Please use the information below to upgrade from Version 5.x (5.0 to 5.0.2) to Version 7.2.1.
This section provides information about changes from version 5.0.x to 7.2.1 that you should be aware of before upgrading. While we have worked very hard to ensure that the upgrade is backward compatible in terms of end user interface, there are some differences which will be visible to end users. Also, with so many new features (especially multiple Projects, Forms, and Workflows), there are significant changes for administrators. For a full list of what's new (along with information on how to enable the new features), please browse to the Features and Fixes pages.
Note: The name of the product ProblemTracker has been changed to "NetResults Tracker".
One of the best ways to learn about new features is to try them out yourself. You can request a Personal Live Trial on our web site. Within one business day we will set up a workgroup exclusively for your use on one of our web servers. All you need is a web browser.
Modern web browsers are required for use with Tracker Version 7.2.1. Please review the Version 7.2.1 Requirements to verify that your end users are using or have access to a supported web browser.
The upgrade will apply the Default color preferences theme for Version 7.2.1 to pages within a Tracker workgroup (the pages you see after logging in). Color Preferences for external pages (Login Page, Submit Page, Knowledge Base) remain unchanged by the upgrade.
The color scheme and icons used in NetResults Tracker are upgraded to a modern "flat" user interface consistent with the latest versions of Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS & iOS, and Google Android.
The order of the icons in the Button Bar has been changed to better group similar operations together. All of the record level operations (Add, View, Task, Edit, Discuss, Delete) are now grouped together and all of the reporting operations (Search/Query, Metrics, History) are grouped together. We've found this accelerates the learning curve for new users.
Interfaces for adding and maintaining multiple Projects, Forms and Workflows within a single workgroup have been added. The new Projects, Forms, Fields and Workflows sections are where you will now find configuration for Fields, Workflow, Alerts and Notifications. While you can still use the Workgroup Management System (WMS) to create separate workgroups for projects that are unrelated (or must remain physically independent), you now have the option to also create multiple projects within a single workgroup. Projects that are in the same workgroup can (optionally) share Forms and/or Workflows. And, reports can be created that span multiple Projects and/or multiple Forms with a workgroup.
Each Project makes use of one or more Forms (record types). For each Form within a Project, you can specify which Workflow (states, transitions, etc.) is used as well as which User Groups can access that Form in the Project. You can also specify the set of State Managers for each Form in the Project and (if you have the Submit via Email Add-On) rules for processing Incoming Emails for each Form in the Project. The Projects section is where you now configure State Managers and Incoming Email Settings (for those with Submit via Email) as well as Project & Form Visibility. Immediately after upgrade, you will have a single Project.
Each Form is composed of one or more Fields. A Form (record type) can be used in a single Project or shared across multiple Projects. A Field can be used in a single Form or can be shared across multiple Forms. The Forms section is where you Add, Edit, and Delete Forms and associate Forms with Fields. The Fields section is where you Add, Edit, and Delete "Global" Fields which can be associated with each Form. Immediately after upgrade all Fields will be associated with a single Form which represents your old Define Record configuration. The Fields section is also where you now manage Option Menu Items (including dependencies for option menu items) by clicking on the Items button for a Field.
Each Workflow is composed of States, Transitions between those States, Notification Rules (email notifications for when records change) and Alert Settings (email notifications for when records don't change by a particular date/time). A Workflow can be used for a single Form or shared across multiple Forms. Also, the same Form (for example Trouble Ticket) can be used in more than one Project with a different Workflow in each Project (Workflow is specified for each Form in each Project). States can be used in a single Workflow or shared across multiple Workflows. The Workflows section is where you now configure States, Transitions, Alerts, and Notifications. Immediately after upgrade you will have two workflows. One workflow which represents your previous workgroup Workflow and a new <Empty> Workflow which can be used for new Forms that have no Workflow.
In your upgraded workgroup, the names given to the single Project, Form, and Workflow which you had prior to upgrade will be based on what template you selected when you first created your workgroup.
The Project, Form, and Workflow names will not be immediately visible to your end users. Workflow names are never visible outside of the Administration section. The Project and/or Form names are only visible when a user has access to more than one Project or Form. So until, you have (a) created a new Project or Form and (b) given a user access to more than one Project or Form, no end user will see Project or Form names. However, now is probably still a good time to review the names which were given to your one Project, Form and Workflow during upgrade and change them, if necessary, to something more appropriate to your current use. Help links: Rename a project, Rename a form, Rename a workflow.
Saved Queries and Charts now have the upgraded Project and upgraded Form selected as part of the criteria so that existing reports will function as they did prior to the upgrade when you add new projects and forms to your workgroup. The system reports "Default [Users]", "Assigned To Me [Users]", "Reported By Me [Users]", "Added By Me [RestrictedUsers]" have "*" selected for Project and Form so that users will see records for all projects and forms to which they have access. For now, no one will see the Project or Form criteria (that is only visible when a user has access to more than one Project or Form).
If you wish to add more Projects, Forms and Workflows, please review the Getting Started with Tracker section of the Administrative Help Guide for more information about making use of these powerful new features. You may also wish to review the Projects, Forms, Fields, Customizing Menu Items, and Workflows sections.
Alerts that are applied to newly added records can now be set differently based on the value of any one pulldown field. Previously they could only be set based on "Product" pulldown field. Alerts are now configured for each form in the Workflows section. After upgrading, the Alert settings for your form will be set with the "Based On" property set to "Product". If you renamed Product to be something else (e.g. Request Type, Customer, etc.), it will still be used as the "Based On" property for alerts. If the alert settings are the same for all values of the Product field, change the "Based On" property to "<None>". To check whether the alert settings are the same for all products, login as Admin, click on the Admin icon, click on the Workflows link, click on the Expand All link to the right of Forms. Though it is very unlikely that you will see this, it is possible that when you check the alert settings for all products the entry called "<Default>" will not be present. If this entry is not present under "Alerts", click on the "Manage" link to the right of Alerts, select "<Default>", make any adjustments to the alert settings, then click OK to return to the Workflow properties. Check to see whether the alert settings are set the same for all products. If they are not the same, no further action needs to be taken. If they are the same, you can simplify the alert settings by clicking on the Edit Based On link to the right of Alert. Set the Based On Pulldown field to "<None>" and click OK.
There are many new options to allow you to use names/titles that are more appropriate for your installation than NetResults Tracker (or ProblemTracker). Immediately after upgrade, references to ProblemTracker are replaced with NetResults Tracker and ProblemTracker logos are replaced with "powered by NetResults Tracker" links. However, you are now free to reconfigure most references to NetResults Tracker (other than the "powered by NetResults Tracker" links).
You may wish to reconfigure the web Page Title (which shows up at the top of the browser windows, or for tabbed browsers in the tab, and shows up in bookmarks/favorites). You can also reconfigure the Page Titles for the Submit Pages (Submit via Web for Unregistered Users), and the Knowledge Base pages (Search, Results, and Item).
The Header Text at the top of the login box and on the page for Self-registration can be customized.
All references to "ProblemTracker / NetResults Tracker" in Alert and Discussion notification emails are now configurable (they use the Page Title property referenced above).
You can also enter a custom Help link in General Preferences to change what is displayed when a user clicks on the Docs link on the right side of the Status bar. This allows you to display your own Help documentation to guide your end users. A separate Help link can be entered for standard and restricted users.
To access the Tracker Help Guides, please click on the Docs link in the upper right of the Status Bar. The Docs link replaces the Help icon available in the Button Bar in previous versions. You also now have the option to remove this entirely for select User Groups (if, for instance, you only want them browsing to your custom Help).
If the Display Field Help options in General Preferences were configured to display a yellow question mark next to each field (on View or Add/Edit/Task or Submit page), the yellow icons are no longer displayed and users can now get Field Help by simply hovering over the Field Label (instead of hovering on the yellow icon). If you had disabled Field Help or were using one of the options to always display Field Help (the default), there is no change in how Field Help is displayed after upgrade.
Notifications can now be set differently based on the value of any one pulldown field. Previously they could only be set based on the Product pulldown field. Notifications are now configured in the Workflows section (previously they were configured in the Email Configuration Admin section). After upgrading, your Notifications will be set with the "Based On" property set to "Product" (if you renamed Product to be something else (e.g. Request Type, Customer, etc.), it will still be used as the "Based On" property for notification rules). If the rules are the same for all values of the Product field, change the "Based On" property to "<None>". To check whether the rules are the same for all products, login as Admin, click on the Admin icon, click on the Workflows link, click on the Expand All link to the right of Notifications. Check to see whether the rules are set the same for all products. If they are not the same, no further action needs to be taken. If they are the same, you can simplify the rules by clicking on the Edit Based On link to the right of Notifications. Set the Based On Pulldown field to "<None>" and click OK.
Previously, notifications could not be sent to users without an account in NetResults Tracker. Notifications can now be sent to end users without a NetResults Tracker user account who report issues via the Submit via Web Page (formerly known as the Inet Page) or using the Submit via Email feature. To do this, designate a Text field to be the Unregistered User Email by logging in as Admin, clicking on the Admin icon, clicking on the Fields link, clicking on the Edit button to the left of the Text field you wish to designate as the Unregistered User Email (or create a new field for this purpose), setting the Unregistered User Email property to Yes and clicking OK. The Text field you selected should have the Include in Submit Page option set to "Yes" so the field is displayed on the Submit Page for the user reporting the issue to enter his/her email address to receive notifications. Users can receive a confirmation when reporting an issue and/or on actions performed on the issue after it is added. Decide when these users should be notified by setting the Send Email Notifications On option in the General Preferences section. Then, update the appropriate Notification Rules to select "
The email notification messages triggered by operations in Tracker now include customizable items such as Subject, Greeting, and Signature. Please review the Email Common Content section 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 Tracker. Also, if you had users that got too many duplicate emails, you may wish to try to merge (delete) some notification rules. In the latest version, 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 Tracker 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.
You can set Tracker to use authentication when generating email notification messages. Details on enabling authentication can be found in the Set the Mail Server Configuration section.
Colors for dozens of user interface elements within the Knowledge Base are now configurable from the web interface (there is a new Color button for each option in the Knowledge Base Admin section). Previously this could only be done by editing a style sheet.
If you are using the Knowledge Base feature and have customized the style sheet to change the Knowledge Base color settings, please send a copy of your style sheet to NetResults Technical Support so that we can tell you which Color Preferences to use to produce your color scheme using the new Color settings within Tracker.
Adding custom HTML to the top and bottom of the Login Page can now be done from the Login Options Admin section instead of modifying the logintop.inc and loginbottom.inc files. To move any custom HTML you have added to the Login Page, you will need to save a copy of the logintop.inc and loginbottom.inc files and keep them in a safe place before you upgrade to Version 7.2.1. To move the custom HTML: Login as Admin and click on the Admin icon. Click on the Login Options link. Copy the custom HTML added to the logintop.inc file and paste it into the field "Custom HTML (Top of Page)" field. Copy the custom HTML added to the loginbottom.inc file and paste it into the field "Custom HTML (Bottom of Page)" and click OK to save the changes.
Additional customization options are available for the Login Page such as setting the Header and Instruction text and customizing the color preferences.
The Record Visibility options for records submitted by unregistered users (records added via the Submit Page or the Submit via Email feature) are now located in the Record Visibility section of the General Preferences page.
Each user group now has a Record Visibility privilege "Make Visible to Groups" to select which standard user groups should have visibility to the records added by the user group being modified. Each user group has this privilege configured to select its own user group by default. The General Preferences option "By Default Include 'Users' Group for Record Visibilty on Add Operation" has been removed. If needed, set the "Make Visible to Groups" privilege to grant the Users group visibility on records added by particular user groups. If you have Record Visibility enabled and Restricted Users, review the following Knowledge Base article for information on optimizing this configuration (this configuration is discussed in "Sample 2").
A new Metrics display engine is used in this release (eliminating the need for end users to have Java installed to display charts). While the upgrade does preserve the chart type (e.g. bar, line, pie, table) and some aspects of the version 6.x chart layout settings (Height, Max Label Length, Bar Alignment, Bar Type, Show Stacked, Decimal Places), the new charts will not look exactly the same as the old charts. And, some chart layout settings are no longer needed (width is now automatically adjusted based on the browser window size, scrolling is automatically added when needed, etc.).
In previous versions, the list of Saved Queries on the Home and Query pages were sorted by Type (Standard or Advanced) first, then by User Group (with personal reports first), then by Name. Saved Queries are no longer divided up into Standard or Advanced (that is now just a property of the report that is visible when creating or adding the report). So, Saved Queries are now only sorted by User Group and Name. Saved Charts (Metrics) continue to be sorted by User Group and Name as well. For backward compatibility, reports (both Saved Queries and Saved Charts) are still sorted by User Group first and Name second. However, you may wish to change your system to sort reports by Name first and User Group second (User Group would then only be used if two reports have the exact same Name). Though this would be a change from previous versions, it may better meet the expectations of your end users. A general preference to choose how report names are sorted in the report pulldowns on the Home, Query, Metrics and Preferences pages is available. This affects the sorting for all users in the workgroup.
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 workgroup's Admin page, you may also wish to lower it back so that newly added users start with 20 as a default.
In versions prior to 5.5.1, there was a defect which could result in the Default Input Records setting of a Saved Chart being inadvertently changed to "Default [Users]" when a Saved Query was deleted. This defect would only modify Saved Charts which had something other than "<All Records>" as the Default Input Records setting. You may wish to (and you may wish to have your users) review the Default Input Records setting of your Saved Charts to make sure that they are set correctly. To do this, click on the Metrics icon, then select each Saved Chart. As you select each Saved Chart, note the Input Records setting which is displayed. If it is "Default [Users]" (and you do not want it to be "Default [Users]"), then click the Edit icon, change the Default Input Records to the appropriate Saved Query, and click OK. Further information on Saved Charts can be found in the Metrics section of the Users Guide.
The privileges available to Restricted Users has been expanded to include ability to edit fields and attachments for records in particular states, task records, and participate in discussions. Immediately after upgrade, Restricted Users will have the same privileges they did before upgrade. You may wish to consider expanding their privileges.
The Inet Page is now called Submit via Web for Unregistered Users or simply the Submit Page.
If you are using the Submit Page for Unregistered Users, a new privilege, Add via Submit Page, has been added and enabled for all user groups selected in the Unregistered User Options in General Preferences to maintain backward compatibility. This new privilege allows finer grain control over which Projects/Forms are available on the Submit Page for adding new records or linking to existing records.
Previously, only the top, bottom and background of the Submit Page could be customized. Now, virtually all aspects of the Submit Page can be customized such as the date settings, page header, page title, submit button label and action, confirmation page message and confirmation page button action, among others. These options allow the Submit Page to be more seamlessly integrated with your web site. More information can be found in the Submit Page Help section.
The Submit Page can now enabled or disabled in the General Preferences section of the workgroup. By default, the Submit Page is enabled for all upgraded workgroups to maintain backward compatibility. To disable the Submit Page, login to the workgroup as Admin, click on the Admin icon, click on the General Preferences button, set the option "Enable Submit Page" to "No", then click OK to save this change.
Global user operations (adding, editing and deleting user accounts, giving users access to workgroups) have been moved from the Workgroup Management System (WMS) to a new interface called the User Management System (UMS). UMS also includes a search operation to quickly find users by name, workgroup, license type or other profile information.
You can now delegate the Add, Edit and Delete user options to local Workgroup Administrators who can use the User Accounts section to Add, Edit or Delete users by changing the settings of the UMS Administrative Options. To enable these options, login to the User Management System (UMS), click on the Admin icon, select the option "Set User Account Options", click Continue, set the options as desired and click Update to save the changes.
User group privileges are now classified as "global" or "non-global" privileges. Non-global privileges are privileges that are applied based on the Projects and Forms to which a user group has access. Meaning, that users will only be able to utilize the privileges they are granted for the Projects and Forms to which they have access. Global privileges are privileges that are applied irrespective of the Projects and Forms that are visible to a user group. In an upgraded workgroup, all user groups will have access to the Project and Form in your workgroup and user group privileges will be applied as in previous versions. If you change which user groups have access to the Project and Form, please review the information in the User Group Privileges section to understand how the Project and Form visibility will affect a user group's privileges.
In previous versions, the user name "Internet User" was listed as the Reporter for records that were added by an anonymous user via the Submit via Web page or the Submit via Email features. This user has been renamed to "Unregistered User". If you still display User ID in reports, Inet will continue to be displayed (the User ID remains the same for backward compatibility even though the Full Name associated with the User ID has changed).
An option has been added to enable or disable the User Type property for user accounts. On upgrade, this option is enabled to allow the use of the User Type property. The User Type property allows a non-Restricted user to be marked as "External" for the purpose of excluding that user from the Assigned To list on the Add page. However, the same effect of excluding a user from the Assigned To list on the Add or Edit pages can be achieved by using the Can Be Assignee for Add and Can Be Assignee for Edit user group privileges. The User Type property has been deprecated and will be removed in a future release. It is recommended that you configure your user group privileges to deny the Can be Assignee for Add and/or Can Be Assignee for Edit to any user groups that should not be listed in the Assigned To field on the Add or Edit pages. This will prepare your system for the removal of the User Type property in a future release.
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).
Any user accounts that contain the following characters in the First Name or Last Name of the user's profile information will be replaced with an alternate character during the upgrade process: " (double quote), \ (back slash) or ~ (tilde). " (double quote) will be replaced with ' (single quote), \ (back slash) will be replaced with / (forward slash), and ~ (tilde) will be replaced with - (hyphen).
In version 5.0.x, 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.
For optimal performance, it is required that 127.0.0.1 or localhost be entered as the SMTP Mail Server in the Outgoing Mail Server Configuration. This allows the email notifications generated by NetResults Tracker to be processed as quickly as possible using a fast connection to a local mail server dedicated to Tracker. That mail server can then forward the emails on to their destination "in the background". This can provide significantly improved performance for operations in NetResults Tracker that generate email notification messages such as Add, Task, and Edit. Significant performance issues can be caused by use of a "remote" mail server which is heavily loaded with antivirus and spam filtering tasks. If your mail server is not located on the same machine as NetResults Tracker, please set up the SMTP Mail Server that is included with Internet Information Server and have this server forward the email to your current (remote) mail server "in the background". Please do not make your users wait for your mail server to process all outgoing emails in order to complete each Add, Edit, Task, or Delete operation they perform. Instead, follow our best practices and use a local (possibly "intermediate") mail server to store and forward the emails which are generated by Tracker operations.
In Windows Explorer, right click on the installation setup program nrt_721.exe (NetResults Tracker 7.2.1) and select "Run as Administrator". Enter the corresponding password, if prompted. The installation program will stop and restart the IIS web server as part of the installation.
You will be prompted about the new interface called the User Management System (UMS). You will be prompted to choose whether you wish to use the default password to access UMS or whether you would like to set a new password. Click Next if you wish to use the default password (If you choose this option, you will use "useradmin" as both the User ID and password to access UMS. You can change the password after logging into UMS for the first time.). Or, you can change the default password by entering and confirming the new password you wish to use before clicking Next to proceed.
Enter your Version 6 license key(s) information by going to Start > Programs > NetResults Tracker > License Manager.
A list of workgroups that need to be upgraded from Version 5.0.x to Version 7.2.1 will be displayed. Select a workgroup from the pulldown, then click on the "Upgrade Workgroup" button to proceed 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. A confirmation page will be displayed once the database has been upgraded. Click OK to return to the Administration Menu.
Your system has now been upgraded to Version 7.2.1 for all workgroups.