What's New in NetForum Enterprise 2017.1

NetForum Enterprise 2017.1 offers an updated user interface and form designer, integration of the Transaction Lifecycle utility, an updated Deploy Tool, and new xWeb methods. This document describes the changes and resolved issues for this version of the product.

Important! Version 2017.1.1 and the hot fix package 2017.1.1.1 are now available. Click here for a list of resolved issues in these packages.

What's New Overview

What's New in NetForum Enterprise 2017.1 includes the following sections of information about the release:

New Features

Resolved Issues

New Features

The new features are divided into the following sections, click a link below to go to the section.

User Interface

Accounting: Transaction Lifecycle Utility

Toolkit: Form Designer

Deploy Tool

xWeb: Accreditation Methods

Help

The following sections describe the new features added in NetForum 2017.1:

Support for Microsoft Windows Server and SQL Server

NetForum Enterprise Version 2017.1 requires Microsoft Windows Server 2016 and Microsoft SQL Server 2016. This version also requires .NET version 4.6. For more information about changes to the requirements, see the NetForum Enterprise System Requirements.

User Interface

The user interface (UI) has been updated for a more responsive, contemporary design.

The updated iWeb interface uses Bootstrap version 3 and Model-View-Control (MVC) forms to present the information in a modern and easier-to-use format. This interface is available for system navigation, and for selected profile forms in version 2017.1.

In this release, the following profile forms can be displayed in the MVC framework:

  • Individual
  • Organization
  • Constituent
  • Invoice
  • Payment

To see the change you must set the EnableNewUI system option to All or NavigationOnly, as follows:

  • Set the system option to All if you want to use the new MVC profile forms and implement the updated menu and navigation interface for moving between modules.
  • Set the system option to NavigationOnly to implement the improved UI for the menu and group item navigation, but want to retain the previous look and feel for the profile forms.

Accounting: Transaction Lifecycle Utility

The Transaction Lifecycle utility (formerly known as the T-Tool) has been added to the baseline code for the Accounting module. It was previously available in customized implementations.

The Transaction Lifecycle utility allows you to troubleshoot invoices and resolve discrepancies in invoices in closed batches. For more information, see Transaction Lifecycle Utility

Toolkit: Form Designer

A new Toolkit Form Designer provides an easier, more intuitive method to customize those forms that use the MVC framework.

The new Form Designer includes the following features:

  • Use to customize MVC forms in updated interface.
  • Drag-and-drop widgets and field onto the form.
  • View a history of form changes, including a snapshot view of previous iterations.
  • Roll back changes to a form.
  • Use any browser to design MVC forms (IE not required).

Deploy Tool

The NetForum Enterprise Deploy Tool assists you in migrating the NetForum database from a previous version to version 2017.1, by comparing schemas and metadata, and monitoring update scripts. For version 2017.1,

The Deploy Tool has been significantly redesigned for a better user experience and improved performance, as follows:

  • The interface has been redesigned to provide an easier-to-use, more intuitive experience, and online help is available directly from the interface.
  • Select a schema for comparison between an earlier version and 2017.1.
  • You can preview tables to compare them between versions.
  • There are a number of new filters that can be used to refine the change results. For example, you can view changes by add date, change date, add user or change user.
  • You can define a custom WHERE clause for the database comparison.
  • The following deployment options have been added:
    • Upgrade mode
    • Execute before upgrade
    • Clustered indexes
  • After running a database comparison, the utility allows you to view metadata differences by user.

xWeb: Accreditation Methods

The following web methods have been added for purchasing Accreditation products.

Method

Description
WEBCentralizedShoppingCartGetAccreditationFeeList This method retrieves a list of eligible fees for an organization for a particular accreditation program. The information returned can then be used by other web methods for an order that includes an accreditation.
WEBCentralizedShoppingCartGetAccreditationList

This method gets a list of accreditations in the system.

WEBCentralizedShoppingCartGetAccreditationListByCustomer This method gets a list of accreditations for a specific organization/customer.
WEBCentralizedShoppingCartGetAccreditationTypeList This method gets a list of accreditation types.
WEBCentralizedShoppingCartGetAccreditationTypeStatusList This method gets a list of accreditation statuses for a specified accreditation type.

Help

The help has been updated to include a Technical Portal. The Technical Portal includes information about Toolkit, xWeb, System Options and the Form Designer.

The help interface has been updated to reflect the changed UI, and to include a responsive design for use on tablets and other small-screen devices. It includes updated information on the new UI and other 2017 features.

Resolved Issues

The following is a list of customer-reported issues that were fixed in 2017.1. The Netsuite issue number is included for your reference.

In addition, issues that were addressed in service packs for earlier releases that also affected the 2017 code base are included in this release. For a complete list of issues addressed in service packs, see the Abila Knowledgebase.

Netsuite ID Description
17650 Membership report renders results not found in the database in Chrome.
18655 Forgot your password function won’t find emails with apostrophes.
18674 Adjustment is spelled incorrectly on Physical Inventory Count form.
19336 When useEmailForAuthorization is false, cannot update Web Login password.
19551 Subscription: Fulfillment Report Export - CSV does not include address fields.
19709 The Event Date in the top portion of the report gives 'error #' instead of the date
19740 When an invalid credit card is entered when purchasing a credit, the system does not display an error message , log a message or indicate that anything is wrong.
19995 When adding a Fundraising Gift, codes are not auto-populating properly when a Fund is selected or changed.
20048 Revenue Available for Recognition Report does not render from Period Profile or Reports Module - blank popup received after clicking Go.