July 11, 2006

 What’s New with ContactEase?

A new version of ContactEase is now available with some exciting new features! This interim release (you don't have to upgrade) includes the new Advanced Outlook Form that accesses any ContactEase data from within Outlook. Other enhancements include eliminating end-user error messages in Outlook, additional new tools that allow easier rollouts and monitoring, and other user and technical improvements.

Advanced Outlook Form – any data in ContactEase (including Activities, Relations, Assignments and History) can be accessed in Outlook!  Wow!

New Fields in Outlook Form – check boxes, text, and numbers can be customized to go right on the standard CE Outlook form.

“Private” records in your PDA – keeps your hairdresser’s info private!

Never an Error Message in Outlook – users don’t see them, just IT

Administrative Reports Tool – see who is synchronizing, which fields and categories are being used, and more

Other Synchronization Issues – faster, better, easier!

Other Items – some technical, some not…

New Rollout Enhancements – makes them even easier!

Advanced Outlook Form –

ContactEase Outlook Users can now upgrade to an Advanced Outlook Form that supports access to ContactEase Activities, Assignments, Relations & History as well as any other CE data, using a CE Details button on the Outlook form (shown below).

       

When the CE Details button is selected the system will display the following window (all fields and tabs are controllable through standard ContactEase security).

The Contact Tab (above) is a fully definable screen allowing the firm to expose any ContactEase field to the Outlook user (including any Company information for this contact).

           

The Activities Tab (above) displays CE Activities, which can be edited and updated by the user with the same controls as in CE.

          

The Relations Tab (above) displays company and other user-definable relationships including which other users have this record in their Outlook folder.

          

The History Tab (above) displays all of the changes that were made to this record, who made the changes and the values before and after the change.

New Fields Available For Outlook Form –

The Outlook form can now be customized to have additional fields from ContactEase on the form. This includes three different types of fields: Text, Numbers and Checkboxes.

Shown below is a custom Outlook screen created for one client (example only).  The changes are highlighted.

 

There's a lot you can do with this capability! Contact sales@colevalley.com for more information on adding new fields to your Outlook form.

PDA Users and Private Records –

Do you have problems with PDA users entering records in their PDA which then go into ContactEase, even if they are personal?  Well, now you can have PDA users mark their records Private in their PDA!  By using one of the 4 user-definable fields, a user can enter private records directly into their hand-held device and prevent the record from synchronizing with ContactEase.

 

 

No Outlook User Error Messages –

Outlook users can be set up to no longer see any error messages; instead these messages are written to a log and can be viewed using the new Administrative Reports Tool (below).

Administrative Reports Tool -

A new tool offers reporting on a variety of items, such as:

  • Synchronized Users – a list of Outlook or Lotus synchronized users as well as their last sync date

  • Field and Category Usage – showing each field and category and the number of records assigned to each

  • Outlook and Lotus Mappings - whether or not notes and categories are being synchronized

  • Error message log – showing any synchronization errors which now are hidden from the user

  • Email Results – the results of any of these reports can be emailed directly to Cole Valley Software for support analyst review

  • Copy Button - allows you to copy the values on the display and paste them into the clipboard where it can be pasted into a spreadsheet or elsewhere for further evaluation

Other Synchronization Issues  -

A variety of issues relating to synchronization are addressed in this release, including:

  • The overall Outlook Synchronization performance has been improved.

  • Lotus Notes records can now be marked Private using a Private Category.  These records are not synchronized to ContactEase.

  • Lotus Notes synchronization status can now be seen in the new Administrative Reports Tool – Synchronize Report – Lotus Users.

  • Older modification dates in Public Folder entries no longer result in the record being skipped during synchronization.

  • In the event of a failed synchronization, the Sync Icon in the Startup Tray changes color to notify the user.

  • If synchronization fails, it will be recorded in the Help > Support information dialog, which can be sent to Cole Valley Support.

  • A log will be written when a record is skipped for users who synchronize “all records” into their folder.

  • The Quick Find dialog box no longer appears for Sync Only users.

  • Full CE Users who also synchronize will see a progress dialog when running manual synchronization.

  • Synchronization failure for users who move to a new machine has been resolved.

  • If a User unsynchronizes with ContactEase, the CE Form is removed from that user’s personal forms library.

  • The ContactEase History table now reflects when Outlook Synchronization has been disabled.

  • A preference called “Use Exchange SMTP Email Addresses” has been added to File, Preferences, General to allow email addresses from Exchange contacts to sync to CE using the SMTP address type, rather than EX.  The preference is off by default but can be turned on globally using the new defaults setup tool.

Other Items -

A variety of areas were addressed in this release, including:

  • A new search type dialog appears when you access Edit > Find allowing you to select the type of search that you wish to perform (Contacts, Activities or Assignments).  This can also be disabled for each user.

  • CTL+J can now be used to toggle between the List View and the Record View (and back).

  • Administrator Database Timeout – ContactEase will retry access to the Administrator Database if the connection cannot be established or is lost.

  • The Help > Support window has been expanded and can now be resized.

  • Improved performance when saving a contact.

  • CE Shutdown no longer impacts system shutdown.

  • “This Month” and “Last Month” search issues have been resolved.

Rollout Enhancements -

We are always looking for ways to enhance the implementation and support of the product.  Please send any suggestions directly to support@colevalley.com.

MSI

With this release, we are adding MSI Rollout capabilities for installation or upgrades.  Don’t forget the automated upgrade capabilities that already exist!  Please contact support@colevalley.com for information on either of these. 

Defaults Setup Tool

Most user defaults can now be setup globally using an enhanced Setup Script Utility.  Although generally used to set defaults on install, defaults can now be reset by rerunning the Setup program.  Contact support@colevalley.com for more information on this feature.

DSN-less Connections Avoid Registry Settings

DSN-less connections has been added to make installation easier (avoiding registry settings).  The connection strings are placed in the METZPHO.INI.  For Example:   

[Datasources]CVSAdmin="Driver=SQL Server;Server=SPOKANE;DATABASE=cvsadmin;UID=metzpho;PWD=METZ049;"

contactease="Driver=SQL Server;Server=XEON\XEON;DATABASE=contactease;Trusted_Connection=yes;"

The name on the left must match the database name in ContactEase Administrator.

New COM Methods 

A COM method has been added which will return the name of the ContactEase Admin database: GetAdminDatabase

                  Example Macro:

Sub Test_GetAdminDatabase()

Dim appCE As Object

Set appCE = CreateObject("METZPhonesPro.Application")

appCE.Open ("")

appCE.GetAdminDatabase db$

MsgBox db

appCE.Close

Set appCE = Nothing

End Sub 

COM methods have been added to ContactEase which return the Administration users/groups list:

     GetAdminGroupList

     GetAdminUserList

                  Example macros:

Sub Test_GetAdminGroupList()

Dim appCE As Object

Dim Results As Variant

Set appCE = CreateObject("METZPhonesPro.Application")

appCE.Open ("")

appCE.GetAdminGroupList Results

appCE.Close

Set appCE = Nothing

End Sub

         Sub Test_GetAdminUserList()

Dim appCE As Object

Dim Results As Variant

Set appCE = CreateObject("METZPhonesPro.Application")

appCE.Open ("")

appCE.GetAdminUserList Results

appCE.Close

Set appCE = Nothing

End Sub 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

            

 

 
 

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