round-up: versions 15.9.1 - 15.10.3

• Automatic placement of ads improved in several ways.
  • The auto-dummy feature correctly places ads that request colors and a page.
  • Improved automatic placement of black & white ads on color pages.
  • Improved automatic placement of ads that are guaranteed or request a group.
  • Fixed a bug in the auto-dummy feature that caused some ads to be placed on a page's top/ear stack when they should not have.
  • When an ad's primary group request and alternate group request are the same, Layout-8000 now detects that case and handles it better during the auto-dummy process.
  • Addressed a database integrity issue that caused the auto-dummy feature to remove editorial blocks from pages.
• Interactive conflict list
  
  • The "Show ad conflicts" button now reports group conflicts.
  • The "Show ad conflicts" button now reports exclude group conflicts.
  • If an ad with an "exclude Sports group" request was placed on a page in the Sports group, that ad now appears as a conflict in "Show ad conflicts".
  • If an ad has a group request and an alternate group request but is placed in neither of those groups, it now shows up a conflict in "Show ad conflicts".
  • The "Show ad conflicts" button no longer reports false Position conflicts at sites with more than 75 ad types.
  • The "Show ad conflicts" and "Show ad groups" toolbar buttons function better when the user is viewing multiple zones. Previously, ads were colored (by group or conflict) in the current zone. Now ads are colored in every visible zone.
• In a page's right-click menu, the "Newshole" menu item shows newshole information for that page.
• When a page or set of pages is added to a group using the Groups item on the page popup menu in ILP, if that page or set of pages neither intersects or abuts any page already in the group, the relative page information in the newly created group segment is now section-relative instead of paper-relative (unless the product uses absolute page numbering, in which case it is still paper-relative).
• Suppressed a warning about blank color names on ads that request 1 or 2 colors.
• A block requested page 12 of a 10-page section. When bringing up the Ad tab, Layout-8000 issued a "table subscript out of range" error. That has been corrected.
• In a magazine with 4 advertising columns, an odd-sized 1.75"-wide ad could be placed in columns 1, 2, and 4. That ad can now be placed in any column.
• Products with lettered A/B pages no longer cause an "uninitialized variable - lSectionsRec.SectionStopPage" error message to pop up.
• When a user creates an editorial block, 2 "uninitialized variable" errors no longer appear.
• On a page with a position-locked editorial block, if an ad beneath that block is dragged off of the page, the block does not move.
• In a newspaper where every page is zoned, when the lowest numbered zone is disabled, Layout-8000 automatically updates its default zone. That prevents a few show-stopping errors later.
• The SHELL command checks menu security.
• When a user goes to the Ad tab and clicks on the "More details" button, the "Modify Ad Characteristics" form allows an ad to request a group, regardless of whether that group is used in the current product.
• You can change an ad's mechanical width on the fly. Right-click on the desired ad. In the menu that pops up, choose "Size".
• If you right-click on an ad and choose "Zone +/-", there is an option to "Restore Original Zones". That restores an ad's zones back to what the advertiser originally requested.
• Suppose that a user accidentally creates a block instead of a late ad, and the late ad arrives through proper channels. In this scenario, a few things happen. (1) The ad will be imported. (2) Cardex Differences will appear. (3) If the block was killed, then the block will be deleted. If the block is still placed on a page, then the user will see "Block Conflicts" as part of "Cardex Differences".
• Corrected ad area totals in the Sections/Groups/Zones area. They match the Ad Distribution (ADD) report. They are consistent.

JSON product templates (Beta feature)

• A user can apply a different template to a product that already exists. Here are two ways to accomplish that. (1) From the Design & Dummy area, go to the File menu and "Reconfigure Product." (2) From Layout-8000's main page, right-click on any product in the list. In the menu that pops up, choose to "Reconfigure Product."

StandbyAdBoss

• Layout-8000's Ad Order Entry system allows an optional weekday run schedule for standby ads. A standby ad can be specified to run on a subset of the seven days of the week.
• When a user right-clicks on a page and chooses "Standby ads" from the menu, ads that fit in the page's open space are highlighted green.
• StandbyAdBoss is now a separate application. You will see no visible change on screen. The Layout-8000 user experience remains consistent.

• Ad IDs that contain characters require more space on reports. The Ad List (ADL), Ad Distribution (ADD), and Final (FIN) reports have been adjusted to accommodate that. This change prevents the last digit of the ad number from being truncated.
• When Layout-8000 emails a report, the attached file name is configurable.

• When the ADD Lite report for an uncreated product tests for an earlier created product as a source of product information, it used to require that the earlier product:
          be for the same paper and edition
          be already exported
          be for the same day of the week as the uncreated product
  Now it prefers an exported product for the same day of the week, but if there is none, it tries the following in order until it finds one:
          an unexported product with the same day of the week
          an exported product with any day of the week
          an unexported product with any day of the week
  It never tries a product that is not for the same paper and edition.
  The pop-up that appears if no such product can be found is now more informative and less likely to be mistaken as indicating a bug.
• Layout-8000 automatically configures the Mother of All Interfaces (MOAI), so that CAS users can view the ADD Lite report.

• When someone selects a product with no tearsheet requests, runs the Final report, and selects only the Tearsheet report, that now results in an empty tearsheet report, even if "Suppress Rpt if empty" was checked. An error message no longer pops up.
• Unpaid ads may be identified by a custom field.
• In products with half/doubled columns, unpaid ad area totals have been corrected.

• CCI XML files include an <Update> flag. The value of that Update flag may change based on a new global option named "Update flag = 0 when user sends any complete section(s)".
  • By default, the above setting is NOT checked, and SCS sends:
    • Update = 0 for a full product.
    • Update = 1 for anything less.
  • If the above setting IS checked, then SCS sends:
    • Update = 0 for a full product.
    • Update = 0 for any complete section(s).
    • Update = 1 for individual page updates.
• Fixed a bug in the "Creating Merge File (BILLING)" command which resulted in no merge file and subsequent errors. Behind the scenes, the admerge program reported "Unable to open $LAY_ADS/ads database, status 115." That bug has been fixed.
• An "uninitialized variable - lPlacementRec.Zone" message no longer pops up.

ColorAdBoss

• Corrected an on-screen color palette. The following message no longer pops up. "r,g,b values in rgb 1.000 1.000 1000 should be numbers from 0 to 1"

SQLAdBoss

• Columns that appear on page 2 of Layout-8000's Final report are now available in the SQL database for custom reports. We added the following columns: Description, Height, Width, Ad Taker, Salesperson ID, and Salesperson Name. Instructions are also available.
• SQLAdBoss has been integrated into CAS web application framework. SCS staff can create a custom report. Users can access that report by logging into CAS, going to the Inquire menu, and selecting Reports.
• The ETL process allows for more than 1,000 events. For an example, during one month at a newspaper group, 231,476 events were logged.
• During software installation, the process that creates a Python virtual environment became more robust.
• These features are available to customers with an active SQLAdBoss subscription.

• When "Cardex Differences" are reported to a user, that event is logged. In the Event Log, that event looks like:
          Date        = 04/28/2017
          Time        = 13:00
          User        = cwolfe
          Action      = DIFFAD
          Type        = PRODUCT
          Object      = (blank)
          Paper       = 01
          Edition     = 01
          Run Date    = 04/28/2017
          Notes       = Cardex Differences detected.
• The Event Log captures more information about killed ads. In Cardex Differences, the user is presented with a list of killed ads as usual, and the user may uncheck ads or press the Cancel button to NOT kill the ad(s). The Event Log captures the user's per-ad decisions, including when they DECLINE to kill ads. In the Event Log, this looks like:
          Date        = 04/28/2017
          Time        = 13:01
          User        = cwolfe
          Action      = DIFFAD
          Type        = AD
          Object      = 1234567890
          Paper       = 01
          Edition     = 01
          Run Date    = 04/28/2017
          Notes       = declined kill
• The Event Log tracks who purged ads when.
• When cardex differences are reported to a user, the Event Log now correctly shows when that person accepts an ad size change.
• The Event Log tracks when a product was created or reconfigured.
• The above improvements to the Event Log will facilitate support and troubleshooting.

Maintenance

• The "Purge Ads" process checks Site membership. Suppose that someone is a member of site A, is authorized to work only on newspapers for site A, and was granted permission to Purge Ads. That user may purge ads at site A. This change will forbid them from purging ads at site B and ALL other sites.
• An "adpurge.log" file tracks who purged what and when.
• Corrected an error in the "backup-essentials.sh" script.