Practice CS (Creative Solutions) 2011.2.3 Update Available

Just in case: Thomson Reuters product Practice CS (Creative Solutions) has an update to 2011.2.3 available.

• Practice CS Download Link

Note that a valid Thomson Reuters Web Account will be required prior to gaining access to the download.

A full explanation of what the update contains can be found in the following PDF:

• Practice CS, v. 2011.2.0: User Bulletin 6801: Software Update (PDF)

The following PDF document is the Practice CS Getting Started Guide:

• Practice CS Getting Started Guide

Instructions on installing the update start on page 5.

The _very first thing we do_ is take a backup!

From there we begin the extract and install process.

Once we begin the Install process we choose the database hosted on the server option:

After accepting the license agreement we see the following:

For Step 1:

1. \\SBS\Company\ProgramData\WinCSi
2. We allow remote entry to be enabled on other computers.

After clicking Next the process goes through and updates the necessary files.

Since we are upgrading an existing installation we choose to use the CREATIVESOLUTION instance already on the server:

We answer NO to the following question:

• The Sample database already exists. (NO)

Once the database structures have been changed we see:

Now for Step 3 we are only working with the database server that is running on SBS 2008. So, we choose _not_ to install the Practice CS client on the server in the next window:

Once complete the Install process gives us instructions on what to do on each of the workstations:

And now concludes the server portion of the setup process:

Practice CS Client Update Process

NOTE: Make sure to log onto the first client where the client based database update processes will run using the domain admin or admin account that was used to set up the server and new database structures.

Despite the instructions in the previous window all one needs to do is to start the Practice CS client on the workstation and the following happens:

The client update automatically runs. Once it starts, it consistently warns about a required reboot but we choose to ignore it:

The client update process will take a while depending on the speed of the system it is being installed on. We see anywhere from a few minutes or more.

After the install completes the first run will require a database integrity check which is why we recommend being logged into the machine that will run the Practice CS client as the domain admin:

Once the integrity checks are complete Practice CS will throw up a number of errors indicating that it is not properly licensed for the various modules that are getting loaded.

Ignore those errors and wait for the client to open up. Click on Help and then About. From there click on the Download Licenses button.

Click the Close button and:

Once the licenses have been properly seated close the Practice CS client and then re-open it again.

If using the Outlook synchronization feature for the firm’s contacts the make sure to run the Contact Synchronization process:

Once these processes have been completed the Practice CS server and client software were good to go.

The time to run the entire process on an SBS server and ten Windows Vista Business clients was about two and a half hours.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Practice CS 2010.1.3 Update Released

Thomson Reuters has released an update to their Practice CS product to 2010.1.3.

• CS Professional Suite & Enterprise Suite Downloads

A login to gain access to the download on Thomson Reuter’s Web site is required.

In this particular client’s case we are upgrading from 2009.4.3.

Since we are dealing with a major version change, the upgrade needs to be done on the server to make the necessary database changes prior to updating the clients. During the update process we are asked if we want to install the Practice CS client software to which we answer No.

As always, make sure to back up the server prior to running the Setup.exe!

Once the Practice CS software and database structures are updated on the server, run the Practice CS client on one of the workstations.

A warning will come up saying that the firm’s database will need to be updated and an integrity check run:

Please note that this process will require a Practice CS account that has write permissions to the database.

Once the update process is complete, Practice CS and the database will be up to date.

All other clients can then initiate the client software update by double clicking on their Practice CS icon. Once complete, the desktop icon will look like:

 

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Practice CS 2009_2_4 Upgrade – Addendum – Uninstall and Reinstall Required

It looks like the last post on Practice CS was a bit too premature.

We needed to uninstall Practice CS 2009.2.3 from the server, reboot, and reinstall.

We ran into a problem with the mapped drive letter during the install of 2009.2.4. It refused to accept the mapped drive so we needed to use the UNC path \\SBS\Programs\WinCSi before we could get the product installed.

Once we did, we sent out an e-mail to the client update Setup.exe file and all was good to go:

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Practice CS – 2009.2.3 Upgrade – Check The Site For Newer!

One of our clients received a CD from Thomson Reuters with the new Practice Creative Solutions upgrade. The version received on disk was 2009.2.3.

The version up required an update to the SQL database that is running on SBS 2008.

The initial run at updating was done from a workstation by one of the owners with the product having an error consistently in the upgrade process.

We ended up running the upgrade on the server with success, but it required a couple of reboots to get it there.

We then needed to log onto one of the workstations with the domain admin account to run the upgrade. But, once the upgrade finished, there was a prompt to install an update that consistently failed.

From there, Practice CS would try and update itself to the newest version, but that too required changes to the SQL database that needed to be run from the server.

Long story short, go to the Creative Solutions Professional Suite site, log on with the firm’s account, and download the newest version from their site.

As of this writing, version 2009.2.4 was on the site.

Download and extract the newest version. Install it on the server and make sure everything runs correctly. Reboots _will_ be required to get things moving along smoothly. From there update the workstations.

UPDATE: It turned out that we needed to do a lot more than expected to get the newer version to work: Practice CS Addendum.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Practice CS (Creative Solutions) To Discontinue Windows 2000 and SQL 2000 Support With Upcoming 2009.2.0 Release

In a User Bulletin, Thomson Reuters indicates that Practice CS will no longer support the Windows 2000 OS and SQL 2000 Server (All Editions).

From User Bulletin 4607:

NEW SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

With the next release of Practice CS version 2009.2.0, we will be discontinuing support for Microsoft^® Windows^® 2000 (all editions) and Microsoft SQL Server^™ 2000 (all editions). Practice CS will no longer function on these operating systems. Please see the System Requirements under the Support section of our website at CS.ThomsonReuters.com for additional information on supported operating systems.

While most firms may be fairly current with the desktop operating systems and their backend server setups, there are some that are still running on Windows 2000 era Microsoft products.

Apparently the next update cycle for Practice CS will be in this coming November.

The current version is 2009.1.3:

Also, among the fixes coming down the pipe in that update will be one for client contacts integrated into Exchange Public Folders that are not seemingly synchronizing properly. This was the reason we were calling support in the first place.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Practice CS – The “CS” Acronym Meaning?

We posted about synchronizing contacts between Practice CS, Outlook, and a Companyweb Contacts list: SBS 2008 – Practice Creative Suite Clients Sync with Companyweb Contacts List via Outlook.

Now, an anonymous comment pointed out that the “CS” may mean nothing at all.

And, somehow I defaulted to the Adobe interpretation of CS which is “Creative Suite” in the blog post title.

Well, my interpretation of the Practice “CS” had to come from somewhere, and it turns out that other than the brain jumble of the “S” meaning, it does:

C:\Program Files\Creative Solutions\Practice CS

The CS actually stands for “Creative Solutions” as is indicated in the folder structure.

My bad for jumbling up the “S” to Suite instead of Solutions, and thanks to the anonymous comment on the above linked previous blog post for challenging me on the meaning of the acronym.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac!

Windows Live Writer

SBS 2008 – Practice Creative Suite Clients Sync with Companyweb Contacts List via Outlook

A while back we posted about migrating Practice Creative Suite (previous post) from an SBS 2003 Premium RTM domain to a new SBS 2008 Standard domain with 100% Windows Vista Business machines on it.

One of the requirements the firm has with Practice CS is the ability to link and synchronize an Outlook Contacts folder with the client list in Practice CS. This gives them to the ability to keep their contacts up to date in both programs.

On the old SBS 2003 domain, the contacts were set up in an Exchange Public folder.

On the new SBS 2008 domain, the preference was to have the contacts also available via the Companyweb SharePoint site. This would enable users to have a third, and sometimes quicker, place to gain access to the client contact lists.

So, we exported the entire public folder structure to a PST file, then used our test user account to import that PST into separate Contacts folders within Outlook.

We then set up the needed Contacts lists in the Companyweb site, linked them to Outlook, and copied the contacts from the Outlook folder they were imported into to the SharePoint linked contacts.

Once the Outlook-Companyweb synchronization process finished and we were sure that the original Outlook Contacts folder matched with the new Companyweb Contacts list, we moved into Practice CS.

Practice CS can have a two way synchronization setup with an Outlook Contacts folder. We discovered that it did not matter where the folder resided, Exchange Public Folders, the Companyweb Contacts list, or Outlook itself as Practice CS could synchronize with any of them.

We did discover one small Gotcha though. When we set up the synchronization relationship with the Companyweb Contacts list via the user’s Outlook, Practice CS wanted to import the entire contents of the Companyweb Contacts list even though most of the clients were in the Practice CS clients list already.

We needed to empty the Companyweb Contacts list, then run the synchronization with Practice CS. Practice CS then copied its client list into the Companyweb Contacts list via Outlook.

Practice CS required that we set up a “Filter” in the synchronization setup. We elected to set the filter based on Client ID with a base number of 0000 and a maximum number of 9999999. If we set the minimum and maximum based on the current Client IDs, any clients with numbers lower or higher than that in the filter would not be synchronized.

The beauty of this new setup is the ability to gain access to the clients list via Practice CS, Outlook, Outlook Search, Windows Vista Search, Companyweb, the Companyweb Search feature, Windows Search 4.0, and the Companyweb via the Internet at https://remote.sbs2008.ca:987.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac!

Windows Live Writer

SBS 2008 - Migrating Practice Creative Suite from SBS 2003

One project we are working on is the move of an existing SBS 2003 domain onto a totally new SBS 2008 setup. The previous SBS 2003 setup was too messed up to even consider a migration, plus we were walking into a totally new server and workstation setup anyway.

One product we are working with in this case is the Thomson Reuters Practice Creative Suite (PCS). It is a product that users use to keep track of their time while working on their client tasks.

Note that, during the Practice CS install routine, install the client software
too as it may be required when testing database connectivity.

Also, install SQL 2005 Express into a new instance leaving the default CREATIVESOLUTION instance name.

The database move was actually quite simple as all that needs to be done is detach the database in Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express. Once the database and log file are released, copy them onto a USB hard drive and copy them up to the default CREATIVESOLUTION instance that was created when Practice CS was installed on the new SBS 2008 box.

There are a number of gotchas in this process. One of them is the actual NTFS permissions on the two files once they are in place in the SQL directory.

Since we are talking about SBS 2008 with its own SQL 2005 Express db installed, the default directory will probably be:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.2\MSSQL\Data

The simplest way to line up the correct permissions on the two SQL files is to right click on the CSP_0_Sample.mdf file and click on Properties. Click on the Security tab and then click on the Continue button which will require a UAC acknowledgement.

There should be three sets of permissions with FULL CONTROL set:

• SYSTEM
• SQLServer2005MSSQLUser$WIN-XXXX-CREATIVESOLUTIONS
• Administrators

Duplicate those permissions for the newly copied in database and log files. It is important to do this step first as the attach process will choke if the permissions are incorrectly set with an error about Read-Only and Performing a database recovery" in SQL Server Management Studio Express.

Once the permissions are correctly set on the databases, attach them. Make sure to close SQL Server Management Studio Express (SSMSE) if it is open first. Right click on the SSMSE and Run as administrator. If this step is missed, the database attach will choke.

Okay! We now have a nicely installed set of databases in SSMSE. But, none of the default permissions that Practice needs will be set yet. Verify that the SBS domain admin account is owner of the database within SSMSE by right clicking on the CSP_FIRM#_FIRM# database and clicking on Properties.

If the domain admin does not own the database, then we need to run the SQL 2005 Surface Area tool. Again, right click and Run as Administrator. Click the Add New Administrator link and move the CSP_FIRM#_FIRM# database over to the "Privileges that will be granted to SBSDOMAIN\AdminAccount and click OK.

With the correct permissions set, we need to verify the Users under the Security folder for the CSP_FIRM#_FIRM# database to have dbo (Login name: CreativeSolutionsPracticeCsDatabaseOwner), INFORMATION_SCHEMA, and sys.

The dbo is critical. In our case, the domain admin account was the login setting for the dbo and we were not able to shift to the CreativeSolutionsPracticeCsDatabaseOwner account.

We created a new account called dbo-PCS, set the needed user account as login and give the Database role membership of db_owner.

New dbo-PCS account with ownership set

We now have Practice CS installed on SBS with the requisite reboots, the database has been properly attached, and we have installed Practice CS onto the workstations (no Remote Entry option), and/or laptops (with Remote Entry), a connection attempt can be made. More than likely it will fail.

We need to do the following on the SBS 2008 server itself:

SBS 2008 Firewall Exceptions

We need to set up Inbound rules for the following:

• TCP 1433
• UDP 1434
• SQLBrowser.exe ( ..\90\Shared\sqlbrowser.exe)
• SQLServer.exe ( ..\MSSQL.X\MSSQL\Binn\sqlserver.exe)

MSSQL.X indicates the SQL 2005 Express instance. If Practice CS is the first product to be installed on SBS 2008 with an additional SQL Instance, then X=2. The SQL application to be exempted needs to be the one that resides in the same folder structure as the Practice databases.

Run the Practice CS client on the server, and a firm logon page should happen.

Now, run Practice CS on a Vista client, and more than likely there will need to be one more firewall rule set up ... but not on the server, in Windows Vista.

Windows Vista Outbound Firewall Rule for Practice CS

Once we created the outbound exception on the Windows Vista client box, we were still seeing a connection error.

There was one more step to the puzzle. On the SBS server, run the client and connect to the firm database. A logon is not required. Click cancel for the logon dialogue box to get to the Practice program, click on Help then About Practice CS. There is a Download Licenses button. Click on this to enter in the necessary particulars for the firm and allow the license files to download.

Once the files have downloaded, the Practice CS client will run a reinstall routine. If Practice CS is installed on all of the network clients already, then they too will run through the reinstall routine.

Once the license files are installed, Practice CS will fire up and the firm's database will be available for login.

Because this was a very time consuming and labourious process, some steps may be missed. Here is an overview of the process:

1. Detach on original SBS
2. Install Practice CS including client. Reboots required.
3. Db and Log File copy to new Practice CS SQL instance directory.
4. Files permissions set identical to the Practice Sample Db and Log File settings.
5. Attach in SSMSE (Right click and Run as Administrator to open).
6. Run SQL Server Surface Area Configuration and set domain admin to CREATIVESOLUTIONS instance.
7. Set proper permissions for dbo in SSMSE.
8. Set up SBS 2008 Firewall permissions for two applications and two ports.
9. Test connection in Practice CS to firm database.
10. Cancel login and download and install the firm's license files.
11. Set Outbound program rule in Windows Vista for Practice CS.
12. Run Practice CS on Vista client and connect to database.

Please comment if anything is caught missing or out of line with the process, and we will update the blog post.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.