OfficeStatus Release Notes

Version 3.0.109.0: Released January 30, 2012

• Bug fix: Resolved problem with installer; upgrades to v3.0 were not working correctly when using MSDE 2000 as the backend database.
• Bug fix: Resovled installer problem where access to the directory that contains the upgrade SQL Scripts could be denied.

Version 3.0.106.0: Released January 26, 2012

• Bug fix: OfficeStatus Windows Client MSI files were not processing ClientInstall.ini files correctly.
• Bug fix: Resolved a problem in ASP.NET v4.0 environments where HTTP compression module could cause AJAX-related errors.

Version 3.0.102.0: Released January 25, 2012

• Bug fix: OfficeStatus Windows Client was not showing "all locations" in the location drop-down box (main window toolbar).
• Bug fix: Resolved rare AJAX request issue that would occur when adding addresses or phone numbers through user editor (specific environments only).

Version 3.0.100.0: Released January 24, 2012

• Bug fix: Resolved "Sequence contains no matching element" error, which occurred in some installations.
• Bug fix: Installer now sets website virtual directory account credentials, rather than anonymous account.
• Improvement: Installer now impersonates the OfficeStatus Windows user account when connecting to SQL Server during upgrade steps.

Version 3.0.98.0: Released January 23, 2012

• Feature: A new company announcements feature has been added, with both web and Windows client interfaces available.
• Feature: OfficeStatus Windows Client spell checker now provides additional dictionary support (beyond the default generic English). Available dictionaries include Austrailian English, Candadian English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, UK English, and US English.
• Feature: Added the ability to manage (add, edit, and delete) user status history records from the admin section of the web-based interface.
• Feature: Added an organizational tree view to web and Windows client interfaces.
• Feature: Added global hotkey support to OfficeStatus Windows Client. When the global hotkey is triggered (i.e. by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Shift+O) the client interface will be shown or hidden, depending upon current state. The hotkey is user-configurable and can be disabled at the admin level (via client settings tool).
• Feature: Added site-wide status change scheduling, which can trigger user status changes in bulk on a recurring basis.
• Feature: A new, read-only "public view" has been added to the web interface. When enabled, this feature grants read-only visibility into user statuses without requiring login. Designed for common area displays, visitor access, etc.
• Feature: It is now possible to use custom statuses in status events (previously, status events were limited to working only with the three built-in status types).
• Feature: Added a new "sent" message view to the web and Windows client message reader interfaces.
• Feature: Added the ability to disable use of status scheduling system-wide (e.g. applies to all users).
• Feature: Added ability to require user password policy conformance. User passwords can be required to conform to a variety of rules. OfficeStatus Windows Client users will need to upgrade to v3.0 to gain access to this feature.
• Feature: Telephony event integration has been added to OfficeStatus Windows Client. It can now monitor a single line for call connected / disconnected events and alter user status accordingly.
• Feature: Status watches now show the next upcoming (scheduled) status, if any, of watched users.
• Feature: It is now possible to control the order in which statuses are shown to end users during status change operations.
• Feature: When system admins log into the web interface, they are now notified if the OfficeStatus Maintenance system service is not running (or not installed).
• Feature: Added support for explicit user account deletion (previously, user accounts could only be disabled).
• Feature: Added status summary report, which shows distribution of users across various statuses, company-wide.
• Feature: Added time card report, which shows the numbers of hours "in" per day for one or more users.
• Feature: Windows Client now offers integration with the Windows 7 taskbar.
• Feature: Windows Client now provides explicit control over main window close/minimize event handling.
• Feature: Web interface now provides a pop-up window for viewing OfficeStatus messages.
• Feature: Web interface now formally supports FireFox 6, Chrome 13, and Internet Explorer 9.
• Feature: Settings for clearing due back and status comment data during status event changes have been extended to also cover "quick" status changes. The related client settings are now exposed separately from status events to better clarify their scope.
• Feature: Numerous improvements to the web-based message reader, including new layout, inclusion of a recipients column for draft/sent views, and more.
• Feature: Administrative user account grid has improved sorting, paging, layout, and theming features.
• Feature: Improved filtering of administrative user account listing (added Clear Filter button and ability to filter by department).
• Feature: Administrative user membership controls have improved theming, performance, and also expose user counts (via new footer area).
• Feature: Improved error handling throughout web interface. Async web interface errors are now presented more gracefully.
• Feature: The administrative status management tools now leverage AJAX for improved performance and usability. Theming is also improved.
• Feature: Status color assignment drop-down boxes (in admin section of web interface) now show example color swatches.
• Feature: Improved performance in key areas of the web interface through page weight reduction, improved AJAX utilization, and more.
• Feature: The overall flow of the web interface user home page has been improved. Panels with more static heights are left-aligned, while those with more variable height are right-aligned.
• Feature: Built-in statuses can now be re-named, and their images can be changed (via admin area of web-based interface).
• Feature: When status comments are visible in the web-based user status grid, they are now displayed in shortened form (hover mouse over field to show full status comment).
• Feature: User editor (in admin section of web interface) has been revised with AJAX support, and various other improvements.
• Feature: Increased robustness of the OfficeStatus maintenance system service; it will now tolerate a broad range of transient problems without halting.
• Feature: The web interface will now scale when the browser window is resized (e.g. no longer has a fixed width).
• Feature: Considerable performance improvements for report layout and rendering.
• Feature: The web-based user status board command interface has received numerous improvements, including consolidation of commands into a single pop-up menu.
• Feature: In the web interface, message composition now has improved recipient selection mechanism (larger, supports multiple selection, etc.).
• Feature: The "status types by department" graph now syncs its colors with currently established status type colors.
• Feature: OfficeStatus Windows Client now periodically updates status watch panel to better reflect external changes (e.g. via web interface).
• Feature: OfficeStatus Windows Client status watch panel now shows users' full names (rather than just usernames).
• Feature: "Notes" are now referred to as "messages" throughout the OfficeStatus system, in order to better clarify their functional intent.
• Feature: User status schedules are now always visible to other users (in read-only form). They can still only be edited, however, by the appropriate parties (the user, system admins, and receptionists).
• Feature: OfficeStatus now records client IP address and source (Windows client, web, mobile web, or the maintenance service) when user status changes are committed. For privacy reasons, these fields are not visible in user status history reports - however, they are visible in the (admin-only) status history editor.
• Feature: Windows client login dialog window has new design, and provides additional sign in options and functions.
• Feature: Signing out of Windows client no longer clears the user's remembered password (if present). Rather, the login dialog now offers an explicit "forget me" function for users wishing to remove sign-in information on the current computer.
• Feature: Windows Client now allows users to test audio notification files specified within the preferences window. There is also now a warning that only uncompressed, PCM wave file formats are supported.
• Feature: The active directory user import tool will now extract the email address, job title, location, and department of imported users. In the case of departments and locations, entities with matching names must already exist within OfficeStatus prior to user import.
• Feature: Web based message reader now uses a combination of scrolling and paging for superior usability.
• Feature: Web interface now shows reports in a pop-up container window, rather than an entirely new browser window / tab.
• Feature: Windows client now supports both printing and preview previewing (previously, users had to go through the preview process).
• Feature: Windows client now supports printing in mini view mode.
• Feature: The OfficeStatus web status board now shows more information when user status nodes are expanded.
• Feature: OfficeStatus Server installer now offers the direct ability to create a new IIS website for use by OfficeStatus.
• Feature: OfficeStatus Server installer now allows for installation of SQL Server Express 2005 (SP4) in environments where a database server is not already available.
• Feature: Added job title to user view page of mobile web interface.
• Feature: Added a new "Phones & Addresses" page to mobile web interface, accessible from existing user view page.
• Feature: Added message search to web and Windows client interfaces. Message searching matches against message subject, sender name, and sent date / time fields.
• Feature: Added the ability to list only un-read messages in the mobile web interface. Also improved rendering time considerably (via 10x page weight reduction).
• Feature: The Send Product Feedback  feature no longer requires email configuration in order to function (it now communicates via web services).
• Feature: The administrative user editor has a new "Reporting Users" tab that allows for easier assignment of employees reporting to the user.
• Feature: OfficeStatus Windows Client login is now faster and more resource efficient.
• Feature: OfficeStatus Windows Client will now notify end users during login if OfficeStatus is running in evaluation mode.
• Feature: User status board displays (web and Windows Client) will show "due back" text in dark red if date/time has already elapsed.
• Bug fix: Web based user status change dialog showed current status of "unknown" when editing scheduled status change.
• Bug fix: Resolved problem with admin attempting to change their own username in user account editor (error would occur in role membership validation during save process).
• Bug fix: Reading a draft message no longer causes it to appear "read" to its receipients. Draft messages also now always appear "read" to their sender.
• Bug fix: The administrative status editor would allow a new status to be saved without an image being assigned.
• Bug fix: In Windows Client, double-clicking header of status watches panel list view would incorrectly result in "my status watches" window being shown.
• Bug fix: Resolved race condition in Windows Client that could cause logout/shutdown status event processing to fail under certain conditions.
• Bug fix: Windows Client would fail to reveal the existing instance window if the user attempted to re-launch it.
• Bug fix: Windows Client preferences window did not properly display sound file locations.
• Bug fix: OfficeStatus users are no longer allowed to report to one another, thereby creating a cyclic dependency.
• Bug fix: Resolved Windows Client shutdown getting signaled twice, possibly resulting in duplicate user status history entries.
• Bug fix: Resolved incorrect version comparison algorithm for quad-part versioning scheme (affected web interface update checker).
• Bug fix: Active directory user import tool will now truncate string data when necessary when updating the OfficeStatus database, rather than skipping the affected user.
• Bug fix: Windows client user status grid export (to Excel / PDF) now correctly formats due back date/time values.
• Bug fix: During OfficeStatus Server uninstall, the Windows user account is now explicitly removed from IIS-related groups.
• Bug fix: Resolved rare cosmetic licensing bug that would cause trial days left to appear in aggregate form if multiple trial licenses were present.

Version 2.5.275.0: Released July 20, 2011

• Bug fix: Fixed potential "null object reference" during product installation when IIS 7 website protocol binding properties were absent.

Version 2.5.274.0: Released July 11, 2011

• Bug fix: Resolved installation problem on IIS6 when installing OfficeStatus Server into the root of a website.

Version 2.5.273.0: Released July 8, 2011

• Bug fix: Resolved problem with OfficeStatus Server installation in .NET 4 runtime environments.

Version 2.5.272.0: Released June 20, 2011

• Bug fix: Fixed bug related to use of work schedule menu in Windows Client (using it would incorrectly trigger a date change).

Version 2.5.271.0: Released June 20, 2011

• Feature: OfficeStatus Server installation now supports IIS 7 directly (e.g. no need to enable IIS 6 compatibility components).
• Feature: Improved the Windows Client installer offers "only for me" and "for everybody" installation types.
• Feature: Improved support for newer Google Chrome and Internet Explorer releases.
• Feature: Clicking the enter key after editing a user search field in the web-based user status grid toolbar now triggers the search process.
• Bug fix: Windows client was not correctly populating the location field on the general tab of the user contact information window.
• Bug fix: Windows client was not honoring the currently entered due-back date when computing times via the "work interval" assist menu during user status changes.
• Bug fix: Fixed issue with certain mobile web interface links not working on specific BlackBerry devices.
• Bug fix: Using the "view / edit contact details" button from the user status page of the web interface (and then saving contact information changes) would result in an incorrect swap of the current logged in user session.
• Bug fix: Disabling automatic update checks within general options was not working as expected.
• Bug fix: Resolved several minor issues with (and made additional improvements to) OfficeStatus Server installation process.
• Bug fix: Use of the user selection link during web interface login could trigger premature page validation in some specific instances.

Version 2.5.264.0: Released January 6th, 2011

• Bug fix: Resolved a problem with OfficeStatus Windows Client potentially interfering with Windows logoff / shutdown operations
• Bug fix: OfficeStatus Windows Client logout now clears "remember password" setting as additional security safeguard in multi-user environments.

Version 2.5.261.0: Released December 29, 2010

• Feature: The OfficeStatus web interface now supports mobile devices. When the web interface is accessed via a supported mobile device, the user will automatically be redirected to a new mobile web interface that provides access to a subset of features of primary interest to mobile users (e.g. status view / change, note view / composition, status watches, contact info view, etc.). See help file for a list of supported mobile devices.
• Feature: Improved user search / filtering in both Windows and web client applications. User status listings can now be filtered by user's name, primary extension, job title, or status comments. In the Windows client, click the Search toolbar button to access these features. In the web interface, use the controls available in the user status grid toolbar.
• Feature: Windows Client now offers a "Mini View" mode switch that helps to maximize the number of user status entries visible on screen. The mini view can be customized (e.g. font size, etc.) independently of the normal view. This feature replaces the existing "card view" switch available in previous releases.
• Feature: Windows Client now supports running in full screen mode (use F11 key to toggle). When in full screen mode, the menu bar, toolbar, and all docking panels are hidden, leaving only the tabbed user status grid on the screen. The main window is also resized to consume the entire active monitor and is set as the topmost window.
• Feature: User status grid font size within Windows Client now has additional "Extra large" and "Custom" settings. The latter allows the user to specify a font size (in points) of their own choosing.
• Feature: In Windows Client, auto-login behavior can now be configured separately from the "remember password" option.
• Feature: In Windows Client, automatic login failures that occur during system startup as the result of connectivity problems are now handled in a less obtrusive manner. Rather than showing a modal error window, a system tray icon is used to report the problem. The user then has the option to double-click the tray icon to proceed (either retry login or cancel it altogether). This enhancement is designed to improve usability in offline (e.g. disconnected laptop) computing scenarios.
• Feature: Added the ability to disable OfficeStatus notes system on a global basis (from admin menu). When notes are disabled, no user will have the ability to send or receive notes. All user interfaces (desktop, web, and mobile web clients) will disable or enable note related features as needed.
• Feature: Windows Client installer has been enhanced to automatically download and install the .NET Framework 2.0 SP2 when no qualifying .NET Framework installation is already present. Both 32 and 64 bit environments are fully supported.
• Feature: OfficeStatus web interface now has option to remember password during login.
• Feature: Added status last modified indicator to current status panel of user home page in OfficeStatus web interface.
• Feature: Added ability to export user status grid in PDF format from OfficeStatus Windows Client.
• Feature: Windows Client now shows current user status icon in main window status bar.
• Feature: Numerous cosmetic enhancements to Windows Client.
• Bug fix: Resolved problem with user status grid customizations not being retained under Client Profile edition of Microsoft .NET Framework.
• Bug fix: Resolved cosmetic issue in OfficeStatus Windows Client note reader interface that could cause web service method invocation error to appear.
• Bug fix: Web interface friendly date/time span selection drop-down was not properly padding the end date to include the full day.
• Bug fix: Web interface status board would show hidden user accounts in certain cases.
• Bug fix: Windows Client no longer processes workstation wake (or screen saver off) status change events if the workstation is locked.

Version 2.0.3.239: Released November 11, 2010

• Feature: OfficeStatus Windows Client now ignores certain types of SSL certificate errors, allowing it to continue operating in such cases.
• Feature: OfficeStatus is now fully supported when only the .NET Framework v4 is installed (it is no longer necessary to have .NET v2 or v3.5 installed in a side-by-side configuration). OfficeStatus Windows Client now also fully supports .NET v4 Client Profile.
• Feature: Improved performance and security semantics when running under .NET Framework v4. Later .NET Framework runtimes are now preferred when multiple runtime versions are installed.
• Bug fix: Site configuration elements updated within the web-based interface are no longer subject to cache delays.

Version 2.0.2.235: Released November 1, 2010

• Feature: Improved sorting in all reports. Users can now choose the sort column for the user status history, user status schedule, and employee reports . Departmental and location reports are now sorted by name.
• Feature: Web based user status grid page size can now be adjusted.
• Feature: Several columns have been added to the web-based user status grid, including separate first and last name, username, date / time the status was last modified, email address, and location columns. These added columns are hidden by default. Use the new column customization feature (see below) to enable them.
• Feature: It is now possible to customize the columns that appear in the web-based user status grid. Right-click the grid header and use the "columns" submenu to toggle columns on and off.
• Feature: Web based user status grid now persists sorting, page size, and column visibility automatically (on a per-user basis).
• Feature: Numerous theme improvements in web-based interface.
• Feature: Added a company hyperlink field to the company information system configuration window. If both the company name and hyperlink fields are populated, the web-based client will display a linked form of the company name within the navigation area.
• Feature: OfficeStatus Windows Client installer now provides option of installing for "all users", which in turn drives placement of startup menu shortcuts, etc.
• Improvement: Post-authentication data cache loading within OfficeStatus Windows Client now uses concurrent web service connections for increased performance.
• Bug fix: Resolved an "Object reference not set to an instance of an object" error that could occur when a user account with a status watch assigned to it was disabled. The error would then occur when the observing user logged into the web client interface.
• Bug fix: Resolved a problem with export of web-based user status grid contents to CSV not including full name field.
• Bug fix: The last update time shown on the we-based user status grid page was not updating correctly in all circumstances.
• Bug fix: Pressing the enter key on the web-based user login screen now works as expected (e.g. initiates the login process) in Internet Explorer.
• Bug fix: The status that displays within the "quick function" header area of the web-based interface did not always update in some circumstances.
• Bug fix: Resolved a problem in OfficeStatus Windows Client that could cause "01/01/01 12::00 am" to display in the "due back" column when no due back date had yet been specified.
• Bug fix: Status change user interface was preventing users from specifying a "due back" date of today without a time (an error would occur stating that the due back date could not occur in the past).
• Bug fix: Resolved an issue with improper local time zone conversion within OfficeStatus Windows Client. This problem would occur during user status update operations if the client and server were in different time zones.
• Bug fix: Minor cosmetic web interface adjustments to deal with legacy browser (mainly Internet Explorer 6) issues.

Version 2.0.1.215: Released May 5th, 2009

• New feature: Added a "User Status by Department" graph panel to the user home page of the web-based interface. This feature was previously available only from within OfficeStatus Windows Client.
• Improvement: The user status board of the web-based interface now uses status type foreground and background colors when showing current user status. This provides an additional visual indicator of current user status type and improves consistency with OfficeStatus Windows Client.
• Improvement: The employee report now shows user image thumbnails, when available.
• Improvement: Signficant enhancements to formatting for all reports. Formatting is now more consistent and more compact.
• Improvement: Reports can now be exported in CSV format (in addition to other supported formats).
• Improvement: Minor tweaks to theme support in OfficeStatus Windows Client.
• Bug fix: Resolved an issue with the OfficeStatus Windows Client MSI installation package (for GPO deployment) not making proper use of ClientInstall.ini when available.
• Bug fix: Resolved an installer issue in which failure to register an ASP.NET user account would result in an exception logging failure.

Version 2.0.0.207: Released April 14th, 2009

• Improvement: The administrative location editor page has been enhanced with a new tab that allows for easier user assignment to (or removal from) the location being edited.
• Improvement: OfficeStatus Windows Client now does a better job of supporting workstation sleep events, particularly when the system is configured not to require a password upon awakening. Sleep events are now always handled the same way that workstation lock events are handled (e.g. through the same configuration setting).
• Improvement: Status Types by Department main window docking graph no longer shows departments that currently have no members.
• Improvement: Minor cosmetic enhancements to OfficeStatus web interface.
• Bug fix: Resolved a cosmetic issue with how the administrative product license management page reported current license usage. It failed to consider that OfficeStatus v2.0 no longer counts the built-in admin account against the current user license allocation.
• Bug fix: Resolved a bug that allowed location names to be duplicated. Uniqueness is now correctly enforced.
• Bug fix: Resolved a defect in the OfficeStatus Server installer that could result in incorrect ASP.NET version assignment.
• Bug fix: The options within the Application Start section of OfficeStatus Windows Client user preferences were not functioning as expected.

Version 2.0.0.203: Released April 7th, 2009

• New feature: Added a rich web-based client interface, which can be used instead of (or in addition to) the existing desktop client (OfficeStatus Windows Client).
• New feature: OfficeStatus is now aware of each user's work schedule (as well as the site's work schedule). This knowledge is leveraged to provide advanced date / time selection assistance to end users during status change operations.
• New feature: The majority of end user client settings can now be managed by OfficeStatus system administrators through the administrative section fo the web interface. Administrators can now define default values for nearly all client settings, and also selectively prevent them from being overridden.
• New feature: End users can now modify their own contact details from within the new web-based interface.
• New feature: Added support for status scheduling. End users can now create scheduled status changes which will be processed by the system automatically.
• New feature: New "User Status Schedule" and "Location" reports have been added to OfficeStatus, and existing reports have been improved considerably. All reports now make use of a new reporting engine that is shared between the desktop and web client interfaces (and are available from both).
• New feature: OfficeStatus Windows Client now has a docking chart panel that shows the distribution of user status across available departments. The chart contents constantly adapt to changes in employee statuses across the organization. This feature can be very valuable to receptionists and other users that might benefit from a dynamic, higher-level perspective of staff availability.
• New feature: The OfficeStatus web interface now automatically detects client (web browser) time zone and culture settings and adapts display data accordingly.
• Improvement: An option has been added (to both the desktop and web-based client interfaces) to eliminate highlighting of the logged-in user within the user status grid. The form of the highlight has also changed: it now bolds the row font, rather than changing the row background color.
• Improvement: The desktop and web-based client interfaces now provide new options that allow end users to control their default department and location selection after logging in.
• Improvement: The existing OfficeStatus web-based administrative interface is now contained within an entirely new web-based interface that supports both end users and admins. When admins log into the "shared" web-based interface, they will see an "Administration" menu option that is invisible to normal users.
• Improvement: OfficeStatus product licensing has been enhanced to provide combinatorial licensing capabilities. Multiple licenses of different sizes (user counts) can now be combined as needed.
• Improvement: The status change window (in both the desktop and web interfaces) now provides much more robust tools to help the user change their status and set return date/time information.
• Improvement: User account security has been enhanced significantly via the addition of random entropy data to password hashes. This greatly reduces the effectiveness of pre-computed dictionary attacks.
• Improvement: Reduced the viability of various brute-force password and denial of service attacks through the common authentication layer of the application.
• Improvement: The desktop client application (OfficeStatus Windows Client) has received numerous user interface enhancements. Performance and memory utilization have also been improved significantly.
• Improvement: The OfficeStatus web interface now recognizes when a user's browser does not have JavaScript enabled, and disallows login until Javascript support is enabled.
• Improvement: Significant improvements in server system performance, as well as reductions in server resource consumption.
• Improvement: Numerous improvements to logging operations that occur at the OfficeStatus Server component level.
• Improvement: Users listed within the login user select window are now grouped by location.
• Improvement: Numerous improvements and updates to all product help documentation.
• Improvement: OfficeStatus Server now installs in "Integrated Pipeline" mode under IIS 7.

Version 1.6.2.0: Released October 23, 2008

• Improvement: Added native 64-bit operating system support to OfficeStatus Server and OfficeStatus Client. OfficeStatus Server is now supported on both 32 and 64 bit editions of Windows Server 2003 and later. OfficeStatus Client is now supported on 32 and 64 bit editions of Windows XP and later.
• Improvement: OfficeStatus Server installer now allows for selection of existing OfficeStatus database.
• Improvement: During OfficeStatus Server un-install, option to drop OfficeStatus database is no longer enabled by default.
• Improvement: OfficeStatus Server installer now attempts to automatically discover local installation of SQL Server Express (2005 and 2008).
• Improvement: OfficeStatus Client and Server installers now detect 64-bit operating system environments, and prompt the user to install the 64-bit edition of the .NET Framework (v2.0 or higher) if it is not already present.
• Improvement: Implemented additional measures to help avoid browser caching when using the web-based administrative interface.
• Bug fix: Resolved a problem with OfficeStatus Server installing into an IIS website root on Windows Server 2008 (IIS 7).
• Bug fix: Fixed an obscure "invalid viewstate" error that could occur within the web-based administrative console under certain conditions.
• Bug fix: Various minor bug fixes (mostly cosmetic).

Version 1.6.1.0: Released September 30, 2008

OfficeStatus Client:

• Improvement: New switches were added to the Status Events tab of the Preferences window, allowing the user to control how "comments" and "due back" status fields are affected when status events are triggered. By default, these fields will now be cleared only when status events set the current user status to "In".
• Improvement: Numerous user interface updates and improvements, including new (MS Office 2007 style) default theme, toolbar improvements, etc.
• Improvement: Configuration files are now all stored in per-user roaming file system locations. OfficeStatus Client will attempt to migrate legacy user.config files from previous version installations upon its initial run.
• Improvement: If the user configuration file (user.config) upon which OfficeStatus Client relies becomes corrupt (due to abnormal workstation shutdown, for example), the problem will now be detected automatically and the offending user.config file will be renamed. This will allow OfficeStatus Client to start normally when it is next launched, albeit without user configuration data.
• Improvement - The single-instance control mechanism now better supports terminal services environments by using a named mutex that spans all terminal service sessions.
• Improvement - The notification popup window (used to alert the user about status changes, unread note availability, etc.) has received various cosmetic updates.
• Improvement: Departmental tab navigation mechanism is now improved for environments where a large number of departments are present.
• Improvement: During OfficeStatus Client shutdown, status event triggers will no longer be processed if the target status is of the same type as the current user status.
• Improvement: Various product installation improvements.
• Bug fix: Resolved a potential thread deadlock condition relating to user status watch updates.
• Bug fix: Resolved a fairly rare scenario where the main application window could be launched twice if the user interacted with the login window during client cache initialization under specific load conditions.

OfficeStatus Server:

• Bug fix: The default status type for "On Vacation" was incorrectly set to "In". This has been corrected, and the default status type is now "Out".
• Bug fix: The maintenance system service was incorrectly generating "service working execution" errors when attempting to perform user note pruning.
• Improvement: Improved web service performance when retrieving user status listings through use of response caching mechanisms. Improves scalability in environments with larger user counts.
• Improvement: Added support for Windows Server 2008 as an operating system platform and SQL Server 2008 is as a database platform.
• Improvement: Numerous product installation improvements.
• Improvement: Various improvements to the user interface of the web-based administrative interface.

Version 1.6.0.0: Released May 5th, 2007

General:

• New feature: Added support for multiple office locations. Locations can now be defined within the system, and users assigned to them. A location drop-down box has been added to the OfficeStatus Client toolbar, allowing users to (optionally) filter their user status dashboard contents by location. Location names can optionally be displayed on the status dashboard (through use of the column chooser).

OfficeStatus Client:

• New feature: Introduced a new Departmental Report, accessible within the reports menu of OfficeStatus Client. This report shows the name and description of each department defined within the system, as well as all of its members. The report is filterable by location.
• Improvement: The OfficeStatus user list (within the web-based administrative interface) has improved filtering, with new support for location selection.
• Improvement: Changed the location in which OfficeStatus Client stores certain end user data files, in order to improve compatibility with Microsoft Windows Vista.
• Improvement: Added "Start of Day" and "End of Day" fields to OfficeStatus user profiles. These are set within the web-based administrative interface (user editor) and displayed in the user contact window within OfficeStatus Client.
• Bug fix: Duration field within the User Status History report was not showing hours correctly when the status event duration spanned multiple days.
• Bug fix: Modified the activity event controller so that it won't process an idle return event if the current status wasn't previously triggered by an idle event.
• Change: Column moving within the OfficeStatus Client user status grid is now disabled by default. Users must now explicitly enable this capability through a setting available via the Customize | User Status Grid menu. This extra step helps prevent accidental changes to column ordering within OfficeStatus Client.
• Bug fix: The OfficeStatus Client note reader screen was not wrapping lines correctly during printing operations. This has been resolved.
• Bug fix: Resolved a problem with OfficeStatus Client not always firing user status change event notifications correctly.

OfficeStatus Server:

• Improvement: Improved user image maintenance within the web-based administrative interface. User image thumbnails are now shown in the primary user editor screen.
• Bug fix: Validation of product license limitations wasn't always handling user editing operations properly within the web-based administrative interface, and this has been corrected.

Version 1.5.0.0: Released Nov. 20th, 2006

OfficeStatus Server:

• New feature: Added a new Note Broadcast capability to the web-based administrative interface. Available under the Tools section of the navigation tree, the Note Broadcast feature allows system administrators to send a note to multiple OfficeStatus users at once.
• New feature: Added the ability to specify company information within the web-based administrative interface. It is now possible to specify a company name, company contact information, and company policy information. When provided, the company name will be displayed in the title bar of OfficeStatus Client installations. The other fields will be available within a new Company tab of the existing User Contact Information window (which appears whenever a user contact field is double-clicked within the status dashboard).
• New feature: The OfficeStatus web-based administrative interface has a new option on the user editor screen called "Hide user's status from other users". When engaged, the specified user's status will not be visible to others within OfficeStatus Client. Note that a "hidden" user can still see their own status within OfficeStatus Client (their status just won't be visible to others).
• Improvement: Made several overall navigation improvements to the web-based administrative interface, including the addition of a "breadcrumb" navigation control, improved hierarchical navigation of features, and more.
• Improvement: Added sorting capabilities to the AD User Import user interface pages. The user import selection grid and the import results grid are now both bi-directionally sortable by all columns. The Export Results to Excel feature will also reflect the current sort order.
• Improvement: Made these release notes available within the web-based admin interface (via the Help | About screen).
• Improvement: Added the ability to manually check for available software updates via the web-based administrative interface (available on the Help | About screen).
• Improvement: A new option was added to the General configuration screen of the web-based administrative interface which controls the ability of OfficeStatus Client installations to view a list of OfficeStatus usernames during the login process.
• Improvement - Added per-page context-sensitive help links to the web-based administrative interface.
• Improvement: Filtering of the user listing within the web-based administrative interface has been improved. Filter matching now uses "contains" instead of "equals" when applying the filter, and a new column ("job title") is now available for filtering.
• Improvement: The web admin user listing now indicates how many enabled users are defined within the system, and how many are allowed with the currently installed product license.
• Improvement: Added a new "Depts" tab to the user editor within the web-based administrative interface. Previously, it was necessary to navigate away from editing a user in order to alter their department membership. Now this can be done directly within the user editor.
• Bug fix - The Help hyperlink on the login page of the web-based administrative interface was broken. Clicking this link now brings up the correct help topic.

OfficeStatus Client:

• New feature: Added spell checking capabilities to the OfficeStatus Client application. The primary use for spell checking is within the note composition window. You can also check the spelling of status comments that are entered during status change operations.
• New feature: Added the ability to recover deleted notes to the "My Notes" window, via the new "Deleted Items" view. This allows users to recover deleted notes themselves by right-clicking on one and selecting "Recover" from the resulting pop-up menu. Deleted notes must be recovered prior to them being pruned by the database pruning system (time frame configurable by system admin).
• New feature: Added the ability to create draft notes, which are saved without being immediately delivered. Users can then click on the "Drafts" view button and double-click a draft note to begin editing (and optionally send) it again.
• Improvement - Re-tooled the status change menus and toolbar buttons to be more intuitive and more powerful. Now, right-click status change operations have access to all statuses defined within the system, including custom ones. These are contained within a new "Quick Status Change" submenu, while access to the User Status window has been simplified.
• Improvement - Made several new columns available within the primary OfficeStatus user status grid: "first name", "last name", "email address" and "username". To make any of these fields visible, right click on the user status grid column header and choose "column chooser". Select the desired fields from the list that appears.
• Improvement: Added several new available columns to the User Status History report. The new "Duration" and "End" columns can provide an indication of how long the user was in a particular status, and a new "Changed By" column indicates who actually initiated the user status change.
• Improvement: Added column choosing capabilities to all reports available within OfficeStatus Client. Note that column customizations will be reflected during report printing and exporting operations.
• Improvement: Added the ability to specify "time unknown" during user status changes. This allows users to specify, for example, that they'll return from travel tomorrow, but at an unknown time.
• Bug fix- OfficeStatus Client was not properly detecting workstation lock / unlock environmental events on the MS Windows 2000 operating system. Win2k apparently does not broadcast notification of such events, so an alternative technique is used in such cases.
• Bug fix: Customizations to the User Status History reporting grid weren't being persisted, and this has been resolved.

Version 1.0.0.0: Released August 29th, 2006

• Initial OfficeStatus product release