Upgraded our backup server infrastructure over weekend.  Added in larger and faster hard disks.

C9 websites have had a number of new features added to them

• Ability to configure web special prices. Example of how looks visually.
• Ability to add a spare part onto the website many times, in different locations.
• C9 configured freight options and banner logo
• Improved image caching; means website should be even faster.
• Improved database indexing. Even faster websites.
• Average web page load for c9 website is now <150 ms. Very quick; compared to other motorcycle dealer websites which tend to hover around double this.  Hosting in Australia, while arguably more expensive, gives a much better result than offshore hosting esepcially when most of your web visitors are from Australia.

Changes to backup server email notifications to further reduce false positive alarms.

Added more network monitoring to server. Because of image caching problem, we went well over billing limits this billing period. Shortly I will include weekly reports on website activity.  i.e. # of unique visitors, # of page hits, etc.

This version includes database changes and will force you to log all terminals out first.

• Workshop fixes
• Workshop invoices would not print discount line if discounts were only line item discounts. Now fixed
• Spares discounting: if line item is set to 0.00, do not treat as a 100% discount, just set line item value to 0.00.  Change is because dealers typically do this because of warranty claims; and a warranty claim is not a discount.
• Website enhancements
• Ability to configure freight options inside c9
• Ability to configure website banner logo inside c9 (for this to be enabled, your website needs to be configured to use logo setup in c9. Contact barney to arrange)
• Configuration above allows you to prefix order number on import web order to indicate freight option. i.e. '[EXPRESS] Web Order: 12345'.

This version includes database changes and will force you to log all terminals out as part of upgrade

• Accounts : add new flag - trade customer. This can be used for filtering on spares profit report and in miner.
• Website changes. Changes in c9 only. Not yet reflected on website. Coming soon
• Ability to configure web discount on stocked items. Will be displayed on website showing old and new price.  On receive order, discount is imported as a line item discount
• Ability to map a stock item to multiple web categories
• Bug fix : miner. Linking other entities to business activity item would not work. Now fixed

Note: I wanted to add ability to configure web freight options from within c9 in this version but did not quite make it. Next version, next week.

http://www.facebook.com/C9Software

Mainly created to facilitate advertising campaign for Aussie Bike Finder.  But if you feel the urge, click on like.  If enough people do it I'll start posting some stuff there too. Though you should probably be shelving received stock; not wasting time on FB.

Bugfix with printing spares invoices for statement runs.  Print runs involving any invoice that contains cost or margin based discounting would not print correctly. Now fixed.

• Images : display an image preview when browsing for images. So you don't have to open an image file to see what it is.
• Point of Sale ad-hoc/freeform/quick orders. Complete redesign to make it easier to use
• Easier to to select quick order or ad-hoc supplier order.
• Permit ad-hoc franchise order
• Permit specification of part number (i.e. part not on price file.)
• Give user option to add part to price/stock file if part number is specified
• Business : option to record cash taking on transactions where no cash was selected.

Note that this option should not be used to facilitate deferred payments/debtors; i.e. as a substitute for account customers and pickup later functions; and the screen says as such.  We don't want to encourage improper use of the software and a tool like this if repurposed to handle deferred payments puts you at risk of losing track of your debtors, costing you moey.  The tool is provided to complete functionality and to help with balancing cash till and to correct errors during point of sale.  Ideally, 'No Cash' option should be disabled and it can be disabled via c9 by configuring clerk keys appropriately, but we don't want disable it outright because invariably removing this function will have negative impacts as we suspect many shops regularly use it.

• Units : modified stock report so you can see stock at a given point in time, or current stock as of now.
• Analytics:  Deloitte Honda program changes.  Value of units changed to be cost price of unit; (less additional costs); not asking price. Also tuning selection a little better to better cope with sold units and split/merged units
• Catalogs
• Fix with Triumph : replace exotic characters that do not store correctly in the database.
• Fix with Triumph #2 : some notes on additional parts would not import. Now fixed.
• Fix with Honda and Yamaha (mainly honda).  On a diagram a reference can have multiple part numbers. Alternatives and old pre-supercession numbers. We don't want to show old pre-supercession numbers as this makes it harder to read diagrams. Prior versions simply ignored duplicates, but this inadvertently filters out alternatives.  Modified so it filters out superceded numbers but only if the new number is also listed on the diagram.
• Remove KTM PDF file import. Allow 'BUTMAC' as a franchise name match KTM Dealer.NET import.
• Online backup (technical changes)
• Verification cycle is now better able to detect when database has simultaneously changed, and is able to detect this mid verification and abort verification process midway.
• Removed a race condition in the process of retransmitting backup data and handling of subsequent backup ACK from server; the ACK could in theory result in wrong meta data sync records being removed. I cannot figure out a way that this bug could of resulted in improper backups, but a race condition and a race condition too many, so it has now been removed.
• Bug fixes
• Costmetic: Clear account details before printing spares order. so that if order is emailed, a spurrious account code will not appear next to the email in Notification History list
• Receive order. Print barcodes from stocked items on receive order would not include items that do not have an original order number. i.e. parts added ad-hoc onto the receive. Now fixed.

Sometimes you may need to do a forceful reimport of fiche diagrams; typically because of a BFU as Dave calls them; a type of programming bug.  Adding the ability to import catalogs into c9 is a fiddly and delicate business; and getting it spot-on is a significant software engineering challenge for us; our error rate for bugs in this part of c9 is substantially higher than our overall defect rate. Occasionally we will release versions that fix catalogue importers that require data already imported to be removed and import to be redone all over.

Following explains how to do this.

Read more...

Like a neighbourhood burglar alarm that goes off with the slightest provocation; backup error emails are really starting to annoy me.

Actual backups are working correctly. The problem is that the process of verifying that the backup is an exact copy of your database sometimes returns an error when in fact the databases are perfect replicas.  This sends emails overnight incorrectly stating that there are backup errors.

The cause is largely the recent addition of fiche diagrams into c9.  These increase the size of the database significantly.  This increases the time it takes for online backup to perform a verification cycle.  Because of the increase in verification time there is increased chance that while a verification is in progress, a change to the database is made that invalidates the verification.  Result : a false alarm.

I will rethink the design of online backups and come up with a method that eliminates the inherent 'race condition' (as it is known in IT lingo), that triggers the false alarm during verification.

Inclusion of fiche diagrams has been a great addition to c9; but it has not been without its technical challenges;  which we are slowly mastering and resolving.

Update: Worked out a better system. Deployed bulk of changes to our webserver. Will take a few days to monitor and ensure it is working as designed before complete migration to new verification methods; but if they are working correctly should provide instant relief.  Next version of c9 will also include some minor changes to remove some 'race conditions' that exist in c9 itself during the process of creating verification statistics; but this is a much lesser issue than the server issues now corrected. False alarms are generated mainly because of how our backup web server was doing its job of cross checking fidelity of the backup.  Another advantage of new system is that our webserver will generally be much more responsive.   Verification workload on server has now been significantly reduced. Previously, running verification would load the webserver so much you could notice a difference in performance when loading our web pages for example; but new design this no longer happens. Also, I expect that online backup will be alot quicker, especially when installing a new system, as server code has now been tuned for increased performance.

Bugfix with Triumph catalog import.  Was not getting unit list right. i.e. missing Tiger 800 XC

• Create new job : default to booked in or start immediately (in progress).  Option to toggle this is now available in setup.
• Add alternative part. Make user interface alot more intuitive by reusing existing 'Find any part' screen.
• Unit Rebate reports : show rebate both Ex and Inc GSTs
• Catalogs
• Added support for Triumph
• Modified Paul Feeney so it permits directly login to softway website. (MV Agusta and Husqvarna)
• Minor fix with web based catalogs. Was downloading catalogs 3 times. Web downloads should now be marginally quicker
• Catalog download: provide user visual feedback as to what download is doing. Useful especially for some web based downloads that have a long pause at the start of the process while priming the download by getting unit list and catalog list of first few units to process.
• Miner : after F4 process query. Provide ability to delete items in the list; so user can pare back a bulk email/sms list for example before doing actual send.
• Bug Fixes
• Sell parts on invoice; system  was not passing line item discounts onto account. So account statement differed from invoices.  Statement was not subtracting discounts. Now fixed (on future raised invoices only)
• Miner: recent changes to workshop meant that previously saved workshop line item reports that refer to line item totals and prices would not work. Now fixed.