Expanded Name Fields

Throughout ZonePro we have expanded all Last Name and Applicant Name fields from 30 characters to 50 characters.  With a First Name field of 20 characters and a Last Name field of 50 this should allow customers to accommodate all but the most ridiculously long names without much compromise. The change to the databases was made for you but you will have to download the latest program updates to take advantage of the new name lengths. Because this change affects so many different aspects of the program I am not sure that I have found every case where support for the longer name fields needs to be added. If you come across a part of the program that does not seem to handle the longer name fields correctly please let us know!

Web Site Gets Better Violation Letter Option

A while back I added an option to generate a Violation letter via the Staff web site. But it did not offer any flexibility. The user had little control over the format and content of the letter. I think I have improved the process greatly. You can demo the new letter option from any Violation record screen in the Staff web site. Clicking on the "Violation Letter" button takes you to a screen that lets you construct a letter several ways. You can click on the "Generate Full Letter" button to generate the complete letter is one move. A major improvement though is that the letter is now presented to you inside of a editor -- a simple word processor that lets you change anything about the letter before you print it. Another improvement is that instead of generating a complete letter you can build it in sections. There is a drop-down box that shows the sections currently available and a "Add Section" button to append each choice to the current letter. Each section is just a predefined piece of the letter such as the greeting or closing, etc. As of now we have enough sections to generate a complete "ordinance" version of the letter and "resolution" version of the letter. As we get feedback from users we can add more sections. A third button called "Add External Paragraph" adds even more flexibility. This button has an accompanying drop-down box that lists any text files stored with the web site. These text files can be appended to the letter just like the sections. This is an easy way to set up a library of custom text files for each customer to add to different letters. So now you have multiple ways to construct a letter and the ability to edit the letter directly throughout the process.

Web Site Supports Adding Zoning Permits

The Staff web site has long had an option for adding Violation records and Building Inspection records but now I have added an option to add new Zoning permits from the web site. You can demo this option from the Zoning Results page of your Staff web site. I'm not sure how useful this feature is in the web site since it has limited functionality compared to the Windows interface. The big problem I am having is figuring out how to handle fee formulas. The formulas and scripts that can do so much in the Windows interface are not compatible with the programming used for the web site. So I need an alternative way to handle formulas via the web site. If anyone has any ideas on that shoot us an e-mail!