Upcoming CivilPro Update – 24 Apr 2023
On Monday night (24 April), we will be undertaking a significant update to the platform. This introduces major new features and ongoing improvements. For Cloud users, this will not be different to any of our other update processes.
For desktop, the update includes a change of platform necessitated by Microsoft moving away from .Net Framework to .Net 7. We are giving a heads up because this means a complete uninstall / reinstall of the application, and while we have written an automation for this so it should be seamless, some organizations have different policies on user permissions, so the experience may differ in some cases. The alternative is not difficult being a manual uninstall / reinstall which can generally be done by the user. We have created a page to explain the process for end users at https://download.civilpro.com/cd/UpdateInfo.html. This includes videos showing the process for the automated uninstall/reinstall, and the manual backup method. In all cases, the Cloud will be available as a UI as a contingency.
The significant changes to the installer are:
1. The installer will be served from https://download.civilpro.com/cd/. Some clients that have been with us for a while will still use our blueskycivil.com download, but this shouldn’t affect most users. This should only cause issues if you block https://download.civilpro.com/cd/ for downloads. You can test by downloading the file https://download.civilpro.com/cd/CivilProInstallerMigration.zip. (this link will go live only after 24 Apr)
This is an mp4 of the update process which you can also find at https://download.civilpro.com/cd/UpdateInfo.html
2. The installer is 64bit. While some of our users are already on 64 bit, most are 32bit. The old 32bit limits the memory and performance of the app
3. The application has moved to the new Microsoft .Net platform. Until now, CivilPro has been coded in .Net Framework which Microsoft is ending support for.
Of course, for the end user, the important thing is how we have improved and extend CivilPro. There is too much for this email, but the highlights include:
1. In-app notifications and extensions to the notification templates -This is super powerful and gives many new ways to track and target communications internally and with clients, subbies and other associates
2. Punchlists – A new register for tracking things like defects lists and other ad-hoc inspections
3. Custom Register text fields – an extension on the custom registers that allows the addition of any text field to Lots, Test Reqs, NCRs etc. Also supports including them on reports.
You can see the process for the automated update (<1min) in this video https://vimeo.com/819346909?share=copy
And the contingency method here (<1m) https://vimeo.com/819346465?share=copy
