Upgrading from ProblemTracker Versions 4.1 - 4.1.1 to 5.5.1
Before downloading ProblemTracker Enterprise Edition Version 5.5.1 (PTEE 5.5.1) or ProblemTracker Version 5.5.1 (Standard Edition), please review the information in the following sections:
Introducing ProblemTracker Enterprise Edition (PTEE)
ProblemTracker Enterprise Edition is a new product offered in addition to the standard product, ProblemTracker. ProblemTracker Enterprise Edition includes all of the features available in the standard product as well as two additional features: Alerts and Discussion.
License Requirements for PTEE Version 5.5.1 and ProblemTracker Version 5.5.1
In order to upgrade to Version 5.5.1, your Software Updates and Support (SUS) subscription must be active (or must have been active through August 15, 2003).
PTEE 5.5.1 and ProblemTracker 5.5.1 require new license keys. Your version 4 license keys will not work with version 5.5.1. You should already have Version 5 license keys. They were sent to you via email when Version 5 was released or when you most recently renewed your SUS subscription. One additional license key was added in version 5.5, the "Inet Page" key. If your SUS subscription was active through August 15, 2003, the additional Inet Page key has already been sent to your company via email. If you have not received your Inet Page key, please contact NetResults Technical Support. Please, do not upgrade to 5.5.1 unless you have your version 5 license keys as well as your version 5.5 Inet Page license key. Your upgraded system will be disabled until you enter these license keys.
If you are not sure when your SUS subscription expired, enter your current Static or Floating license key information on the PT 5.5.1 Support Download page. Once you submit your information a page will be displayed with your SUS subscription expiration date.
If your SUS subscription is current, but you wish to upgrade to Enterprise Edition, you can place an order online using the Upgrade to Enterprise Edition order form.
If your SUS subscription is not current, you can renew it online using the ProblemTracker SUS Renewal order form. After renewing your SUS subscription, you can, optionally, also upgrade to Enterprise Edition using the Upgrade to Enterprise Edition order form. If you have any questions regarding your subscription, please contact NetResults Sales.
New Features
For a more detailed list of new features and fixes in 5.5.1, click here.
System Requirements for ProblemTracker Version 5.5.1
NOTE: ProblemTracker now requires JScript 5.5 or greater to be installed on the ProblemTracker server, therefore, you may need to install the Windows Script 5.5 (or greater) engine. If you have already installed Internet Explorer 5.5 (or greater) on your web server machine, you already have Windows Script 5.5 (or greater) installed. Otherwise, please install/upgrade to Internet Explorer 5.5 (or greater) or browse to the Windows Script Download page, download and install the Microsoft Windows Script Engine.
NetResults ProblemTracker 5.5.1 has the following requirements. Listed first are the requirements for use of multinationalization features (languages other than western European languages). Multinationalization features require newer versions of web browsers and web servers as many international web features have only recently been supported (and many standards are in fact still "in progress" in this area). Listed second are the requirements if you do not require multinational support. If any of the required software listed below is not installed on your server machine (or if you do not know if it is installed), click here for instructions on how to verify that you have the appropriate software, links to download the software, and instructions on how to install it.
Multinationalization
General System Requirements
In order to use Multinationalization options (support of Non-Latin1 languages):
Latin1 languages include the following - Basque, Catalan, Danish, English, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish. If you plan to use a language other than one (or more) of those listed above, your system requires the following.
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Client Requirements:
Server Requirements:
Optional Database Support: In addition to the included support for Microsoft Access, ProblemTracker can be used with the following database systems:
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If any of the required software listed above is not installed on your server machine (or if you do not know if it is installed), click here for instructions on how to verify that you have the appropriate software, links to download the software, and instructions on how to install it.
General System Requirements (if not using Multinationalization):
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Client Requirements:
Server Requirements:
Optional Database Support: In addition to the included support for Microsoft Access, ProblemTracker can be used with the following database systems
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If any of the required software listed above is not installed on your server machine (or if you do not know if it is installed), click here for instructions on how to verify that you have the appropriate software, links to download the software, and instructions on how to install it.
Known Issues in ProblemTracker Version 5.5.1
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Upgrade Preparation
This section provides information about changes and new features in Version 5.5.1 and how to enable them in your installation.
JScript 5.5 or greater now required for use with ProblemTracker Version 5.5.1
ProblemTracker now requires JScript 5.5 or greater to be installed on the ProblemTracker server, therefore, you may need to install the Windows Script 5.5 (or greater) engine. If you have already installed Internet Explorer 5.5 (or greater) on your web server machine, you already have Windows Script 5.5 (or greater) installed. Otherwise, please install/upgrade to Internet Explorer 5.5 (or greater) or browse to the Windows Script Download page, download and install the Microsoft Windows Script Engine.
Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 6a now required for use with ProblemTracker Version 5.5.1
If you have installed ProblemTracker on a Windows NT 4.0 machine, Service Pack 6a is now required for use with ProblemTracker Version 5.5.1. This will allow you to take advantage of the bug fixes related to IIS 4.0 and security. Service Pack 6a can be downloaded from Microsoft at: http://www.microsoft.com/ntserver/nts/downloads/recommended/SP6/allSP6.asp
Ensure your machine is prepared with the necessary components before upgrading to ProblemTracker 5.5.1 by reviewing the Preparation for Installing ProblemTracker section of the Online Help document.
Getting to Know ProblemTracker 5
Probably the best way to "test drive" the new features of ProblemTracker 5 is to make use of the default workgroup (pteval) which is optionally installed along with ProblemTracker 5. To login to this workgroup, select Start->Programs->NetResults ProblemTracker 5->ProblemTracker Eval Version->Login Page, and enter Admin as the username and password. This workgroup is configured with the template you select during the installation setup program. The data in the workgroup is what you would get by using the Add operation in the Workgroup Management System. You can use this as a test bed when reviewing the features described below. You can install this on a test system (test system use limited to 15 days).
AutoFill
ProblemTracker can be configured to collect basic information about your end user's machine and automatically fill this information in on the Add page when they add records to ProblemTracker. The AutoFill feature can collect details such as operating system, browser, and IP Address. You can enable this feature for Text and URL type fields in the Edit Field Attributes section of a field. Details can be found in the Customizing the Data Record section of the Administrative Help Guide
Home Page Improvements
The Home Page can now display a 3rd report and any of the reports on the Home Page can display a Saved Chart (if the user has the Metrics privilege). To display a third report on the Home Page or to display a saved chart as one of the reports for an individual user, click on the Preferences link in the upper right corner of the Home Page, make selections for First, Second, or Third Home Page Report fields, then click OK. To choose a report to be displayed as the Third Home Page Report or to display a saved chart for any new users added to the workgroup, make a selection for the First, Second, or Third Home Page Report fields in the User Preferences section of the workgroup's Admin page.
A pulldown is available for each of the Home Page reports to dynamically change the report or chart displayed to any other Saved Query or Saved Chart that is available to the user.
Paging is now available for saved charts displayed on the Home Page. As such, you may wish to suggest that your users take a look at their Maximum Records setting in the Report Settings section of their Preferences (click Preferences link on the Home Page) and consider lowering it if it is above 20. When there was no paging on the Home Page, some users raised this value to 100. With paging now available, they may want to lower it down so that their browser can display the home page more quickly. If you have raised this setting for newly added users in the User Preferences section of your workgroups Admin page, you may also wish to lower it back so that newly added users start with 20 as a default.
Required Fields
In previous versions, Product, Integer, and Float fields could not be set to force a user to make a selection or enter data before adding a new record. These fields can now be set as "Required" on the Add page such that a user has to make a selection or enter data before adding a new record. This field property can be configured in the Define Records section of the Admin page
Field Help
You can enter information to be used as "Field Help" to provide a description about a field for your end users. You enter the field help description in the Edit Field Attributes section of each field in Define Record. To allow users to access the Field Help, check the box for "Field Help" in a individual's Preferences section or in the Default User Preferences applied to new users.
Add Page
The difference between "Add & Copy" and "Add"
In ProblemTracker 5, there are 2 ways to add a new record.
Option 1: Use the "Add" button to save a new record
Option 2: Use the "Add & Copy" button to save a new record
Creating a new record using this method will save the new record, then the Add page will be reloaded with some fields keeping the same value as was entered in the record you just saved. The Add page is set in this way so that it is ready for you to create another record. This is useful in cases where multiple records need to be added with similar information to be assigned to different departments, projects, or versions. You can customize which fields are saved for the next added record by editing the field attributes in the Define Record section of the Administration page.
Metrics
The Summary (Charts & Graphs) section has been changed to Metrics. The Metrics page allows you to create saved charts for personal use and user groups. Saved Charts can also be run based on the results of a Saved Query to limit the data set. Access to the Metrics page and the ability to save group charts and chart layouts are privileges that are enabled for the Users group by default. To change the privileges related to Metrics, please refer to the User Group Privileges section of the Administrative Help Guide. For more details on using the new Metrics features, please review the Metrics section of the User Help Guide.
Workflow Changes
When the Status field is displayed on the Add page, you can restrict the states that are displayed by using the Allowed Add State option in the Workflow Properties. This allows the user to select a state on the Add page from a list of relevant choices for the Product selected rather than from all states.
A new option has been added in "New Assignee" for transitions. The "LoginUser" (the user currently logged into ProblemTracker who selected the transition on the Task page) can be set as the "New Assignee" of a transition. This is useful in situations where a user needs to assign a record to his or her self (e.g. the record is currently assigned to TBD or another user).
The ability to configure "read-only" task fields is available in ProblemTracker 5. This allows a field that cannot be modified to be displayed during the task operation. Date fields can be configured as "read-only", initialized task fields. This allows a date field to be initialized (set with the current date & time) during the task operation, but cannot be modified by the user. More information on "read-only" task fields can be found in the Workflow Transitions section of the Administrative Help Guide.
General Preferences
In version 5.0, the General Preference "Restrict Task Operation to Current Assignee" was enabled by default to prevent users from performing the Task operation on records in which they were not the current Assignee (the user listed in the "Assigned To" field). This General Preference has been changed to be a user group privilege called "Task Assigned Records". When this privilege is enabled for a user group, the members of the user group can only task records in which they are listed as the current Assignee. If your workgroup had the General Preference "Restrict Task Operation to Current Assignee" set to "Yes", all user groups which previously had the Task privilege will be given the privilege "Task Assigned Records" after upgrading to the latest version. If your workgroup had the preference "Restrict Task Operation to Current Assignee" set to "No", all user groups which previously had the Task privilege will be given the privileges "Task Assigned Records" and "Task All Records" after upgrading to the latest version. That way your workgroup will operate as it did before the upgrade. However, if you prefer to give this privilege only to select User Groups, you may now do so.
When the Assigned To field is displayed on the Add page, you can remove "State Manager" from being displayed as an option for this field. To remove "State Manager" set "Include 'State Manager' on the Assignee List on Add operation" to No in the General Preferences section of the workgroup's Admin page. Rather than the single special value State Manager being displayed, the system will instead dynamically change the Assigned To field value to the State Manager for the currently selected Product and Status (so as a user changes the Product and/or Status fields, the value of the Assigned To field will change to the appropriate State Manager).
User Group Privileges
The privilege called "Task Records in States:" has been added to allow a user group to task records in a particular state(s). This privilege is useful in situations where records are assigned to "TBD" and need to be processed using the Task operation. This privilege allows users to Task records in a limited set of states rather than only being able to Task records where they are the current assignee or being able to task any record in the system. By default no users will have this privilege when your system is upgraded, but you may wish to add it after upgrade.
A privilege called "Task All Records" has been added to allow a user group to task any record in the database. This privilege is useful in situations where records are assigned to "TBD" and need to be processed using the Task operation, but should not be limited to only task records in which they are the current assignee or records that are in particular states. After upgrade, if you had set "Restrict Task Operation to Current Assignee" to "No", this privilege will be given to all User Groups that had the Task privilege (to maintain backward compatibility). However, after upgrade, you may wish to limit this privilege to select User Groups (or perhaps add it to some that do not have it).
User Account Changes
In ProblemTracker 5, users for all workgroups are now managed in a central interface in the Workgroup Management System. This interface is called the License Administration section. In previous versions of ProblemTracker, a user could be added and edited within an individual workgroup. If the same user was a member of multiple workgroups, that user would need to be maintained in each of those workgroups. With the License Administration section, a user's account can be maintained in one location that updates all workgroups. Within each workgroup, a user can be assigned to user groups as in previous versions.
If you are using (or plan to use) multinational workgroups in ProblemTracker, any users with a User Id that contains double-byte or other special characters that are only supported in the UTF-8 character set (Unicode), can only be used in a workgroup with UTF-8 selected as the character set. For more information about choosing a character set for a workgroup, please review the Adding a Workgroup section of the Workgroup Management System Help Guide.
When upgrading a workgroup to ProblemTracker 5, you will be prompted to upgrade your users. If you are upgrading multiple workgroups to ProblemTracker 5 and have user accounts that belong to more than one workgroup (excluding the built-in users Admin, Inet, TBD), you may be prompted to resolve "User Conflicts". User Conflicts are instances where a user id appears in more than one of your workgroups, but has different profile information (email address, phone number, address, etc.). You will be asked to resolve the conflict by selecting the profile information that should be saved for the user account. If you are using multiple workgroups, it is possible that you have a user account with the same user id in multiple workgroups. Upon upgrade to Version 5, these user accounts with the same user id will be merged into a single user account. If you do not wish for these multiple accounts to be merged during the upgrade, before upgrading please rename the user accounts such that they no longer have the same user id.
If you choose to install the evaluation workgroup (pteval) during the installation setup program, a set of default users will be created in the License Administration section. These default users may cause you to exceed the number of users allowed based on your license key(s) if you have other users defined in your workgroup(s). For example, if you have a license key for 5 static users. You have one workgroup with 5 users defined and choose to install the pteval workgroup. After upgrading your workgroup to the latest version. you will have your original 5 users + 6 default users created for use in the pteval workgroup. You can use the Delete User operation to delete the 6 default users. Examples of these default users are "dev_mgr", "help_mgr", "sup_one", etc. After deleting the default users, your original users can still use the pteval workgroup. Simply give your original users access to the pteval workgroup by using the Edit User Access operation.
Please review the License Administration section of the Workgroup Management System (WMS) Help Guide for details about adding and maintaining users in ProblemTracker.
If you have any two (or more) user accounts (within a single workgroup or in different workgroups) where the User IDs differ only by case (for example, one user account has the User ID "johnsmith" and another user account has the User ID "JohnSmith"), you should change the User IDs until no two differ only by case. It is possible to make these changes as a part of the upgrade process (using the Upgrade Users operation referenced in the upgrade instructions below), but it is generally easier to do this in advance of upgrade. To make this change, do one of the following for each set of user accounts with User IDs that differ only by case.
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Other User Account Changes and Self Registration
You can configure the Workgroup Management System to allow workgroup Administrators to edit the user account information in the User Administration section can be enabled in the Workgroup Management System. Details on enabling this option can be found in the User License Administration Options section of the WMS Help Guide.
The option to allow users to update their own account information such as email address and phone number is available. To enable this option, grant the privilege "Edit Own User Account" to the relevant user groups in the User Group Privileges section. Members of user groups with this privilege enabled can update their account information by clicking on the Account Info link in the upper right corner of the Home Page.
A new feature has been added to allow user names that appear on the Home, Query, and View pages to appear as clickable links. When clicking on a user name on these pages, a separate window will be displayed with the user's account information. This feature is only enabled by default for the Admin group. To allow other user groups to use this feature, enable the user group privilege called "View User Information" for these user groups. This can be done in the User Administration section of the workgroup.
Users can now select the character used as the field (value) separator, character(s) used as row (record) separator, and file extension when exporting data from the Query, Home, and Metrics pages. Information to help users make an appropriate selection can be found in the Preferences section.
Users can create a new user account using the Self Registration feature. You can enable this feature using the information on the Self Registration section of the Admin Help Guide.
The "Customer" user type has been renamed to be "External".
Email Notification
Email notification preferences can now be pushed to all products in a single operation. If you have many products that all use the same email notification rules, you may wish to use this feature when you update the email rules.
The email notification messages triggered by operations in ProblemTracker now include customizable items such as Subject, Greeting, and Signature. Please review the Setting Notification Preferences section of the Administrative Help Guide for details on customizing these new items. You can also restrict which of these new items are included in the emails to each user group via User Group Privileges. After upgrade, the content of email notifications will remain the same. However, you may wish to customize the rules to better fit your use of ProblemTracker. Also, if you had users that got too many duplicate emails, you may wish to try to merge (delete) some email rules. With version 5.5.1, a single email rule will not send more than one email to a user even if they are specified multiple times on the Notification List (e.g. if they happen to be the Assignee, State Manager, and Reporter for a particular record).
In previous versions, the option whether to include a hyperlink in the email notification messages was available in the Email Configuration section. This has been changed to be a user group privilege called "Link" in the Email privileges. If the option "Include hyperlink in notification emails to view the record" was set to "Yes", the "Link" Email privilege will be enabled for all user groups after upgrading your workgroup to the latest version to maintain backward compatibility. To change privileges granted to a user group, please review the User Group Privileges Help section.
In previous versions, the URL included in the email notification messages was based on the host name, IP address, and port information entered while running the ProblemTracker installation setup program. The URL included in the email notification messages will now be based on the host name, IP Address, and port number details entered for a workgroup. To check this information for a workgroup, refer to the Viewing a Workgroup section of the Workgroup Management System Help Guide.
You can set ProblemTracker to use authentication when generating email notification messages. Details on enabling authentication can be found in the Set the Mail Server Configuration section.
Query Page
When running an ad-hoc query on the Query page, the report layout can be dynamically selected using the Report Layout pulldown at the top of the page (under the Run Query button). This option used to be at the bottom of the page. It still functions in the same manner, it has just been moved.
When you select a Saved Query from the Saved Queries bar, the Report Layout displayed in the Report Layouts bar will change to the Report Layout associated with the (newly selected) Saved Query. This allows your users to easily determine which Report Layout is associated with a Saved Query and/or Edit that Report Layout. Additionally, divider entries have been added to the Saved Queries pulldown to clearly separate Standard Saved Queries (divider label is "-------- Standard --------") from Advanced Saved Queries (divider label is "------- Advanced -------"). There will be no Advanced divider label if a user does not have access to any Advanced Saved Queries.
Workgroup Administrators can now create and edit saved queries and report layouts for all user groups without having to be a member of every user group. To add or remove the Admin user from a user group, please review the User Groups Help section.
Edit Page
The Edit Page still has the same operations; however, the Edit Attachments and Edit Alert buttons have been replaced with icons that have more complete descriptions of each operation as tool tip text (help text that pops up when the mouse is moved over the icon). These same icons are used on the View page when displaying lists of Attachments and Alert Settings. Also, the OK button on the Edit page has been renamed to "Update Fields (OK)" to more clearly describe what is done when the OK button is clicked (the fields in the record are updated with the values displayed on the Edit page). Clicking the button performs the same operation as it did in version 5.0, only the button name (label) has been changed.
Inet Page
The Inet Page (Customer Bug Page) can now enabled or disabled in the General Preferences section of the workgroup. By default, the Inet Page is enabled for all upgraded workgroups to maintain backward compatibility. To disable the Inet Page, login to the workgroup as Admin, click on the Admin icon, click on the General Preferences button, set the option "Enable Inet Page" to "No", then click OK to save this change. More information about this feature can be found in the Inet Page section of the Admin Help Guide.
Workgroup Management System (WMS)
In previous versions, an option to enable / disable remote access to WMS was available. This option has been removed. To enable or disable remote access to WMS, please use the instructions in the WMS Security FAQ entry.
ProblemTracker Enterprise Edition Version 5.5.1 (PTEE 5.5.1) Features
If you are simply upgrading to ProblemTracker Version 5.5.1 (standard edition) without purchasing PTEE 5.5.1, click here to skip this section. If you have purchased license(s) for ProblemTracker Enterprise Edition Version 5.5.1 (PTEE 5.5.1), please review the information in the following section:
Alerts (PTEE 5.5.1)
The Alerts feature is included in PTEE 5.5.1. Alerts allows you to schedule a notification message to be sent for a record at a particular date and time. These alert messages can be used as reminders to take action on a record or can be used to escalate a record which has not progressed through the workflow. To set up the Alerts feature after your upgrade to PTEE 5.5.1, please review the Customizing Alerts section of the Online Help document.
Discussion (PTEE 5.5.1)
The Discussion feature is included in PTEE 5.5.1. Discussion allows you to initiate discussions within a record in ProblemTracker. These discussions allow your users to collaborate on various topics relevant to a record in parallel to the record's progress through the workflow. To set up the Discussion feature after your upgrade to PTEE 5.5.1, please review the Customizing Discussions section of the Online Help document.
Additional Options to Add to Your ProblemTracker Installation
For information on purchasing the following options, contact NetResults Sales.
Knowledge Base
ProblemTracker has a Knowledge Base feature available. This feature will allow you to create and publish articles that can be searched by your end users.
Add API
An API is available to add records to ProblemTracker from external applications.
Adding Records via Email
ProblemTracker has a feature which allows records to be added to ProblemTracker by sending an email.
Download Link and Upgrade Instructions
Download Information
Please browse to the ProblemTracker 5.5.1 Download Request page, enter the license information from your current ProblemTracker installation, enter your name & email address, and click the Request Download Link button. An email with a link you can use to download ProblemTracker 5.5.1 or ProblemTracker Enterprise Edition 5.5.1 will be sent to you.
Upgrade Instructions
Section 1 - Backup your ProblemTracker Installation
For Access Users:
For each of items below, a default path is listed. The "<installation directory>" mentioned in the path may be "C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\ProblemTracker" for Internet Information Server users. Or, it may be a value other than the default if the default was overridden in the original installation. Typically it is at the "root" of your (virtual) web site.
- Copy all ProblemTracker workgroup database files which are to be upgraded and archive the copies in a safe location. These files are shown below for a default installation.
<installation directory>\workgroup\Database\Bugtrack.mdb - Copy all ProblemTracker workgroup attachment files and archive the copies in a safe location. These files are located in the path (folder) shown below for a default installation.
<installation directory>\workgroup\Attachments
- Copy the Workgroup Management System database file. The default location is:
<installation directory>\ptadmin\Database\ptadmin.mdb - If you have customized the login page with your own html, you need to back up the corresponding files as well. These files are located in the path (folder) shown below for a default installation.
<installation directory>\workgroup\Include\loginbottom.inc
<installation directory>\workgroup\Include\logintop.inc
- If you have implemented any additional web server security measures on your ProblemTracker workgroups, this security will be altered after running the upgrade operation on each workgroup. Additional web server security includes the recommendations in the Web Server Security Help section or other measures recommended by your system administrator (e.g. SSL, etc.). You will need to re-apply this additional security after you have completed the upgrade operation on each workgroup.
For SQL Server 7.0 / 2000 or Oracle Users:
For each of items below, a default path is listed. The "<installation directory>" mentioned in the path may be "C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\ProblemTracker" for Internet Information Server users. Or, it may be a value other than the default if the default was overridden in the original installation. Typically it is at the "root" of your (virtual) web site.
- For each workgroup, you may backup SQL Server 7.0/2000 or Oracle databas(es) by using SQL Server or Oracle backup or data export operation. Backups may done to a hard disk as well as to tape. Please review your SQL Server or Oracle documentation for further information.
- Copy all ProblemTracker workgroup attachment files and archive the copies in a safe location. These files are located in the path (folder)
shown below for a default installation.
<installation directory>\workgroup\Attachments
- Copy the Workgroup Management System database file. This will in Access format even if your workgroup databases are SQL Server or Oracle databases. The default location is:
<installation directory>\ptadmin\Database\ptadmin.mdb
- If you have customized the login page with your own html, you need to back up the corresponding files as well. These files are located in the path (folder) shown below for a default installation.
<installation directory>\workgroup\Include\loginbottom.inc
<installation directory>\workgroup\Include\logintop.inc
- If you have implemented any additional web server security measures on your ProblemTracker workgroups, this security will be altered after running the upgrade operation on each workgroup. Additional web server security includes the recommendations in the Web Server Security Help section or other measures recommended by your system administrator (e.g. SSL, etc.). You will need to re-apply this additional security after you have completed the upgrade operation on each workgroup.
IMPORTANT NOTE FOR ALL USERS: It is REQUIRED that you either copy the database file(s) to a safe place (Access only) or perform a backup (Access, SQL Server or Oracle). UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES IS NETRESULTS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE LOSS OF ANY DATA AS THE RESULT OF THE INSTALLATION PROCESS.
Section 2 - Running the Installation Set up Program and Performing the Upgrade from Versions 4.1 - 4.1.1 to Version 5.5.1
- GO TO SECTION 1.0 ABOVE AND BACKUP ALL OF YOUR PROBLEMTRACKER DATABASES BEFORE PROCEEDING.
- ProblemTracker Version 5.5.1 requires a new license key. Your ProblemTracker Version 4 license key(s) will not function with ProblemTracker 5.5.1. Please do not install ProblemTracker Version 5.5.1 if you do not have your Version 5 License Keys. Installing Version 5.5.1 without your Version 5 keys may result in an inability to login to your workgroups (because you have more users than licenses entered) and / or unexpected changes to your users (floating users will be converted to static users if a floating license key is not entered). NetResults Sales will send you a Version 5 key if your support and upgrades subscription is current. Please contact NetResults Sales if you have licensing or subscription questions.
- Prior to installing ProblemTracker Version 5.5.1, please make sure all users are logged out of each workgroup(s). Failure to do this before installing Version 5.5.1 will result in your workgroups being "locked" because you will not be able to log the users out (because access to the previous version is denied until the workgroup is upgraded) and will not be able to proceed with the upgrade until the users are logged out.
- If you have any two (or more) user accounts (within a single workgroup or in different workgroups) where the User IDs differ only by case (for example, one user account has the User ID "johnsmith" and another user account has the User ID "JohnSmith"), you should change the User IDs until no two differ only by case. It is possible to make these changes as a part of the upgrade process (using the Upgrade Users operation referenced below), but it is generally easier to do this in advance of upgrade. To make this change, do one of the following for each set of user accounts with User IDs that differ only by case.
- If all user accounts are used by the same person (e.g. the User ID is someone's name), Edit all user accounts that differ by case to have the same User ID with the same case (e.g. change "JohnSmith" to "johnsmith"). To do this login as Admin to the Workgroup, click on the Admin icon, click on the User Administration button, click the Edit icon next to the user account to be modified, change the User ID, click OK.
- If all user accounts are used by different people (e.g. the User ID is something generic like "QA"), Edit all user accounts to have a different User ID. In other words, if three user accounts have a User ID that only differs by case, rename two of the three accounts. To do this login as Admin to the Workgroup, click on the Admin icon, click on the User Administration button, click the Edit icon next to the user account to be modified, change the User ID, click OK. Note: Only do this if you have sufficient licenses to cover the new user accounts (each account with a different User ID is counted as a separate user account and will count against your Static and/or Floating license limits on user accounts).
- Temporarily disable any anti-virus software while you run the Version 5.5.1 installation program and perform configuration steps in the Workgroup Management System (WMS). This is recommended so that your anti-virus software will not prevent the installation program or WMS from performing operations such as copying files, running scripts, configuring your web server, setting file permissions and registry entries. Your anti-virus software can be reactivated safely after you have completed the installation steps and any necessary WMS configuration.
- This procedure assumes that you are installing ProblemTracker Version 5.5.1 on the same machine where you have ProblemTracker 4 installed. If you are installing ProblemTracker Version 5.5.1 on a different machine than where you have ProblemTracker 4 installed, please review the following Version 5.x Move and Upgrade FAQ entry for instructions.
- Temporarily stop all IIS services while you run the Version 5.5.1 installation setup program. Running the installation setup program without stopping all IIS services will prevent you from receiving all of the necessary file updates included in this version.
- Please note that after running the ProblemTracker Version 5.5.1 installation setup program, you will not be able to access your Version 4.x workgroups until you complete the upgrade process for all workgroups. When ready, install ProblemTracker 5.5.1 or ProblemTracker Enterprise Edition 5.5.1 To do this, login to the web server machine as Administrator and then run (double-click from Windows Explorer) pbtrk551.exe (ProblemTracker 5.5.1) or ptee551.exe (ProblemTracker Enterprise Edition 5.5.1). Enter your license key(s) information by going to Start->Programs->NetResults ProblemTracker 5->ProblemTracker License Manager. When the installation setup program has finished, you will be asked to reboot your system.
Login to the Workgroup Management System (WMS) by going to Start->Programs->NetResults ProblemTracker 5->Workgroup Management System. To upgrade your workgroups, click on the Admin icon on the Button bar. Select the option "Upgrade Workgroups from versions 4.x / 5.x to ProblemTracker 5.5.1". A pulldown menu will contain the workgroups that need to be upgraded from Version 4.x to 5.5.1. Select a workgroup to be upgraded and click on the Upgrade Workgroup button, then click OK to confirm.
Once the workgroup files have been upgraded successfully, a confirmation page will be displayed. You will be prompted to upgrade the data for the workgroup. Click on the Continue button to proceed with upgrading your database. A confirmation page will be displayed with details about your database, click on the Upgrade Data button, then click OK to confirm the operation.
Once the database has been upgraded successfully, a confirmation page will be displayed. You will be prompted to upgrade your users. Click on the Upgrade Users button to proceed. Depending on the users you have in your workgroup and the number of workgroups you have, it is possible to have user conflicts that need to be resolved before you can upgrade your users. The conflicts arise because multiple workgroups have the same user id, but the user profile information (name, email address, etc.) is different in each workgroup. If a conflict exists for a particular user id, a "Yes" button will be present in the "User Details Conflict?" column. If all of the user ids listed display "No" in the "User Details Conflict?" column and there are no "Resolve" buttons in the "Action" column, proceed to step 11. If any user ids have "Yes" in the "User Details Conflict?" column, click on the "Resolve" button that appears in the "Action" column for the user account.
The next page will display the "Existing User Details" for the user id. This information is the profile information present in the Workgroup Management System for this workgroup because you have already upgraded a workgroup to 5.5.1 or you are using one of ProblemTracker's standard users (i.e., dev_mgr or process_mgr). The user account's profile information as entered in the workgroup you are upgrading will be displayed in the "Workgroup User Details" column. You can choose to do one of the following to resolve the user conflict:
- You can either select the user profile information present in one of the columns (by selecting either "Existing User Details" or "Workgroup User Details" in the pulldown at the top of the "Resolved User Details" column). Click on the Update button to proceed.
- You can select the user profile information present in one of the columns (by selecting either "Existing User Details" or "Workgroup User Details" in the pulldown at the top of the "Resolved User Details" column), then change any of the information you would like to save in the user's profile. Choosing this option will result in the user account being saved with the profile information entered in the "Resolved User Details" column. Click on the Update button to proceed.
You can create a new user account to resolve the conflict. To choose this option, select the user profile information present in one of the columns (by selecting either "Existing User Details" or "Workgroup User Details" in the pulldown at the top of the "Resolved User Details" column), then change the user id in the "Resolved User Details" column to be different from the user id displayed in the other columns. You cannot select a user id that is already in use by another workgroup or a user id that is the same as a default user (such as dev_one, dev_mgr, process_mgr, etc.). You may also change any other user profile information in the "Resolved User Details" column, then click on the Update button to create this new user account. This will resolve the user conflict and the existing user account already present in the Workgroup Management System (displayed in the "Existing User Details" column) will be preserved. This new user account will be counted toward the license limits for the keys you have entered in the ProblemTracker License Manager. Once you have renamed the user id and click on the Update button, you will not have another opportunity to change this user's profile information until after the "Upgrade Users" process is complete. After the users have been upgraded, you can use the Edit User option in the License Administration section of WMS to make changes to this user.
After making your selection and / or entering the user details in the "Resolved User Details" column, click on the Update button. Click on the "Resolve" button for another user to continue resolving the conflicts.
Users with "No" displayed in the "User Details Conflict?" column do not have a conflict present. If you wish to modify the profile information for a user which had a conflict resolved, click on the "Edit" button displayed in the "Action" column for the user account, select one of the options in the pulldown at the top of the "Resolved User Details" column to fill the user profile details in this column (the "Resolved User Details" choice will fill the column with the values that were saved for this user when the conflict was resolved), modify the profile information, then click Update to save your changes.
Repeat this step until all user conflicts have been resolved. All user conflicts are resolved when all users have "No" listed in the "User Details Conflict?" column and there are no longer any "Resolve" buttons in the "Action" column.
- Click on the Upgrade Users button. When the users have been upgraded, a confirmation page will be displayed. Click OK to return to the Administration Menu.
- Repeat steps 9 - 11 for each workgroup you have in the Workgroup Management System.
- Re-activate your anti-virus software and re-start IIS services.
Your system has now been upgraded to Version 5.5.1 for all workgroups.
Support Resources
If you have feedback or questions about this release, please contact NetResults Technical Support for assistance. An Online Help document is also available for this release. If you receive any errors during the installation, upgrade process, or while using ProblemTracker, please consult the Installation Errors section of the FAQ and/or the Known Issues section of this page.