MemberTies - v6.x Revision History
This document provides information about each fixed problem, enhancement, and/or change in functionality included in the original 6.00 release, and all subsequent updates to the 6.x series. Please refer to Help for complete information about each change.
Contents
This document contains information about the following releases:
Note: Enhancements and problem-fixes from previous releases are automatically incorporated into the latest release.
Version 6.40
(03/15/2008)
Enhancements
- The General and Status tabpages of the main member and group detail windows are combined into a single General page if the screen resolution is at least 1024 x 768. Lower resolutions will cause the separate tapages to continue to display.
- All list windows, and the main member, group, and activity windows, are now resizable. The system will remember the size that was last set, and will restore that size the next time the window is opened.
- New choices, including Tomorrow, Yesterday, Next Month, Next Quarter, and Next Year have been added for date criteria.
- The "Package Database" process timeout period has been increased from 5 seconds to 120, to better support larger databases.
- All posting data has been combined into one table to simplify reporting and processing. This is primarily a database structure change that will not really be visible to the end-user, though it should provide various performance improvements for things like automatic dues posting and reporting.
- The "Stored Comments" button is now available on the Waiver Text tab that is available for the Liability Waiver report. Note that the text is not stored "with" the report definition, so you will need to select the text you want to use if it changes each time the report is run.
- Selecting rows via SHIFT+PageUp/PageDown is now supported. In addition, when moving the row focus with the control key down (i.e., CTRL + DownArrow), a dotted indicator shows what row is current.
- A new security rule has been added called, "Use File/Save As to save reports and lists". This option is under the Report security, and controls whether a user is allowed to choose File > Save As to save the contents of a report or list to a file.
- A new Actions menu option called "Choose Random Member" has been added to the Membership List main menu. This option enables you to request 1-100 randomly selected members from the current list (i.e., for a monthly prize drawing or something similar). The resulting list can be printed as a simple list.
- A new security rule has been added called "Restore Database". This option is under the Database security rules, and controls whether a user is allowed to choose Tools > Database Tools > Restore Backup. This option used to be automatically hidden for all but the mtadmin user, but it often went unnoticed by people who never use the mtadmin account. This way it is visible but can easily be blocked from unauthorized users.
Problems/Issues Fixed
- The ability to save reports as .psr "report format" files has been added for mailing label and card reports. This format is not available for standard reports at this time. Note: The old version of the Report Viewer utility will not work with reports created with newer releases of MemberTies. Please download Report Viewer v3.0 from our website. http://www.myrro.com/viewer/
- When resaving a loaded criteria on a report or list, the system doesn't always default to the current name. i.e., if you load "MyCriteria", the system should offer to resave it as "MyCriteria" rather than forcing you to type it in again.
- Using the Updated Date as membership search criteria doesn't work if the operator is "=". It only works if the operator is ">", i.e., "Update Date > Today".
- When adding multiple dues entries using the Add Another option, the new Start and/or End Date setting isn't maintained to the next record. That means it must be selected again or the previous change could be overwritten. The dates should stay on to the next record.
- The conversion logic for v2.x to v3.x writes ODBC registry entries to HKLM. This isn't allowed on Vista and should be HKCU instead.
- An error occurs when clicking the Dial Modem (phone) icon for the Home Phone number on a member or group record. Additionally, the pro-only email icons are visible on standard version group records. (Released in 6.40a)
- Additional logic has been added to try to ensure that a connection ID is cleared when a connection is terminated by the server due to a timeout. In addition, a new security rule, "Disconnect another user at Login" has been added to control whether a user has access to the Disconnect button on the "Too Many Connections" window. This enables a user to disconnect a session that they know is no longer valid if their security group does not forbid it. (Released in 6.40b)
- When upgrading an older 2.x database, an error occurs that the maximum number of supported decimal digits is 18. (Released in 6.40c)
- Using the "comments" field as advanced criteria on the membership list generates a database error. (Released in 6.40c)
- Duplicate records appear on the Post Card (US) report when more than one person has set the personal "Extra Label Info" preference. (Released in 6.40d)
Version 6.31
(01/10/2008)
Problems/Issues Fixed
- The password entered for a new user is not always accepted when used for a login. This was determined to be a problem with the way the encrypted password was stored, and a database change was made to address the issue.
- A database error occurs when opening the Activity List in the standard version. The error does not occur in the professional version./li>
Version 6.30
(11/27/2007)
Please Note! As of this release, MemberTies will only run on Windows 2000 SP4, XP, and Vista. In order to support Vista fully,
we had to upgrade our development software, and that meant we could no longer support the really old versions of Windows.
Enhancements
- Many changes to support Microsoft Vista (and XP when running as a non-adminstrative user). This included changing the installation location of the database (now stored under Application Data\MemberTies), and the default storage location for user-saved files (now My Documents\Memberties). Existing installations will not be affected, other than that configuration files (ini files and such) will be moved to Application Data\MemberTies. MemberTies can be successfully installed and run by a non-admin user on Vista.
- A database hosting service is now available from Myrro International. This enables you to have your database located on a high-speed server, which you can then access remotely from any installation of MemberTies. A secure userID and password must be defined in the database profile to enable you to connect to the server and access your database. Once connected, additional users can be created and used normally. Contact support for more information and pricing.
- The default logo, specified in a new Report preference, will now automatically appear on all system reports, and will also appear on user-defined standard, directory, and roster reports.
- A new database preference has been added to control whether related files and member photos are stored in the database. If these files are stored in the database, additional settings control how large a file can be saved. This is very important, because saving large photos or documents can dramatically increase the database size. The default size limits are set to 50KB each, which is more than enough for an ID card photo, or a small document. Storing these files in the database will simplify moving the system, and will give remote users access to the same files.
- When importing data, if the data file contains the value "=CLEAR" for a given field, the import will clear existing data in that field. This enables you to use the import to remove data from membership records when an existing Member ID is provided with the import file (causing the system to update the record instead of creating a new record).
- Two new Assigned Item reports have been added that are essentially the opposite layout of existing Assigned Items reports. The existing Assigned Items (Groups) and Assigned Items (Members) reports group data by assigned item. The new reports (Assigned Items by Member, Assigned Items by Group) group data by member or group name.
- The popup calendar was redesigned to more closely resemble the Windows system calendar, and to support all keyboard shortcuts available to the normal date fields within the system.
- The prompt that the "free update" period of a license is expiring has been modified to provide an easy way to get to the website to order a renewal, or to enter a new license.
- The internal development software was upgraded, resulting in some minor interface enhancements.
Problems/Issues Fixed
- Closing the Activity Details window via the [X] caused a system error. This problem seems to have "fixed itself" with the new release. It could not be duplicated in development.
- Importing data for the Member ID field causes an error. (Released in 6.30a)
- When the Require Numeric Member IDs preference is turned on, the Member ID does not display on the Membership Card report. (released in 6.30b)
Version 6.24
(08/10/2007)
Enhancements
- The security settings have been completely rewritten to be much more granular and based on Security Groups, which are then assigned to individual users. This rewrite expanded the existing 30-some settings with approximately 160 much more specific settings. As a result, any existing security settings must be re-defined. All users are assigned to the default "All Access" security group. Therefore, ALL USERS HAVE ALL ACCESS TO ALL FEATURES UNTIL THEY ARE ASSIGNED A DIFFERENT SECURITY GROUP.
- Database users are now stored within the MemberTies database instead of in the server's "mysql" database. This means a given user name is unique to each database. You can have a JSmith user with a different password on database A, B, and C. This means that when creating a new database, the mtadmin user will always be given a password of "password", because there is no "master" password to use anymore.
- Additional information can now be stored about individual database users, including real name, address, phone, and email. This is informational data only, and is not used by the system in any way.
- The company name has been added to all system reports as either the second line of an address block, or just below the name on one-line reports.
- The "Club" section of the system has been renamed to "Group" to be more generic and cause less confusion, since most people used clubs to represent various sorts of groups, committees, etc., anyway. In addition, a new Organization preference called "Word for 'Group'" has been added. The word specified here will be used throughout the system instead of the word "Group". In other words, you may now name the "Group" section to be anything you like, i.e., "Committee", "Club", "Team", "Village", etc. Note that existing databases will not be changed and will continue to say "Club" unless you change the preference.
- When a database is extracted using the "Extract Database" option on the Local Database Server window, it will now automatically appear in the Database dropdown on the login window. This occurs because the system now scans for existing database folders at startup. This COULD result in some confusion if you have databases sitting in your server that you created and forgot about. Without a profile, these databases would have remained hidden in the past, but now they will be automatically found and displayed. You can use the Local Database Server window to delete any unwanted databases.
- The email address field has been modified to hold up to 250 characters, instead of 50.
- Backups have been changed to create a single file instead of a folder full of files. The file has a default name of "bkup_[year][month][day]_[database nane].sql" The restore functionality has also been change to restore from a single file.
- A new "Database Users" report has been added. This report can only be run by the mtadmin user, and it lists all users of the database.
- A new membership preference has been added to enable scanning a standard US driver license to load data into the appropriate fields on a member record. Only the standard AAMVA format is supported (some states, like California, don't comply with the standard). The Activity Front Desk window, Unattended Checkin window, and basic Member Search have also been modified so that a license can be scanned into the Member ID field, and the ID will be pulled out of the license and used for the search. We recommend MagTek scanners, which are available at MagTek.com for $85.
- The database server has been upgraded from version 4.1.8 to version 4.1.22. This doesn't affect you, but we wanted to document it.
Problems/Issues Fixed
- When using the "Actions > Change Data (Bulk)" option to append additional comments to membership records, no comments are added if the record did not have existing comments.
- A null object reference error occurs when trying to delete a database using the server utility. (Released in 6.24a)
- Using the "Member Of" criteria, either for members who are related to a particular group, or who are not related, is not working and sometimes causes duplicate results to appear. (Released in 6.24b)
- The Compact Membership List report is showing truncated data in some fields. (Released in 6.24c)
- A database error occurred in certain situations when attempting to import data including values for one or more custom fields. (Released in 6.24d)
- Database backup files no longer include a reference to the original database, so a backup can be restored into any database. That means database ABC can be backed up, and then restored into database XYZ to create a copy. (Released in 6.24d)
- Exiting MemberTies by clicking the [X] in the uppper right corner was not clearing the connection ID, so the user was still considered Logged In. (Released in 6.24d)
Version 6.23
(11/20/2006)
Enhancements
- The software is no longer available for download as an "update only" version. This is designed to prevent the numerous support calls received because someone installed only an update, without ever having installed the full version. Since there was never a problem installing the full version over an existing installation, the update install has been removed.
- An error message has been added to the login window and will display when MemberTies cannot connect to the server because the IP address of the server machine has changed. This may help point out the problem for people who have dynamically changing IP addresses.
- The ability to merge values has been added to many of the lists available under Tools - Dropdown Lists. This enables you to combine multiple spellings of the same City into one, for example. See help for details.
- The "New" option in the City and County dropdown lists is too time-consuming for organizations that constantly add new records from different cities. To solve this issue, the "Add New" window will now open automatically when you enter a non-existent value, and the window will default to the value you entered. To save the value to the list, all you have to do is click OK or press Enter.
- A warning message is displayed when the Password field is accessed with the Caps Lock key turned on. This is intended to prevent invalid passwords due to typing in all uppercase.
Problems/Issues Fixed
- When importing Cities and Counties, the import logic converted them to uppercase to import them, but searched in "normal case" to see if they already existed. That caused each city to be created as a "new" city value, even though it was already there. This has been corrected. In addition, issue #116 has added a way to merge multiple cities into one value. So if you have a situation where "MyTown" is listed in your city dropdown multiple times, you can use this feature to merge them all into a single entry.
- In some cases, a new member record could be automatically assigned a Member ID that already exists, and the system would allow it to save.
- The IP address in a remote database profile will now accept a domain name up to 100 characters. (Note that due to the size of the field, it will be easier to just paste a long name into the field, though it will scroll to the right if you want to type it in.) A domain name should NOT include the "http:" prefix. (Released in 3.23f, 6.23f)
- When importing member updates, the results list showed a value in the Start Date, even if no start date value was imported. The date wasn't actually imported if it wasn't part of the data file (which is correct) but the display was confusing. The date has been removed. (Released 3.23f, 6.23f)
- If a member name had quotation marks in it, such as John "JJ" Smith, an error occurred if that member was used in a relationship with another member, and the relationship details were edited. (Released in 3.23f, 6.23f)
- An error occurred when deleting a relationship type from the Tools menu. (Released in 3.23e/6/23e)
- If you open a member record "John" and create a new related record from within it (via the Related tab) for "Mary", you can create a database error if you try to create additional relationships while you have Mary's record open. The option to create relationships has been disabled on the "nested" record, since the system is already planning to create that relationship for you. (Released in 3.23e/6/23e)
- Added support for Avery 5159 (4"x1.5" 2 across, 7 down) address labels. (Released in 3.23d, 6.23d)
- When importing records, the Default Status was not automatically populated on the Verify Defaults window. That meant if no status was on the import map, the status was left blank and the records would not appear correctly after importing. The default status is now set correctly. (Released in 3.23d, 6.23d)
- Extremely long printer names are not accepted when printing. Example printer was named: "Auto HP LaserJet 4050 Series PCL6 on usernamexp winspool Ne05:". (Workaround was to shorten the name.) (Released in v3.23d, 6.23d)
- An error occurs when opening the Change Data (Bulk) window from the membership list. (Released with 3.23d/6.23d)
- The PDF995 pdf printer feature is now an optional part of the install wizard, so it can be deselected by those who may already have a PDF printer available. (Released in 3.23a, 6.23a)
- The Restore Database feature expected the database being restored to have been backed-up from the same version it is being restored to. This caused problems when restoring a database that was from a version old enough to have different tables than the current release. (Released in 3.23b/6.23b)
- The Activity Name field on the Activity window refused to accept a new name. Recompiled the window and the problem went away. (Released in 3.23a/6/23a)
Version 6.22
(08/26/2006)
Enhancements
- Performance enhancements for large databases. Several database changes were made to eliminate a performance problem that was reported in the professional version when 40,000 people were assigned to a single activity. The average response time to open a member record was reduced from approximately 14 seconds to 1.5 seconds. All users will benefit from this change due to reduced database traffic in general.
This change should also improve general performance when accessing the system over an internet connection.
Database changes required a change to Cities and Counties to make them work like States and Countries. In other words, they are pre-defined (via Tools>Dropdown Lists>Address), or can be added to by choosing <New> from the dropdown. The old method of populating the dropdown with values that had already been used caused a performance problem due to the repeated scans of the address table to build the list of available values. (Due to this change, a default city and county can now be set if desired.)
- An additional command line argument, -A has been added to indicate "auto login". If used in conjunction with the user, password, and database, a shortcut can be created to automatically login to a specific database. For example: "u myuser -p mypass -d mydb -a" will automatically log myuser into mydb using the password "mypass".
- When creating a new related record from within a Member record (i.e., a new record that is automatically related to the open record), it is now possible to use the current member as a basis for the new one. If you answer yes to the prompt to do this, the new record is created using the current record's Address, Name, Status, and Dates, and then related to the current record automatically. This is designed to simplify some of the data entry when creating related family member records.
- The Help topic for importing data has been updated with step by step instructions for saving an Excel file as a tab-delimited text file.
- When creating a new database, the offer to create a new user for yourself is now a separate prompt, to try to make it more obvious. In addition, the offer to print database information is no longer a prompt... a window now opens and displays the database information report. A print button is provided on the window to print the information.
Problems/Issues Fixed
- A database error occurred when trying to maintain the Occupation list via the Tools menu. (Available in v6.22d)
- If a new relationship type is saved via the Tools menu, and no Default relationship type has been set, a database error occurs and MemberTies shuts down. A default relationship type is no longer required or expected. (Available in 6.22c)
- An error occurred if the database upgrade passed through database version 6.06 from an old database. (Available in 6.22c)
- In some situations, city/state/county/country values that were saved as report criteria did not convert to the correct values. i.e., a criteria that had been saved with "City = Dallas" might suddenly show
"City = Houston", or "City = Please Choose" The logic to convert this data has been corrected for anyone newly upgrading to this or future releases. (Available in 6.22c)
- An error occurs when a Status Code is modified (for example, by changing the Yearly Dues amount) and saved, when no other status exists as a default. In other words, if a default status has been set, no error occurs. If no default has been set, an error occurs when saving changes to any status. (Available in 6.22c)
- The Save button is the default on the Report Settings window. The default should be the OK button instead. That way when the report settings window opens, you can just press the Enter key to run the report. (Available in 6.22b)
- Member records that were created without touching either the company name or alt mailing name fields could store a "blank" for those names, causing mailing labels to omit the name (thinking it was supposed to use the "missing" alt or company name instead of the actual first/last name). (Available in 6.22b)
- An error occurred running the "Individual Summary (Members)" report due to a syntax problem caused by changes in the previous release. (This fix was made available in 6.22a as well.)
- While running in shareware mode (i.e., with no valid license installed), and you had already reached the 20 membership record limit, an attempt to add a new related record to an existing member could trigger a database error. (This fix was made available in 6.22a as well.)
Version 6.21
(06/21/2006)
Enhancements
- Added the ability to copy a membership or club record to a record with the same name. Previously, the system would not allow an identical name when copying, but would allow it when creating a new record. This inconsistency has been corrected.
- A new report, "Related Members (Contact)" has been added. This is essentially a copy of the existing Related Members report, but including address information for the member and related members.
- A new A4 address label format has been added for J8161 (6.35 x 4.66 3-Across 6-Dwn) labels.
- When using the "Change Data (Bulk)" window to update multiple records at once, it is now possible to clear a field. To clear a field, enter "=CLEAR" as the new value. The system will see this entry and interpret it as a "blank" entry.
Problems/Issues Fixed
- The Tools - Database Tools - Restore Database menu option is now only displayed for the mtadmin user. No other user could perform this operation without receiving a database error anyway, so it should not have been visible.
- Activity Types could not be deleted. The delete now works normally. Note that since activity type is not a required field on the activity, an activity type can be deleted even if it is in use -- the field is simply nulled on affected activity records.
- When a saved set of search criteria was loaded into the Criteria tab of the Report Settings window, any changes made to the criteria would overwrite the saved version. The correct behavior is that the saved version should never be overwritten unless criteria is saved again under the same name. A report should always open and display the last used criteria, regardless of whether it was loaded or entered manually. This enables you to save criteria "A", load it, change it, and run it, all without affecting the stored version of "A". The report, will open the next time showing the criteria as it was last used, but loading "A" again will remove the changes and show "A" as it was stored originally.
- The [DEL] delete key now works correctly when deleting data from a field on the basic search tabpage.
Version 6.20
(06/21/2006)
Enhancements
- When using the Copy options on the Contact Information window, the message displayed now offers to close the window immediately. Previously, you had to click OK to the results message, and then click Close to close the window. This is intended simply to save a little time.
- An "Activity Type" field has been added to Activity records. This value can be used to further identify or categorize the activity with values such as "fundraiser", "party", "meeting", etc. Values are user-definable and can be maintained via Tools - Dropdown Lists - Activity - Activity Types.
- The title of the Server utility window has been changed to: "MemberTies - Local Database Server Utility" instead of just "Database Server" to help prevent the impression that this is an Internet based utility.
- If you attempt to login with a user name that already has a connection to the database, the server will automatically kill the existing session. This should allow you to login again when a dropped network connection has left your old session open on the database server, even though MemberTies was forced to close.
- The database location in a remote database profile is now editable. This enables easier correction of the IP address in situations where the server IP address changes frequently. (Existing database profiles are found under Preferences - Database - Profiles.)
- The MemberTies website URL is now displayed with the license renewal message.
- The Activity List report has been modified to be a one-line report so that you now have the choice of columns to sort by.
- The internal margins of mailing labels have been increased slightly to move the text to the right approximately 1/8" and create a right margin of approximately 1/4". This should help the display of right-aligned label text that is sometimes cut off.
- The software used to write the Help system was upgraded internally, and the entire help file was evaluated for changes to incorporate the new features. In addition, topics were added to support new features in this release.
Problems/Issues Fixed
- If only one parenthesis was used in a report criteria list (ie, a left without a corresponding right parenthesis), the system didn't always catch the mistake, resulting in a database error.
- Using a relative date as report criteria didn't always work correctly, depending on the starting day and the amount of adjustment.
- The Assigned Items - Phone List report did not show the work phone number if there was no work phone extension value.
- If the application is closed while minimized, and you choose "Yes" when prompted to backup the database, an error occurs when the backup window tries to open.
- If more than one membership status history entry is manually added, a duplicate key value error occurs.
- Contact List report sorting options were not all working correctly.
- Birthdate information did not always convert correctly when upgrading from very old database version to the latest release.
Version 6.13
(11/03/2005)
Enhancements
- Added new A4 label formats: L7163 and L7164
- Updated the list of Country Codes based on current ISO Standards list.
Problems/Issues Fixed
- When a member with a last name containing an apostrophe (i.e., "o'brien") is opened, and the Search button on the Related tab is clicked, an error occurs when the system tries to search for other records with that last name.
- If another MySQL database server is installed on the computer in addition to MemberTies, and a my.ini file exists in the c:\windows or c:\ directory, it is not possible to create a new MemberTies database. In addition, a timeout error occurs trying to shutdown the MemberTies server. This was caused by the mysqladmin server program trying to read the wrong configuration file.
- Keyboard shortcuts for File/Add, Copy, Open, Delete are not working on all windows.
Version 6.12
(10/16/2005)
Enhancements
- A new membership preference, "Reset End Date on Expire" now controls what happens when the expiration behavior of a Status Code causes the system to change the status of a membership record. The default behavior has always been to reset the End Date to the date of the status change so that a grace period for the new status calculates from the date of the change. This preference enables you to tell the system to leave the End Date unchanged, causing the grace period to continue to be calculated from the original End Date.
- A warning message is now displayed the first time the program is run, warning the user that the connection to the server may trigger a message from any installed firewall or antivirus software. The notice indicates that you must not block the indicated program, or MemberTies will not be able to run.
- Various help updates.
Problems/Issues Fixed
- The backup window would not allow the root directory of a drive to be selected as a backup target.
- An error occurred after adjusting the margins of a Photo ID Card report two or more times.
- When the Member ID was used as report criteria it was treated as alphanumeric for comparison purposes, regardless of the Require Numeric ID membership preference setting.
- An error occurred if the club name included an apostrophe (') or quotation marks (") and the receipt report, or a report that returned no data, was run.
Version 6.11
(09/25/2005)
Enhancements
- When running a database backup, an information file called, "info.txt" file is now created and stored in the backup directory. This file contains information such as the user who created the backup, the backup date and time, and application and database version. This information can be viewed by opening the file in any text editor or word processing program.
- The "Member ID Prefix" is now a User Preference instead of a System preference. Note that each existing user will have to go in and assign their own prefix after they install this update, but then it will be tied to their user ID.
- The color chooser for the Miscellaneous Preference, "List Color" now uses the system color options dialog and enables you to define and save custom colors.
- When connected to a remote database, the backup and restore options should not be available. Allowing this presents a security risk because a remote user could either steal the database by backing it up to their machine, or could wipe it out by restoring another copy over it. Thus, when connected remotely, the backup and restore options are disabled, and the backup prompt preference is hidden.
- The Birthdate fields on the membership record have been merged to a single Birthday field that is a true date, at long last. Maintaining dates as separate values created lots compatibility problems when users with one date format shared a database with users who needed a different date format. It also prevented us from making the Age available for criteria, and caused lots of other problems. The following points apply to this change:
- The new Birthday field is now a standard date field, with a little special logic built in: if a date is entered with "9999" as the year, the system will hide the year when the field appears on a system defined report. i.e., 01/10/9999 will display as "01/10" because it assumes the year is just a placeholder.
- The old birthday fields have been deleted from the system. Thus, any criteria that used one of those fields will need to be changed to use one of the new fields.
- The new criteria fields related to the birthdate include: Birthdate, Birth Day, Birth Month, Birth Year, and Age.
- The server can now be started from the command line (or via a shortcut) by using the /s switch. i.e., a shortcut pointing to "c:\program files\memberties\mtsrv.exe /s" will start the server silently without opening the server window.
- A new "Membership by Country" report provides a count of members for all countries for which at least one membership record has been created.
- The Canadian province, Nunavut (NU) has been added to the state/province list.
- The Print window now displays a dropdown list of printers known to your computer, and enables you to choose a printer directly from the list without having to go to a Print Setup window. The selected printer can also be saved with the rest of the settings as a default.
- Information about available updates is now available whenever you are connected to the Internet, by choosing "Check for Program Updates" from the Tools menu.
- Various help updates.
Problems/Issues Fixed
- In certain situations, if you logged out after browsing for a file within the program, the system would lose the "current" directory and would display the Welcome window instead of the Login window after choosing File - Log Out.
- An error occurred if you tried to open a club record from a club data test result on the Data Test window.
- If a new club record was started, and then cancelled prior to the first save, the system counted the created record as part of the 2 maximum clubs available to the unregistered version of the software.
- The Numeric Member ID preference was not being considered when sorting a report by the Member ID field.
Version 6.10
(06/19/2005)
Enhancements
- Added a preliminary prompt when clicking the Help toolbar button so you can choose between the full help system, and just the, "About" window of program and version information. This is designed to aid in support calls when directing users to the program information window. Note that the F1 key, and the menu option, still open the help system directly -- this only changes the toolbar button itself.
- The number of characters available for the Message of the Day text has been increased to 1000 to allow for longer messages.
- The fields displayed on the Private tab of the membership record are now available for importing.
- Added a Delete option to the City, County, and Occupation maintenance lists (available under Tools - Dropdown Lists - Address - City/County, or Tools - Dropdown Lists - Occupation. Previously, existing values could only be edited; but now, deleting a value causes the corresponding value to be cleared on all records that were using it.
- Internal Report/Search criteria logic has been redesigned to make it generate more logical SQL queries. Please test your existing reports as soon as possible to be sure their criteria works as expected. These changes will result in more accurate results when using complicated queries.
- When adding member photos, the default file type selected will be the type of photo last saved. In addition, if no photo is currently assigned when the Photo window opens, the system will open the "Browse for Photo" dialog.
- Date criteria is now much more powerful. In addition to the existing options to choose a specific or relative (i.e., Today +30) date, you can now choose various predefined ranges such as: Current Month, Current Quarter, Current Year, Last Month, Last Quarter, Last Year, Month to Date, Quarter to Date, and Year to Date. These options enable you to use a date range without having to setup two criteria entries for the starting and ending dates.
- Lots of help updates. Rewrote topics covering the use of old or existing databases with a new installation.
- Added a Club List report, displaying club name, contact name, phone, and email address on one line.
Problems/Issues Fixed
- When restoring a database, certain settings that track the state of the database were being saved after the restore was complete. Since the database has been overwritten, these settings actually needed to be abandoned so the settings from the restored database are maintained.
- With the introduction of user-specific preferences, the system mailing label report started duplicate copies of records, once per stored preference. The report needs to only look at the preference setting for the current user.
- If the Default End Date preference was set to add a specific number of months to the start date, and the Default Start Date preference was set to something other than "Leave Blank", neither date was set on a new record.
- The "All Membership Records" query that runs by default does not appear in the list of available criteria when clicking the Load button on the Membership List search window.
- When deleting an item category, any associated items remained available as report criteria even though they no longer exist. The report criteria data needs to be cleaned up as well.
- When the system automatically changes a status, the Updated By name should change to "Automatic". Instead, it remains the name of the last user to manually changed the record.
- When using a Date as report criteria, the "Adjusted" option is not always working correctly or is being ignored. The Adjusted option should only be available when "Current Date" is selected, and it should adjust the date by the number of days indicated.
- The help topic for Setting Up a Multi User System neglected to tell you to click Save after entering new server IP and Port information.
- An error occurred when importing an "update" to a record that didn't actually include any changes.
Version 6.09
(04/05/2005)
Enhancements
- Added two new options, Package Database and Extract Database, to the Server Utility window. The "Package Database" option creates a compressed file containing all files for a selected database, similar to a traditional "zip" file. The "Extract Database" unloads a specified package into the current server. This enhancement is designed to help those who "ship" a database between users. Note that the server must be shutdown before a database can be packaged or extracted.
- The main MemberTies program, as well as the Server Utility now checks to see if another copy is running before starting. If another copy of the Server Utility is running a second copy will not start. If another copy of MemberTies is running, you have the option of starting another copy (to allow an administrator to login on to a workstation that is already in use, for example).
- A button has been added to the Server Utility window to start the main MemberTies program.
- Added an Analyze Table option to the Maintain Tables server tool. See Help for details.
- To prevent confusion, the icon for the Server Utility is no longer added to the desktop during the install process. It is still added to the Start menu.
- The initial "No Database Found" prompt (displayed the first time MemberTies is started after the initial installation) has been redesigned to be more user friendly, with better explanations and a smoother transition to the database profile creation/search process.
- A "New Database Report" can now be printed after creating a new database (you are prompted to print it). This report includes the database name and location, and the user(s)/password(s) valid for that database. This is designed to help prevent the situation where, after creating a new database, the user doesn't remember the user or password they created and are left unable to login. This information can only be printed at this time, because after the database is created and the passwords are encrypted, MemberTies has no way to obtain or print the original unencrypted passwords.
- Multiple updates to the Help file. Be sure to download the updated file if you refer to Help.
Problems/Issues Fixed
- When searching for a related member, the search window automatically retrieves all records and selects the first one with a name matching the current member, but doesn't scroll to it. The scrolling should happen automatically.
- The "Open Member" popup menu option on the Related Members list of a member record opens the Search window instead of the selected member. It should work like the Open Member icon, which is working correctly.
Version 6.08
(03/21/2005)
Enhancements
- Changed the default Host access granted to new users from "Anywhere (%)" to "localhost". For most standalone installations, users only need access from the server PC anyway; for other situations, less restricted access can easily be granted.
- Changed the default port used by the server from 3306 to 3310, and changed the default server process from mysqld.exe to mtmysqld.exe. These changes were designed to avoid conflicts with existing MySQL installations, and for added security (by not using the expected 3306 port). Note that the installation automatically removes the old mysqld.exe file and replaces it with mtmysqld.exe, and updates the mt.ini file to use the new name. This may prompt a restart after installation if the server is running during the install. Also, for Windows XP users -- you may receive a prompt from Windows the first time you start MemberTies after the installation, asking to block or unblock mtmysqld.exe. You need to tell Windows to unblock this program. If you don't, the server may not be able to listen for connections to the database.
- Added additional shortcut keys on date fields. Previously, the "T" key set the date to the current date, and the keypad +/- keys would add/subtract days. In addition, the M and Y keys will now advance a month or year at a time.
- Changed the Report Type window (displayed when creating a new user-defined report) to be more understandable.
- Added a new Miscellaneous preference called, "Default Item Date". When this preference is enabled, the Date field on new membership or club Items will default to the current date. If this preference is off, the date will be left blank.
- Preferences have been divided into System Preferences and User Preferences. System preferences are indicated by a small computer icon in the preferences window, and User preferences are indicated by a small person icon. This change has been made primarily for multi-user installations. As a part of this change, the existing "Edit Preferences" security setting has been modified to read, "Edit System Preferences". A user always has access to user-preferences, but disallowing this security setting will prevent the display of system preferences.
- The popup calendar has been modified to include an OK button. This enables you to click a date without having the calendar immediately close (i.e., clicking the wrong date by mistake used to mean you had to open the calendar again and click more carefully). Now, double-clicking a date will automatically select it and close the calendar, but single clicking a date will just select it.
- The system now supports database names beginning with numbers (i.e., 747Club).
- Multiple updates to the Help file. Be sure to download the updated file if you refer to Help.
Problems/Issues Fixed
- Unassigning members from the Members tab on a club record occasionally unassigned members that were not selected.
- When copying a membership record that included relationships, only half of the relationship was copied.
- The check for a duplicate member record when saving new records would report a "duplicate" found if the Company Name matched, even if the first/last name was different. The company name should be checked only if the first and last names are blank.
- An error occurred when saving a new activity because the system tried to check to a field that only exists in the professional version.
- When importing records, the "Verify Defaults" window would not allow the default Phone Type or Reference code to be changed.
- An error occurred when saving dues amounts when the currency format of the PC was set to use a comma as a decimal separator instead of a period.
Version 6.07
(02/04/2005)
Enhancements
- Added a "Clear all Flags" option to the Database Tools menu. This option will clear the Flag field on all membership records in the database.
Problems/Issues Fixed
- An error message about checking seat licenses occurred when connecting to a remote database in certain situations, but then the login continued normally.
- The Delete Dues window was opening in an "invisible" mode, making the system appear to freeze.
- Several issues involving license validation and decimal conversions when running with Windows regional settings set to French.
- Embarrassingly enough, spell-check had never been run on the help file.
Version 6.06
(01/31/2005)
Enhancements
- On the Membership List, a new Toggle Flag menu option has been added to the Actions menu and the right-click popup menu. Choosing this option will change the Flag field setting on all selected records from its present setting to the opposite (i.e., selected becomes unselected, and visa versa).
- Start and End Date component values (i.e., individual day, month, and year values) are now available for report criteria. This enables you to search for records with a start month of January more easily, for example.
- The help topic for setting up a multi-user system has been expanded to also include a network diagram illustrating external and internal network profile configurations.
- The size of the Saved Search Criteria list window has been increased to display more saved searches without scrolling.
Problems/Issues Fixed
- The "Show Active Users" menu option did not work when connected to a remote database.
- New users could not be created and added to a remote database; they could only be added from the copy of MemberTies running on the server host.
- The Character Limit validation option for a custom field was not enforced when the custom field was defined as "List (Editable)".
- The "Clear" button was not working when searching for related members or clubs from within the member record.
- The "Refresh Lists Automatically" miscellaneous preference was not affecting the Activity List, so newly added records did not appear in the list until the F5 key was pressed (or "Refresh" was selected on the Actions menu).
- An upgrade conversion error occurred if membership records existed with no Start Date. This condition was the result of a bug about 2 years ago when imported records didn't check for a Start Date. Any records found in this situation will be modified to set the missing Start Date to match the last updated date of the record.
Version 6.05
(01/14/2005)
Problems/Issues Fixed
- When adding multiple membership records at once using the Add Another option, data from subsequent records appeared on the original record in the series.
- The name of the folder created for a converted database didn't always get set correctly in the Database dropdown on the Login window, causing an error when it was selected.
- Various tweaks to the login/seat license validation. When logging in as the administrator, the system sometimes displayed an error that 0 users were allowed, preventing the login from continuing.
Version 6.04
(01/11/2005)
Problems/Issues Fixed
- An installation problem occurred for some users with version 6.03.
Version 6.03
(01/09/2005)
Enhancements
- When searching for related membership records, the system will automatically scroll the results list to the first entry that matches the last name of the current record. (The list is sortable by column heading now as well.)
Problems/Issues Fixed
- An error that occurred when setting new values in the "checkbox" fields on the Change Data (Bulk) window.
- The new membership and club fields were not being picked up when copying a record. This included the "Flag" and "Anniversary" fields on membership records, and the Other Phone 1 & 2, and Club Type fields on club records.
- The installation wizard would sometimes set paths for the server with the wrong slashes (backslash vs forward slashes). When this happened, the server could not start because it could not read the path correctly.
- Several typo's found in Help.
Version 6.02
(01/07/2005)
Enhancements
- Changed the "quick name search" feature of the Membership, Club, and Activity list to look for an exact match first. If nothing is found, THEN look for a partial match. Current functionality has always been to look for a partial match immediately, under the assumption that an entire name wouldn't be typed in. But now if that is the case, it will be found.
Problems/Issues Fixed
- Custom field data was not being copied consistently when copying a membership record. It only copied correctly when you elected to copy relationship assignments as well.
- Several display issues with saved reports, i.e., reports that were saved as "Report Format" reports and then redisplayed either in MemberTies or the Report Viewer.
Version 6.01
(01/03/2005)
Enhancements
- Changed the server connection logic so a server port other than 3306 can be used when the server is bound to localhost. Previously, other ports were only allowed with non-localhost servers.
Problems/Issues Fixed
- An error occurred when updating custom field data using the "Change Data (Bulk)" menu option on the membership list.
- An error occurred when no data was found for a report, and the licensed club name to display on the report included an apostrophe.
- The Member ID Prefix preference was not being loaded on newly created databases, only upgrades.
Version 6.00
(01/01/2005)
Version 6.0 was a major release. Many of the issues listed were actually fixed in small patches released for version 5.20x in the months before the release, but they are listed here anyway since they occurred after the last official release.
Enhancements
- Added a new "Membership History" report that displays the number of members who were assigned a given status in a given month and year. This report uses the status change history that is maintained for all membership records (accessed by clicking the little "book" icon next to the Start Date on the member record). Note during the upgrade to this version, you may be asked whether or not you would like to run a general cleanup of the status history to ensure that the initial status entry begins with the start date. Most users will want to run this cleanup. Read the message that is displayed for more information.
- Added two new address layouts for the United Kingdom. The current UK address layout did not match the layout specified by Royal Mail. Now, the default layout does follow the Royal Mail guidelines; but, since there are some flexibilities allowed, the existing layout is still available, and we have included another one that omits the County line, because it is noted by Royal Mail as not being necessary for delivery when the proper Post Code is used.
- Added an address layout for Australia. The layout matches that of the US and Canada, but it has been given its own option for completeness (and by popular request from our Australian users).
- Added support for command line arguments: -u [username] -p [password] -d [database] to facilitate setting up multiple shortcuts to automatically fill out the Login window for different databases.
- Modified the Import utility to allow the importing of changes to existing records. Now, if the member ID is imported, and the ID is found on an existing record, any data being imported will replace the corresponding data on the existing record.
- Increased the limit on the number of statuses that can be created from 25 to 375.
- Modified the Individual Summary report to include the member name at the top of each page.
- Added the database name to the information displayed in the application title bar area (for clarity when switching between multiple databases).
- Adjusted the location of the "Extra Label Info" that can be made to appear on system defined mailing labels (this is controlled by a membership preference). The extra info will now display in the top right of the label rather than the bottom right, to conform to postal standards.
- Changed logic that sets entries in the registry to only do so if the settings have actually changed. This helps people who do not have administrator rights to their PC run the software without the need for special privileges once the install is complete.
- Added a new Miscellaneous preference for "Live Scrolling." If your machine has an older video card or low memory and you experience erratic displays when scrolling large membership lists, try turning this preference off.
- Added a "file already exists" prompt before saving a report to the same file name as an existing file (File > Save As).
- New compression routine produces smaller download files for all versions! (Well, it's a big deal to us.)
- Added a new membership preference called "Member ID Prefix". A value entered in this field will automatically be prepended to each generated member ID. This enables a chapter in New York to automatically begin each ID with "NY-" for example.
- Added a new report called "Membership Data Export". This report enables you to export all "importable" membership data. This includes all data on the General, Status, and Custom tabs. This report is designed to let you export basic membership data by running report, saving the data to a file, and then sending it to a sister club to import to a master database.
- Added the Head of Household and Reference fields to the list of importable fields. They were accidentally omitted from the import list when they were added to the rest of the system a few months earlier.
- Modified the member Contact Info window to include the email and website data, and to include a "Copy All" button that copies all address, phone, email, and website information at once.
- The start date is no longer required. The default entry is now controlled by a preference. It can be set to populate with the current date, a given day and month of the current year, or be left blank.
- The default End Date entry is now controlled by a preference similar to the Start Date. It can be set to populate with the current date, a given day and month of the current year or following year (whichever will be in the future), or be left blank.
- A new preference now enables you to cause membership records to change to a (Delete) status if desired. This enables a kind of "second chance" in case you didn't really want to delete the record. Deleting a record that is already in the (Delete) status will remove it permanently.
- Two new options on the Post Dues window now enable you to change the Start Date and/or the End Date on the main record.
- The "Save As" export feature has been modified so that when a report or list is saved to a text file, the names of the fields as shown on-screen are maintained. In addition, only visible fields are exported, so no internal or "hidden" fields will appear in the exported file. You also have the option (on lists) of exporting only the selected records instead of the entire list.
Note: Some reports will never export well, because they are multi-layered and designed for display/printing only.
- A >New< option has been added to all dropdown lists that can include user-defined entries. Choosing this option enables you to add a new entry immediately and use it.
- The query windows for the membership, club, and activity lists have been modified to include both Basic and Advanced search capability. The basic search uses a subset of the fields that used to be available. The advanced search uses the full criteria generation capabilities previously only available on reports.
- All menus have been redesigned to improve usability. The "List" menu has been replaced with an "Action" menu; Add, Edit, Delete, are now under the File menu; the membership list, club list, activity list, front desk, and reports windows are now opened via File - Open Workspace, etc.
- Photos now support .bmp, .jpg, .gif, and .wmf image formats.
- A File > Print option is now available on the membership, club, and activity lists. Choosing this option will generate a printout of the entire list.
- Membership relationships can now include a user-defined Type (such as husband, wife, etc.), a date, and comments.
- The underlying database structure has been replaced with a local MySQL server. This should greatly improve performance and allow for greater flexibility for future enhancements. This is a mostly behind-the-scenes change that was mammoth in scale and effort.
- Multi-user access is now supported. This change forced a complete system restructuring and a change from a Sybase database to MySQL. Note that the licensing scheme has also changed to support seat licenses.
- A "Server Utility" application is now installed with MemberTies. This is the mtsrv.exe file located in the program directory. A start menu option should also be installed unless the option is turned off during the install. This utility enables you to determine the status of the server, stop or start it, run table maintenance, and more.
- A new shutdown preference enables you to tell the system to logout after a certain number of minutes. The smallest allowed timeout is 30 seconds. This is designed for situations where the system is in a public area.
- A new miscellaneous preference enables you to turn on the display of a fourth address line. In addition, the name of each line can be changed. For example, if you want to use the first line for "Department", you can set the name to appear as "Department" instead of "Address Line 1".
- Removed the system process that disabled a user account after 90 days of inactivity. It is now up to you to remove any user accounts that are no longer valid. The system will never turn them off.
- Removed the "three strikes and you're out" account locking process that disabled an account if the password was entered incorrectly three times in a row. You are free to enter the wrong password any number of times.
- The preference to save the membership, club, or activity list sort order each time the window was closed has been removed. The list will always open using the predefined sort order (for system lists), or using the user defined primary/secondary sort for Views.
- Membership records now include the Middle Name field instead of the Middle Initial. If a single letter is entered in this field, the system will automatically save it with the trailing period. i.e., an entry of "A" will save as "A.", but an entry of "Andrew" will remain unchanged.
- The number of available custom fields on membership and club records has been increased from 12 to 20.
- Queries are now smart enough to recognize that an entry of Sm% really means "LIKE Sm%". Essentially, if you include a wildcard "%" symbol in the text of a field on a search (basic search, related member/club search, or attendee search) the system will assume you meant to use the LIKE qualifier if you don't use anything else. Likewise, if you DID use a qualifier such as LIKE, RLIKE, NOT LIKE, or NOT RLIKE, nothing will be modified.
- On the Membership List, the menu options for toggling the Include in Mailings/Include on Reports checkboxes have been removed. Instead, a new Change Data option has been added that enables you to change data in dozens of membership record fields and then apply the changes to all records currently selected on the membership list.
- The quick search option on the Membership List (where you can simply type a name and it appears in a "search" box above the list) has been modified. Now, if no Last Name is found that matches the entry, the Member ID field is also searched (if that field is part of the list).
- A "Flag" field has been added to membership records. This field is intended for temporary marking of records for whatever reason is necessary. It can be used as report or search criteria, and can be toggled on or off from the membership list via the new Change Data window.
- A status code can now be marked for Daily Dues Proration, rather than only monthly. This translates to the Dues Calculator as well, so dues can be calculated by day or month, or without proration.
- A new Member Status Report has been added. This simple report displays the member name, status, start and end date.
- A "Message of the Day" preference has been added. Access to change this setting can be controlled via Security Settings.
- Help has been completely rewritten to follow the new Microsoft standard for HTML help. Lots more graphics, better organization, and more than 5,000 indexes, links and topics. In addition, we've put the "Help" button back on all the windows to make it easier to use. You can still press F1 to open help, but the button makes it a little more accessible.
- A simple window for removing invalid email addresses has been added. This window is available under the Actions menu. An email address that has been returned to you as invalid can be entered on this window, and the system will search membership and club records to find and remove it. If you wish, the address will be moved to the Comments section of the record with an appropriate comment.
- Added an "Anniversary" field to membership records. This is a standard date field, available to reports and for queries.
- Added a preference to identify the day on which the club's year "begins". This date is used for more accurate dues prorating via the Dues Calculator. The month and day are set with the preference, then the month is used when prorating dues by month, or the month and day are both used when prorating dues by day.
Problems/Issues Fixed
- Spacing on the Dues Postings reports did not allow them to fit on A4 paper.
- The Edit icon is available when no row is selected on the Dues and Donations tabs.
- An error occurred on the Data Tests window when more than one duplicate of a membership record was found and you attempted to delete two or more duplicates at once.
- The sort option for State/Province on mailing labels was not working correctly.
- Import window was requiring a last name when importing an update to an existing record. The name should not be required.
- Only the first file listed in the Related Files list would open, no matter which file was actually selected.
- The dues balance was not defaulting to zero on newly imported records.
- An extra line appeared on address blocks when Address Line 3 was populated but Address Line 2 was not.
- Corrected the maximum allowed length of the default report title on user reports. The limit was supposed to be 40 characters, but the window was limiting entry to 30 characters.
- ToDo List report was not displaying properly.
- The display of inactive assigned items was incorrect. When a member is assigned an item that is later made inactive, the item should still appear on the membership record, but should not be available to new item entries.
- Removed a redundant "Address Name" report criteria. It should not appear twice in the fields list on the Report Settings window.
- The Dues Standings report was grouping by last name/first name rather than the full name. This caused a mixing of entries when the name differed only in suffix or middle initial (i.e., entries for John Smith Jr. would combine with John Smith Sr.) The group settings have been corrected to use the full name (first, middle, last, suffix).
- Sorting on several dues reports was changed to use the full name by default to avoid grouping accounts when more than one person has the same first and last name.
- Attendance field were not working properly on all activity reports (summary, detail, etc.).
- The import of birthday data was not correct. The birthdate month and day should be imported as MMDD or DDMM as appropriate to the user's regional settings.
- When importing updates to existing records, the import was expecting the address name value to be part of the import, and if there was no address name, it ignored any address data. Now, if there is only one address available for the target membership record, it will update that with address data in
the import. If more than one address is available on the target record, the Address Name must be provided or the address data will be ignored.
- Prevented an error from occurring when the import was determined to be an update to an existing record, and no data is being imported for the record. i.e., an import record containing only an existing member ID and no other data should not do anything, but also shouldn't generate an error.
- Corrected some issues around running certain types of SQL command files from Support.
- The Dues Standings and Account Statement reports were combining entries when the entire name matched another member name exactly (i.e., two John Q Smiths). The group settings have been corrected to include the internal ID number in the group to ensure uniqueness.
- Corrected spacing on user defined labels to correct a formatting problem when using a field that may not contain data, such as Address Line 2.
- Moved the page number field slightly to the left on user-defined reports to help A4 formatting.
- Replaced the email .dll files to try to solve some random connection problems experienced by some users. For the technically minded... the anpop.dll and ansmtp.dll files have been replaced by mailbee.dll.
- A change made previously to allow separate editing of the start date/time vs end date/time on an activity (when editing multiple records at once) caused the times to stop saving correctly when editing only one record at a time. This was corrected so times save correctly no matter how many records are edited at one time.
- The system defined Membership Card report would display the Member ID as 0 (zero) when the Member ID contained alpha-characters.
- The progress bar displayed on the Email window was modified to more accurately represent the progress from 1 to 100% of the messages being sent. This corrects the problem of the progress bar "stalling" when sending large volumes of email.
- Odd behavior occurred when a date was selected on the popup calendar, and the calendar was positioned such that another clickable icon was displayed on the window directly below the calendar. In this situation, the icon below the calendar was activated when the calendar closed if the selected date was "above" the other icon.
- The sorting/grouping logic on the Activity by Member report was incorrect. The report didn't always display correctly when large numbers of activities/members were retrieved.
Copyright 2005 Myrro International - All rights reserved.