Known Problems: MainBoss Advanced 3.4
SQL Server Disconnection
If, for any reason, a MainBoss session disconnects from SQL Server, MainBoss doesn't attempt to establish the connection again. A disconnect can happen for many reasons; for example, the computer where SQL Server is running may go down or may be temporarily unplugged from your network. Also, if you do nothing with MainBoss for a long time (at least half an hour), SQL Server may "time you out", which means that SQL Server cuts your connection because you've been idle too long.
In such cases, MainBoss should probably try to reestablish its connection; the current version doesn't. Instead, you'll just get an error message: "Unable to refresh browser list contents; click the Refresh button to try again." If you click the "Details" button on the message window, you'll see something like "A transport-level error has occurred when sending the request to the server. (provider: Shared Memory Provider, error: 0 - No process is on the other end of the pipe.)" In some cases, you may get a different message that may not be very clear on what has actually gone wrong. The only way to fix the problem is to quit your current MainBoss session and start a new one.
Error on Printing Work Orders if "Additional Lines" default is blank
If you change the Work Order defaults (in the Defaults for Work Order) section so that the "Additional Lines" value is blank, you will get an error when you try to print any work order. The error reads:
Unhandled exception has occurred in your application. If you click Continue, the application will ignore this error and attempt to continue. If you click Quit, the application will close immediately. Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
To correct the problem, set the default for "Additional Lines" to some number. (A value of 0 is acceptable.) It may help to consult the online help file for browsing work orders ; in particular, see the write-up of the "Defaults for Work Order" section.
Item Activity Report
The Item Activity Report currently only prints information on one item per work order. It also displays incorrect cost totals for the items associated with each work order.
Filters not applied when going from table viewer to print-out
Suppose you are using a filter to look at Work Orders (e.g. you are only looking at work orders with a given priority). If you click the Print button, the resulting report ignores the filter you were using (e.g. you see work orders of all priorities).
You can, of course, set the filters for the report to match the filters you were using when looking at the table. However, we believe it would be better if the table viewer's filter carried over to the report in this situation. Such a facility may be implemented in a future release.
A similar problem happens with the Active filter on work orders. In a table viewer, the Active filter only applies to closed or void work orders; it never filters out open work orders, no matter how old they are. In a report, however, the Active filter is applied to all work orders, whether or not they're open. This may mean that you can see a work order in the table viewer, but when you try to print out that work order, the resulting report shows nothing. To get around this problem, go to the Advanced section of the report window and checkmark Suppress Active Filter restrictions. You can then print "old" work orders that show up in the table viewer but not in the report.
The same sort of problem occurs with requests and purchase orders.
Screen Size
When MainBoss starts up, it checks your monitor screen's resolution. From that point on, MainBoss sizes its windows to fit that resolution. If you change your monitor's resolution while using MainBoss, MainBoss's windows will not change to match the new resolution. This may have various effects, e.g. information disappearing off the bottom of the screen with no easy way to get it back. However, if you maximize any window (by clicking the maximize button in the window's upper right-hand corner), the maximization will be correct because that's handled by Windows rather than MainBoss.
If you run into window sizing problems because of this, just quit MainBoss and start it up again. MainBoss will then take note of the new screen resolution and size windows appropriately.
Note that the minimum supported resolution is 1024 by 768. Ideally, we recommend 1280 by 1024 or better.
Expense Categories in Demands
In work order demands, there's a field for specifying an expense category. The drop-down menu and the "..." for that field make it possible to create a new expense category; however, if you use these facilities to make a new expense category it doesn't get you anywhere.
To understand why, remember that the expense categories available for a work order are dictated by the current expense model. If you create a new expense category, that category won't be part of the expense model already chosen for the work order. Therefore, you won't be able to use the category you just created.
Instead of the current behavior, MainBoss should make it possible to add a new expense mapping to the current expense model. This would make another expense category available for use on the work order; this is usually what you want, as opposed to a brand new expense category.
Trying to Add a User when You Don't Have SQL Server Administrator Privileges:
If you have the MainBoss Administration security role, you can use Administration | Users to try to add a new user to MainBoss. However, you must also have SQL Server Administration permissions for the operation to succeed. If you don't have these permissions, you'll get the error message
User does not have permission to perform this action. The statement has been terminated.
Since the problem is that you don't have SQL Server permissions, you can't fix it by giving yourself more MainBoss permissions.There are several ways to fix the problem.
- You can obtain SQL Server Administrator permissions, at least for the time required to set up the new user. (If your IT department doesn't want to give you such privileges, you might persuade them to give you the privileges just long enough to create the new user record, then to take away the privileges again.)
- You could go to the Defaults for User section of Administration | Users and remove the "MainBoss manages SQL security" checkmark. (To remove the checkmark, click the "Edit Defaults" button and remove the checkmark in the resulting window.) If you do this, MainBoss will not attempt to set SQL Server permissions for any new people you add to the Users list; your IT department will have to manually add SQL Server permissions for each new person (following the instructions in the MainBoss Installation and Administration Guide).
Permissions to do Physical Counts
If a storeroom assignment doesn't have a preferred pricing record, the ItemFulfillment security role is not enough on its own to record physical counts—the "New Physical Count" button will be enabled, but you won't be able to save any information you enter. When you try to save, you'll see the error message DataBaseName.dbo.AccountingTransaction'; column does not allow nulls. INSERT fails. The statement has been terminated..
The reason for this problem is that physical counts require the recording of price information, and ItemFulfillment doesn't give you permission to view prices; if there isn't a preferred pricing record, MainBoss can't determine an appropriate price for the inventory. In order to record physical counts you need either ItemView, Item or AccountingView in additional to ItemFulfillment.
Automatic Numbering Can Get "Stuck"
Requests, work orders and purchase orders are numbered automatically based on a starting value given in the "Defaults" section of the table viewer (e.g. "Defaults for Requests" in the Requests table viewer). You specify the number in the "Number Sequence" field; this number increases every time you create an automatically-numbered request, work order or purchase order.
If "Number Sequence" ever comes to a number that has already been used, you will get an error when you try to create a request, work order or purchase order with that number. The error message begins with the string "Violation of UNIQUE KEY constraint". When this happens, "Number Sequence" will not be increased (because MainBoss didn't manage to create anything with that number). Therefore, the next time you try to create an automatically-numbered request, work order or purchase order, you'll get the same error message because of the duplicate number.
To get "unstuck", go to the appropriate defaults section and click "Edit Defaults". Set the "Number Sequence" to 1, then click "Save defaults". Immediately, set the "Number Sequence" to a value higher than any numbers that are already in use. Click "Save defaults" again. From this point on, you should have no trouble creating automatically-numbered requests, work orders or purchase orders.
Flashing in Lists
If you have a long list of records (e.g. a table viewer) and you double-click one of the list's column headings, the list may begin flashing on the screen for a period of time. What's happening is that MainBoss is sorting the list; the flashing will stop when the list has been sorted.
In part, this problem may arise because some lists are being sorted very slowly. The reason for this slowness is known and will be improved in a future release.
No Show Boxes, No Output
For any report, you must checkmark at least one of the Show checkboxes in the Advanced section. Otherwise, the report will contain no output. This applies, even for "summary" reports that do not show any of the usual data—you must checkmark at least one Show box or the report will be blank.
On Work Order Print-Outs, Resources are Summarized, Not Listed in Full
When you print out a work order and ask for detailed information on resource expenses, the expenses will be summarized rather than listed in full. For example, there will be one line for item expenses, one line for hourly inside labor, and so on (for every type of resource used in the work order).
The label on each of these "summary" lines will be one of the specific expenses involved. For example, the label on the item expenses "summary" line will be the name of one of the items used. The expense given will be the cost of all the items of that type, not just the item whose name is shown.
Report Viewer Problem When Exporting to Excel
To export data to Excel, MainBoss uses Microsoft Report Viewer. With some reports (e.g. Unit Maintenance Plans), the resulting Excel spreadsheet may have the Row Height set too small for some data fields. To solve the problem, you must manually use Excel to set an appropriate row height.
Totals in Purchase Order and Purchase History Reports
The totals in the summary lines for the Purchase Order and Purchase History reports are the totals of all order costs and all receipt costs for each purchase order. This is not a particularly useful number; for example, if all the receipt costs exactly match a particular purchase order's line item costs, the final total will be twice the line item costs.
This problem will be corrected in the next release.
Deferred Work Orders May Be Generated Beyond the Batch End Date
In some circumstances, planned maintenance work orders that are deferred beyond the Batch End Date may still be generated. This will be corrected in the next release.
