NetResults

Before downloading ProblemTracker Enterprise Edition Version 5.5 (PTEE 5.5) or ProblemTracker Version 5.5 (Standard Edition), please review the information in the following sections

• New Features
• System Requirements
• Known Issues
• Upgrade Preparation
• Download Link and Upgrade Instructions

New Features

For a more detailed list of new features and fixes in 5.5, click here.

System Requirements for ProblemTracker Version 5.5

NetResults ProblemTracker 5.5 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.

Client Requirements:

• Any platform on which Internet Explorer (version 5.0 or greater) or Netscape (version 6.2 or greater) is available. 
• Microsoft Internet Explorer (version 5.0 or greater) or Netscape (version 6.2 or greater). 

Server Requirements:

• 450 MHz Intel Pentium III or compatible system (866 MHz Pentium III or faster recommended). 
• 128 MB RAM for Windows NT, 192 MB for Windows 2000 (256 MB recommended for Windows NT, 512 MB recommended for Windows 2000).
• 50 MB of disk space to install ProblemTracker with one workgroup, plus approximately 20 MB for each additional workgroup.
• Windows 2000 Server.
• Microsoft Internet Information Server 5.0 with Microsoft hotfix http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q294/8/31.ASP or Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 (which includes the hotfix).  This hotfix is required to address a known bug in the IIS support for the UTF-8 (Unicode) character set.
• Microsoft JET 4.0 Service Pack 5 or greater.  This is included in Windows 2000 Service Pack 2 and can be downloaded for earlier versions of Windows 2000.
• Visual SourceSafe 6.0 with Service Pack 5 or greater. This is only required if you wish to use the source code control integration features.

Optional Database Support:  

In addition to the included support for Microsoft Access, ProblemTracker can be used with the following database systems:

• Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 (Standard or Enterprise Edition)
• Microsoft SQL Server 2000 (Standard or Enterprise Edition)
• Oracle 8i (Standard or Enterprise Edition)
• Oracle 9i (Standard or Enterprise Edition)

General System Requirements (if not using Multinationalization):

Client Requirements:  

• Any platform on which either Netscape version 6.2 or greater, or Internet Explorer version 5.0 or greater is available. 
• Netscape version 6.2 or greater or Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5.0 or greater. 

Server Requirements:

• 450 MHz Intel Pentium III or compatible system (866 MHz Pentium III or faster recommended). 
• 128 MB RAM for Windows NT, 192 MB for Windows 2000 (256 MB recommended for Windows NT, 512 MB recommended for Windows 2000) 
• 50 MB of disk space to install ProblemTracker with one workgroup, plus approximately 20 MB for each additional workgroup.
• Windows NT Server 4.0 or Windows 2000 Server (Windows 2000 Server recommended). Windows NT Server 4.0 is not recommended for use with new ProblemTracker installations as Microsoft has announced that it is planning to discontinue support for Windows NT 4.0. In particular, non-security hot fixes will not be available after January 1, 2004.  Windows NT Server 4.0 is also not currently supported for the Add Record via Email and ProblemTracker API add-ons (purchased separately).  In addition to the Server operating systems listed above, you can also use Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP Professional for single user evaluation only. These Desktop operating systems can not be used for multi-user evaluations or deployment because the web server (IIS) on these operating systems severely restricts the number of concurrent connections (to the point where no more than 2 or 3 ProblemTracker users can browse to them at one time). Windows XP Professional is also not supported for use with an Oracle database.
• Microsoft Internet Information Server 4.0 or 5.0 (IIS 5.0 recommended).
• JScript 5.1 or greater.  This is included in Windows 2000 and Internet Explorer 5.5 or greater. It can also be downloaded and installed separately.
• Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) 2.5 or greater.  This is included in Windows 2000 and can be downloaded for Windows NT 4.0.
• Microsoft JET 4.0 Service Pack 5 or greater.  This is included in Windows 2000 Service Pack 2 and can be downloaded for Windows NT 4.0 and earlier versions of Windows 2000.
• Visual SourceSafe 6.0 with Service Pack 5 or greater. This is only required if you wish to use the source code control integration features.

Optional Database Support:

In addition to the included support for Microsoft Access, ProblemTracker can be used with the following database systems 

• Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 (Standard or Enterprise Edition)
• Microsoft SQL Server 2000 (Standard or Enterprise Edition)
• Oracle 8i (Standard or Enterprise Edition)
• Oracle 9i (Standard or Enterprise Edition)

Known Issues in ProblemTracker Version 5.5

• A bug prevents the use of UTF-8 characters in user account information (email addresses, street addresses, phone number, etc.) into Version 5.5 for new installations. If you need to use UTF-8 characters in user account information, you can get a workaround for this issue by contacting NetResults Technical Support.  

Upgrade Preparation

This section provides information about the new features in Version 5.5 and how to enable them in your installation (after performing the upgrade).

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.

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).  

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 Information and Self Registration

The ability 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.   

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, 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.

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 from an email message received from any non-licensed ProblemTracker user.  

Download Link and Upgrade Instructions

Download Information

Click here to download ProblemTracker Enterprise Edition Version 5.5 (PTEE 5.5).  Otherwise, click here for ProblemTracker Version 5.5 (standard edition).  If you are unsure of which version to use, download and install ProblemTracker Enterprise Edition as it includes all features in the standard edition and can be used to upgrade both ProblemTracker 5.0.2 and ProblemTracker Enterprise Edition 5.0.2.

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.

1. 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 
2. 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 
   
   
3. Copy the Workgroup Management System database file. The default location is:
   
   <installation directory>\ptadmin\Database\ptadmin.mdb
4. Copy the User Management database file. The default location is:
   
   <installation directory>\ptcommon\Database\ptcommon.mdb
5. 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
   
6. 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.

1. For each workgroup, you may backup SQL Server 7.0/2000 or Oracle database(s) 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.
2. 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 
   
   
3. 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
   
   
4. Copy the User Management database file. The default location is:
   
   <installation directory>\ptcommon\Database\ptcommon.mdb 
   
5. 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
   
6. 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 5.0 - 5.0.1 to Version 5.0.2

1. GO TO SECTION 1.0 ABOVE AND BACKUP ALL OF YOUR PROBLEMTRACKER DATABASES BEFORE PROCEEDING.
    
2. Prior to installing ProblemTracker Version 5.5, please make sure all users are logged out of each workgroup(s).  You may wish to block the workgroups via the Workgroup Management System (WMS) while you perform the upgrade.  To end any active sessions and block a workgroup: 
   1. Login to WMS
   2. Click on the Admin icon
   3. Select the option Block / Unblock Workgroups, then click on the Continue button
   4. Select a workgroup, then click on the Logoff User Sessions button at the bottom
   5. Click on an active session, then click on the Logoff button.  After all sessions have been logged off, click OK to return to the Block / Unblock section.
   6. Select the workgroup you wish to block, then click on the Block button.
   7. Repeat the steps above for each workgroup you wish to block.
    
3. Temporarily disable any anti-virus software while you run the Version 5.5 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.
   
4. Temporarily stop all IIS services while you run the Version 5.5 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.
   
5. Install ProblemTracker 5.5 or ProblemTracker Enterprise Edition 5.5.  To do this, login to the web server machine as Administrator and then run (double-click from Windows Explorer) pbtrk55.exe (ProblemTracker 5.5) or ptee55.exe (ProblemTracker Enterprise Edition 5.5). When the installation setup program has finished, you will be asked to reboot your system.
   
6. 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", then click on the Continue button. 
   
7. A list of workgroups that need to be upgraded from Version 5.0 - 5.0.2 will be displayed. Select a workgroup from the pulldown, then click on the "Upgrade Workgroup" button to proceed then click OK to confirm. A confirmation message will be displayed once the workgroup has been upgraded successfully.
   
8. To upgrade another workgroup, repeat steps 6 and 7 until all workgroups have been upgraded.
   
9. Re-activate your anti-virus software and re-start IIS services.

Your system has now been upgraded to Version 5.5 for all workgroups.