PhonePad Version 5.0.2 has been released and is now available for download.

With this release there is no longer a need to wait up to 20 minutes after installing the PhonePad 5 Server before running PhonePad 5 Workstation.  Now you can run it immediately because we have changed the way the database is installed and set up.

We have made some further changes to PhonePad 5:

• PhonePad 5 has a couple of important configuration files that will affect your database if they are damaged.  Besides being backed up in your automatic backups, the server will also back up these two files every 12 hours.
• Using a space in a username or group name will cause errors when you try to send messages to these users or groups.  PhonePad 5 doesn’t allow spaces in usernames and group names, however, it wasn’t stopping this from happening – FIXED.
• Messages deleted from the Sent folder still appear in the folder – FIXED.
• Emptying the Deleted folder generates an error – FIXED.
• Clearing the Address Book doesn’t work – FIXED.
• The Database Update application produces errors due to insufficient Windows permissions – FIXED.
• The Database Migrator application produces errors due to insufficient Windows permissions – FIXED.
• When starting the PhonePad Server for the first time on a fresh install, the Server creates and sets up the database.  This can take up to 20 minutes.  This has now been changed so that the database is pre-created, cutting down the time to less than a minute.  So ignore any previous posts that mention waiting for 10 – 2o minutes as this no longer applies.
• Control Center now creates firewall exception rules for domain, as well as private and public.
• When installing PhonePad 5 Workstation, it will now create firewall exception rules on the workstation for PhonePad 5 so you don’t have to.
• This release also includes new functionality required to support the MessageSender 6 release later this week.

This new version can be downloaded from the website or www.myphonepad.com.

If you already have PhonePad 5 installed and want to keep your existing data, an update will be available within the next 24 hours.

As always, if you have any questions or problems please contact us at sales@cybercom-software or support@cybercom-software.com.

There are two parts to doing updates: Application Updates and Database Updates.

Application updates are when there are changes to any of the applications, eg. PhonePad 5 Workstation, the PhonePad 5 Server, Instant Chat, Database Restore, etc.  These can be downloaded from www.myphonepad.com or via links in articles we post here.

Database updates are changes to the PhonePad 5 database.  In PhonePad 4 this involved changing the structure of database tables to fix problems or add new features.  In PhonePad 5 it can include these changes but also changes to the many procedures and functions that make PhonePad 5 work.  As a lot of functionality is built into the database itself in PhonePad 5, this can be easily updated to add new features and fix issues that have been found.  This is especially true with bug fixes as we can turn them around much faster than we can with application updates.

Database updates are done using the Database Update application.  It is quite simple to use.

Click the Check button to check the web server for new updates.  You can download the updates by clicking the Download button.

When you are ready to install the updates then click the Install button.  Any updates that are already installed will be marked as installed in the list.

An automatic database update system will be added in the coming months that will automatically download and install these updates for you so you don’t have to worry about it.

Important Information: While many users didn’t have any problems with Database Update, some users were experiencing issues that were due to over-restrictive Windows permissions.  Because of this, we have updated Database Update to store its information in a location that doesn’t have these access rights issues.  If you had these problems please download and install Update 1 again as it has been re-released with these changes.

I just wanted to mention a potential gotcha when installing PhonePad for the first time.  When you install PhonePad 5 Server, the first thing you need to do is run the Control Center and install and start the Server service.

There are two simple steps to this.

Step 1: click the Install button.  This will install the PhonePad 5 Server as a Windows service.  At the same time, an exception rule will be added to your Windows Firewall to allow other computers on your network to communicate with PhonePad 5 Server.

Step 2: click the Start button.  This will start the service.  When the service is started for the first time, PhonePad 5 Server will build your PhonePad 5 database and set it up for you.

Now here’s the gotcha.  Creating the database and setting up the server can take a few minutes.  On our computers it takes around 5 minutes, but on some systems we have noticed it can take up to 15 – 20 minutes.

If you try to login to PhonePad 5 before the database is ready you will get error messages.  This is because you are trying to access parts of the database system that aren’t there yet.  You need to give it time to finish, and how long it takes is dependent on the speed of your Server or Host PC and the amount of resources available to it at the time.

The PhonePad 5 Server actually has a lot to do when building and setting up your database which is why it can take a while.  It’s quite a bit different from PhonePad 4.  It had a standard database with no smarts built-in and all of the processing was done by PhonePad 4 on the workstation.  The PhonePad 5 Server and database is a full blown SQL database engine with a lot of smarts built into it.  Most of the processing is now done by the server, which makes it faster and opens up all sorts of possibilities for new functionality.

We recommend waiting for 20 – 30 minutes, just in case, before attempting to log in to PhonePad 5 Workstation.  In the latest build it will prevent you from logging in immediately.

Again, this only occurs the first time you start the PhonePad 5 Server service.  Please contact Support if you have any questions.

The first update for PhonePad 5 is now available for download.  Update 1 includes the following changes:

• Control Center – This newer version will help prevent your Server’s or Host PC’s firewall from blocking communication with your workstations.  It will automatically add an exception rule to your Windows Firewall for PhonePad 5 Server when you install the service.  If your network is part of a domain then you will need to edit the rule and check the Domain check box.
• Database Update – This new application is responsible for updating your PhonePad 5 database whenever database updates are released.  These will tend to be more frequent than application updates as we add new functionality and fix any issues.
• Database Migrator – If you are a PhonePad 4 user than this application will transfer your PhonePad 4 data over to PhonePad 5.  This is a re-release of the migrator that was released yesterday and is an improved version.
• PhonePad 5 Admin Guide – Updated with instructions on using the new Database Update and Database Migrator applications.
• Fixed an issue with an error that sometimes occurred when creating new user accounts.
• Fixed an issue where the Don’t Show Again check box in message dialogs was not remembering the setting.
• Fixed an issue where messages couldn’t be manually deleted from the Deleted folder.
• Minor bugs fixes.

When you install the update on your Server or Host PC, PhonePad will be automatically updated on each workstation when users log in.

There is also a database update, called Update 1 as well.  It is strongly recommended that once you install the server update that you also run Database Update and download and install the update.  It is especially important that you do this if you are going to be using the Database Migrator.

Important note: whenever you install updates, either application updates or database updates, you need to ensure that all users are logged out of PhonePad.

Download the update now to your Server or Host PC.

Please note that the update will only work if you have PhonePad 5 installed.  If you don’t have PhonePad 5 installed then download the full version instead as it contains all of the updates.

Well yesterday we released the database migrator for PhonePad 4 users so that they could move their data over to PhonePad 5.  This required some changes to the PhonePad 5 database to make this possible.

It turns out there is a bug in the database engine we use that caused some problems.  Basically it broke the ability to add users to PhonePad 5.  Yikes!  We have reported the issue to the database vendor but the good news is we also found a solution and fixed it.

So we are re-releasing the database migrator application as part of the first update for PhonePad 5.  We have also changed the name so you don’t get the versions mixed up.  It was called P5DatabaseMigrator.  The new one is just called DatabaseMigrator.  A slightly less unwieldy name, I think.

If you have the old migrator application already then just delete it.  You won’t be needing it.  Get the new one by installing Update 1 (see the next article for the link).

We apologize for this problem but it caught us off guard.  Fortunately we were able to fix it quickly.

Great news!  The database migration application we promised to PhonePad 4 users is now ready.  This database migrator application will transfer your PhonePad 4 data to PhonePad 5.  You can [link removed] it right now.

Please make sure you also download the updated PhonePad 5 Admin Guide as it contains important instructions on how to use the data migration wizard.

An important thing to know is that when you start PhonePad 5 Server for the first time after installing it, it creates and sets up your PhonePad 5 database.

This is all done in the background automatically so you don’t need to do anything.  However, you should wait between 5 to 10 minutes before attempting to run PhonePad for the first time and login.

If you try to connect before the database has been fully set up you will get error messages because there will still be some parts missing.

If this does happen then just wait a few minutes before trying to start PhonePad again.  Once the database setup has been completed then you shouldn’t have this problem again.

Yep, you read that right.  After 2 years of hard work, and recently a few very late nights, we are thrilled (and relieved) to announce that PhonePad 5 has finally arrived!

So what have we done?  Well we have completely replaced the underlying architecture, rewritten almost everything, and added a new high performance database engine.  And then we added a stack of new features and improvements to make it even better.

For more details go to the What’s New page on our website.  It tells you all about the incredible new features.  I think you are going to be surprised – and excited.

This is a major upgrade.  And you can get it right now.

Like PhonePad 4 it has our famous 60-day trial too.  And if you’re a PhonePad 4 user you can upgrade instead of paying full price.

Some Things You Should Know

1. You can run PhonePad 4 and PhonePad 5 side-by-side without any conflicts.
2. MessageSender 5 doesn’t work with PhonePad 5. We will be releasing MessageSender 6 next week.
3. We will be releasing a Data Migration tool in the next few days so you can migrate your PhonePad 4 data over to PhonePad 5.
4. PhonePad 5 has been extensively tested by us and a team of customers who volunteered to be guinea pigs, I mean Beta testers.  Even with all of this testing it is possible that there are some minor bugs that we haven’t discovered.  No software is bug free, as even NASA has proven.  If you find any please let us know as a matter of priority so we can get them fixed quickly.
5. We couldn’t get everything done before the release.  The Getting Started with PhonePad website has not been updated yet with new content for PhonePad 5.  This will happen over the next couple of weeks.  We haven’t completely updated our main website either so this too will be updated over the next couple of weeks..
6. Although there are help files for PhonePad 5, there is no context-sensitive help – yet.  This will be coming soon.
7. Please read the PhonePad 5 Admin Guide.  It covers all of the new admin features.
8. Please read the PhonePad 5 User Guide.  It tells you how to use all of the new features.
9. We have a lot of plans for PhonePad 5 so there will be a few minor updates coming your way this year.
10. It’s possible that our systems may get a little overloaded with all of the downloads and upgrades going on.  Please be patient if this happens, but let us know about it too: sales@cybercom-software.com.

Now go and get it.

If you’re not sure whether or not your TAPI device will work with PhonePad’s Caller ID features, you can test your device using one of the test programs we have created.

PhonePad 4

For PhonePad 4, download the Caller ID Check program.

To use this utility, you will first need to select your TAPI device.  Next, click the Start button so that Caller ID Check will start listening for phone calls.  If your device supports Caller ID, phone numbers will be displayed in the utility when your phone rings.  If you click the Stop button, the utility will stop listening for calls.  The Exit button closes the utility.

PhonePad 5

PhonePad 5 has more advanced TAPI features than PhonePad 4 and works with a wider range of devices.  Although PhonePad 5 hasn’t been released yet you can still check device compatibility now. Download the TAPI Device Check program.

Once you have downloaded TAPI Device Check and run it, any TAPI devices it can “see” will be displayed in the list on the left.  Select a device and then click the Start Listening button.  Next, call the phone number the device is connected to.  You should see the phone number appear in the list on the right.

Click the Stop Listening button when you have finished testing.

The radio buttons at the bottom of the screen let you display all devices or just TAPI devices.  Please note that only TAPI devices will work with Caller ID.

Conclusion

If you have tested your TAPI device with one of the above programs and it worked fine, then your device will work with that version of PhonePad.  Remember, Caller ID Check is for PhonePad 4, and TAPI Device Check is for PhonePad 5.

If you tested your TAPI device with Caller ID Check and it didn’t work, try testing it with TAPI Device Check.  You may find it works fine with that.  Some devices we have tested work with both programs, and others have only worked with TAPI Device Check, which is understandable as PhonePad 5 works with more devices.

If you have a TAPI device and you’re positive it is 100% TAPI-compatible, and it doesn’t work with either test program, please let us know.

One more point: make sure you have the correct drivers for your device, and that you also have the latest version.  When we did testing with the Netcomm Roadster AM5067 device, the drivers Windows 7 installed did not work.  We had to download and install drivers from the Netcomm website before it would work.