Preliminary Testing Of Update 243
Phase 1:
Development-X have setup an Amazon server (located in Sydney) for the purpose of initial Partner testing of Update 243 against a Demo database.
Over the coming week we intend to make this available to Partners to log on and experience Update 243. This environment is solely for the purpose of Partners and their Clients who are interested in this new Update.
Our initial approach will be for you to log into Ostendo and run typical daily processes. The major reason for this is to load the environment with multiple connections to evaluate performance and robustness of the new framework.
Most functionality is available, however we are finalising some further areas before the major release. This will not prevent you from processing everyday type test transactions eg: Orders, Invoicing etc..
Making this available to a much wider audience will provide us with important information and feedback relating to performance.
Unique User Names For Testing:
Rather than setting up a generic username and password for all Partners, we will be creating individual Ostendo user names for those Partners wishing to be involved in this Phase of the testing process. Update 243 allows for a much longer Username, therefore we will setup each Partners username as their email address. Could you please email Ian Flynn ian@development-x.com the email addresses of the Partners that will be testing Update 243 from your organisation.
One of the reasons for having individual usernames is that Update 243 has a new feature called Screen Load Times. This enables us to log and track the load time of screens accessed by each user. Given each user will be accessing this AWS server from different internet connection points, this will provide us will the ability to determine any latency differences from each users connection.
New Functionality (Available now):
Apart from the Technology and Remote Database environment changes, the following new functionality is included in Update 243:- Optional Two Bin (Kanban) capability for some or all items requiring simple stock control and replenishment.
- Integrated Business Process Models: Allowing the user to capture internal business processes and interactions with Ostendo
- User Defined Defaults / Validations and Actions: Allowing Default Field values and validation based on set conditions. Actions allow you to trigger and event based upon a condition. eg: Create a Call Ticket when a new customer is added.
- Optional Enhanced User Security by setting password policies for the organisation
New Functionality (To be rolled out soon after Public Release):
After the initial release of Update 243, we will be following this up with three further major enhancements
Business Intelligence:
Implementation of a full BI Dashboard tool (similar output and design to Microsoft Power BI) allowing for users to build their own graphical Dashboards through a Dashboard Designer tool
Artificial Intelligence:
Integration of some of the key AI services (LLMs - Large Language Models)- ChatGPT - OpenAI
- Gemini - Google
- Deepseek - Deepseek
- Grok - xAI
- Claude - Anthropic
- Perplexity - Perplexity AI
- Mistral - Frontier AI
Each of these AI services have different strengths, some focus on text processing whilst others on image processing, and others for more analytical processing.
- Possible examples of the use of AI:
- To re-compose notes you have entered eg: summarisation
- To insert HTML Tags from plain text to be presented as HTML
- Simplified building of SQL queries for reporting / dashboards etc...
We would ask for feedback from Partners and Customers on on their Business Processes where the use of AI could enhance and improve these processes for the future.
eg: documents for suppliers and customers, or real time natural language queries for data analysis.
NetSuite Integration:
We are currently in the process of completing an integration (real-time using NetSuite API similar to Xero) with NetSuite where larger organisations require a more substantial cloud accounting solution catering for multi dimensional reporting for branches, subsidiaries and multiple companies.
Phase 2:
After this initial testing phase, we will allow each Development Partner to select one of their databases for migration to Update 243 onto our Test Server. We will migrate the databases from 242 to 243 and then provide exclusive access to their respective database for the purposes of fully testing their Custom Scripts that have been developed over time.
It is suggested that whilst we are in Phase 1, that Development Partners start considering and preparing their database for testing in Phase 2.
Phase 3:
We will start preparing for a formal roll out and also publish documentation on migration and implementation of Update 243
Feedback:
We would ask for your feedback throughout these Phases. This Feedback should be directed in the form of a Ticket via the Help Desk. We have setup a new Department Option called "Update 243 Feedback" specifically for this purpose. Please ensure you tag the ticket accordingly.
Points to Note:- Because we are allowing Update 243 to run with Firebird 2.5 (as previously stated in our Article 25/7/25 https://mailchi.mp/development-x.com/firebird-versions-used-with-update-242-243), client sites who are considering running update 243 may run a database test copy of 243 on their current local server whilst still running 242 in their live environment. This will give them an opportunity to test 243 before committing to it without the need to install Firebird 5.
- Partners will ultimately be able to run 242 (Firebird 2.5) and 243 databases (either Firebird 2.5 or 5) on their local servers. If they are to use a cloud server for exclusive 243 databases, those databases should be Firebird 5
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