Upgrade from Version 5.0.x (5.0 - 5.0.2) to Version 6.5.1
Upgrade Steps
Please use the information below to upgrade from Version 5.x (5.0 to 5.0.2) to Version 6.5.1. These instructions can be used for a licensed copy of the software or for an evaluation copy.
- Prior to installing the software, please make sure that you meet the Version 6.5.1 Requirements. The requirements have changed in 6.5.1.
- 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. This procedure assumes that you are installing NetResults Tracker Version 6.5.1 on the same machine where you have NetResults Tracker 5.0.x installed. If you are installing NetResults Tracker Version 6.5.1 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.
Upgrade Preparation
This section provides information about changes from version 5.0.x to 6.5.1 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 6.5.1 Features and Fixes documentation.
Note: The name of the product ProblemTracker has been changed to "NetResults Tracker".
Getting to Know Version 6.5.1
One of the best ways to learn about new features is to try them out yourself. To do this, you can install 6.5.1 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 6.5.1 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 Projects, Forms, Fields and 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 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 Forms section is where you Add, Edit, and Delete Forms and associate Forms with Fields. The 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 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 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
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 Projects link, 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 Forms link, 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 Workflows link, 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 Projects, Forms, Fields, Customizing Menu Items, and Workflows sections.
General
New inline help features have been added. These allow you to display instructions within the pages for operations such as Add, Edit and Task.
- An instruction message can be configured to appear near the top of the Add, Edit and Task pages to guide your users about how to use those operations. To set this for Add, Edit and Delete, login as Admin, click on the Admin icon, click on the projects link, click on the Edit button to the right of "Other Properties" for the Form you wish to modify. To set this for Task, click on the Workflows link in the Admin section, click on the Global States button, click Edit next to the desired state and edit the Instruction Message property.
- Inline help can be defined for each Transition. An administrator can configure a summary of each Transition which will be displayed on the page which lists all allowed Transitions for a particular record. Instructional text can be configured to appear near the top of the Task Fields page which is displayed after a Transition is selected (to provide general information on how to set the Task Fields for the Transition) by clicking on the Edit button to the left of the transition. To set these properties, click on the Workflows link in the Admin section, click on the Manage link next to States, click on the desired state, click on the Transitions button, click on Edit for the desired transition. Use the "Help Description" property to include a summary of the transition and the "Task Page Instruction Message" to prompt users on the Task Fields Page.
- Field Help can now be displayed above or below the fields on the Add, Edit, Task and Submit pages for easier viewing. To set this for Add, Edit and Task, click on the General Preferences link in the Admin section, set the "Display Field Help for Standard/Restricted Users" properties in the Help Options section.
- In all cases the instruction text can include bold, italic or underline; web links to other pages; and configurable font sizes. Details on the available tags can be found in this guide.
Another type of attachment, a global file attachment, can now be created in cases where there is a need to allow users without a user session (or user account) to view or download a file. You may wish to create a global attachment for any image files you are currently displaying on the Login, Submit or Knowledge Base pages for your company logo or other branding. It can also be used, for example, to provide download links on the Knowledge Base page(s) for manuals, software, drivers, etc., which are stored in Tracker as global file attachments.
A list of all record attachments in a workgroup can be displayed and searched by PRN (record number), attachment description and file name by clicking on the Global File Attachments link in the Admin section, then clicking on the Records Attachments link in the upper right corner.
Tracker can now be put into Single-User Mode to keep all users except one (administrator) from logging in so that administrative changes can be made while other users are not using the system. This mode can be set by clicking on the Maintenance link in the Admin section and clicking on the Change User Mode button.
An import tool is available to import pulldown option menu items.
Security
New password policies are available, which include the ability to limit the number of failed login attempts, the ability to set requirements for password content (including minimum number of alphabetic, numeric or special characters, password cannot match User ID, etc.) as well as allowing the administrator to force a password change on the next login or manually lock a user account (no login allowed). These policies can be set by clicking on Login Page Options link in the Admin section.
Access can now be restricted by user location. More specifically, you can restrict access to only those users who are browsing from particular IP addresses or (IP Address ranges). These restrictions can be independently configured for the workgroup pages, Submit Page and Knowledge Base pages. This could allow you, for instance, to provide unrestricted access to the Knowledge Base while restricting access to the workgroup pages (the ability to login and add/edit Knowledge Base articles) to only those users located at company headquarters or a few branch offices
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 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 Workflows link, click on the Expand All link to the right of Forms. Though it is very unlikely that you will see this, it is possible that when you check the alert settings for all products the entry called "<Default>" will not be present. If this entry is not present under "Alerts", click on the "Manage" link to the right of Alerts, select "<Default>", make any adjustments to the alert settings, then click OK to return to the Workflow properties. 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 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 Workflows link, 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 Fields link, clicking on the Edit button to the left of the Text field you wish to designate as the Unregistered User Email (or create a new field for this purpose), 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
A new Display Style, "Search Pulldown", has been added for History and Pulldown fields. Pulldowns configured to use the Search style allow a user to perform a search for a value instead of selecting from a list. If you have a pulldown with a large number of items, you can configure the field to use the Search style by clicking on the Fields link in the Admin section, clicking on the Edit button to the left of the pulldown field, setting "Display Style" to Search Pulldown and clicking OK to save the change.
The ability to search for fields has been added to the Fields section. Fields can be searched by Field Label (partial match) and/or Field Type.
The ability to search for option menu items, print and export the list of items has been added to the Items section for pulldown fields. Items can be searched by item name (partial match), whether or not the item is public and/or whether or not the item is obsolete. If a search has been applied, only those items that match the search criteria will be printed or exported.
A property to control the display height has been added for Link Fields and Reverse Link Fields. This can be set by clicking on the Fields link in the Admin section, clicking on the Edit button to the left of the field, then setting the "Maximum Display Height in Rows" property.
You may wish to set an Initial Value for Float, Integer, Text, TextArea and Url fields on the Add Page. This can be set by clicking on the Fields link in the Admin section, clicking on the Edit button to the left of the field, then setting the "Initial Value" property.
Most field types can now be set (initialized) during the Task operation by setting the "Initialize (Reset)" property to "Yes" in the Task Field's properties.
Instruction Text can also be configured for Text, TextArea and Url fields on the Add and Task pages. The text is initially displayed in a light colored font and disappears when the user clicks on or starts typing in the field. For Add, this can be set by clicking on the Fields link in the Admin section, clicking on the Edit button to the left of the field, then setting the "Instruction Text" property. For Task, this can be set in the Task Field's properties.
Fields can now be configured as Invisible task fields. These fields are not displayed during the Task operation, but are initialized to a value the administrator has configured. This allows fields to be set during a Transition without displaying them to the user performing the Task operation. This can be set by setting the "Input Type" to "Invisible" in the Task Field's properties.
If you have configured a Text field as the Unregistered User Email you can configure the field such that it will validate what is typed in by the user by logging in as Admin, clicking on the Admin icon, clicking on the Fields link, clicking on the Edit button to the left of the Text field configured as Unregistered User Email, setting the "Validate User Email Address" option to "Yes" and clicking OK to save the change.
If you wish to set the History Comment to be required or not displayed on the Edit Page or wish to change its position, login as Admin, click on the Admin icon, click on the Projects link, select the desired project, click on the Edit link to the right of "Other Properties" for the desired form, configure the History Comment options and click OK.
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). If you wish to allow users to see the existing content as read only in a TextArea field that is configured to append new data during the Task operation, set the task field property "Show Current Text" to "Yes".
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 Fields link, 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 link, 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 Fields section.
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 Fields section.
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 the Fields section. 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.
Knowledge Base
Colors for dozens of user interface elements within the Knowledge Base are now configurable from the web interface (there is a new Color button for each option in the Knowledge Base Admin section). Previously this could only be done by editing a style sheet.
If you are using the Knowledge Base feature and have customized the style sheet to change the Knowledge Base color settings, please send a copy of your style sheet to NetResults Technical Support so that we can tell you which Color Preferences to use to produce your color scheme using the new Color settings within Tracker.
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 6.5.1. To move the custom HTML: Login as Admin and click on the Admin icon. Click on the Login Options link. 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 6.5.1 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 link, 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 link. 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 link. 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.
Each user group now has a Record Visibility privilege "Make Visible to Groups" to select which standard user groups should have visibility to the records added by the user group being modified. Each user group has this privilege configured to select its own user group by default. The General Preferences option "By Default Include 'Users' Group for Record Visibilty on Add Operation" has been removed. If needed, set the "Make Visible to Groups" privilege to grant the Users group visibility on records added by particular user groups. If you have Record Visibility enabled and Restricted Users, review the following Knowledge Base article for information on optimizing this configuration (this configuration is discussed in "Sample 2").
Reports
On the Home and Query Pages, there is now a search/filter bar which allows users to dynamically search within a report for only those records that contain certain words or phrases. Users can specify which fields to search/filter on as well as the type of search to be done. If a search/filter is active when printing or exporting a report, the filtered version of the report is used (exported or sent to the printer).
Link fields can now be used as query/search criteria on the Query Page.
In addition to searching Text and TextArea fields, the Full Text Search box in the Standard Query page can now be used to simultaneously search fields of the following types: Pulldown, Reporter, Assignee, Status and Url.
In the Standard Query page, multiple items can be selected as search criteria for fields of the following types: Pulldown, Assignee, Status and Reporter.
Additional aging reports can now be generated in the Metrics section.
On the Home and Query pages, there are dynamic range filters which allow the report to be further narrowed down based on ranges of values for any Date, Integer or Float field which is in the report. The range for Date fields can be relative. If one or more filters are active when printing or exporting a report, the filtered version of the report is used (exported or sent to the printer).
An option to define the number of decimal places to be used in Table charts has been added.
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
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, Edit and Delete user options to local Workgroup Administrators who can use the User Accounts section to Add, Edit 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 Login Options 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 6.5.1.
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 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 Workflows section. This allows the user to select a state on the Add page from a list of relevant choices 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
/pttemplate/Include where 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 6.5.1 , 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:
- Login to WMS and click on the Admin icon
- Select the option Block / Unblock Workgroups, then click on the Continue button
- 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 6.5.1 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 6.5.1 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): nrtse651.exe (NetResults Tracker Standard Edition 6.5.1) or nrtee651.exe (NetResults Tracker Enterprise Edition 6.5.1).
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->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 / 6.x to NetResults Tracker 6.5.1 ", then click on the Continue button.
A list of workgroups that need to be upgraded from Version 5.0.x to Version 6.5.1 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 9 - 10 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 6.5.1, 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 6.5.1 using the instructions in the Version 6.5.1 Patch A Readme.
Your system has now been upgraded to Version 6.5.1 for all workgroups.