Vector Census README

(build 7.2.0.132.872)

This document contains important information about the release of Vector Census 8. If you are upgrading from an earlier version of Census, please read the Upgrade Readme.

Installing the Evaluation Version of Vector Census

To install the evaluation version of Vector 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 Vector Census components on your Web server.

4. After the installation is completed, a configuration program will automatically start. At the end of this you will be able to use the default Web Views.

Notes

• The Setup program creates a local user account that is used to access the Vector 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.
• Census requires the Microsoft .Net Runtime. If you do not have it installed on your system, the setup program installs it.

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 bug tracking process.

What's New in this Release

• Service Level Agreements
  Define service level agreements that specify required response and resolution times based for different users, departments, and companies. Define hours of operation and holiday support schedules for each service level. Create escalation rules to automatically escalate priority issues. Measure service-level compliance with SLA violation reports.
• E-mail Signatures
  An e-mail signature consists of text that is automatically added to the end of all outgoing e-mail messages.
  Each user can create his or her own custom signature, which allows for a more personal communication when working with the end users, while keeping the advantages of having a single e-mail address for Census.
  The e-mail signature can be rich in formatting, too. Use the E-mail Signature Editor for changing colors, fonts, adding hyperlinks and images.
• New Remote Control Master from the Web
  Connect to a remote computer with a single click and resolve the incident. The new Remote Control Master is embedded within Census, it has a simple, user-friendly interface and it supports Viewing, Controlling, using the remote Clipboard and transferring files.
• Spell-checker in Firefox
  Census fully supports the spellchecker functionality in Firefox, even for e-mail messages that are in HTML format. Simply hold CTRL, and right-click an underlined word for suggestions.
• Show/Hide Search in Firefox
  Support for showing/hiding the Search area of the Web view in Firefox.
• New E-mail Notifications
  Census can now send automatic e-mail notifications to the owner of a ticket when a non-owner user makes a change to the issue (i.e. updates the ticket).
• Adding Child Issues
  Adding child issues is now easier with the enhanced dialog that uses a summary-list type of selection where the user can run a query and view additional details before adding the link.
• E-mail / SLA ‘Run Program’ actions
  Improved support for command line arguments in E-mail/SLA ‘Run Program’ actions. Census now supports multiple arguments and macros. For example: “C:\Program Files\Common Files\externalApp.exe" .
• License Management
  Enhanced license management of the Census sessions with the ability to reuse previous floating-licenses.
• Improved Performance for Web views
  Improved performance when using regular Web views, especially with projects that have many issues and choice lists with many possible values.
• New optional Single-choice and Multi-choice list
  Single-choice and multi-choice fields now have the option to display the list of possible values or choices in a dialog that supports searching and paging, which significantly benefits fields that have many choices.
• More Languages Supported
  Enhanced support for non-English languages, especially in Web views, E-mail Integration and E-mail Notifications.
• Keep the e-mail conversation with the associated issue
  Automatically add e-mails replied back from Users or Contacts to an existing issue or ticket. Automatically or manually create tickets from new e-mails that arrive into the POP3 mailbox.
• Mailbox Workflow
  Define rules for automatically creating issues, linking e-mails to issues, sending automatic e-mail responses, etc. Automatically assign, set status and more from incoming e-mails. Set priority automatically to Highest for specific VIP senders. Create rules for ignoring specific e-mails or SPAM messages so they are not converted to issues.
• Search issues based on e-mail content
  Increase productivity exponentially by unlocking the knowledge held in other issues, using text search of issues or tickets based on text that was included in related e-mails.
• Self-service View for users
  Provide your customers or end users with the power to submit new issues, check the status of pending issues and append new information. Do all this from the Web, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, allowing you to save on expensive support calls. Combine Self-service with Knowledgebase Views for the most efficient Service Desk.
• Web based E-mail configuration
  Web based interface for managing incoming e-mails from different accounts, rules and actions. Remotely configure your mail settings. Integrate with POP3 mail servers. Create rules and actions for getting incoming e-mail from POP servers, convert messages to issues, link messages to issues, send automatic replies, read receipts and more. Work with mail servers even if they are not in the same local network.
• Automatically create new Contacts from the e-mail
  If your Census or Service Desk allows users to submit issues without previous registration in the system or in an Active Directory, you can take advantage of the automatic creation of contacts from e-mails. Automatically or manually create tickets from new e-mails that arrive into the POP3 mail box.
• E-mail Templates
  Set standard responses and canned text for rapid responses to common questions. Create your HTML or text templates and save time.
• Switch Web views
  Switch Web views without having to log off and log on again.
• Activity Log
  The Activity Log provides all the information about the actions taken to solve the issue in a comprehensive and simple way, automatically keeping track of all the e-mail communication. Readily available and conveniently displayed in an integrated timeline, the Activity Log increases efficiency and reduces the time spent in solving incidents and problems. The Activity Log eliminates the highly inefficient task of going back and forth between applications to check information about the issue and the correspondence with the customer or end user (contact). With Vector Census, you have complete and simple access to all the information about the issue, the contact and the correspondence in chronological order, regardless of whether it was exchanged with you or with other employees.
• Get Status Report by E-mail
  Built-in auto-reply e-mail allows Users or Contacts to quickly check the status of their issues in a simple way and without the assistance of support personnel.

• Web views - Select choice list values from dialog
  Single- or multi-choice fields populated from the tblUser table can now be displayed in a searchable dialog. This is controlled by the Select from dialog attribute of the single- and multi-choice fields in the Web View Editor.

Supported Configurations

Web Server
Web views
Web Admin
E-mail Integration
Additional copies of Census Admin and Web View Editor
Power Customizations
Custom Reports

Web Server

• Operating System

  SQL Enabled	Windows 2000, XP, or Server 2003
  Access Enabled	Windows 2000, XP, or Server 2003

• 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

  SQL Enabled

  SQL Server 7, SQL Server 2000, SQL Server 2005 (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

  Access Enabled

  Microsoft Access database is included - or - Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (tuned to deliver the same performance as SQL Server for up to five concurrent users. MSDE 2000 supports up to 2GB per database while SQL Server Express supports up to 4GB per database).

• Browser Internet Explorer v5.01 to v8.0.

• Cookies, Java, and Javascript must be enabled.

  The Sun Java Runtime Environment is installed on the Web server.

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

• E-mail System Census e-mail notifications require an SMTP e-mail server.

• Crystal Reports

  • For custom reports, Census uses the Crystal Reports v9.0 Runtime Software, which is included with the Vector Census.
  • Crystal Reports v9, 10 or 11 is needed if you want to build your own custom reports.
  • A license for the Crystal Reports Creation API is needed if you want to use Crystal Reports for auto-generated listing reports.
    By default, Census uses HTML-based reports for listing reports, printing issues, and formatting e-mail notification messages.

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

Web Admin

• Java Runtime Environment from Sun v1.4.2 or higher
• Browser Microsoft Internet Explorer v5.01 to v8.0

E-mail Integration

• POP3 and SMTP compliant e-mail server

Web views

• Windows
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer v5.01 to v8.0
  • Netscape Navigator v6.0 to v7.0
  • Mozilla Firefox, all versions up to v2.0
• Macintosh
  • Netscape Navigator v6.2.x
• Cookies, Java, and Javascript must be enabled.

  If you need Java Runtime Environment for the clients accessing the Web views, you can download it from Sun Java software.

• In Internet Explorer, Web views support v1.4.1.x and higher of the Sun Java Runtime Environment.

Additional copies of Census Admin and Web View Editor

Power Customizations

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

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

Custom Reports

Vector 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 additional custom reports, you need:

Crystal Reports v8.5, 9.x, 10.x or 11.x (Standard, Professional, Developer, or Advanced edition).

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

Vector Census Components

• Census Server
  Census Server includes the Web server component and the 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). The Census Server installation includes Microsoft Windows services (Mq Issue Agent, Mq Mail Integration Agent and Mq Evaluator Agent) that take care of the integration with e-mail systems, sending e-mail notifications as well as service level agreement tracking.
• Census Web (Web views)
  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 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.