Problems - For other languages

I have just discovered 3 issues with LRO on a Spanish brother's computer:

1. Inventory Management is very weird.  It does not work right due to the way the dates are arranged in Spanish.  Instead of mm/dd/yyyy, it is dd/mm/yyyy.  This is breaking inventory management, and should have the same effect for anyone whose dates are not set like that...which I think is everyone except the USA.

2. Other Tools...when Restoring, it appears to be broke.  If your computer is any language besides English, PLEASE DO NOT TRY TO RESTORE FROM BACKUP. The backups are being created successfully, but they are not able to be Restored successfully.

3. Download Literature Updates is failing.

I will look into all of these issues and get a resolution ASAP.  It look like version 1.2.0 will NOT be the final version.  These need to be fixed and re-tested before LRO can be finalized.

Sorry for any inconveniences!

New Poll - I need your input!

Howdy everyone!

I've started a new poll in my support forum.  I'm working on that new feature...the "Which congregation handles stock orders" feature, and I need some advice on how it should behave.  I believe the first two choices will be right, but I want to make sure that is not confusing.

Please vote and/or share your thoughts on the matter in that topic (linked below):

http://literatureroomorganizer.freeforums.org/post77.html

Version 1.1.9 Released!

Changes to Literature Room Organizer include:

• New Feature: Inventory Management can navigate to previous months.
• Added: New Report...by Status.
• Added: Filter on Publisher Search screen.
• Added: Date range label on Mock S28 report.
• Added: Year can be selected for Mock S28 report.
• Added: On Mock S28 report, the month that falls under the selected date range is highlighted in blue.
• Added: Year on single Inventory Month report's header.
• Added: Blank choices to Report filters. In case you didn't know, you could select nothing for a filter and it shows you all instead of filtering.
• Improved: All reports were improved to have as much useful information as possible, and sorted in a logical manner. The Packing List form (S-74a) inspired most of these changes.
• Improved: Reports by Request Month accurately show only the choices available, based on other choices. For example, if 2009 is selected, it will only show Request Months that were made in 2009.
• Improved: "Download New Items" changed to "Download Literature Updates". It is now possible for me to push out spelling corrections and item symbols as I discover them.
• Improved: When marking an order as "Ordered", if you have Request Month turned on, it checks to see if the order is the correct Request Month, and prompts you if it isn't the most recent. The thought behind this is you mark an Order as "Ordered" on the month it is requested, so it should match the most recent ones.
• Fixed: Datatype mismatch error on Request Month report when switching years.
• Fixed: Brand new publisher can be moved to another congregation successfully.
• Removed: Inventory Management setting...it is now always on. Inventory Management is now mature enough to be reliably used by everyone.

Please use the improved "Download Literature Updates" on the Literature Items List screen to update your literature list.  Everyone should see 4 symbols added & 4 spelling corrections, unless you discovered and fixed these on your own...

The "Items to Order from All Congregations" on the Login screen will be REMOVED on the next update.  Due to the changes in how each congregation will handle orders, this feature will be worthless.  If anyone still uses it (maybe your method of ordering hasn't changed), you can use the new Report by Status to collect the same information.  Simply blank out the Congregation before running the report, and ensure "Unordered" is selected (it is by default) and you will achieve the same report.

NOTE: THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO SUBMIT FEATURE REQUESTS!

If anyone has any ideas for improvement, or found a bug...PLEASE let me know now.  Either email me or, preferably, use the Support forum and let me know what's on your mind.  After 1.2.0 is released, the only updates will be bug fixes, if any are discovered.  It will be a long time before new features are implemented.  After LRO reaches 1.2.0, focus will be set on translation, and afterwards, I get a nice long break. ;-)

Still on the to-do list:

• Inventory Management threshold (alert you when running low on stock items)
  
• TLA Import ability
• Which congregation handles stock orders?
• General consistency and cosmetic improvements.
  

New Link: Other Languages

Howdy all!

There is a new link in the navigation menu to the right, entitled "Other Languages".  Thanks to the efforts of 3 different brothers and a sister, we now have a Spanish edition of LRO's user guide! Soon, LRO itself will be translated into Spanish.  While I think a team of 4 people is plenty enough for the job, if anyone else would like to volunteer their help, please do not hesitate to contact me.

If anyone would like to see LRO translated into another language besides Spanish, and you have the time and resources (a brother or sister who can translate) to do so, then please let me know.  I would be more than happy to coordinate a translation effort.  All I need are volunteer translators.  :-)

Thanks!

Version 1.1.8 released!

Changes to Literature Room Organizer include:

• Added: "Show Completed Orders" on the Publisher Search screen.
• Fixed: "Download New Items" link on "Literature Items List" screen.
• Improved: Request Month report. Now prints in Portrait mode, with more info per page.
• Improved: Deliverable Items report. Now has grouping by Publisher, and sorts by publisher first.
• Improved: Minor costmetic enhancements on nearly all reports.
• Improved: All order management screens, including Inventory Management, now maximize to take advantage of the available space.
  

Got an idea? Let's hear it!

Howdy all!

As the last week of November (and LRO 1.2.0) approaches, the current features will be finalized, and a few more modifications and enhancements.  I will be taking that last week of November off of my secular work, and will use that time to go through all the code and optimize it and improve consistency all around.  Afterwards, LRO will be ready for translation to other languages.  At this time, only Spanish has been requested and has enough volunteers to accomplish.

What that means is once LRO reaches 1.2.0, there will be NO MORE big changes or features, unless it is absolutely necessary because of a change in the way the literature room works.  At least, not for a good while.  Of course LRO will more than likely undergo more changes down the road, but it might be FAR down the road.

So let's hear it!  Got an idea?  Wanna see something added?  Speak now, or you might have to wait a while...  ;-)

Please sign up in the Support Forum to post your ideas.  Or, if you prefer, e-mail me instead.

Thanks!

Version 1.1.7 Released!

Changes to Literature Room Organizer include:

• New Feature: Ability to choose how long to keep orders & inventory data.
• New Feature: Request Month Setting. Set what month it is and it will automatically be selected for you when placing an order. Very useful when used directly at a hall & especially with multiple congregations.
• Added: "Non-linked Items" button on S-28 builder screen. This shows you the S-14 items that are NOT linked to any S-28 field. Inactive items are not displayed on this list.
• Improved: Historical reports are now standardized. I make a change on one, all others are affected. This prevents duplication of work (on my part) when fixing/adding something.
• Improved: Request Month report more closely reflects the S-74 form. This will make separating orders by congregation very easy!
• Improved: Request Month is now the first tab on the "Reports" screen, if Request Month is turned on of course.
• Fixed: Request Month report now includes the year. NOTE: LRO tries to help: if you are in December, but put a request month for January, it assumes it is in the following year (which should be the case all the time). Vise versa is true too...you are in Jan, but mark as Dec, LRO assumes the request was for the previous year.
• Fixed: Request Month could be removed from an order. Now it cannot.
• Fixed: Request Month can now be used as a filter (on all the management screens that have a filter).
• Fixed: S-28 Builder...when deleting a field, linked items were NOT deleted. They were left alone, causing issues.
• Fixed: Progress bar when closing LRO with Automatic Backups on...the progressbar jumped backwards when it made the Automatic backup.
• Fixed: On Access 2007 machines, the ability to change sorting on the Inventory Management screen was broke.

I plan on taking the last week of November off of work.  During that time, I plan to finalize LRO (do some code cleanup & optimization) and therefore get it ready to be translated.  Spanish will be the first, since there is significant interest in it.  Will give more details on this later...

If it wasn't 12:39 in the morning, I'd say more.  But I think it's time to say "Good night!"

Progress Report

Howdy all!

I got to help out our Literature Coordinator yesterday with separating the two congregation's orders.  I didn't realize how much of a headache it was, even LRO didn't help much.  If we had been using the Request Month feature, it would have helped a little, but it needs work.  The Report for the Request Month has all the orders separate: with each publisher's name.  It would be more useful to combine the similar orders, like the "Items to Order for all Congregations" report.

So I have some work to do on the Request Month feature, and want to have this on the next release.  Changes that I have in mind are:

• Request month is on by default.  Really, I think all congregations would want to use this feature.
• Request month should be a system-wide setting, not per-cong.
• The current Request month should be able to be set under Settings.  That way if LRO is used directly at a Hall (like in our case), it will not be a burden to the users to remember what Request Month we are on.  They will not have to select it.
• Request month report needs to combine similar orders, per congregation.
• Request month needs to "recognize" the year.  Currently it does not.

I want to work on these features before releasing the next version.  I feel this is important to take care of sooner than later. I hope to have it by next weekend, pending no issues or personal requests for computer repairs.  It seems when computers break, they all break at the same time.  On the bright side, I get a little more spending money.  ;-)

Stay tuned!