Upgrading Vector Census

Please read this document before you upgrade. It contains important information about upgrading Vector Census.

What's changed in Vector Census?

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.
Global Service Level Agreements
Do you need only one Service Level Agreement (SLA) for all or most of your users? The new Global Service Level Agreements is the right solution. If you would like to define an agreement that will be applied for all issues that don't fall under other agreements for users, departments or companies, select Global for who the agreement is with. To override the global agreement for specific scenarios, you can still define agreements for certain users, departments or companies.
Update the Choices in the views instantly from Web Admin
Click the Update Now button in the Choices editor (Web Admin) to update the choices in all Web views where the choice list is used. In previous versions, new or updated choices were only available in the Web views the next time they were generated, unless the Automatically Update List attribute was set to Yes for the choice list (in the Web View Editor).
Custom Macro Functions
In previous versions, when adding a new custom macro for e-mail notifications or queries, a new function had to be added to the MacroXX.bas file. When upgrading to a new version of Census, those functions had to be re-added to the MacroXX.bas file of the new version. For example, the custom functions had to be moved from Macro65.bas to Macro70.bas.
Since Census 8, custom macros that you create must be added to the CustomMacro.bas. The main advantage of this is that you will not need to move your custom macro functions to a new file when you upgrade to the next version of Vector Census.
Shared Projects are no longer suppored
Projects sharing definitions and styles are no longer supported. Please contact Technical Support for more information.
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.

How do I upgrade?

To successfully upgrade and configure Vector Census, you must be able to log on to Windows with a domain account that has Administrator permissions.

To upgrade Vector Census:

Back up the CensusServer folder and databases.
Run an Integrity check on your projects. How?
Make sure all users are logged off. How?
Upgrade the Census Server to Vector Census 8.
If you installed Census Admin and the Web View Editor on other computers, upgrade those components. How?
Reapply any Web view customizations. More info

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens to my old Vector Census projects when I upgrade?
Do I have to back up anything?
Is there anything else I should do before I upgrade?
What happens to my Web views when I upgrade?
What happens to my customizations?
Do I have to regenerate my Web views?
How do I upgrade the Vector Census components on the Web server?
How do I upgrade copies of Census Admin and Web View Editor installed on other computers?

What happens to my old Vector Census projects when I upgrade?

The Vector Census Upgrade program automatically upgrades all your Vector Census projects. This includes all your definitions (such as users, groups, fields, queries, sorts, layouts, and reports), and all your data (the issues you are tracking). Workflow rules are also upgraded.

Do I have to back up anything?

Back up the CensusServer folder.
If you have projects located outside of the CensusServer folder, you must back up those projects.
Back up all the SQL Server databases as well.

Is there anything else I should do before I upgrade?

Yes. Run an Integrity check on your projects.

Start Census Admin and on the Tools menu, click Integrity.
Select all projects and all tasks, and click Start.

Next, use the Logons Editor in Census Admin to check that all users are logged off. During the upgrade, users will not be allowed to log on.

What happens to my Web views when I upgrade?

The Upgrade program preserves your Web view definitions. After the upgrade is finished, the Web views must be regenerated. If the Web views are not customized, the Upgrade program will regenerate the Web views for you.

What happens to my customizations?

Certain Web view customizations have to be manually reapplied, in particular the ones whose files are in the CUSTOMIZEDFILES folder.

Customized Files Folder

The Upgrade program backs up your existing customizations by renaming the CUSTOMIZEDFILES folder. You'll need to review and possibly update your customizations to work with the new release. Then you'll have to copy your updated customizations to the new CUSTOMIZEDFILES folder before you regenerate your Web views. In general, we recommend you test all your customizations with the new version of Vector Census.

If you have customized the file CustomCode.bas, you need to apply your changes to the new version of this file. The new structure of the CustomCode.bas file makes it much easier to add, identify and maintain custom code in future upgrades.
The original functions of Vector Census are now located in the file MqCustomCode.bas, which must not be modified. You may refer to this file when applying your changes to CustomCode.bas.
Start with a copy of the original CustomCode.bas v8 (located by default in C:\Program Files\Vector\CensusServer\CensusWeb\Templates\View\HTML\) and place it in the proper folder inside the CUSTOMIZEDFILES folder. Make the changes to this file.
Refer to the Help for more information on the CUSTOMIZEDFILES folder and contact Technical Support if you need any assistance.

Custom Macro Functions

If you created any custom macro for e-mail notifications or queries, you added new functions to the Macro70.bas file. These functions must be moved to the CustomMacro.bas file, located in the project folder with the Macro70.bas file (for example, C:\Program Files\Vector\CensusServer\Census\).

Do I have to regenerate my Web views?

Yes. After you upgrade, users cannot log on until you regenerate your Web views. If you haven't customized the Web views, you can have the Upgrade program regenerate your Web views for you. Otherwise, you'll have to update your customizations before you regenerate the Web views.

How do I upgrade the Vector Census components on the Web server?

Log on to the Web server with a domain Windows account that has Administrator permissions.
Run the Census install package to upgrade the Census components installed on your Web server:
- Census Server
- Census Web Server
- Web View Editor
- Census Admin (if this component is installed on your Web server)

How do I upgrade copies of Census Admin and Web View Editor installed on other computers?

Log on to the other computers and run the original Setup program of Census 8.

For example, to upgrade Census Admin on a computer named ABC123, go to ABC123 and run the extracted Setup.exe or the compressed Census8.exe.

Only the Census Admin components are to be upgraded.

Other things to consider

Grant permissions to use the new features

The new features in Vector Census 8 can be enabled or disabled per user group.

By default, the upgrade will enable all the new features for members of the Admins group and disable them for the other groups. You can enable any of these features for specific groups in the Groups Editor (Security Tab, Web Admin).

The new features are:

Feature	Permits the user to
Add & Save Issues	Create new isues and save them
Copy & Save Issues	Create a new issue based on the current one in the Web view and save it
Email Conversation	View and manage the e-mails linked to the current issue in the Web view
E-mail Current Issue	Send an e-mail with a summary of the current issue from the Web views
Email Queue	View and manage the e-mails that are not linked to issues
Manage E-mail Templates	Create, update and delete e-mail templates that are used when composing new e-mails or in automated e-mail responses
Save Issues	Update and save issues from the Web views
Update Submit Only View Contact	Update the contact information from a Submit-Only View
Use E-mail Templates	Apply saved e-mail templates when composing new e-mails
Web Admin - Email Integration	Manage and configure integrations of Census and e-mail accounts for submitting issues by e-mail, linking e-mails to issues, automatic status by e-mail and more

Exchange Integration from previous versions

Exchange Integration is discontinued in favor of the new POP-based e-mail integration which provides greater functionality and simplicity.
If you were using Exchange Integration in a previous version, you need to create a new e-mail integration account in the E-mail Integration Editor in the Web Admin and ensure the POP3 service on the Exchange Server is enabled.

If the Exchange Server is running on a different computer than the Census Server, uninstall the Standalone Exchange Integration from the Exchange Server.
If it is in the same computer, it will be automatically removed during the upgrade.

Use the new field Add to Knowledge Base

The new field Add to Knowledge Base is added automatically to your projects and it is recommended to add it to the KB Query if you are using Knowledge Base views.

Since the KB Query controls which articles (issues) are accessible through the view, by adding this field to the KB Query, Census analysts have a convenient way to specify if an issue is to be accessible as a KB article. Typically, you will set this field to "No" to prevent the opened issue from being published in the KB view, and set it to anything else to have it published.

Note: If you add the field to the KB query, remember to export this field to the KB views and other Web views as needed using the Web View Editor.

Implementing Self-Service Views

Census Users can log on to Self-Service views. Contacts do not have a logon account and therefore cannot use these views.
If you already have Contacts that should have access to these views, you must convert them to Users. Users can also be synchronized with Active Directory users to effectively skip the logon page.
Self-Service Web views do not take up regular user licenses. Instead, 5 concurrent sessions are allowed per every licensed user.