With the release of Ubersmith DE 1.6 last month, we’ve been hard at work walking customers through the upgrade. It’s gone very well, and the majority of DE customers are now running the latest and greatest from the Ubersmith team. We’re pleased as punch. The release included a lot of new features and improvements that solidify Ubersmith DE as the leading choice for medium and large hosting providers.

Of course, we haven’t forgotten about our valued Ubersmith customers, and have been working diligently on the next release all this time. It’s therefore with great pleasure that we announce the immediate release and availability of Ubersmith 5.6.1.

Now, all Ubersmith products are PHP 5.x compliant. Many of our smaller customers who were running Ubersmith on a shared environment have been asking for this for a long time. Well, it may be a bit late but we’ve finally delivered on that, along with a plethora of other enhancements for Ubersmith.

We’re already starting to plan the next versions of both Ubersmith DE and Ubersmith, as well as scheming about how exactly we’re going to revolutionize the market with some dramatic product and pricing changes that we’ll be making soon.

Please note: The new release of Ubersmith requires two new PHP modules, namely ‘gettext’ and ‘mbstring’. These are readily available in most Linux distributions, so be sure to install them before you begin the upgrade process. Also, be sure to perform a backup of your database before upgrading!

Click through for the list of changes in this release, and stay tuned for more news from the depths of the Ubercave!

General

• Ubersmith now fully supports PHP 5.x and it is the recommended PHP version. This is the last Ubersmith release that will be PHP 4.x compatible.
• Added more database optimizations to upgrade process.
• Added some indices to combat queries that typically displayed in the MySQL slow query log. Reworked some queries to use indices and avoid filesort/disk temporary tables.
• Changed some database field types and data storage methods to allow faster lookups.
• Changed metadata input fields to have a maximum display size for long input fields.
• Fixed a bug where state dropdown lists used Canadian Provinces you could never select.
• Added complete internationalization support to Ubersmith, changed all text to UTF-8, and added multiple language support with an included Traditional Chinese translation.

Support Manager

• Added ability to reply to tickets by email. Admins can now reply to tickets via an email client, with the reply being entered into Support Manager. There is a custom command list to specify whether an email response should be a comment (private or public), a reply to the customer, and also for reassigning or moving a ticket. To avoid embarrassing mistakes, a command is required. A reply without a command will return a list of possible commands.
• Changed format of search results for searches within a client’s tickets.
• Added MySQL FULLTEXT Indexes for searches on ticket text fields. This makes searching All tickets faster and usable, and allows for more modern google-like searching rather than boolean searching. However, you can no longer match subpatterns in the middle of words. You can search keyword*, but not *keyword. Also, the default minimum word size is 4 bytes, and search terms less than 4 bytes will not be used / return results.
• Added different colors to Priority fields in ticket list for better visual distinction.
• Enhanced ticket response views to show any CC/BCC information available.
• Added the ability for clients to search their own tickets and for admin’s to search within a particular client’s tickets.
• Added the ability to edit a ticket’s details, including subject line and original author and cc fields.
• Added the ability to split one ticket into two at any activity point, where any activity after that point is moved into the new ticket and removed from the old.
• Added the ability to merge activity from one ticket into another, with the old ticket then being closed with an optional message sent to the submitter.
• Added the config option to not display to clients the name of the department a ticket is assigned to, or department names in any client view.

Device Manager

• Fully featured IP address management
• Improved device location support

API

• Fixed bug in the API call for creating services to make sure all default values are included when parameters are not sent.
• Added an optional parameter ‘balance’ to the API call ‘create_pack’ to set an initial balance for a new service.
• Added the disable_monitors and enable_monitors API calls.
• Changed device ‘owner’ field to be fully numeric. Added the new parameter ‘owner_type’ with possible values ‘CLIENT’ or ‘PACKAGE’.

Reports

• Fixed bug in service statistics report column links that disregarded selected date ranges.
• Added a normalized recurring revenue calendar report.

Order Manager

• Added hush.ai to the spam email address rule for order forms.
• Removed the line from the email template order module that defaulted the reply-to address to the support default for people who have multiple brands.
• Updated the order count in the info bar of a client’s account view as well as the list orders page so they are grouped properly.
• Fixed email gateway script so that it can receive client follow ups to orders when the client doesn’t yet have a full account.
• Added the open ticket order module.
• Enhanced the order view page to display information from a client’s account if it is not specified in the order itself.
• Added a configurable ‘to’ field in the email template order module.
• Added link to processed services in the order view.

Client Manager

• Fixed some Javascript errors in add service popup window.
• Fixed bugs in category ordering links in client manager client list view.
• Added Support for multiple credit cards to be associated with each client’s account and for services to be individually assigned to be charged by a particular card.
• Added support for automated ACH payments via the Speedchex or ACH Direct™ services.
• Setup fee is now multiplied by quantity in a service plan only when optionally selected to do so.
• Added the config option to visually disallow clients to add/edit ACH accounts, which also disables any mention of ACH payment methods if one isn’t already defined for a user.
• Re-factored manual invoice payments to be more efficient when handling very large invoices.
• Added conversions in upgrade process to handle new period pricing mechanisms for service plans.
• Added an option for an client contact, ‘audit account’, that enables all client communications to be BCC’d to this account for auditing and regulatory compliance.
• Enhanced ‘quick edit’ in client manager to let you edit all the fields displayed in services list.
• Fixed bug when a new service was added, it didn’t immediately show up in the client’s list.
• Fixed a bug in manual application of credits to invoices with tax information that erroneously complained about the credit applied exceeding the balance.
• Fixed bug where existing clients needed to log in twice when placing orders.
• Fixed bug where some amount fields were truncated to a maximum database value, often 99999.99.
• Fixed bug where changes to the config option ‘List Items’ for client manager were not being reflected until the next login.
• Added an optional default ‘bill in advance’ setting to service plans.
• Added Javascript confirmation dialog when canceling an order.
• Enhanced recent activity item on an order to include changes from follow ups and comments.
• Added text clarification to invoice sending when auto-charging is disabled to mention a charge will not be attempted.
• Fixed a bug where the add service popup wasn’t always taking the auto-bill default setting from the service plan.
• Added quantity display to a client’s services list.
• Added a module for the Netbilling credit card gateway.
• Added support for debit card ‘issue numbers.’
• Restricted the email client base feature to users with full account management permissions.
• Handle Maestro® cards that are up to 19 digits in length.
• Enhanced service deactivation to warn about any child services that are going to be stranded.
• Updated invoicing to properly pre-bill for prorated services.
• Made the email links in the client list point to the email client feature instead of just ‘mailto.’
• Fixed a bug that was preventing the removal of all mailing lists.
• Enhanced the email client base script to allow the department-specific addresses to be used in the ‘From’ pull down.
• Enhanced the payment receipt code to replace variables in the subject line as well as the body.
• Added a module for the Optimal Payments™ credit card gateway.
• Added a module for the mPay24™ credit card gateway.
• Added overpayment email notifications for PayPal™ payments.