Summary of Enhancements/Bug Fixes

Year 2000 Compliance

Solution

All dates in the system are still using a 2-digit year. Need to expand to 4-digits to get ready for the millennium. Affects date entry for reporting and polling and dates displayed on reports.

ProfitWare 2000 is now fully Year 2000 Compliant! However, the PC you are running on must also be able to handle the Year 2000 hardware-wise.

Site License

Solution

New pricing structures. Base price of software covers polling for 3 sites. Additional sites will cost extra.

A menu option has been added in order to get authorization for additional sites. This is a "grandfathered" upgrade. In other words, if you already have the software set up to poll 5 stores, you will not be charged for the 2 extra stores. But if you need to add another one, then the extra site fees apply.

Runtime error

Solution

An error message "Variable 'runtime' not found" is received when attempting to run the End-of-Day polling from the batch mode with the "/W" switch. (This is not a problem with the "/B" batch mode).

Problem fixed in Version 2.33

Invalid Path error

Solution

If the installation is for 1.2 EPROMs initially, the first time running the system after installation will generate an "invalid path or filename" error message.

This is a minor problem because if you specify "Ignore" to the error message, and then "Ignore" to the next error message, you can get into the system properly. The next time you enter the system, the problem is gone and you will no longer get this error. However, I fixed it anyway because users don't like to see error messages, even if there is a workaround for it.

Disk space hog

Solution

If using the "Print to One File" option, a user can easily run out of disk space if the PRTmmdd.TXT files in the \DATA sub-directory are not manually deleted on a regular basis. ProfitWare doesn't automatically delete these report/audit files.

Changed the naming convention on these files from PRTmmdd.TXT to PRTdd.TXT, thereby only having at the most 31 files rather than, potentially, 365 files. This will save considerably on disk space, and unless the user has a real critical problem with space, they shouldn't even need to deleted.

Reports

Solution

Bug reported by Data Northwest. The Historical Labor (Employee) reports will sometimes not report on some employees.

I could find no anomalies in the data from Data Northwest's customer that would cause 5 of their employees to not show up on this report intermittently (it depended on the particular date ranges). However, a slight change to the SQL code in the software produced the correct results, but don't ask why .... :-)

Micros PC1700 Bug

Solution

In Micros old version (PC1700 & EPROM versions 1.1x), two files (Operator Overhead and the List File) did not require a RANGE/ALL parameter when exporting (this had been a bug all along, since the documentation specified that the RANGE/ALL parameter was required, but it had been this way since version 1.0). With the new Micros version 1.20, Micros fixed this "bug" and the PC1700 now required the RANGE/ALL parameter. ProfitWare version 2.3 contained code to specify this parameter if necessary, depending on the EPROM version. However, when Micros fixed the bugs in 1.2 (labor problems & files that would not export), it introduced two new bugs in 1.21. Those two files reverted back to their pre-1.2 parameters (no RANGE/ALL) in 1.21. ProfitWare now has to take those parameters out again.

Implemented in Version 2.31

Calendar

Solution

The system should warn users that their calendar needs updating for the next year. Also, when updating their calendars, the system should automatically indicate what their ending day of the week is. Needs a little more error-checking also to ensure that the End Date corresponds correctly.

Implemented in Version 2.31

Batch EOD Processing

Solution

Version 2.1 implemented Batch processing (running End-of-Day from the DOS prompt with a /B switch). This enhancement goes one step further. Running from the DOS prompt with a /W switch, the system will poll automatically (as with the /B switch), but rather than return to DOS, the system will instead "W"ait for the next day's appointed time to poll again automatically.

Using the /W switch, the system will enter a "wait-state" after polling. It will remain active (i.e. it is NOT a TSR), but will sit waiting for the next day when it's time to poll again (automatically advancing the processing date). This will continue indefinitely until someone stops it by pressing the key.

ASCII files

Solution

Two ASCII files should have been affected by the batch processing option originally enhanced in Version 2.1 (and further enhanced here): the Food Trak Daily ASCII file (Rpt# 307) and the Current Items ASCII file (Rpt# 301). These two files can be requested to run daily via the End-of-Day processing and should have file names reflecting the date run. All other ASCII files can only be run from the Report menu and are therefore not affected.

The new file names are as follows: Food Trak: FTnnn_dd.PFT where nnn is the Revenue Center number and dd is the processing day of the End-of-Day. Current Menu Items: ITEM_dd.PFT where dd is the processing day of the End-of-Day.

Reports

Solution

Erik Wilson, from Data Northwest, requested a "Sales Groups By Category" report.

Implemented in Release 2.3.

Reindex

Solution

Version 2.22 modified the Reindex.EXE (to add some attempts to fix corrupted database files if necessary), but neglected to modify the same Reindex function from within ProfitWare's menus. If you run the Reindex.EXE standalone, the new features are there, but if you select Reindex from the ProfitWare "File Maintenance" menu, you don't have the new features. While I was at it, I also changed the two-column pick list ... see the description under "Pick List".

Added to Version 2.3.

Pick Lists

Solution

There are several places in the system where you are given the choice to select one or all of a particular option (such as Revenue Centers), but no way to select only some.

With this enhancement, you can now make multiple selections of Revenue Centers (where applicable). It also affects the "two-column pick list" for choosing files to Reindex. The selection of menu items (i.e. for history reports), however, remains the same (keeping the two-column pick list format), as it is also affected by sales groups.

New Version PC1700

Solution

Effective June 1994, Micros released a new version EPROM for the Micros 1700 and a corresponding new version of PC1700: Version 1.2 There have been several file format changes, most notably changes to the Setup Codes table, which would affect only ProfitWare customers that use the labor features. There are also two bugs in the Micros PC1700 software that does not allow the Employee file and the Tender/Media file to be exported. Until Micros fixes the bug, those two files will need to be inaccessible to ProfitWare, otherwise your End-of-Day polling will not complete.

There must be a new DOS environment variable set up in the user's AUTOEXEC.BAT if the user is using Version 1.2 EPROMs. Please be aware that every 1700 register being polled must use the same Version of EPROM and that Version 1.2 or 1.2R of the PC1700 Interface must be used if (and only if) the user has the 1.2 EPROM. The format of the DOS SET command in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file is: SET 1700EPROM=1.2 If you have originally installed Version 1.2, and then revert back to Version 1.1x, you must change the SET command to the following: SET 1700EPROM=1.11

New Modules

Solution

The entire system has been modularized for ease of Upgrades. It now consists of three .EXEs --- PW1700, PW17MAIN and PW17RPTS.

Implemented as of Release 2.3.

Color Schemes

Solution

No problem or bug. Just got tired of the pink color of the "Dialog Boxes" ...

New colors effective as of Version 2.3

Modem Problems

Solution

Some customers experiencing problems running other communication software directly after running ProfitWare, when using modems.

Added an "AT&FZ" directly after the hangup string ("ATH0"), to reset to factory configuration and/or NVRAM.

Modem Problems

Solution

Occasional problem with a modem connection: sometimes the modem fails to hang up.

The software checked for the occurence of an error, and did not perform the hangup function if there were. It should work that way some of the time .... any time that a connection has not actually been made, obviously you don't want to hang up the modem. But this was preventing the modem from being hung up every time there was an error. For some hardware configurations, this was not a problem ... closing of the COM port alone was sufficient to hang up the line. Apparantly, this is not the case with all PC configurations. The code has been altered to hang up only if it had connected in the first place.

Food Track Interface

Solution

Enhancement. Requested by Blake White, Capitol Cash Register. This enhancement has been requested a few times before, but no one ever followed up on it. Blake really wanted it, so here it is.

Two new ASCII file "reports" have been added to the report menu: ASCII - Food Trak Daily ASCII - Food Trak Historical The Daily interface can be run as one of the End-of-Day reports, thus automatically creating ASCII files for each Revenue Center to be used as input to Food Trak. The format of the files is the exact same format as what is output from the PC1700 interface. The naming convention for the files are: "FTnnn.PFT" in the \DATA subdirectory, where "nnn" is the Revenue Center number. Items that have had no activity and thus have zero dollars and quantities sold, will not be output. This avoids having unnecessary extra records for items that are not in use yet. The Historical interface asks for input of a date range to take the item information from the history file. Note that the date range corresponds to the beginning and ending days of the week, as defined by the user's calendar.

ASCII error

Solution

After ASCII files are created, a message is displayed to the screen, unfortunately, the message is displayed and then the system waits for a respones.

Fixed. Just displays message for 2 seconds and then continues with processing.

File Not Found Error

Solution

Bug reported by Greg Brown, Data Northwest. If an error should occur in EOD polling prior to the PC/IF being run, the file PC1700.ERR will not exist. Therefore, an attempt to print it in the audit trail gives "File Not Found" error message. When running in Batch mode, this is a major problem.

Put checks for the existence of PC1700.ERR

Reports

Solution

John Dunbar (POSTEC) would actually like to see Reports go to a file (one file for all reports requested at EOD). I told him if we did that, it would have to depend on available disk space. Probably wait on this for a while.

Done with Batch EOD processing in Version 2.1, 02/08/94.

Modem Problems

Solution

System sometimes did not realize that the modem had connected.

Added an 8 second pause after modem connection.

Database in Use

Solution

There was a problem sometimes in other programs because the Register Maintenance screen didn't always close all files.

Fixed in Version 2.1

Batch EOD Processing

Solution

Major Enhancement to enable the End-Of-Day processing to be run from the DOS prompt with a /B switch. This will enable users to run from within scheduling software totally unattended. This will mean that users will also have the option to put reports to one file so that they may be printed at a later date.

PW1700 can now run the End-of-Day polling process from the DOS prompt or from a batch (.BAT) file with the addition of the /B switch (with an optional processing date in the format of mm/dd/yy). When run in this manner, the polling runs automatically at the time and days specified previously on the Revenue Center Maintenance Screen. You can also optionally specify that you would like all reports to go to one file automatically for each date you run the EOD if you have sufficient disk space. The system does not check the disk space however, you should be sure you have enough before selecting this option (selected from the System Parameters Maintenance screen). You then have the option from the System Administration Menu, to print your reports ... the naming convention for the report file includes the date the EOD was run, so that they will not overwrite each other: PRTmmdd.TXT

Modem Problems

Solution

Occasional problem with a modem connection: sometimes the modem fails to hang up.

Pausing before issuing the "+++" command should take care of it.

Item Change

Solution

When refreshing from the simple item changes, get the error message "variable sysunit not found".

Fixed in Version 2.02.

Reports

Solution

An Enhancement Request from Planet Hollywood. They would like all reports that report on items or sales groups to be in numerical order rather than alphabetical.

Added two new reports: "Sales By Item (Numeric)" and "Sales By Sales Groups (Numeric)". Also the Historical Item reports can be sorted by numeric or alphabetic order also (includes the ASCII files) and also the input to the Writebar barcode software.