Version 8.15

Upgrade Time

The time required to upgrade varies on the number of patrons in the database with email addresses. If the database contains many of those, the upgrade might take half hour from version 8.13.

This is a walk around install.

Key Changes in Version 8.15.00

The following changes have been made to Theatre Manager since version 8.13

Things a venue may need to do:

• Obtain the latest version of the backupTM script and revise it using the instructions so that last backup date can be tracked and written back to the database.
• Any web listener set up to auto log in will need to be set up again. The encryption methodology was changed to support unicode database setup. You many need to clear the password settings located in the Theatre Manager preference file. You will need to:
  • Find the line with 'WebServerUserId' and remove that line
  • Find the line with 'WebServerPassword' and remove that line
  • Sign into Theatre Manager as the Master User
  • Go to Setup->Users and Access->Employee List
  • Find the web listener user ID and edit the 'Box Office' tab.
  • Click the 'Set Auto-Login' button to set up the auto login process again with the current password re-encrypted
  • Repeat the above steps on each machine that is to act as a dedicated web listener
• Multi language web pages will be supported in the future. If you want to support more languages, duplicate the 'WebPages' folder and add a two character ISO language code and then translate the second set of code.
  
  e.g. You would have a web page folder called 'WebPagesFR' and one called 'WebPages' in order to support two languages. Translate all pages in 'WebPagesFR' as appropriate.
  
  Note: only the web pages are translated. You will need to make sure that content within theatre manager is in a 'universal' language style such as naming the events so that it appears suitable on any web page in any language
• Implement the important changes for the pending HST consolidation in Ontario and BC if it pertains to you.
• Revise web pages if you wish to support the additional features. If you do not implement 'limited profile patrons', you will likely not have to change any pages.

Optional Web Page Changes

If you want to implement the 'limited profile patron' feature, you will need to download and compare some web page files. Please download the web page updates and compare your web pages with the template files in this mini archive.

The new files are below and should just be moved into the appropriate place in the htdocs folder:

• tmScripts/hideshowdiv.html
• TMtemplates/rowPatronEmailLImit.html
• TMtemplates/TmLoginForm.html
• TMtemplates/tmMailListQuickAddInsert.html
• tmMailListQuickAdd.html
• tmMailListUnverifiedEmail.html
• tmMailListVerify.html
• tmPatronLimitedPRofile.html

Web Page templates that changed in some way and need compared to your pages to see if a change should be made:

• tmerror.txt
• tmGifs/stylepages.css
• tmPatronUpdate.html
• tmScripts/pleasewaitformessagefunction.html
• tmTemplates/pleasewaitmessage.html
• TMtickets.html
• tmFutureTicketsPrint.html
• tmOldCartDetailsPrint.html

Tax Changes

There is a key revision to enable tax calculation on a per performance basis in the Event window

• With the pending PST/GST implementation in Ontario and British Columbia, we have been advised that events sold before the implementation date may have different tax rates on each performance.
• The tax rate may depend on when the actual performance occurs and when tickets are sold.
• For this reason, each performance can now have a different tax rate.
• This feature can also be used if some items in the performance list needs to have a different tax rate. For example, childrens' performances may not be taxable, or certain inventory items might have a different tax rate. You can set the tax rate on the event, then edit a performance to change its particular tax rate.
• Please obtain advice from Revenue Canada on the pending changes pertinent to your situation

Limited Profile Patrons, Web Sales, Email Subscriptions and Auctions

A significant new feature has been added to Theatre Manager called 'limited profile patron'. We heard that some venues may not always want capture name and address information on every patron during a web sale. This feature allows you to accept a web sale and specify which data is mandatory before allowing the patron check out. It can range from as little as name/email to the same full requirements as the box office.

If implemented, this feature is designed to allow a patron to buy tickets, provide only sufficient information to get them their tickets, and checkout. If they buy again, they would need to provide the same information. For example: if all tickets are print at home or held till willcall, you only need patron name. If you still want to mail tickets, you will need to make address mandatory.

If the 'limited profile patrons' feature is enabled in System Preferences, the following will apply:

• Patron still has the option of logging in to an existing account to see prior purchases.
• A new patron will always be created if they choose the quick checkout process and provide their name, email, address, etc. again
• A check is always made using the email address. If it already exists, this 'new' patron will be added to the existing household. If the email does not exist, a brand new household will be created.
• A patron who checks out as a 'limited profile patron' has no login credentials. Ordinarily, this means they cannot log in and see past purchase history. However, if they visit the web site and ask for their password to be emailed, they can log in and purchase again. If they log in, they will be required to complete the patron information that thy did not complete the first time. If they never log in and simply buy again, they will have to provide their name each time they checkout.

• At the box office, 'limited profile patrons' are indicated on the patron list using a new icon. If you edit the patron card for one of those patrons at the box office, you will then have to complete the missing information before the data can be saved.
• You will need to implement a feature to find and merge 'limited profile patrons' on an ongoing basis if you allow the feature.

Limited Profile Patrons also allows quick sign up to any number of mail lists by providing only name and email info without signing in.

• This feature can be implemented as a simple form and sent to the web listener from anywhere. Please refer to the samples in the web page tmMailListQuickAddInsert.html - you need to set up a form to tell TM which emails to subscribe the user to.
• If the patron was not logged in when they subscribed to a mail list, they will receive an email asking them to confirm their subscription to the mail list
• If they do not confirm their subscription to the mail list(s), they will automatically be removed from the mail list after a specified number of hours (default 24) in Company Preferences. This occurs during the end of day process when other web information is purged.
• If the email address exists, the patron in the database will be added to the mail list. If the email address does not exist, a new 'limited profile patron' will be created.

There is a convenient quick-add feature that simply creates a patron by swiping their credit card. We think this might be used during the admittance process for Auctions. The process works as follows:

• You start by setting the Patron List window to search by credit card.
• If you swipe a credit card, it will find the patron based on their previous card number.
• If the card number does not exist in the database, then TM gives you an option to quick add the patron attending the auction.
• Patrons added in this will be a 'limited profile patron' that has the name on the card along with their credit card on file stored in the database.
• If there are bid packets, you can give the patron the patron number that was created during the swipe process.

From this point forward, you can sell auction items to this patron using the auction process. Note: as with any limited profile patron, if you edit their actual address data, you will be required to provide the minimum information normally required of the box office.

Backup Reminders

A field was added to the database to track the date and time that last backup that was done. A message will be displayed to the user whenever backups are deemed not to have run recently based on a setting in System Preferences that can range from 1 day to 7 days.

The backup script must be updated with a couple of commands to use this feature as it simply tells the database after the backup is completed.

Payment Processing and Credit Cards

• You can now specify the number of elapsed days before receiving a warning from Theatre Manager that you have not settled your credit card batch. It was previously 3 days and can now be specified in Merchant Setup
• Post dated payments can no longer be created for a date in the past. After all... they are post dated.
• Adding support (currently test only) for Paymentech Orbital credit card authorization. This requires a merchant account be set up for Paymentech. The authorization option will only handle 'card-not-present' with address verification and CVV2. It will not support swiped credit cards and is intended for venues that sell large numbers of tickets simultaneously (eg a concert in a large venue with lots web sales capability). We are making you aware of this upcoming capability because it may allow you to adopt schedule 'C' compliance by shredding cards in Theatre Manager and letting Paymentech handle that portion of PCI compliance at their venue. Also note that the feature is still in test mode as of version 8.15.01 and not available for general use.

Web Listeners & Web Sales

• Revised the web listener interface so that when somebody logs in on the web site, any prior entries in the web listener log on the screen will change from 'Anonymous Browser' to the patron's name. This will only affect the display on the listener that handles the login request (normally the primary listener)
• Viewing any detail entry on the web listener log now re-reads the log from disk to get the current patron information and log data. This was done to provide more information to the user.
• Cosmetic change to the listener log to convert local IPv6 address to 127.0.0.1
• If a patron manages their own profile on the web, their formal and greeting names are now updated automatically subject to the same rules at the box office.
• Fixed an issue with the &search filter for limiting the events that are seen on the event list

Other Feature Enhancements and Bug Fixes

• Fixed a display issue that might arise on the insert patron window if that was the first time they opened the patron window after logging into Theatre Manager. TM will now always display without the bottom area showing the ticket list.
• When setting up timed release holds for a patron, the settings for the default the hold expiry date now uses a custom setting from the employee preferences. The minimum is still one day.
• Donation receipt date can now be backdated up to 3 months relative to the payment date for those that batch donations quarterly. The previous rule was within a month because we recommend entering donations as they occur and not saving them up.
• On the payment window, the button now changes from 'Accept Payment' to 'Create Refund' depending on the value of the payment, not the order.
• The payment window on PC's now handle credit card swipes properly. They only need swiped once to send the correct information to the credit card provider
• Calendar filters have been simplified for venues without Facility Management. You can now see ALL events, tasks, and volunteer activities just like version 7.
• Calendar filters have been clarified for venues with Facility Management so that you can now see events in specified venues, task for specified people, and schedule items in a room to handle room booking, as well as many other features that are new to the facility management module.
• Altered the way that Ping finds the outside ip address of your router by sending a message to our demo listener and getting the IP address back. It previously used Whatsmyip.org who recently made it impossible for a web page to read the IP address.
• The ticket detail window now shows the IP address and scan date/time of the scanner that checked the patron into the venue
• Company Preferences now shows date last deposit, date last posting and the last order number that was posted for audit and tracking purposes
• Queued and saved report access settings are now saved in the employee setup
• When increasing the size of a venue, Theatre Manager now allows you to deal with reseating the venue first - then adding the reserved seat names when that is done.
• Fixed a specific issue where tickets with the price code description field on the ticket face (PC_DESCRIPTION) might take a number of seconds for each one to print. This is no longer the case.
• Fix issue where order notes would not show on the shopping cart detail window.
• Fixed issue where users may not have access to the tickets tab on the patron window. This would occur of 'patron' edit access was removed from the employee
• Fixed issue where, in certain situations, saved report criteria would not load correctly. This would result in reports that display strange formatting and missing data.
• Resolved issue where restoring saved criteria on the export window would result in duplicate export fields.
• Fixed a bug on printing a PDF of a report on windows that was introduced in version 8.14 during a number of Unicode changes.