Upgrading to HireTrack Eclipse 2.4 from Eclipse 2.3
This document contains all the information you should need in order to be
able to smoothly upgrade to HireTrack Eclipse 2.4 from Eclipse 2.3; you are
strongly advised to read through it before you attempt to upgrade, rather than
diving straight in and reading it as you go. If you are upgrading from Eclipse
2.2 (or earlier) then you should go to THIS
page for instructions. For details of what's new and fixed in Eclipse 2.4 please
visit http://www.navigator.co.uk/upgradingto2.4.htm
Before you Start
1. The upgrade can be downloaded from THIS link. However, before trying to run it be aware that only customer's with a current support contract are entitled to the upgrade free of charge, and as such the upgrade programme is password protected. If you have not received an email notifying you of the password please request one from support@navigator.co.uk. The full installation of HireTrack Eclipse 2.4 can be downloaded from THIS link (note, you need to have upgraded your database to v2.4 before you can install HireTrack Eclipse 2.4 on any new workstations with this new installation programme).
2. The upgrade restructures three tables (Item.db, Cal.db and AutoText.db) to guard against the possibility of these tables containing duplicate values in fields that need to be unique. If the upgrade programme detects such a corruption then it will not be able to proceed until this has been fixed, and the only way to do this is to send support@navigator.co.uk a zip archive of files in question (see Note 1 below). We will attempt to fix this problem within as short a time frame as possible (less than 24 hours), but you can prepare in advance for this by downloading this ftp://ftp.navigator.co.uk/pub/eclipse/ValidateDuplicates.zip utility. Extract it to a suitable folder and run. If there are any problems the files you need to send us will be listed. NOTE. if you run Eclipse against multiple companies/databases then you will need to check each one; also, be aware that this table stores all your barcode definitions so no one should attempt to add new barcodes to the system, nor scan out items while we have copies of the files. Once you have received the repaired files back from us you can proceed with the upgrade.
Upgrading the Programme Files
3. The process is quite straight forward. Run the upgrade on each machine (see Note 2). The programme will search for Eclipse and any other updatable programmes; when it finds a file you will be prompted to replace it. Most of the time this will be the correct file but if, for example, you have more than one Eclipse.exe on your hard drive (maybe a backup or old copy) then the upgrade programme may find the wrong one. In this case browse to where you know the correct file is and then OK the prompt to overwrite (the normal path for Eclipse installations is C:\Program Files\Navigator Systems\Eclipse)
You will be asked if you want to install the Database Upgrade programme each time you upgrade a workstation. You only need to install this on one machine since it only needs to run once.
Tip: rather than copying the upgrade programme to each workstation you can put it on your server and browse to it from each PC to run it.
Upgrading the Data files
4. Before doing anything with the database upgrade check that no-one is running Eclipse anywhere on the network. You should then backup your Eclipse data using the same method that you normally use. If you don't run regular backups then at least take a copy of your Eclipse data. If you don't know where this is then run the Eclipse Multi-Company Utility (Start | Programs | Navigator Systems) and the path to your data is displayed on the first tab.
5. It is also advisable to run a check on the database before you upgrade it; otherwise you might get 75% through only to have it fail because of a minor database corruption that you were not aware of. You can do this with the HireTrack Eclipse Database Repair programme. You can run this at its quickest setting by selecting 'Don't Rebuild' in its 'Rebuild Scope' options. Then, if it finds any problems just tackle each table one at a time by re-setting to 'Rebuild Corrupted tables' and selecting the offending table.
6. If you have DEP (Data Execution Prevention) turned on your machine (this is a Windows setting, see your Windows Help for more details) you may experience an error report when upgrading some of the data tables that stalls the upgrade process. In reality there is no problem at all, so to prevent this either turn of DEP before upgrading your data, or add UpgradeDatabase.exe to a list of applications to be excluded from DEP checks. See Windows Help for how to do this.
7. Go to the PC where you installed the Database Upgrade programme. You will find a shortcut to this in your Navigator Systems programme group (Start | Programs | Navigator Systems). Run it and follow the on screen instructions. Once the upgrade is completed the Database Repair Utility will be run automatically (if found) in order to fix up corrupted auto-increment fields in Item.db, Cal.db and AutoText.db, which is something to be expected. If the Database Repair Utility is not found you will be prompted to do this manually.
Note 1: if you would like to check out or test Eclipse 2.4 while you business continues to use Eclipse 2.3, you can take a copy of your database (see THIS article for tips on how to do this) and only upgrade that database and one workstation. You can then test at your leisure, and when you are happy with them perform the actual upgrade safe in the knowledge that you will be able to 'hit the ground running'. This single workstation could still run Eclipse 2.3 if required: just copy a renamed Eclipse.exe file (call it Eclipse 23.exe) from another workstation or copy it up before you upgrade and rename it. Before you run Eclipse23.exe just change the path to the active database using the Eclipse Multicompany Utility.
Note 2: if during the upgrade you receive an "Application is Frozen" message while the upgrade is running, click the "Continue" button. Sometimes the data processing can exclude any feedback loops to Windows and if this occurs for over 60 seconds this message will appear. In fact, the application is still running normally.
After the Upgrade
Eclipse 2.4 introduces a number of new fields for invoices and purchase orders, such as PAID. The upgrade set these fields to TRUE on the assumption that, hopefully, most of the invoices you've ever raised in Eclipse are in fact paid. Of course there will be some invoices or orders that are not paid, so you will probably want to quickly address this matter so that the data is correct. You can do this from the new EDIT menu in the Accounts Book: you simply apply a filter (for example a date range) and then choose the appropriate menu option. You will be prompted as to what action you wish to take.
Reports
If you are upgrading from Eclipse 2.3 you should not experience any problems with your print out, particularly if these have been previously fixed up in upgrading to Eclipse 2.3 or if they are standard Eclipse reports shipped with Eclipse 2.3 . If you do experience any problems with report crashing or perhaps just running very slowly, then refer to the upgrade NOTES for users upgrading from earlier versions of Eclipse. Please note, Navigator Systems Ltd cannot offer a free service for upgrading problematic custom reports to be Eclipse 2.4 compatible; this service is charged for at a rate of £30.00 per report.
If all your reports are functioning correctly but you wish to fix them up with the new fields introduced in Eclipse 2.4 (for example, you'd like to add the Paid field to an invoice) then an ideal quick solution is to use the SetTableLocations.exe programme (installed with upgrade) which has a Verify Databases function.. This programme is normally found in your local Eclipse folder and it only needs to be run from one of your workstations.
Eclipse Toolbox Owners
A version 2.4 Eclipse Toolbox suite is available for users who have upgraded to Eclipse 2.4. You can download the installation file from HERE. You will need your toolbox password(s) for the installation so please contact support if you have forgotten or mislaid them. You should only need to carry out the Workstation part of the installation as the data files used by the toolbox will already be on your server.
Custom Utilities
Over the years some users have commissioned add-on utilities from to supplement Eclipse in special tasks and functions. We know of no good reason why any of these utilities should not continue to function correctly after the Eclipse 2.4 upgrade; however, if you do encounter a problem, and it is determined that a programme we have written for you needs updating to make it Eclipse 2.4 compatible, then this work will be chargeable. In such cases contact support@navigator.co.uk and we will provide you will as estimate of costs.
Additional Notes
Note 1 - you can find your Eclipse DATA, REPORTS and TEMPLATE folders by running the Eclipse Multi-company Utility from your Navigator Systems programme group. It will display a path to the master database folder on your server and the DATA, REPORTS and TEMPLATE folders are inside this.
Note 2 - Note: the Eclipse installer is built using Wise Solutions' InstallMaker. During installation, it may attempt to use a Windows DLL file called CTL3D32.DLL. If you have an incompatible version installed on your computer, it may report an error. You can safely ignore the error by clicking "OK" in the dialog that appears - the installation will then proceed properly. If you have Windows XP, Windows may ask you to insert your XP CD so that it can repair the problem. We recommend that you have your XP CD to hand for this eventuality.
Navigator Systems Ltd, June 2007