Known Problems: MainBoss Advanced 3.4 Update 1

1. Durations Summed Incorrectly in Tasks/Task Specializations

   When work orders are created from task specializations of a task, the duration of the work order may be calculated incorrectly. This problem will be corrected in the next available update.

2. Cannot Create Unscheduled Work Order From Task

   At present, New Work Order From Task does not work in the Tasks table viewer, or in any other window in which it appears. If you want to create a new work order from an existing task, we suggest you create a unit maintenance plan for the appropriate unit, using the task you want to execute and a maintenance timing record that has no contents (i.e. no date or meter specifications). You can then create the work order you want using Create unplanned Maintenance Work Order in the Unit Maintenance Plan table viewer.

3. Long Wait for MainBoss Service if Misconfigured

   This problem arises if there's something wrong with the computer named in the Machine Name field of your MainBoss Service configuration. When the MainBoss program starts up, it contacts the given computer to obtain information about MainBoss Service. If the computer doesn't respond, MainBoss will wait for a considerable length of time before finally giving up. As a result, several minutes may pass between the time you start MainBoss and the time MainBoss finally appears on your screen. To correct the problem, change the Machine Name.

   Note that the problem does not occur if the given computer responds in any way...even if the computer's response is that it's busy or that it is refusing all queries. The problem only occurs if the computer doesn't respond at all, in which case MainBoss waits several minutes before giving up.

4. Problems Moving to a New Version of SQL Server

   If you move your database to a new version of SQL Server, you'll get a message suggesting that you upgrade your database to take advantage of new SQL Server features. However, there is a bug in the Update Server button; clicking it causes an error which terminates MainBoss.

   The workaround is simply to continue using your database as is, on the new SQL Server. It will work perfectly fine, except that every time you start MainBoss, you'll see the message suggesting that you upgrade. The error message will go away if you upgrade your MainBoss software to a version that requires a database upgrade—upgrading the database for a new version of MainBoss automatically upgrades the database to accommodate your new SQL Server.

   This bug will be fixed in the next release.

5. 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.

6. Filtering by Creator, State, Status in State History Reports

   If you filter state history reports by creator, the output only shows records created by that person, not by anyone else. For example, suppose that you want information on all work orders where Pat made a comment. The report will only show comments from Pat; you will not see comments created by anyone else. Technically speaking, this might be correct, but in general, you likely want to see all the "conversations" in which Pat took part, not just Pat's side of the conversation.

   The same applies when you filter by state or status code. For example, you only see state history records with a given status code, not other history records for the same work order.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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 ).

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. Report Viewer Behavior in Page Mode

    When you first go to a report preview, the zoom mode is set to 100% and the page layout is set to list mode. Due to a problem with Microsoft Report Viewer, if you set the zoom mode to "Whole Page", the result is typically unreadable; "Whole Page" is only suitable for use if you set the page layout to page mode.

Known problems in the other releases of MainBoss Advanced.