OfficeStatus Release Notes

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