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Tracker Suite Version 5.1 Release Notes

Themes:

Technology upgrade and usage of singular technology stack makes a more scalable and more compatible Tracker Suite. 

Ø  Focus on performance has made the application faster and more scalable, it is now 25% faster with optional time to load timers that can be enabled to troubleshoot slow networks.

Ø  Application has been moved to a single technology stack to make it more manageable and less error prone with better memory utilization.

Ø  Latest browser support for Chrome, IE, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.

Ø  Support for Web Farms and Clusters is added in the application so that it supports Load balancers.

Ø  New personalization options, drag and drop to create the perfect one touch access to data.

Ø  Improved rich content management, with rich text drag and drop attachment, better document formatting, and improved messaging.

Ø  Meeting scheduler to easily schedule teams and manage meeting agendas and minutes.

Ø  New form designer and workflow options.

Ø  Improved work prioritization and resource management.

Ø  Improved user experiences, including type ahead and more intuitive validation.

 

Improved Reporting Capabilities:

Ø  New Graphical Business Intelligence Designer, with Bubble Charts, Pie Charts, and Bar Graphs available

Ø  A new report designer is introduced with drag & drop support for easily designing reports and configuring them

Ø  New date categories introduced to group report data for Year, Months, etc.

 

Mobile Support:

Ø  Application framework is upgraded to provide support for IOS (IPhone) and Android based devices

Ø  Expense Tracker, Time Tracker and Support Tracker are now configured for more mobile compatibility.

 

Salesforce Integration:

Ø  Integration with Salesforce is added in Version 5,1 release. This includes a framework which allows both Import and Export of data between Salesforce and Tracker Suite.

Ø  Integration is supported for Persons, Projects, Support Requests, Customers, Contacts and emails.

 

Improved Security:

Ø  Special efforts are made across application to improve security for various security threats.

Ø  Security Audit Support, logging user security changes and tracking access history.

Ø  Special tools such as  ZAP are used to test and fix any potential vulnerability.


 

Application Wide / Framework Changes

1.      Application Architecture: Application Architecture has been changed to support latest browser technology, including Edge.  The application is now compatible with latest versions of all commonly used browsers such as Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.

2.      Backend Architecture: Tracker Suite is now using the latest version of underlying architecture of Ext JS 5.1.3. Changes have been made in the application so that the whole application is now using one technology stack, which  is Ext JS 5.1.3. This has improved the following:

·         Memory management is better, which makes the application run much faster

·         Improved Performance

·         Faster Rendering of Forms and Views

3.      Security Improvements: Additional capabilities have been added in order to make the application secure against various kinds of vulnerabilities and threats. Framework is made more secure and all modules are tested manually as well as with automated security testing tools like ZAP.

4.      Reporting Improvements: There has been significant improvement in the reporting capabilities of Tracker Suite. The new reporting tool is much faster and more scalable. Some major improvements include:

·         Support for graphs is added and users now have option to view reports as data list, graph or both.

·         Report designer is added in the reports that allow users to design and configure reports. Drag and drop capability of report designer makes it very easy to use.

·         Date columns now support displaying data and grouping data using different date parts like Year, Month, and Quarter etc. which adds a whole new dimension in how administrators can extract and report data from the system.

5.      Salesforce integration is added in Version 5.1 release. This includes a framework which allows both Import and Export of data between Salesforce and Tracker Suite. This allows users to map Tracker Suite entities with Salesforce objects and map Salesforce fields with Tracker Suite fields. It also handles conflicts if data is changed on both sides. Users can also configure if they want to delete/remove data on import/export.

6.      Salesforce integration currently supports import/export of data between the following objects:

·         PersonßàUsers

·         ProjectßàCase

·         Support RequestßàCase

·         CustomerßàAccount

·         ContactßàContact

·         EmailßàChatter

7.      Custom Grids: Support for custom grids is added in the system. This allows users to configure and add grids on different forms if they want to store some extra information in tabular format.

8.      Google and Outlook style type-ahead feature is added on Email Notification dialog that allows users to easily add/remove recipients of emails.

9.      A new dialog is added on email notification that opens on To, CC, BCC links that allows to search and add recipients. This new dialog supports drag and drop capability to make it more user-friendly.

10.  Support is added in application to support Web Farms and Clusters to support enterprise implementations where clients want to use multiple servers for application deployment to achieve optimum performance.

11.  New version of Tracker Suite allows users to move codebase and custom fields from one tab to other. This allows administrator to group and reorganize information based upon their requirements.

12.  Time to load functionality is added for all views and forms. This allows the user to see exact time taken by views and forms to ensure that the application is running in an efficient manner.

13.  View framework is enhanced to support grouping and sorting date columns. Previously the date column was treated as text, and had not been sorted and grouped properly.

14.  New attachment control is now available across application that uses new interface and comes with drag and drop capabilities.

15.  Upgrade process is changed to create new menus added in the system under upgrade links with under proper categories. This allows administrators to easily expose new features in their organizations.

16.  View Improvement: View designer option is added on all the views that allow users to add/remove columns and using drag and drop capability to rearrange them as per their requirement. They can then apply all changes at once, when view design is finalized.

17.  View Improvement: Users now can specify to include a certain column in searches even if that column is not visible on the view itself, using new view designer functionality. Similarly they can also exclude certain columns from search criteria even though column is visible on view.

18.  View Improvement: context menus are added on views that allow users to select records and export/print/email selected records using right click making these features more accessible.

19.  View Improvement: Export to Excel option is improved to support latest security changes provided by Microsoft in new versions of MS Office.

20.  Custom field framework is improved to get rid of issues that were raised with re-using some of existing custom fields and deletion of fields. New framework is more robust and allows efficient use/re-use of custom fields.

21.  All of the web service calls are made to run in Asynchronous mode that helps to improve overall performance of application.

22.  System now supports selecting records across pages on picklist dialogs. The selected values are retained / checked as well if a user reopens the picklist to change certain values.

23.  System now allows redistributable collections. It allows defining collections when application is distributed. Users have the option to customize those collections as per their requirements. There is an option to restore/revert to default settings if required.

24.  Five Text, Number and Date custom fields are now supported on Keywords form and views that allows linking additional information with keywords defined in the system.

25.  Close button is now added on User Desktop, Project Desktop and Program Desktop facilitating easier navigation.

26.  A progress bar is added on all forms that show up when the form is being loaded to give user an indication that the system is busy.

27.  New navigation icons are added in navigation bar that are bigger and colorful that make them standout and easy to use.

28.  Person name change functionality is re-written that updates person name in all modules using a job that runs in asynchronous mode. This resolves previous issues related to name change process across application. A new view is also provided under utilities (personnel tracker) menu that lists history of name change updates and allows retrying any failed/partial update.

29.  System now allows users to add their private views in Widget Desktop.

30.  A new feature is added in the system that allows users to rename various tabs in collections to suit their needs. These changed names will be saved for subsequent usage when they reopen it.

31.  Users are now allowed to drag shortcuts from Folders back to the Desktop and from Desktop to the folder.

32.  Captcha is implemented on Forgot Login and Forgot Password pages to make these pages secure.

33.  System now records login and activity history of users. A new view is added under Personnel TrackeràUtilities that shows users who have accessed the system ordered by their most recent login attempt.

34.  View framework now shows custom fields on Filter popup allowing users to filter/search on their views on these custom fields.

35.  System now provides importing keywords from an Excel sheet into the system as part of our Excel Import.

36.  While creating a new record, system highlights the required field automatically in blue so that user knows which ones are mandatory fields. Previously they would only get indication of required fields when saving the document.

37.  Bigger and better looking Task Bar is added in Tracker Desktop to increase usability for end users.

38.  Help icon is provided in taskbar so that it is visible on first glance and easily accessible.

39.  View framework options that were available in edit menus are now provided in the context menu that opens when you right click on views.

40.  System now allows users to drag icons from Desktop to Folders and back from Folders to Desktop.

41.  A new home button is added on the navigation bar across Tracker that minimizes all windows and takes the user back to Desktop.

42.  A new alert is added on desktop informing user of unsaved changes on desktop in case a user adds/remove/rearrange his desktop shortcuts.

43.  System now allows administrators to distribute shortcuts on desktop of their users by grouping them in folders. These folders will be created based upon security privileges defined in Menu Editor.

44.  System now allows opening multiple instances of the same menu option. For example, if a user wants to open multiple projects, they can open the Projects View and open a project document. System will now allow them to open another Projects View and navigate to another project document. Previously, the system would only allow opening a single menu option at a time.

45.  More licensing options are added in the system for better control of licenses of Tracker Suite modules.

46.  A new job is available to send out an email of licenses usage. This can be configured from company setup.

47.  New style Ext JS based form is designed for changing password when a user first receives a Welcome Email and tries to access the site.

48.  Administrators now have the option to revert or restore the default notification templates that are distributed with the application in case they had changed their templates and want to switch back to default ones.


Expense Tracker Module

Themes:

1.      Expense report form is rewritten in this release and the new expense report is much faster.

2.      New expense report is available to be used on iPhone and other android based smart phones and tablets. This allows users to submit their expense reports on the move. It also allows the manager to Approve/Disapprove them using hand held devices.

3.      New orientation setting added on Expense Tracker setup that allows user to select Landscape or portrait orientation for print pdf functionality for expense report.

4.      Expense Tracker now incorporates new attachment control that provides better user interface and drag and drop capabilities for attaching files.

5.      New and better looking alerts/messages are incorporated on expense report.

6.      Expense reports now allow better handling of reports that are submitted in International currencies with proper validations and messages.


Meeting Tracker Module

Themes:

A new Tracker Suite module has been added to the application stack, Meeting Tracker. It allows users to schedule meetings, add participants, and send out meeting invitations and reminders.

1.      Meeting Tracker allows users to create meetings, which can either be a single meeting or recurring with following features:

·         Schedule multiple occurrences

·         Add/remove participants or invitees

·         Add/Update meeting agenda for each occurrence

·         Add/Update minutes of meetings

·         Add action items and assign them to people

·         Link meeting with Project and/or Tasks

2.      These meetings can be listed on the Company Calendar so that it is easy to identify conflicts and reservations of resources.

3.      Meeting Tracker is integrated with Project Folders that allows users to easily create meetings for the selected project.

Payment Tracker Module

Themes:

1.      Copy check request functionality has been provided as part of this release on the check request form.

2.      A new feature has been added on check request form that allows a user to type in vendor number and pressing the Fill button populates all of the related fields.

 


Personnel Tracker Module

Themes:

1.      A new user configurable email template is provided under Personnel Tracker setup that will contain a link to the Tracker Suite site. This is in addition to the Welcome Email that is sent to new users.

2.      When a new user is created, the system automatically prompts if a Welcome Email needs to be sent to the newly created user.

3.      Display Name and Login names fields are automatically calculated on the basis of First, Last Name(s) and Email address.

4.      Personnel Tracker views are restructured to present data in a better looking and more logical way.

5.      Licensing options have been added on the person form for Project Tracker, Payment Tracker, Customer Tracker and Invoice Tracker.

6.      Licensing view has been updated to list license usage of the Tracker Suite modules.

7.      Option to perform a bulk update on person records that are licensed to use these modules has been added under the People Utilities. Administrators can use People Utilities to assign or revoke licenses from people in bulk.

 


 

Project Tracker Module

Themes:

1.      Users now have the option to configure what information they want to display in the splash column on Project Folders. They can select between Planned, Budgeted and Actual hours or a combination of these values.

2.      Performance of the Gantt is improved where only the data for columns that are visible on Gantt are included. This helps to improve performance, especially on large projects.

3.      New filters are added on Project Folders that allow the user to set date filters easily using options like Current Year, Next Year, etc.

4.      Status reports are optimized to handle large projects. Performance of this area has considerably improved with new changes.

5.      System now supports setting predecessors when tasks are imported/added used WBS task templates.

6.      Progress bar has been added to the status report summary tasks to see overall progress at the summary level similar to what we get on Gantt.

7.      Type-ahead functionality has been added to select customers when a customer is being linked to a project.

8.      Added Edit Definition column that opens project definition page for Manager and User Dashboard views.

9.      System now supports adding new projects from Master Inbox view.

10.  Display of Project links has been changed on the Project Folders view. Links are now clickable, and clicking these links opens them in a new browser window.

11.  Copy URL option is provided on project documents. This allows users to copy the link of to a document and paste in an email. This link can be clicked to open the document directly if recipient has access rights in Tracker Suite.

12.  Project Tracker now incorporates new attachment control on all of its forms, which provides better user interface and drag and drop capabilities for attaching files.

13.  New cost columns are added in the PowerPoint export produced by the Generate Portfolio Status button on Warning Dashboard, as well as other Project Dashboards. These new columns include Budgeted, Planned and Actual costs.

14.  Check-in, Check-out, and Versioning functionality is improved in Project Documents with better navigation and messages.

15.  Project custom tags have been added to the document template form and these custom tags can be used to design document templates.

16.  A new Gantt style interface has been added to the Task Form to create Sub-Tasks. It makes the creation and arrangement of Sub-Tasks very easy and efficient.

17.  Application now allows users to archive the tasks that are no longer needed which will automatically archive its associated team members as well. Previously, tasks would only get archived when you will archive their parent projects.

18.  An Archived Tasks view has been added in the system that you can access to get a list of all the archived tasks. Users can un-archive tasks from this view.

19.  New Time and Expense Ledger Pivot Report is linked on the Project Dashboard. Clicking this report link will run the report that is pre-filtered for the selected project only and will show data only for current project.

20.  Progress bar has been added to give the user an indicator on time consuming operations like Program Delete and Archive, Project Delete and Archive.  These operations take a lot of time, as this process also deletes/archives all the child documents like Tasks, Team Members etc.

21.  A new feature has been added on the task assignment window, which allows the user to pick an assignee from the team member list of the project.

22.  System now allows user to define and customize an email template that will be used to send out task status update notifications. A default email template is also provided.

23.  Attachment control has been added to the Project Form that allows users to easily attach documents to the project using drag and drop option.

24.  Program level widgets have been added to list status reports and documents that are linked to the child projects for the selected program.

25.  New security changes are available in Project Tracker that allows users to mark a project as private. User can add/remove roles and people who will have access to these private projects.

26.  Project health column is now available on the Project Scheduler.

27.  New node is added on Project Folders to create meetings specific to the project. Users have the option to add/edit/delete meetings from this easy to use tree view, with simple to use context menus.

28.  Change view option has been added on the Task Board which allows users to switch back and forth between different task views like WBS Gantt, Task Board, Task Calendar, and Gantt by Resource etc. within a project.


Purchase Tracker Module

Themes:

1.      All Purchase Tracker forms, including Purchase Request, Receiving Notes and Vendor Invoice are rewritten using the latest Form Library and are now compatible with all commonly used browsers including  IE, Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge, and support their latest versions. New forms now support features, such as:

·         Document and Field Level Security.

·         Hide/when and re-label of fields based upon Form Profile.

·         Locking of data entry Grid Columns.

·         Configuration of Custom Grid.

·         Workflow section security - who can edit when a purchase request is in saved, awaiting approval, and approved status mode.

2.      All of these forms now incorporate configurable grids that allow administrators to change/alter column orders, visibility, column names, button titles, etc. to suit their requirements.

3.      New purchase request related roles, such as PR Buyer and Requester have been added to Vendor Invoice Form profile security section. This allows the administrator to remove/grant various kinds of access levels like read, edit, delete etc. for these roles.

4.      New attachment control is incorporated on all Forms that provides better user interface and drag and drop capabilities for attaching files.

5.      Hyperlink to Purchase Order has been added to the Vendor Invoice Approval Email which allows approvers to click and open the Purchase Order to review.

6.      Added Other Proxy Approvers and Option to Submit/Approve with comments for Purchase Request, Vendor Invoice, and Payment Request.

7.      The earlier Purchase Tracker Reports have been converted to use the new reporting framework which allows users to easily design and reconfigure the reports, using its very powerful report designer feature.

 

 


Support Tracker Module

Themes:

Support Tracker forms and views have been revamped as a part of the Version 5,1 release. Some of the new features include:

1.      A new tickets/support request tree has been added to Support Tracker that identifies  all of the tickets. If a user expands each ticket, the user will see all of the linked information for that ticket including:

·         Status Notes

·         Emails

Users have the option to add/edit/delete these items from the tree view. Intuitive context menus are also added at each level to make it a very user friendly experience.

2.      Support Tree allows grouping tickets in various categories. These categories include Requester, Project, SCBS, Company and Assigned To, and Request Type. System also allows user to define multiple level of groupings for better organization of support tickets.

3.      Various Support Tracker processes like ticket assignment, update status, mark complete etc. have been optimized to improve the overall performance of Support Tracker.

4.      Added “created by” and “modified by” columns in the support request and provided these columns on the Support Tracker Views for better auditing of changes made against a support request.

5.      Views for Support Tracker are reviewed and rearranged to provide information in a cleaner and more logical order, anticipating most commonly used columns that a user would prefer to see upon initial opening of the view.

6.      System now allows a user to add planned start and completion date on new support requests if the user tries to assign it directly without submitting it.

7.      New templates based email notifications are added for support request submission and support request deferral email notifications.

8.      Update status column has been added on support views that allow users to update status directly from view without having to open the support ticket.

9.      Users now have the option to update status of their support tickets from their user dashboard making it easier to plan their work.


Time Tracker Module

Themes:

1.      Load from resource plan button now loads planned support tickets as well. Previously it was only loading planned tasks.

2.      Option to configure and create timesheet for last period for first “x” number of days

3.      Time Tracker now incorporates new attachment control that provides better user interface and drag and drop capabilities for attaching files.

4.      Weekly Japanese timesheet option added in codebase that users can select from the Person Document.

5.      My Tasks,  All Tasks options are added on Timesheet project selection dialog. This allows users to easily pick tasks against which they want to enter time.


Tracker Reports (formerly Tracker Data Warehouse)

Themes:

The Reporting Framework is completely rewritten and enhanced as part of the Version 5.1 Release. Some of new features include: 

Ø  The ability to add graphs to a report is available.

Ø  A new report designer has been created, with drag and drop support for easily designing reports and configuring them.

Ø  New date categories were introduced to group report data for Year, Months, etc.

1.      Reporting component is rewritten in Version 5.1, using the latest technology platform. This allows for faster reports that can handle larger data sets than previously supported.

2.      System now supports adding graphical reports. Users have the option to view a report as Graph, or List. or both. These graphs are configurable, using the graph settings button and users can select between following graph types:

·         Bar Graph

·         Stacked Bar Graph

·         Pie Graph

·         Tree Map Graph

·         Multi-Level Tree Map

·         Bubble Graph

3.      New reporting component also incorporates a report designer. Report designer supports designing reports using drag and drop capability. Users can perform the following functions on the report designer, and apply all changes at once,  when they are finished with all the required changes.

·         Adding/removing columns

·         Searching on report column

·         Adding totals on report

·         Configure total by (double pivot)

·         Adding and changing order of Groups, Add to Group (link/unlink)

·         Revert changes if a change is made accidentally

4.      New date categories have been added that allow date columns to be listed and grouped on full date or date parts like Month, Quarter, Year etc.

5.      New reporting component allows users to email report on the fly that sends current report attached as an excel spreadsheet.

6.      All dialogs that are shown on the report component to add/remove columns, filters etc. now incorporate a search bar that allows user to easily locate their required field.

7.      Various buttons on old reporting component are grouped together to give a sharper, cleaner interface to new component.

8.      Users now can switch to report profile view from the report itself if they need to alter report profile provided they have sufficient rights.

9.      Fit screen button is provided in new reporting component that adjusts width of all columns so that they are visible on screen without scrolling.

10.  Rendering of filter controls on report is improved make better utilization of available space which gives more space for report data.

11.  Functionality to manage and add computed fields to a report are now provided on Report designer making it a central place to do any kind of changes to the report.

12.  Functionality is added in the system that allows users to drill down into graphs. This will open 2nd and 3rd level of grouping. This drill down will inherit groups form report configuration and can go as deep as number of groups configured on report.

13.  A new column is added on Pivot Reports and Pivot Report Profiles view that lists base Stored Procedure used to create the reports. This allows users to see which reports are using same Stored Procedure in the background.

14.  Auto Run Report functionality is added. Users can configure on Report Profile page if a report should run automatically with default filters when it is opened without having to press “Run Report” button.

15.  Double pivot functionality is provided on report designer. Users can now change the column on which 2nd pivot will be created from report designer.

16.  System now allows configuring table name or module name next to column on pivot report profiles. Users will then see this module name next to column name on report designer on which they can sort to see and categorize columns on the basis of modules.

17.  A new feature is added that allows users to add Count of child records under a group to be displayed as a column.

18.  New column is added on pivot report profile page and views to populate and organize reports by Report Category.

 

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