An update is available for TopLine Designer Web.  This update only applies if you are using TopLine Designer Web and are experiencing issues getting it started. 

Please download the attached file.  Unzip and copy the files to your APFW folder.  After doing this, perform an IISRESET and everything should work great.

DesignerWeb - 5.6.0.3.zip (5.31 mb)

We have released an updated Setup MSI file for TopLine Designer 5.6.0.3.  This can be obtained from http://www.toplineresults.com/downloads.aspx.

There is a key new feature in this release.  We now perform a check during each login to make sure that you are running a version of TopLine Designer that is compatible with the version of metadata within the database.  In other words, if the Designer metadata is updated to a newer version and you are running an older version of Designer, you will be prompted to run the TopLine Update program automatically.  This will assist in preventing issues that arise from people using mixed versions of Designer.

If you are using ACT! 2012 and use custom tables, please be aware of a new bug that has been discovered.  The bug has to do with any field in your custom table where you have specified Generate History.  If you have fields in your custom table with Generate History turned on, you may be unable to create or update custom table records.  If you attempt to create or update custom table records and get an error, this is most likely the problem.  The workaround is to turn off Generate History for all custom table fields.  This issue has been raised with Sage (the creators of ACT!) but a fix has not been released yet.

The latest version of TopLine Designer does require all users to update to the latest version.  If you do not do so, there is a possibility that you could mess up your metadata which includes your screen definitions.  In order to resolve this, you have two options:

You can recreate all of the screens and relationships manually.

or you can attempt to recover the metadata from a backup.  If you want to do this, you must follow these steps:

1. In ACT!, perform a lookup and find the contact with a name that starts with Designer.

2. Look through the history and find the history where the regarding is Metadata.  Delete this history record.  If you find more than one, delete them all.

3. Close ACT!.

4. Find your ACT! backup and open the zip file.  Navigate the folder structure and open the Reports folder.

5. Find the file called DoNotDelete-Designer.dna.xml.env.  Copy this file to your Desktop.

6. Rename the file that is on your desktop to Metadata.dna.xml.

7. Copy the file to your [Databasename]-Database Files\Layouts folder.  It will overwrite an existing file.  DO NOT DELETE THE EXISTING METADATA FILE.  You simply want to overwrite it.

8. Open ACT! and everything should be working again.

TopLine Designer 5.6 has been updated.  The primary purpose of this update is to introduce support for the Solution Place (http://www.mysolutionplace.com).  All users must update to the latest version of TopLine Designer or the "non-updated" users will not have Designer functionality and will receive an error when logging into ACT!.  If, when logging into ACT!, you get an error message stating "There was an error loading the metadata.", then you should ensure that the user is running the latest version of TopLine Designer.

Get pre-made solution for Sage ACT! 2011 or 2012 from the Solution Place!  Visit http://www.mysolutionplace.com for more information!

We already have solutions for Event Management, Customer Service, Productivity (Getting things done), and Quoting.  Check back often to find out what else the ACT! community has come up with.

Sometimes when starting ACT! and you are using TopLine Designer, you will get a message similar to this.

There was an error loading the metadata.
System.UnauthorizedAccessException: Access to the path 'xxx\Metadata.dna.xml' is denied.

This is caused by a Windows file security issue which means that you need to ensure that the user who is currently logged into Windows has access to the file that is given in the message.  You will need to navigate to the folder specified and right click on the Metadata.dna.xml file and choose Properties.  Then click on the Security tab and ensure that the current windows user has read permission to the file.  After you give the user permission to access the file, ACT! will start normally.  If you are unable to set the permissions, contact your network administrator as you may not have permission to modify the file attributes.

There is an update available for TopLine Designer for APFW 2011.  If you are attempting to install Designer for Web with ACT! for Web 2011, please download the attached file and unzip it.  Take the unzipped files and copy them to your APFW folder (the one specified in IIS).  It will overwrite a bunch of existing files.  Once you have done this, perform an IISRESET and you will be updated.

DesignerWeb.zip (2.23 mb)

http://www.youtube.com/user/TopLineResults#p/u/18/SJiv4z5mpF4

View an overview of TopLine Dash on YouTube!  If you have suggestions for additional videos, please send your submissions to danb@toplineresults.com.

As always, we have introduced some updates to our addons to go along with the new version of ACT!.  The good news is that it's all compatible with previous version of ACT! as well! 

Unlike previous updates to TopLine Designer, you will want to make sure that if a single user updates to version 5.5 or higher that all of your users update.  Due to some scripting changes, your users may run into problems if some of them upgrade to 5.5 and others don't.

What's new in TopLine Designer 5.5?

• Refactored Designer so that the Metadata class is now the primary class for the entire Designer app. You can no longer access Metadata from the Globals class. All metadata is now accessed via an instance object rather than a static object.  This is relevant because it will cause scripting changes.  Scripts will be automatically updated to reflect this change.  No additional action should be required, but if you have some complex scripting, you may want to test the upgrade out in a test environment first.
• Added new code editor that includes new method of adding snippets and basic intellisense.
• Modified the exposed scripting to include the full class rather than just a part of the class.
• Improved the speed of the list views by caching recently viewed data.
• Modified how related entity fields are stored in a screen. It no longer stores the column name, it now stores the display name. This fixes a bug where those fields in a screen would not transfer from one database to another when importing a schema.
• Entities that are shown on the View menu now also include an entry in the ACT! Nav Bar. Along with this, you can now associate images with your custom entities and those images will display in your Nav Bar button.  To set an image, go to Tools->Define Custom Tables and click on the Edit Table button.  The Nav Bar buttons will only appear or disappear when you restart ACT!.
• Improved the Inline Grid control. You can now add more than one to a layout without problems with the toolbar icons disappearing.
• Added global scripting event for when a tab is added to the layout. You can disable a tab from loading by using Tab.Load = False. This is great for hiding or showing tabs based on the currently logged on user or other criteria.
• We can now import from Alerts.  So if you get the latest version of Alerts, you will now be able to schedule an import of data from a CSV file or another database.
• Added new feature to the merge to word to allow you to merge from main entities and bring in other main entities into tables. Ie: Opportunity -> Show Contacts in table. To do this, click on the Write menu in ACT! and you'll see a Designer menu item.

If you are using TopLine Dash, you will also need to update TopLine Dash after updating Designer.  Because TopLine Dash uses Designer to generate dashboards for custom entities, TopLine Dash needed to be update to reflect the changes that were made to Designer.