We just released first component of a SEO overhaul of C9 powered websites.

The changes are automatic and require no action or maintenance.  We are hoping that  these modifications will lift search visibility of c9 powered websites over coming weeks.

Similar changes for aussiebikefinder.com.au have also been implemented.

A second set of changes will be delivered shortly, which will also incorporate modifications in c9 itself to help sophisticated web site managers squeeze more out of their website.

Note that if you are using an iframe to host c9 content, then it is unlikely you will get any advantage from recent changes.  Broadly, SEO is the responsibility of your 'main' website. so many of the key changes only apply if c9 host your entire website.

Includes database changes. c9 will force you to log all terminals out during upgrade

• Fixes to selling units on finance
• When using cash customer deposit, system would not consume deposit on cash account. Now fixed
• Transaction record written against finance company was GST exempt. Now fixed.  Also, GST on account sales was incorrect and not including ORC GST component. Note that this does not represent a bug on business reports.  Only 'GST' on account transaction; which is non-functional, deprecated, and only used in one part of c9, and only for visual on-screen display.  (View Account Transactions)
• Fiche Diagrams : you can now print and email them in c9
• Clocking : Couple of tweaks to make failure to clock off overnight easier to deal with
• If tech is currently flagged as idle or on break do not pop the warning message and do not record any timesheet information for last task of the day they failed to clock off. Just assume that they intended to clock off for the day but clicked on the wrong button
• For overnight warning message, if tech's current job occurs after 6 pm,  then present default clockoff time to start of the following hour.

Over the weekend we are performing a number of maintenance activities.

• Upgrade central database for c9 powered websites
• Setup a second streaming replication backup server

Saturday Night/Sunday morning, service was down for about two hours. From 3 am to 5 am for live server upgrade.

I was hoping to also upgrade the first replication backup server during this time; but the upgrade path requires me to recopy the entire database. Which is going to take 16 hours; so I abandoned trying to do this while websites were down.

Luckily most of copying can occur while websites are still running.  Once copy is completed, I will need to take websites down again for about 15 minutes to establish and test the replication link.  This will happen Sunday night/monday Morning.

Monday I will commission the second replicate server and finalize the migration.  After another planned 15 minute outage late Sunday night, there should be no further planned downtime of c9 services.

• Suzuki Online EPC : fixes
• Slight bugfix with recently added resume functionality
• Made import more resilient to network errors. On network problem the importer will attempt to reconnect upto 4 times. Only upon 4th consecutive failure it will hard fail
• Bugfix: certain diagram images would cause c9 to crash with a memory error.
• Workshop repair authoritory - print VIN and Engine number
• Workshop job card redesigned to make it look visually better. Align boxes etc.
• Broken Promises : jobs whose promise date is today or earlier are color coded red
• New Report : Workshop Spares Sales

• Import fiche : include logic to detect if last import was aborted and allow user to resume the import.  Useful for doing full re-import when import source is unreliable (i.e. internet based import)
• Spares Point of sale : you can now sell parts to unit deals from within point of sale
• Order book : option to print order book
• Order book : option to move a part from Daily->Stock and vice versa

• Unit deals : option to receive onto floor a unit on order inside the deal itself.  Saves you having to back out and goto purchase.
• Workshop warranty: keying in money received on warranty would break GST component out incorrectly.  Now fixed. Fix will also retrospectively fix existing records
• Business activity : option to filter out workshop warranty invoices
• Unit finance sale : recording on business activity was incorrect. Now fixed.
• Unit purchase ergonomics.  Keying in reference that already exists would throw your data away and load in details of the duplicate unit.  Most often, you don't want this to happen, instead you want it to generate a new unique ID. Modified so it behaves the latter.
• Unit sale ergonomics in a deal.  Clicking back on a on-order deal would pop unit select browse.  Now fixed

• New fiche importer for Suzuki Online EPC.  Existing CD based import is still there but towards bottom of the list.  Recommend Suzuki dealers to do a full reimport of Suzuki diagrams.  This new importer provides a number of improvements.
• Older diagrams are hotspotted
• Diagram quality is generally better
• Algorithms for pruning diagram list, both units and diagrams on a unit are more sophisticated and better able to filter out units not shipped to Australia, and diagrams that do not apply for a given unit.
• Note that new importer, importing from a website, takes significantly longer to run.   Leave it running overnight.
• Import parts from EPC, such as YPIC etc.  Increase path length from 50 chars to 128 chars
• Receive Order. For workshop jobs print last mechanic/scheduled mechanic on the receive sheet

At present there appears to be multiple issues and problems with KTM & Husaberg pricing and ordering.

The following details things we have done at c9 so far to help compensate for these issues.

Read more...

• New main menu function. Search. Type in a search term,  c9 will make a heroic guess at what you want to do and allow you to jump straight to that function without having to navigate the menu structure.
• Browse EPC Fiche diagrams. Allow a diagram to mix parts from multiple suppliers. Previously assumed supplier of a part was the same as a supplier of the unit.  Some things brewing with KTM/Husaberg WRT to this.
• Import price file, setup option to not include discount code in description
• Phonebook.  Print supplier list
• View deal : display ID on screen
• Import price file.  If import deletes a stock item because it's qty, max qty and 12 month sales history  is zero, write a line on the log report: Part X (Loc) is no longer carried.  C8 used to do this but this functionality was lost very early on on c8->c9 transition.
• Setup - database tasks. Added a couple of functions to rationalise part numbers from KTM/Husaberg's currently problematic price files.  More on this in a separate post.
• Unit floor stock report. Print reference, not VIN
• Bug: Print receive order sheet.  Sometimes it would falsely print units information for a list of parts which are not even associated with a unit.  This is purely a printing artefact, not a problem with the underlying database. Fixed report to not do this.

• New fiche diagram importer : BMW
• Sell deal unit not yet on floor.  type [..] button takes user to wrong browse. Stock types, not unit types. Now fixed.
• Purchase unit : tab keyboard order of floorplan entry fields was a mess. Now fixed.
• Manual backup : reporting error with dopea_pk_seq.  Now fixed. Note that backups generated which report this error are accurate backups.  The error message is a false positive error only and can be ignored.   Always ensure your backups are good by periodically performing a test/dress rehearsal restore from backup.  If you are not doing this, and don't want to do this, you really should subscribe to our online backup service.
• Unit open floorplan report : new filter option: filter by location:  sold or on the floor.
• email spares order :  default email subject to the name of the shop. Also include order # in the subject
• Workshop job types.  Default notes is only permits storage of small amount of text. Increased x4 (to match notes on jobs themselves)
• Finance company customer; forces customer type to account customer.
• Miner - various fixes
• Regression bug fix.  Sorting numeric columns would sort them lexically not numerically. Example. Consider numbers 1,5,10.  Numerically their order is 1,5,10.  Lexically their order is 1,10,5.
• Tweaked way miner query results are internally stored.  Removes the 40 column limit and makes memory/processing of miner reports slightly more efficient
• Export to CSV.  " chars where being escaped with \.  This is not valid CSV.  Proper escape is to escape a quote with a quote. i.e. " ".  Now fixed