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Version 5.0 launched

We are pleased to announce version 5.0 of the Local Information System we originally developed for Epsom & Ewell CAB.

The major changes in version 5.0 are to the intranet version...

• There is a new access control system that allows you to restrict people's access to:
  • Individual entries in the database
  • Sections of an entry's text
• The access control system creates groups of users so you don't have to specify the access granted to individual users. It also allows you to assign a group to users that access the system without a user id and password (anonymous users).
• You can also use groups to control how the system appears to each group.
• A new setting allows you to support anonymous users at the same time as web users.
• You can now store documents in the Local Information System database (provided you use SQL Server to store data rather than Access). That means you can:
  • upload documents using a simple form built in to the Local Information System rather than a separate 'FTP' program
  • control access to documents in the library
  • control the size and type of documents that can be uploaded to the library.

As well as enhancing the Local Information System for use by your administrators and advisers, the above changes also make it more practical to:

• Share the database across multiple CABx with the system suppressing entries, and parts of entries, that are irrelevant to each CAB
• Share the database with other agencies that you might partner with
• Open the database to access by the public.

Other changes include:

• A new 'Less' button allows you to hide the additional search buttons revealed when you click the 'More' button. The system now 'remembers' the state of the More and Less buttons and reinstates them when you return to the search page.
• Admin users now see a 'Save results' button at the bottom of each set of search results. This downloads a comma-separated values (CSV) file containing basic details of the matches found by your search (and a search for *all lists all entries). CSV files can be opened by Excel and other spreadsheet programs so you can work with the data.
• The usage log produced by the system now records the group of each user so you can produce group-based statistics.
• Incorporation of the CABLISBrowserFix utility into the release material. The utility allows you to make the best use of the version of Internet Explorer installed on a given PC.

We've also fixed a few bugs. Notably, we've fixed the problem caused by a recent Microsoft patch that prevents the link checking utility from working with secure web sites.

You can find out more about the intranet version here.

We have installed a copy of version 5.0 on our server so you can try it out. See this page.

Enhancements in version 5.0

Most of the changes are in the intranet version, but the desktop version gets some improvements too.

You can read a list of all the changes here.

You can see a full list of the enhancements we provided in previous releases going all the way back to version 1 here.

Installing version 5.0

You can get everything you need - including detailed installation instructions - from here.

If you want to put your Local Information System on the internet, we can help you do that. We can also help you choose a suitable hosting company. There's no charge for this service.

If you are already using the internet version and you'd like us to install the upgrade for you, let us know.

Problems or questions

If you encounter any problems or if you have any questions, please let us know.

Can you help us?

We've spent a lot of time developing this system and we'd like as many bureaux to benefit as possible. If you have contact with other bureaux that you think might be able to use the system - especially now it can be web-based - please consider letting them know about the system and our web site: www.SeeITA.com/CAB.

Thank you.

Regards,

Andy and Margaret Henderson
Constructive IT Advice

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Try it now

We've put a copy of the Local Information System online for you to play with. There's nothing to install, it's just another web site.