AyaNova 7.2.0.0 has been released.  The HaveAByte Hosted Demo is now running 7.2 and ready to show you all of its new features, including:

• Dashboard for at a glance overview - see more details in the online Help documentation http://www.ayanova.com/AyaNova7webHelp/dashboard.htm
• Localize on the fly from within entry screens - see more details at http://www.ayanova.com/AyaNova7webHelp/customize_an_existing_locale_o.htm
• Show all.. to easily bring up service workorders, quotes, PM's and units via the client entry screen; via the unit entry screen; and via the service workorder entry screen - see more details at http://www.ayanova.com/AyaNova7webHelp/listing_all_workorders_for_a_s.htm

The Dashboard:

Remember, if you're running a hosted AyaNova database with HaveAByte, upgrade work is performed free (note this has no relation to upgrade license costs).

Our hosted system upgrades occur by request only between 7-9 PM Pacific Time and must be scheduled with HaveAByte and require a minimum of 8 hours advance notice.  If the entire 7-9 maintenance window is full of upgrades and if yours must be rescheduled, you will be contacted ASAP.

More information about AyaNova is available in our AyaNova menu at the top of this page, and at http://www.ayanova.com.

We're pleased to announce that our service is now AyaNova 7 ready!  

AyaNova 7 uses the .NET 4.0 framework for the application pool with Integrated managed pipeline mode, and it's running great on our cutting edge Windows 2008 servers.

Below is a snapshot from the AyaNova help file listing what's new in AyaNova 7.  To see the original page, click here:  http://ayanova.com/AyaNova7webHelp/index.html?how_is_ayanova_7_different_fro.htm 

Management / special features

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*NEW: Signature capture - If you have MBI or WBI and a supported browser you can now capture your clients signature *onsite* with no special hardware or software and print the signature image on service work order reports.  This feature has been widely requested for some time and we've really wanted to do it however it wasn't until just recently with the prevalence of the modern HTML 5 compatible web browser that we were able to offer a practical solution.

*NEW: Signature capture customize text - to go with the signature capture feature we've added global settings so you can set what the customer sees on the signature formin three different areas.

*NEW: Client notifications - Previously you could send a notification to a customer if their work order's status had changed to a specific value.  People loved this feature but wanted to do it for more than one status and so we've changed that area to a grid that allows you to select as many status changes as you wish. For example, you might want your client automatically emailed a client claim receipt report when workorder is accepted for service - so have a specific workorder status created for that; you might want the client automatically emailed when need their approval before continuing - so have a specific workorder status for that;  so many possibilities!

*NEW: Client notifications - New type of client notification when a Quote for a client is set to a certain status the client can automatically be emailed with a customizable message and copy of the quote report.  For those that do a lot of quoting this can be a *HUGE* time saving feature.

*NEW: User notification on quote created / updated - Your AyaNova users can subscribe to be notified when a quote is created / updated. Schedule service as soon as possible to maintain revenue by being notified as soon as a quote is created or updated.

*IMPROVED: Unit display formats - More name display options for those that wish to include more information in their reports regarding the unit - for example, not just the serial number but also the vendor, model number and model name.

*IMPROVED: Notification system - Now problems with notification delivery via SMTP display a better error message simplifying troubleshooting email notification delivery.

*IMPROVED: Wiki pages last edit auditing - The wiki page now features the record history button like all other objects in AyaNova making it easy to see who last edited and when.

*NEW: Quote workorder status added - A total of six different quote statuses are now available. As always, you can localize to what works best for your company, as the text used is just an example.

*NEW: Part inventory adjustments grid - Expanding your inventory management abilities, the new Part Adjustments Items grid is where you can easily and quickly filter and sort as needed to obtain reports on parts manually brought into inventory.

*NEW: Part inventory adjustments grid - Now you can print a detailed style report right from the grid for multiple items.  Previously you could only print a detailed report from the individual adjustment item form.

*CHANGE: Object.Workorder removed - simplifies security group settings. Do note if use WBI Client access, make sure to check your WBI Client security group settings

*NEW: WBI Client interface - You can now specify individual custom html fragments to display at the top and bottom of all WBI forms viewed by your customers.  This allows you to, for example, put a logo and contact information on all your WBI pages viewed by your customers.

*NEW: WBI Client interface - You can now optionally allow clients to view the wikipage of their service work orders.  This is useful if, for example, you provide a report to the client as part of the service you provide and want to attach it to the workorder and have them view it directly from thier WBI client login.

*NEW: Uninstall now gives the option to completely remove the database files.  Don't worry it double checks with the user before doing so and you all backup regularly anyway right? :)

Performance

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*IMPROVED: AyaNova speed improvement - A caching improvement means objects are opened faster when they are used more than once.  For example a workorder or report will open much faster the second and subsequent times.

*IMPROVED: AyaNova now uses the .net 4 framework, this is the latest version of the .net framework from Microsoft and is the foundation upon which AyaNova runs.  Amongst many internal improvements, the new framework ensures the best possible speed and stability of AyaNova at it's foundations.

*IMPROVED: Installation of web interfaces - Due to the .net 4 framework, installation of WBI and MBI is  simplified.

*IMPROVED: All user interface and reporting components used in AyaNova have been upgraded to their latest stable versions taking advantage of speed and usability improvements. Some examples are the custom filter screen, and that the scripts in report designer now all displayed together as now need to go hunting to find which labels or bands has scripts.

Plugins

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*NEW: Import Export CSV plugin simplified - Big usability improvement and time saver: now you no longer have to have your import data csv file for clients or parts or units in a predefined order, you can simply select which of your columns in your CSV file import into which fields into AyaNova right in the plugin itself.

*NEW: Plugins from the grid - The plugin menu is now available in main grid right click context menu. This means for example that you can now export a client record right from the main grid list saving having to open records one by one to operate on them.

*NEW: QBI QuickBooks plugin - Can now choose to invoice workorders for the same customer individually.  This was requested for those that need to have a single work order per invoice rather than the default method of QBI which is to group as many workorders per invoice as possible.

Ease of use

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*NEW: Work order form header area customization - Major new feature allows you to hide fields and labels in the work order header area.  *Many* of you have asked for the ability to hide unused fields on the work order form, now you can do that easily with a few clicks right in the work order form itself simplifying the work order form for your staff.

*NEW: Work order form sub section area customization - Major new feature allows you to hide entire subsections on the work order form (Expenses, Loans etc) that you don't use in your company.  This will simplify input and entry for your staff.

*NEW: Date and time fields time picker control - Many people have asked for a drop down time picker control in AyaNova like we added to WBI as it's a fantastic time saver, we couldn't find one that was suitable so we wrote our own.  It's simple and effective.  The new drop down time picker component in AyaNova will save your staff a *lot* of time entering data in AyaNova.

*NEW: Work order form default start time - New global setting that is a big time saver and convenience for those that would like to set a default start time in new scheduled user records.

*NEW: Schedule form default date - AyaNova will "remember" the last time span you were viewing when you logged out and automatically go to it in a smart way: If you were last viewing the current day it will open on the current day.  If you were last viewing a specific time period outside of the current day it will open to that same time period saving you time having to navigate to that time period again.

*NEW: Schedule form default open or closed - AyaNova will default to the last setting used when you log out for the Open or Open and Closed workorders toggle button.

*IMPROVED: User name display formats - Now includes new options that include the Region name.  This means throughout AyaNova at a glance you can see what Region a user belongs to ensuring correct scheduling.

*IMPROVED: Schedule form user name column headings - Now the Schedule form column headings conform to the global setting for user name display formats.  This means you can not only view the user names in the format you choose but in conjunction with the new Region option for user name display formats you can include the region name making dispatching much easier.

*IMPROVED: Main grid form autorefresh - To always keep you up to date, AyaNova auto-refreshes the main grids approximately every 5 minutes. But for those that are working their way through a large list of records directly in a grid, you can now turn Auto-refresh off if needed.

*NEW: refresh selectable items in Global Settings - Can now refresh drop down lists such as Tax Codes  when editing via Global Settings without having to exit out of AyaNova and back in before able to see new entries.

*IMPROVED: Notification grid row resize - Messages in the notification delivery log grid are often multi line, before you could hover the mouse over to view all the lines but it wasn't ideal, now the rows can simply be resized bringing this grid into line with all the other main grids in AyaNova.

*NEW / IMPROVED: Popup notifications - Completely new user interface for popup notifications, now displays as a "billboard" that slides up in the lower right corner and slowly fades.  Hovering the mouse over it will keep it in view, clicking on it will open a detailed list of all popups.  Users of many other popular software applications will be immediately familiar with this style of interface.

*NEW: Main grids last row count default - AyaNova will now remember the setting last used for the number of rows to display in grids and automatically use that setting when you next log in.  This was a popularly requested feature. We originally put in the row filter to help people with slower equipment and larger databases however with all the speed improvements in AyaNova and in hardware and software platforms AyaNova runs on these days, for many users it's not as much of an issue and they just want to see all records always. This feature should alleviate that problem.

*NEW: Schedule form navigator bold dates - This is a very handy new feature: to make it easier to see at a glance what days in the month you have something scheduled without having to actually view that day, the date navigator now shows dates bolded that have one or more scheduled items.  We've wanted to do this for a while and this feature was now practical due to improvements in the underlying scheduling components.

*IMPROVED: Banked service hover display in workorder - Major improvement, now shows *exactly* which service bank is in effect for that particular item and the balance.  Takes into account whether a unit is selected with it's own service bank or if the client or head office service bank is in effect.  This will be a tremendous time saver to service people entering data in a service bank scenario.

*NEW: Schedule user - Now a warning displays if you attempt to schedule a technician for a client who is not visible to that technician due to differing regions.  No more accidentally scheduling a tech who is unable to view the scheduled item for that client.  Note that it does not prevent you from doing this, just warns you; some have requested that they still be able to do it for various reasons.

*NEW: Service workorder / Quote / PM - To help you make sure you see what quantity was quoted in a Quote or required in a PM, the Quantity Quoted or Quantity Required column in the Parts subsection of the generated workorder will now always display to the left - so no chance of accidentally missing the quantity required.

*IMPROVEMENT: Service workorder / Quote / PM - A work order generated from a quote or PM that has a serialized part quoted no longer requires you to delete the generated serialized part record then re-enter it to select a serial number, now you can just select the serial number right on the generated line.

*IMPROVEMENT: Service Workorder - A work order that has a unit meter reading attached to it was previously undeleteable.  Now when the work order is deleted if there is a unit meter reading it is deleted automatically as well allowing the work order to be deleted.

*IMPROVEMENT: Service workorder / Quote / PM - Print menu option in workorder entry screen set so that now you don't have to actually click on the drop down arrow, can just click on the menu option itself

*IMPROVEMENT: Service / Quote / PM Templates grids - With our continual improvement of design from the user's viewpoint, we have now included the ability to open the template by clicking on it's description in addition the previous method of clicking on it's number.

*NEW: Service workorder / Quote / PM - When generating a service work order from source quote or PM the WIKI page is automatically copied to the service work order as well which ensures that you are always getting all needed info with the generated service workorder.

*NEW: Service workorder / Quote / PM grids - If Custom Fields not enabled for workorder item, the Custom Fields grid will no longer display in the navigation pane

*IMPROVED: Login screen no longer always *on top* - the AyaNova login screen will no longer force itself to on top in front of existing other programs, which is useful if you are in the middle of working in something else and not yet ready to log in.

*NEW: WBI technician interface - Drop down list boxes - Now all drop down combo boxes in WBI feature the same time saving multi character auto complete feature as you've come to rely on in AyaNova.  This means you can quickly select an item from a drop down list by typing the first few letters.

*NEW: WBI Client interface - Unit serviced now displays in customer's WBI workorder list.

*NEW: WBI Client interface - Customer can now select a menu option to show open workorders only or all workorders

The AyaNova folks have released the following announcement:  We will be working hard to make our servers ready for this upgrade so that we can host AyaNova 7 as soon as possible!

As a registered user of AyaNova, we wanted to let you know that AyaNova 7 is now available!

Check out the many new features and improvements in AyaNova 7 - http://www.ayanova.com/AyaNova7webHelp/how_is_ayanova_7_different_fro.htm - from signature capture to improved import to additional customization options and so much more!

If the new features are to areas that you will use in AyaNova, then we highly encourage you to upgrade.

For answers to common questions about upgrading including charges to upgrade do review http://www.ayanova.com/FaqUpgrading.htm

If any questions after reviewing, do include a copy of your existing ayalog.txt file from your AyaNova program folder C:\Program Files\Ground Zero Tech-Works Inc\AyaNova or all the text from Help -> About AyaNova

Thank you,

Your AyaNova Support Team

Short version: A customer recently reported daily Ayanova disconnects with the cryptic error:   The underlying connection was closed: An unexpected error occurred on a receive. Some configuration changes were made to the server to mitigate this problem and we hope that it helps performance.  Some of the changes won't go through until tomorrow and you may have experienced an increased number of disconnects today.

Long version:

Prior to a full investigation, my gut told me to check on various timers and timeouts since the server may be terminating the connection prematurely.  When it comes to timers and timeouts, in IIS7 on Windows servers, there's a lot of them to be familiar with for sure.  A few were updated:

• Connection Time-Out under IIS7 webobject under Connection Limits:  Changed from 120 to 3600 seconds.  This governs when connetions are closed based on the period of time that connections are inactive.  This changes it from 2 minutes to one hour.
• Application pool worker process shutdown time limit:  Changed from 90 to 300 seconds.  This governs the amount of time allowed before a worker process will be shut down once it's launched.  Generally worker processes should be short lived, but over time they can take longer to complete (datasizes grow, more complex queries are built and it's waiting on the SQL server, etc.)  Changing this from 1.5 minutes to 5 minutes extremely generous.  This has to be kept somewhat low, however, to prevent out of control worker processes from monopolizing server resources for too long - there's a point when it's clear that it won't ever finish because something is wrong and it needs to be terminated, and that's what this does.

Applying these changes unexpectedly reset the application pools (the process which powers your AyaNova installation), you may have lost connection during this time - if so, I apologize (these changes occurred between 9:30 AM and 12 PM today.)  I am holding off on any further adjustments now that I know the app pools may be reset, until the scheduled maintenance period of 7 PM - 9 PM PST (which admittedly I should have done in the first place - the general policy is "don't touch the servers outside of the maintenance periods unless it's an emergency."

Of course, whenever there is an error, a proper investigation is warranted.   There is some good information here about this error:

http://geekswithblogs.net/denis/archive/2005/08/16/50365.aspx

This discussion suggests a few things:  .NET software bugs, choice of HTTP version by the application, and has one suggested workaround of disabling KEEPALIVE which increases the total number of connections potentially sevenfold.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;915599

This page suggests :

"This error occurs when the server or another network device unexpectedly closes an existing Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection. This problem may occur when a time-out value on the server or on the network device is set too low. To resolve this problem, see resolutions A, D, E, F, and O."

Resolution A is to update the .net framework - the server version is slightly out of date as is often the case since updates are released often and reboots to install them are avoided until sufficient updates stack up pressuring a reboot.  A reboot will be performed tonight to push these updates through.

Resolution D is to disable keepalives.  I'm familiar with this setting and I'm not ready to do this without doing a performance impact analysis first.  I will study this throughout the week when time permits inside the maintenance window and try to come to a decision soon on this.  Microsoft's suggestions to fix problems are sometimes drastic without even bothering to mention the sometimes severe performance penalties.

Resolution E is to "set the ServicePointManager.MaxServicePointIdleTime property to less than the time-out value of the server keep-alive connection".  The property they talk about is in the code of AyaNova, so I need to find out what that is, but the server keep-alive connection value it refers to is, I am 99.9% sure, the same as the Connection Timeout listed above which has already been changed from 90 seconds to one hour, so I think there's a very good chance this property is now below that.

Resolution F is to increase the connection timeout, which has already been done.

Resolution O is to "make sure that the client computer does not send the HTTP 100-Continue header."  I will have to examine the AyaNova protocol stream or check with the developers to see if this is the case.

AyaNova 6.5 has been released:

As a registered user of AyaNova, we wanted to let you know that we have released the maintenance update 6.5.0.0 as well as let you know about our newest feature

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Ad-hoc reporting - add data to reports via API methods!

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New feature of AyaNova 6.5 brings the full power of the AyaNova business object library into the existing scripting language behind AyaNova reports allowing for nearly complete freedom to insert any ad-hoc information into reports from any area of AyaNova.

For example, a detailed service workorder report template could be extended using the API to include displaying the Unit's custom fields data.

Check out the Help section

http://www.ayanova.com/AyaNova6webHelp/accessing_additional_data_fiel.htm for an overview and the AyaNova Support Forum section http://forum.ayanova.com/Forum101-1.aspx for examples

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Maintenance update 6.5.0.0 now available!

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As always, check out what fixes and new features are in this maintenance update by viewing on the forum  - see topic http://forum.ayanova.com/Topic5256-96-1.aspx

If the fixes and new features are to areas that you use in AyaNova, than we highly encourage you to update as per the steps (if AyaNova Lite refer to http://forum.ayanova.com/Topic5254-96-1.aspx or if full AyaNova refer to http://forum.ayanova.com/Topic5255-96-1.aspx )

If you have not yet upgraded to AyaNova 6 from an older version, do review the answers to common upgrading questions on http://www.ayanova.com/FaqUpgrading.htm including checking out all of the many new and expanded features and plug-ins that will help you manage your service efficiently and effectively.

If any questions, do let us know

Thank you,

Your AyaNova Support Team