TOPS Web Sites Updates - 2006

We have added a new section to the Admin Only area of every web site: Admin Welcome Info, which provides all web site administrators with a central location to go to get information or help on administering their web site.

We now allow admins to use a "--Please Select--" item in an eForm drop down list field that will not count for required field entry.  If you want to force someone to actually pick a selection from a drop down list in an eForm just put "--Please Select--" (without quotes) as the first choice in the list and mark the field as required, they will not be able to submit the eForm with the "--Please Select--" choice selected.

Albums may now be sorted within the Photo Albums feature.

Some adjustments have been made to the way that emails are sent from the web sites. We hope that these changes will resolve problems with some mail servers blocking emails.

Corrected the title tags of several feature pages that were displaying default site titles in the browser's title bar.

Added the number of open items in each category to the Task Manager Category list page.

Added new FAQ feature. This option will be available under the Admin Only section of your web site. If you wish to activate it, please contact websupport@topssoft.com.

Added new "Clone" feature to eForms. This option will allow you to make a duplicate copy of any existing eForm, including all fields, receivers, and autoresponder text.

The Rich Text Editor will now correctly display in Firefox with the IE Tabs plug-in. This correction resolves the problem with the Insert Image dialogue box not displaying fully on the screen.

Corrected an issue causing the Login Names and Passwords to not correctly download into TOPS when they were updated on the web site.

Invoices created on the web site in Online AP Approval will now correctly be marked as paid when they are paid in TOPS.

Administrators may now request certain security levels be excluded from the hits in the statistics feature. For example, an administrator can exclude security level 1 from being tracked in the statistics to avoid having their own visits unfairly weight the site statistics. Please contact websupport@topssoft.com and let us know which security levels you wish to exclude.

New Photo Albums and Photos are now reflected in the What's New feature, in chronological order.

Added captions and picture count (x of y) to Photo Albums slide show feature.

Added a 'contribute' security level which allows administrators to define a security level whereby members can add pictures, but only edit or delete their own pictures.

Regular resident security level can now edit and delete their own reviews without having to give them full "admin" rights on the feature.

Email sent to subscribers of the Message Board will now have the link to the message even if "URL footer" option is turned off.

Email to subscribers of the Message Board will now include the Topic description in the email for clarity.

Recurring Reservations may now be created by Admins or Reservation Admin or Resource Contacts.

Reservations made by admins or resource contacts no longer have to be approved, even if resource would normally require it.

Reservation print out shows "Pending Approval" if they have not yet been approved.

The detailed Task Manager report now page breaks between each Task.

Corrected an error in the code that caused a comment tag (-->) to appear at the top of each page when viewed in Firefox..

Administrators may now request a time frame that eForm submissions will be kept on the website. Time (in days) may be 1-365 (default is 90 days). Optionally, the administrator may now request that submitted eforms be kept on the site permanently. Please contact websupport@topssoft.com with the number of days you wish to retain eform submissions.

Introduced the brand new Photo Albums Feature which allows you to generate easily navigable galleries of photographs you load, including automatic generation of thumbnails, photo captions, and an unlimited number of photos in each album. [More]

Added new site storage option to the statistics menu.

Announcements can now be sorted by Date or by Short Description; you can also set a particular default sort order.

When you create a new announcement, you now have the option to add a "contact person" to your Announcement.

Corrected spelling error in Online AP Approval setup wizard.

When you export Outlook events into a personal calendar, they now show the appropriate event time period.

Residents choosing to click the box to "hide address" within their personal profile will no longer have their name/address included if the "List by Street" address book option is selected.

You now have the option to turn off hyperlinks inserted in ANY feature of the web site that sends emails. (eForms, Message Board, etc.) Including a hyperlink in an email increases the chance of AOL deeming the email as spam and putting our mail server on a temporary block list.

Revised "previous" and "next" links to show up as buttons on main reservation page

Added a button for "Today" on main reservation page.

Cancelled reservations are now saved in the database (instead of deleting them) with cancel date/time, person and reason (if given).

The reservation owner or web site administrator can now cancel reservations from the reservation detail screen.

Reservations can now be cancelled off the reservations feature even after it has started; the reservation owner can cancel up to the end time of the reservation, but the administrator can cancel at ANY time.

When canceling an event, you have the option to enter a comment or cancellation reason.

Administrator has the option to send an email to the reservation owner upon cancellation.

Added the day of the week to top of main reservation screen.

Added a feature to allow administrators to view ALL reservations.

Added a link back to main Reservations page from various other pages within Reservations feature.

Added a Google map link to Homes For Sale and Homes for Lease listings. Now you can click on the map link and generate Google directions from your start point to the home for sale or lease.

Added sorting buttons to Statistics feature in Admin menu bar: after clicking on "Page Views" number under "Show Page Views for Past 30 Days", you can sort listing by Date/Time, IP, User, and Page Viewed.

When a resident’s record is deleted from the Address book, they will no longer be subscribed to the Message board to receive new postings via email.

Fixed issue that was causing eforms to be sent FROM the wrong person if eform had no valid email address.

Replaced all up/down column sorters with new side-by-side layout and bigger graphic for easier viewing.

Added option to remove "web site linkback" from bottom of all emails sent from web site to residents (previously only an option in Email Bulletins feature).

Reformatted and reorganized the Address Book Export / Reports screen for easier use.

Removed ability for the web site Administrator to export and report on resident Passwords for security reasons.

Added ability to custom sort the Homes for Sale and Homes for Lease lists; contact websupport@topssoft.com to request that your listing default to a new sort such as address/price/subdivision, etc. The default is currently by price.

Added a new "MLS #" field to the Homes for Sale feature.

Added new "IFrame" link option: when you want to provide a link to another web site from your site, you can now embed the other site’s page right into your own web site so it shows up within your site design. The advantage of this option is that instead of sending somebody away from your web site to another site, or causing them to open a whole new browser and still keep the navigation menu of your site intact. One example would be to embed a map link to bring up a mapping web site right within your home page. Request this option whenever you complete the "Menu Change?" Form under Admin Only.

Homes for Sale pictures are now coded to eliminate overwriting of duplicate file names so if two homeowners load picture files with the same name (i.e. "house.jpg"), it won’t overwrite a prior listing and be loaded to the wrong Homes For Sale entry.

In reservations, the background color of "Reserved" items can be customized to make it easier to determine which slots are open and which are taken; contact websupport@topssoft.com to request a change.

Main reservation page now auto-refreshes every 5 minutes for use in Kiosk situations.

Made description a required field in the reservation screen.

Fixed issue that occurred if a resident turned off the "show details" option during reservation entry.

Added an option to force all reservations to show details on the main reservation screen; contact In reservations, the background color of "Reserved" items can be customized to make it easier to determine which slots are open and which are taken; contact websupport@topssoft.com to turn this option on for your web site(s).

Changed format of the Accounting 1 year history file to allow for quicker downloads and processing.

Homes for Sale pictures now coded to eliminate overwriting of duplicate file names so if two homeowners loaded picture files with the same name (i.e. "house.jpg"), it won’t over-ride a prior listing and be loaded to the wrong Homes For Sale entry.

Added a new "MLS #" field to the Homes for Sale feature.

Added ability to custom sort the Homes for Sale and Homes for Lease lists. Contact websupport@topssoft.com to request that your listing default to a new sort such as address/price/subdivision, etc. The default is by price within subdivision

Removed the ability for Admin to export and report on resident Passwords for security reasons.

Reformatted and reorganized the Address Book Export / Reports screen for easier use.

Added option to remove "web site linkback" from bottom of all emails sent from web site to residents.

Added new "iFrame" menu linking option. When you want to provide a link off to another web site from your frameless site, you can now embed the other site’s page right into your own web site so it shows up within the design of your site, with the navigation menu of your site intact. One helpful use could be to embed a map link to bring up a map image from the mapping web site right within your home page. Use the 'Menu Change?' option under Admin Only on your web site, and specify that you would like the desired link to open within an iFrame.

Added option to force all reservations to show details on the main reservation screen. Contact websupport@topssoft.com to activate this for your community.

Resolved error that occured if a resident turned off the "show details" option during reservation entry.

Made the description in the reservation screen a required field.

Background color of "Reserved" items can be customized to make it easier to determine which slots are open and which are taken. Contact websupport@topssoft.com to request a color change.

Main reservation page auto-refreshes every 5 minutes for use in Kiosk situations.

When adding a new announcement you can now also select an "eform" to be linked from that Announcement and you can type in custom text for the link itself. For example to post an announcement about an event and then have a link in that announcements to a custom RSVP form.

The community list will now be rebuilt automatically upon entering any community in TOPS. This will prevent the occurrence of fractured city data uploading to the address book property addresses due to incompatible versions of TOPS being run on the same data server.

Updated Web Site Style Selector on www.colorselections.com to a more robust and complete web site set up experience.

Added "date/time posted stamp" to bottom of classified ads.

Show Security screen under "Statistics" now shows a "Board" security level along with resident and administrator.

 "Lost Password" screen now send email to spouse if it is the spouse's name or email that is entered. It will also find the spouse by name even if the spouse has no last name, by using the primary last name in lookup.

Added a 5 second delay to Live Updates to insure resale updates are completed successfully..

Live Updates will no longer upload partial data when a record contains an apostrophe.

Added the word "Open" to status field in CCR tab, if there is no closing date on a CC&R record.

Updated tabs on Account Info page to show properly if the first tab had no valid data in it.

Corrected "start time" in annoucements created from a new event in Events Calendar.

Made adjustments to email bulletin program causing some emails to not be sent under certain unusual circumstances.

Added a sort order to task manager so notes on a particular task are automatically in chronological order.

Fixed some centering issues in the new frameless site designs.

Fixed some style issues on the main reservation screen in the new frameless site designs.

Replaced the old Web Reports Manager with a new scaled down program that allows you to perform the needed administration to keep your report list up-to-date on your community web sites. This update is on the TOPS Interent Updater

We've gone Frameless! Customers can now choose between a framed or frameless site layout for Management and Community Web Sites. Read More.

Flash headers are now available for new site setup. A Flash Header is an animated graphic displayed in the header of your home page, enticing visitors, and enhancing the look of your web site. Read More.

Our newest feature, Live Updates is now available for customers to activate. This feature allows your owner data to be updated in real time, whenever data is changed in the owner module of TOPS v3.2.1™. Live updates is available for customers who have upgraded to TOPS v3.2.1™ only.

Replaced the full email URL in the new Homes for Sale listing format with the words "Email Address" as a hyperlink (this resolves formatting problems created with really long email addresses).

Replaced the full web site URL in the new Homes for Sale listing format with the words "Web Site" as a hyperlink (this resolves formatting problems created with really long web site addresses).

Fixed a problem that occurred with generating the "thumbnail" image in Homes for Sale if the resident loaded a file with a ".JPEG" extension (vs the more popular .JPG).

Lots for sale will no longer show up by accident under homes for sale if the client is still using the "old style" format.

Balance Sheet and Income Statement reports are now available in our brand new report engine, and may be printed directly to your web site using the Print To: Community Web Site option in the print dialogue.

Homes for Sale has been updated to make it a more atractive and user friendly interface. This popular new format will also be instituted in other features in the near future.

Now testing - Live Updates! Please contact us if you are interested in testing our newest feature, live updates, which allow your TOPS Owner data to be submitted to your community web sites instantly upon making changes in TOPS v3.2.1™.

Changed upload program routine to accommodate for connection 'hiccups'. This prevents the upload process from aborting if the user's Internet connection regularly drops for fractions of a second.

If one user on the network has an older version of the TOPS2000.exe (often copied onto the desktop) the data structure can be damaged by each community this user connects to (causing the city name to spread to the state and zip fields). The latest update on the updater treats the symptom by correcting the city state and zip codes (after updating, run Administration, Rebuild Access Data, Rebuild Community List). This does not resolve the underlying problem, which can be identified upon updating to 3.2.1, as the workstation with an older version of the TOPS2000.exe will be instantly identified by the fact that they are unable to connect to the TOPS data.

Removed extra word "to" on screens and report for events that have no end time (from...to).

Added "Resource View Security Level" to Reservations system to allow resources to be restricted by security level .

Games Feature updated with new games and sorted in “live” popularity order.

Classifieds now checks the start and end dates to insure they are valid dates.

When announcement is added from events calendar, the announcement expire date is now automatically set to the event end date.

Added "end time" to sort order in calendar and resolved some sorting issues.

Added a warning notice if a document is loaded with a file name that is too long.

In Homes for Sale, pictures are now associated with particular residents to avoid overwriting images from other homes.

Added ability to add custom fields unique to each resource to the reservation screen.

The primary web site address for the TOPS Interactive Web Site Service has been changed to www.topswebsites.com. We feel that this new address more accurately reflects the service and its offerings, and will be easier to find and remember. The old address (www.topshome.com) will remain active, but will automatically forward you to the new address. Please update your bookmarks!

We have now officially moved all of our corporate web sites to new server hardware. This should not affect functionality, but never say never :-) If you do find a missing link or broken graphic or other error on any of our corporate web sites, please report it.

Added new "Reservations" feature to web sites. This feature allows administrators to set up a reservation system for tennis courts, clubhouse rooms, swimming pools, elevators, or anything else that might require time management. Residents can then log in to your web site and reserve the facility for the time block they need. Reservation requests can be emailed to the appropriate individual, who can then go online and approve or deny the reservation. Read More.