Adding and Subtracting from Date Field

ZP SQL handles dates differently than ZP 32. In ZP SQL all dates are stored in a long DATETIME format that includes both date information and time information. In ZP 32 all dates were stored a simple DATE format. If you want to perform calculations with dates in your ZP SQL reports or documents, you sometimes will need to convert the long DATETIME format to a simpler DATE format first. This is done with the function TTOD( ) - which stands for "Timestamp to Date." So if I want to add 30 days to the Violation Date my report expression would be: TTOD(vio_date) + 30.

Document Editor Text Block Video

I just created a short video that talks just about the process of creating and editing Text objects using the Document Editor. The Document Editor is one of the trickier tools to use in ZonePro so I figure every little tip helps.

Staff Web Page Noodling

I messed around with the various Building pages in the Staff Web site trying to get things more interlinked so that it would be even easier to use for inspectors in the field. So now a list of Pending Inspections shows every time you go to a Property record and then to its corresponding Building Results page. I also added a mapping option directly on the Inspections page so that you can get that info even if you bypass the Property page. I made a few other minor changes all with the intent of making it easier to navigate around and get to important information a variety of ways.

Fee Details in Fee Collection Report

Several of my Building Module customers told me that they submit a daily account report to their county showing all the fees collected. In coaching them through the process I always had to advise running two reports: one from the Fee Collection Report Screen for all the non-building fees, and one from the Building Fee Detail Report Screen for the building fees. This always appears confusing at first because the Fee Collection Report Screen does have the building databases listed on it. The problem is that it pulled only the fee total for each permit, not the individual fee details that make up the total. And when you want to break down the report by Account numbers, it is the individual fee details that matter for the building records. I have just posted an update to the Fee Collection Report Screen that solves this problem. There is a new check-box on that screen that allows you to pull Building Fee Details instead of totals for any given report. This means that you can produce one report that will sort by Account number all of the fees collected during the day (or any period). The download is available now through the Installed Modules Screen.

Security Training Video

I was reviewing the list of Training Videos on our web site and realized that some basic feature were not covered...such as the Security Module. So I have remedied at least that one. It is now posted for viewing. I also did some rearranging of that web page to hopefully make it easier to find videos of interest.

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.