NetResults Tracker: Upgrade from Version 5.0.x (5.0

Product

Upgrade from Version 5.0.x (5.0 - 5.0.2) to Version 6.0.0

Upgrade Steps

Please use the information below to upgrade from Version 5.x (5.0 to 5.0.2) to Version 6.0.0. These instructions can be used for a licensed copy of the software or for an evaluation copy. This procedure assumes that you are installing NetResults Tracker Version 6.0.0 on the same machine where you have NetResults Tracker 5.0.x installed. If you are installing NetResults Tracker Version 6.0.0 on a different machine than where you have NetResults Tracker 5.0.x installed, please use the following Version 6.x Move and Upgrade KB article for instructions.

Prior to installing the software, please make sure that you meet the Version 6.0.0 Requirements. The requirements have changed in 6.0.0.
Review the Upgrade Preparation section to find out how the upgrade will affect your Version 5.0.x data
Review the Known Limitations (recently discovered issues) in the latest release. You may find an issue in there which is significant enough that you will want to wait until a fix is available in a patch or maintenance release (often available within a few days or weeks).
Upgrade your installation

Upgrade Preparation

This section provides information about changes from version 5.0.x to 6.0.0 that you should be aware of before upgrading. While we have worked very hard to ensure that the upgrade is backward compatible in terms of end user interface, there are some differences which will be visible to end users. Also, with so many new features (especially multiple Projects, Forms, and Workflows), there are significant changes for administrators. For a full list of new features (along with information on how to enable these new features), please browse to the Version 6.0.0 Features and Fixes documentation.

Note: The name of the product ProblemTracker has been changed to "NetResults Tracker".

Getting to Know Version 6.0.0

One of the best ways to learn about new features is to try them out yourself. To do this, you can install 6.0.0 on a test system (test system use limited to 15 days) and make use of the default workgroup (pteval) which is optionally installed. If you've installed on a test system, you can login to the pteval workgroup by selecting Start > Programs > NetResults Tracker > Evaluation Workgroup, and enter Admin as the user id and password. This workgroup is configured with the template you selected 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.

Another way to try out version 6.0.0 is to request a Personal Live Trial on our web site. Within one business day we will set up a workgroup exclusively for your use on one of our web servers. All you need is a web browser.

Administration Section Changes

Interfaces for adding and maintaining multiple Projects, Forms and Workflows within a single workgroup have been added. The new Manage Projects, Manage Forms, Manage Fields, and Manage Workflows sections are where you will now find configuration for Fields, Workflow, Alerts, and Email Rules. While you can still use the Workgroup Management System (WMS) to create separate workgroups for projects that are unrelated (or must remain physically independent), you now have the option to also create multiple projects within a single workgroup. Projects that are in the same workgroup can (optionally) share Forms and/or Workflows. And, reports can be created that span multiple Projects and/or multiple Forms with a workgroup.

Each Project makes use of one or more Forms (record types). For each Form within a Project, you can specify which Workflow (states, transitions, etc.) is used as well as which User Groups can access that Form in the Project. You can also specify the set of State Managers for each Form in the Project and (if you have the Submit via Email Add-On) rules for processing Incoming Emails for each Form in the Project. The Manage Projects section is where you now configure State Managers and Incoming Email Settings (for those with Submit via Email) as well as Project & Form Visibility. Immediately after upgrade, you will have a single Project.

Each Form is composed of one or more Fields. A Form (record type) can be used in a single Project or shared across multiple Projects. A Field can be used in a single Form or can be shared across multiple Forms. The Manage Forms section is where you Add, Edit, and Delete Forms and associate Forms with Fields. The Manage Fields section is where you Add, Edit, and Delete "Global" Fields which can be associated with each Form. Immediately after upgrade all Fields will be associated with a single Form which represents your old Define Record configuration. The Manage Fields section is also where you now manage Option Menu Items (including dependencies for option menu items) by clicking on the Items button for a Field.

Each Workflow is composed of States, Transitions between those States, Outgoing Email Rules (email notifications for when records change) and (if using Enterprise Edition) Alert Settings (email notifications for when records don't change by a particular date/time). A Workflow can be used for a single Form or shared across multiple Forms. Also, the same Form (for example Trouble Ticket) can be used in more than one Project with a different Workflow in each Project (Workflow is specified for each Form in each Project). States can be used in a single Workflow or shared across multiple Workflows. The Manage Workflows section is where you now configure States, Transitions, Alerts, and Outgoing Email Rules. Immediately after upgrade you will have two workflows. One workflow which represents your previous workgroup Workflow and a new <Empty> Workflow which can be used for new Forms that have no Workflow.

In your upgraded workgroup, the names given to the single Project, Form, and Workflow which you had prior to upgrade will be based on what template you selected when you first created your workgroup.

If the Product Development template (previously known as Software Development) was used, the Project is called "Product Development", the Form is called "Issue" and the Workflow is called "Product Issue Process".
For Web Site Development, the Project is called "Web Site Development", the Form is called "Issue" and the Workflow is called "Web Site Issue Process".
For Knowledge Base, the Project is called "Knowledge Base", the Form is called "Article" and the Workflow is called "KB Article Process".
For Help Desk, the Project is called "Help Desk", the Form is called "Ticket" and the Workflow is called "Help Desk Ticket Process".
For Support, the Project is called "Support", the Form is called "Ticket" and the Workflow is called "Support Ticket Process".

The Project, Form, and Workflow names will not be immediately visible to your end users. Workflow names are never visible outside of the Administration section. The Project and/or Form names are only visible when a user has access to more than one Project or Form. So until, you have (a) created a new Project or Form and (b) given a user access to more than one Project or Form, no end user will see Project or Form names. However, now is probably still a good time to review the names which were given to your one Project, Form and Workflow during upgrade and change them, if necessary, to something more appropriate to your current use. To update the name of a Project, login as Admin, click on the Admin icon, click on the Manage Projects button, click on the Edit link to the right of the Project heading at the top of project tree structure. Update the Name of the project and click OK to save the change. To update the name of a Form, login as Admin and click on the Admin icon, click on the Manage Forms button, click on the Edit button to the left of the form. Update the Name of the form and click OK to save the change. To update the name of a Workflow, login as Admin, click on the Admin icon, click on the Manage Workflows button, click on the Edit button to the left of the Workflow. Update the Name of the Workflow and click OK to save the Change.

Saved Queries and Charts now have the upgraded Project and upgraded Form selected as part of the criteria so that existing reports will function as they did prior to the upgrade when you add new projects and forms to your workgroup. The system reports "Default [Users]", "Assigned To Me [Users]", "Reported By Me [Users]", "Added By Me [RestrictedUsers]" have "*" selected for Project and Form so that users will see records for all projects and forms to which they have access. For now, no one will see the Project or Form criteria (that is only visible when a user has access to more than one Project or Form).

If you wish to add more Projects, Forms and Workflows, please review the Getting Started with Tracker section of the Administrative Help Guide for more information about making use of these powerful new features. You may also wish to review the Managing Projects, Managing Forms, Managing Fields, Customizing Menu Items, and Managing Workflows sections.

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.

Alerts

Alerts that are applied to newly added records can now be set differently based on the value of any one pulldown field. Previously they could only be set based on "Product" pulldown field. Alerts are now configured for each form in the Manage Workflows section. After upgrading, the Alert settings for your form will be set with the "Based On" property set to "Product". If you renamed Product to be something else (e.g. Request Type, Customer, etc.), it will still be used as the "Based On" property for alerts. If the alert settings are the same for all values of the Product field, change the "Based On" property to "<None>". To check whether the alert settings are the same for all products, login as Admin, click on the Admin icon, click on the Manage Workflows button, click on the Expand All link to the right of Forms. Check to see whether the alert settings are set the same for all products. If they are not the same, no further action needs to be taken. If they are the same, you can simplify the alert settings by clicking on the Edit Based On link to the right of Alert. Set the Based On Pulldown field to "<None>" and click OK.

Branding

There are many new options to allow you to use names/titles that are more appropriate for your installation than NetResults Tracker (or ProblemTracker). Immediately after upgrade, references to ProblemTracker are replaced with NetResults Tracker and ProblemTracker logos are replaced with "powered by NetResults Tracker" links. However, you are now free to reconfigure most references to NetResults Tracker (other than the "powered by NetResults Tracker" links).

You may wish to reconfigure the web "Page Title" (which shows up at the top of the browser windows, or for tabbed browsers in the tab, and shows up in bookmarks/favorites). You can also reconfigure the Page Titles for the Submit Pages (Submit via Web for Unregistered Users), and the Knowledge Base pages (Search, Results, and Item).

The "Header Text" at the top of the login box and on the page for Self-registration can be customized.

All references to "ProblemTracker / NetResults Tracker" in Alert and Discussion notification emails are now configurable (they use the Page Title property referenced above).

You can also enter a custom Help link in General Preferences to change what is displayed when a user clicks on the Help icon in the Button Bar. This allows you to display your own Help documentation to guide your end users. A separate Help link can be entered for standard and restricted users.

Context-Sensitive Help

The context-sensitive Help links on every page in NetResults Tracker have been moved up to the Status bar (on the far right). You also now have the option to remove this entirely for select User Groups (if, for instance, you only want them browsing to your custom Help).

Email Notifications

Outgoing Email Rules can now be set differently based on the value of any one pulldown field. Previously they could only be set based on the Product pulldown field. Email Rules are now configured in the Manage Workflows section (previously Email Rules were configured in the Email Configuration Admin section). After upgrading, your Outgoing Email Rules will be set with the "Based On" property set to "Product" (if you renamed Product to be something else (e.g. Request Type, Customer, etc.), it will still be used as the "Based On" property for email rules). If the email rules are the same for all values of the Product field, change the "Based On" property to "<None>". To check whether the email rules are the same for all products, login as Admin, click on the Admin icon, click on the Manage Workflows button, click on the Expand All link to the right of Outgoing Email Rules. Check to see whether the email rules are set the same for all products. If they are not the same, no further action needs to be taken. If they are the same, you can simplify the email rules by clicking on the Edit Based On link to the right of Outgoing Email Rules. Set the Based On Pulldown field to "<None>" and click OK.

Previously, email notifications could not be sent to users without an account in NetResults Tracker. Email notifications can now be sent to end users without a NetResults Tracker user account who report issues via the Submit via Web Page (formerly known as the Inet Page) or using the Submit via Email feature. To do this, designate a Text field to be the Unregistered User Email by logging in as Admin, clicking on the Admin icon, clicking on the Define Record button, clicking on the Text field you wish to designate as the Unregistered User Email (or create a new field for this purpose), clicking on the Edit button, setting the Unregistered User Email property to Yes and clicking OK. The Text field you selected should have the Include on Inet Page option set to "Yes" so the field is displayed on the Inet Page for the user reporting the issue to enter his/her email address to receive notifications. Users can receive a confirmation when reporting an issue and/or on actions performed on the issue after it is added. Decide when these users should be notified by setting the Send Email Notifications On option in the General Preferences section. Then, update the appropriate Email Rules to select "<Unregistered User>" so the unregistered user will receive the email notifications.

The email notification messages triggered by operations in Tracker now include customizable items such as Subject, Greeting, and Signature. Please review the Email Common Content section 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 Tracker. 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 Tracker 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.

You can set Tracker to use authentication when generating email notification messages. Details on enabling authentication can be found in the Set the Mail Server Configuration section.

Fields

The Annotate operation on TextArea fields is now configurable. By default, it will operate as it did prior to upgrade (all TextArea fields will have an Annotate button next to them which can optionally be used). However, you may wish to consider changing the in some situations (for instance, removing the Annotate button from the Add page). For each TextArea field you use, you can now specify whether the Annotate button is available for that field on the Add, Submit, Edit and/or Task operations. You can also specify whether or not Annotation should automatically be performed (so the user does not need to remember to click the Annotate button) on Add, Submit, and Task operations. Additionally, an Append option is now available for you to specify that data which is entered into TextArea Task Fields should be added to the end of the TextArea field (to keep existing information in the field from being altered during the Task operation).

Option menu items can now be marked as "obsolete". Obsolete option menu items cannot be used when creating new records or modifying existing records; however, they can still continue to be referenced in old records (those added or modified prior to the item being marked obsolete) and as search criteria for the Query Page (so you can still search for records which use the obsolete values). The Check DB Values utility has been removed. It is no longer needed since items can now be marked as obsolete. In upgraded workgroups, any option menu items which were deleted, but left in existing records, will be marked as obsolete automatically during the upgrade.

A calendar object has been added for entering dates into Date fields. Previously, all date/time values except for "Now" (the current date/time) had to be typed in. The "Now" operation has been moved into the new calendar object (Now button on the lower left).

Required fields can be displayed on the Add, Submit via Web and Task pages in a particular color, in bold and/or with a special character (based on the settings for the "Required Field Highlights" option in the General Preferences section). Immediately after upgrade, required fields will be highlighted with a different color (Green). If you are currently using a special character as part of a field's label for this purpose, remove the character from the field label and set it in the General Preferences page instead. To remove the character from the field's label: Login as Admin, click on the Admin icon, click on the Manage Fields button, click on the Edit button to the left of the field, remove the character from the Label field and click OK. To set the special character in the General Preferences section: Login as Admin, click on the Admin icon, click on the General Preferences button, check the box "Character" for the "Required Field Highlights" option, enter the character in the text box to the right of "Character" and click OK to save the change.

Tracker 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 Tracker. 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 section of a field. Details can be found in the Managing Fields section of the Administrative Help Guide

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 Manage Fields section of the Admin page.

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 section of each field in Manage Fields. 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.

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.

Login Page

Adding custom HTML to the top and bottom of the Login Page can now be done from the Login Options Admin section instead of modifying the logintop.inc and loginbottom.inc files. To move any custom HTML you have added to the Login Page, you will need to save a copy of the logintop.inc and loginbottom.inc files and keep them in a safe place before you upgrade to Version 6.0.0. To move the custom HTML: Login as Admin and click on the Admin icon. Click on the Login Options button. Copy the custom HTML added to the logintop.inc file and paste it into the field "Custom HTML (Top of Page)" field. Copy the custom HTML added to the loginbottom.inc file and paste it into the field "Custom HTML (Bottom of Page)" and click OK to save the changes.

Additional customization options are available for the Login Page such as setting the Header and Instruction text and customizing the color preferences.

Look and Feel Enhancements

Many enhancements have been added to allow the look and feel of NetResults Tracker to be customized. We will not go through them all here (see Version 6.0.0 Features and Fixes for a list). However, we will point out a few that you may wish to review immediately after upgrade.

The Color Preferences for your workgroup will be upgraded to use the "Version 6" theme (a set of pre-configured colors for the entire workgroup). If you wish to revert back to the color scheme you were using in the previous version, login as Admin, click on the Admin icon, click on the Color Preferences button, set the "Theme" option to "Version 5" and click OK.

If the Background Color for your Submit via Web Page is set to default (#C0C0C0), the Color Preferences for the Submit via Web page will be upgraded to use the "Version 6" colors. If you would like to revert back to the Version 5 color scheme, login as Admin, click on the Admin icon and click on the Submit Page Options button. In the General Color Settings section, set Page Background to "#C0C0C0", Page Text (Field Labels), Required Field Label Text and Input Text (Field Values) to "Black", Input Background to "White" and check the option "Use Default Buttons (& Inputs)" for IE Browser Button Settings and Other Browser Button Settings. If the Background Color for the Submit Page is not set to the default color and you would like to change the color scheme to match the Version 6 color scheme, login as Admin, click on the Admin icon and click on the Submit Page Options button. In the General Color Settings section, set Page Background to "<Custom> #FDFDFD", Page Text (Field Labels) to "<Custom> #0845C0", Required Field Label Text to "<Custom> #099801", Input Background to "White" and Input Text (Field Values) to "Black". For IE Browser Button Settings, uncheck the option for "Use Default Buttons (& Inputs)", set Gradient to "Bottom to Top", Background to "<Custom> #8CB0F8", Text to "<Custom> #212A39" and Border to "<Custom> #8CB0F8". For Other Browser Button Settings, check the box for the option "Use Default Buttons (& Inputs)".

Record Visibility

The Record Visibility options for records submitted by unregistered users (records added via the Submit Page or the Submit via Email feature) are now located in the Record Visibility section of the General Preferences page.

Reports

In previous versions, the list of Saved Queries on the Home and Query pages were sorted by Type (Standard or Advanced) first, then by User Group (with personal reports first), then by Name. Saved Queries are no longer divided up into Standard or Advanced (that is now just a property of the report that is visible when creating or adding the report). So, Saved Queries are now only sorted by User Group and Name. Saved Charts (Metrics) continue to be sorted by User Group and Name as well. For backward compatibility, reports (both Saved Queries and Saved Charts) are still sorted by User Group first and Name second. However, you may wish to change your system to sort reports by Name first and User Group second (User Group would then only be used if two reports have the exact same Name). Though this would be a change from previous versions, it may better meet the expectations of your end users. A general preference to choose how report names are sorted in the report pulldowns on the Home, Query, Metrics and Preferences pages is available. This affects the sorting for all users in the workgroup.

A knowledge base style search of all text fields is now available in the Query page. Your users will now see that at the top of the Query page.

An option to search within a date range relative to the current date and time (e.g. Date Reported is within the previous 6 days, Test Date is within the next 3 days) is now available for use in Standard and Advanced Queries. If you have existing Saved Queries with hard-coded date ranges that you periodically update, you may wish to update them to use this new option so that they no longer need to be updated.

In versions prior to 5.5.1, there was a defect which could result in the Default Input Records setting of a Saved Chart being inadvertently changed to "Default [Users]" when a Saved Query was deleted. This defect would only modify Saved Charts which had something other than <All Records> as the Default Input Records setting. You may wish to (and you may wish to have your users) review the Default Input Records setting of your Saved Charts to make sure that they are set correctly. To do this, click on the Metrics icon, then select each Saved Chart. As you select each Saved Chart, note the Input Records setting which is displayed. If it is "Default [Users]" (and you do not want it to be "Default [Users]"), then click the Edit icon, change the Default Input Records to the appropriate Saved Query, and click OK. Further information on Saved Charts can be found in the Metrics section of the Users Guide.

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.

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.

Restricted Users

The privileges available to Restricted Users has been expanded to include ability to edit fields and attachments for records in particular states, task records, and participate in discussions. Immediately after upgrade, Restricted Users will have the same privileges they did before upgrade. You may wish to consider expanding their privileges.

Submit via Web for Unregistered Users

The Inet Page is now called Submit via Web for Unregistered Users or simply the Submit Page.

Previously, only the top, bottom and background of the Submit Page could be customized. Now, virtually all aspects of the Submit Page can be customized such as the date settings, page header, page title, submit button label and action, confirmation page message and confirmation page button action, among others. These options allow the Submit Page to be more seamlessly integrated with your web site. More information can be found in the Submit Page Help section.

The Submit Page can now enabled or disabled in the General Preferences section of the workgroup. By default, the Submit Page is enabled for all upgraded workgroups to maintain backward compatibility. To disable the Submit Page, login to the workgroup as Admin, click on the Admin icon, click on the General Preferences button, set the option "Enable Submit Page" to "No", then click OK to save this change.

Users and User Management

Global user operations (adding, editing and deleting user accounts, giving users access to workgroups) have been moved from the Workgroup Management System (WMS) to a new interface called the User Management System (UMS). UMS also includes a search operation to quickly find users by name, workgroup, license type or other profile information.

You can now delegate the Add and Delete user options to local Workgroup Administrators who can use the User Administration section to Add or Delete users by changing the settings of the UMS Administrative Options. To enable these options, login to the User Management System (UMS), click on the Admin icon, select the option "Set User Account Options", click Continue, set the options as desired and click Update to save the changes.

User group privileges are now classified as "global" or "non-global" privileges. Non-global privileges are privileges that are applied based on the Projects and Forms to which a user group has access. Meaning, that users will only be able to utilize the privileges they are granted for the Projects and Forms to which they have access. Global privileges are privileges that are applied irrespective of the Projects and Forms that are visible to a user group. In an upgraded workgroup, all user groups will have access to the Project and Form in your workgroup and user group privileges will be applied as in previous versions. If you change which user groups have access to the Project and Form, please review the information in the User Group Privileges section to understand how the Project and Form visibility will affect a user group's privileges.

Users can now reset their own password if it has been forgotten using a Security Question and Answer. Enable this feature by setting the "Enable Reset Password" option in the General Preferences section. Once the feature is enabled, have each user set up their Security Question and Answer in the Preferences section.

User history information such as Last Login Time, Last Login Workgroup and the dates when a user was added, deleted and restored to a workgroup are available using the View operation in UMS. This information will only be available for users accounts that are added, deleted, restored or who have logged in since the upgrade to Version 6.0.0.

The privilege "Can Be Assignee for Edit" has been added to allow user groups to be granted / denied the ability to be listed in the Assigned To field when the Edit operation is used to modify a record.

Previously, the option for enabling the Self Registration option could be found in the General Preferences section and the options for customizing this feature could be found in the User Administration section. All Self Registration options have been moved to the Login Options Admin section.

In previous versions, the user name "Internet User" was listed as the Reporter for records that were added by an anonymous user via the Submit via Web page or the Submit via Email features. This user has been renamed to "Unregistered User". If you still display User ID in reports, Inet will continue to be displayed (the User ID remains the same for backward compatibility even though the Full Name associated with the User ID has changed).

An option has been added to enable or disable the User Type property for user accounts. On upgrade, this option is enabled to allow the use of the User Type property. The User Type property allows a non-Restricted user to be marked as "External" for the purpose of excluding that user from the Assigned To list on the Add page. However, the same effect of excluding a user from the Assigned To list on the Add or Edit pages can be achieved by using the Can Be Assignee for Add and Can Be Assignee for Edit user group privileges. The User Type property has been deprecated and will be removed in a future release. It is recommended that you configure your user group privileges to deny the Can be Assignee for Add and/or Can Be Assignee for Edit to any user groups that should not be listed in the Assigned To field on the Add or Edit pages. This will prepare your system for the removal of the User Type property in a future release.

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).

The ability to allow workgroup Administrators to edit the user account information in the User Administration section can be enabled in the User Management System. Details on enabling this option can be found in the Administration Options section of the UMS 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.

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.

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 Manage Workflows. 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 Tracker 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).

In version 5.0.x, 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).

Performance

For optimal performance, it is required 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 NetResults Tracker to be processed as quickly as possible using a fast connection to a local mail server dedicated to Tracker. That mail server can then forward the emails on to their destination "in the background". This can provide significantly improved performance for operations in NetResults Tracker that generate email notification messages such as Add, Task, and Edit. Significant performance issues can be caused by use of a "remote" mail server which is heavily loaded with antivirus and spam filtering tasks. If your mail server is not located on the same machine as NetResults Tracker, please use the information in the Performance Tuning Knowledge Base article to set up the SMTP Mail Server that is included with Internet Information Server and have this server forward the email to your current (remote) mail server "in the background". Please do not make your users wait for your mail server to process all outgoing emails in order to complete each Add, Edit, Task, or Delete operation they perform. Instead, follow our best practices and use a local (possibly "intermediate") mail server to store and forward the emails which are generated by Tracker operations.

Upgrade Instructions

Login to the web server machine as a local Administrator
If you have not already done so, please apply the Daylight Savings Time Patch to your installation before proceeding. If you are not sure whether the patch has been applied to your installation, use Windows Explorer to go to <installation directory>/pttemplate/Include where <installation directory> is the location of your ProblemTracker installation files. By default this is C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\ProblemTracker. Inside the Include folder, right click on the file called PTTimeZone.inc. On the General tab, check the date and time the file was modified. If it is February 22, 2007 8:30:46pm Pacific time or later, then the patch has been applied to your installation. Failure to apply the Daylight Savings Time patch before you upgrade could result in dates in your data between March 11, 2007 and April 1, 2007 being off by 1 hour after upgrade.
Prior to installing NetResults Tracker Version 6.0.0 , block all of your workgroups via the Workgroup Management System (WMS) while you perform the upgrade. To end any active sessions and block a workgroup:
1. Login to WMS and click on the Admin icon
2. Select the option Block / Unblock Workgroups, then click on the Continue button
3. Select a workgroup, then click on the Block button. Repeat this to block each workgroup.
BACKUP ALL OF YOUR NetResults Tracker DATABASES BEFORE PROCEEDING. Instructions for backing up your installation can be found here. IMPORTANT NOTE FOR ALL USERS: It is REQUIRED that you either copy the database file(s) to a safe place (Access only) or perform a backup (Access, SQL Server or Oracle). UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES IS NETRESULTS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE LOSS OF ANY DATA AS THE RESULT OF THE INSTALLATION PROCESS.
Temporarily disable any anti-virus software while you run the Version 6.0.0 installation program and perform configuration steps in the Workgroup Management System (WMS). This is recommended so that your anti-virus software will not prevent the installation program or WMS from performing operations such as copying files, running scripts, configuring your web server, setting file permissions and registry entries. Your anti-virus software can be reactivated safely after you have completed the installation steps and any necessary WMS configuration.
The installation program will stop and restart the IIS web server as part of the installation. Please note that after running the NetResults Tracker Version 6.0.0 installation setup program, you will not be able to access your Version 5.0.x workgroups until you complete the upgrade process for all workgroups.
Run the installation setup program (double-click from Windows Explorer): nrtse600.exe (NetResults Tracker Standard Edition 6.0.0) or nrtee600.exe (NetResults Tracker Enterprise Edition 6.0.0).

You will be prompted about the new interface called the User Management System (UMS). You will be prompted to choose whether you wish to use the default password to access UMS or whether you would like to set a new password. Click Next if you wish to use the default password (If you choose this option, you will use "useradmin" as both the User ID and password to access UMS. You can change the password after logging into UMS for the first time.). Or, you can change the default password by entering and confirming the new password you wish to use before clicking Next to proceed.

Enter your Version 6 license key(s) information by going to Start->Programs->NetResults Tracker->NetResults Tracker License Manager.
When the installation setup program has finished, you will be asked to reboot your system.
Login to the Workgroup Management System (WMS) by going to Start->Programs->NetResults Tracker->Workgroup Management System. To upgrade your workgroups, click on the Admin icon on the Button bar. Select the option "Upgrade workgroups from versions 4.x / 5.x to NetResults Tracker 6.0.0 ", then click on the Continue button.
A list of workgroups that need to be upgraded from Version 5.0.x to Version 6.0.0 will be displayed. Select a workgroup from the pulldown, then click on the "Upgrade Workgroup" button to proceed then click OK to confirm.

Once the workgroup files have been upgraded successfully, a confirmation page will be displayed. You will be prompted to upgrade the data for the workgroup. Click on the Continue button to proceed with upgrading your database. A confirmation page will be displayed with details about your database, click on the Upgrade Data button, then click OK to confirm the operation. A confirmation page will be displayed once the database has been upgraded. Click OK to return to the Administration Menu.
To upgrade another workgroup, repeat steps 8 - 9 until all workgroups have been upgraded.
Re-activate your anti-virus software.
If you are using Alerts, you will need to update the path for the Scheduled Task which you have configured to run for this feature. To do this, go to Start > Control Panel > Scheduled Tasks and select the scheduled task that is used with the Alerts feature. Right click on the task and select Properties. On the Task tab, the Run field will have "CScript.exe "<PTAlerts.jse file path>" //B //H:CScript" where <PTAlerts.jse file path> is C:\Program Files\NetResults\ProblemTracker5 by default. Change "<PTAlerts.jse file path>" to be the new program files path, which is C:\Program Files\NetResults\Tracker\PTAlerts.jse. Also, change the "Start In" field to reflect the location of the Program Files folder (C:\Program Files\NetResults\Tracker).
As of Version 6.0.0 , adding custom HTML to the top and bottom of the Login Page can now be done from the Login Options Admin section instead of modifying the logintop.inc and loginbottom.inc files. To move the custom HTML: Login as Admin and click on the Admin icon. Click on the Login Options button. Copy the custom HTML added to the logintop.inc file and paste it into the field "Custom HTML (Top of Page)" field. Copy the custom HTML added to the loginbottom.inc file and paste it into the field "Custom HTML (Bottom of Page)" and click OK to save the changes.
Download and apply Patch A for Version 6.0.0 using the instructions in the Version 6.0.0 Patch A Readme.

Your system has now been upgraded to Version 6.0.0 for all workgroups.

Support Resources

To request support or if you have feedback or questions about this release, please browse to the Technical Support page. A set of Help Manuals are available with your installation and online. And, the Knowledge Base has been updated with Version 6 "How To" and Troubleshooting articles.