re: bulk accounts

[D3X]

Hi,

I just have a couple of Qs particularly with the bulk account prepaid account feature:

1. Can the generated prepaid accounts be exported to a file (.csv, excel format)? This is in case we want to outsource the printing of the prepaid cards by just giving the generated account details to the card printer and come out with scratchable prepaid cards.
2. Is there a limit to the maximum number of accounts that can be generated at a time?
3. If I will use a RADIUS-based user database instead of the default ODBC-based, will I still be able to use FirstSpot's default prepaid acct creation functionality or will it be through another RADIUS mgt system?

Thanks and looking forward to your immediate reply.

[alan]

1. Yes. Just use Bulk Accounts to create the accounts first, then export the table fsusr within Users category of Configuration Manager.

2. No.

3. Bulk Accounts won't work under RADIUS. You need to do it through your RADIUS server instead.
_________________
~ Patronsoft Limited ~

[john doe]

Enhancement requests:

1) Add option to increase the font size of all built in text on the receipt slips (username, etc).

2) I dont care about 'middle digit starts with' or 'middle digit ends with' I just want to print some number of slips (which I cant currently do without inventing 'big number' and 'big number +N', and bigger each time I come back). The software detects duplicates so just let me specify N and assign numbers that are unused starting with the first available, up to the number requested. "Learn SQL" is not a reasonable solution.

3) I'm using a regular (8.5x11) printer. The 'number of slips per page' does not work. This number of slips is the number displayed in the preview window, but it also contains page breaks; so always prints as 1 per page.
Interestingly if I save as .htm and read into MSWord2003 then immediately save - all the page breaks are gone! Then I have to figure out where I want to insert them. And "buy a $300 POS printer" is not a reasonable requirement to enable $400 software.
Also an N by M printout would be nice for 8.5x11 paper too (save those trees).

Despite my asking for more, this software looks solid; you clearly have thought about and documented many situations that may occur.

[alan]

First, I would like to thank you for your feedback. It is feedback like yours that makes FirstSpot a better product. To answer your questions:

1) Can you change the text size in the browser windows? You might need to use FireFox and keyboard shortcut ( see http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/sccwebsite/sccwspages.nsf/LookupWebPagesByTITLE_RTF/Changing+browser+text+size?opendocument )

2) This sounds reasonable, we will investigate.

3) So how are you going to cut out each slip, by hand? Originally, we thought most people will use a slip (POS) printer and the page break will normally act as a paper cut action. Anyway, if we implement a N by M printout, it can be complicated since they are several different combinations like font size, paper size (A4 and Letter size 8.5 x 11), ... Just want to gather more information.
_________________
~ Patronsoft Limited ~

[john doe]

> 1) Can you change the text size in the browser windows?

Dont have FireFox installed, but as an experiment I saved the preview. Opened saved.htm in IE and 'Page->Text Size->Largest' prints a nice size slip. Its a workaround, but please keep in mind the original request. Thank you.

> 2) This sounds reasonable, we will investigate

Thank you.

> 3) So how are you going to cut out each slip, by hand?

Yes (well maybe use a ruler and tear!), dotted lines where those POS cuts are currently printed would be nice. Perhaps this would be enabled with a 'slip printer type' option (because the POS assumtion apparently doesnt apply to everybody). Users would then get Mx1 which is what is shown in the preview pane. Where 'Bulk Accounts->Number of slips per page' sets the value of M.
I understand there is potential for a much more elegant implementation, but please consider a more pragmatic solution.

4) One more enhancement request:
Add the 'Plan Name' to the slip. My assumption is cafe manager bulk printing slips for sale at a cash register, and using more than one pricing plan. There is no way to know which slip is which plan (except a few different piles or maybe colored paper), the customer will certainly want to check.
FYI in this situation 'Account is active...' and 'Print quota....' are irrelevant as there are specified within the Plan. I know I can specify text on a slip, but this is not per plan.

Do you have a schedule for the next update? ;)

[john doe]

OK hold that last comment (4), I created my own Plan and see that the bulk user slip printout has changed. Hovever:

5) Slip contains "Account will bind to first MAC address" and "Real IP address will be assigned" despite these options in the Plan being set to 'No'. What is actually happening? Either way this looks like a bug, its significance to me will depend on what is actually happening. IMO this info is not appropriate for cafe customers, and should not be on the slip. So please clarify behavior, and enhancement request - remove.

6) Slip contains "Account is active from (-) on every : Nil" - cryptic, yes? Also redundant because another line says the less cryptic "Account is active: at first user login". Expect some confused cafe customers, that your customers have to deal with. So Enhancemet request - remove.

7) How do I disable generating the bulkuser**.csv files ? I'm amused that the bulk account passwords are by default left unencrypted and visible to anybody with disk access. The workaround is obvious, but workarounds are for us geeks; for regular humans workarounds mean training and eventually mistakes.

8) On an unrelated topic, if I remove all 'Exception Free Websites' the google links still appear on the login page. I could edit the the .php but that gives me a long term support problem.

9) Is there any way to set the .php field $lang['greeting'] from the Configuration Manager? Same long term support comment as above.

[john doe]

Some more (mostly new topics)

10) PocketPC (5.0): 'logout' in address bar gives 'cannot connect' dialog, 'logout.firstspot.com' sents me to some site (possibly in Australia) saying "site unavailable". Any suggestion on how to logout.

11) Windows Vista and XP, cannot see the local network; I suspect this must be documented but I need help finding, any suggestions?

12) I finally figured out that printing only refers to PrinterOn and local network printing is not controlled by FirstSpot. The "PrintQuota:0" on the slip is misleading if PrinterOn is disabled. Enhancement request, remove if 'PrinterOn Support' is 'Off'.

13) Logon pogoing. If a user is logged on to machine A, and the same username and password is used to logon to machine B: Machine B gets a message "user has logged on previously press the button below to relogon". Press the button (on B) and the user on machine A gets logged out! Have fun; steal a user's slip and see them get mad at the cafe manager! This is true even if the acount has never been used before on machine B (despite message).

14) I'm looking for an auto logout when a user notebook turns off, while allowing other users to stare at an inactive screen for a longer time using 'Connection Idle Timeout'. This might be somthing that pings from the server to logged in IP addresses. Any such feature?

OK I think that is enough questions for us to work on....