Faster Occupant Searches

A customer pointed out to me that their Occupant name searches took far longer to return results than their Owner name searches. Looking at the SQL tables used in the searches it seemed like the problem stemmed from the fact that a relatively few number of property records had Occupant names defined so the search had to wade through a sea of blank names before it got to anything meaningful. I changed the underlying search table so that now an Occupant search only searches through property records that have an Occupant name listed. Because of this you'll notice that the Navigation Screen will show a much smaller quantity of Total Pages when you do an Occupant search. You should also notice that those searches are much faster. This is a change I implemented to your SQL data behind the scenes so you do not need to download anything to get the new search process.

Understanding Local Copy Options

In several of the Maintenance screens there are "Create Local Copy" button which have led to some confusion among users. The purpose of these button is take maintenance data stored in remote SQL databases and create a local copy on your PC or server. Then when ZonePro later needs access to that data, it will pull it from the local copy rather than make a SQL call across the internet. It's just another way of reducing remote SQL calls and thereby speeding up your system. The problem is that you should only create a local copy if you are completely done editing the relevant Maintenance database. Once the local database is created, changes made in the Maintenance screen will update the SQL database but not the local copy; and since it is the local database that is being pulled by the application screens, etc., it looks like the changes did not take at all. To help alleviate this confusion I have added a new wrinkle to these buttons. Now when you go into a Maintenance screen, if a local copy of the database exists the "Create Local Copy" button will instead read "Delete Local Copy." Deleting the local copy reverts the button back to "Create Local Copy." If you need to edit a Maintenance database you should always be sure to delete the local copy first if one exists. You can always create a new local copy when you finish. Deleting the local copy is always safe because the real copy is the SQL one that is stored remotely. New updates are available for download that implement this change.

Notekeeper for Building Inspection Details Notes

The Notekeeper option has been added to the Notes tab of the Building Inspection Details screen. It works identically here as it would in the main permit Notes tab. In other words, to create a Notekeeper topic for an Electrical inspection you would define the topic in Maintenance first using the "Electrical" database. This topic would then be available for you to select as you enter notes in either the Electrical permit record itself or in the Inspection Details notes for an Electrical permit.

Updated Optional Documents

I have finally finished the process of updating all of the optional documents available from the Downloads page of our Customer Support Web Site to make sure that there are versions that work with both ZonePro SQL and ZonePro 32. You're bound to find something of interest so check them out.

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.