Upgrading from ProblemTracker Versions 4.0 - 4.0.3 to 5.5.4
Before downloading ProblemTracker Enterprise Edition Version 5.5.4 (PTEE 5.5.4) or ProblemTracker Version 5.5.4 (Standard Edition), please review the information in the following sections:
License Requirements for PTEE Version 5.5.4 and ProblemTracker Version 5.5.4
In order to upgrade to Version 5.5.4, your Software Updates and Support (SUS) subscription must be active (or must have been active through September 1, 2004).
You will also need a license key for the Inet Page feature, which is sold separately. As long as your SUS subscription was active as of August 15, 2003, an email with a license key for the Inet Page feature was sent to the contact(s) for your company which we have on file. If you believe your SUS subscription was active as of August 15, 2003, and you have not received your Inet Page license key, please contact NetResults Technical Support. Please, do not upgrade to 5.5.4 until you have received your Inet Page license key. Your system will be partially disabled until you enter this key.
If you are not sure when your SUS subscription expired, enter your current Static or Floating license key information on the PT 5.5.4 Support Download page. Once you submit your information a page will be displayed with your SUS subscription expiration date.
To renew your SUS subscription, you can place an order online by browsing to the ProblemTracker SUS Renewal or ProblemTracker Enterprise Edition SUS Renewal web page (pricing information is listed in the "ordering information" section). If you have any questions regarding your subscription, please contact NetResults Sales.
If your SUS subscription is current, but you wish to upgrade to Enterprise Edition, you can place an order online using the Upgrade to Enterprise Edition order form.
If your SUS subscription is not current, you can renew it online using the ProblemTracker SUS Renewal order form. After renewing your SUS subscription, you can, optionally, also upgrade to Enterprise Edition using the Upgrade to Enterprise Edition order form. If you have any questions regarding your subscription, please contact NetResults Sales.
New Features
For a more detailed list of new features and fixes in 5.5.4, click here.
System Requirements for ProblemTracker Version 5.5.4
NOTE: ProblemTracker now requires JScript 5.5 or greater to be installed on the ProblemTracker server, therefore, you may need to install the Windows Script 5.5 (or greater) engine. If you have already installed Internet Explorer 5.5 (or greater) on your web server machine, you already have Windows Script 5.5 (or greater) installed. Otherwise, please install/upgrade to Internet Explorer 5.5 (or greater) or browse to the Windows Script Download page, download and install the Microsoft Windows Script Engine.
NetResults ProblemTracker 5.5.4 has the following requirements. Listed first are the requirements for use of multinationalization features (languages other than western European languages). Multinationalization features require newer versions of web browsers and web servers as many international web features have only recently been supported (and many standards are in fact still "in progress" in this area). Listed second are the requirements if you do not require multinational support. If any of the required software listed below is not installed on your server machine (or if you do not know if it is installed), click here for instructions on how to verify that you have the appropriate software, links to download the software, and instructions on how to install it.
Multinationalization
General System Requirements
In order to use Multinationalization options (support of Non-Latin1 languages)
Latin1 languages include the following - Basque, Catalan, Danish, English, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish. If you plan to use a language other than one (or more) of those listed above, your system requires the following.
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Client Requirements:
Server Requirements:
Optional Database Support: In addition to the included support for Microsoft Access, ProblemTracker can be used with the following database systems:
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If any of the required software listed above is not installed on your server machine (or if you do not know if it is installed), click here for instructions on how to verify that you have the appropriate software, links to download the software, and instructions on how to install it.
General System Requirements (if not using Multinationalization):
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Client Requirements:
Server Requirements:
Optional Database Support: In addition to the included support for Microsoft Access, ProblemTracker can be used with the following database systems
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If any of the required software listed above is not installed on your server machine (or if you do not know if it is installed), click here for instructions on how to verify that you have the appropriate software, links to download the software, and instructions on how to install it.
Known Issues in ProblemTracker Version 5.5.4
Currently, there are no known issues in this version.
Upgrade Preparation
This section provides information about changes and new features in Version 5.5.4 and how to enable them in your installation.
Performance Tip
For optimal performance, it is recommended that 127.0.0.1 or localhost be entered as the SMTP Mail Server in the Outgoing Mail Server Configuration. This allows the email notifications generated by ProblemTracker to be processed as quickly as possible by your mail server. This could provide improved performance for operations in ProblemTracker that generate email notification messages such as Add, Task, and Edit. If your mail server is located on the same machine as ProblemTracker, you simply need to enter "127.0.0.1" or "localhost" into the SMTP Email Server field in the Outgoing Mail Configuration. For more information, please review the General Email Configuration Help section of the Administrative Help Guide. If your mail server is not located on the same machine as ProblemTracker, please use the information in the Performance Tuning FAQ entry to set up the SMTP Mail Server that is included with Internet Information Server and have this server forward the email to your actual mail server.
Add Similar & Clone
An Add Similar operation has been added to the View page. If you click the Add Similar button on the View page, you will be brought to the Add page with all fields on the Add page filled in with the values from the record you were previously viewing. You can then modify the fields as necessary and click the Add button to create a new record that is similar to an existing one. Any user with View and Add privilege can use Add Similar operation.
A Clone (duplicate record) operation has been added to the View page and the Task operation. By default, this feature will be disabled. To enable this feature from the View page, you will need to add clone privileges to existing User Groups. To enable this feature from the Task page (for a particular Transition), you do not need to change and User Group privileges; you just need to set the appropriate Transition properties for an existing Transition (or add a new Transition with those properties).
For an overview of the Clone and Add Similar operations as well as a discussion of the differences between the two, please review the Cloning A Record and Add Similar feature descriptions in the User's Guide.
JScript 5.5 or greater now required for use with ProblemTracker Version 5.5.4
ProblemTracker now requires JScript 5.5 or greater to be installed on the ProblemTracker server, therefore, you may need to install the Windows Script 5.5 (or greater) engine. If you have already installed Internet Explorer 5.5 (or greater) on your web server machine, you already have Windows Script 5.5 (or greater) installed. Otherwise, please install/upgrade to Internet Explorer 5.5 (or greater) or browse to the Windows Script Download page, download and install the Microsoft Windows Script Engine.
Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 6a now required for use with ProblemTracker Version 5.5.4
If you have installed ProblemTracker on a Windows NT 4.0 machine, Service Pack 6a is now required for use with ProblemTracker Version 5.5.4. This will allow you to take advantage of the bug fixes related to IIS 4.0 and security. Service Pack 6a can be downloaded from Microsoft at: http://www.microsoft.com/ntserver/nts/downloads/recommended/SP6/allSP6.asp
Ensure your machine is prepared with the necessary components before upgrading to ProblemTracker 5.5.4 by reviewing the Preparation for Installing ProblemTracker section of the Online Help document.
Getting to Know ProblemTracker 5
Probably the best way to "test drive" the new features of ProblemTracker 5 is to make use of the default workgroup (pteval) which is optionally installed along with ProblemTracker 5. To login to this workgroup, select Start->Programs->NetResults ProblemTracker 5->ProblemTracker Eval Version->Login Page, and enter Admin as the username and password. This workgroup is configured with the template you select during the installation setup program. The data in the workgroup is what you would get by using the Add operation in the Workgroup Management System. You can use this as a test bed when reviewing the features described below. You can install this on a test system (test system use limited to 15 days).
AutoFill
ProblemTracker can be configured to collect basic information about your end user's machine and automatically fill this information in on the Add page when they add records to ProblemTracker. The AutoFill feature can collect details such as operating system, browser, and IP Address. You can enable this feature for Text and URL type fields in the Edit Field Attributes section of a field. Details can be found in the Customizing the Data Record section of the Administrative Help Guide
Home Page Improvements
The Home Page can now display a 3rd report and any of the reports on the Home Page can display a Saved Chart (if the user has the Metrics privilege). To display a third report on the Home Page or to display a saved chart as one of the reports for an individual user, click on the Preferences link in the upper right corner of the Home Page, make selections for First, Second, or Third Home Page Report fields, then click OK. To choose a report to be displayed as the Third Home Page Report or to display a saved chart for any new users added to the workgroup, make a selection for the First, Second, or Third Home Page Report fields in the User Preferences section of the workgroup's Admin page.
A pulldown is available for each of the Home Page reports to dynamically change the report or chart displayed to any other Saved Query or Saved Chart that is available to the user.
Paging is now available for saved charts displayed on the Home Page. As such, you may wish to suggest that your users take a look at their Maximum Records setting in the Report Settings section of their Preferences (click Preferences link on the Home Page) and consider lowering it if it is above 20. When there was no paging on the Home Page, some users raised this value to 100. With paging now available, they may want to lower it down so that their browser can display the home page more quickly. If you have raised this setting for newly added users in the User Preferences section of your workgroups Admin page, you may also wish to lower it back so that newly added users start with 20 as a default.
Required Fields
In previous versions, Product, Integer, and Float fields could not be set to force a user to make a selection or enter data before adding a new record. These fields can now be set as "Required" on the Add page such that a user has to make a selection or enter data before adding a new record. This field property can be configured in the Define Records section of the Admin page
Field Help
You can enter information to be used as "Field Help" to provide a description about a field for your end users. You enter the field help description in the Edit Field Attributes section of each field in Define Record. To allow users to access the Field Help, check the box for "Field Help" in a individual's Preferences section or in the Default User Preferences applied to new users.
Add Page
The difference between "Add & Copy" and "Add"
In ProblemTracker 5, there are 2 ways to add a new record.
Option 1: Use the "Add" button to save a new record
Option 2: Use the "Add & Copy" button to save a new record
To add a new record using the "Add" button:
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Creating a new record using this method will save the new record, then the Add page will be reloaded with all fields set to blank (e.g. for text & date fields) or default values (e.g. for pulldown fields). The function of the "Add" button has changed from ProblemTracker 3 and 4. In ProblemTracker 3 and 4, when the "Add" button was used to save a new record, the Add page would be reloaded, but the values of the pulldown fields would be displayed as they were entered in the record that was saved. This would allow a user to add a second record with similar information in the pulldown fields. This is now done by the "Add & Copy" button explained below. In ProblemTracker 5, when "Add" button is clicked to save a record, the Add form will re-set all fields to blank or default values.
To add a new record using the "Add & Copy" button:
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Creating a new record using this method will save the new record, then the Add page will be reloaded with some fields keeping the same value as was entered in the record you just saved. The Add page is set in this way so that it is ready for you to create another record. This is useful in cases where multiple records need to be added with similar information to be assigned to different departments, projects, or versions. You can customize which fields are saved for the next added record by editing the field attributes in the Define Record section of the Administration page.
Metrics
The Summary (Charts & Graphs) section has been changed to Metrics. The Metrics page allows you to create saved charts for personal use and user groups. Saved Charts can also be run based on the results of a Saved Query to limit the data set. Access to the Metrics page and the ability to save group charts and chart layouts are privileges that are enabled for the Users group by default. To change the privileges related to Metrics, please refer to the User Group Privileges section of the Administrative Help Guide. For more details on using the new Metrics features, please review the Metrics section of the User Help Guide.
Workflow Changes
When the Status field is displayed on the Add page, you can restrict the states that are displayed by using the Allowed Add State option in the Workflow Properties. This allows the user to select a state on the Add page from a list of relevant choices for the Product selected rather than from all states.
A new option has been added in "New Assignee" for transitions. The "LoginUser" (the user currently logged into ProblemTracker who selected the transition on the Task page) can be set as the "New Assignee" of a transition. This is useful in situations where a user needs to assign a record to his or her self (e.g. the record is currently assigned to TBD or another user).
The ability to configure "read-only" task fields is available in ProblemTracker 5. This allows a field that cannot be modified to be displayed during the task operation. Date fields can be configured as "read-only", initialized task fields. This allows a date field to be initialized (set with the current date & time) during the task operation, but cannot be modified by the user. More information on "read-only" task fields can be found in the Workflow Transitions section of the Administrative Help Guide.
General Preferences
In previous versions, the General Preference "Restrict Task Operation to Current Assignee" was enabled by default to prevent users from performing the Task operation on records in which they were not the current Assignee (the user listed in the "Assigned To" field). This General Preference has been changed to be a user group privilege called "Task Assigned Records". When this privilege is enabled for a user group, the members of the user group can only task records in which they are listed as the current Assignee. If your workgroup had the General Preference "Restrict Task Operation to Current Assignee" set to "Yes", all user groups which previously had the Task privilege will be given the privilege "Task Assigned Records" after upgrading to the latest version. If your workgroup had the preference "Restrict Task Operation to Current Assignee" set to "No", all user groups which previously had the Task privilege will be given the privileges "Task Assigned Records" and "Task All Records" after upgrading to the latest version. That way your workgroup will operate as it did before the upgrade. However, if you prefer to give this privilege only to select User Groups, you may now do so.
When the Assigned To field is displayed on the Add page, you can remove "State Manager" from being displayed as an option for this field. To remove "State Manager" set "Include 'State Manager' on the Assignee List on Add operation" to No in the General Preferences section of the workgroup's Admin page. Rather than the single special value State Manager being displayed, the system will instead dynamically change the Assigned To field value to the State Manager for the currently selected Product and Status (so as a user changes the Product and/or Status fields, the value of the Assigned To field will change to the appropriate State Manager).
User Group Privileges
The privilege called "Task Records in States:" has been added to allow a user group to task records in a particular state(s). This privilege is useful in situations where records are assigned to "TBD" and need to be processed using the Task operation. This privilege allows users to Task records in a limited set of states rather than only being able to Task records where they are the current assignee or being able to task any record in the system. By default no users will have this privilege when your system is upgraded, but you may wish to add it after upgrade.
A privilege called "Task All Records" has been added to allow a user group to task any record in the database. This privilege is useful in situations where records are assigned to "TBD" and need to be processed using the Task operation, but should not be limited to only task records in which they are the current assignee or records that are in particular states. After upgrade, if you had set "Restrict Task Operation to Current Assignee" to "No", this privilege will be given to all User Groups that had the Task privilege (to maintain backward compatibility). However, after upgrade, you may wish to limit this privilege to select User Groups (or perhaps add it to some that do not have it).
User Account Changes
Users for all workgroups are now managed in a central interface in the Workgroup Management System. This interface is called the License Administration section. In previous versions of ProblemTracker, a user could be added and edited within an individual workgroup. If the same user was a member of multiple workgroups, that user would need to be maintained in each of those workgroups. With the License Administration section, a user's account can be maintained in one location that updates all workgroups. Within each workgroup, a user can be assigned to user groups as in previous versions.
If you are using (or plan to use) multinational workgroups in ProblemTracker, any users with a User Id that contains double-byte or other special characters that are only supported in the UTF-8 character set (Unicode), can only be used in a workgroup with UTF-8 selected as the character set. For more information about choosing a character set for a workgroup, please review the Adding a Workgroup section of the Workgroup Management System Help Guide.
When upgrading a workgroup to the latest version, you will be prompted to upgrade your users. If you are upgrading multiple workgroups to and have user accounts that belong to more than one workgroup (excluding the built-in users Admin, Inet, TBD), you may be prompted to resolve "User Conflicts". User Conflicts are instances where a user id appears in more than one of your workgroups, but has different profile information (email address, phone number, address, etc.). You will be asked to resolve the conflict by selecting the profile information that should be saved for the user account. If you are using multiple workgroups, it is possible that you have a user account with the same user id in multiple workgroups. Upon upgrade, these user accounts with the same user id will be merged into a single user account. If you do not wish for these multiple accounts to be merged during the upgrade, before upgrading please rename the user accounts such that they no longer have the same user id.
If you choose to install the evaluation workgroup (pteval) during the installation setup program, a set of default users will be created in the License Administration section. These default users may cause you to exceed the number of users allowed based on your license key(s) if you have other users defined in your workgroup(s). For example, if you have a license key for 5 static users. You have one workgroup with 5 users defined and choose to install the pteval workgroup. After upgrading your workgroup to the latest version. you will have your original 5 users + 6 default users created for use in the pteval workgroup. You can use the Delete User operation to delete the 6 default users. Examples of these default users are "dev_mgr", "help_mgr", "sup_one", etc. After deleting the default users, your original users can still use the pteval workgroup. Simply give your original users access to the pteval workgroup by using the Edit User Access operation.
Please review the License Administration section of the Workgroup Management System (WMS) Help Guide for details about adding and maintaining users in ProblemTracker.
If you have any two (or more) user accounts (within a single workgroup or in different workgroups) where the User IDs differ only by case (for example, one user account has the User ID "johnsmith" and another user account has the User ID "JohnSmith"), you should change the User IDs until no two differ only by case. It is possible to make these changes as a part of the upgrade process (using the Upgrade Users operation referenced in the upgrade instructions below), but it is generally easier to do this in advance of upgrade. To make this change, do one of the following for each set of user accounts with User IDs that differ only by case.
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Other User Account Changes and Self Registration
You can configure the Workgroup Management System to allow workgroup Administrators to edit the user account information in the User Administration section can be enabled in the Workgroup Management System. Details on enabling this option can be found in the User License Administration Options section of the WMS Help Guide.
The option to allow users to update their own account information such as email address and phone number is available. To enable this option, grant the privilege "Edit Own User Account" to the relevant user groups in the User Group Privileges section. Members of user groups with this privilege enabled can update their account information by clicking on the Account Info link in the upper right corner of the Home Page.
A new feature has been added to allow user names that appear on the Home, Query, and View pages to appear as clickable links. When clicking on a user name on these pages, a separate window will be displayed with the user's account information. This feature is only enabled by default for the Admin group. To allow other user groups to use this feature, enable the user group privilege called "View User Information" for these user groups. This can be done in the User Administration section of the workgroup.
Users can now select the character used as the field (value) separator, character(s) used as row (record) separator, and file extension when exporting data from the Query, Home, and Metrics pages. Information to help users make an appropriate selection can be found in the Preferences section.
Users can create a new user account using the Self Registration feature. You can enable this feature using the information on the Self Registration section of the Admin Help Guide.
The "Customer" user type has been renamed to be "External".
Email Notification
Email notification preferences can now be pushed to all products in a single operation. If you have many products that all use the same email notification rules, you may wish to use this feature when you update the email rules.
The email notification messages triggered by operations in ProblemTracker now include customizable items such as Subject, Greeting, and Signature. Please review the Setting Notification Preferences section of the Administrative Help Guide for details on customizing these new items. You can also restrict which of these new items are included in the emails to each user group via User Group Privileges. After upgrade, the content of email notifications will remain the same. However, you may wish to customize the rules to better fit your use of ProblemTracker. Also, if you had users that got too many duplicate emails, you may wish to try to merge (delete) some email rules. In the latest version, a single email rule will not send more than one email to a user even if they are specified multiple times on the Notification List (e.g. if they happen to be the Assignee, State Manager, and Reporter for a particular record).
In previous versions, the option whether to include a hyperlink in the email notification messages was available in the Email Configuration section. This has been changed to be a user group privilege called "Link" in the Email privileges. If the option "Include hyperlink in notification emails to view the record" was set to "Yes", the "Link" Email privilege will be enabled for all user groups after upgrading your workgroup to the latest version to maintain backward compatibility. To change privileges granted to a user group, please review the User Group Privileges Help section.
In previous versions, the URL included in the email notification messages was based on the host name, IP address, and port information entered while running the ProblemTracker installation setup program. The URL included in the email notification messages will now be based on the host name, IP Address, and port number details entered for a workgroup. To check this information for a workgroup, refer to the Viewing a Workgroup section of the Workgroup Management System Help Guide.
You can set ProblemTracker to use authentication when generating email notification messages. Details on enabling authentication can be found in the Set the Mail Server Configuration section.
Query Page
When running an ad-hoc query on the Query page, the report layout can be dynamically selected using the Report Layout pulldown at the top of the page (under the Run Query button). This option used to be at the bottom of the page. It still functions in the same manner, it has just been moved.
When you select a Saved Query from the Saved Queries bar, the Report Layout displayed in the Report Layouts bar will change to the Report Layout associated with the (newly selected) Saved Query. This allows your users to easily determine which Report Layout is associated with a Saved Query and/or Edit that Report Layout. Additionally, divider entries have been added to the Saved Queries pulldown to clearly separate Standard Saved Queries (divider label is "-------- Standard --------") from Advanced Saved Queries (divider label is "------- Advanced -------"). There will be no Advanced divider label if a user does not have access to any Advanced Saved Queries.
Workgroup Administrators can now create and edit saved queries and report layouts for all user groups without having to be a member of every user group. To add or remove the Admin user from a user group, please review the User Groups Help section.
Edit Page
The Edit Page still has the same operations; however, the Edit Attachments and Edit Alert buttons have been replaced with icons that have more complete descriptions of each operation as tool tip text (help text that pops up when the mouse is moved over the icon). These same icons
are used on the View page when displaying lists of Attachments and Alert Settings. Also, the OK button on the Edit page has been renamed to "Update Fields (OK)" to more clearly describe what is done when the OK button is clicked (the fields in the record are updated with the values displayed on the Edit page). Clicking the button performs the same operation as it did in previous versions, only the button name (label) has been changed.
Inet Page
The Inet Page (Customer Bug Page) can now enabled or disabled in the General Preferences section of the workgroup. By default, the Inet Page is enabled for all upgraded workgroups to maintain backward compatibility. To disable the Inet Page, login to the workgroup as Admin, click on the Admin icon, click on the General Preferences button, set the option "Enable Inet Page" to "No", then click OK to save this change. More information about this feature can be found in the Inet Page section of the Admin Help Guide.
Workgroup Management System (WMS)
In previous versions, an option to enable / disable remote access to WMS was available. This option has been removed. To enable or disable remote access to WMS, please use the instructions in the WMS Security FAQ entry.
ProblemTracker Enterprise Edition Version 5.5.4 (PTEE 5.5.4) Features
If you are simply upgrading to ProblemTracker Version 5.5.4 (standard edition) without purchasing PTEE 5.5.4, click here to skip this section. If you have purchased license(s) for ProblemTracker Enterprise Edition Version 5.5.4 (PTEE 5.5.4), please review the information in the following section:
Alerts (PTEE 5.5.4)
The Alerts feature is included in PTEE 5.5.4. Alerts allows you to schedule a notification message to be sent for a record at a particular date and time. These alert messages can be used as reminders to take action on a record or can be used to escalate a record which has not progressed through the workflow. To set up the Alerts feature after your upgrade to PTEE 5.5.4, please review the Customizing Alerts section of the Online Help document.
Discussion (PTEE 5.5.4)
The Discussion feature is included in PTEE 5.5.4. Discussion allows you to initiate discussions within a record in ProblemTracker. These discussions allow your users to collaborate on various topics relevant to a record in parallel to the record's progress through the workflow. To set up the Discussion feature after your upgrade to PTEE 5.5.4, please review the Customizing Discussions section of the Online Help document.
Additional Options to Add to Your ProblemTracker Installation
For information on purchasing the following options, contact NetResults Sales.
Knowledge Base
ProblemTracker has a Knowledge Base feature available. This feature will allow you to create and publish articles that can be searched by your end users.
Add API
An API is available to add records to ProblemTracker from external applications.
Adding Records via Email
ProblemTracker has a feature which allows records to be added to ProblemTracker by sending an email.
Download Link and Upgrade Instructions
Download Information
Please browse to the ProblemTracker 5.5.4 Download Request page, enter the license information from your current ProblemTracker installation, enter your name & email address, and click the Request Download Link button. An email with a link you can use to download ProblemTracker 5.5.4 or ProblemTracker Enterprise Edition 5.5.4 will be sent to you.
Upgrade Instructions
For Upgrade Instructions, please refer to the Upgrading from Versions 4.0 - 4.0.3 to Version 5.5.4 section of the Version 5.5.4 readme.
Support Resources
If you have feedback or questions about this release, please contact NetResults Technical Support for assistance. An Online Help document is also available for this release. If you receive any errors during the installation, upgrade process, or while using ProblemTracker, please consult the Installation Errors section of the FAQ and/or the Known Issues section of this page.