What's new in Phoenix Version 2.9

Thumbnails for remote documents

When you add a document and using a remote link, a thumbnail is captured if the Url points to an image.

(Sat, 28 Jun 2008 10:26:01 GMT)

New High Contrast style sheet available

We have added a new high contrast style sheet as an alternative to the default (pxMSN) and GeoSemantica (pxGS) styles. The high contrast style sheet uses a black background with white text making it easier to read for some end users; plus it looks cool.

(Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:25:44 GMT)

PNG icons now available

We switched over to .png icons from .gif so that they look better on dark backgrounds. The original .gif images are still included so your custom style sheets won't break.

(Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:23:42 GMT)

User bytes uploaded counter...

...is now stored in the user table instead of being calculated everytime this value is required. The performance is dramatic, especially when you are a member of numerous workspaces.

(Tue, 08 Apr 2008 11:30:09 GMT)

User options

Each user's option file has been reorganized allowing for faster processing. The file is also cached on a per request basis which noticably speeds things up.

(Tue, 08 Apr 2008 11:27:51 GMT)

Download counters

We have added download counters to documents and layers. Everytime a document is requested (via GetObjects), the counter is increased by 1 and a line-item is created in the history table which tracks the time and the autenticated user that made the request. In the case of anonymous users, the counter is still increased but there is no entry in the history (due to a User cionstraint on the table).

The history for an item can be viewed as normal by clicking the "view full history" link you'll see at the bottom of each item (detail view).

(Tue, 08 Apr 2008 11:26:14 GMT)

Sysadmin can poll the various Windows services to see if they are running

(Mon, 18 Feb 2008 12:40:33 GMT)

Sysadmin is alerted when batch emails fail

The number one support call we hear is "my Phoenix node is not sending emails". This is usually caused by an incorrect setting in Phoenix in the Smtp mail settings. But, unless you were to check the error log, a sysadmin would have no way of knowing if the email system was down.

Now, when an incorrect Smtp settings is detected, or a send email operation fails, an alert is sent to the sysadmin notifying him of the problem.

(Fri, 01 Feb 2008 22:44:36 GMT)

Delete User account

"What goes in, must come out..."

In the past, sysadmins could manually delete user accounts (sort of, very buggy, lots of hair pulling)... now, the user himself can delete his account. Go to the User Profile page. Click the delete account button. Poof.

Well not really, there is lots to consider. Where does your content go? Delete it? Or transfer ownership? What about surveys you've taken? What if you've created a folder but other users have created items in it. What if you've created workspaces in the system? As you can see, there are lots of scenarios.

Currently, when you click delete and forge ahead through the barrage of "Are you sure?" dialogs, your account is locked out, and the sysadmin gets an email/alert. It is then his job to figure out what to do.

The actual process of removing accounts is still a bit dicy (see above to understand why). As new features are added to Phoenix, the Delete User Account code has to be revisited to remove the new bits -- a painstaking process.

(Fri, 01 Feb 2008 22:37:24 GMT)

Remote search webservice now returns full metadata for search results

Developers working with Phoenix's search webservice are now able to collect the full metadata set for those objects that have metadata (documents, maps, layers). The webmethod is the same one you've been using, Search(), but I've added a resultformat element to the search query Xml which you can use to indicate how you want the results formatted. There are currently two values: short and fullmetadata.

This element is optional (the default is short) to be backwards-compatible with earlier Phoenix versions.

In addition, the <mindate> and <maxdate> elements are now optional. The lang attribute on the <searchquery> element now works as expected. If you specify lang="fr" for example, workspace names (and in the future content itself) will be localized to French. The legal values for lang are dictated by the SupportedCultures in the appSettings.config of the remote server. So possible values could vary. However, the code will always fall back to the best supported language. I hope to document the features of the remote user search (rusearch.asmx) in the future.

(Fri, 01 Feb 2008 22:23:54 GMT)

Workspace Import

The process of bringing an archived workspace package into a Phoenix node is beginning to take shape.

Some features include:

Wizard-style interface allows you to preview the manifest before committing it Choice of mapping ownership of imported objects to existing accounts in the system, or creating new accounts as needed. Multiple workspace support. There is still a lot of work to be done. I have noticed that importing very large workspaces is slow. So slow, that the web request times out and aborts. It may be necessary to move this function out into a separate Windows process, similar to how remote searches are conducted.

(Fri, 01 Feb 2008 22:05:55 GMT)

Workspace Export

Exporting a workspace will collect all database entries and server files that comprise the workspace. Everything is packaged up in a zip file. The change I made this week was to add the ability to include user account information in the workspace manifest. This means that when you export a workspace, you now have a fully self-contained backup of the workspace.

The schema of the manifest itself is beginning to stabilize. I will be adding Xml encryption with keys before V2.9 goes out the door.

(Fri, 01 Feb 2008 21:58:37 GMT)

Framework for Online Help is plugged in and being tested...

...and there was much rejoicing. That's great news for users just getting started with Phoenix and want context-sensitive help at their fingertips.

The bad news is, the help content still needs to be written (but we are working on that.)

Look for the icon on the far right end of the toolbar on most pages. Clicking on it will open a small pop-up window with the appropriate help content in your preferred language.

The help content itself is coming from a Wiki at help.decisiontools.ca which is currently being populated with documentation. We still have to figure out where the content is stylized (server or client) and some other issues, but the framework is in place.

(Wed, 09 Jan 2008 16:47:39 GMT)

Search page supports keyword parameters...

In anticipation of future developments, the search page now allows search query keywords to be passed in via a parameter (much like Google). Keywords are separated with a plus (+) sign.

There are some other goodies in store here, so stay tuned...

(Wed, 09 Jan 2008 15:48:27 GMT)

Support for vcards added

Your contacts can now be exported as vcards (extension *.vcf) for use in Microsoft Outlook or any other address-book type application that supports vcards. (iPod and Thunderbird come to mind).

The vcards are exported using version 3.0 which is the latest. Outlook uses version 2.1, but they seem to load just fine.

Look for the button on the toolbar of both contacts, and user profiles. When clicked, you can chose to save the .vcf file or open it in your address-book application.

(Wed, 09 Jan 2008 15:44:07 GMT)

Workspace history available via RSS

Workspace Administrators may want to know quickly about changes to their workspace. An Rss feed is now available which churns out every action that has been performed in your workspace. This list is reverse sorted by date, so you can always view the top few items to see the latest changes.

A link to the feed is available on your Workspace History page.

Please note, that is feed is available for authenticated and authorized users only. You must be already logged in to the system before the content of the feed is released.

(Fri, 04 Jan 2008 10:52:51 GMT)