Guided On-line Tours of ZP SQL

If any existing ZP 32 customers are interested in learning more about ZP SQL please contact me to arrange an on-line meeting. I've got this new on-line meeting account and it should be perfect for giving tours of ZonePro SQL. All you need is a good internet connection and a PC with speakers. You'll want a microphone too if you want to talk back ...and who doesn't. Actually, you can dial into a phone number too but that option costs you long distance charges whereas the microphone option is free. I expect a typical tour would take 30 to 60 minutes depending on your questions. I'm anxious to try out this Go-To-Meeting software so let's do it!

Ease of Use Trumps Speed

I just posted updates for a few ZP SQL modules. There are a couple of minor bug fixes but the main change is that now the default Local Personalization settings optimize the system for ease of use.  Previously the default optimization was for speed. These settings are all found in the Local Personalization Options screen under the Performance section of the SQL Tab. All of the Performance options will now be turned on by default unless you specifically turn them off. In the eight months that ZP SQL has been in production use I have not had any phone calls about speed issues but several calls that were resolved by turning on one or more of the performance options. So it seems to make sense just to default to the ease of use optimization from the start.

Viewing All Building Inspection Notes

Yesterday I spoke with a former ZP 32 customer who is now using ZP SQL. She expressed concern about keeping track of all the inspection notes for a Building Permit now that each Inspection Detail has its own Notes field. In ZP 32 the inspection notes were added to the permit notes fields so there was one screen you could go to to see all of the inspection notes entered. In ZP SQL each Inspection Detail has its own notes which are each viewed independently. There was no one screen you could go to to see all the accumulated inspections notes at once. I solved this problem by adding a View All Notes button to the Inspection Details Screen. Clicking on this icon button brings up another screen which shows you all the inspection notes entered for the current permit. This new feature is available for download using the automated update feature.

SQL Permit Mover Available

I just finished translating the Permit Mover tool in the Toolbox Module of ZP 32 for use in ZP SQL. To refresh, this tool allows you to easily move a permit that was entered under the wrong property record to a new property record. Without it, your only recourse is to delete the errant record and re-enter the permit under the correct property. With this tool you only have to supply the ID Code of the permit you wish to move and the Property ID of the new property you wish to move it to and it takes care of the rest. I'll have the updated Toolbox Module available for download soon.

Fire Hydrant Inventory

I'm working on a really interesting project right now that spun out of the mapping options in the Staff web interface for ZP SQL. I have a customer who wanted to know if we could add a database for fire hydrants and then map those as well. The prototype pages are in testing right now but the site allows you to enter any address and then shows a map of the closest fire hydrants to that property. The fire hydrant database contains Latitude and Longitude fields just like our property database does. In this case though, the customer has to supply the values for those fields because we can't geocode them the way we can an address. Fortunately, inexpensive GPS units make it fairly easy to construct your own database of positional coordinates. One of the bits of code I had to develop for this exercise is a way to determine distance between two geocoded points. This is used to find the nearest fire hydrants in this site but will be very useful for distance calculations in other web-based scenarios too.

Chat Room Option on Staff Web Site

This past week I added a chat room option to the staff web page interface for ZP SQL. You have to log in to see the link (use "zpdemo" twice to try it at the demo site). The "Chat Room" link is available from the main page. You can open the chat room in the current tab,  or open a new browser tab or window for it. The chat room itself is very basic, allowing you to exchange real-time messages with anyone else who logs into the same site. It's fun to use but I'm not sure yet how practical it will prove to be. This is one of those features I'm throwing out there and hoping customers can tell me how it can be used to their benefit. If you've got ideas for using this feature, let us hear them.

Customer Web Site Maintenance

I am slowly doing some maintenance to our Customer Support Web Site. One of the changes I am attempting to incorporate along the way is a tag that tells users which version of ZonePro a given item is relevant to. I'm adding (ZP32) to those items that only apply to ZonePro 32, or (ZP32 & ZPSQL) to items that apply to both ZonePro 32 and ZonePro SQL users. You get the idea. You can look at the Scripts page or Training Videos page to see it in action.