Vertec Versions: Overview of discontinued and legacy features

Vertec 6.8

Features that will be set in Vertec 6.8:

Office Addins

The operation of the Office add-ins – Outlook add-in, Excel add-in and Word add-in – will be discontinued with version 6.8. They were already removed from the setup with Vertec Version 6.7.

Use of self-signed certificates (Vertec On-Premises)

Starting with Vertec 6.8, connections to the Cloud Server with self-signed certificates are no longer supported.

With self-signed certificates, the traffic is encrypted, but the other party cannot be identified. This allows so-called man-in-the-middle attacks. Most browsers no longer accept the self-signed certificates, even if they have been declared trustworthy via the Windows certificate store. The Vertec Phone App has always been able to operate only with a real certificate.

To put your Vertec on the Internet, you have the following options:

• Use a genuine certificate
• Use the Webaccess Service of our sales partner Spektra Netcom AG
• Operate Vertec in the Cloud Suite Suite subscription

Unencrypted operation is still possible in environments without access to the Internet (LAN, VPN).

Fields removed

The following fields have been removed from Vertec as they are no longer in use by default:

Please note that if one of these fields is in use anywhere in your country, you will need to rewrite the corresponding code and events.

Invoice proposal is no longer delivered

The invoice proposal (Office report) is no longer delivered. It remains in existing databases.

Vertec 7.x

These features will be discontinued in the future:

Vertec Desktop App (On-Premises)

With Vertec 7.0 we herald a new era in terms of technology and graphical user interface capabilities. After a transition period, at the latest to Vertec 7.1, the Vertec Desktop App will be permanently discontinued.

With the implementation of Vertec Cloud Clients Cloud App and Web App with version 6.0, Vertec Apps have been created that are leaner and more powerful in operation.

COM extensions, which initially could only be operated with the Vertec Desktop App, can now also be addressed via Com forwarding via Cloud App.

In terms of security, the Vertec Desktop App is also inferior to the cloud clients, because the business logic runs locally on the Windows of the logged-in user and requires full access to the data storage and thus to the SQL database. The Desktop App therefore knows more than the Vertec user, and despite good security, residual risks remain that are not (anymore) needed.

We recommend that you dispense with the Desktop App and set up your Vertec installation in such a way that you can do without the Desktop App.

SQL Logging to the Database (On-Premises)

The SQL logging, which wrote to a LOGDATA table directly into the database, will be expanded with the next Vertec version.

The operation may only be used temporarily, since endlessly populating log entries in the database would cause performance problems with time.
SQL logging is disabled if there is no SqlLogTable parameter in Section [Log] of the Vertec.ini file or if the SqlLogTable parameter is False is provided:

[Log]
SqlLogTable=False

It has already been removed from the Knowledge Base description.

Vertec 6.7

Release Notes

Authentication via username and password

With version 6.6, Api tokens were introduced to increase the login security of Web API accesses. The API tokens increase the login security of the Vertec XML extension and the BI API extension.

The old system – authentication via username and password – is no longer supported as of Vertec version 6.7 as announced in the release notes 6.6. The XML Server and the BI API only allow authentication via API token. The endpoint /auth/xml has been removed and calls against this endpoint report an error.

Removed Office Addins from Setup

With version 6.7, the add-ins for Outlook, Excel and Word were removed from the setup and the further development of the add-ins stopped. The replacement for the Outlook add-in is the Outlook App.

Excel reports are removed

The Excel reports, which are no longer delivered since Vertec 6.6, have also been deleted from existing installations in Vertec 6.7.

Removed obsolete attributes on project

The following persistent attributes have been removed from the project class:

• Umlagerungstyp
• xResourcePlanPhases

These attributes are no longer in use. If they are used anywhere in scripts or list settings, they must be removed, otherwise an error message will appear.

Removed deprecated attribute on report

The attribute DefaultMakeNotiz has been deprecated for a long time and has therefore been removed from the report class. If it is used anywhere in scripts or list settings, it must be removed, otherwise an error message will appear.

Vertec DBTool (On-Premises)

The DBTool in the Vertec installation directory is no longer available. Database passwords can be encrypted via Customer Portal and entered manually in the Vertec.ini file. Backups and restores of databases can be done in the case of Firebird, for example, using the backup program gbak to be carried out.

Swiss payment slip with reference code (ESR) completely expanded

Since the Swiss payment slip with reference code (ESR) was finally abolished in September 2022 and payments are no longer possible, ESR codes have been removed from all standard financial reports and all related elements have been expanded from Vertec.

The following attributes on the invoice have been removedRemoved

• verrESRReferenz27
• verrBESR
• verrESRTeilnehmer
• verrESRPlus
• verrBESRBANK

The following attributes on the payment types have been removedRemoved

• BESR(will now be activated automatically as soon as a customer number is specified)
• BESRBank(see backward compatibility below)
• ESRPlus
• ESRReferenz27
• ESRTeilnehmer(see backward compatibility below)

Adjustments to financial reports

The Reports for invoices have been adjusted as follows:

• The old Swiss payment slips (ESR) and the corresponding declarations in the code have been removed from the accounts.
• For EUR invoices outside Switzerland, the Epc qr code is shown.

Backward compatibility

To ensure that customized reports that access one of the deleted attributes do not return an error, the following fields are passed on as derived attributes (read-only):

• ESRTeilnehmer: Blank string
• BESRBank: Blank string
• VESRKodierzeile: Blank string
• VESRKodierzeileOffen: Blank string

We use the attributes that were used in previous Standard Invoice Reports. If you access one of the other, now deleted attributes in customized reports, list settings, scripts, etc., you would have to change it accordingly, otherwise an error message will appear. The Standard Financial Reports are delivered without these attributes and without the payment slip. If you want to extend this from your custom report, we recommend removing these attributes from the report code in addition to customizing the report template.

Vertec 6.6

Release Notes 6.6

Renaming of reporting systems

The difference between “Office Reports” and “Extended Office Report” repeatedly led to confusion. We only propagate the extended Office Report: They are high-performance, cloud ready and available in all full-featured apps. To emphasize this clearly in the terminology, the reporting systems have been renamed Vertec:

• Office Report becomes Legacy Office Report.
• from Advanced Office Report becomes Office Report.

The Report Templates has been adapted so that only Office reports can be created via the New menu (also for existing customers).

There will be no new Legacy Office reports, no maintenance of the underlying system, and support will be discontinued (not soon and not on 6.7, but sometime in the future).

Updates no longer possible across multiple versions

As of version 6.6, we no longer support the update of Vertec across several versions. This means that it is no longer possible to update from Vertec 6.3 directly to Vertec 6.6, but that a step-by-step approach has to be taken. To update to Vertec 6.6, a Vertec version of 6.5 is needed.

Excel reports

Legacy Excel reports will no longer be delivered and the existing ones will be deactivated. These are the following reports:

• Employee proof of work (Excel) – this is now delivered as an Office report, see Reports for users.
• Employee absence list (Excel) – this will be replaced by an Absences Overview list in the HR folder by the Plug-in: overview absences.
• Weekly overview employees (Excel)
• Project control (Excel)
• Resource table (Excel)
• Resource overview (Excel)
• Resource plan (Excel)

Resource Planning

The new Resource Planning eliminates, among other things, various system settings, Excel reports, link types and classes. These will be deleted with the upgrade to Vertec 6.6 and thus all associated customizing.

For more information about migrating to the new Resource Planning, see Resource planning: migration to version 6.6

Vertec 6.5

Release Notes 6.5

System settings for conflict check removed

The Plug-in conflict check replaces the previous conflict check procedure. For new installations, the system setting is Angaben zu Mandatsverflechtungen anzeigen (Konfliktsuche) no longer shown. If the old conflict search was used, it can be set to False in the system settings to hide the corresponding menu items and default fields.

Vertec 6.4

Release Notes Vertec 6.4

Vertec 64-bit

As of version 6.4, Vertec is only delivered as a 64-bit application. This means:

• As of Vertec 6.4, a 64-bit operating system is required on the Windows Server for Vertec.
• Desktop App and Cloud App only run on 64-bit operating systems
• The Web App can also be used on 32-bit operating systems or a non-Windows system.

Detailed information can be found in the article about Vertec 64-bit.

Benchmarking

The Benchmarking module is replaced by the new Business Intelligence module (BI module) and is no longer available in the previous version.

System settings for document existence check removed

The System Settings General > Check for Existence of Document Files is no longer available since version 6.4. It will also be removed for existing installations.

Reports without file system (from version 6.4.0.10)

As of version 6.4.0.10 the report templates are no longer located on the file system, but directly in the Vertec database.

The standard reports are provided by Vertec as resources.

Existing custom report templates are imported from the file system into the database during the update. A detailed description of what exactly happens during the changeover can be found in the article Change 6.4.0.10: report templates no longer on the file system.

This also removes the System Settings Template path for Word Report: Script that access this system setting must be rewritten accordingly. The exact procedure is also described in the article linked above.

Shadow Attribute (from version 6.4.0.17)

The Shadow Attributes SqlRabattAmount and SqlValutadate on the invoice are no longer written and used as of version 6.4.0.17. The shadow attributes, which are used to save values in the database that are actually derived, result in a write access to the database when reading certain values. The two shadow attributes on the invoice therefore lead to performance losses when loading long invoice lists. Therefore, the two shadow attributes invoice.SqlDiscountAmount and invoice.Sqlvaliditydate are no longer written and used as of version 6.4.0.17.

The database fields are still there, but will disappear with version 6.5.

Release Notes Vertec 6.3

Vertec version 6.3 deactivates the old reporting systems Internal Reports and Report Designer Reports (Rb Reports). Therefore Vertec introduced the extended Office Reports with version 6.2 to replace these systems.

It is important that you check your reports before Vertec 6.3 and transfer those of the reporting systems mentioned here that you use to the new system.

• The reports are no longer available after updating to Vertec 6.3!

Before updating to Vertec 6.3, check your reports and transfer those you want to continue using to the new system.

In Settings > Report Templates, you will find all reports that are of the Report or Internal Report type:

Please go through this list to determine which of these reports you will need after version 6.3.

Vertec 6.2 includes the following advanced Office reports, which are stored in the Standard Reports directory and registered in Vertec, but are inactive for existing customers.

In addition, Vertec 6.3 provides the following reports from Vertec as advanced Office reports:

Vertec 6.3 deletes the current report registrations and activates advanced Office reports. Until then, make sure that all the relevant reports you need are available as advanced Office reports.

The default output format for all these reports is PDF. If you want to output the reports as Word files instead, you can change this in the respective report registry.

If you have any questions, please contact your Vertec advisor.

Release Notes Vertec 6.2

With Vertec version 6.2 the operation of the Classic App will be discontinued. Most features, which until now only run in the Classic App, will be applied into the new apps at this time. However, the following features will be discontinued:

• Activity Calendar: The Activity Calendar will be discontinued. It will still be possible to synchronize activities with Outlook, but a graphical interface (“Calendar View”) will no longer be available.
• vtcForms dialogs: Dialogs using the Python module vtcForms will be upgraded to version 6.2. They will be replaced by the new dialog mechanism introduced in version 6.1, which will also run on cloud clients. To find out if you are using vtcForms dialogs, use the analysis script from the article Prepare for Vertec 6.0.

The system settings listed below are also set, which are only shown in the Classic App as of Vertec 6.0.

With the Classic App, the Classic Web Capture also disappears. This is no longer supported as of version 6.2. The Vertec Web App is available for time tracking via Internet browser since Vertec 6.0.

Please check in advance whether you can handle all the processes that you now carry out with Classic Web Capture with the Web App. If this is not the case, please contact your Vertec supervisor.

With the Classic App, the iPhone app will be retired to version 6.2 as well. Vertec will provide the new Phone App for iPhone and Android in advance.

Since Vertec version 6.1.0.10 the XML Server is part of the CloudServer service. The previous XML Server as part of the VertecServer service is switched off. For more information, see the article about the XML Server.

Release Notes 6.1

The feature of logging in to a user using the user name current logged in to Windows is a security risk and has been removed as previously announced in the 6.0 release notes and the Knowledge Base.

Alternative solutions include the following:

• Remember me in: This feature was introduced with Vertec 6.0, see Login / current user.
• Authentication via LDAP Server: This feature is introduced in this version 6.1 and is described in the article Authentication via LDAP Server.

As of Vertec 6.1, users can only log in with the password stored in Vertec (unless authentication via LDAP server is activated). This requires that users know their passwords. Make sure that users know their password before updating to Vertec 6.1, so that they can log in to Vertec again after the update.

Office versions older than Office 2007 are no longer supported by the reporting mechanism and the Office add-ins.

With this version 6.1 the add-in support for the Classic App is discontinued. The add-ins with new dialogs only work in the new apps.

The /SCRIPT parameter can be used to call a script in Vertec. In versions prior to Vertec 6.1, it was possible to specify the path to any script file. This is no longer allowed for security reasons. The /SCRIPT parameter only supports Python scripts (with the extension .py) and scripts registered in Vertec.

If you have automated processes in Vertec, e.g. via batch file and/or via task scheduling, you must make sure that only corresponding script files or Vertec scripts are called.

Release Notes Vertec 6.0

In Vertec 6.0, the following features from 5.8 no longer work:

• Automatic invoicing
• Reports for invoice on the project / case
• Scripts containing the msgbox and inputbox features (these must now be named vertec.msgbox and vertec.inputbox)
• Python scripts containing vtcForms only run in the desktop clients and are set in Vertec 6.2

This has been communicated accordingly in the release notes for version 5.8. Please refer to the information in the article Prepare for Vertec 6.0 before installing Vertec 6.0.

These system settings will not be displayed in the new clients and have no effect. They will no longer be available as of Vertec 6.2 because the Classic App will be discontinued.

The following system settings are no longer initialized for new databases, but are still available for existing customers until further notice.