Castell Computers

Have you ever wanted to have the ability to more easily access files associated with a GoldMine contact record without having to link each file individually?

Here’s a simple way to do it!

This easy GM+View will provide you with a link to a folder on your machine (or in the network) where you can store (and retrieve) files associated with a GoldMine contact record in mere seconds.

Imagine if you could see (and work with) all the documents linked to the contact record in front of you with an intuitive interface — instead of having to wade through the links tab.

How about something like this?

To accomplish this is easier than you might think.

First, download this GM+View.

Second, go to File|Configure|GM+Views and Add a new view. Name it something appropriately descriptive and, in the body of the view, hit the <H> button on the right side of the GM+View editor tool bar. This will put you in raw HTML edit mode. Use Ctrl-A to select all the existing HTML text and replace it with the contents of the .txt file you downloaded. You’ll want to modify the path in the file (\\server\client data\) to point to a folder in your network where sub-folders can be found with the exact names found in your GoldMine contacts’ company field.

Remember, some characters are not legal in windows folder names. If you have company names with slashes or other illegal characters, you may need to adjust them in GoldMine for proper linking to occur in your GM+View.

That’s it! Now you can go to any contact record and have the company name passed to this GM+View and see the contents of their folder. Of course, those files are not necessarily linked to your GoldMine contact, so remote users may be out of luck (unless they’re connected via VPN.)

One tip: Because of the way the GM+View handles this sort of view, it can be difficult to switch to another GM+View — the right-click menu of this GM+View will be the normal windows explorer menu, complete with cut, copy, paste, open, send to, etc. To get to your other GM+Views, the best thing to do is switch to a contact record who has no company name (or one for whom there is no folder available) and you will then be able to switch views and return to your original contact.

Idea: This view would be an excellent fit for GoldMine 7’s GM+Browser as well!

The long-time support forum over at www.contactreview.com has disappeared — and this time it looks like it’s gone for good. There’s hope, though!

Castell Computers has acquired Contact Review.NET and I have created a number of forums there for use by the community. Forums such as those for GoldBox, Crystal Reports and Stonefield Query were always busy and informative on the old Contact review site. I hope the forums here can live up to the legacy and become as valuable a resource for the GoldMine addon community.

I’m open to suggestions for the forum and am interested in any feedback anyone has to offer here in the comments area of this article or, heck, in the forums!

This bit of SQL script can be used to insert a pause of one hundredth of a second in a trigger, stored procedure or SQL script. This can be useful for when MSSQL’s built-in WAITFOR DELAY function is just too long (it’s minimum increment is a full second!)

declare @later datetime
declare @now datetime
set @later = current_timestamp+'00:00:00.01'
set @now = current_timestamp
while @now < @later
begin
set @now = current_timestamp
end

If you’re a Microsoft Windows user (and aren’t living in denial (or under a rock)) you know what Spyware is. You might even have some now. Maybe you have an extra toolbar in your browser that you can’t seem to disable. Maybe you have frequent pop-up browser windows with vaguely related search results from search engines you’ve never heard of. Maybe you relectricity bill has gone up because your air conditioner is having a hard time keeping up with the heat from your network of PC’s using 100% CPU all day and night.

But why?

One word: Spyware

It’s a broad term encompassing all manner of nastiness including IRC bots, Adware, Keyloggers, Trojans, Host File Hijackers, Rogue toolbars and much, much more!

Before you throw up your hands and shut down your computer (or switch to an OS that doesn’t run your favorite CRM program!) take heart. While there are a bunch of bug-eyed weirdos out there creating this cyber trash, there are just as many white-hat-wearing good folks out there creating tools that we can use to protect and/or fix our down trodden windows installs and get back all the bandwidth and CPU power we paid for!

In general, most antivirus applications don’t cover much of the Spyware spectrum. The ones that try usually don’t do a very good job of it. The answer, typically, is to also run an anti-spyware application.

A word to the wise when picking an anti-spyware application: There are quite a few programs out there that are nothing more than spyware masquerading as anti-spyware applications. In truth, they simply go about downloading more spyware!

To get started in the battle against spyware, check out some of these links:
Microsoft Windows Defender — Microsoft’s BETA anti spyware program. Similar to a typical virus tool. Free.
Spybot Search & Destroy — The original anti spyware tool. Free.
Ad Aware — Anti spyware tool with free and pay versions.
Ewidio Anti Malware — Anti Spyware tool recently purchased by Grisoft, the makers of AVG antivirus. One to watch. Not Free.
Castlecops — Community with active forums FULL of great information on keeping your machine clean of spyware and the like.
Simply Tech — Italian consultant who has created a couple of excellent tools to remove some nasty spyware variants,
Look2Me and EliteToolbar.
HijackThis — Heavy duty tool by Merijn from www.merijn.org. Allows you to get DEEP into the settings to root out the problems like no other tool.

GoldMine 7.0.60526 has been released. This patch brings long-awaited stability to GoldMine 7. Literally hundreds of fixes have been included.

The download is available from FrontRange only to customers with current Maintenance Contracts with Frontrange.

Check out the release notes here.

My hat’s off to John Stillman and the new development and QA teams!