What's New in version 9

HelpMaster Pro v9 is a major feature release that incorporates many new features and focuses on developing the user experience and enhancing the underlying technologies. Here's some of the new improvements and features.

Across the HelpMaster Pro product suite

Upgraded technology

Many components that make up HelpMaster Pro 9 have been upgraded to the latest versions. This not only boosts performance, but also ensures that 9 is the absolute latest in technology and software. Some of the internal components that have been upgraded are:

Crystal Reports 2008. This version of Crystal Reports include dynamic report filtering, improved charting and crosstab object, as well as a much better programming model. By upgrading to this version, report creation (both integrated and custom) will be a lot easier, consistent and powerful.
The text control for both the desktop and web interface.
The installation product used to deploy HelpMaster Pro
Many of the internal controls that are used by HelpMaster Pro

Desktop edition

Workgroup Explorer

The Workgroup Explorer screen now has the facility to group the HelpDesk Jobs based on any selected column. Thus the users can now click on the Date Logged or Priority column for example and have the Jobs displayed in groups by the selected column accordingly. Clicking a second time on the same column will reverse the sorting order of those groups which is also nice.

Extended Entity Linking

Every entity can now be linked to a range of other entities. In version 8 entities linking was restricted to single predetermined entities. In version 9 this has been extended to include Clients, Sites, Assets, Reminders, Knowledge Base, Job History.

Entity linking via drag 'n drop

The "Links" tab on each of the entities (clients, sites, jobs, assets, knowledge base articles) has been completely re-written to provide a richer, more interactive experience. Now each entity can link to other entities via a simply drag 'n drop interface. No longer do you have to search for an entity just to link it. Simply drag it from anywhere within HelpMaster Pro and drop it onto the appropriate section of the links control and it's linked. Easy and powerful.

Open multiple screens at the same time.

It is now possible to open multiple screens at the same time. This means you can have open 3 jobs, 4 clients, 9 assets etc. Great for busy helpdesks when you've got one job on the go, and another comes in. This feature compliments the drag 'n drop entity linking also. If you have 2 jobs open on screen, now you can simply drag entities from one to the other.

Everything resizes!

Almost every screen within HelpMaster Pro v9 is now re-sizeable. Jobs, Actions, Knowledge Base, Personal preferences, Administration. All of them, plus many more. Now you can size the screens to the way you like them, and HelpMaster Pro will remember how, where and in what state you left them. No more forced window re-sizing from the operating system.

A concurrency resolution screen

Now with the possibility to have multiple versions of the same entity on screen at any one time, the possibility of data changing on each of the screens has been increased. When this happens (either on a single machine, or across a network in a multi-user environment), HelpMaster Pro will display the new "Concurrency Resolution" screen. This screen will identify the changes to the entity, who made them and provide the user with a way to resolve any conflicts in the data. A great improvement in data integrity for the busy helpdesk.

Knowledge Base

The knowledge base has been improved so that now knowledge base articles can link to other entities such as jobs, clients, assets, site, and other knowledge base articles. The main knowledge base search screen now includes a full-text search as the default searching option. This allows for a more natural and powerful searching experience.

Client Management

Managing client passwords, Web Interface CALS, and Active Directory synchronization has been greatly simplified via the use of a simple pop-up menu on the client search screen. This pop-up menu allows system administrators to perform these client-oriented configuration tasks in one location rather than having to use the individual modules. The overall integration of modules in v9 makes for a much smoother and richer administrative experience.

The Job Finder

Once again the job finder has received a lot of work. The full text searching now ranks the results via a bar-chart "ranking" column, and search criteria words are highlighted in the results list. Custom fields searching has been included into the report-filter screen and a new drop-down box for Skillgroups and staff allows multi-sections possible.

Themes

Don't like the colours in HelpMaster Pro? Well now, you can change it to whatever you like! HelpMaster Pro now supports a colour themes that allow you to customize the look and feel of the entire application. You'll find the new themes selection under the personal preferences screen. The flexible, text-based theme files allow users to create, swap and share colour themes that they've made. There's even a "Theme swap shop" on the HelpMaster Pro website where you can download and swap themes with HelpMaster Pro users from around the world.

A new toolbar and menu structure

The menu and toolbar structure of HelpMaster Pro has been simplified and re-worked to give it a more streamlined, purpose-oriented look and feel. The toolbar now allows customization, so you can remove buttons that you don't use, or simply re-arrange them to work the way you want.

Additional control of HelpMaster Modules

The Modules menu has now been extended to allow the Active Directory administration and most of the Web Interface administration. Previously, this was limited to Email Manager and Priority Manager administration only.

An improved helpdesk history toolbar a new "Entity search" toolbar

The helpdesk history toolbar has been improved to allow helpdesk history searching against clients, client phone number or email, sites, and now assets. Right next to the new helpdesk history search is a new "Entity" search bar. This gives quick searching capabilities for clients, sites, assets and knowledge base articles.

An improved security model

The security model has been improved to include a more intuitive interface, clear explanations of each setting, as well as a logical grouping of similar security settings. These improvements make administration easier as well as providing greater flexibility in securing your HelpMaster Pro usage. In many instances, the security against individual actions and screens has been promoted to block access before any action has taken place. This is a change from previous versions where the security would activate only when trying to save work.
Many other small touches...

There are many other improvements to the entire product that you'll notice as you work with v9. The layout, the graphics, the drag 'n drop, the way the Issue hierarchy screen scrolls when dragging items around, the job number on the job screen, and many other touches are just some of the new features that help to make HelpMaster Pro v9 the best release yet.

What's new for the v9 Active Directory module?

The version 9 Active Directory module is almost a complete re-write of the version 8 code. Here's some of the improvements.

A new look, wizard style profile manager

Now it is much easier to create and configure Active Directory profiles. The new profile wizard will guide you through each step of the process in a clear and logical manner. Each distinct step has been isolated to provide a much friendlier user interface.

More control over the client matching algorithm

The version 8 Active Directory module matched Active Directory users to HelpMaster Pro clients via 3 fields - First name, Last name and Email address. This pattern matching was not adjustable and was not flexible enough for many users. The v9 Active Directory module allows you to pick from a list of different client matching patterns.

No more custom mappings, schedules and association of clients

The version 8 Active Directory module required a lot of pre-configuring to make it work. Most of this has been done away with. Now each profile has its own built-in client matching algorithm, as well as what Active Directory fields to map to HelpMaster Pro clients.

Run a full Active Directory synchronization without having to configure and run the service

It is now possible to perform a full Active Directory synchronization at the click of a button. This feature is great if your Active Directory data does not change often, or you just want a finer level of manual control of your Active Directory synchronization.

The ability to identify duplicates

Sometimes when the Active Directory synchronization occurs, duplicate HelpMaster Pro clients may be matched to the same Active Directory user. A new screen in the Active Directory administration allows system administrators to identify and correct these matches.

Integration with the HelpMaster Pro Desktop edition

All of the Active Directory functionality is now directly accessible right from within the HelpMaster Pro desktop interface. The new "Modules" menu allows users of HelpMaster Pro to view and configure all aspects of the Email Manager, the Priority Manager, The Web Interface as well as the Active Directory module.

Easier administration and visibility into the management of HelpMaster Pro clients

The client detail screen in HelpMaster Pro has been improved to display all of the relevant Active Directory synchronization information. In addition to this, the client search screen has new popup menus that allow system administrators a quick and easy way to manage their Active Directory relationship. Working with clients and Active Directory is much easier now.

More field chooser fields available for Active Directory

New field chooser fields are now available for the "Client" entity within HelpMaster Pro. By adding these fields to your field chooser settings, system administrator have greater visibility into the activity of the Active Directory module.

Better Windows authenticated logon for all HelpMaster Pro modules

The internal code for allowing clients to automatically logon to all HelpMaster Pro modules has been improved for a faster, more reliable logon.
Selecting LDAP paths for Active Directory profiles is faster and more flexible
Selecting LDAP paths for profiles is now much quicker with the Active Directory hierarchy being populated "on demand". This is good news for anyone with a large Active Directory hierarchy. Furthermore, it is now possible to manually type in a valid LDAP path instead of having to browse to it.

What's new for the v9 Web Module?

The version 9 Web Module has been extensively re-worked to provide many new improvements and features. Here's some of the improvements.
Technical improvements

The technical specifications of the web module have been updated to remove a dependency on the Microsoft .net 1.1 framework. The HelpMaster Pro web interface now relies exclusively on the Microsoft .net 2.0 framework. This means that the product is more stable and easier to update.
The internal architecture of the Web Interface has also been improved by the use of Microsoft "master" pages which make the product more consistent, easier to update and faster.
The web interface now offers more options for client and staff visibility into jobs. The general look and feel of the product has been updated to make it look more like the desktop edition, and a new toolbar allows easier navigation and job searching.
The Web Admin utility is better coupled with the Web Interface and the Web Admin executable now resides under the “Web_Structure\bin” folder. As a result, updating any setting/s using the Web Admin updates the settings corresponding the correct application configuration file. This eliminates the need of copying the web_structure folder (or the web.config file) from the (ie. “C:\Program Files\HelpMaster Pro\Web Module\Web_Structure”) to the IIS folder (eg. “C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\Web_Structure”) every time a setting is updated when the web module is hosted from IIS folder (as oppose to hosting from the HMP installation folder).

Administration improvements

All of the configuration settings for the web interface are now stored in the HelpMaster Pro database instead of the configuration file (ie. the web.config file). This means updated settings are not dependent on the location of the web.config file. Furthermore, because these web settings are now stored in the database instead of the web.config, changes can be made to the web interface without having the web interface restart each time a change occurs (note that any changes made to a web.config file are automatically detected by IIS which re-starts the application and the new design will eliminate this issue).

The Web Administration user interface has been redesign and simplified

The settings screen is now a tabbed page and the settings are better grouped and explained in a clearer manner.
Managing the Windows authenticated login options and application identify settings options are now part of the settings screen with much easier to configure.
Managing web clients is also improved – you can right click a client from the client search screen and enable/disable for the web access etc.

Usability and general product improvements

Job search facility is now available from “Popup” layout.
Entity linking has been extended to support linking to other entities (previously this was very limited).
Web Administration settings added to display clients their jobs their site’s jobs it’s sub sites’ jobs.
New graphics have been used throughout the product to give it a better look and be consistent with the desktop edition
Configuration -> Colour themes are no longer hard coded, they are now loaded from the “\Web_Structure\Stylesheets\Themes” folder giving the users greater control on creating/customising the look and feel of the Web Interface.