Census README

(build #BUILDNUMBER#)

This document contains important information about the latest release of Census. If you are upgrading from an earlier version of Census, please read the Upgrade Readme.


Evaluation License Keys

During installation, you must enter the Access Enabled license key. The Access Enabled license key enables Census and specifies the number of concurrent-use licenses. After the installation is finished, you can run Census Admin and enter the SQL Enabled license key to enable support for SQL Server.

During installation, enter the Access Enabled license key:

CAJADABADEEAJAAFGIAAAAAAFDBBCCAAHADAJ

If you want to evaluate Census SQL Enabled:

  1. Contact a sales representative at sales@metaquest.com or call (770) 622-2850 ext. 225 to request a SQL Enabled license key.
  2. When you have your SQL Enabled license key, start Census Admin.
  3. On the Tools menu, click Licenses.
  4. In the Products list, click SQL Enabled.
  5. Click the ... beside License Key and enter your SQL Enabled license key.

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Installing the Evaluation Version of Census

To install the evaluation version of Census:

  1. Review the system requirements and supported configurations before you start the Setup program.
  2. Log on to your Web server with a domain account that has Administrator permissions.
  3. Install all Census components on your Web server.
  4. After the installation is completed, a configuration program will automatically start. During the configuration, you will be asked for your Access Enabled license key. Enter this evaluation license key:

    CAJADABBJFFGBJAFGIAAAAAAFDBBCCAAGADAJ
  5. The configuration program automatically starts the Census User Account Import Manager. The Import Manager allows you to import Windows users accounts from a Windows domain. Importing user accounts saves you time, because you don't have to create separate Census user accounts: users can use their Windows accounts to log on to Census.

    By default, the Import Manager schedules regular checks of the Windows domain for new user accounts and changes to user accounts that have already been imported. To disable scheduled updates, clear the Schedule the import process to synchronize imported users check box.

    If you want to import users from Active Directory, click Cancel. After Census is installed, you can run the Import Manager again to import users from Active Directory (during installation, you can import only from Windows domains).

  6. Finish configuring Census.
  7. If you want to evaluate Census SQL Enabled:

    1. Log on to Census Admin and enter your SQL Enabled license key.
    2. Relocate databases to SQL Server (in Census Admin, click Tools > Relocate > Databases).
  8. [optional] Install additional copies of Census Admin and the Web View Editor on other workstations.

Notes

  • The Setup program creates a domain user account that is used to access the Census databases and for anonymous access to the Web views. For more information about this windows user account, please look up "windows account" in the index of the online help for Census Web Admin, Census Admin, or the Web View Editor.
  • Census Admin requires the Access 2000 Runtime, Access 2000, or Access XP. If you do not have Access 2000 or Access XP installed on your system, the setup program installs the Access 2000 Runtime.

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Logging On

Admin and demo have administrative-level permissions and can open any Web view. The other accounts are role-based, and have restricted permissions and access to Web views. Use the role-based accounts to see how permissions and workflow rules control the issue tracking process.

Project / View Logon Accounts
Bugs - Customer View
Allows customers to submit new issues (bugs) and check the status of existing issues. Shows only the information entered by the customer. Notes and information added by development staff is hidden.
Jean Customer
Bugs - Development View (full)
Allows users to log and track development issues such as bugs and enhancement requests. Shows all issues and issue information, and is intended for use by QA, developers, managers and any one else involved in product development. Enforces a bug-tracking workflow.
Jean Manager
Jean Developer
Jean Tester
Bugs - Development View with VSS
Development view that includes Visual SourceSafe integration, which allows users to link issues to source files in a Microsoft Visual SourceSafe database and perform version control operations such as check out and check in.
Support Calls - Support View
Allows users to log and track support issues for external customer support. Enforces a workflow for handling support calls.
Jean Support Analyst
Jean Support Leader
Support Calls and Bugs - Support View
The XSupportBugTrk project allows users to log support calls and development issues (such as bugs) into the same database. The Support view allows users to log and track support issues, and enforces a workflow for handling support calls.
Jean Support Analyst
Jean Support Leader
Support Calls and Bugs - Development View
The Dev view allows users to log and track development issues, and enforces a workflow for handling product development issues.
Jean Tester
Jean Manager
Jean Developer
Weekly Timesheets - Employee View
Allows you to record and track weekly timesheets. You can track employee time by project, holidays, vacation, and sick days.
Any
TestSuite / TestSuite
Allows you to record and track test cases and results.
Jean Tester
Jean Manager

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What's New in this Release

  • Integration with Active Directory and Windows Domains
    Census integrates with Microsoft Active Directory and with Windows domains, so users can log on to Census using their Windows user accounts, and administrators don't have to manage user information in two places.

    Census synchronizes with Active Directory through LDAP. Easy-to-use wizards make it a snap to configure the integration.

    For each user, you can choose whether to authenticate with Active Directory, Windows domain, or Census security.

  • Automatic Logon
    If you use Windows authentication with Census, users can skip the logon page for Web views. Windows users can simply go to the new, no-logon URL, which immediately displays the list of available Web views. The default no-logon URL is http://server/censusa. You can change the no-logon URL in the Web View Editor.

  • Global Choice Lists
    Choice lists can now be shared across projects, so instead of defining the same choice list every time you start a new project, you can just use the existing, global choice list.
  • Web-based administration of user accounts and groups
    You can now use Census Web Admin to perform all administration of user accounts and groups, including changing a Census user's logon name, assigning users to groups, and enabling/disabling features and projects for groups.
  • Default values for new users and new contacts.
    You can use an existing user as a template for new users, so that when you create a new user, information such as the company name and address are automatically filled in. Similarly, you can use an existing contact to provide default values for new contacts.
  • Create parent-child links between issues

    You can add a Child Issue tab to Web views that allows users to link one or more child issues to a parent issue. For example, if you have several bugs that are all symptoms of the same problem, you can make those bugs the children of the main, parent bug for the problem. Or if a task consists of a number of sub-tasks, the sub-task issues can be children of the main task.

    By default, the parent issue controls the substate of the child issues. For example, when you change the substate of the parent to Fixed, all the children are also marked Fixed. If you want the substate of a child issue to be independent from the substate of the parent issue, load the child issue and on the Detail tab, change Substate controlled by parent to No.

  • Work teams

    You can use Census to help manage and coordinate work teams. To support work teams, Census provides the following capabilities:

    • Build a list of work teams. Census includes a global choice list named Work Team.
    • Assign users to work teams. The User editor (on the Security tab) in Census Web Admin allows you to assign users to work teams.
    • Add an Assigned Work Team field to Web views. This field is used to assign issues to specific work teams, either manually by users or automatically by workflow rules.
    • Define queries for finding work team issues. Census includes a My Work Team’s Issues query that gets all the issues assigned to a user’s work team, but you may want to define additional queries for work teams (for example, a query that finds all open issues assigned to the user’s work team).
  • Control the visibility of users and contacts on a per-project basis
    To control which users and contacts are available in a project, you assign users and contacts to categories, and then specify which categories are visible in the project.
  • E-mail submission
    Issues can now be submitted to Census by sending an e-mail message.
  • E-mail issues from Web views
    Web views now allow users to quickly send an e-mail message containing issue details.
  • Knowledge Base views
    The Web View Editor can now generate Knowledge Base (KB) views. KB views are a new type of view that are customized to allow users to search, browse, and read KB articles. A KB view includes a simple search form (a text box and a Go button), a list of KB articles, and a details area for displaying a KB article. The search form allows users to search for text or by KB article number.

    You can generate KB views for any project. For existing projects, we recommend you add new fields especially for the KB article information.

  • Submit-only views now support workflow rules
  • <Value of Field> macro for workflow rules
    You can now define Dependent Values workflow rules that assign the value of one field to another field.
  • Web views - Simple search form
    Web views now include a Simple search form that allows users to quickly search issues. Users simply type the search terms into the Search For box and click Go. For more complex searches, users can click Advanced to display the advanced ad-hoc query editor.

  • Web views - Saved queries
    The advanced ad-hoc query editor now allow users to save and reuse queries. The saved queries are personal queries that the same user can use in any Web view of the same project. In addition, the new Query browser allows users to see the details of saved queries.

  • Web views - Load any issue
    The new Web view attribute Load Issues Not In Query controls whether users can load any issue by typing the issue number in the Issue box. By default, users can load only those issues listed in the Summary List. But if Load Issues Not In Query=Yes, users can load any issue.

  • Web views - Pop-up editors for memo fields
    Memo fields can now have either a pop-up HTML editor or a pop-up text editor. This is controlled by the Editor attribute of a memo field in the Web View Editor.
  • Web views - Timeout alerts
    A user logged on to a Web view is now notified when the session is about to timeout (due to inactivity). The user can reset the timeout counter and keep the session active. This ensures that users who are actively editing issues but have not yet saved their work do not lose their changes.
  • Web views - Hyperlinks in the Summary List
    Users can load an issue by clicking any text in the Summary List.

  • Requirements project
    The Requirements project helps in the painstaking task of gathering, documenting, editing, and communicating project requirements (functional, technical, and other). The Requirements Web view includes pop-up help that describes the purpose of each field.
  • Log off individual users
    The Logons Editor (in Census Admin) now allows you to log off selected users.

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Census Components

All Census components are installed on your Web server. Additional copies of Census Admin and the Web View Editor may be installed on other computers.

  • Census Server
    Census Server includes the project databases that contain the issues and definitions (such as queries, reports and layouts) for Census projects. Census SQL Enabled uses Microsoft SQL Server as the backend database, while Census Access Enabled uses Microsoft Access (Jet).
  • Census Web
    Census Web is a Web-based application that users run to enter issues, query the database, and generate reports. Each Web view is an instance of Census Web. You generate Web views with the Web View Editor.
  • Census Web Server
    Census Web Server is the Web server component of Census Web. The Census Web Server installation includes a Microsoft Windows service (Mq Issue Agent) that takes care of generating and sending e-mail notifications.
  • Census Admin
    Census Admin is a Microsoft Windows application for administering Census projects. For example, you use Census Admin to create projects, customize the issue fields, and set up e-mail notifications.
  • Census Web Admin
    Census Web Admin is a Web-based administration tool. It allows you to add and edit users, define workflow rules, create new tabs, set up choice fields, and to enable e-mail notifications.
  • Web View Editor
    Web View Editor is a Microsoft Windows application that you use to create Web views for your Census projects. Web views are HTML/ASP pages that provide access to Census projects through a Web browser.

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Supported Configurations

Census supports two possible configurations: Standard and Distributed. In both configurations, all Census components are installed on the Web server. The difference between the two configurations is the location of the databases.

Standard Configuration

  • All Census components are installed on the Web server.
  • All databases are located on the Web server. By default, the databases are Microsoft Access databases, but you can migrate them to SQL Server (if you have a license for Census SQL-Enabled).

Distributed Configuration

  • All Census components are installed on the Web server.
  • All databases are SQL Server, and are located on a separate SQL Server computer.

Both configurations allow you to install additional copies of Census Admin and the Web View Editor on other computers. For example, you may want to install a copy of the Web View Editor on your computer, so you can edit and regenerate existing Web views from your desk (to create new Web views, you must run the Web View Editor on the Web server).

Note The distributed configuration is available only with Census SQL Enabled.

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System Requirements

Web Server

  • Operating System

    As of Census 7.0, Windows NT is no longer supported for the Web server.

    Census SQL EnabledWindows 2000, XP, or Server 2003*
    Census Access EnabledWindows 2000, XP, or Server 2003*
    *Microsoft Visual SourceSafe requires Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition (Census supports all editions of Windows Server 2003, but Visual SourceSafe does not).
  • Internet Information Server (IIS)

    Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Internet Information Server (IIS) 6.0
    Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, Advanced Server, or Datacenter Server

    Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP Professional should be used only for evaluation and testing, because they support a maximum of ten concurrent connections to IIS.
    Internet Information Server (IIS) 5.0
  • Database

    Census SQL Enabled

    SQL Server 7, SQL Server 2000 (SQL Server licenses must be purchased separately).

    Note that SQL Server does not have to be installed on the Web server; another computer may be used as the SQL Server computer.

    The following documents from Microsoft will help you decide what type of licenses are best for you.

    SQL Server Processor Licensing Clarification March 02, 2003
    Choosing How to License SQL Server July 22, 2003
    How to Buy SQL Server July 02, 2003

    Census Access Enabled Microsoft Access database is included
  • Browser Internet Explorer v5.01 to v6.0 SP1.

  • Cookies, Java, and Javascript must be enabled.

    Java
    Microsoft Windows XP does not ship with a Java VM. The Java VM was included in SP1, but due to court action by Sun Microsystems, Microsoft withdrew SP1 and released SP1a, which does not include the Java VM. Please see http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/evaluation/news/jre.asp

    If you need a Java VM, you can download the Microsoft Java VM from www.metaquest.com, or you can use a third party Java VM.

  • Disk space requirements depends on database size (minimum of 270 MB).

  • E-mail System Census e-mail notifications require a MAPI-compliant, Lotus Notes 5.x or SMTP electronic mail system.

  • Crystal Reports A license for the Crystal Reports Creation API, if you want to:

    • Build your own custom reports.

    • Use Crystal Reports for listing reports, printing issues from a Web view, and formatting the contents of e-mail notifications. By default, Census uses HTML-based reports for listing reports, printing issues, and formatting e-mail notification messages.

    For custom reports, Census uses the Crystal Reports v9.0 Runtime Software, which is included with Census.

  • Microsoft Access Census Admin requires Microsoft Access 2000 Runtime (included with Census), Access 2000, or Access XP.

Web Admin

  • Java Plug-in from Sun v1.4.2 or higher
  • Browser Microsoft Internet Explorer v5.01 to v6.0 SP1

E-mail Integration

  • Exchange Server 2000 or higher
  • .NET runtime (included in installation)

Web views

  • Windows
    • Microsoft Internet Explorer v5.01 to v6.0 SP1
    • Netscape Navigator v6.0 to v8.0
    • Mozilla 1.4 to 1.8
    • Mozilla Firefox, all versions up to v1.0
  • Macintosh
    • Netscape Navigator v6.2.x
  • Cookies, Java, and Javascript must be enabled.
  • In Netscape, Web views support versions 1.3.x, 1.4.x and 1.5.x of the Sun Java Plug-in (v1.5.x is strongly recommended).
  • In Internet Explorer, Web views support v1.4.1.x, 1.4.x and 1.5.x of the Sun Java Plug-in.

Microsoft Windows XP does not ship with a Java VM. The Java VM was included in SP1, but due to court action by Sun Microsystems, Microsoft withdrew SP1 and released SP1a, which does not include the Java VM. Please see http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/evaluation/news/jre.asp

If you need a Java VM, you can download the Microsoft Java VM from www.metaquest.com, or you can use a third party Java VM, such as the Java Plug-in from Sun.

Additional copies of Census Admin and Web View Editor

This section specifies the minimum requirements for installing Census Admin and the Web View Editor on other computers.

Census Admin
  • Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, XP, or Server 2003.

  • Requires Microsoft Access 2000 Runtime (included with Census), Access 2000, or Access XP.

  • Pentium 166 MHz processor or higher is recommended.

  • Requires minimum of 30 MB of hard disk space (additional 60 MB for MS Access Runtime).

  • Requires minimum of 32 MB of RAM. (Additional memory will significantly improve performance).

  • Workgroup users need networking software - Microsoft Networks, Microsoft Windows for Workgroups, Novell Netware, Artisoft Lantastic, and more.

  • Internet Explorer v5.0 to v6.0 SP1.

Web View Editor
  • Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, XP, or Server 2003.

  • Pentium 166 MHz processor or higher is recommended.

  • Requires minimum of 30 MB of hard disk space.

  • Requires minimum of 32 MB of RAM. (Additional memory significantly improves performance).

  • Workgroup users need networking software - Microsoft Networks, Microsoft Windows for Workgroups, Novell Netware, Artisoft Lantastic, and more.

  • Internet Explorer v5.01 to v6.0 SP1.

Power Customizations

Power customizations involve using the Microsoft Access/SQL Server development environment, Visual Basic, Javascript, and other advanced techniques to customize Census.

  • If you have Census Access Enabled, you need a Microsoft Access 2000 or Access XP license.
  • If you have Census SQL Enabled and you migrate the global databases to SQL Server, you'll a license for SQL Server or a third-party tool for editing the data in SQL Server database tables.

Custom Reports

Census includes the Crystal Reports v9.0 Runtime Software. The Setup program installs the Runtime Software on your Web server. This allows users to view custom reports with Crystal Reports.

To build custom reports, you need:

  • Crystal Reports v9.0 (Standard, Professional, Developer, or Advanced edition).
  • -or-
  • Crystal Reports v8.5 (Standard, Professional, or Developer edition).

You also need to license the Creation API, because to build a custom report, you first have to use a Web view to create a listing report (Web views have to create a listing report the first time it is viewed).

Crystal Reports must be purchased separately from Business Objects or another supplier.

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