2011 update available shortly

The first release of Horse Show for Windows for 2011 is coming shortly. A Maintenance Contract expiring 12/2011 is required to run version 7.71.

AQHA rule changes, new NRCHA judge's sheets, and many user requests are being implemented. Our FAQ's are being updated along with generating some YouTube help videos (networking set up has already been posted) that we expect to add to throughout the season.

Anyone who has not yet purchased their contract for 2011 will need to do so BEFORE downloading and updating their software as you will not be able to run v7.71 with contracts that expire in 12/2010. Cost for new contracts is $175 to download all updates for 2011 OR $225 to have us mail you a CD - both options include a $200 credit toward techinal support for the year. Credit card purchases can be done at our website - www.funnware.com/orderonline.php - and license information will be emailed after payment has been received and processed. If you are mailing us a check, please do so at FunnWare Development, 3292 Atlin Ave, Dublin, OH 43017 and include a valid email address for those that are purchasing the download option so we can send license information via email.

As always, thanks for your continued support of Horse Show for Windows. Have a great 2011 show season!

Networking and HSW

Horse Show for Windows is a fully networkable program. As the back-end database is currently Microsoft Access, there are a few limitations. Size can’t go over 2G (extremely rare for our users) and the number of computers actively writing to the database should not exceed four/five or you’ll start seeing major speed issues.

The software itself only needs to be loaded on one computer. The database also sits on that computer usually in the same directory as the program. The directory is then shared across the network allowing all users complete access. Sharing the folder is done easily through Windows Explorer (watch a video to see how it’s done on Windows XP or Vista/Windows 7).

Networking can be done any number of ways. Peer-to-peer is generally easiest with two computers, where the computers are connected directly to each other with a cable. With more than two computers, a router is the better way to go where the computer with the program and database is connected to the router as well as any other computers in the network.

Wireless networking is NOT recommended for any database program and all computers that will be writing to the HSW database should be hard-wired. Wireless connections are prone to drops and if the network has dropped while HSW is writing to the database, data may be lost and the potential for corruptions is high.

Once the folder is shared and the network is up and running, secondary computers will access HSW through the network. An icon on the desktop of the secondary computers can be setup for direct usage (watch a video to see how it’s done on Windows XP or Vista/Windows 7).

Printers can be connected to the network itself (also wired into the router) or connected to each individual computer. HSW uses the Windows printing capabilities so if your printer is accessible through Windows, it should also be accessible through HSW. You can change access to the printer from any Printer Setup box in any of the report restriction screens.

Vacation for FunnWare Development

Midway through the summer already - wow! It's hard to believe but time is passing quickly. And it's time we gave ourselves a break while the weather is still good. No one will be in the office next week starting Monday, July 19th and back in the office on Monday, July 26th.

The iPhone will be with someone so access to phone, email, and voice mail continues to be available. Do note that starting Wednesday of next week, the phone will be on a boat in Chesapeake Bay watching my son sail in the Opti Nationals so be patient with call backs!

If you haven't yet purchased your update for the season, remember that we manually generate license information based on the modules you own so someone needs to be at a computer to do it - not just the iPhone. We will have limited access to a computer and internet but your best bet is to get it done before the end of this week if you need it within the next week or so.

As always, purchasing can be done by sending a check or using your credit card online at our website and we'll send out new license information as soon as possible after payment is received. Cost is $150 to download the updates or $200 to have us mail you a CD and printed manual.

On another note, we are working on several new blog posts regarding networking, show setup, and best practices with HSW so stay tuned.

Two in a Month - is that a record?

Maybe not -but considering it's been months since I posted before the one a week ago, it's close.

By now, many of you have updated and started using the new version of the software and continue with your tech support without breaking the bank. For those of you who have not, it's best to get updated before you really need it (i.e. the Friday night of your first show of the season) as our licenses are manually generated so even purchasing through our website won't give you immediate access to the update.

On that note, no one will actually be in the office next week as we approach the Easter holiday weekend. As usual, someone will have the iPhone and therefore have access to voice and email for any help you might need - however, please realize that someone needs to be at a computer with internet access in order to generate and send you new license information so be proactive with your purchasing to give everyone enough time to get you the information you need to be current.

For those of you who celebrate it, have a blessed Easter.

It's Been a While...New Update for 2010

Haven't posted in a while - sorry about that - life has been busy with all sorts of happenings going on ;-) Anyway - first release for the 2010 horse show season has been posted to our website. Several things have been updated per association rules and a few other things in reporting and compatibility with a new release of Windows.

You will need a Service Contract Date of at least 12/01/2010 to run the newest release so make sure you are current before you download the update. You can purchase new contracts at our website and we'll send out new license information as soon as they are generated.

What's new for v7.66?

• Tested for Compatibility with Windows 7
• Windows 7 issue - adding more than one show to database now working (three dummy shows added to any database that doesn’t have three for 2010 already)
• Rules 2010 - USEF results file updated
• Rules 2010 - AQHA judge's cards updated
• Rules 2010 - AQHA roster file generated separately for split combined or double/judged shows to upload easier
• Rules 2010 - AQHA ROM changes (accepts ROM in any division for all classes requiring a ROM)
• Rules 2010 - NRCHA judge's sheets updated
• Reports - Judge's Cards - NRCHA separating correctly and printing horse names when subsidiary shows are implemented
• Reports - Cross Reference - Horse/Owner/Exhibitor report added
• Reports - Roster for One Show - added the ability to include Owner Registration #
• Ponies of the Americas association and classes added (additional reporting still to come)
• Pinto Horse Association of America association and classes updated (additional reporting still to come)

Support soon to be on iPhone

I'm heading out of town with my family for the next two weeks - a much needed break for all of us. We haven't done one of these for a few years when we used to do them every summer - ah, the busy lives we all lead!

FunnWare Development's phone is in the process of being transferred from the Sprint network to the AT&T one as we'll soon have an iPhone so support can be done anywhere by phone as well as email. Hopefully, we won't have any issues with the move - I've heard good and bad things about the AT&T network - we'll see how it goes! If you get voice mail or a weird message (my husband's phone will once in a while give me a 'the caller you are trying to reach isn't accepting calls at this time' message), make sure you leave your name and a number to call you back on. Even in this day and age of caller ID, when a call is unintentionally dropped, if the phone was off or the battery dead, caller ID isn't recorded but voice mail is likely activated.

Email and voice mail will be checked periodically as usual so just because no one is in the office for the next two weeks doesn't mean we're not available to help you out ;-)

For those of you stateside, have a safe and happy holiday weekend.

Subscribe via email - FeedBurner

So I thought that setting yourself up as a follower of a blog automatically would send an email to that follower when something new was posted. Wrong - it does send an email to the follower if someone comments on a post but not when the post is first pushed out - so in order for our posts to get noticed by our followers, we'd have to post the post and then comment on it ;-) Seems a bit awkward - figured there had to be a better way. There is - FeedBurner.

If you'd like to be notified when we post a new post, put in your email address and click the 'Subscribe' link in the box to the right. You'll get a pop up with some info and eventually an email to verify that you are who you are (are you?) and then when we post something new, you'll get an email so you can read it without having to check back to us every day or RSS it if you aren't into that sort of thing. Hope that helps!

Better Ways of Communicating

In this day of spam, sending out emails to a large group of people (i.e. our user base) has become increasing difficult and time consuming. With so many users in our list, sending out an individual email to everyone is impossible as is sending the same email to all our registered users at once. Our first try when the 2009 release was posted gave us numerous email addresses that bounced back even though we knew they were valid. We even got blacklisted (sorry to Amiee McCaffrey who runs WMIT Studio A Design as we got her server mixed up in it!). Amiee recommended using phpList which allows us to build our database of users and send the same message to everyone properly - it does it in the background, one at a time. We are in the process of subscribing all our registered users from the past few years to our phplist so all our messages will get to you correctly and in a more timely manner ;-)

Brother printer issues fixed with an updated driver from Brother

For those of you who had printing issues with Brother printers (preview looked fine on the screen but then either printed only one page of a multi-page report or printed blank pages), some research on our part showed that the software Brother uses for their printers (versus other companies) is not compatible with all programs - but apparently they fixed the problem on their end and have posted new printer drivers.

A user who tested it for us said that she downloaded an updated driver from their website and everything worked correctly. Here's a link to their website where you can select your particular printer and download what you need.

Thanks to Rick for his original post on one of the many news groups I reached out to regarding the issue as he had a client who also had the problem - and thanks to Cheryl for being our tester since we don't have any actual Brother printers here in our office!

v7.64 Now Available for Downloading

As previously blogged, a few issues were reported from v7.63 that needed cleaning up. We've also added several other things that didn't make it into the first release for 2009. One new Vista issue came up since the list we posted in the last blog and has been addressed. Everything has been posted to the website for downloading. Remember that you should have a current license that expires in 2009 - if you haven't yet updated, you'll receive an message that you aren't licensed for this version so be pro-active and get yourself a new Maintenance Contract.

You'll also see the addition of the field Slot Owner on the Horse screen and the ability to have it included on the Announcer's Report - this was something specified to us from a particular user - it's noted here for two reasons; the first is that it's something new and we wanted to make sure that you realized it was supposed to be there ;-) and the second is to remind you of the changes we regularly make to the software to make it better for our users - many of the additions that we do come from requests and we do our best to include those that we can. If it's something that no one else will use but you really would like to see it, we'll quote you a price of the time it would take us to get it added and leave it up to you to decide if you are willing/able to do it. If it's something that would benefit the majority of our users, we'll add it to our 'to-do' list and see about getting it in to future releases. If it's something we really can't do; either because of time constraints or because it can't be done within the constraints of our programming, we'll let you know - we're not shy about that!

Anyway, here's the update - we're taking a much needed break from programming to work on other projects that have been left to the wayside while we cleaned this up but, as usual, we're always around for tech support. Happy Showing!

Fixes

• Reports - Announcer/Draw Report - owner information on the first horse of the report was missing
• Awards - Circuit/Hi Points - if there is an owner missing from a horse, a syntax error occurred (you can verify you have owners for all horses by running a Back Number List report)
• Classes - several of the new ABRA class names had the incorrect sex of the horse listed
• Vista issue - Utilities - Association Disk Creation - some configurations of Vista don't allow creation of files to the root directory so an adjustment was made to select a drive as well as a directory to save the file
  

Additions

• Paso Fino Module - classes included with error checking (allowing adjustment on age as of Sept 1 instead of Jan 1) and association disk creation
• Classes - AQHA Select classes will do and age check on the starting date of the show instead of January 1st
• Financial - NRHA Tally Report implemented
  
• Reports - Labels for Photographer - exports to CSV file which can then be opened in Excel
• Reports - People by Name - exports to CSV file which can then be opened in Excel
• Shows - Show Information - allow the editing of the alphanumeric show ID for printing on reports
• Payback/Checks - Pre-check report - if separate page for each payee is selected, the total of all the checks pushes to a separate page as well
• Horse/Announcer's Report - addition of Slot Owner to each horse and ability to include it on the Announcer's Report under each horse
  

Next release coming soon

There are a few small glitches from v7.63 that are being cleaned up and a new version will be released shortly with those fixes along with a few other things that didn't make it into the first one. Here's the list of what will be in v7.64 when it's posted.

Fixes

• Reports - Announcer/Draw Report - owner information on the first horse of the report was missing
• Awards - Circuit/Hi Points - if there is an owner missing from a horse, a syntax error occurred (you can verify you have owners for all horses by running a Back Number List report)
• Classes - several of the new ABRA class names had the incorrect sex of the horse listed

Additions

• Paso Fino Module - classes included with error checking (allowing adjustment on age as of Sept 1 instead of Jan 1) and association disk creation
• Classes - AQHA Select classes will do and age check on the starting date of the show instead of January 1st
• Financial - NRHA Tally Report implemented
  
• Reports - Labels for Photographer - exports to CSV file which can then be opened in Excel
• Reports - People by Name - exports to CSV file which can then be opened in Excel
• Shows - Show Information - allow the editing of the alphanumeric show ID for printing on reports
• Payback/Checks - Pre-check report - if separate page for each payee is selected, the total of all the checks pushes to a separate page as well
  

v7.63 Now Available

Sorry for the delay - between computer issues and illness, this update took longer to get posted than originally expected. Unfortunately, I think that's par for the course on computer stuff - nothing ever takes the time you think it will ;-)

Anyway, version 7.63 of the software is now available for downloading if you are a current license holder (service date after 12/1/2009). You can view the added items and download it from our HSW Update page on our website.

If you still need to update, see the blog entry below for information on doing so. Those who have purchased the mailed version, manuals are currently being printed and CD's burned - they will be mailed later this week.

I am heading away from my development computer for a few days on a much needed break with my family. As usual, I will still have access to voice and email so if you need to get a hold of me, you know how!

Who's Thinking About Horse Shows?

Well, as I sit down to write another blog entry, I'm finding myself mesmerized by the falling snow outside my window. Those of you in southern states/countries likely haven't enjoyed this in a while (if ever ;-) but it's beautiful and I have stared at it for too long already.

So...back to work...here in the office, we are going through old emails and notes to prioritize our to-do list for the first release of HSW in 2009. We've got notes out to the national associations in the hopes that they will pass on any rule changes that might affect our show managers (if you know of any, feel free to post away). We are gathering information to add a few new breed modules to our list.

We expect our first release to be sometime in the next 3-5 weeks. Be ready for it by purchasing your Maintenance Contract now...with a credit card through our website at www.funnware.com or by sending a check to where it's currently snowing:
FunnWare Development
3292 Atlin Ave
Dublin, OH 43017

Cost is $150 to download all updates from our website or $200 to have us mail you them on CD's. Both options include $200 credit toward technical support for 2009.

Holiday Break

With kids off from school and many other businesses shut down, we have decided to also take a break from programming until the new year ;-) I have the phone so if you have tech support questions while at a show these next two weeks, feel free to give a call but know that we aren't officially in the office until January 5th.

Look for our 2009 update to be released in late January/early February with some additional reports, new features, and updates to judge's sheets and rules per association changes.

We hope that everyone has an enjoyable holiday season.

HSW and Vista

Okay, so you need to buy a new computer but no one will sell you one with XP on it. Will Horse Show for Windows work on Vista? Good question.

We've had mixed results with usage of HSW on Vista. We purchased a new machine with Vista for testing (although currently it's in the shop for other issues ;-) and we've listed what we have found so far. Not every user has experienced each of these (which makes it all the more frustrating to find solutions). If you have had other difficulties using HSW on Vista, feel free to comment to this post.

Problem - Installation - depending on the processor in your new Vista machine (and potentially some older machines but less likely), you may get an error when trying to install HSW. As it turns out, the program itself has no problems running on the higher bit processors but the installation program to load it isn't compatible with the higher bit processors.
Solution - we are working on getting either an upgrade to the installation program we have been using for 10 years or a different one; either way, it will be compatible and installation should again run smoothly. If you need something immediately, let us know and we can send you an installation that was generated on a demo that will work but we can't distribute at this point.

Problem - Adding more than one show to the database - this one is a stumper...the database has multiple tables in it...all but the show table are updating correctly. Microsoft says there is no problem. We have upgraded to the newest version of Access to no avail but expect to do more research on this issue with the Access group since the Vista group has been no help.
Solution - you can send us your database with the information on your additional shows and we will add them in ourselves and send back the database to you for continued use. If you have Microsoft Access, we can walk you through the process on your own. Ironically, once you have more than one show in the database through another source, there seems to be no problem adding more in through the program. We will continue to work on this issue until it is resolved to the point of adding all shows through the program.

Problem - connecting horses/people already in the database to new records from the drop down boxes - this is a new one just recently discovered and not yet confirmed that it's a Vista issue as we had seen this in older versions of Windows98 also. Update - looks like this issue is only with the sire and dam information so if you are not tracking those you should be okay...we are continuing our work on this issue.
Solution - at this point, the only thing to do is to add those horses/people to the database multiple times. Once we can duplicate the error and verify the problem, we'll come up with a better solution to keep things rolling properly.

Happy Thanksgiving!

In this season of thankfulness, I am thankful for many things...one of them is all the awesome show managers and secretaries that use Horse Show for Windows!

To those of you in the states...have a blessed Thanksgiving.

Coming to the end of one season and the beginning of the next

As fall comes to a close and the weather here in Ohio gets colder, our phone rings less and less. Horse shows across the country and around the world are winding down. Not that there aren't shows being held (I know several that will take place over this coming Thanksgiving weekend...hopefully you won't need my help through them ;-), but that there are fewer shows overall being held any given weekend this time of year. Those of you in the warmer climes are still plenty busy while those of us up north are gearing down for the winter.

Here in the office, it means the time of year where we work to put together our first release for the next show season; contacting the breed associations to see what rules changes they have up their sleeves, going through the wish list we've compiled from users, and updating our development environment with the most current tools.

This year we hope to develop some 'how to' video clips to post online to help answer the most often asked questions we get in the office regarding show set up. Our plan is to walk you through different types of shows and how we would set them up. We are putting together some tools to help us do this smoothly and once we get that completed we'll start working on the clips and post them as they are finished. If there are particular set up issues that you find difficult or confusing, please let us know so that we can generate a clip for it. As usual, our purpose is the make the lives of our show managers a bit easier!

Welcome to our new blog

In the new world of blogging and keeping people connected via the internet, we decided to start a blog for horse show management information specifically geared for the Horse Show for Windows user. We hope to use this blog as a way to offer tips and tricks in the usage of HSW. Feel free to send your comments our way...our software has grown over the years (see we've come a long way baby! post) largely due to information and requests from you.

And not to leave anyone out, certainly feel free to push out our blog (as well as our products ;-) to other show managers that might not be using HSW but might get some useful information from fellow managers on how to run a better horse show.

We've come a long way, baby!

I started working in the horse show industry almost 15 years ago. It's a little know fact that other than riding in camp when I was growing up, I've never actually shown a horse so I came in to this field fairly blind. I have learned so much about this business over these years; both from the co-workers I've programmed with and the users I program for.

The original version of this software was written as a DOS program for the Ohio Quarter Horse Association as their All American Quarter Horse Congress got bigger and bigger year after year. This was all before my time; Tony Lewis got it all started through his first company that I can't even remember the name of (it will come to me in the middle of the night...anyone else remember?...not CyberTech...before then even). When I first began working with Tony in 1994, he had 'remade' the Congress software to accommodate OQHA's weekend show managers. Word of the software to run horse shows easily spread from Ohio managers to surrounding states and Tony started selling his Horse Show System to managers across the country.

Over the years that I have been working with this program, a lot of changes have taken place. We've grown from usability for AQHA shows to encompass basically any breed or open show. We've moved from selling largely in Ohio to hundreds of users across the country and around the world. The development platform has changed several times along the way as we moved from DOS to Windows. We've been through several versions of Microsoft's Windows that has made the usage and technical support of our products a challenge (don't get me started on the issues we are still trying to work through with Vista).

Each of these changes has improved the software. I'm working through some new things now that will continue to allow the program to grow and help you run your shows more efficiently. As noted in a previous post, keep the comments coming...the software gets better because of them. I won't promise to incorporate every new idea but many items that we might not be able to add in lead us to others that are similar or just as important.