SBN Release 94 Whats New

What's New Document

Innovative Business Software presents SBN Release 94, which contains updated features and enhancements.

How This Document Is Organized

This document describes the new features and enhancements in Release 94, grouped by the area where you experience them. For detailed information pertaining to any change below, please contact an Innovative associate.

1. SBN
2. Concentrator
3. APIEngine
4. SBN Services
5. SBN Anywhere
6. Database Platform

SBN

Field and Capacity Expansions

Several fields were widened so longer, real-world data is fully supported. The larger storage applies to new and edited records.

1. Codewords and contact-person codes now accept up to 60 characters (previously 20), so longer codewords and identifiers are supported across the system. (SR 50654) Learn More ↗
2. Dispatch comment text has been expanded to 2,500 characters, giving operators far more room for dispatch notes. (SR 51451) Learn More ↗
3. Tax codes now accept the full 8 characters in program 1515. (SR 49661) Learn More ↗
4. Price-list group type now accepts its full width in program 1690, matching the underlying data. (SR 49816) Learn More ↗
5. Service-ticket and inspection comment fields were lengthened so longer comments save without error — inspection comments now allow about 2,000 characters, and dealer-profile comments in program 1537 hold their full length. (SR 51232, 50737) Learn More ↗
6. The phasing group code was widened, and additional fields were added to several screens including Items (program 1535), program 1680, unit-of-measure handling, and the SIM-card and price-list areas. (SR 51108, 50406, 50881, 50940, 51079) Learn More ↗
7. Purchase-order and billing text fields were expanded to hold longer entries. (SR 51175) Learn More ↗

Work Orders, Contracts, and Billing

1. Work-order and invoice comments containing quotes and other special characters now save without error. (SR 49679) Learn More ↗
2. You can again change the contract number and billing account on an approved work order, restoring behavior from older versions. (SR 50394) Learn More ↗
3. Creating a new service ticket on a site with no existing work orders now completes successfully. (SR 50387)
4. Linking package items to the work-order price list now works as expected. (SR 49344) Learn More ↗
5. Tax calculation in purchase orders was corrected. (SR 50122) Learn More ↗
6. Agreement type is now displayed by its type name rather than an internal code, in Agreements and Contract Change. (SR 49706, 49866) Learn More ↗
7. Required-field enforcement for the dealer on the item master can now be activated. (SR 50576) Learn More ↗
8. Reversing AR balances on certain accounts was corrected. (SR 49318)
9. A report and export of installed-component billing data were added for dealers needing to issue billing detail. (SR 50830) Learn More ↗

Reports

1. Added dealer and branch restrictions to reports. (SR 49779)
2. Report 2106 gained installation data and last-signal date. (SR 50008) Learn More ↗
3. A new option lets you choose the order and grouping (including by sub-dealer) on the 2090/1912 reports. (SR 51170) Learn More ↗
4. Report 2070 invoice totals were corrected. (SR 50723) Learn More ↗
5. A report that returned blank for long CID numbers now runs correctly. (SR 50622)
6. Large reports (such as 2120 and 2033) were consolidated to make far fewer database calls, improving report run time. (SR 50149)
7. Reports placed on Hold for page size now trigger an email notification to the originator and/or recipient, so no one has to monitor the queue manually. (SR 49075) Learn More ↗
8. Report file naming and prefix handling was made consistent between SBN and the report server. (SR 50778)
9. Dealer Branding now applies to reports, letting dealer logos appear on report output. (SR 50860) Learn More ↗
10. The Dealer Branding upload was moved to its own dedicated module for a clearer workflow, replacing the previous in-1537 design. (SR 51554) Learn More ↗
11. The report queue gained a new "Ready for print" status, separating reports that are ready to print from those still waiting to run. (SR 50384) Learn More ↗
12. General report-queue improvements. (SR 49984)

Alarm Handling and Dispatch

1. Open/Close handling on zone types was extended: when a zone type has X in both Open and Close, an alarm generates an Open event and a restore generates a Close event. (SR 50641) Learn More ↗
2. Zone-type inversion options were added for specific configurations. (SR 51054, 51349) Learn More ↗
3. Call Inclusion expiration keeps the original event type, which now reaches the alarm queue as intended. (SR 49705) Learn More ↗
4. The "Double Knock" feature was corrected. (SR 49823) Learn More ↗
5. Auto-Removal of zones was added. (SR 50342) Learn More ↗
6. Alarm-log zoom now translates the event text into the operator's language. (SR 49958) Learn More ↗
7. Communication-log resolution codes now show in the operator's language. (SR 50380) Learn More ↗
8. Alarms are cleared from the queue after resolution in multi-session use. (SR 50773) Learn More ↗
9. Auto-handled alarms now receive the correct zone type and alarm text. (SR 50541) Learn More ↗
10. Zone-type values now retain their full length in the alarm queue. (SR 51452, 50332) Learn More ↗
11. Action plans now pull from the sub-dealer. (SR 49791)
12. Action plans can be chosen from the dealer or template lists. (SR 51429) Learn More ↗
13. Action Plan text can be shown on the Dispatch tab in program 559. (SR 51419) Learn More ↗
14. Inactive ("ghost") action-plan lines on the Dispatch tab were removed. (SR 50631) Learn More ↗
15. Operators can see both the protected area and the alarm-translation comment on the dispatch screen. (SR 50712) Learn More ↗
16. A blanket dealer call preference can serve as the default when a sub-dealer has no matching preference. (SR 49720) Learn More ↗
17. Dispatch text now draws from the installation, call-list account, and dealer. (SR 51334) Learn More ↗
18. New translation handling for program 1876 lets you strip leading zeros in translation tables. (SR 50421) Learn More ↗

Templates and Zones

1. Zone include-templates are now validated so invalid template/CID-grid combinations cannot be created, with clear error messages. (SR 49700) Learn More ↗
2. Bypass signals pick up the correct protected area when an installation uses a zone template. (SR 51458) Learn More ↗
3. Dealer overrides can be saved for a zone type that shares a name with the originating zone type. (SR 50689) Learn More ↗
4. A protected-area field was added to action plans and zones. (SR 51578) Learn More ↗
5. Cameras can now be added by zone. (SR 50376) Learn More ↗

Search, Security, and Profile Restrictions

Dealer-profile restriction enforcement was extended across more look-ups and saves, keeping each user's data within their authorization.

1. Added dealer-profile validation to call-list account saves in program 559. (SR 49978) Learn More ↗
2. Added dealer-profile restriction enforcement in program 1800. (SR 49977) Learn More ↗
3. Added dealer restrictions to installed-component and report look-ups. (SR 51351) Learn More ↗
4. Added dealer filtering of technicians and installers to the program 547 service-queue drop-downs. (SR 51285) Learn More ↗
5. Marketing advanced-search now shows the correct Group 1 value. (SR 50047) Learn More ↗
6. An Inspection Authority column and search were added to advanced search. (SR 51306) Learn More ↗
7. The main menu search now works regardless of mode, removing the program-number/name toggle. (SR 50532) Learn More ↗
8. Passcard verification looks up by sub-dealer before falling back to dealer. (SR 49928) Learn More ↗

Email and Integrations

1. SBN can now send email over SSL/TLS, and multiple recipient addresses separated by a semicolon are supported. (SR 51528, 50001) Learn More ↗
2. Email address validation was corrected to allow valid characters such as a minus sign. (SR 50525) Learn More ↗
3. Telephony/dialer integrations were expanded, including a browser-extension dialer and the GoTo integration, and an Aeonix dialer duplicate-entry issue was resolved. (SR 51460, 50516, 49990) Learn More ↗
4. A phone-call event from the service-ticket queue is no longer labeled as an alarm. (SR 51376) Learn More ↗
5. External API/wrapper integrations were added. (SR 50237)
6. GPS look-up for Securatrac signals was corrected. (SR 50060)
7. Pre-filling the CID when sending from the program 1598 external front-end is now supported. (SR 50265) Learn More ↗

Other Application Improvements

1. SBN drop-downs now appear on the correct monitor in multi-monitor setups. (SR 50395)
2. Alarm-queue counters now work when SBN is run as Administrator. (SR 51572)
3. SBN can allocate a random Terminal ID when none is found, when the relevant option is enabled. (SR 50911) Learn More ↗
4. In-line/online documentation (Wiki) was integrated into SBN. (SR 49214)
5. Full-text searching across records was introduced. (SR 49789)

Concentrator

1. Added support for the RC-4000 receiver. (SR 49773) Learn More ↗
2. Added support for the RSM-02 receiver. (SR 51219) Learn More ↗
3. Corrected the AlarmNet driver. (SR 49859)
4. Several corrections to the BOSCH / Radionics driver. (SR 49860)
5. The Concentrator now stays running under heavy, rapid connect/disconnect activity on many server lines, and an access-violation condition was resolved. (SR 50632, 50361)
6. Added failover client connections via multiple connection endpoints for improved resilience. (SR 51373) Learn More ↗
7. Corrected a signal-processing case where signals were not passed through to SBN. (SR 49998)

APIEngine

1. Added an API call to search for codeword/passcard. (SR 51422) Learn More ↗
2. Added an API call to list available installations. (SR 51264) Learn More ↗
3. Added relay support through the API. (SR 51270) Learn More ↗
4. Added an API call to retrieve user phone and email. (SR 51455) Learn More ↗
5. Added an API call to display active zones. (SR 51527) Learn More ↗
6. Added an installation field to installation search. (SR 50872) Learn More ↗
7. The events API call can retrieve multiple lists in a single call and restricts by dealer. (SR 49856) Learn More ↗
8. Direct-inject alarms accept the full 12-character receiver. (SR 51496) Learn More ↗
9. Temp comments can be saved through the API with no end date, matching the SBN client. (SR 50934) Learn More ↗
10. Temp/notes text handling was reworked for the new text layout, including in SBN Anywhere. (SR 49672, 49229) Learn More ↗
11. API-based authorization management was introduced, with documentation. (SR 49218) Learn More ↗
12. Session log-out now deletes the user token, with a configurable token expiration. (SR 51303) Learn More ↗
13. A security exposure on the logging endpoint was closed. (SR 50088)
14. Dealer Branding images deleted in program 1537 are removed from all propagated locations, including the report service and APIEngine media. (SR 51487) Learn More ↗
15. Full-text searching and on-demand reports include APIEngine components (see SBN). (SR 49789, 50318)

SBN Services

1. APIEngine database-connection drops are handled more reliably, improving reconnect behavior. (SR 49615)
2. A fault-tolerance collision in the data layer caused by concurrent calls was resolved. (SR 51192)
3. The Copy Task service completes without a date-conversion error when upgrading a customer from release 92 to 93. (SR 50951)
4. SBN Anywhere user password change now works correctly. (SR 51071) Learn More ↗

SBN Anywhere

These items are delivered through SBN Services, APIEngine, and the supporting database procedures; the SBN Anywhere web application is released separately, but the back-end pieces ship in release 94.

1. Site search matches on partial names rather than requiring the full name, and supports the same search parameters as the SBN client, including passcards and codewords. (SR 49726, 49971, 51320) Learn More ↗
2. Live Traffic returns the newest entries first, so users with many signals no longer wait for old alarms to load, and stale-data handling was corrected. (SR 50570) Learn More ↗
3. Manual SMS sending, dispatch call-list merging, and unified eDispatch from Anywhere were added. (SR 51613, 51339, 51617, 51536)
4. Logging in with an inactive user is properly blocked. (SR 51024) Learn More ↗
5. Open/close schedule entry no longer adds a spurious mark in the plus column. (SR 49749) Learn More ↗
6. Action-plan template toggling was restored. (SR 51586)
7. Change-log access was added to SBN Anywhere. (SR 50134) Learn More ↗

Database Platform

Release 94 contains substantial work to run SBN cleanly on Microsoft SQL Server in addition to Sybase, plus reliability and performance improvements. These are largely internal but affect anyone migrating to or running on Microsoft SQL Server.

1. Broad Microsoft SQL Server compatibility work: numerous procedures now compile and run on Microsoft SQL Server, including handling for "string would be truncated" conditions, parameter matching, ordering guarantees, and locking behavior. (SR 48738, 51428, 50917, 50327, 50335)
2. Performance and locking improvements for alarm generation and queue handling on Microsoft SQL Server, including sequence numbers to avoid deadlocks and added indexes for high-volume tables. (SR 50865, 50647, 50459, 50527)
3. Support for Microsoft SQL Server contained database users, which simplifies replication by replicating users and passwords together. (SR 51587) Learn More ↗
4. Server-specific connection strings for Microsoft SQL Server are now supported. (SR 50912) Learn More ↗
5. Replication-integrity improvements addressing account-ownership and partitioning across multi-server deployments. (SR 49660, 49752) Learn More ↗