Revision as of 10:13, 13 November 2012

General Information

New Monthly Upgrades

The pace of business change has increased since we started SmartSimple in 2002. One feature of our service that has not kept pace has been the application of upgrades.

So, effective October 2012, we will be releasing upgrades on a monthly basis.

The benefits of this approach are as follows:

• The upgrades will be performed in smaller batches.
• New features will come on-stream faster, as we can fast track key enhancements into early updates.

The overall upgrade process is not changing. We will provide a list of updates to both the backup and production servers. The only difference in this new process is that these updates will be much more frequent -- and much smaller.

This page will provide a general overview of each upgrade, with links to the Wiki articles describing the new or updated features and how to use them. You can also subscribe to the Technical Journal that is sent out prior to each upgrade on the Newsletter Signup Page. (Unsubscribe here).

System Upgrade Process

The objective of the System Upgrade Process is to ensure that customers have a chance to review, without compromising the integrity of their production system, how their applications and information will work following the upgrade. In order to take advantage of this you will need to know how to access your backup instance of SmartSimple. If you need assistance with this either refer to the Backup Server and Testing Instances Wiki article, or contact the SmartSimple support desk.

Backup Server Update

• Each backup server will be updated to the "release candidate" prior to the upgrade date.
• This update will provide for instance specific testing of release candidate, as you can log into your respective backup server and test the the changes against your most current data and configuration.
• Internal staff will also be using these servers to perform instance specific testing.

Update Go/No-Go

• Subject to satisfactory testing on both the pre-production server and the production backup servers, the go/no go decision will be made on Wednesday at 12:00pm.

Next Upgrade: November 2012

The following server will be upgraded on Tuesday November 27, 2012 at 10pm EST:

• smartsimple3.biz

The backup server (*.smartsimple3bk.biz) will be upgraded on Thursday November 22th for testing.

The following servers will be upgraded on Thursday November 29, 2012 at 10pm EST.

• smartsimple.com
• smartsimple2.biz
• smartsimple4.biz
• smartsimple.ca
• smartsimple.us
• smartsimple.biz
• smartsimple.ie (after 10pm Local Time)
• smartsimple.ca.za (after 10pm Local Time)
• factorial.ca
• frontdeskinc.net

The associated backup servers will be upgraded on Thursday November 22th for testing.

Important: The upgrade will be applied to your backup server 1 week prior to the scheduled upgrade date for your production server. You are encouraged to log into your backup server during this period to test the changes against your most recent data and configuration. Backup Server and Testing Instances

If your organization has a dedicated SmartSimple server or you host in-house SmartSimple will be in contact with your system administrator to schedule the upgrade of your server after November 1st.

We will be sending our Technical Journal in advance of the upgrade as well. If you would like to receive the Technical Journal you may subscribe here

The following is a tentative list of the features included in the upgrade.

New / Updated Features

Universal Tracking Application

• New Duplicate Check Settings tab added on Level 1 templates.
• New ability added to configure multiple submit buttons on Level 1 with varying visibility conditions that move the Level 1 to various statuses.

Standard and Custom Fields

• The Level 1 Branch standard field can be configured to allow external companies as well as internal companies.
• A new Middle Name standard field on contacts.
• Dynamic Data and Select One – Combo Box custom fields can now be manifested as radio buttons.
• Prefix/Suffix standard fields on Contacts can now be customized as drop-down boxes.

Reports

• System variables can now be used on report criteria.
• New report added to Usage Statistics category: Maximum Concurrent External Users (shows maximum amount of users logged in per month).
• New "Enable Translation" feature added to Advanced Report Settings to allow report headers to use translation options in language library.

Communication

• The "From" address in workflow emails can now be configured using variables.

Autoloader

• The autoloader is being enhanced substantially as part of this upgrade, including features such as:

• Strict CSV - ability to autoload data that contains line breaks within the content.
• Pre-processing files - ability to combine multiple columns into a single field value.
• Retrieval from external sources - ability to schedule automated workflows to retrieve data from external sources via Web Services, FTP, SFTP, HTTP file access.
• Workflow triggering – ability to trigger user or company workflows on every record upon autoloading.

Miscellaneous

• A Manager Permission has been added to enable a "Save Draft" button on company and contact records.
• Additional instance data available in "Records Storage Summary" hyperlink in Global Settings pertaining to Database and File Storage size.
• Variables displaying save and submit buttons ("@SYSTEMBUTTONS@") now available for level 2 and 3 template pages.
• New Timezone option to replace "Time Distance in Hour" offset in Personal Settings page.
• Basic search allows for searches based on type.
• Loading a list view now defaults to last set of search criteria used.

Previous Upgrades

Click on the links below to find detailed information on previous upgrades.

• The date listed indicates when the upgrade cycle commenced. Not all servers were upgraded on that date.

Previous Upgrade: October 2012

Previous Upgrade: May 2012

Previous Upgrade: November 2011

Previous Upgrade: May 19th 2011

Previous Upgrade: October 1st 2010

Previous Upgrade: May 13th 2010

Previous Upgrade: October 1st 2009

Previous Upgrade: July 30th 2009

Previous Upgrade: May 28th 2009