client computer resource memory. Also improved the look of the drag and drop by adding animated loading and processing bars and displaying a thumbnail image of the file.

Ready to drag and drop

Dragging

Dropped, animated bar showing uploading

Uploaded, animated bar showing the server processing the file

File uploaded and attached to note

Fixed javascript error on client "client combo":

The “client combo” sounds like a meal deal but it is actually a really cool function that our users use every day on Tasks. This function can link drop down fields together so that if one of the fields is changed it will automatically refresh the other field. For example you click on “Log Task” and select the “Type” as a “Call”, it automatically refreshes to display only the Closing “Results” for calls which are “Call Successful”, “Call Back Later”, “Wrong Number”, “No Answer”, “Left Message”.

Improved report format of Heart Beat Monitor:

Added “Subject” to the Heart Beat Monitor Summary so we know the “layer” and the Client system the monitor is checking. This helps the stSoftware team to rapidly and precisely identify system task disruptions.

Change the logic of Reports to improve user performance:

The old logic was if there are <3000 records then we show the summary line. A Summary line calculates the total of a column such as a dollar amount due. The Summary line calculation has to be done on the client side, this meant we would load all the line records on the report to the client side which could be slow. Changed the logic to only show the Summary line if the number of records is <300. This makes loading faster.

Change the email image and CSS link logic to automatically stop image/CSS not being found:

If a user or administrator hasn't included the full url for an image or CSS (cascading style sheet) then an external viewer won't see the image or style sheet. This logic change automatically adds the domain for the link for images tagged as “Is Email Image” and for all CSS. This means the images or CSS can be found and ensures they are displayed in the email or email attachment.

Changed the logic of the Express Interest function:

Before this change anti-virus software may check the Express Interest link in an email and artificially register as a recipient person. The change in logic allows the system to recognise the difference between anti-virus software triggering the link and a real person triggering the link.

Change of the WebDAV logic:

Before the change a user could not open a file in a WebDAV virtual folder. Note: there was no problem opening a file in a normal folder.

Change the Report logic:

Old logic was if there are <3000 records then we show the summary line. A Summary line calculates the total of a column such as a dollar amount due. The Summary line calculation has to be done on the client side, this meant we would load all the line records on the report to the client side which could be slow. Changed the logic to only show the Summary line if the number of records is <300. This makes loading faster.

Fixed PDF export error

The Notes Spellchecker & Dictionary functions not supported by Windows:

Removed the Spell checker and Dictionary function from Notes for Windows systems that do not support the Spellchecker and Dictionary editor in TinyMCE feature.

Jobs module error discovered and fixed:

By the examining the system logs an error was detected in the Job module. This has been fixed.

Changed logic of “Control Panel Loading dependency rules”:

For example to open the Automatic Tabs only after the page had finished loading to avoid getting strange page results.

Updated Spellcheck & Dictionary tool in Notes:

Saving the note was getting stuck if user clicks on spellcheck but hadn't entered any text. A new logic was created to handle this situation.

Removed a duplicated record:

Nightly automated test case error showed there was a duplicated record in the “Engine layer”.  

Updated the logic of an automated nightly test case to check the new JQGrid function:

Changed to another version of JQGrid and then the automated nightly test case couldn't find it and reported a failure. Just needed to update test case logic to check the new JQGrid.

Changed logic of “Module dependency” to cope with addition of “Bootstrap” which had broken the dependencies rules: 

For example the report table layout is dependent on loading jQuery then JQGrid, in that order. In this example if the dependencies weren't followed they would produce errors and the table would not load.

The “Invite Others” table on Events function was corrected:

The Invite Others function was adding more line items whenever the tab was refreshed. This was incorrect and was fixed to add extra Recipient lines on Refresh only if they were needed.