[Odb-help] New, Minor Release of Organizers' Database (0.9.6c)

[odb-help at lists.democracygroups.org]

Dear ODB Users:

  It has now been 3 months since the last release of ODB.
Since that time we had 545 downloads of the software in
February, 488 in March, 420 in April.

  Well, time for a new release.  Version 0.9.6c, released today,
is a minor release with 9 small fixes.  If you upgrade, you will
notice that ODB will be a lot smarter at adjusting a donor's
default "ask amount" -- the dollar amt that appears as the first
option on a donation slip.  We also fixed a minor problem in the
feature for moving codes from the activities to the constituency
area, or vice versa.  And got rid of spurious duplicate warnings.

  If you want to upgrade, just go to www.organizersdb.org and enter
your information to obtain the new release.  ("Check for new
version" also works.)  Once downloaded, double click on the
odbinstall-96b file to run it.  This is just 4 mouse clicks for most
users, and you will be up and running.
 
  After a couple of weeks we will recommend that everyone
upgrade, by that time we will know if there were any problems
with the maintenance release.  Generally, 0.9.6b has been
super stable.  So if it "ain't broke" (i.e. the issues above do
not affect you) a good rule of thumb is "don't fix it."

-rich cowan
 for Organizers Collaborative




RELEASE NOTES (for version 0.9.6c)

Minor Issues Fixed
a) logic to adjust askamount upward and downward was not correct
b) text was missing to the left of the sort order buttons
   after a donation search, this text reads "Sorted by:"
c) Ms. appeared twice in pull down menu when Title feature
   was enabled.
d) When you had a carriage return in the clipboard as the first
   character, this data would appear in the zip code field
   upon editing an existing record, instead of the correct
   data.  This is a major issue but occurred very rarely.
e) Duplicate testing for entering new data improved, so
   that ODB will no longer issue spurious duplicate warnings
   when you add a hyphen to a last name.
f) Missing redraw of the code choices window, when you
   used the "Archive Code" feature in ODB to move a code from
   the issues, activities, or constituency area to a "SRC" code.
g) It was difficult to use the line2 feature in "Select
   Records" on organizations with names like "National
   Association of ..." because not enough characters were
   allowed.  Characters allowed increased from 14 to 25.

Documentation note: when you use the new feature to archive
or un-archive a code, then you return to the main menu,
the preview pane is not refreshed, and may not show any
new code values that were just added to the currently
selected record as part of your mass update operation.

Usability Enhancement
a) Clearer instructions for the situation where ODB detects
    that you need to run the latest updater to your database
    to add new fields that are needed for 0.9.6b.
	 
Major Issue Fixed
a) When you used the new 0.9.6 feature to move a SRC code to
   the "activities" or "issues" or "constituency" area, and
   you merged with an existing code, ODB would put the same
   activity code in a second time if it already existed, i.e.
   you might see "C1C3C3" which should never happen.