Version 9.01

Upgrade Time

The upgrade time from version 9.00 should be relatively short.

There are NO mandatory web page changes that must be done when upgrading. One of the changes we made was to easily enable google analytics to be deployed in web pages footers. You may wish to review page changes for that purpose during the version 8 to 9 upgrade.

This is a WALKAROUND install that contains CRITICAL fixes for web security that should be installed immediately.

Key Changes in Version 9.01.04

The key enhancements in this version are the introduction of:

• A key fix to the web listener that deals with one possible security issue that should be dealt with as soon as possible.
• an easy way to include google analytics code in your web pages and e-blasts.
• the Hot Seat Analyzer that lets you find which seats are worth more to you and adjust prices accordingly
• Most of the rest of the changes are minor bug fixes and enhancements since 9.00 was introduced

Point Release Version History

Point releases are minor version fixes and small enhancements to any particular version.

• 9.01.00 - June 19, 2010

The following changes have been made to Theatre Manager since version 9.00

Web Pages and Eblasts

• A small but significant enhancement was made to Theatre Manager to allow you to paste your own custom google analytics code into a field on the Company Preferences screen. The purpose of google analytics is to allow you to track (free of charge) where customers come from and which pages they are using. If you have a google analytics account, then:
  • Change the web pages to add the custom footer we created (as per the bottom of this web page) so you can easily implement and/or change the use of google analytics in the web pages.
  • and add a new custom field to the bottom of each e-blast that will add the google analytics code to an eblast for tracking purposes. This field is found under 'current addresses' called 'Google Analytics'
• Fixed an issue where a new patron adding themselves online would get a random password assigned to them - and then they would have to ask for their password before logging in a second time. This was introduced in version 8.25 and is now corrected.
• Fixed a rare issue on OSX getting the local IP address of the machine if there were multiple NIC's and/or virtual machines that gave out IP's.
• In venues with multiple languages, you can now set the default language explicitly in company preferences. For existing venues, it will select the first language in the list, typically EN (English).
• Implemented an easy add of a patron to a mail list from an eblast by creating an encrypted token that lasts for a very limited time. When added to the link, it will automatically sign in the patron.

Patron Sales Processes

• Enhanced the USB credit card swiping process to handle french and some international keyboards. The information from the USB swipe was being interpreted by other keyboard layouts and the delimiters provided by the USB swipe appeared different. TM now adapts to the different delimiters so that users can change their keyboards and not affect the swipes.
• Added a permission when selling gift certificates. Normally the redeemable amount should be the same as the purchase amount, although you can sell a certificate that allows some 'free' bonus money on the certificate over and above the purchase price. This new permission will alert managers if somebody tries to change the redeemable amount from the purchase amount
• Fixed a performance issue when printing one or two tickets from a house account that had a lot of tickets. Previously, TM was taking some time to merge the printed date back into a long list of tickets. This has now been dramatically improved.
• Search by the name/company field no longer puts the search in uppercase. It leaves it in Caps case as it used to in version 8
• Fixed an issue that prevented selling held seats on the theatre map where a user did not have permission to sell the hold, yet had just been given that permission. This now works correctly. Previously, if a user tried to sell tickets that were on hold, but they did not have permission to that hold code, Theatre Manager would ask for a manager over-ride. When given those tickets were sold as expected. If the user tried to sell more seats with those same holds, TM would ignore any attempts to sell subsequent holds of that type until the order was closed..
• Deleting one of the patrons in a multi-patron household, or the last patron in a household will now delete immediately even if there is credit card or mail list information for the patron. This should make it easier to delete patrons with minimal data - yet if they have orders or payments, etc, the patron still cannot be deleted due to audit reasons

End of Day Processing

• Fixed an issue that would cause EOD out of Balance if the user duplicated a gift certificate. When ever the redeemable amount was set different than the purchase amount, the end of day would be out by the difference. This is now fixed.
• Changed how the next till balance and deposit numbers are retrieved from the database to eliminate the possibility of two people having the same till balance number

Facility Management

• Some minor tweaks to the interface to reduce the number of notifications while working on a calendar

Miscellaneous Changes

• There is a new tool called the Hot Seat Analyzer that helps you find out which seats are used the most in a give venue, or have provided the most revenue for a selected set of performances.
• Fixed an issue where customizing the field names did not always result in them getting updated throughout Theatre Manager until an update occurred
• Fix a couple of dynamic reports where the columns were not being set correctly - this corrects a bug introduced in version 9 because of the column dragging feature
• Fixed column sorting when the list contained hidden fields that could never be displayed.
• Fixed issue where TM could crash if there was no help available for a message notification entry in the list of 'today' tasks popped up by the facility management module reminder mechanism
• Fixed a display issue when the duplicate prices function was used on the event window - the prices were duplicated from another event, but the screen did not redraw, leaving the user to think that the copy did not occur - when in fact it had.
• Revised the 'Ping Computer' window to show the local IP address correctly under some circumstances
• The description of the customizable second 2 field in the marketing windows has been updated so that it is easier to find the name of the field when creating criteria in a report or in a mail list. it now reflects the name you give the field rather than a generic field name
• Fixed issue where exporting of data from any list for from the reports export feature was broken when column dragging and dropping was introduced. Export now works
• Fixed a cosmetic issue so that the word processor tools window will now go away when doing an eblast merge instead of floating on top. Cancelling the merge will re-open the tools window.

Things a venue may need to do

• Read all prior release notes back to the version you upgraded from and follow any instructions for each version under the subject 'Things a venue may need to do'
• Compare the new standard web pages and add the google analytics 'footer' to each web page as per the standard web pages. Do not make it to all pages, just the ones in the standard web pages.

Changes to Web Pages

Please download the web page updates and compare the web pages - but only if you want to implement google analytics page tracking. If this is the case, about 80% of the pages will need changing as below.

• Look for the lines at the bottom of the appropriate web pages that look like

  </BODY>
  </HTML>
  

• insert a line right above them so that the end of the web pages look like

  <!--#include virtual="TMtemplates/tmFooter.html" -->
  </BODY>
  </HTML>
  

There is a new page in TMtemplates called 'tmFooter.html' that you will need to put in place.