New features and system updates(11/02/2018)

GDPR compliance update. We've changed the terms used in Lamplight. Previously 'deleting' a profile would actually archive it: it would still exist in the background. We have changed the label for this, so it is now 'archive', which more accurately reflects what is happening. We have also added the ability to restrict a profile from processing, which is a requirement under the GDPR (which comes into force in May). We've also added a new page to our main website about GDPR which we will update over the next weeks to support you in your GDPR compliance.

If you do need to delete profiles, you'll need to use the 'Permanent deletion' functionality in the system admin main menu (which only system admins can do).

If you need to document the data you're collecting in Lamplight (which you probably will for GDPR compliance) you can download the key settings in Lamplight into a spreadsheet - again in system admin > File transfer.

There is a new security mechanism which locks operators out of the system after 10 failed login attempts. Accounts can be unlocked by system administrators. System admins can also lock accounts if you need to suspend access without deleting the login completely.

If you're using the 'my user' restriction, you can automatically make profiles added by operators 'their user' - so Lamplight will create a 'my user' relationship between the operator and the new profile. This means that lower-access rights operators can then edit details of the profiles they've just created. If you want to use this you'll need to turn it on in system admin > global settings > security.

There are a load more tags you can use on diary page templates. For example, you can now see the subworkarea, location, and case name (amongst others) on each item in your diary. This is a personal setting, so change it in admin > personal settings.

A couple of bug-fixes:

• Case information in a group data view no longer shows cases from other projects. You'll need to edit the group data view itself for this change to take effect.
• Borough and ward details are no longer being blanked out (from address lookups) when you edit the name of a profile. The system admin > geocode function will replace any that had been.

New features and system updates(13/12/2017)

Automatic logout - you can now set how long Lamplight will wait before logging you out automatically. This is a security feature; you should consider carefully the risk of an unauthorised user accessing a computer before increasing this. It can be changed in system admin > global settings.

Activity view templates let you save the work > view > work filters as a template, a bit like report templates. You can set up as many templates as you need, which appear as sub-menu items. This will save you lots of time if you are frequently looking at a particular workarea or similar. Set them up in system admin.

We've introduced a new term that can be translated: activity. On the main menu we've had 'work' at the top level, but it also includes referrals, outcomes and so on. Activity covers all of these things - work is just work records. You won't see any changes initially - the initial translation for activity is the same as for work - but you can go to system admin to change this.

Staff attending a work record can appear on home page diary items. This is a personal setting - you can change the text that appears using templates, and {staff_names} is a new item.

The way that deleted profiles in reports are treated has been clarified. By default, deleted profiles attending activity records will be included, as they always have been; there is now an option to limit the report to currently visible profiles only.

Other smaller changes:

• Fix a bug with outcomes reports and how the date range was treated.
• The password policy is explained better when changing your password.
• New cases can start in the next year.
• You'll see a more informative error message if you see email errors.
• There is a security feature in Lamplight to restrict operator access only to profiles that are 'my users'. This can be turned on in global settings.

System update(21/11/2017)

Firefox has recently released a new version which has broken the rich text editors (with formatting, in work etc. records). Update 27/11/17 We have found the issue and updated Lamplight with a fix. (It turns out they fixed a very old bug that had it's own workaround, rather than introduced a new one).

Email settings. The change to AWS means that to send emails you need to enter your email account information. We are no longer allowed to send email on your behalf. There is more information about this, and some guidelines on our blog. If you are having trouble with email settings, some quick pointers here for things that are causing problems:

• Set overall email settings first, before trying to do it for individual staff.
• The hostname will look something like smtp.gmail.com or smtp.office365.com - it won't have an @ in it
• Port is usually 587 - don't leave it blank
• Authentication is usually login - don't leave it blank
• SSL type is usually TLS - you almost certainly shouldn't leave it blank.
• Username is very likely your email address
• Password (for the SMTP email server) is very likely your password to your email account. (unless you use two-factor-authentication on your email).
• Use the 'test' button in communications to send emails to yourself to see if it's working
• You usually need the 'from' email address in a communication to be the same as the email account you are sending through.

We're sorry for the inconvenience this has caused some customers. There are some benefits: primarily that your email is much more likely to be received in inboxes, as it's now coming from your email server, not ours (the mismatch between the 'from' address and the actual server sending the email means it's more likely to be spam filtered).

It's now possible to translate more of Lamplight to use your own terminology. This change has come due to the move to AWS. You make the changes in the same place (in system admin) but can do more...

System update(29/6/2017)

A couple of changes have been made, one which may affect report templates.

We've updated the filtering available on custom fields in work, referral, grant and communications reports. Previously you were limited to 'custom field value is {x}'; now you can do the more powerful filters that you get in groups and elsewhere. These filters now appear in a separate tab (if you have any) - Additional filters.

Report templates using drop-down type fields should be fine. If any of your templates use dates or text fields, you will need to update the template to say what kind of match you now want.

This update also resolves the issue with evaluation reports and filters on evaluation questions.

This update also includes an update to grouping on cases that should improve performance on larger systems.

Bugfix update(2/3/2017)

There's one important change to auto groups that may impact your reporting. The change alters the way attendance between dates are handled in 'work' and 'referrals' sections of auto groups. Previously, attendances prior to date 1 would count all attendances up to and including date 1. Attendances between date 1 and 2 would count all attendances on or after date 1. That meant that an attendance on date 1 would be counted in both sections - the 'number before date 1' and 'number between date 1 and 2'. Depending on the way you'd set up your group, this may have excluded or included people that should not have been. The change means that attendances on the date boundaries are counted in the 'upper' part. So an attendance occuring on date 1 would be counted in the 'number of attendances between date 1 and 2' but not in the 'number of attendances prior to date 1'. An attendance occurring on date 2 would be counted in the 'number of attendances after date 2', but not in the 'number of attendances between date 1 and 2'. You'll need to edit and save any groups that may be affected for the changes to take effect. We apologise for any inconvenience this causes.

Other recent changes that we've made:

• Grant records can be recurring, and can be copied using the popup menu.
• The publishing module now allows you to publish custom fields on work records, and to accept custom fields on referrals received via the API.
• Bugfix: don't show deleted profiles that are related to visible profiles in search results.
• Checks for duplicate mobile numbers on different profiles, and don't send them sms messages.
• You can now create a group of people aged 0 by putting '0' and '0' in the age range criteria.

Bugfix update(17/10/2016)

A few updates today:

• Name titles (e.g. Mrs) and 'allow email' (etc) display properly in summary tabs and header strips on profiles. You will need to edit and save the group data view you use for the changes to take effect.
• A recent change meant that editing an operator meant that their password would be reset - apologies for any consternation this has caused. This is fixed.
• Clicking on a name in the relationships tab on a profile, when you have a group data view in place on the tab, wasn't jumping to the linked profile. This is now fixed.
• Searching for a profile in Chromium browser on Android mobile devices wasn't working, due to a bug in Chromium that isn't going to be fixed. This update works around this Chromium bug, so the search will now work.
• The 'global settings' in system admin has been re-arranged very slightly to group things more logically and make it a bit easier to find settings.
• Cases can be turned off completely in global settings system admin.

Minor updates (17/10/2016)

We're working on some small fixes and feature requests. Some recently added:

• Custom columns on the attendance table of work records can now be viewed in the work table within profiles.
• The way reports treat 'connected' profiles has changed very slightly. For example, in a work record you may have 'Matt Parker, Lamplight' listed as attending on a single row of the table. If you report on that attendance, broken down by postcode say, there's an ambiguity about whether to use the postcode of Matt Parker, or of Lamplight. Previously, reports would use the second profile listed (i.e. Lamplight): this has now changed to use that of Matt Parker, which we think is more intuitive.
• Record IDs can be used in communication templates when running mail merges with work or similar records.
• The SMS character counter wasn't always working in Internet Explorer - it is now.
• Printing a profile will show the title and alternative names.

More Server updates (12/9/2016)

We have just received notification of an urgent update that is required on the underlying database software used by Lamplight. We will need to turn Lamplight off at 10pm BST tonight, the 12th September to carry out these updates. As usual, Lamplight will be available by 7am Tuesday morning at the latest.

Apologies for any inconvenience this causes.

Server updates (5/9/2016)

There will be additional server updates this week. Again you shouldn't notice most of them, but we will need to turn Lamplight off at 10pm BST on 6th September 2016 to attend to one of the main database servers. We expect to complete the necessary work on the 6th, but in case we do not we will also turn Lamplight off at 10pm BST on the 7th September. In both cases Lamplight will up up-and-running by 7am the following morning, at the latest.

Apologies for any inconvenience this causes.

Server updates (30/8/2016)

We will be carrying out some maintenance on our servers this week. This will start at 10pm (BST). For the most part Lamplight will continue to work as normal, and you won't notice, but there will be some periods where Lamplight is not available. In any case, normal service will be resumed by 7am each morning at the latest.

System updates (3/7/2016)

A few fixes updated this weekend:

• Groups based on grant amounts is now possible.
• Grant records linked to cases weren't showing in the case tab: they will do now.
• It was not possible to set external email settings for individual operators if they had been added recently: you can now.
• Some updates of options on menus to make it clearer what they do (on relationships and group tabs in particular).
• The 'date from' on the case view tab now shows properly on the printable version of the tab.

System updates (30/5/2016)

Firstly, a big thank you and good luck to Louise Brown who's off to teach maths full-time. Louise has been a part of team Lamplight for 5 years and we're very sorry to see her go.

There are also some fixes and feature requests which have just been uploaded:

• Custom case work fields can be added as filters in auto groups.
• The search box clears itself in the top-right corner after you've clicked on a name to go to a profile.
• The workarea filter in communications reports is always available.
• 'Alternative name' is available as a column in the people -> view listings.
• Header strips for volunteer profiles can now be used in personal settings.

System updates (27/4/2016)

Some feature requests have just been uploaded:

• A couple of screens had missed the clickable links to jump straight to profiles - on referrals and view cases. These have now been added.
• Subworkarea columns now show on grant and outcome tables.
• If you want to, you can allow multiple 'default contacts' in relationships with a profile. Lamplight uses the default contact to find contact details when communicating, so if you have more than one, which set of contact details to use is arbitrary. If you do want to enable this you'll need to turn it on in system admin -> global settings.
• The time is shown in 'full details' of outcomes in group data views.

System updates (24/4/2016)

Another set of small changes just uploaded:

• Work records spanning two or more days can now be opened properly from the diary if you click on the second day.
• Tasks/messages added in work records, and allocated to two linked profiles could end up being allocated to profile ID 1. This is now fixed.
• If you left the new login page for too long it would 'expire' - which would mean you'd have to login twice. The login page now refreshes itself every 15 minutes, which will keep it fresh.
• Saving table layout on the 'my users' home page tab now works.
• The case work report calculates the total time spent with a client on all types of records, not just work records. This has always been the case, but was mis-labelled in the report. The labelling has been updated.
• We've made some changes to how Lamplight handles Mailchimp synchronisation. You won't see any obvious changes, but sendind updates from Lamplight to Mailchimp should be more robust from now on, especially for removing people from segments.

Minor updates (14/3/2016)

Another set of small changes just uploaded:

• Click on a name to go straight to the profile. You don't need to open up the popup menu to jump to a profile - names should appear as links now, which you can just click.
• Website links have a 'visit' button next to them to go to the web page.
• Cases can be deleted: go to work -> view -> cases on the main menu and the popup menu has a 'delete case' option.
• Copying addresses in relationships also copies ward and borough now.
• The number of people in a group wasn't always updating: it will now.
• You can now set the PO number on invoices in bulk (charging module).

System updates (8/3/2016)

Some system updates went live this evening:

• Comments on outcome scores can be longer
• Adding new profiles while adding a work record works a bit better when it adds them to the attendance table (the name didn't always show, it does now).
• The scatter plot in outcome reports now displays properly again.
• Sometimes long records (over multiple days) would get US and UK date styles muddled and think that the date from was before the date to. This only happened with some dates, in some cases, but has now been fixed.

System updates (7/3/2016)

A few updates happened this weekend. The main one will be obvious to you: we've switched to the new login page, as we mentioned a couple of updates back.

There are also a couple of bug-fixes and updates:

• 'Year' type fields will now show their data in group data views. You will need to edit and save the group data view for this to take effect.
• Switching to view 'all' cases in the paginator now shows all the records, instead of none of them.
• When you use different group data views as profile header strips, the personal settings screens show these properly. Previously the default one was not showing in the settings screen.
• New feature: you can now see the date of the earliest and latest grant made in group data views.

Server updates - speed (22/2/2016)

The updates to the servers over the weekend were successful.

However, you may have noticed that Lamplight has been slower than normal at the end of last week and on Monday. One of our servers was running much slower than normal, and on Friday we turned it off as it was slowing things down more by having it on. This did place a greater strain on the remaining servers.

We have been working with our server providers to understand what the issues were. We initially thought it was connected to some disk issues that they had been having on the same server. This was just coincidence: tt turned out though that another of their customers were running highly processor intensive applications, against their Terms of Service, which was degrading performance on our server. They realised this and stopped the offending other applications at around 11:40 this morning. Our server monitoring picked this up almost immediately and the slower server was switched back on again. Our monitoring suggests that that performance is back to usual levels.

We apologise for the inconvenience this will have caused.

Various updates (4/2/2016)

• You can now save the sorting in the main tables in Lamplight. For example, if you want to see the list of work records sorted by workarea by default, you can sort the table and then save table layout. When you next come to view work records, you'll see them sorted in that way straight away. To save table layout, get the table how you want it and then right-click on the table column headers, and click 'Save table columns layout'.
• If you've started using the new volunteer profile type, you can now add them to work records and manual groups and things.
• A bug was meaning that when you saved outcomes, you'd get multiple copies of files or tasks appearing. These will now only save on the first record, so you won't have lots of duplicates popping up.
• Automatic groups looking for people attending 0 work records between two dates were failing to pick up people who had no work, referral, outcome, grant, or communication record at all, ever. This is now fixed.

Behind-the-scenes changes Updated 8/12/2015

We made a number of changes to behind-the-scenes functionality on Sunday evening. These were not intended to introduce any immediate changes to Lamplight functionality, but to make it easier to extend in the future, and more reliable.

We're sorry that there have been some glitches with this over the last 36 hours. The issues we've noticed, or been notified of, and fixed are:

• Saving tasks. Tasks without any text content were not saving (those with were OK).
• Work records not showing on the diary. There's an option to have a tick box on work records to choose whether to view a particular record on the home page diary. If you do not have this checkbox, Lamplight changed to save the records as hidden from the diary, rather than visible. The records themselves saved; they just did not show on the diary.
• Profiles were changing role type to 'contact'. This happened in particular circumstances when saving an address on a profile. This would mean that any custom tabs would disappear because the profile type had changed. Editing the profile type back to user will be necessary for any profiles who have edited addresses in the last 24 hours.

These have been fixed as quickly as possible. We are really sorry for the inconvenience.

The changes that will be possible in the future because of the updates include:

• It will be possible to add more profile types (like 'user', 'staff, 'contact' etc.) if needed. The first of these will be a volunteer specific profile.
• It will be easier to add new types of record (like work records, referrals etc).
• It is easier to test Lamplight for any problems before updates. At the moment we have a series of automatic tests that check things are working. However it is difficult to cover all the different possibilities, given how customisable Lamplight is. The changes we have made have made it easier to be more thorough in our tests

Age ranges on auto groups (23/09/2015)

There's been a few minor updates recently to address minor issues. One will need your action. An auto group that used ages in it's criteria wasn't updating itself properly. Previously these groups would give you the people within the age range on the date that the group was last edited, not today. With this update, the group will tell you the people within the age range as of today.

If you have any automatic groups based on age you should edit the criteria (you don't need to change anything, just click 'save') which will tell Lamplight to update the dates when it uses the group.

New document format generated (15/05/2015)

As we mentioned in a recent email newsletter, the format of the generated documents has been updated. Instead of creating rich-text format (.rtf) documents, Lamplight will now produce documents in Word 2007 format, which should be more reliable, more consistent, and be supported on more platforms.

Assorted updates 03/05/2015

There's a few fairly minor updates this weekend:

• In group data views, you can use a template string to view full referral details (like the recent addition for view all work records).
• Downloads of tables that include formatting (bold etc) don't show the formatting codes in the spreadsheet.
• Staff timesheet calculations of absence times used the a full day in some cases even if the absence was just for a part-day. The hours are shown correctly now.
• You can edit items in the library.
• Sometimes, the print button on the popup window didn't do anything. It does now.
• On the main menu, the drop-down menus didn't always open fully. They do now.