Here are the improvement, new features, and fixes contained in the
0.8.8 thru 0.9.2 versions of ODB. Newer
release notes are also available.
Version 0.9.2a is an important maintenance release: it corrects a serious
problem found in the 0.9.2 released one week ago.
Released: April 17, 2003
Minor Glitches Fixed
a) In the Record Selection Tool, the search box for donation date ranges was
reverting to "any" when you cleared out the box. It should have reverted
to "mm/dd/yy". This was causing search errors.
Major Bug Fixed
a) This problem only affected the version released 1 week ago, version 0.9.2:
If you clone a record (in People, not Groups), then save the new record,
the next record time you edit a record and click Cancel ODB will shut down.
And when you go back in you will notice that the second record is deleted.
Version 0.9.2 is a maintenance release of ODB, with a large number of
minor fixes and "ease-of-use" enhancements. (This release will be
followed fairly quickly with a release providing new features.)
Released: April 10, 2003
Most of the problems fixed by this release are in areas that ODB users
will not see on a day-to-day basis; they relate mainly to the functions
related to configuring your database. This release also provides
more helpful suggestions to reduce the need for technical support by
people who are configuring their ODB setup.
New Features
a) Added security settings (turned off by default) that allows you to specify
a dollar threshold to limit the use of the "copy emails" feature to send
mass emails to people until the user has entered a password.
Usability Enhancements
a) Enhancements to the field hiding customizations available in ODB.
There are five different settings -- hidepeoplecontrols, hidemaincontrols,
hidegroupcontrols, hidesearchcontrols, hideimportcontrols, and the list
of fields that can be hidden will be shown upon startup if an incorrect
field name is entered.
b) Modified ODB to allow 40 characters as opposed to 37 characters
in the second two mailing label fields, and in the Group name field.
This makes it easier to convert data from older databases, if the
data from the other databases is difficult to fit within 37 characters.
However we still should recommend that people use 37 characters as this
is the maximimum that will fit on small labels in the font ODB uses.
c) Changed ODB so that if the "progtextcolor" setting (color of title text)
is invalid, it offers to permanently change it to black.
d) The "Detach current database" feature will now inform the user about
the location of the ODB .EXE file, so that he/she will understand (if ODB
is installed in more than one location) that they need to run the same
copy of ODB as before.
e) The "check for new version" feature will coach the user that they must
be sure to update ODB in the same location where they are already
running the software, for the change to take effect. If ODB is
not in the standard location (c:\program files\oc) the user will
be notified of this location.
f) The question ODB asks when the database file is local, but it is
missing, is much clearer than it used to be.
g) The name of the default donation category setting, "lastcat", is now
"defaultcategory" for clarity. Backward compatibility is preserved;
however any templates saved with this version should not be opened
with old databases.
h) ODB will be more friendly if there is a template error in 3 ways:
- if an invalid field is encountered the user will be warned
- better error messages if template loading is interrupted
- if only some of the settings load they will take effect
i) ODB will now ask for a password only once when you try to access
donor information; then ODB will remember the setting until you exit
the program. ODB will still ask for a password if you try
to perform critical operations like mass-delete, enable code change
if a password is required for that, etc.
Minor Glitches Fixed
a) Added code to more gracefully handle a situation where the template
folder is not in the expected place. This should eliminate a file not
found error that occurred when the user tried to create new template.
b) ODB was allowing the user to enter lower case for activity and VID
codes; now they are always converted to uppercase letters.
c) When ODB was used on databases that did not have a table setting
for color, or when the color setting was there but it was incorrect,
the program text would be invisible (text color would equal background
color). This has been fixed.
d) ODB would terminate if you pasted a "[" character into the search box and
then did a search, from the main menu. Now this is handled gracefully.
e) When you set up multiple ODB installations on the same machine,
and you tried to point one of those copies of ODB to a different
database, the wrong copy of odbsetup.dat was getting modified in
some cases and thus the change would not take effect.
f) Tooltip text for the VID text, in the Record Selection Tool,
was incorrect.
g) If any of the recently added ODB fields were turned on, the
save changes button no longer would work as intended (it would
always be enabled).
h) The clear button was not resetting the sort order in the Record
Selection Tool.
i) Sorting by Record ID (clicking on the head of the 'ID' column)
was not working in donation queries, and sorting would not always
work in donation queries due to an error constructing the GroupBy
clause of the query.
j) In some installations of ODB, the Save Changes button in the People
screen would be enabled all the time.
k) Fixed templates that use "source" instead of "src", and fixed a
problem with the definition of the user defined field in one of the
templates.
l) The Last Name in Search Box feature would not distinguish between
between text and numeric data in the search box. So I enhanced this
so that now only the characters are sent over, and the capitalization
is fixed, and also the focus is set to the first name (something that
was not happening before)
m) ODB was still using SRC to refer to src/event codes even if the user
set the program to use a different label, such as "event".
o) If you imported donations that did not have a category assigned, ODB
was not assigning the the default category as it should have done.
p) Changing the "SRC" codes did not completely work: changed descriptions
would end up with extra characters with them and deleted codes would
not always be deleted.
q) If you were in the middle of cloning someone and a you typed in an
existing name, so that a duplicate would be noticed by ODB, the software
would unexpectedly quit if you agreed go to the already existing entry.
r) The new Add with Last Name from Search Box feature was not working properly
in Groups; this is now fixed.
s) The MemberSubscribe setting in the database will now have an effect on
the terminology used in several parts of ODB.
t) One of the ODB setting fields, biglistlabel, was not defined properly.
This might have produced errors when loading a template in version 0.9.
Major Bugs Fixed
a) If an incorrect setting for userfieldproperties was entered, ODB would
not report the problem; it would quit unexpectedly, and you would not
be able to get back into your database.
b) When you used the "biglist" feature, ODB would often erase the data you
entered in that field when you tried to save the "People" window. The
biglist feature was added in 0.9.
Version 0.9.1a is a minor maintenance release of ODB, with a few
minor fixes and enhancements.
Released: March 4, 2003
New Features
a) Revamped the Donations section of the Select Records screen. Now
it is possible to find donations by donation date or by payment
entry date. This makes it easier to generate thank you notes.
b) Added a button to the Admin screen that can be configured to
upload certain information from ODB to your web site.
Usability Enhancments
a) Added tool tip text indicating whether right-click options were
available for all main menu buttons.
b) Improved wording of set up wizard for creation of a new ODB
database.
c) ODB will now strip off 'http://' automatically when the user
enters data or when a URL is imported.
Minor Glitches
a) The protection of donor information (using the 'protecthidonors'
setting) was not complete. It was still possible to open a
single donor record without any protection. This is now fixed.
b) ODB was not updating the display of VID codes when you added a
new code. (3/8)
c) ODB was not updating the window size properly when you removed a
VID code.
d) When you set turned the 'protecthidonors' setting on to provide
donor security and used a low number (such as $20), the setting
would apply to all people records. ODB is now modified so that
only actual donors are protected.
e) When importing fax numbers, ODB was not cleaning up the phone
number. (3/12)
f) If you went into the import area of ODB, then changed the
radio button from 'people' to 'groups', and imported data,
ODB was not also updating the radio button in the main menu
after the import operation was complete (3/12).
Major Bugs Fixed
a) Fixed a bug that existed in 0.9.1 only. The last three
right-click menu choices attached the the Copy Emails button
would cause ODB to terminate.
b) Importing comments was not working in People or Groups using recent
versions of ODB where comments are implemented as a 'Memo' field.
c) When importing groups, the "URL" field was not getting imported at
all. (fixed on 3/12/03)
Version 0.9.1 is a minor maintenance release of ODB, released because
the original versions of ODB 0.9 did not function properly when importing
and exporting information into Groups. This release also fixes a couple
of bugs.
Released: February 11, 2003
New Features
a) Added a setting "remoteaccountupload" to ODB for a new feature that
will allow a group to upload information to their web page in
HTML format.
b) Added display of SRC Codes to detailed printing in ODB.
Minor Glitches
a) People using the "Biglist" feature in the People area of ODB (which by
default is turned off) were unable to export Groups; ODB reported an error.
b) Type information for Groups was not showing up when you clicked Show
Details.
c) Several problems in the print option for printing details on a person
were corrected. Now this option will print out the tracking codes in
long form, and it will print all donations, not just the most recent one.
Major Bugs Fixed
a) Modifications made to ODB to enhance People import caused
Groups import to fail almost all the time. This problem affects
all users of ODB version 0.9.
b) The copy emails feature did not work in the Groups area of ODB.
c) The version of ODB available between Feb. 2 and Feb. 11 contained
a bug causing ODB to exit when you tried to Add a gift directly from
within the People Edit screen. The versions available before
Feb. 2. worked fine, but would cause ODB to use more memory every
time you entered a donation. The versions available after Feb. 11
should work and should not cause ODB to use any extra memory.
(This fix was added at 11:45am est on Feb. 12.)
Version 0.9.0 is a maintenance release of ODB, which took care
of all issues reported in the new 0.9 version of ODB as of Feb. 2.
Thanks to the many people who reported these issues!
This version was released on February 3, 2003. The changes follow.
New Features
a) A right-click option to mark a telephone number as bad.
b) New right-click options on the Search button to set ODB
to open up a record or add gifts immediately to when the search
returns only one unique record. This is a major timesaver when
entering a pile of donations.
c) Additional Templates, grouped by kind of organization (city,
community, peace, etc.) and the ability to have templates hide
the groups section or the donations area.
d) Many additional right-click options under "Copy Emails", so that
you can copy a list of someone's name and their "line2" entry
to the clipboard, and you can copy contact tab separated contact
lists or lists whose columns are formatted with a fixed-width font.
e) Better formatting of the list of SRC codes, and the ability
to view the codes sorted in 3 different ways.
f) Added the ability to import data into the 'biglist' field if that
feature is turned on. Note: this feature is not thoroughly tested.
g) Added the ability to customize and reset the order in which ODB
code screens are displayed (all 5 buttons, including Type). There
is a new ODB setting called "sortcodesby" which controls the default
sort order. Then you can click on the Admin button to reset
the sort order to the default, or you can right-click on the
items in the list to move them up or down in the "sorting tier." By
default, all items are at sort tier 0, which is the highest priority
and is placed at the beginning of the list of checkboxed (2/2).
h) Now ODB will search for the "mergetext" folder containing the
thank you note in the folder containing the ODB database, so
you can share your thank you note among multiple ODB users (2/3).
i) If you create a new ODB database (or use the forthcoming update
utility), you can specify the left and right margins for your
thank you note, in points. 1 Point = 1/72 inches. (2/3/03).
Usability Enhancements
a) ODB now has a Unifed Error Handler for reporting back some of
the information about errors to us. This is optional: ODB will
generate an email in your default email client. You can decide
if you want to send it. So far this error handler is used only
in the Import section and has only generated a single email to us,
a good sign so far. 0.9.0 improves the error handler by
including information on what version of ODB generated the error.
b) The area showing template names in the setup wizard was widened
to accommodate longer template names.
c) The order of field names in the import and export section is now
consistent, to make it easier to export from ODB and then import
into a different copy of ODB. Missing fields were added.
Minor Glitches fixed
[Some of these could be classified as moderate, except that they
only existed for a few weeks.]
a) The donation import routine was not assigning a value to
the LastGift field.
b) The "biglist" field was not among the list of fields that
you could sort on, or among the fields to be exported, when
this feature was turned on.
c) When you went into "code changes" mode and then removed a SRC
code from the People Entry part ODB, ODB would uncheck any
boxes that were selected for that person.
d) When you change the SRC codes you are searching on in the Record
Selection Tool, ODB wasn't updating the query immediately.
e) When displaying long names of a file to be imported, ODb was
breaking up the name properly, but not displaying the name properly.
f) A person's title wasn't showing up on envelopes if the title
field was used.
g) Added code to prevent a possible memory leak caused by repeated
entry of donations. [To test this, we could automate the process
of entering a few thousand donations.]
h) When the user chose "Add New..." to add a SRC code in the import
screen, and then clicked on Cancel, ODB should have been restoring
the combo box for SRC Code to the position. Now it works.
i) When you delete a zip code and you are using the ODB region
feature, you get an unnecessary error message.
j) When you search on the "SRC" category, ODB was showing
multiple entries of people who had multiple check boxes checked,
just in the "Search Results" area of the Record Selection Tool.
k) If you imported type codes (people or groups) that are not
defined in ODB, the software would exit when you tried to open
those records. The fix for now is to give the user a message
that the code is incorrect and remove it. Later it might be
better to prevent the importing of the code in the first place.
l) The "nospam" field should have been hidden for people whose
databases do not yet have that field.
m) When you toggled which line of text you were previewing, the
scroll position of the top line was getting changed, which was
causing the two columns of fields to not be aligned properly.
Major Bugs Fixed Affecting 0.9 users only
a) Records with "lastgift" and "lastgave" information filled in
but with no donation history (created by importing data that
did not have this data stored in a history) were listed
as not having a lastgift in the people edit window.
b) There was one problem where ODB 0.9 was not backward
compatible with databases created in version 0.89. Thanks
to Carrie at Bitter Root Humane Association, we figured this
one out. The problem was showing up when you tried to do a
donation search using the Record Selection Tool; ODB would
give the error "Database search bug: 1 parameter expected."
If you upgrade to 0.9.0, this problem goes away (2/3/03).
c) If you added a large number of donations, ODB could run out
of memory. The "out of memory" problem should be resolved;
if you ever see it happening please tell us! (2/3/03).
Major Bugs Fixed Affecting users of 0.9 and 0.89
a) If a template contained text that was too long for an ODB
settings field, the importing of the template would stop in
the middle, and some of the customizations in the template would
be ignored. Now ODB will simply truncate any text which is too
long.
b) Changing a donation code could cause ODB to exit with a
'runtime error.' (2/2/03)
Version 0.9, released on Jan. 18, 2003 and updated slightly on January
22, is the most significant update to Organizers Database ever.
Below, 108 changes to the software are listed. There were 33 small
bug fixes, 8 large bug fixes, and 66 improvements!
All previous users, by installing the software on top of
their existing ODB installation, will still have all their data
and will automatically gain access to the following features:
o Internet lookup features (ability to look up zip
codes from the USPS web site, and addresses from Yahoo).
o A reorienting of how lists of choices are displayed, to make
ODB choice screens easier to read.
o Additional cloning options (use the right-click menu).
o Additional ways to copy email lists, to make it easier to
do an email merge letter using a 3rd party program.
o Ability to right-click on selected name or email address
and choose "Google Search" on this name or email.
o Ability to sort the results of all searches.
o An additional printing option, for printing Thank You notes.
o Better Import stability, and flexibility, and the ability to
assign type code information or comments to imported records.
o Ability to "undo" an import operation.
o Ability to search on multiple "Type" codes simultaneously using
a simple user interface.
o Ability to use Filemaker style ranges, and to search on the date
of the last gift, in the main part of the Record Selection Tool.
o Eight bugs were fixed; two of these only affect people who are
are doing membership renewals and have been using ODB for a year
o Ability access records quickly using the ID number that will be
printed on donation slips.
o Ability to prevent certain ledger categories from affecting
membership expiration dates.
o Ability to automatically distinguish between comma-separated
and tab-separated import files.
o Improved ODB's ability to run both the program and data file
off an external drive (such as a Zip drive or USB memory key).
o 4 built-in queries for common list maintenance functions.
o Exports now include all 9 digits of a zip code or all 6 digits
of a Canadian postal code.
In addition, new users will gain all of the above plus the following:
o The ability to turn on title and suffix fields.
o the ability to incorporate a long value list that is generated
from a "lookup field", to provide for consistency in data entry.
o the ability to generate custom thank you notes
o a "SRC" code feature, which provides a facility to record what
list or web signup page or whatever it came from.
o the addition of a "nospam" field to prevent certain email
addresses from getting included when you copy a long list
of emails.
O.9 Beta Release History:
December 2, 2002 for beta 3
December 13, 2002 for beta 4
Release Candidate 1 was released December 26
Release Candidate 2 was released January 9
Release Candidate 3 was released January 16
New Features
a) Right-click on a record see several new options, that let you:
1) lookup up the 9-digit zip code from the USPS web site
2) look up the person or group in a Google search.
3) look up the person or organization in a Yahoo search
b) Added the ability for ODB to display the 'title', and partly
implemented an ability to enter a "suffix" as well.
c) Added a customizable "thank you note" that you can print
from the print menu; you can also enable a check box so
that the letter will be printed during donation entry.
d) Added a customizable "biglist" feature: a field that you
can use to enter a value from a pre-set long list (this will
work well when you have 100 to 5,000 choices. The items in
the "biglist" can be associated with URLs. The "biglist" is
not currently associated with the "Groups" table, however.
Biglist is cloned properly. As of Beta 5, you can search on it.
Also, you can configure an email address in the ODB settings
("emailbiglistadditions") to contain an email address to
send notifications on additions users make to this list. (1/15)
e) Added a "SRC" code feature, to identify the origin of database
records. On 12/27, made the SRC code field is accessible in the
People Entry screen: You can modify the SRC codes assigned to a
person. Also, when you delete a person from the database their
SRC codes should be deleted. (12/27). Finally, added some code
to enable a selection of multiple SRC codes to search on in the
Record Selection Tool.
f) Changed the search screen to allow selection of multiple
'type' codes to search on simultaneously.
g) Added the ability to specify a date range (11/1...11/10) in
the Record Selection Tool -- useful for membership renewal.
h) Ability to lookup people or groups by Record ID (type '#500'
in the search box to call up record #500.
i) Added the ability to reset the sort order in a choice box
(this is a precursor to providing more customization here).
j) Additional documentation and support for ODB consultants,
including support for importing old record IDs of donors to
facilitate matching up of data.
k) Added an "OldID" field to the extended ODB import screen,
for use by consultants who are importing older donation data.
l) Turned on ability for you to set comments to be longer than
255 characters. We recommend that you change "maxcomment" to
a value of 500 to test it out. Note: if your ODB database was
created with a very old version, you cannot use this feature
without making a modification the ODB database structure,
something we can help you with if you ask us. (11/27/02)
m) Added the ability in the import screen to have ODB
put the same comment in all the records you import. (11/27)
n) Added the ability in the import screen to have ODB put the same
same Type code in all the records you import. (11/27, fixed 12/9)
o) Added the ability to customize the label and tooltip text used
for the 'biglist' and 'SRC' fields through four ODB settings,
biglisttooltip, srctooltip, biglistlabel, srclabel. (11/29)
p) Added the ability to add a user defined text field, where you
can specify the name of this field and some attributes. The
attributes supported are: height, width, parentleft, parenttop,
maxlength, tooltiptext, font, and fontsize (12/2)
q) Added the ability to customize the label of the 'VID' button
and selection window. (11/29, fixed 12/19)
r) Added a new setting to allow you to specify whether a SRC
code is required when importing or not (12/2)
s) Now there is a right-click menu on the Import button so that
If you don't like what you imported, you can delete it. This
"Mass Delete" feature is available at all times on whatever is
chosen in the main menu. However due to its destructiveness, it
requires a password. Maybe it should even back the user's
database up if that hasn't happened recently? (12/2)
t) Implemented the "donation import" user interface, with the option,
using a checkbox, to opt to look up new IDs using the OldID field.
The option does not normally appear; you have to go into Enable
Code Changes mode to see it; that is because this is something
that only an experienced computer person would be doing, and
generally it would only be done once when the database is created.
Note: this feature was not tested until 1/18, uploaded fix 1/19.
u) Added the ability to go to the ODB home page from the help menu. (12/2)
v) Added a new "copy emails" option (visible on the right-click menu
on the copy emails button) so that you can copy a list of emails
that includes the names of the people or groups. I.e.
"jane doe , john smith ". (12/2)
This feature was not screening out periods or commas, added that (12/26)
w) ODB will now store the date a donation is recorded in addition
to the date of the donation. This is to facilitate eventual
calculation of bank deposit slip/ accounting program entry info. (12/2)
x) There is a new setting, requireimporttype, so that if you require a
type in either the people or groups setting, you can decide that the
requirement should or should not apply to data you are importing. (12/9)
y) Added a right-click feature on the main menu to do a google search on
the telephone exchange, which can be used to determine a town in which
a person lives. (12/13)
z) Added additional right-click options on the Clone button, so that you
can choose with greater precision which fields you want to clone (12/13).
aa)Added a right-click feature on email address, in the main menu, a button
to do a Google search on the email address (12/13).
bb)Added ability to have ledger categories that don't affect membership
(12/21). The AllowZeroDonation field was disabled, and a new
database field called membercategories, which is a list of the valid
categories that affect membership, was added (12/22).
cc)Added future setting, NOT used now, to store a separate field in the
database (aptsort) for apartment, so that records can be sorted by
apartment number. (12/21)
dd)Added setting to specify whether people who give a very small donation,
from $1 to the minimumdues amount minus $1, will get a half-membership
instead of the full membership period (12/21). This was the default;
now it is possible to turn this off.
ee)HUGE new feature: the ability to define a sort order for the results
from your query. Note: saving a query does not save the sort order.
(12/22)
ff)Another important new feature: ODB now supports right-click keyboard
shortcuts for those who cannot use a mouse. Shift-F10 will simulate
the action of the right-click button on the selected button or item.
This does not work for right-clicking on labels like city, state, or
zip at this time, but it DOES work on the email address. (12/23)
gg)Added the ability to search on the biglist, and also modified default
procedures that display records to prioritize display of biglist and
region fields (12/23).
hh)Added Record ID# to reply slips. Note that you can just go directly
to a record by typing $123 in order to enter a donation for the person
with ID # of 123. This extends the functionality described in h) above.
(12/26)
ii)Added ability to import and sort results by user defined field, while
hiding the actual DB field name used to store this field from the
user. (12/26)
jj)Implemented the auto-import option so that ODB can automatically
distinguish between most tab-separated and comma-separated files (12/26).
kk)Added a field in the people area called "Nospam", which is intended
to be used to flag people who do not want to receive bulk email. ODB
will not include "nospam" people in the copy emails function, and
in the future it should be possible to also exclude them from a
a set of expored records. (1/2/03)
ll)Added an additional date field, the date of last gift (LastGave) to
the record selection tool screen, to ease the process of selecting
people who made donations within a particular window. (1/2/03)
mm)The user manual was substantially revised. (1/3/03, 1/18/03))
nn)Provided an option so that users will be able to set up ODB
to work with program and data all residing on an external drive,
such as a USB memory drive. This is useful for using a database
on the road! To really make it work, it is possible that the
user will have to copy the VB runtime (msvbvm50.dll) and the
dbgrid32.ocx and vb5db.dll into the program folder where odb.exe
is located, otherwise you rely on these files being present on
the windows system where you are going.
oo)ODB will now export the full 9-digit zip code. (1/18/03)
pp)Added ability to hide some number of fields in ODB, by specifying that
you want them hidden, through the use of five separate settings
such as "hidepeoplecontrols", "hidemaincontrols", each of which
can hide fields on a different screen. Note that if you decide
to hide the field "optmode" in the main ODB screen, ODB will
automatically hide the "groups" selection in the Import Area and
in the Record Selection Tool. (1/17/03)
qq)Added menu item to send bug reports to the ODB developers.
(1/18/03)
rr)Added a feature so that you can require all ODB users to enter
some type of comment whenever they add a record to the database.
(1/21/03)
Usability Enhancements
a) Better error messages when database support is not installed on
a PC, which will help us improve installation, and soon make
it a 1-step process that automatically will download missing
components.
b) ODB was not showing the Type of a record in the preview screen;
now this information is displayed.
c) The text in the setup wizard was revised to make it easier
to understand.
d) When you open an existing database, by default you are put
into the "c:\my documents" folder in Win95/98 and into the
Desktop folder on Win XP/2000.
e) The name of the Desktop Shortcut was changed from Organizers
Database to 'Run ODB.'
f) Cloning a record will automatically clone the 'Type' code.
g) mailto: and http:// are automatically stripped when text
containing them is pasted into the Website or Email fields.
h) When cloning a record, the telephone extension is now automatically
stripped off.
i) The Help menu now includes a direct link to the ODB web site
http://organizersdb.org. (12/2)
j) When you download a new version, it will in the future be labeled
Install ODB.exe, and the icon on the desktop to run the program
will be labeled "Run ODB.exe". This is to help users know which
is the installer and which is the program. (12/2)
k) The Import Record feature now provides a preview if the first
two records in the file you are importing (you can toggle). (12/2)
l) If you import data that has a lot of duplicates, ODB now allows you
to escape from the trap you get into (like in word 97 mailmerge)
where you need to press "ok" until the end of the data. Say you
import a 100 record file, and mistakenly import it twice. After you
confirm the 5th duplicate in a row, ODB will ask you if you just
just want to omit all future duplicates. (12/9)
m) If you choose "about ODB" ODB will now show the exact time and
date that the ODB.exe was created. This is mainly intended for
people who are working with interim, "testing" releases. (12/9)
o) Improved usability of the "biglist" feature. (12/13, also 12/21)
p) Improved Import feature so that it does not allow you to import
the type code when you have selected the option to fill it with
a common value. (12/13)
q) Made the Google Search smarter, so that ODB will offer to search
in a state if the city is not available. (12/13)
r) Added 4 database maintenance queries to the installation package
so that they will be installed into ODB. (12/13)
s) Longer text labeling the Date features in the Select Records
screen (12/22).
t) Altered the display of codes so that they are sorted down
and then across. Formerly it was across, then down, which was
difficult to read. (12/23)
u) The Import Records screen will now keep the two list boxes in
sync so that you don't have to scroll everything to the top and
count down to assess whether one of the fields that is not on
among the first dozen or so matches up with the import data (12/27),
bug fixed 1/14.
Minor Glitches Fixed
a) The software for displaying a donation report was very inefficient
and slow; now these reports should run about 5 times faster, thanks
to use of tabs in the donation report text box (instead of padding
the data with spaces).
b) ODB was getting confused about which database to open on PCs with
multiple installations.
c) Display of Tooltip text was not working at times.
d) ODB was not redrawing the VID window when you removed a VID code.
e) During installation, ODB now will do a few more tests before
reporting an error, which means the error messages are much more
informative, and thus you will know if you need to install
additional components more quickly.
f) ODB installation problems on old Windows 95 machines was diagnosed.
If you want to get ODB working on an old machine, you will first
need to install a new version of the "OLEAUT" libraries from
Microsoft. A version of these is available upon request. Note:
The new version may not need OLE at all because a reference to OLE
was removed from the visual basic before we compiled beta 3.
g) The People window was showing up on the task bar separately from
ODB. This has been fixed.
h) A small coding problem in the Print routine was fixed: this
might be the cause of the 'runtime error' we had a difficult time
reproducing (error message: "no current record").
i) Improper title of VID entry window was fixed.
j) After you import records, the main menu screen will show only
the records that you just imported. This was the intention
in the past, but nothing was showing up. (12/2)
k) The list of ODB settings was growing (the settings repeated)
every time you entered it. This is now fixed. (12/2)
l) It was possible to ODB to exit when you entered an invalid date
In the Select Records window and then immediately pressed the
Enter key. This should no longer be possible. (12/2)
m) Improvements in zip code download and web signups download
code that could make it work more reliably. (12/13)
n) When you mark an address as old to begin entering a new address,
the address is now changed from "expired" to "incomplete". (12/13)
o) Deleting a issue, constit, or activit code that was checked would
clear that code, but mistakenly assign a different code; though
this is serious, it only appeared in 0.9 beta versions. (12/13)
p) The width of the ODB screen exceeded 640 pixels, so it was
trimmed a bit to preserve 640 x 480 compatibility. (12/13)
q) The copy emails function was not actually moving the emails to
the clipboard until after the message of acknowledgement that
this was done. Now the clipboard is ready before the message
box comes up. (12/13)
r) The program will now flag additional bad email addresses (12/22).
A bug in this new feature was found and fixed (1/9).
s) Added a test for when users set default dues to be less than the
value of minimumdues; a warning is now generated and the larger
value is ignored. A setting called usehalfmemberships was added
to the database; if true then ODB's behavior of very small donations
(less than minimum dues) as a donation covering just one-half of
the normal membership period will continue. If you don't set this
value then ODB will no longer give anyone a half-membership by
default. (12/21)
t) Made sure the clear button actually clears out the data in the
dbgrid in the Record Selection Tool. (12/21)
v) Added error handling to avoid a runtime error and report error
in zip code lookup procedure if Internet Explorer cannot be called
in the background. (12/21)
w) Fixed the tab order in several places where it was not correct,
such as the add-money screen with new thank you checkbox, the import
screen, etc. (12/23)
x) Added support for printing out suffixes, which may not be 100%
implemented but. Improved keystroke filtering of first name, middle initial,
last name, suffix of state when typing names into your database, while
trying to main the ability to enter accented spanish/french characters.
PLEASE TEST THIS! (12/26)
y) Improved error handing for printer errors (12/26).
z) Duplicate checking of imported names failed when an existing name
had a middle initial. (12/26)
aa)Eliminated a common source of duplicate error messages, where the
user was queried about marking a record as incomplete twice (12/26).
bb)Added error checking for incorrect color settings. Before this
error checking was added, it was possible to for put ODB in a state
where it would exit due to an error immediately upon
startup. Thanks to Zoe at NJ Peace Action for the report (12/30).
cc)Size of the field winTitle expanded to 60 characters (from 50) to
accommodate longer organization names. (1/2)
dd)Existing templates were updated to eliminate odb settings that
no longer exist. (1/3)
ee)ODB was not filtering out characters in the "remote account"
password field in the Admin settings, nor was ODB filtering
out carriage returns when entering the value of numeric settings,
so the user could type the enter key and the setting would
disappear. These problems were fixed. (1/15)
ff)The duplicate checking feature of ODB data entry was giving
false positives when you changed the capitalization of an
existing name in the People Entry screen and then tabbed
out of the Last Name fields. (1/16)
gg)The duplicate checking feature of ODB import was improved,
to flag fewer duplicates when the last name of a record
with no zip code matches an existing record with no zip code,
(1/16) and to utilize the email address phone number, and
second line in deciding whether something might be a duplicate.
hh)The right click copy function for cell phone number was putting
an HTTP: in front of the cell phone number (1/19)
ii)Small improvements in the user friendliness of the import
utility, including the new donation import feature (1/22); the
main improvement is that ODB now will ignore blank lines. Before
ODB would falsely flag them as duplicates. In the Jan. 18 version
of 0.9, the first version with the donation import feature, this
problem would even cause ODB to exit with a 'runtime error'
(not in people import, but donation import).
Major Bugs Fixed
a) The "Clone Cancel" bug: if you cloned a record, and then
did certain data entry operations such as clicking on the
Act or Iss or Cons button, you would get an error
if you cancelled out of the cloned record.
b) A bug in the query generation engine, in which a set of
parentheses was left out for people using the "ADD SQL to
broaden your search" feature.
c) When you delete a donation, the "Lastgave" date
was properly reset. However, the amount of the gift
('lastgift' is the name of the field) was in some cases
cases set to the amount of the someone else's gift
on the same date.
d) The feature allowing you to look at the beginning and the end of
long file names in the import screen was causing ODB to quit;
this did not affect many users however, as was only a bug in
the most recent version of ODB. (12/9)
e) Fixed major donation bug: if you cancel out of a donation entry
when you are asked one of the membership questions, the donation
will get entered anyway. Thanks to Randy Divinski for finding
this. (12/22)
f) ODB was exiting with a "file not found" error when it was first
run (prior to the setup wizard) on machines where the
c:\program files\oc folder did not already exist. Basically,
if you installed ODB in another location, the setup wizard would
usually fail in version 0.8.7d and higher. Thanks to Michael
Phillips for helping us track this down. (12/22)
g) Envelope printing wasn't working on an Epson 600 inkjet printer: this
may have been a problem with use of an old printer driver and not
a problem with ODB. A fix was devised for this, and testers are asked to
test out envelope printing on as many printers as possible. thanks! (12/26)
h) ODB would crash if you pasted something without spaces in it into the
street number field. (1/8)
ODB 0.8.9a Release Notes
Version 0.8.9a is a maintenance release with several significant
changes to ODB, most of which are not visible in everyday use.
Upgrading is recommended, for the sole reason that backups
should be more reliable. The database file format is unchanged.
Date: August 30, 2002
0.8.9a New Features
a) Ledger codes can now be modified directly from within the software!
Previously, changing these codes after installation required you to
own a copy of Microsoft Access. To modify a ledger code, you must
go into Select Records and click on the Donations option. Then
you can right-click on the "limit to ledger category" label, to
see this new menu option.
b) If you make a copy of the zip code file in the same folder where your
database is located, you no longer have to download the zip code file
on all the computers using ODB. ODB will look in the folder where
the database resides, and use it the zip code file odbdata.mdb if it
exists in that folder.
c) Added a menu option to Reset the sort order in all Activity, Issue,
Constit, VID buttons to the default order, which is alphabetical
by the label of each category. (In a future version, the categories
will advance vertically rather than horizontally and 'tiers' may
be added to allow grouping of categories.)
0.8.9a Usability Enhancements
a) The installer was made even easier to use, and "VB5DB.DLL" was
added back into it. (A new database support installation utility,
much smaller and easier to use than the old one, is now available
in "beta" form.)
b) The documentation was revised to encourage people to use a direct
network path (i.e. "\\SERVER\SHARED FOLDER\") rather than a mapped
drive letter (i.e. "h:\") when referring the the location of an
ODB database on the network. We have noticed that Windows is more
responsive when use a direct network path.
c) When your database file is on a network but the server is not turned
on, ODB now gives a much more precise error message, directing the
user to turn on or reconnect to the server (rather than open up a
different database file). This should prevent problems in many
network installations of ODB.
d) Improved the error handling when the database can't be opened, in
the two places (wizard and the main menu) where this is tried.
e) Made the import screen a bit more intuitive, by numbering the
steps, adding tooltip text, etc.
f) Made the software also search on cell phone numbers when you
type a phone number into the Main Menu search box.
0.8.9a Major Bugs Fixed
a) When customizing ODB, deleting or changing codes for Issues or
Constituencies was not updating the data in both the People and
the Groups table; the changes were occurring in only one table.
(This problem only affected people who made use of both People
and Groups.)
b) For customizing Activity codes, ODB would crash if you were in People
mode in the Main menu and Groups mode in the Select Records window,
and then you tried to delete or or change a code.
c) A problem that could affect users who only accessed their ODB
database over a network, which could prevent the regular backups
from taking place, was resolved.
d) A typo in ODB's label printing software, which was causing long
street addresses to get cut off, was fixed (thanks to an alert
ODB user in Georgia).
0.8.9a Minor Glitches Fixed
a) The backup software was enhanced to check the integrity of your
database after it automatically compacts it. This will make ODB
less susceptible to the database corruption that occasionally
plagues MS Access.
b) ODB databases created with version 0.8.7 would crash ODB when
you tried to save data in version 0.8.9. This problem did NOT
affect ODB users who ran the 0.8.8d or 0.8.9 conversion utility.
c) The backup routine was checking the existence of the b: drive even
after a backup to the a: drive was successful. This was generating
an erroneous "bad disk drive" error even when the software succeeded.
d) Duplicate checking was enhanced: now ODB will recognize duplicates
when your are modifying or cloning data. Previously ODB would only
check for a duplicate when you entered a new record.
e) Sorting by clicking in the Select Records Window was not working
when all records were selected. (This problem affected only the most
recent versions of ODB.)
f) Obsolete and incorrect text in the Modify Settings... screen was
removed.
g) The setup wizard will now show up in the task bar.
h) The link to pscp in the Download Web Signups area was updated.
i) Cosmetic fix: when you choose a network drive the software
properly shows the name of the network drive that you have chosen.
j) In the Setup Wizard, ODB was not letting the user type spaces in
a folder name.
VERSION 0.8.9
Version 0.8.9 added a very significant new feature to allow
user-defined and congressional districts which ODB will
automatically fill in for you. It also made some changes to
the ODB file format, and shipped with a conversion utility that
can update any ODB database created since October 2001. The
conversion utility will turn on many of the more recent ODB
settings, and provides the underpinnings of a few features
yet to be implemented.
WE STRONGLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU RUN THIS UPDATE UTILITY.
YOU WILL BE PROMPTED TO RUN IT IF YOUR ODB DATABASE HAS
HAS NOT ALREADY BEEN UPDATED. IF YOU USE ODB FROM
MULTIPLE PCS AS PART OF YOUR LOCAL AREA NETWORK, we
recommend that you upgrade all of your PCs to 0.8.9 BEFORE
you run the conversion utility. You will need to run the
conversion utility on only one of your ONE PC's. If you
ran the conversion utility issued for version 0.8.8d, you
don't need to run it again unless you want to take advantage
of the region and congressional district lookup functions.
Date: July 17, 2002
0.8.9 New Features
a) Major New Feature: If you have someone set up the zip code
file with the necessary information, ODB will auto-fill the
region and congressional district of a person based on their
zip code. We will be extending this feature to allow
districts to be matched based on street address as well,
so if you need it, please call us!
b) The maximum number of tracking codes ODB will display was
increased to 30 issue, constituency, or activity codes.
c) The maximum number of VID codes ODB will display is increased
to 24.
d) It is now easier to search on the "comments" field from the
Record Selection Tool.
e) Senate and House district and 'no Work Phone' are now included
in the Record Selection Tool.
0.8.9 Usability Enhancements
a) We changed the installation program! This means that the software
is even easier to install, and the download is 10% smaller.
b) The message informing people that they need to run the conversion
utility now makes it easier to find the utility.
c) If you try to download a zip code file and a previous version of
the zip code file already exists, ODB will tell you the date of
that file and allow you to overwrite it.
d) ODB will allow you to try to continue even if the version of the
database file is newer than the software.
e) The conversion utility was made to be more user friendly.
f) VID codes were renamed to 'VID' rather than 'ID' to avoid confusion
with the record ID field.
g) ToolTipText was added in the Main Menu and on the Select Records
window in places where it was missing.
0.8.9 Major Bugs Fixed
a) The lastgave and lastgift fields were not updating reliably when
you entered a donation for someone who already had gifts recorded.
b) When saving and loading templates, the ODB setting for database
format was included. It should not have been part of a template.
c) Import routines are improved: some bugs that could cause importing
to fail were fixed!
d) In version 0.8.8d only, reply slip printing did not work.
0.8.9 Minor Glitches Fixed
a) The tab order was incorrect in the Choices and VID windows.
b) Modifying the Zip Code was not enabling the 'save changes' button
in the people window.
c) High donor password protection, in 0.8.8d only, was not working.
d) When you deleted a donation, the person's "updated" date was not
changed.
e) Clicking on start-> run and then typing ODB should again work to
start the software.
f) When you delete a donation (the last one) the last gift and last
gave info is now cleared away immediately.
VERSION 0.8.8d
This major maintenance release allows ODB to read information from
a newly format of Zip Code file, and enhances the query screen,
providing the ability to save and load SQL queries. It also fixes
a small number of bugs, mostly minor ones.
Date: June 26, 2002
0.8.8d New Features
a) Updated the zip code file to January 2000 version based on
a Census Bureau zip code file. (We will update to a 2002
version if we can find data that is free to distribute!) To
use the new zip code file, you must download it from within ODB.
b) Turned on "area code matching" feature: if you hold the mouse
cursor on top of a non-fax phone number in a data entry screen,
you will find out where that phone number is located!
c) The add sql option now allows the sql to be added in two
separate clauses, one of which will include records, the other
of which will exclude records. Manual was revised.
d) You can save and load SQL queries to disk. The queries are
saved by default in the "queries" folder within your ODB program
files folder.
e) ODB users now have access to a setting for changing the colors
used for the main menu sidebar and "program text"
f) It is now possibly to specify a "minimum donation" that would
be counted as a membership donation
g) Consistent color scheme
h) The installation program includes a working demonstration of
a Spanish language localization file (this is just to demonstrate
it works, we are getting together a committee to do translation).
0.8.8d Usability Enhancements
a) Changed the way ODB handles null or empty strings, as
described in lengthy email, and made import consistent with
Data entry. Included conversion utility.
b) For backward compatibility, the omit bad addresses mailcode
query now allows null mailcodes to be included in the results
c) Better feedback when you click copy emails on a small number
of addresses.
d) When you click show details and none of the chosen records
are selected, the first one will automatically be selected.
e) It's much easier to upgrade to a newer zip code file; you can
do it from within the program.
0.8.8d Major Bugs Fixed
a) Fixed zip code file extraction problem for Windows XP and a
few other versions of Windows.
b) The go to web site function based on email menu choice is now
working again.
c) Importing data into the voter registration field was crashing
ODB. Fixed. These fields have also been moved into the
"extended import' for people.
d) Added fax field importing to Groups and to P2 (Extended People
import) mode. Removed duplicate URL field from Groups import.
e) Resolved some problems importing ill-formated zip code data.
0.8.8d Minor Glitches Fixed
a) The query was not being updated when the member box was checked
on and off.
b) The show address on internet map function was updated to a
newer URL and works again, and works even better than before
c) We noticed that in people and groups entry a blank comment was
not saved. Fixed.
d) The words "people" and "donations" were not showing up in
the Show SQL box in version 0.8.8c only.
e) Fixed potential problem with displaying home fax field.
f) In printing of horizontal lists, one fewer item was on a page
than advertised by the headers.
VERSION 0.8.8c
This is a major release: with about 500 new people
testing ODB, and a dozen consultants requesting certain
features, we had a lot of work to do! The changes
are summarized in 4 sections below.
Date: June 4, 2002
0.8.8C New Features
a) You can now save the results of donation searches in a form
that can be easily imported into spreadsheet software for
analysis of donation information.
b) The ledger view now displays the full description of the
ledger categories.
c) Five templates have been added to the setup program.
d) The requirement to enter a geographic area in groups mode can
be turned off.
e) When you export after "enabling code changes" many additional
fields are exported.
f) Added the ability to install externally executed programs to
the Admin menu of ODB.
g) If you right-click on an email address in the Main Menu, you
can choose all the people with the same email suffix.
0.8.8C Usability Enhancements
a) Code Changes and Settings are now accessible through two
different buttons, eliminating a lot of confusion. The web
signups button is now hidden by default.
b) Email copying menu item is grayed out and email popup menu is
suppressed for records that have no email address.
c) The show details button now shows up whenever records are
chosen; you do not have to click on one of the records to make it
show up.
d) During installation, the user is reminded how to access the
user guide later.
e) During installation, backup procedures are explained more
clearly
f) When you delete a donation, ODB gives a better warning about
what may need to be adjusted manually in the people entry screen.
g) The user manual was updated; it's now 26 pages long, and
even includes information on sharing and ODB database over the
Internet.
h) If the network drive containing the ODB database file is
not connected when you start up ODB, now you will see an error
message that explains what to do to fix this in language that
a novice user might understand.
0.8.8C Major Bugs Fixed
a) Records found using a "donations" search were not editable;
the queries were rewritten to make this possible.
b) Incorrect length of "house district" field: it's been fixed
so that new databases will have 3 characters and the crash in
existing databases will never occur.
c) Marking a bad email or bad address from the main menu could
crash ODB when the comments field was already close to full; now
this won't happen.
d) Punctuation in the first or last name was causing the program
to crash when checking for duplicates.
e) Null zip codes fields created during import routines were
causing ODB to crash.
f) Setting a setting in ODB to an empty string was crashing ODB
on databases several months old.
g) The label printing routines were printing too high on the
page, especially with inkjet printers.
h) Groups that had customized their ledger codes found that the
category information was not always saving properly.
i) One of the date comparisons for renewals was comparing the
string values of the dates as opposed to the dates themselves.
0.8.8C Minor Glitches Fixed
a) Changing the resultlimit did not affect searches in the
select records windows; it should have.
b) The window for ID-style tracking codes was not sized properly
in some cases.
c) During import, string comparison for duplicates was overly
"case sensititive".
d) Line breaks were removed from message boxes to improve
formatting of the boxes in different fonts.
e) The full file location information is now displayed during
an export operation.
f) The 'no phone' checkbox was not working properly when the
main menu was in "groups" mode and the select records screen
was in "people mode".
g) ODB is less susceptible to "null" errors when the database
file is edited in Access.
h) The program was not treating very small donations (less than
half the dues amount) correctly with respect to renewal dates.
VERSION 0.8.8b
Minor maintenance release. FIXED: a problem which prevented
importing of files with a header row and a bug in the
feature allowing multiple ODB installations on the same computer.
ADDED: the ability to export and import comments.
Date: March 20, 2002
VERSION 0.8.8a
Minor maintenance release. It fixes a problem that
prevented importing "groups" in 0.8.8 and 0.8.7d.
It also increases the font size when printing on the larger
size (20 per sheet) of laser labels. Date: March 11, 2002
VERSION 0.8.8
This was a major release with a large number of small fixes
and usability enhancements. If you used one of the earlier
versions we strongly recommend you upgrade. Date: March 7, 2002