Panopea Consulting - iMIS Blog

The new look of 10.6 = Thumbs Down

I think the new color scheme in 10.6 is way ugly. I hate the red. I hate the white background on the menu subchoices -- it blends into the white background of the Customer Portfolio. Yuk.

I've only shown it to one customer so far and they were not fans either. I think it was a big step backwards.

But I do love that new batch window functionality. 

10.6.29.03 CS Patch Available

ASI has released the .03 patch for 10.6 as of yesterday.

This fixes a critical bug where iMIS would hang when you attempted to edit the registrant class of an existing registration plus a few others.

10.6 Bug? Dues Importer fails on large import

In a test upgrade of a client's database from 4.40 to 10.6, there seems to be an issue with the Dues Importer failing on large imports (31,000+ payments). The process is failing around the 16,376 to 16,383 trans count.

Looking at a SQL trace, I can see that the update to the Batch record is malformed. It says "...LAST_UPDATED =  WHERE ...".

In this case it should have said "...LAST_UPDATED =''MANAGER''  WHERE ...".

Pretty dang [more colorful adjective deleted to preserve G rating] annoying to have the thing fail for something that matters so little!

Submitted as SMR #126552. Will update when I get ASI's response.

UPDATE #2: As of 5/10/06, ASI rates this issue as Urgent. They already have a fix for this -- I tested a new build of the imisar.lbr and my test file of 31K+ payments did not fail. And it seems to be importing faster! Tech Support says .05 will be released within two weeks and I assume it will be sooner. Yahoo!

UPDATE: As of 5/5/06, ASI confirms that it is an issue and Dev has already provided Tech Support with a new build to test. I don't know when it will be available. I hope it makes it into the soon-to-be-released .04 patch.

Registration now open for Sacramento NiUG

The NiUG site is now accepting online registration (or download the reg form) for the Sacramento conference that will be held June 12 - June 14. June 12 is the all day training that you can register for separately from the main conference.

The hotel rooms at the Embassy Suites are only $129/night through NiUG. I looked on their website and the cheapest internet rate was $173/night prepaid. So I would highly recommend getting your hotel reservations booked soon!

See www.niug.org for more information and to register.

New NiUG Listserv

NiUG has switched their listserv from being hosted by Yahoo! Groups to the eForums product from C Systems. If you've been a member of the old list, be sure to visit the NiUG website and opt in to the new list. See www.niug.org for more information.

Support policy on SQL 2005

Today ASI issued their policy statement on support for SQL Server 2005:

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 compatibility and support

ASI is pleased to announce, as of the iMIS 10.6.29.02 patch release, iMIS is now compatible with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 except for the Analytics module.  Due to changes in data cube architecture we are not able to extend our support to Analytics at this time. SQL Server 2000 is the only compatibility level supported in this release. It is planned that the next release of iMIS , scheduled for later this year, will support SQL 2005 in native (SQL 2005) mode.

For those of you who have been waiting for this support, the compatibility mode should not prevent you from reaping the main benefits of upgrading to SQL 2005 such as better tools and improved performance.

If you have any questions, please contact CustomerContactCenter@advsol.com
ASI Product Management

Microsoft acquires ProClarity

Microsoft announced on April 3, 2006 that they are acquiring ProClarity Corp., the BI tool-maker whose tools work with MS SQL Server and SharePoint.

That's an interesting acquisition for the iMIS world because the new product iMIS Analytics is a data warehouse that uses the ProClarity Desktop Professional OLAP viewer.

Looks like ASI made a good choice on the BI product to use!

ASI Webcasts for April 2006

Here's the month's schedule of webcasts in case you are interested:

ASI will be offering the following webcasts to prospective iMIS users and current iMIS customers. Our webcast series is a valuable tool in helping to generate new sales. These one-hour iMIS demonstrations offer prospective users a high-level overview of our product and allow our current users to see the latest enhancements made to iMIS. Please remember to promote our webcasts when dealing with prospects and current users.

Prospects can register for upcoming Intro to iMIS webcasts at www.advsol.com/webcasts.

Customers can register for all other webcasts at www.advsol.com/customers/webcasts.

Week 1
Tuesday, April 4th ~ Intro to iMIS @ 10:00 am Eastern – Andrew Sherwin

Week 2
Tuesday, April 11th ~ Intro to iMIS @ 2:00 pm Eastern – Rick Niles

Week 3
Tuesday, April 18th ~ Intro to iMIS @ 2:00 pm Eastern – Jeff von Seldeneck
Wednesday, April 19th ~ iMIS Web Solutions & Template Gallery @ 2:00 pm Eastern – Mike Combs
Thursday, April 20th ~ Informz for iMIS @ 2:00 pm Eastern – Paul Corbeil

Week 4
Tuesday, April 25th ~ Intro to iMIS @ 2:00 pm Eastern – Steve Cook
Thursday, April 27th ~ Featured Solution: iMIS Analytics @ 2:00 pm Eastern – Chris Birks

Any questions regarding these webcasts can be directed to ASIEvents@advsol.com.

Subqueries in Ad Hoc Searches

This is from the March 2006 ASI TechLet:

Using SQL Subqueries in an Ad Hoc Search

It is possible to write SQL Statements that include subqueries using an ad hoc calculation. This will allow you to use tables that do not show up on the list of available tables. Additionally, if you are running an ad hoc to filter data on a report, you may need to use a sub query in the event your report does not include the table you are filtering on. To add a line that includes a subquery from the ?Search Instructions? window: The syntax for an ad hoc subquery is similar to a standard SQL subquery with the exception that you cannot include spaces before or after the subquery field and that field must be enclosed in parentheses or iMIS will not allow you to save the query. For example, if you wanted to print labels for a specific dues product code ?ABC,? you might enter the following in the Comparison Value field: Name.ID in (select(ID)from Subscriptions where PRODUCT_CODE='ABC') **Note: There are no spaces before or after (ID) in the above statement. Click the Insert button. Select ?Calculation? for the Mode. Enter the subquery in the Comparison Value field. Click Save.

I can never remember this syntax so I hope it helps you too.