What's New in MainBoss 4.0
MainBoss 4.0 is a major update, including many significant new features.
The following list outlines the differences between this update and the previous release.
MainBoss 4.0 will not run under Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and earlier releases of Windows.
It will only run on Windows Vista or later (e.g. Windows 7, 8 or 10), including
the Server versions associated with those releases.
Overview
Every report now lets you save
custom settings.
When you save the settings, MainBoss will record all the options you
have specified for the report: grouping, sorting, filters, and any advanced options.
This makes it easy to set up a number of custom reports
based on the options you use most frequently.
You may now
create your own customized versions of table viewers.
Custom settings may also be used in a limited way with editors.
They can't be used to set data values, but they can be used to specify
settings for most checkboxes and option buttons.
As an example of customizing table viewers, suppose your organization manages several different
properties, and each property has its own maintenance supervisor.
If you're the supervisor of a property, you could set up the
Units table viewer
so that it only showed units in your property; these settings
could be given a name like "My Property".
You could then tell MainBoss that from this point on, you want these
to be your default settings—the
Units table
viewer would always be restricted to your property alone.
Similarly, you could restrict the
Work Orders
table viewer so that it only showed work orders for units in the property you care about.
A table viewer may have multiple customizations available, with
each customization identified by a name.
For example, suppose you're a supervisor in charge of two properties, A and B.
You could set up the
Units table with settings named "A", "B" and "A&B".
That way, you could quickly switch between seeing just the units in A, just the units in B,
or the units in both properties together.
Customized settings can be personal or global.
Global settings are available to everyone who uses MainBoss.
For example, if there's a whole team of people who only work
in a particular property, you could create a customized setting
that everyone on the team could use.
This makes it easy to share any customizations that you find useful.
You can also create personal customizations that are adapted
to jobs you do frequently.
You can now instruct MainBoss to
omit various fields and other data items
from table viewers and editors.
For example, if you never use a particular column in a table viewer, you
can tell MainBoss to omit that column, leaving more space on the screen
for other columns.
Similarly, you can optimize editor windows by telling MainBoss that you never
want to see certain fields.
(You won't be allowed to omit mandatory fields.)
Report filters: The
Filters section of reports now has
a new format
When you go to the section, you'll see a single drop-down box
that lets you choose an information field on which you want to filter.
Once you choose a field, more options open up to let you specify
which records you want to select.
For example, suppose you want to look at all work orders created after
a certain date.
You'd go to the
Filters section in the appropriate
report window and you'd click the drop-down box's arrow.
From the list, you'd choose to filter on
Created Date.
Once you specify this field, MainBoss will open another drop-down box
with options like "is on or after" and "is in the range".
Once you select "is on or after", MainBoss will open a calendar for you
to specify the date you want.
You'll then see a line with "Created Date" "is on or after" the date you choose.
When you specify a filter, MainBoss opens a new drop-down box below it.
You can use this drop-down box to specify another filter.
You can specify as many filters as you need.
To get rid of an existing filter, click the red X button
beside the filter.
The section organizes its checkboxes
according to the records that contain the information fields.
For example, suppose you're creating a work report about work orders.
Field Selection will have a
Work Orders
area that lists all the information fields that may be obtained
from a work order.
You can use checkboxes to choose which fields you do and don't want.
Work order table viewers have a new button:
New Task from Work Order.
This lets you create new task records from an existing work order.
For example, suppose you write up a work order to do a specific job and then
you decide you want to do that same job every month.
You can use
New Task from Work Order to create a task
record containing the work order's description and other relevant fields.
You can then use the new task to create unit maintenance plans that will
schedule the job on a regular basis.
If a New or "In Progress" request has no one currently assigned to it,
new facilities let you assign yourself to the request (provided you have
the appropriate security role).
For example, suppose a request arrives on the weekend or during the off-shift.
A worker with appropriate security permissions could claim that request without needing
a supervisor to make an explicit assignment.
Assigning yourself to a request can be done using either the MainBoss web interface (Web Access/Web Request)
or the Windows MainBoss program.
On the web, authorized users can get a list of requests that currently have no one
assigned to them.
They can then click a "Self Assign" button to assign themselves to a selected request.
In the Windows program, there is an
Unassigned Requests table
under
Current User Assignment Status; again, authorized users can
assign themselves to any of the unassigned requests.
When you assign yourself to a request, it is automatically put into the "In Progress"
state if it wasn't already.
From that point on, the request is just like one that was assigned to you by someone else.
It is removed from the
Unassigned Requests table and added to the list
of requests assigned to you.
In order to assign yourself to a request, you need the
RequestAssignSelf
security role.
You also have to be listed in the
Request Assignees table.
There are similar features that allow you to assign yourself to a work order or to
a purchase order, provided you have the
WorkOrderAssignSelf or
PurchaseOrderAssignSelf security role.
For example, all buttons that used to say
Print now
have an icon of a printer.
Similar changes have been made with several other standard buttons.
In addition, icons now appear on the title bars of windows.
This means they will also appear on window tabs in the Windows task bar.
If you have multiple MainBoss windows open, the icons should make it
easier to distinguish which window is which when you look at the task bar.
Requests are often linked to work orders.
In particular, when you create a work order from a request, the request
is linked to the work order.
The same is true when you explicitly use
Link to Work Order to
link a request to a work order.
When a request is linked to a work order, you often would like changes in the
work order's state to affect the state of the request.
For example, when you close a work order, you might want MainBoss to automatically
close the request too.
MainBoss now makes it possible for you to specify such automatic changes.
You do this by setting up rules saying, "If a request is in state A and
it's linked to a work order that goes into state B, then automatically
put the request into state C."
So you could say, "If a request is
In Progress and it's
linked to a work order that gets closed, then automatically close the
request too."
As another example, you could say, "If a request is
Closed
and it's linked to a work order that changes to
Open (i.e.
the work order is reopened), then automatically change the request to
In Progress" (i.e. reopen the request too).
You specify rules of this kind in "Close Preferences", found in the
Defaults for Requests section
of the
Requests table viewer.
MainBoss can now
initialize and update Contact records with information
obtained from the Windows Active Directory
.
MainBoss Service can also obtain Active Directory information when creating
new Requestor records.
For more information, see the
Installation and Administration Guide.
You can also use the
mbutility program to
update user-related and
requestor-related information from Active Directory
.
This includes getting rid of users and/or requestors who are no longer in your Active Directory.
This will be useful for organizations like educational institutions, where
there may be large turnovers in your requestor base over time.
The Web Access module can draw on Active Directory information to validate
requestor email addresses.
In this way, appropriate requestor records can be created "on the fly"
for anyone in your organization's Active Directory.
You may never have to create requestor records in advance for people in
your Active Directory; Web Access will automatically create appropriate
requestor records if and when someone in your Active Directory tries to submit a request.
By running
mbutility occasionally, you can remove any requestors
who are no longer in your Active Directory.
MainBoss provides the ability to control this automatic
creation of requestors.
In particular, you can specify "Accept" and "Reject" pattern strings.
An "Accept" pattern tells MainBoss to accept all requestors whose
email addresses match a particular pattern, while a "Reject" pattern
string tells MainBoss to reject requests from requestors whose email addresses
match a different pattern.
For example, you might only accept email addresses within your own
organization, or you might reject specific email addresses associated
with people who have previously made unacceptable requests.
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