What's New in MainBoss Advanced 4.2

The following changes have been made from earlier versions of MainBoss.

1. Reports that have "Units" or "Storerooms" for filters now provide the option of "is contained in one of" as an option.
2. Reports in MainBoss use user changes in their regional settings "Format" culture information. An oversight in the Microsoft reporting modules precluded using a currency symbol override for reports. MainBoss now works around this oversight.
3. It is no longer necessary to install the Microsoft Report viewer modules nor the SQL server CLR types. MainBoss installation now includes these modules directly.
4. The "/MessageCultureInfo" command line argument has been added to specify what "Display Language" to use for Mainboss user display. The "/FormatCultureInfo" argument has been added to specify the "Format" to use for dates/currency, numbers etc. The "/CultureInfo" argument is still supported and will set BOTH the "message" and "format" culture information to the same value.
5. The synchronization of browser lists has been improved to reduce performance issues when changing the state of a work order. Significant delays were observed in previous versions of MainBoss on larger databases when the state of a work order was changed, or a comment was added to the work order.
6. This version of MainBoss uses colored headings to distinguish different types of maintenance activities. For example, one set of colors is used for windows related to work orders, while a different set of colors is used for windows related to requests.
7. Purchase orders now have a Category and Project fields, similar to work order categories and fields. You specify possible values for these new fields using Coding Definitions | Purchase Orders | Purchase Order Category and Coding Definitions | Purchase Orders | Projects.
8. If your MainBoss session gets disconnected from the database for any reason, MainBoss now attempts an automatic reconnect. As a result of this change, the concept of who is currently using MainBoss is less well-determined, since someone could be in the middle of a MainBoss session but be temporarily disconnected.
   
   Therefore the list of who is currently using MainBoss is determined by checking every ten minutes to see who is connected to the database at the time of the check. Practically speaking, this should seldom make a difference compared to the previous behavior.
9. Most work order table viewers now display the Current State History Status. The exceptions are the Closed Work Order table viewer (which displays the closing code instead) and the Void Work Order table.
10. More information can now be obtained from child records when printing a work order. For example, you can obtain the item description text from purchase orders in order to describe demand or actual items in the work order's Resources section.
11. The control panel now has a MainBoss News entry. This displays information obtained from a web page, provided that you are running on a computer that has an Internet connection. By default, the news is obtained from the mainboss.com web site. You can specify a different web address for your organization with the "News URL" field in Administration | Company Information.
12. The records for labor expenses (Hourly Inside, Hourly Outside, Per Job Inside, Per Job Outside) now include a section listing where demands for those expenses appear in task records. The same is true for the records associated with miscellaneous costs. Employee records have similar sections for task demands.
13. MainBoss now supports SQL Server Authentication, Active Directory Integrated Authentication, Active Directory Password Authentication in addition to Windows Authentication. MainBoss uses the authentication identification to identify the MainBoss user. MainBoss no longer attempts to automatically create SQL Server Logins and Users when creating MainBoss users. You can create the SQL server login/username (if you have the appropriate level of permissions) to associate with the MainBoss user.
14. Due to a bug, some filters were not being retained from one session of MainBoss to the next. Also some report sorting options were not being retained. This has been fixed in the new release.
15. The command line for installing MainBoss Service now lets you specify whether you'll use Windows Authentication or a passworded SQL login name when the service connects with SQL Server. (This has been changed in order to support suggested conventions in Microsoft Azure.) The following rules apply:
    • If you specify SQL Password authentication when you install the service, any authentication you specify will be used both for attempting the installation and by the service whenever it attempts to connect with the MainBoss database.
    • If you do not specify any authentication, the default is to use Windows Authentication under the login name that installs the service. The default is Network Service.
    • If you install MainBoss Service from inside MainBoss itself, the installation procedure makes use of the credentials of the person who's installing the service. If you are running MainBoss with Windows Authentication from a login name with appropriate privileges, MainBoss will install the service to run under Network Service. Otherwise, your credentials are passed down to the installation program and used to create the service. Note that this means the service may stop running or being able to access the MainBoss database if the person who originally installs the service loses permission (e.g. if that person leaves the organization and their logins are deleted).
16. The window for Administration | MainBoss Service has two new actions available on drop-down buttons.
    • Retrieve Email Requests creates MainBoss requests from any new email messages received. It does not send acknowledgements to the messages' senders; it simply receives the requests.
    • Retrieve Email Requests with Diagnostics does the same thing as Retrieve Email Requests and also obtains any diagnostic messages created by MainBoss Service. The diagnostic messages are displayed in the blank area of the window.
17. MainBoss Service automatically deletes any log entries older than 90 days.
18. MainBoss Service will create a request with specific field values from an email message containing a specifically formatted XML message. For example, the email can specify the external tag or the full location code of a Unit to set the request Unit field. Other fields that may be set include the Description, Comment, Access Code and Request Priority.
19. The Print Preview button has been replaced by a Refresh button in all windows for printing reports.
20. The Help Menu now has a Start Support Connection entry. This is intended for use while you're talking on the phone with MainBoss Support personnel. The entry starts up special software that will let support personnel examine MainBoss on your computer and help you deal with any problems you might be having.
21. Reports related to work orders can now be filtered by whether or not the work orders are overdue.
22. The AddOrganization command of mbutility now supports a variety of ways to access a database through SQL Server. For example, it is now possible to access the database under a different user name from the one under which you are logged in. (You must specify the correct name and password in order for this to work.) There is also a +SetDefault option that lets you mark the added database as your default database. For more information, see Adding Organizations.
23. It is now possible to create an "All Users" organization list that is stored in the HKLM section of the Windows registry rather than a user's personal section of the registry (HKCU). Organizations in this list will be available to all users on the network (although normal security roles will still control what a particular user can or can't do with the organization's database). The "All Users" list is maintained by the mbutility command: AddOrganization can add organizations to the list and DeleteOrganization can delete them. The ListOrganizations verb displays the current contents of the list. For more information, see the Installation and Administration Guide.
    
    If a default organization is set in the "All Users" list, it will become the default organization for all users at your site. It's often better not to specify a default, in which case, individual users can each set their own chosen default.