Previous Upgrade: February 2013
General Information
The SmartSimple platform is upgraded with new features and enhancements approximately every 2 to 3 months.
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" one week 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: May 2012
The following server will be upgraded on Thursday 17 May, 2012 at 10pm EST:
- smartsimple3.biz
The backup server (*.smartsimple3bk.biz) will be upgraded on Thursday May 10th for testing.
The following servers will be upgraded on Thursday 24 May, 2012 at 10pm EST.
- smartsimple.com
- smartsimple2.biz
- smartsimple4.biz
The associated backup servers will be upgraded on Thursday May 17th for testing.
The following servers will be upgraded on Thursday 31 May 2012 at 10pm EST.
- smartsimple.ca
- smartsimple.us
- smartsimple.biz
- smartsimple.ie (after 10pm GMT)
- factorial.ca
The associated backup servers will be upgraded on Thursday May 24th 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 June 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.
Security
- Enforce from address in password e-mail: When a user clicks Send Password by default is uses their e-mail address as the from address in the system e-mail. With the from address used will always be the one defined on the User Email Templates page.
- Challenge questions: rather than e-mailing a randomly generated password when new contacts register or when users click the Forgot Password the system can be configured to e-mail a time-limited authentication link. When clicking the link the user will be presented challenge question that must be answered correctly before they are logged into SmartSimple and asked to create a new password.
List Views
- User defined List views: users can create their own personal list views for any entity (organizations, contacts, Level 1, Level 2, Level 3). They can select the fields they wish to use in each view, the display orders of the fields and sort order of the data and the colour of each column in the list view.
- Administrators can choose to make List Views public to be shared with other users.
- The List View can be marked as favourite and these list views are listed at the top of the list view selection.
- Any List View (system, public or private) can be copied, renamed and saved.
- The contents of a List View can be exported to MS Excel, MS Word or PDF though an Export feature
- The List view contents can also be used to create a set of MS Word letters though a Merge feature. When this feature is used an MS Word Merge Word custom field is assigned to the list view to allow bulk merging. (All selected records will be merged into a single document for printing)
- The System will remember the last list view used by a user and reapply that list view when the user next access that part of the system
- Multiple fields can be displayed within the same column in a "stacked" configuration.
- The List View for Associates/Associations can be customized via the Global Settings page.
Reports
- Once a report is generated the user can select an MS Excel template used to create a MS Excel version of the report.
- Any Report can be set as a favourite to be displayed in the Favourite Reports tab.
- Support for exporting reports to a MS Word template
- The Report Builder will now support the MYSQL having clause. Having is used to accommodate criteria when aggregate functions are used.
Standard and Custom Fields
- Settings for Standard Fields will be managed in a similar manner to Custom Fields. Including Role and Status Field Permissions lookups and the ability to translate Standard Field labels and validation messages
- An improved Rich Text editor will be introduced. As well as improved functionality and compatibility, the array of buttons displayed can be configured by an administrator as needed via Global Settings
Transactions
- Transaction Template Formula
- Transaction Template Page
Workflows
- Update Custom Field task type will be available on Company and Contact workflows
- Company and Contact Workflow connectors can be delayed to trigger on a date stored in a Custom Field on the Company/Contact record
- The Recipient of workflows (Acknowledgement, Request for Comment, Request for Approval) can now be defined using variable syntax, rather than being limited to the list by role. This will allow you to send the same e-mail to multiple roles at the same time rather than creating 2 different tasks. It will also allow you to filter based on a custom field on the contact, or UTA Contact Role Based custom field(s). For Notes created against UTA records this will allow you to select recipients by UTA role (or owner/person) rather than system role.
Autoloader
- Contact Autoloader: Match a field on the contact with a field on company records so the contacts will be created/moved under the relevant company. Similarly with company autoloader
- Company Autoloader: Match company field to find parent company, allowing new/updating companies to be managed within a hierarchy.
- Disable users with the autoloader (expose the Access Type)
- Setting to specify 'Append' role defined on autoloader rather than replace it if the user already exists in the system
- Allow addition of multiple roles (select many list box instead of combo box)
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.
