Manage 2000 8.1 service pack 5 - sneak peek

Final touches are going into service pack 5 of Manage 2000 release 8.1. Tees are getting dotted and eyes are getting crossed.

Another year of development items are releasing in this service pack along with the year's supply of bug fixes.  There are a number of new features I am excited about, along with a couple more upgrade challenges than usual for a service pack:

• The website has been upgraded to ASP.NET 4.8
• The JavaScheduler has been upgraded to version 5.3.1.

This means a little extra installation work during the service pack upgrade.

The upgrade to ASP.NET 4.8 was necessary to work with the new  5.3.1 version of the JavaScheduler. The new version of the JavaScheduler is faster in our testing than the old version, and it is built with the Open Java SDK eliminating any licensing controversy.

So what other new things can you do with Manage 2000 service pack 5?

• Access documentation and training material more easily
• Cross browser compatible Help and Documentation make these items available from outside the EOT Viewer web view, using any browser.
• See Also documentation access from portal menus - pertinent documentation links on local portal menus keep overviews, courses, and HowTos at your user's fingertips.
• Text from Manage 2000 to your phone, your user's phone, your customer's phone, your sales rep's phone...
• Receive text messages from the Manage 2000 Event Condition Action system. The text message may contain only the ECAs Title or the Title and Body based on the CONTACTS  ECA TextMsg option for Notify events
• Administrators! Receive text messages from Master Agent notifications
• Configure plug-able interfaces with Twilio, Nexmo, and other texting services using TEXTING.SERVICES.
• Specify carrier gateway conversion sites in PHONE.CARRIERS.
• Send text messages from UniBasic using SUB.TEXT.OUTPUT.
• Send quick text messages from the command line using TXT and TID.
• Use UserPreferences Contact Information page to maintain your cell phone carrier. This enables carrier gateway text messaging.
• Share data through REST APIs
• REST Consumer API
• Configure access to RESTful service endpoints through the REST.SERVICES table.
• Display RESTful data in ANY Manage 2000 function using Manage 2000 Software Objects. Configure in MSO.BUILD using subroutine REST.MSO which will access RESTful services and display results in Manage 2000 functions.
• Read REST sourced news articles in Newsreader.
• Display REST sourced news articles in Portal news panels.
• Call RESTful services from UniBasic using new tools subroutine REST.SERVICE.
• REST Provider API introduced in 7.3 and expanded in 8.0 and 8.1
• Access packages of UniData database information from Power BI or Excel. Use REST endpoint /mt/jsonservices/getdata from Microsoft's GetData wizard. Specify the package contents like a UniQuery request in JSON.PACKAGE.MAINT.
• Use the new preselect to optimize access
• Use the new postselect to reprocess/reformat the results
• Obtain single source validation information from Manage 2000. Use REST endpoint /mt/jsonservices/gettmtable to access TM tables as JSON arrays. Use REST endpoint /mt/jsonservices/validateitemservice to validate inventory part numbers, sales order numbers and more.
• Call UniBasic subroutines from web browsers.  Use REST endpoint /mt/jsonservices/calludtsub to call backend UniBasic subroutines.  Call GetItemsAsJSON to pickup UniData database information in JSON format.

• Manage 2000 JSON Services

• Configure Manage 2000 to use the VERTEX O-Series Tax Calculation service
• Have CUSTOMERS verify addresses using the US Postal Service Web API Interface for Zip+4. It will even add the 4 digit zip code suffix to improve delivery accuracy.
• Cleanly install new custom development in one step using ARCHIVER REPLACE
• Validate user input based on prompt definitions using the same validation logic used in SCREEN.IP by calling SIP.VALIDATE.
• Collapsible Panel Memory - okay maybe this is more a bug fix than a new feature, but finally the collapsible panels work the way I want them to on my phone and my desktop, right out of the box!
• See the resulting displays of I-Descriptors already available on a file using new phrase records I, I2,I3… built by DICT.INIT.ALPHA.  
• Stop worrying about JAVA licensing controversies.  The new JavaScheduler is 100% OPEN JDK.
• See inquiry function results in your browser. 
• EOTViewer is a web client prototype of an alternative to the Greenbar Browser. A number of people have been asking for this, so I thought I'd give it a shot.  It is still develop-mental,  but if you are daring, give it a try using USER.OPTIONS screen 2 prompt 24 and 25.  Then give me some feedback (aka encouragement to take it to the next level:-).

I don't have a hard date to give you just yet for availability.  We need to support you all through year end. Then, hopefully, we will still have enough time in January for the development cutoff.  Release Management will need Feb-Mar to clean the release, create media, test installs... So stay tuned for an announcement of general availability in the March - April timeframe.