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Expandable Alerts users can find answers to frequently asked support questions by accessing the KnowledgeSync knowledgebase. Vineyardsoft has compiled the searchable knowledgebase from support calls.
Vineyardsoft is the developer of KnowledgeSync, the software engine behind Expandable Alerts.
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Would your city make a good destination for the 2010 Expandable Users Conference? If so, you could win a digital camera worth up to $500 by recommending your city.
Enter the Contest |
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Ted Sturr,
Business Application Manager
Palomar Medical Technologies, Inc.
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Upgrading to Expandable 8.1.3 can be a daunting task. The purpose of this article is to review some of the things that we did to get our company updated to the latest version. We were upgrading from 8.1.2 to 8.1.3 so this article does not address the issues about upgrading Crystal Reports. I would recommend reading Bill Cowley’s article about the different Crystal versions (Different Versions of Crystal). Hopefully some of these tips will help you out. |
| Testing. Before you upgrade you should always test things in a test environment. Download the documenation and read it. If you do not have a test environment you should set one up. I recommend setting up a virtual test server (VM Ware or Microsoft’s Virtualization are two good tools to use). |
| Preperation. The main reason we were upgrading to 8.1.3 was because of the Enhanced Serial Number Tracking. This created a special need for us. Before going live with 8.1.3 we needed to do a physical inventory count of serialized parts. We met with Manufacturing and accounting and agreed to do the upgrade on Columbus Day (so we had the three day weekend to do the count). |
| Customizations. It is up to you to make sure that any customizations are accounted for in the upgrade process. We purchased the Credit Card processing program from Bill Humphrey’s group so before we were able to do the upgrade we needed to get an update to handle the encryption. We have customized SalesLogix so that SalesLogix creates RA and NS orders with corresponding Loaners and Jobs within Expandable. Due to the Serial Number enhancements in 8.1.3 we needed to make some changes to these scripts so it updated the correct data fields. |
| Data Cleanup. Expandable 8.1.3 includes an encrypted credit card table. The system runs a utility that encrypts the current credit card records. In this process it removes extra dashes and spaces in the credit card number. If you do credit card processing this could result in duplicate credit card numbers (in our system we ended up with 156 duplicates). The upgrade program is not user-friendly and will not tell you that you have an error, it just “blows up”. So to help you out I have provided a SQL statement that will help you identify what credit card numbers are duplicates (Pre-8.1.3 Credit Card Check.sql). You should run this statement against your database BEFORE you attempt an upgrade. If any records are returned you should review those records and fix the credit card numbers listed so you no longer have any duplicates. |
| Get Help. Several times during the testing and preparation process we ran into some issues / questions. Don’t be afraid to call Customer Service. Because we were upgrading the Credit Card program as well as the Expandable program we contracted to have Bill and Bob at our office to help during the upgrade. Not every customer will need this, but if you have special customizations I would recommend consulting with Expandable beforehand or having them on site to help you out. |
| With a lot of work from several people in the company and with the help of several people at Expandable we were able to go live on Columbus Day as planned. |
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