The Plumber / News: Recent posts

1. There are now 7 Custom Fields available (4 for text & numbers, 3 for checkboxes). Users may customise the labels for these fields and display or hide them it the New Prospect and Edit Prospects form using the new "Field Chooser" functionality (see below).
2. The new "Field Chooser" functionality enables users to decide which fields/columns are shown or hidden in the "New Prospect" and "Edit Prospect" forms as well as in the "Prospects", "Deals WOn" and "Deals Lost" tables.
3. The "Notes", "Next Steps" and "Comments" fields can now hold more characters.
4. Better handling of single quotes in user-entered variables regardless of Magic Quotes settings.
5. Editing Sales Stages, Geographies and Close Dates now works.
6. The "Submit" button is now displayed also in Internet Explorer in the Edit Product/Service, Geography, Sales Stage and Close Date screens.

These patches should fix the following issues:

Patch 1 for Preview 4c:

- "Headers already sent" error in some installations during login;
- Apostrophes in text input (such as client name) causing SQL errors when trying to save (if PHP's Magic Quotes is turned off);
- Users' assignments to geographies and products & services being deleted when the the user edits his or her own user profile (only if the administrator has restricted users from editing these assignments);
- Geography, Product & Service, Sales Stage and Close Date Names truncated in the corresponding "edit" screens if apostrophes are used.... read more

This release introduces the ability to add comments to sales leads. It also features a fully web-based installer.

This version combines the features and bug fixes included in incremental upgrades 1 & 2 for Preview 4, plus introduces a new userrole: "reviewer".

These upgrades enhance sorting options and add filtering options (and a few bug fixes) to the Prospects, Deals Won and Deals Lost tables.

THEY ARE APPLICABLE ONLX TO EXISTING PREVIEW 4 INSTALLATIONS.

These minor upgrade packages can be downloaded from the project's web page (http://theplumber.whsites.net).

Preview 4 introduces a completely new appearance, makes it possible to define sales targets by geographies and products/services, uses a new chart engine for analysis (including a few new analysis types) and fixes a number of bugs.

This patch should help if you are unable to add new Products & Services, Geographies, Sales Stages or Close Dates. It should also help if users keep getting the "username already exists" message when updating their profile. Download and unpack the archive, then upload the files to your server, overwriting the original files.

If you are getting various error messages when trying to log in after installation (likely if you are running on PHP 5.1 or higher) please dowload and install this patch.

Preview 3 brings many changes to the application both in terms of functionality and the "back-end". Here are some of the "highlights":

- A new, customisable "Sales Stage" field;
- The "Expected Close Date" field is now customisable;
- A couple of simple charts are now available under the "Statistics" option;
- Custom sorting is now available for the "Prospects", "Deals Won" and "Deals Lost" tables;
- The "Sales Stage" and "Close Date" fields have been added to the prospect tables;
- Users can now be assigned to products/services (in addition to geographies);
- Passwords are now encrypted in the database;
- Icons added to the interface for a more pleasent user experience;
- Form entries are now validated for security and usability;
- The code in many files have been tidied up and made localisable.... read more

This release includes some improvements and bug fixes that will enhance user experience, or whatever it is called. The most important changes are (drumroll):

- Separate "Deals Won" and "Deals Lost" views instead of the previous single "Recycle Bin" view;
- Text editor for formatting the "Notes" and "Next Steps" fields;
- Each user's geographies are now displayed properly when viewed by an administrator from the Control Panel;
- The "Date Modified" field now updates properly;
- Prospects are sorted by probability, lost and won deals by last modified date;
- After editing a prospect the original screen (Prospects, Deals Won or Deals Lost) is displayed.... read more

In addition to the current 'stable' release now the development version can also be accessed through the demo page (on the project's Home Page) - just to play with some new features and see where this thing is going if you feel like it... Needless to say, I'll take the liberty from time to time to screw something up well enough so that it won't be working at all ;)

There was a bug in the new contact fields that resulted in the text in these fields being truncated if it contained spaces (e.g. the contact name "John Smiths" would appear as "John", without "Smiths".

This has now been fixed, and the installation packages have been updated accordingly. If you would like to patch your existing installation of Preview 2b, you may download a patch from the project's Home Page. Simply unpack the ZIP file and upload the 2 extracted files to your existing intstallation (overwriting the old files when prompted).

Just a small change: contact fields (contact name, position, phone number etc.) are now available when adding a new lead or editing an existing one. There is an upgrade package available for existing users (in addition to the full package for clean installs). Read the upgrade/installation instructions on the home page.

It kind of works. Functionality is definitely on the basic side, but could be useful for certain applications. Security is practically non-existing.

In about two weeks (i.e. around the end of May) Preview 2 will be completed - and unlike its predecessor, it could even be used for managing sales pipelines ;)

Preview 2 will have almost all of the functionality planned for 1.0 (plus some extra bugs minus security...).

The demo section has been updated, visit the Home Page to enter it. Now I think there are more of those things that work than of those that don't!

The new website now features a demo section. Go and play.

The 1st preview release is available for download (visit the home page for installation instructions). Don't expect much - it's incomplete, unreliable, insecure and generally useless. So go ahead and install it!!!

The new home page is live now - it includes a documentation section, screenshots, a forum, a bugtracker and a downloads section. Go and explore, I wasted my Sunday afternoon on this! (OK, it was raining anyway and nobody was interested in keeping me company...)

Some more components have been completed (well, as far as the looks are concerned, that is), so there are a few new screenhots to admire ;)

just to prove that the 1st release in indeed on its way ;) - the 1st screenshot showing the summary of the sales pipeline.

Not much to see yet, obviously :). A project home page is being set up and the 1st preview release is scheduled for the end of March. So check back again soon...