Small Business Office Management / News: Recent posts

** 0.9.9 RC1 Released **

There are a large number of additional features, bugfixes, and edited functionality since the last time. Database has a number of significant changes also, so an upgrade is strongly recommended.

Key changes include a customer support ticket section, auto-clearance of 3 digit card security numbers and reporting functionality.

Please do give any feedback, feature requests and bug reports as and when you have them!... read more

** 0.9.3 Beta Released **

0.9.3 Beta is now released with some important bugfixes. Recommended as a download for anyone currently using the software. Upgrade scripts are present for SQL Server but not MySQL at the moment - changes are minimal, and should be obvious from reading the SQL Server upgrade scripts should users be on MySQL.

Any difficulties with the transition please contact me through the SF email address.... read more

*** SBOMPS 0.9.2 Beta ***

0.9.2 has a complete code (date formatting, syntax, tabbing and white space, database syntax compliance) cleanup, and a minor addition (can be used to hold business contacts as a separate status for customers).

A change has been made to /misc/config.asp, so if anyone is trying to keep up-to-date via SVN they should separately download the new config.asp from the latest release and manually update their file.... read more

0.9.1 sees the change of status for SBOMPS from Alpha to Beta. There are a number of bugfixes and some functionality tweaks, but realistically it has now been in stable usage by some people for nearly a year, and it seems more appropriate to move the project to Beta.

SBOMPS is now also on SVN, so if anyone is interested on helping develop / work on the project, please send me an email and I'll see what I can do.... read more

Another release not that long after the last one, and a "must upgrade" for anyone trying out SBOMPS. This is finally a release I am happy being alpha, and whilst there are still a lot of bits missing and probably a few bugs, it is basically functional in a real life situation now.

Enormous number of bug fixes and small implementations, including some fairly major modifications to costings in the order management section.... read more

This is the first Alpha release, and frankly I was not sure whether to keep it as pre-alpha at this stage. There is now a working order management section, though there is still plenty of functionality I would have loved to have released in this version (including invoice / receipt printing).

Still, this is technically functional enough for people to use, and most of the bugs seem to have been removed from the system. Most of my testing is on SQL Server, so please let me know if anyone finds problems in MySQL (or SQL Server) that I may not be aware of using the trackers on here.... read more

Due to uploading the new version and removing the instruction containing the username and password on the front page, no-one will have been able to log on to the test system in the last couple of weeks.

This is now entirely fixed and you can play around with the forms as normal - username "testUser" and password "testpassword"

Finally, it's out.

Lots and lots of additions - codes on VAT levels, item packages, mailing methods, mailing weight bands, mailing adjustment options, payment type administration.

This will hopefully be the final pre-alpha release, as the system is about ready to start working on an order placing section.

Happy Christmas / Holidays,
- Graham

Sorry to everyone interested that there has been such a delay on this release -- work kind of got in the way.

0.2.2 will be released this week, and will contain more "extra bits" than any individual version update previously. Hopefully it will be one stage behind something actually properly usable (with a properly working customer order system).

- Graham

Version 0.2.1 brings in a number of new features and a wide number of bug fixes and security fixes. There is now a product management section, including product types and tax brackets. Audit trails are now viewable in entirety in an "event log" table, where records are deletable by the master account and the master account only. There is a new access level: Warehouse administrator. This account level will have access to stock controls (not available to data entry) but not other management functions. Finally, the SQL Server installation is now in just one script, though as before a blank database needs creating first (deliberate to allow dba to specify database location).

0.1.2 pre-alpha now allows full editing of customer details, and the ability to add and edit addresses (including selecting which is the primary address for the customer).

There is also now full audit trail logging, giving details of what was changed and which user changed it.

Finally, all text display is now HTML formatted to prevent cross site scripting attack exploits.

Customers can now be added, looked up and viewed. At the moment the records cannot be edited, but both that and the ability to add new addresses to a customer will be functional early next week.

Mainly a bug-fix release, but with a couple of GUI tweaks, including a version number. When a new version is released this will be now be announced next to the version number of the software, provided the machine that the application is set up on is currently connected to the internet.

You can now test the system using the demo system available at the "Home Page" link for the project.

So far it isn't functional in its intended end-user state, but there is now a simple GUI and proper user administration, all fully functional and compatible with MySQL 5.0, SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005. Really just to show that the project is now fully underway.

The first screenshot, of database usage by the system in its early pre-alpha days, is now available on the screenshot section

Having got to the point where I can properly start development on this project, the specs document from which the first version will be generated is now available for download and comment.

I hope to start having sections available for download as I get through enough sections to make it functional to some degree.

Best Regards,
Graham