Exporting Data from Staff Pages to Spreadsheets

I've added a new capability to several pages on the Staff site that allow you to export data to an Excel Spreadsheet which is then downloaded to your device. This new option is available on the All Inspections page to download scheduled inspections. It is available on the Contractor Activity page. It is also an option on all of the report screens so that instead of printing a report or creating a PDF you can download all the data that the report criteria would capture to a spreadsheet. This new option makes it super easy to get data out of the Staff site for use with other programs. I'm sure there are other pages in the Staff site or the Contractor Request site that could benefit from this option. Just let me know if you have a page that you'd like to nominate as a candidate.

Shortcut to Contractor Activity Report

After you look up a contractor in the Contractor Screen you can view their past Activity in the Contractor Activity Browse screen. If you also want to print out that activity, in the past you had to close back to the Main Screen and go to the Contractor Activity Report screen. Now there is a Report button directly on the Activity Browse screen which is a shortcut to the Contractor Activity Report screen. It takes you to the report screen and automatically triggers the ID Code report filter with the ID of the last chosen contractor.  This makes it easy to use the Contractor Screen as a search tool to produce Activity Reports.

Photo Annotation Added

It's not often that you get to do something that is both fun and useful. The new Photo Annotation feature is just such beast though. This feature allows you to draw on photos that you have uploaded to your Staff web site. This allows you to easily highlight the salient objects in the photo with circles and arrows, etc.

You get to the photo annotation page by going to the Photo Edit page in your Staff site and then use the Photo Annotate menu option on the floating dashboard. As you can see from the above example this page presents you with a toolbar that lets you create rectangles, circles, lines or use a pencil. You can select line width, the fill color, and the stroke color. It is very easy to use. And its quite fun. Give it a try. I also added an option to the Building Inspection E-mail page that makes it really easy to add photo links to your emails. In conjunction, these two feature should improve your communications with contractors.

Processing Contractor Inspection Requests

For those customers using the web site that lets their contractors request inspections online, you can now process those requests directly from your Staff site. If you have requests "Pending" you can see those directly on the Main page and select a request to begin processing it. If not you can go to the Contractor Search page and check the Dashboard menu options for a new Inspection Requests choice. This option takes you to a page that shows all existing requests whether they are Pending, Accepted or Denied. The various options available to you here are the same as from the Windows program. You can process requests, send e-mails back to contractors, view the permits involved, manage the passwords assigned to the contractors, etc. To my mind, the web site is easier to use for reviewing requests because its easier to jump around to view different pages and to send e-mails. Try it out and let me know what you think.

Contractor Web Site Revamped

The Contractor Inspection Request web site has been rewritten to match the style of the Staff site. If you receive any feedback of problems using the new site please let me know. For those customers that are unfamiliar: the Contractor Inspection Request site allows contractors to request inspections and check the status of inspections from their own web site.It is an add-on option for all existing ZP SQL customers who have the Contractor Module installed.

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!

E-Mail Names Option

I recently had a customer lament that there was not a great way to attach stored E-mail addresses to the Send To option in the ZonePro SMTP E-Mail Screen. We have fields for E-mail addresses in both the Contact File and Contractor databases but there is no easy way to access any E-mail address at any time. So I added a right-click option to the View More Recipients button in the SMTP E-Mail Screen that launches a new E-Mail Names Screen. This screen shows all of the E-mail addresses stored in either the Contact File database or the Contractor database. It gives you an easy way to search through them and select the one you wish to mail to. You can also easily compile a list of multiple recipients via this screen. I just posted a Training Video that demonstrates how it all works. The update is available for immediate download.

Extra Contractors in Zoning

We recently had a customer request a better way to track multiple contractors in the Zoning Screen. So now if you want to want to track more than just one contractor per Zoning permit, you can click on the Extra Contractors button which brings up a new screen that lets you add an unlimited number of secondary contractors to a permit. If you also have the Contractor Module installed you can use the Contractor Link option for the extra contractors which makes it easy to later report on the activity of any given contractor. The Zoning Document screen now has a new check box that reads "Include Extra Contractors." Clicking on this box makes the database housing the extra contractor names available for inclusion in any document. Including the extra contractors requires special formatting of the fields pulled from the Zoning database as well as a group section to print the extra contractor names. I'll post an example of such a document on the Downloads page of our main web site.

Extra Document Screen for Contractor Fees

In the most recent update I have added an extra document screen to the Contractor Module. There is now a document screen available off of the new Contractor Fees Screen. The regular document screen, which is off of the Contractor Screen, can print fee information but I decided that it would only access the current Active Fee. That led to this extra document screen from the Contractor Fees Screen that gives access to all of the fees stored for the current contractor. The standard document that will ship with this screen is called "Fee History." Of course, it also supports unlimited custom documents.

Staff Web Pages Updated

Everyone's Staff web pages have been updated to work with the new Contractor Fees database, as well as the new fields in the regular Contractor database. Also tweaked Contractor Report page and added a report page for the Extra Permit database.

Contractor Module Adds Fee Database

In a major redesign of the Contractor Module we have now added a separate database for tracking fees. This allows you to have multiple fees attached to a single contractor record. In prior versions only one fee could be stored in the contractor record and we had a Reset button to copy old fee information into the Notes field before new fee information was added. The flaw with that design is that there is no good way to report on the old fee information. Now you will always be able to report on both the current active fee and any past fees collected from contractors. Existing ZP SQL customers will automatically have the new database added and their existing contractor fees moved. In addition to that major change we have also added a third Phone field to the contractor database as well  as a Notes2 field. We have also expanded the size of the Company field. You will need to download the new program files to take advantage of the new features. A training video has been posted detailing the new fee option.

Contractor Link Tweaks

I've tweaked a couple of features involved in linking Contractors back to permit records. When you choose "Contractor" as the Applicant Type, the Applicant Name field will now be filled in with the Contractor Company info if there is no person's name in the Contractor record. The second feature is a simple prompt to also fill in the Contractor field in the Zoning, Other Permit, or Extra Permit screens when you choose "Contractor" as the Applicant Type and link to a contractor in the Contractor database.

Contractor Reset Button

Unlike the permit databases in ZP the Contractor database does not retain one record per transaction. Instead, when a new year rolls around (and a new round of license fee collections), the Contractor Screen uses the Reset button to copy the existing fee information into the Notes field to make way for the new information. I fixed a bug in the Reset button today and while I was at it added the option to substitute a customized script in place of our code when the Reset option executes. In other words, if you aren't satisfied with the fields that are copied into the Notes field by the default Reset option, you can add a script to your system that will copy information exactly the way you want it done. The button now looks for the existence of a script file called "script_contractor_reset.txt" before it runs the default code. You'll need our help to get started with a script option but then you'll be able to refine it in the User Script screen in Maintenance like you can with other ZP scripts.

Contractor Sort Screen

I'm using a different technique now to keep track of the current sort used in the Contractor Screen of the Windows program. This affects the way the navigation options work (as noted in the previous post). It also allows us to add back in the Contractor Sort Screen that we had in ZonePro 32. You can use this screen to change the way the Contractor database is sorted at any time. This in turn affects the order in which records appear when you use the Browse button or the green navigation buttons.

Revised Navigation Buttons and Browsing

In the Property Screen, Contractor Screen, and Contact File Launch Screen there are some subtle differences to the way the green navigation buttons and the navigation browsing screen work. In prior version of the Windows program, the navigation buttons were only available after you had successfully used the navigation browse window. Now, the programs keeps track of the current sort choice and the navigation buttons are continuously available to move to the Next or Previous record. You may also note that the navigation buttons are reduced to just two (down from the original four). The First and Last buttons have been removed but their functionality remains. You can jump to the first record in the current sort by right-clicking on the Previous button. Likewise, you can jump to the last record by right-clicking on the Next button.

Printing Contractor Info in the Building Document Screen

I just posted an update to the Building Module that makes more fields available for inclusion in documents printed from any of the Building Document screens. You can include more Contractor information in your documents by referencing the "contdetail" database and the fields: con_id, contractor, company, first_name, last_name, address1, address2, phone1, and phone2. Those first two fields were always available. The last seven are new. For permits these extra fields can be used to print the address information for the lead contractor. For the Contractor Detail document these fields can be included for each contractor that is linked to the record.

Contractor Activity Twofor

I just added a new Contractor Activity Browse screen to ZP SQL. This feature actually started as a new addition to the Staff web site. After you look up the record for any given contractor you can proceed to another screen that will show you all the permit records that contractor is linked to. I liked this idea well enough to also add the feature to the Windows interface for ZP SQL. There is a new Activity button in the Contractor Screen that brings up a special browse screen that lets you page through a list of all the permits that contractor has been linked to. There is also a Jump button on the browse screen so you can navigate directly to any of the listed permits if so desired. The information listed in the Contractor Activity Browse screen is nothing you could not already obtain from the Contractor Activity Report screen but this new option makes it much easier and faster to get that information directly from the Contractor Screen.

Contractor Request Web Site Update

I've made some changes to the Contractor Inspection Request web site. It now requires a log-in before you can view anything. You can see the demo of this site at www.zpsql.com by logging on with the ID "ct001003" and the password "zpdemo". I have also updated the tutorial that walks through using this service. That tutorial is listed under the Sql Documents section of the Tutorias page.

Contractor Inspection Request Beta

We are currently beta testing a new web service that will allow registered contractors to view any permits they are linked to and submit requests for inspections. New screens have been added to ZonePro SQL to review the inspection requests and accept or reject them. Contractors can see the responses to their request from the original web site. You can view a demo of this site at www.zpsql.com by choosing the Contractor site option. Try logging in with the ID "CT001003" and the password "zpdemo". This new web service will be available to all ZP SQL users who have the Contractor Module installed.

Contractor Details Database

Another difference between ZP 32 and ZP SQL can be found in the Building Module. In ZP 32 each building screen has spaces for five contractors per permit. In ZP SLQ the contractor info is no longer stored with the permit screen but instead is tracked through its own Contractor Details Screen. Just by the name you should figure that the Contractor Details Screen works similarly to the Fee Details and Inspections Details sections of the Building Module, and you'd be right. With the contractor info stored in its own screen you are no longer limited to five contractors per permit. You can have as many as you like.