Net Data Design, LLC Blog

I have been asked by a few clients who use vTiger about core features or modules to perform certain tasks that are just not available. While I am a developer, the LAMP stack has never been my preference. Well, vTiger 5.2 is currently in Validation Build 1 stage and they’ve addressed some of these features.

It packs some nice new features such as SMS, ical Import Export and an Assets module. It also appears that some existing third party modules are also being rolled in with tighter integration, those would be the Projects and Mobile modules and API‘s. There are also quite a few bug fixes addressed in this new version, a complete list can be found here.

5.2 Key Features

• SMS Module.
• Mobile API module  (not included in VB1, extension module will be provided in a week’s time).
• Project Management (not included in VB1, extension module will be provided in a week’s time).
• User List view Navigation.
• Calendar ical Import Export.
• Reports Enhancement- Added Line Item Support.
• Assets Module.
• and more – Detailed list can be found in the Release notes,

5.2 Release Plan

Before releasing the final version, we will be releasing a couple of builds of 5.2 to the community to get feedback and fix issues. We plan the following releases before the final version.

• Validation Build1
• Validation Build2 (if necessary – to be determined based on nature of fixes changes made after Validation Build1)
• Release Candidate (RC)
• Final Version

When I start and during testing of this build, I’ll post my findings here. If you are currently testing, please share your comments.

Over the last nine years we’ve built a reputation for creating websites that are top-shelf  both aesthetically and functionally. In addition to being  very good at what we do, we also like having fun when the time and place are right. So when a client says yes, what is it that they’re buying from us?

• A website? That may be why they came to us and what the end goal is, but that’s not why they choose us. A lot of companies create great websites.

• A good time? Fun is a big part of it, who wants to deal with up-tight people all day. But even we know that there are better ways to spend money and have fun than hire us.

• Our methodology? They definitely want to know we have one, but the details aren’t as important to most clients as they are to us.

• Experience? Again, this is part of the reason but not what makes them say yes.

See, they don’t decide to hire us for the website they’ll get or the promise of  a cold beer, cocktail or even because we’ve got hundreds of web projects in our portfolio.

So why do they hire us?  Because we put them at easy about their project.

When most clients set out to select a web firm they are probably apprehensive at best. But somewhere along the project, some clients turn overbearing and feel they need to micro-manage. Most clients like to be in the front seat, but they prefer the shotgun position, not behind the wheel. So, what do you do with the client who insists on driving?

In my eyes, there are several ways to approach this issue.

• First, you could resign from the project and request the client find someone else to finish it (or recommend a company you don’t care for).
• Second, you could tactfully push back on the client and tell them who is in charge of the project and ask that they allow us to do our job.
• Third, you could take what the client says, give them what they want, and finish the project as quick as humanly possible so you can move on.

So which do you choose?

In my mind, the best thing to do is to finish the project as soon as you can (without jeopardizing the integrity and quality) and put the whole thing behind you. When it’s done you can always elect not to work with the client again. It may be difficult to handle it that way, as some dialogue will be needed in the future. However you always want to make sure you remain professional in all business situations regardless of whether or not the client is right or wrong. This will ensure that your reputation will always be positive and no bridges will be burned. At the end of the day, your responsibility is to make sure the client is happy.  Stick with that principle and you’ll be in a good position.

A week ago or so SmarterTools release the first beta of SmarterTrack 5. My main interest was the new webservice methods that have been added and the old methods refined. The reason for this is myself and  a few of my clients use SmarterTrack 4 (ST4) in conjunction with DotNetNuke (DNN) as our main website.

I wrote a web-service that allows a user to login to the DNN site and carry that authorization to the support site (ST4) if needed by the DNN user. ST4 recognizes the authorization fine using the External Provider, but there is a problem. Even though ST4′s External Provider is set to grant authorized users e the ‘Registered User” role, ST4 is not setting it. I have asked ST for a little help, but nothing has materialized. So my hopes where that this was fixed, unfortunately, it’s not yet.

What I did find however are some really nice new features, some would lead you to believe that ST5 is starting down the CRM path. Here are some of the newly added functionality:

• Call logging allows companies to track all incoming and outgoing calls and relate those calls to any tickets or Live Chats in the system, allowing businesses to track all communications regardless of the channel used.
• The task management system allows managers and agents to create tasks and track work associated to a specific ticket, call, or Live Chat, helping them to manage work that may need to be done after the call or Live Chat is completed.
• With follow-ups, companies can keep in constant contact with both existing and new customers. Integrated with the events system, follow-ups notify agents when customers haven’t responded or need additional service.
• Although not available at the beginning of the BETA, SmarterTrack 5.x will provide managers with the ability to monitor agents’ tickets and allow agents to manage their tickets and Live Chats via mobile devices. The WAP interface uses the new Web services available in SmarterTrack 5.x and will work across all major mobile phones, including iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry.  The WAP interface will resemble the phone’s interface, so iPhone users connecting to SmarterTrack will notice the mobile interface has the same feel as an iPhone application.

ST5 Agent View - Click for Larger Image

These list was taken directly from the SmarterTrack Website:

• ADDED: A call logging system that can be used to track and report on incoming and outgoing phone calls and associate them with tickets and Live Chats.
• ADDED: A new licensing manager for future functionality.
• ADDED: A setting specifying whether the portal loads the Knowledge Base in browse mode or search mode by default.
• ADDED: A task management system that allows employees to track tasks
  associated with tickets, Live Chats, and calls.
• ADDED: Agents can now send files to end users through Live Chat.
• ADDED: Agents can now upload files to a ticket without sending a
  message.
• ADDED: An option to hide specific folders when searching the Knowledge Base via the portal. Searches of parent items will still include articles in child folders.
• ADDED: An user information external provider that allows for custom information to be returned and displayed with tickets. Companies can implement this provider to give agents access to company-specific information or links to internal systems.
• ADDED: Auto-responders now include a link to the Knowledge Base in the body of the responder if no related articles were found during the auto-search.
• ADDED: Bulk operations for managing the privacy and status of news items from the grid.
• ADDED: Bulk operations for managing the privacy, status, and folder of canned replies from the grid.
• ADDED: Bulk operations for managing the privacy, status, and folder of Knowledge Base articles from the grid view.
• ADDED: End users can now send files to agents through Live Chat.
• ADDED: New system-level and agent-level Live Chat events.
• ADDED: New system-level events for POP and SMTP errors.
• ADDED: New Web services for tickets (service2/svcTickets.asmx), organization (service2/svcOrganization.asmx), and the Knowledge Base (service2/svcKB.asmx)  that replace and greatly extend the old Web services.
• ADDED: The ability to configure company holidays to identify days when Live Chat should automatically be disabled.
• ADDED: The ability to configure multiple shifts and business hours for each day of the week.
• ADDED: The ability to create multiple root-level folders in the Knowledge Base.
• ADDED: The ability to make the anchor title of text-based Live Chat links different from the text or description of the link.
• ADDED: The ability to mark a ticket for follow-up, which will allow the ticket to reactivate after a specified time period and prompt the agent to take further action.
• ADDED: To improve usability, attachments and uploaded files for a ticket or live chat are now displayed in a new Files tab in addition to the Communications tab.
• ADDED: To improve usability, various tabs in the management interface now display the total count of items within the tab.
• ADDED: Several enhancements to streamline and improve the organization and navigation of the Knowledge Base in the portal.
• CHANGED: If there are no Knowledge Base articles in the system, the area will no longer display in the portal.
• CHANGED: Knowledge Base articles displayed in the portal now show the total number of times the articles have been viewed.
• CHANGED: Knowledge Base articles now display more consistently throughout the portal.
• CHANGED: Knowledge Base search results are now be grouped by folder and organized by relevancy.
• CHANGED: New social networks have been added for Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and more. Discontinued social networking sites have also been removed.
• CHANGED: Numerous usability enhancements to the management interface and portal.
• CHANGED: Revised the names of items in the Workspace and Manage tree views for consistency.
• CHANGED: SmarterTrack now asks for confirmation when an agent clicks on the End Chat button.
• CHANGED: The Agents page in the system settings has been renamed to Employees.
• CHANGED: The option to display the agent’s name when a Live Chat invitiation is sent is now on the Live Chat settings page.
• CHANGED: The option to enable an agent to push a webpage to a customer via Live Chat is now on the Groups settings page.
• CHANGED: The options for activating a license or performing a self-diagnostic are now in the Activations folder in system settings.
• CHANGED: The portal now displays Knowledge Base articles on a single page.
• CHANGED: The Spools page is now a root-level item in the Manage tree view.
• CHANGED: The warning message for disabling user logins on the portal settings page no longer applies and has been removed.
• CHANGED: To improve formatting and display of tickets and Live Chats, resolution search results no longer have line breaks.
• CHANGED: To improve usability, Knowledge Base articles displayed in the portal now appear with an icon next to them.
• CHANGED: To improve usability, Knowledge Base searches performed in the portal now display the top 40 relevant results.
• CHANGED: To improve usability, the login form now displays on every page of the portal.
• CHANGED: To improve usability, the related items grid has been redesigned.
• CHANGED: Users can no longer change the sort order of Knowledge Base articles in the portal.
• EFFICIENCY: Various performance enhancements were made to decrease database calls and increase page load speed.
• FIXED: Deleting a Knowledge Base article or news item now immediately invalidates the cache and updates the portal homepage appropriately.
• FIXED: System administrators and agents can now delete Knowledge Base articles from the portal if they are logged in, even if they are not logged in to the management interface.
• FIXED: The details tab of a ticket now loads properly inTturkish installations of SQL server.
• FIXED: Tickets that are deleted or marked as spam now cannot be transferred without first restoring them.
• FIXED: Tickets that are deleted or marked as spam now cannot have their status changed without first restoring them.
• REMOVED: Because active Live Chats now display in popup windows, the setting to control whether Live Chats are managed in the main window or a popup has been removed.
• REMOVED: Because ticket responses now display in a popup window, the reply mode setting that controls whether ticket responses are created in the main window or a popup has been removed.

An alternative method of installing DotNetNuke on IIS 7.5 9or IIS 7) is using the free helper application by Mike van der Meulen. MakeDNNSite is a nice little package that will give you a new DNN install without a lot of hassle. There is no manual web.config editing, Application Pool creating or setting of permissions (see note below). It will even download the latest build for you or use a package that you already have downloaded.

I have used this method several time in testing and found it to be flawless (2008 R2, 64-bit). It does come with a few restriction, such as you can’t install using a sub-domain. It said to work on IIS 7 and 7.5 both 32-bit and 64-bit and SQL Server 2005 and 2008 both full and Express editions.

Because MakeDNNSite works on both IIS 7 and 7.5, the Application Pool created uses the NetworkService account. While this is fine for IIS 7, however it is not the preferred account for IIS 7.5, rather the IIS AppPool Idently account should be used. This can be simply changed by right-clicking the newly created AppPool and selecting ‘Advanced Setting’. There, under Process Model, change the identity to ‘ApplicationPoolIdentity’.

If you opt to use the ApplicationPoolIdentity you will need to update you permissions on the website directory as well. I have blogged about this in detail (IIS 7.5 AppPool Identities).

In short, it’s a really nice tool at a great price (Free.) I highly recommend it for all DNN users, regardless of your environment or skill level.