Revision as of 08:55, 10 January 2014

General Information

Bi-Monthly Upgrades

Upgrades are released on a bi-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.

A list of planned upgrade dates is available here: Future Upgrades.

We regularly update the list of upgrade features and schedule for both the backup and production servers on this Wiki page.

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.

For clients on a Dedicated Server, please review the SmartSimple Upgrade Process – Dedicated Server page.

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 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.

Current Upgrade Package: January 2014

The following server will be upgraded on Tuesday, January 14th, 2014 at 10pm EST.

• smartsimple3.biz

The following servers will be upgraded on Thursday, January 16th, 2014 at 10pm EST.

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

Important: The upgrade will be applied to your backup server one 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. 

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 January 16th.

Global System Upgrades

The new features listed below are enhancements to the SmartSimple system and will be immediately available to SmartSimple users upon the application of the January 2014 upgrade to your server:

New Feature - PDF Annotation

• SmartSimple now allows you to add annotations to uploaded PDF documents on the fly. When the "Enable Annotation" option is selected on a multiple-file upload field, PDF documents uploaded to that field can be commented and marked up. Comments, drawings, text strike-throughs and highlights can be added to any PDF without any downloads or browser plug-ins required.

Simplified Auditing of Contact/Company Records

• Two new standard fields, "Created By" and "Created Date," have been added to contact and company records. Now system administrators can more easily configure their system to stamp a contact or company record with the creator and creation date of the record.

Simplified Owner Assignment Configuration

• The ability to restrict the assignment of contacts to the Level 2 "Owner" standard field to a given set of roles has been added to the system.

Now Able to Translate Prefix/Suffix Options

• System administrators can now pre-define lists of prefixes and suffixes for user names in multiple languages.

Simplification of Settings Pages

• The UTA Settings pages have been streamlined by reorganizing certain settings options to the standard field configuration pages:
  

From the main Settings page:

1. "Filter People Based on Company"
2. "Filter Owner Based on Company"
3. "Enable Branch Lookup"
4. "Enable External company for Level 1 Branch Standard Field"

From the Security Settings page:

1. "Default Contact Lookups based on Level One Company"
2. "Default Company Lookup Category"
3. "Contact Assignment Role Settings"
4. "Company Assignment Role Settings"
5. "Standard Contact Lookup Role Settings"
6. "Level one Company Lookup Category Settings"

From the Entity Settings page:

1. "Enable External Owners"

These settings can now be configured by configuring the relevant standard fields ("Branch," "Owner," "Person," etc.).

Previous Upgrades

See the Previous Upgrades page for a list of previously-implemented upgrade features.

Future Upgrades

Click here for a listing of future upgrade dates.