What's New in MainBoss 2.9
The following lists differences between MainBoss 2.9 and the previous release.
- A new Requests menu has been introduced, containing operations related to work requests. This includes the menu items Open Request, Browse Requests, and Print Requests. All of these operations were previously obtained through the Work Orders menu. Note that the information produced by Print Requests was previously known as the Work Request History report.
- A new item has been added to Work Orders —> Reports. The Overdue item produces a report on overdue work reports (work orders which are still open but whose "Work End" date has already passed).
- In earlier versions, a work request that had not yet been converted into a work order was classified as Open. Now it is classified as Waiting.
- A new item has been added to Work Orders —> Reports. The Print Tasks item lets you print the contents of preventive maintenance tasks. (You can do the same thing by clicking the Print button in the tasks browser.)
- Many data fields have increased in size to allow for longer identification codes and descriptions. The table below lists the most visible changes. (Other less visible changes have also been made.)
| Field | Length in 2.8 | Length in 2.9 |
|---|---|---|
| Building Code | 10 | 15 |
| Building Description | 30 | 50 |
| Vendor Code | 10 | 15 |
| Vendor Name | 30 | 40 |
| Contact Name | 30 | 50 |
| Personnel Code | 10 | 15 |
| Personnel Name | 30 | 40 |
| Equipment Code | 15 | 30 |
| Equipment Description | 30 | 50 |
| Equipment Location | 20 | 40 |
| Space Code | 15 | 30 |
| Space Description | 30 | 50 |
| Space Location | 20 | 40 |
| Item Code | 20 | 30 |
| Item Description | 40 | 50 |
| All phone number fields | 32 | 42 |
- Because many data fields are now longer, various reports have been reformatted. Information that used to fit on one line may now require two lines or even more.
- Because of longer data fields, it is possible that some field values are too long to be displayed in the space available on the screen. If so, you can move the mouse cursor to point to the field; MainBoss will display a tooltip showing the full value of the field. (A tooltip is one of those little yellow labels that Windows can display where your cursor points.)
- To increase product security, we have introduced a new licensing system. Users will be given license keys for each of the products they license (MainBoss, @Requests, etc.). For more information, see License Keys.
- Because license keys have been introduced, the old registration process is obsolete. Therefore, Administration —> Registration has disappeared. Information that used to be specified in the Registration window is now specified with Administration —> Preferences —> Company Information.
- The Work-Requests-Only (WRO) version of MainBoss is now a separate software package. Previously, customers used the MainBoss software itself but were expected to set permissions for WRO users so that they could only create work requests. This was always a point of confusion; therefore, we've created a separate WRO software package. The name of the new package is MainBoss Service Desk. For more information, see MainBoss Service Desk.
- The Manpower Schedule report now includes open corrective maintenance work orders if they fall within the specified time period. Previously, the report only listed preventive work orders.
- Inventory item records now have a "Comments" field where users can record any information not covered by other fields.
- MainBoss 2.9 makes it possible to restrict a user's ability to delete information from the database. For example, users may not be able to delete personnel records, vendor information, equipment descriptions, and so on (even though they might be allowed to create such records).
In order to delete such items, you must explicitly login to ADMINISTRATOR or to another user name that has permission to Reindex the database. No other users will be allowed to delete information. (However, it will be possible for other users to void work orders, work requests, etc. if they have permission to access the relevant browsers. Voiding does not actually delete the entry; it marks the entry as voided, but the information remains in the database where it can be recovered if necessary. This is different from deleting, which actually removes information from the database.) - The "Next schedule" field appears in the window that you use for setting the schedule for preventive maintenance on a unit. In previous versions of MainBoss, the value of this field could not be changed—it was set automatically from other information specified in the window. For example, if you had specified that a maintenance task should be scheduled every 90 days, "Next schedule" was automatically set 90 days after the last time you did the job.
In MainBoss 2.9, you can set "Next schedule" manually. This means that you can enter a specific date or meter reading when the task should be scheduled, even if it's different from the usual schedule. For example, you can enter a specific date that a job should be done. MainBoss will then use the given date, no matter what other information is specified in the scheduling window. - The use of "PM Generate Frequency" has changed. In the past, the new "Generate up to" value (used in generating preventice maintenance work orders) was calculated by adding "PM Generate Frequency" to the previous value of "Generate up to". For example, if "PM Generate Frequency" was 7 days, the new "Generate up to" was set to the old "Generate up to" plus 7 days, every time you generated work orders.
Now, the new "Generate up to" value is set to the current date plus "PM Generate Frequency". For example, if "PM Generate Frequency" is 7 days, "Generate up to" is set to the current date plus 7 days. The previous "Generate up to" date has no effect on this process.
Note that you can always set "Generate up to" manually to specify any date you want. The new behavior only affects the default "Generate up to" value. - More keyboard shortcuts have been added to allow mouse-free operation.
- New command line options have been added. /ServiceDesk+ starts MainBoss Service Desk, and /LicenseKeys+ starts MainBoss in a mode that only allows the entry of license keys.
