Release notes: 2018

Owned by Timothy Hitchcock
May 19, 2020
8 min read

Release: February 1, 2018

  • Licensing Modifications - The Licensing functions have been rewritten to avoid some of the complications that have occurred in the past. On the View Seats window, you can now see if a seat has been Registered or is a floating seat. You can also right-click one or more seats and clear them f you cannot release them manually. Modifying the license no longer requires using Run as administrator.

  • Project Budget Labor - Change Order Rate - On the Project cost form you can set a separate labor rate for Change Orders.

  • SOV Groups for Labor and Material - (in progess, not complete) When creating SOV records from Change Orders, you can split the SOV records by group

  • Notes and Links added to Parts and Colors The Parts and Colors forms have tabs for adding Notes and Links to each record similar to other areas.

  • Previous Printer Selection - When printing reports, each report will remember the last printer used to print and will select that printer when the Print button is clicked. This is a per Employee setting.

  • PO Receiving Shipment ID - A new field on Receiving records named Shipment ID can be used to enter in a Packing Slip number or similar ID. There are 2 new settings under Settings-->Options-->Purchasing titled "Prompt User for Received Shipment ID" and "Shipment ID Alias".

  • PO Receiving Log Moved - We've removed the hard-coded Receiving log button from the PO form and added a new Receiving Log custom report named "CN_PO_Receiving Log". The report is included in the CannedReport directory in the client installation directory. See the Help File in Crows Nest or on the web for importing report definition files.

  • Report Filename Templates - When exporting reports from the report viewer, the default filename can be controlled by adding a Variable to the Report Definition file named "Filename". The value will be used as the filename. The following placeholder tags can be used and will be replaced: , , , , . The ItemID and ItemDescription will reference the item the report is related to. For example if printing and RFI report, the ItemID will be the RFI Number and the ItemDescription will be the RFI Description. The Filename Variable will be saved with the report when the report definition file is imported.

  • Login with Windows Credentials - A new option has been added to the Login window titled "Use Network Credentials". If this option is used, it will compare the current Windows user to Network Login field in the employee file and login without a password.

  • Custom Protocol Handler "crowsnest:" - A windows protocol handler has been added for passing information to the desktop app. The folowing options are currently available: crowsnest:taskXXX, crowsnest:projectXXX, crowsnest:phaseXXX, crowsnest:phaseXXX-X, crowsnest:rfiXXX, crowsnest:rfiXXX-X, crowsnest:drawingXXX, crowsnest:drawingXXX-X, crowsnest:changeorderXXX, crowsnest:changeorderXXX-X. Replace the XXX with the ID of the object. Currently the option crowsnest:taskXXX will only work for tasks that can be round on the Tasks tab of the Project form. Providing the database ID field in place of XXX will work. Alternatively, where XXX-X is listed you can use the Project ID dash Item ID. For example to open Change Order # 3 on Project 1234 you can use "crowsnest:changeorder1234-3". For Drawings, use the Name field since Drawings are not numbered. If you are emailing a link using this protocol but the custom protocol is blocked by the web app, you can use the following url to open a new tab to open the protocol from the browser directly: http://link.crowsnestsoftware.com?q=phaseXXX. The value of the q parameter will be passed to the OS as the argument for the protocol. In a future release, the automatic email notifications will be formatted using HTML and may include links using this format so you can open CN from a link in an email or a browser. You can also use these links in PDFs and other documents so you can link directly to Crows Nest objects. Right-click an object in Crows Nest and use 'Get Link' to copy various versions of the link to your clipboard. The versions with the HTML suffix can be pasted to an HTML document as a formatted hyperlink, the version without the HTML suffix will copy the link address only.

  • Task Definition Chain-of-Events View - On the Task Definition form there is a new tab on the right side of the form where you can view the chain-of-events for all Tasks. It also supports drag-n-drop for defining task triggers. Drag one or more tasks from the list on the left onto a task or status on the right and it will add the trigger. Drag a task from the tree on the right back on the list on the left and it will remove the trigger.

  • Barcode Column on Manifest Items - A new column named Barcode has been added to the list of Manifest Items. It holds a string value up to 20 characters. You can use this is if you're providing your labels from an external source and want to use your own barcode. Each barcode should be unique but if there is more than one a scan will match the newest record, allowing you to recycle barcodes if needed. Updating the Web API and mobile app is required.

  • Pick Ticket - Allocated Column - On the Pick Ticket tab of the Inventory form, a new column has been added titled ALO which shows the qty that is currently Allocated.

  • Calendar Highlight Color - The default highlight color on the Calendar form can be changed by clicking on the link on the upper left corner of the calendar titled "Set Highlight Color"

  • Timeclock Record Approval - New columns are added to the Timeclock form for approving records. It will log who approved and when. It currently is open for anybody to approve a timeclock record as long as they can view the record on the Timeclock form. You can also select multiple rows and right-click and click Approve to approve multiple records at once.

  • Column Info on Query Form - A new tab has been added on the Query form that lists all of the information for each column in the database in a table format.

  • All Files View - A new option has been added on the Documents tab titled "All Files". This option will not load the folder list and will load all files in all project folders. Expect a wait time on projects with large amounts of files.

  • Process Estimate - A new tool has been added to create Phase, Drawing, Budget and SOV records from an Estimate. Right-click an Estimate and select "Process Estimate". This has replaced the older option titled "Add Budget to Project". The tool will load a list of each of the Top Level Groups on the Estimate for processing. You can use drag-n-drop to reorganize your Groups prior to running the tool. For Phase, Drawing and SOV, you can enter in the name of the record that will be created. Rows with the same name for each type of record will be combined. You can highlight multiple cells and right-click to modify all cells at once.

  • Estimate Material Substitution - The Substitution table has been completed. The Substitution table will load all materials present in the current estimate and group them by the Finish of the cabinet. Right-click a material to subsitute any one of the fields Part, Color1, Color2, Modifier or Amount. This will apply to all occurrences of the material in the estimate. The canned Estimate reports have been updated to honor these substitutions and can be imported from the installation directory. If you have customized estimate reports they will need to be modified to recognize the new substitutions functionality.

  • Estimate Copy/Paste Items - Right-click one or more Product line items and Copy to Clipboard then you can right-click the Product list list for any Group on any Project and Insert from Clipboard. Right-click any Group and Copy to Clipboard, then right-click any Group on any Estimate or on the Group area and Insert from Clipboard to create a copy of that Group in the new location.

  • Inventory Filter by Location - A new filter has been added on the Inventory form to only show items with current inventory in the selected Location.

  • Duplicate PO and PO Item - A new button on the PO Form next the New PO button allows you to duplicate the current PO. Right-click one or more PO Items on the current PO to duplicate them on the current PO.

  • Vendor Email CC - A new field has been added to the Vendor area of the Business form below the Email Address field titled Email Address CC. When emailing a PO this field is used for the CC field in the email composer.

  • Samples and Transmittal Alert - Open Samples and Open Transmittal Items have been added to the Alerts at the top of the Project Summary on the General Tab and will display the qty of items that are neither Approved or Rejected.

  • Multi-Column Sorting added to PO Items - Clicking on column headers to sort now supports multi-column sorting. Column headers will show a number indicating the sort order. Middle-click a column header to remove it from the sort. Double-click a column header to remove all columns from the sort, or click the "Clear Sort" link above the grid.

  • Renumber PO Items - The PO Item Number column is unlocked so you can edit PO Item Numbers. Right-click a PO Item and select "Renumber Items" and all rows will be reordered starting with 1 using the current sort order.

  • Collapse/Expand PO Data - A new button has been added to the top of the PO form that will toggle the visibility of the top half of the form where the information for the current PO is displayed.

  • Parametric Formulas for Products - Added formulas to calculate the Hours of a Labor records and the Qty of a Material record. This works for the default records in the Product Library as well as Customizations. Formulas will be processed as VB Script and you can use the variables shown in the Formula Editor window. To enter a formula, click on the link in the Formula column on the Labor or Material record. To force recalculate all products on an estimate, highlight one or more estimates in the estimate list for a project and then right-click and select "Recalculate Formulas"

  • Project Roles on New Projects - When adding a Project you can assign the Roles prior to creating the Project and also set the default assignment for new Projects. On the "Add Project" popup window, right-click the list of Roles to add/remove roles for the new Project and right-click to set/remove the default assignments for future projects.

  • FSC Product - A new FSC columns has been added for Product to store the Product Type to work with the newer FSC practices.

  • Manifest Item FSC Columns - The FSC Category/Product/UOM columns have been added to the Manifest Item table so you can track your Output for FSC items.

  • Printing from Inventory, Manifest Items and Part Lists - Select one or more line items on the Inventory, Part List or Manifest tables and right-click and Print. New Custom Report types of CN_INVENTORY, CN_PARLIST and CN_MANIFESTITEM have been added. Each report will be passed a comma seperated string of the individual IDs of the selected rows in a Hidden Text Parameter named InventoryID, PartListItemID and ManifestItemID respectively. Use these new types to more easily print labels for Inventory and Manifest Items.

  • Show Text on Toolbar Option - Each employee can click on Settings-->Show Toolbar Text to toggle on/off the text on the Toolbar buttons.

  • Report Parameter @CurrentLogin - A parameter named @CurrentLogin is now passed to all reports that includes the ID of the currently logged in Employee. This can be used to customize a report per employee or include information related to the current employee.