Common Changes

Database Connectivity

All programs in this release have had substantial improvements made to their recovery from transient database failures.

All programs have been modified to automatically attempt to re-establish communication with the database in the event of a recognized transient failure. If the database remains inaccessible, the programs will cease their reconnection attempts after a reasonable period. A significant amount of work has been put into ensuring the integrity of the database is maintained at all times while not requiring additional work from end users.

Database Error Logging

Reporting of database errors has been substantially improved to allow more rapid and accurate diagnosis and resolution of problems.

Server Process Duplication

Previous versions of FaxAction would actually duplicate server processes of the same type to run simultaneously, which should never happen. This scenario would only arise when processes were started manually, but it was a severe problem nonetheless.

Additional processing and database entries have been added to this release to ensure that duplicate processes are never started.

Common Client Program Fixes

The following fixes apply to Admin, Server Admin, and the Client:

Symptom: During automatic upgrades, the user is prompted to find the location of the client or setup program even though the Default Install Path is specified in the Admin General Info form.

Problem:  If the user has, in the past, navigated to a specific directory when prompted to find the location of the file, the Client will have saved this information in the Registry. The program will then use this information exclusively, even if the location on the server has changed.

Solution:  If the Default Install Path is specified in Admin, it will always be used first, whether or not the user has ever navigated to a different location. If the file is not found in the Default Path, the information stored in the registry will be used and, if the file still isn’t found, the user will be prompted to find it.

Problem: If the login prompt is displayed, but the database cannot be reached, attempting to exit the login prompt causes the client program to attempt to connect the database again, thus preventing the application from being shut down gracefully until database connectivity is reestablished.

Solution:  Modified so that no database connection is attempted if the login prompt is displayed and the user tries to exit the application.

Symptom: While attempting to connect to the database, the application becomes unresponsive.

Problem:  The application did not "breathe" between connection attempts.

Solution:  Added code to make it more responsive.