Release Notes

REA 9.10.0

Note: This release includes a database upgrade to version 1.66. Although updating the database is not required, doing so updates some indexes and should provide better performance.

New Features

• Record tagging.
• Mapping (release 9.9) is now available for sale and lease comps.

Bug Fixes

• It is now possible to run REA with a database server whose default collation is not 1252 Latin-1.
• The Events tab on edit forms often failed to display events for the current date.
• Outlook Link sometimes failed to create its local data folder, so could not save mail messages as attachments to history records.

Miscellaneous

• Significant performance improvements when displaying Time Management and the Links tabs on edit forms.

REA 9.9.0

Note: This release requires a database upgrade to version 1.65.

Configuration Changes

• We have replaced Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine (MSDE) 2000 with Microsoft SQL Express 2005 as the database server for single-user and small-network systems.
• We have separated out the REA Report Engine (the Crystal Reports runtime) into a separate package. This should make delivery of updates and revisions more efficient.

New Features

• Added Timelines, a major new feature for managing series of events. Please read the manual or online help for details.
• Added the ability to map a contact or property address using a number of online mapping services.
• You can now schedule an alarm for a timeless event.
• A contact can now have a mailing address separate from his/her primary address. The mailing address is used for mail merge.
• Various additions to the right-click menus for the address boxes on contact and property forms. Among other things, you can now edit a contact's company details or a property's contact details directly.
• You can now construct queries for records which are or are not members of a specified group.
• The grid on the "alternate address" tab of the contacts form which showed alternate phone numbers now shows both alternate phones and alternate email addresses. You can no longer edit in this grid (you have to use Record > Edit Details instead), but you can use the phone dialer or create an email directly from this grid.
• You can now set the properties of a custom view to have the view appear directly on the View menu.
• Added Annual Event to the Schedule menu.
• When importing data from REA 8, the "Import source" and "Import record" fields are now set (to "REA8" and the record's unique ID respectively), so that you can later use the flat-file import feature to "tune up" your imported data. (This feature was added in 9.8.0 but the release notes for that version neglected to mention it.)

Bug Fixes

• Several improvements to Windows Vista compatibility, particularly when creating a database and in the Database Manager.
• Using the "copy" button on a report or document template incorrectly copied the original's owner and team. It now makes you and your default team the owners.

REA 9.8.0

Note: This release requires a database upgrade to version 1.61.

New Features

• New global replace feature for contacts, companies, and properties.
• Added NewId() function for file import expression (also usable in global replace).

Bug Fixes

• Repaired record locking, which did not work correctly on SQL Server 2005.

Miscellaneous

• Implementation of links has been revised. Displaying the list of links for a record should be significantly faster.
• A number of new standard reports have been added.

REA 9.7.6

New Features

• Added new Record > Attach command for attaching a file easily to a record.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug which made it impossible to run or configure Outlook synchronization if contacts were being synched to a group that the user did not own.
• Fixed a bug which sometimes prevented restoring a database backup to a different location than the one it was backed up from.
• Fixed problems which prevented adding new users on SQL Server 2005 installations.

Miscellaneous

• Some speed improvements.
• The setting under Tools > Options for "Check for new alarms every X minutes" has been removed. REA now decides how often to check based on the server load.

REA 9.7.5

Note: This release requires a database upgrade to version 1.59.

New Features

• In the Mail Merge Wizard, when creating a history record you now have the option to attach a copy of the merged document (letter or fax) to the history record.

Bug Fixes

• Reports now report the times for event and history records correctly for dates whose Daylight Saving Time status has changed since the database was created. (This applies to most parts of the U.S. between the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in April, and between the last Sunday in October and the first Sunday in November, starting in 2007.)
• Some reports involving events would no longer work starting with version 9.7.0. They now work again.
• Importing history records from REA 8 did not import attached mail merge documents. This has been fixed.
• An error in the file import feature caused creating some records to fail with an error message reading "Deleted row information cannot be accesses through the row." This is fixed.

Miscellaneous

• REA now installs and runs on Windows Vista.
• File import can now read CSV files containing multi-line fields such as comments or other free-form text (as long as the program creating the CSV file formats them correctly).

REA 9.7.1

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a problem displaying the pull-down list of a combo box on a system whose font size is set to "large" or "custom".
• Fixed an error that occurred when trying to sort on the "Linked To" column for events in Time Management.
• Fixed a few other rare errors.

REA 9.7.0

Note: This release requires a database upgrade to version 1.58.

New Features

• An event record can now be attached to any kind of object, not just a contact or property record. One event can be attached to multiple objects. You can select the objects to attach the event to from the Schedule Event dialog, or by selecting multiple objects in an F5 list view before selecting an item from the Schedule menu.
• Added more options to the Lookup > Linked menus on the Big Six forms and Time Management. Lookup > Linked > All Records will find all linked records of any type, including ones attached by user links (the ones shown on the Links tab). Lookup > Linked > User Links will find only records attached by user links.

Bug Fixes

• On Time Management and F5 lists, under some conditions one or more records could be shown duplicated. Fixed.
• Some field names were being shown incorrectly when creating a query for properties. Fields of the property's contact, owner, and agent were shown without a leading "Contact.", "Owner.", or "Agent.", making it impossible to distinguish them. Fixed.
• On the Property Units form, headings were missing from most of the grid columns. Fixed.
• If you (1) changed the first name, last name, or salutation on a contact record to something other than what REA suggested automatically, (2) saved the changes, (3) opened the Contact Details dialog, then (4) hit OK to close the Contact Details dialog without making any changes, REA would change the first and last name and salutation back to its automatic suggestions without showing any indication it had done so. Fixed.
• Attempts to edit a record locked by another user were not being handled correctly, sometimes leaving REA in a state in which you could not close the edit form or leave the current record. Fixed.
• Could not select Outlook folders for synchronizing contacts or events when using a Microsoft Exchange email account containing folders the user did not have write permission to. Fixed.

Miscellaneous

• You can now change the list of participants for an instance of a recurring event.
• You can now disable the animated splash screen on startup from Tools > Options. It was annoying people who use REA via Remote Desktop Connection.

REA 9.6.0

New Features

• The big news in this release is linked subqueries. On Time Management and the Big Six forms (contacts, companies, properties, spaces, sale comps, lease comps), the new Lookup > Linked menu command will find all records of another type linked to records in your current lookup. For example, from companies use Lookup > Linked > Contacts to find all contacts for companies in the current lookup. From those contacts you can then use Lookup > Linked > Properties (Owner) to find all properties owned by contacts in the original companies lookup.
• A linked subquery is also available from the Marketing Report dialog. Select Query rather than Report for the output type.

Bug Fixes

• When editing details for a sale comp or lease comp, you could not change information about any of the contacts. Also, selecting "no contact" would not erase the current contact's details. Fixed.

REA 9.5.2

This release provides performance improvements in Time Management and F5 lists. To get the full benefit, be sure to upgrade your database to version 1.57.

New Features

• The Calendar tool bar has check boxes labeled Mine and Finished, similar to the Events tool bar in Time Management. Mine filters the calendar to show only events that you own. Finished allows you to see finished events; when unchecked, finished events are hidden.
• Under History in Time Management, you can now use "Go To Linked" on a history record linked to multiple records. A new dialog allows you to choose the record to view.

Bug Fixes

• Outlook synchronization was ignoring the Team setting for events imported from Outlook. It would not synchronize events or contacts created in Outlook using a custom form. Both fixed.

Miscellaneous

• Outlook Link cleans up the body of mail messages for history records by removing leading blank lines and condensing multiple blank lines into one.

REA 9.5.1

New Features

• File import has several new features:
  • Ability to delete previously-imported records from REA that are not present in the new import file. This is useful for removing obsolete data when importing data from a provider like CoStar.
  • Ability to create history records when import creates, updates, or deletes records.
  • Ability to set the "update existing" option on a field-by-field basis.
  • The Expression Editor dialog has been enhanced to let you test your expressions as you work on them.
  • A new Scan for errors button on the Import Wizard to run quickly through the input file and find records that will cause problems when imported.
• Outlook Link has a new option to limit the size of email messages attached to history records. (The ability to attach messages to history records was added in 9.5.0.)

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug introduced in 9.5.0 that prevented REA from showing you who had locked the record when you tried to edit a record locked by another user.

REA 9.5.0

Note: This release requires a database upgrade to version 1.56.

The structure of a history record has been changed (see New Features), requiring most reports to be redesigned. Updating the database to version 1.54 (or later) will install new reports.

New Features

• A history record can now be attached to any kind of object, not just a contact or property record. One history record can be attached to multiple objects. You can select the objects to attach the history to from the History Record dialog, or by selecting multiple objects in an F5 list view before selecting Schedule > Add History.
• History records can now have file attachments. Outlook Link allows you to save the incoming email message as a history attachment.
• On objects which support picture attachments (contacts, companies, properties, spaces, sale comps, lease comps), there is now a subpanel on the Status panel at the left side of the form which displays a thumbnail view of the default picture.
• Reports can now contain your company's custom logo. You can choose the logo using the (new) Tools > Administration > Global Settings dialog.
• Spaces and lease comps now have "notes" fields.
• Added three new buttons to the main toolbar: Search for Contact, Search for Company, Search for Property. These are equivalent to the Contact, Company, and Property items under Tools > Search on the main menu.
• When you attach a contact to a company, REA will offer to fill in the contact's phone, fax, email, and web site fields from the company record.
• Added several items to the right-click menu of the Groups panel for the object editing forms. You can now view (activate) a group, create or delete one, or change properties, without using the Groups dialog.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a problem that would sometimes cause deleting a contact or merging contacts to fail with an error message reading:
  DELETE statement conflicted with COLUMN REFERENCE constraint 'FK_link_info_object_info1'. The conflict occurred in database 'REA9', table 'link_info', column 'target_object_key'.
• Creating a new link did not respect your "default team" setting. Fixed.
• Exporting to Excel or Word from the F5 list did not respect the user's "Export records" privilege setting. Fixed.
• Synchronizing events with Outlook could include many events you did not want synchronized if "My personal events only" was selected. Fixed.
• Fixed a bug that caused Outlook synchronization with an empty Outlook folder to fail with the message:
  Error calling IMAPITable::QueryRows - 0xMAPI_E_INVALID_PARAMETER

Miscellaneous

• The address section of the Properties form has been redesigned to let you see the property address and the site/owner/agent contact address at the same time. The Sale Comps form has been similarly redesigned for property address and buyer/seller/agent addresses.
• Global searches (Tools > Search) now faster in many cases. Activating a group (View > Groups) is also faster.
• Removed the Optimize reports option from Create Database. It could take an extremely long time to run on some systems. If you want to optimize reports you can still use that feature in Database Manager, which at least lets you cancel if you get tired of waiting.
• It is now possible to interrupt report generation. Report generation can sometimes take a long time, especially if you use the print (rather than preview) option, which generates all the pages of the report before it displays the print dialog.
• Reports are now optimized on the fly. If you print or display a report which has not been optimized, REA gives you a chance to save the optimized report, so it doesn't have to be done as a separate step.
• When synchronizing a contact with Outlook, the Greeting field in REA is synchronized with the Nickname field in Outlook. When importing a contact from Outlook the greeting is set to the nickname if there is one, otherwise it is generated from the contact's name according to the Default greeting option (Tools > Options).

REA 9.4.2

Note: This release requires a database upgrade to version 1.52.

New Features

• Outlook Link now allows you to specify the team for email history records.
• The Dismiss All and Snooze All buttons have been removed from the Alarms form. The alarm list now allows you to select multiple items at once (using Shift-Click and Ctrl-Click), and Dismiss and Snooze work with multiple items selected. Finish and Finish Now buttons have been added to Alarms.
• The properties for a document template now include a history record. If you fill in the history record, when you use the template for a mail merge, the history record to be generated by the mail merge will be filled in automatically with the information from the template.
• A number of additional fields have been added to the property record, and parts of the Properties form have been redesigned to accomodate them. The changes appear on the General tab, the (new) Detail tab, and the Listing/For Lease tab.
• The same new fields have been added to the sale comp record, and the Sale Comps form has been changed in the same way as Properties.

Bug Fixes

• Outlook Link should now be more reliable.
• A few more tweaks to the behavior of file import.

REA 9.4.1

Note: This release requires a database upgrade to version 1.51.

New Features

• Added duplicate checking for properties.
• Added Record > Copy Details to the menu on the Companies, Contacts, Properties, and Spaces forms. This lets you copy company/contact/property information to the clipboard or to a vCard file.
• The Call Timer has been redesigned. The phone dialer and call timer have now been combined.
• Added "Import source" and "Import record" fields to the major data objects. These fields do not appear on editing forms, but can be used in file import to hold a unique ID for the imported record, so you won't have to waste a user field for that purpose.

Bug Fixes

• When reading from a DBF (dBase/xBase) file, REA's import routines are now more tolerant of corrupted files. This may turn out to be more of a bug than a bug fix, but makes it easier to read the usable data while ignoring (most of) the corrupt.
• The phone dialer now works with more different kinds of phone system.
• Queries using the "does not contain" operator sometimes returned the wrong result. Fixed.
• File import bug fixes:
  • The Replace() file import function returned the wrong result. Fixed.
  • Import maps for units could not be saved and reloaded. Fixed.

REA 9.4.0

New Features

• Miscellaneous improvements to file import:
  • It is no longer necessary to import all the various parts of a contact name (full, first, last, saluation, greeting) explicitly. If you import the full name, the other parts will be parsed out automatically. If you import the individual parts, the full name will be built automatically. Similar logic for the parts of a property address (street numbers, direction, street name, suite).
  • You can now import to the property type (for a property) and country (for contact, company, and property addresses) fields.
  • You can now import sale comps.
  • You can set the owner and team for imported records.
  • You can have records created by an import added to a group that you specify.
  • An error processing data for one field on an import no longer terminates processing the entire record.
• In Tools > Options you can now set the default greeting style for new contacts. This lets you choose whether the Greeting field will be set automatically to first name ("Dear Fred"), last name ("Dear Mr. Smith"), or full name ("Dear Fred Smith").

Bug Fixes

• In some cases Tools > System Tables > Event Types would refuse to allow you to add a new event type. Fixed.
• Weekly recurring events with Sunday selected as the event day behaved oddly, would only occur every other Sunday. Fixed.

REA 9.3.6

• Miscellaneous improvements to file import.

REA 9.3.5

New Features

• Import from dBASE and CSV files. Use File > Import > File. See the manual and help file for details.

REA 9.3.4

New Features

• The Document Templates dialog now allows you to import existing Word documents as new templates.

Bug Fixes

• Database backup operations failed when the total size of the backup file exceeded 2 GB. Fixed.
• A mistake in the bug fix for Outlook synchronization in 9.3.3 resulted in new contacts being imported from Outlook with blank names in some cases. Fixed.
• The "price/unit" field calculated on the Properties form was not saved to the database. Fixed.

REA 9.3.3

New Features

• Calendar now shows icons for alarms as well as recurring events. Contact name is now added to an event's subject for quick reference.
• You can now create history records for multiple projects at once. In the History Record dialog, click the "..." button on the Project field and select the check boxes next to the project names. When you save the record, REA will create one history record for each project checked.
• Stored objects (queries, field lists, sorts, duplicate checks) can now be saved to and loaded from disk files as well as stored in the database.
• The Database Manager has a new command to change the server's 'sa' password. This can be used by an account with Windows Administrator privilege to fix a lost 'sa' password.

Bug Fixes

• Notes boxes on Contacts, Properties, etc. now accept Enter keypresses.
• Queries on "Date verified" sometimes returned incorrect results. Fixed.
• Outlook synchronization tries to be more forgiving of records mangled by Outlook's name parsing.
• Phone dialer now works with modem drivers supporting older versions of the Telephony API.

REA 9.3.2

New Features

• On the Alarms form, the contact and property fields now have "go to" buttons that will take you directly to the contact/property record.
• On Time Management, Calendar, and the right-click menu on the Events tab on contacts and properties, the Quick Finish command has been split into two commands: Quick Finish (w/history), and Quick Finish (no history). Both mark the event as finished. The first creates a history record, filling it in from the event; the second creates no history record.

Bug Fixes

• If you had a form (such as Call Timer or Alarms) showing and moved the mouse over a grid (such as Time Management) in the background, the background form would sometimes pop in front of the foreground one. Fixed.
• When a Call Timer was displayed with "Always on top" set, and you clicked Done to display a History Record dialog, then Follow Up in the history dialog, the Schedule Event dialog would appear behind the history dialog, making it appear that the program had locked up. Fixed.
• Some cases that could cause the grid in Time Management to fail (displaying a red X over the grid and requiring closing and reopening the form) have been corrected.
• Outlook synchronization did not allow using <everyone> as your import group for contacts and events. If you selected it, the imported records would be marked private instead. Fixed.
• When importing property records from REA 8 that have owner/agent information but  are not linked to their contact records, REA 9 was creating new records for owner and agent but not linking them to the property record. They will now be linked.

REA 9.3.1

Note: This release requires a database upgrade to version 1.50.

New Features

• New phone dialer. There is a Dial phone button next to each phone number field on the Contacts, Companies, Properties, Spaces, and 1031 Exchanges forms.
• When you are logged in to REA 9, the server name and your user ID appear in the status bar at the bottom of the main window. This should reduce confusion for people who use more than one server and/or ID.
• ZIP code lookup is a bit smarter. It will not display the ZIP Code Lookup dialog for ZIP codes with more than one possible city name when you have already entered or selected the city.

Bug Fixes

• When merging contacts or companies, the notes are now merged correctly.
• On the Sale Comp Details dialog, the procuring agent's fax number appeared twice and the mobile phone number was missing. Fixed.

REA 9.3.0

This document describes the changes to REA 9 since the last major release, version 9.2.0.

Note: This release requires a database upgrade to version 1.49.

New Features and Improvements

Recurring Events
Duplicate Checking
F5 List
Mail Merge
Database Manager
Minor Improvements

Recurring Events

All new implementation of recurring events. Events can recur by the day, week, month, or year. Recurring events can be synchronized with Microsoft Outlook.

Access recurring events from the Schedule Event dialog.

Duplicate Checking

Duplicate checking is available for contacts and companies. Properties will be added in a later release. You can search for duplicate records by (almost) any combination of fields, using exact, fuzzy, or Soundex matching.

• Fuzzy matching ignores everything but letters and digits in the fields being matched. This helps to catch differences in punctuation.
• Soundex matching uses a simple (and not very accurate) algorithm for finding names with different spellings and similar sounds, like Mark/Marc or Smith/Smythe. It works best on the first and last name fields, in combination with other fields to narrow down its extreme fuzziness.

From the duplicate checker you can view the full records, then delete the extras, or merge two records together to combine their data.

Select Check for Duplicates from the Lookup menu.

F5 List

You can now delete records from the F5 list. You can select and delete multiple records at once.

You can now merge contact or company records from the F5 list, just as in the duplicate checker.

The F5 list now supports formatting for numeric fields, and supports display of lookup fields like "modified by", "building type", etc.

Field lists can now be saved and reloaded. Select Fields from the List menu, then click Load or Save.

Mail Merge

There is now an option on the Mail Merge Wizard to prepare a merge document in Word but not perform the merge. This can be used with Word 2003 and Outlook 2003 to merge to email.

Database Manager

The Database Manager is a new utility, part of the Administrative Tools feature when you install REA. It replaces the old Update Database, Update Manager, and Update Report Login utilities, and adds a number of new features:

• Make and restore database backups.
• Manage user accounts.
• Change the location of the shared files folder.
• Install new and updated ZIP code (postal code) tables.

Access the Database Manager from the Windows Start menu, under Programs > REA 9 > Administrative Tools.

There is also a Backup item on the File menu in the REA 9 application. It can be used by administrators, and by user's who have been given the "Backup database" permission in Tools > Administration > User Management.

Minor Improvements

• The Contact Details dialog is now better at extracting first and last names from a contact's full name.
• REA 8 Import now imports files attached to records such as contacts and properties. It is also better at avoiding duplicate contact records caused by importing properties that aren't properly linked to their owners or agents.
• New menu item on the Companies form: Record > Add to Organization. This creates a new company record, prefilling the Organization and Subsidiary fields from the current record.
• When creating a contact record as a tenant for a space, the contact's address is prefilled from the property address and space suite number.