Mobile Web Site Improvements

I swear that working with my smart phone is leading to the demise of my eyesight. I just finished some revamping of the Mobile web site for ZP SQL that makes it much easier to read and work with on my phone... and hopefully on yours as well. Because mobile units (by which I mean phones and tablets) come in so many shapes and sizes it is hard to tell how well the pages will look on ever device. The latest version has been updated for all existing customers so give it a try.

Apple Blocks Uploads

A customer pointed out to me that she could not upload Cover picture photos in the Staff web site from her iPhone. I researched the issue and learned that Apple blocks that kind of upload ability from any web site on their iPhone and iPad platforms. They simply do not allow access to the device's file structure via web sites. That means that the Cover picture upload option and the Photo database upload option won't work on Apple devices.

Community Link Option Added to Web Sites

I've added a new page to the Staff and Public ZP SQL web sites that can be customized for each customer to list links to other web sites. It is launched from a "Community Links" button so the idea is that customers can use this page to list links to their main community web site. I have added the page with that link (and a county link if relevant) to all current ZP SQL customers. Please review your ZP SQL web site and make sure you approve of the current links. If you have other links you wish to add to this page just e-mail me a list of the web addresses.

Typo In Building Documents

This morning I discovered a typo in the standard documents that come with the Building Module. The documents affected are the Inspection Details, Fee Details, and Screen Print documents. Each of these documents has a Contractor field and the field expression references the "contdetails" database. The problem is it is not plural and should be listed without the "s" as simply "contdetail". The typo occurs twice in the field expression and is easily corrected by opening the document via the Document Editor and removing the offending "s". Since their are five building databases this typo is present in 15 documents. The documents will print without correcting the error but will not correctly list a contractor's name. If you do not wish to correct the documents yourself you can download the batch of 15 from the Downloads page of our web site.

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.

Advanced Filter Delete Option

The Advanced Filter screen can be accessed from just about every report screen. It allows users to create custom reporting criteria. It has always had the option for users to save their favorite filters for easy re-use in the future. Previously, however, there was no way to delete obsolete saved filters. A new "Delete Filter" button resolves that issue. It works pretty much as you would expect. You load a saved filter for review and if you no longer have a need for it click on the "Delete Filter" button to delete it. Because the Advanced Filter screen is used by so many applications, I had to decide how to handle the security level needed to allow deletes. I settled on using the Property security access level to determine whether a user has permission to delete advanced filters. So in order to use this new feature you must have a Property security level of 1.