TimeCard – latest revision history and current file versions

TCHomePage.htm

Latest revision history

• New feature in the Workgroup version: Report on behalf of.
• TimeCard does no longer give an error message when Outlook reacts slowly, and Outlook does not have to be restarted.
• TimeCard is now compatible with the not yet released iCalendarTimeCard for iOS devices.

• The appointments metadata on the To-do bar was not refreshing properly.
• Some users were not able to open TimeCard Personal Settings, TimeCard Reporting and TimeCard Statistics when the option “Resize drop-down fields to available space” was enabled.
• If “Enable E-mail/Domain settings” was enabled and if the user first opened the Emails tab and then the Person tab, when the user selected the Person list it started to give popups of the metadata list.
• The old brand name kalmstrom.com Outlook solutions in the TimeCard client tool was changed into kalmstrom.com Business Solutions.
• The Personal Settings of the Single version is dependent on the file comdlg32. It is normally present on PCs as it is a Microsoft redistributable component, but if it was not TimeCard gave an error. Now this ocx file is added to the setup.
• If the TimeCard Enable email/domain setting was checked the TCCOmmonSettings.exe did not preserve the Admin specified option. At each exe start it showed the option checked.

• The ”Mark new appointments with default metadata” option is added to this version also (refer to update of Single version 3 May).
• The “Write Time Card data in subject” feature is changed. Earlier TimeCard data was not added to the subject if a subject was already present. Now TimeCard will write metadata in the subject also when it already has text and separate subject and metadata with ::. It will look like this: “metadata1, (metadata2), (metadata3)::Subject”
• The Common Settings dialog did no longer fit in a 800x600 screen. This is now fixed.

• If metadata contained a space at end, it was not possible to set appointment metadata properties in Outlook. It also gave a run time error in TCCommonSettings.exe. This error came came when data was entered directly into the database not by TCCommonSettings.
• Earlier TimeCard Workgroup inserted all appointment records into the database and then updated its status into TCReporting and Outlook. If the connection was lost in between, the appointments status was changed in TCReporting and Outlook, which lead to double posting of appointments into the database. Now TCReporting will update appointment POST status in the list and also in Outlook after each database entry.
• A run time error was coming when users installed TimeCard and opened an appointment into a new window without saving Personal Settings first time, or when Personal Settings did not have any metadata selected.

• Added the possibility to export appointment body into the Excel sheet, when reporting. A check option 'Include appointment body into Excel' is available in the TimeCard Personal Settings dialog, which can be used to toggle the inclusion of this field. By default, it is unchecked.
• For TimeCard metadata lists of more than 1000 items, a new button (i.e., 'more...') will become visible just adjacent to the Metadata combo drop down control on the ribbon (for Outlook 2007 or above only). Clicking this 'More...' button opens a dialog box where it lists all the available items of the metadata list (>1000) and the user can select one of it. This is implemented as a workaround to the limitation of 1000 items in the drop down control in Office Ribbon.

• If the auto-add option of TimeCard properties to the client system is enabled in TimeCard Common Settings, changes (eg. add/remove/edit) of metadata values in Common Settings were not reflected in the client system even if the client Outlook was restarted. It was only updated if the user ran TimeCard Personal Settings or if Outlook was restarted twice. This is now fixed.
  
• Also, newly added items that were added by auto-update were not sorted alphabetically on first opening. Now the items in the drop downs are sorted from the beginning.

• Sorting issue in TCPersonal Settings when reporting was set to an ASP page.
• If 3 meta data were used, and if the option "Write TimeCard data in subject" was enabled in TimeCard Personal Settings, only the first chosen value was written in subject of the appointment.
• Wrong encoding in the category/super category tree in TimeCard Common Settings as well as in the default value for empty field, Count Cost etc. resulted in containing a string like "????????" instead of the actual (Unicode) characters.
• For the metadata by which costs were counted, the tree in Common Settings showed only one level. This error happened when the Metadata list contained category, but not super category and the data was pasted from an Excel file. If the user input directly on the spreadsheet, there was no error.

• In Outlook 2007, users with Greek or Hebrew or Russian languages in OS, might not be able to add/edit anything in the appointment fields and the whole screen (inspector window) might appear locked or frozen. This was due to certain bugs in the 3rd party Outlook redemption library that we make use of in TimeCard. As
TimeCard now supports non-Latin characters such as Hebrew or Greek in the metadata lists, TimeCard Personal Settings is also updated to support Unicode, in the listbox (where the user can select their metadata lists).


• The TimeCard addin is modified to add support for Office 2007 ribbon. Now when you open an appointment, instead of having the TimeCard drop down fields in the right pane, you will find them under the Ribbon portion.
  
  
• Overflow in TimeCard Reporting tool - Under Personal Settings, if the 24h Events option is uncheck and the option "Convert whole day events to hours" is enabled, an overflow error comes up when reporting if the entered number is greater than 24 (24 hrs).
  Solution: In TimeCard Personal Settings, the maximum value one can enter in the 'Convert whole day events to hours' is restricted to 24. Also, the maximum value one can enter in the 'Remove lunch time from appointments than 7 hours' is 7.

•  If you have upgraded to the previous TimeCard (workgroup, one with TCPersonalSettings.exe - version 4.3.0.303), the personal TimeCard settings might be saved under a different registry location (having a long Chinese characters).This is now fixed.
  
  
•  Warning message remained after database was selected in TimeCard Personal Settings tool. When running TimeCard Personal Settings and if the reporting path was invalid or not set, a message appeared asking the user to specify the path to the TimeCard Workgroup database. But even after selecting the correct TimeCardConnection.txt file, the message box remained. 

• Fixed error due to corrupt OWC11 in project file.
  
• In the TimeCard Reporting tool, clicking on one of the rows, and then scrolling down resulted in the dropdowns staying on the original position while the grid was scrolled.
  
• If the TimeCard Reporting tool had a long list of rows (longer than the dialog's height), scrolling down till the end resulted in the hiding the last row partially.
  
• Fixed the error in OLAP Reporting Tool that came when a user did not have permission to create the license file under the Program files folder. This typically happened on Vista and Win7. Now TimeCard will create the license file 'olap.license' under 'My Documents, in a 'My Olap' folder.

• If you updated to the last version of TimeCard Workgroup, you might get an error when running TimeCard Reporting tool (TCReporting.exe): "Component 'OWC11.DLL' or one of its dependencies not correctly registered: a file is missing or invalid" This was due to corruption in the project build process (and only in the TimeCard Reporting tool), and is now fixed.
• The personal settings dialog now appears in minimized mode when starting up.
• Background color of some controls in Personal Settings did not blend exactly with the form.
• The super meta-categories tree in Common Settings should only be shown for TimeCard values that has category and super category. But if you chose to have metadata for Customer but not for Task, the tree was still shown when you selected the tasks.
• The controls in the license dialog form did not fit in properly.
• In certain language such as Swedish, certain phrases did not fit the control.

• New expense fields (5 in numbers) available in Calendar appointment. The titles for the fields are customizable to suit your line of requirements. These can be activated from the Personal Settings. Once activated, the user will see a new additional button 'Expense' in the TimeCard toolbar. Click this button, will popup a form to enter the expense related data. These fields are available for reporting to the database, as well as in the cube (for statistics).
• Now, you can use TimeCard with any calendar, other than the default (including shared ones or secondary mailbox calendar). The TimeCard toolbar will be visible to all calendars. To report appointments of the particular calendar, just run the reporting dialog. Note: To be able to report appointments from a shared or secondary mailbox calendar, the user needs to have editor or higher permission on that calendar, otherwise, reporting will fail.
• Mandatory Metadata fields - A new option 'Make all TimeCard meta fields mandatory' is now available in the Personal Settings. With this settings, the user is restricted from leaving any meta fields empty when tagging appointments. If the user does not fill all the mandatory field, TimeCard addin will prompt the user if to try again or discard the changes to the appointment. Exception: Appointments marked 'private' are however exempted from this mandatory check.
• With version 4.3, TimeCard uses redemption Outlook library to bypass certain Outlook security restrictions (which otherwise are not possible using the object model of Outlook). Now, TimeCard can report the note field (body) of an appointment at any length (full body content). (SafeKalmstrom.dll is now installed to the TimeCard for Outlook program files folder)
• Excel report export - When user clicks the excel button in the Office web component (OWC) grid, an excel report is prepared for all the appointment listed under the TimeCard Reporting grid. This excel report is saved as Report.xlss under 'My Documents\My TimeCard' subfolder.

• Now, you can use TimeCard with any calendar (including shared ones or secondary mailbox calendar), not only the default one. The TimeCard toolbar will be visible to all calendars. To report appointments of the particular calendar, just run the reporting dialog. Note: a) To be able to report appointments from a shared or secondary mailbox calendar, the user needs to have editor or higher permission on that calendar, otherwise, reporting will fail. b) To be able to report appointments which are already tagged with TimeCard metadata in a shared calendar, the user needs to have the same selection of the metadata lists as that of the mailbox's owner (calendar owner).
• Auto update of the TimeCard Client Tool - When the administrator has upgraded the workgroup files in the network share to the new TimeCard, the existing TimeCard client addin in Outlook would automatically check and compare the version and if a newer version is available, it would automatically run the client tool setup to perform the upgrade, after prompting the user. (version.xml file is introduced in the TCWG network shared folder with version 4.3 of Timecard)
• Silent Installation - If the existing TimeCard addin detects a newer version (from the TCWG workgroup folder) it will be run in silent mode, that is, there will not be any dialog forms. However, it is recommended to shutdown Outlook, once you have clicked 'Yes' to the auto-update confirmation message. (Silent installation works by passing the TimeCardClientTool.iss, which is available under 'My Documents\My TimeCard' folder. Note: silent installation will work from version (both minor or major updates) available after 4.3)
• Mandatory Metadata fields - A new option 'Make all TimeCard meta fields mandatory' is now available in TimeCard Common Settings, with which the TimeCard administrator can restrict users from leaving any meta fields empty when tagging appointments. If the user does not fill all the mandatory field, the TimeCard addin will prompt the user if to try again or discard the changes to the appointment. Exception: Appointments marked 'private' are however exempted from this mandatory check.
• With version 4.3, TimeCard uses redemption Outlook library to bypass certain Outlook security restrictions (which otherwise are not possible using the object model of Outlook). Now, TimeCard can report the note field (body) of an appointment at any length (full body content). (SafeKalmstrom.dll is now installed to the TimeCard client tool program files folder)
• Hiding Report button - the TimeCard admin can also set a local registry value in each user’s system, such that it can be used to enabled/disabled the reporting button in the TimeCard Outlook toolbar. This scenario would be important particularly, if the organization already has an in-housed tool that process the timecard appointment of the users directly from the Exchange Server. To use this feature, just add a new key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Kalmstrom.nu\TimeCard\Settings\HideReport and set its value to 0 or 1. (0 - show report and 1 - hide report button)
• Excel report export - When a user clicks the excel button in the Office web component (OWC) grid, an Excel report is prepared for all the appointment listed under the TimeCard Reporting grid. This excel report is saved as Report.xlss under 'My Documents\My TimeCard' subfolder.

• TimeCard properties added in the Common Settings can now be set to be added automatically to the client system. This way, the client does not have to run the Personal Settings manually to select those new additions (tags) from the workgroup database. This option can be enabled/disabled in the TimeCard Common Settings dialog ("Enable Auto-add of TimeCard properties").
  
• The Statistics button in the client users can now be disabled (made invisible). This is possible only when the admin has selected Person as cost-carrier and the rate is specified by admin. Doing so, a new option 'Hide Statistics' will be available. Checking it will populate the choice to the Personal Settings automatically. (The users don't have to run the Personal Settings manually, as checking will be performed automatically during startup). 

• New option in the TimeCard personal settings 'Resize drop down fields to available space'. Checking this option will allow the TimeCard addin to use the maximum available space in Outlook, thereby increasing the width of the drop down fields to accommodate lengthy values.
• Fixed the the progress animation visibility in TimeCard reporting even when the reporting has finished.
• Tooltip now enabled when mouse hovers around the drop down fields (so that selected value that is longer than the drop down is shown as tooltip for better recognition)
• The checkbox 'Admin specified' in TimeCard common settings, now enlarged to accommodate all language phrases.

1. By the admin ‒ there is a checkbox "Admin specified" just below the cost carrier drop down. Checking this checkbox will allow the admin to define the hourly rate of each TimeCard user, and the users will not have the option to define their own rates in their personal settings. A new tab ("Persons") is loaded/unloaded as soon as the checkbox is selected/unselected. Only the category and rates fields are editable. No person can be added as well.
2. By the person ‒ the same as it used to be, each user specifies her/his rate in the Personal Settings. 

• When using the reporting via ASP option in a client, the reportPath.txt file available under 'My Documents\My TimeCards' is deleted. This reportpath.txt stores the TimeCard workgroup folder (shared folder), and is not required in ASP reporting option.
• The trial period is now extended to 30 days

• Language options: each user can select the language of the operating system or another of the supported languages.
• Default value for empty fields: once the administrator has enable this option, if a user reports an empty field it will automatically take the data set default by the administrator.
• A location field in tblReports. When a user reports time, the location field will be transferred as well.
• Start-time is added in tblReports: when the user reports an appointment, the time of the appointment is also reported
• A new table included, tblPlanning (identical to tblReports). When a user reports time
  ‒ all entries for this person are deleted from the tblPlanning
  ‒ the user’s calendar entries from the latest post and for the next 12 months are posted in the tblPlanning. Same rules and settings apply as in a normal reporting.

• We want to adapt to and take advantage of changes in the Microsoft software we build on.
• When we receive reports about bugs we fix them as soon as possible.
• Of course we also try to add new features that our customers ask for.