Missing Data in Time Matters

Written by Steve Stockstill

It’s not a matter of if, but when this problem will manifest at one of your client’s sites. The characteristics of this problem manifest such that you can log into Time Matters, navigate to main lists, but the main lists are empty (see below).

This has become a very common problem now that the SQL based version of Time Matters has entered the mainstream. From my experience, the following two problems are the most likely culprits:

1. The Time Matters database owner has inadvertently been given an improper server role (see below). The only option needed is Public.

2. The Time Matters database owner’s schema is inappropriately configured for the wrong database user (see below). The schema must be the same as the database user.

What causes this to happen? From my experience it happens when firms move their database and attempt to reconnect the database user. It has happened when other problems exist and folks start clicking on options without testing the impact of each new option they try.

Inside Time Matters - UPDATED

Written by Steve Stockstill

To thank the Time Matters community for another successful year, Data Equity is making available the first two chapters of our new book, Inside Time Matters: An Insider's Guide to Maximizing the Underlying Technology in Time Matters.

Chapter one of our book covers an in-depth series on optimizing the performance of Time Matters. This book represents a compilation of the best articles posted here on our PracticeBetter.com blog site as well as fresh content provided by author Steve Stockstill.

We hope that you find this information useful. The remaining chapters will be available in early 2010. The final e-book will be free. Printed versions will be available for the cost of printing via our online publisher, lulu.com.

Thanks for a great 2009 and here's wishing everyone a blessed 2010!

From the Goodie Bag: Ten Elements in My Software Toolkit

Written by Steve Stockstill

I thought the holidays would be a good time to put together a list of software tools that I use on an ongoing basis. The obligatory shout outs go to the obvious tools from Adobe, Microsoft and the Mozilla Foundation. Not a day goes by that Firefox, Acrobat and Word are not in use on my desktop. Yet the following tools take my productivity to new levels and are the unsung heroes in my toolkit.

Fences
http://www.stardock.com/products/fences/
Fences is the newest utility in my arsenal, a program that helps you organize your desktop and can hide your icons when they are not in use. Fences comes in both a free version and a modestly priced Pro version.

CCleaner
http://www.ccleaner.com/
A longtime resident of my toolkit, CCleaner is a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system freeing up hard disk space and contains a fully featured registry cleaner.

Firebug
http://getfirebug.com/
Although I use several Firefox add-ons, Firebug is the most important. Firebug integrates with Firefox and allows you to edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.

Skype
http://www.skype.com/
Not a day goes by that I don’t use Skype. Skype allows free voice, video and instant message conversations with other Skype users. What makes Skype unique is the ability to make and receive landline calls. For a relatively small fee Skype customers can purchase a local phone number for many international cities.

SnagIt
http://www.techsmith.com/screen-capture.asp
SnagIt screen capturing software has been around a long time. SnagIt, though not free, sets itself apart from the freeware competition with features like the built-in editor, capture cataloguer and onscreen capturing options for menus that other products have difficulty dealing with.

Thunderbird with Lightning
http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/
Thunderbird is the rock solid Email client from the Mozilla Foundation and Lightning is an optional Calendaring add-on. I started using Thunderbird many years ago when I switched from POP3 to IMAP email (at the time Outlook didn’t support IMAP). The Lightning component of Thunderbird is fully compatible with Google Calendar allowing seamless integration between desktop, mobile and online scheduling.

Data Management Center, DMC
http://www.dmc-fr.com/
There are few tools capable of reading the TopSpeed (TPS) file format used in the professional version of Time Matters. DMC queries, exports, migrates and updates TPS, SQL and virtually any data format. If you’re not impressed with the Topscan file reader (pun intended) then try DMC .

ObjectDock
http://www.stardock.com/products/objectdock/
ObjectDock enables you to organize your shortcuts, programs and running tasks into an animated Dock. Rather than having a bunch of icons on the desktop, these icons can be put into one or more docks.

Evernote
http://www.evernote.com/
Evernote captures and organizes random note information into a searchable database. Apply as much or as little structure as you like and the powerful search tool will recall on demand. You can even search for words inside graphic images. Contents can be synchronized across desktops and mobile devices allowing notes to be taken with you.

Directory Opus, DO
http://www.directoryopus.com/
The most used tool in this roundup is by far Directory Opus. DO is a complete replacement for Windows Explorer and many other utility programs for handling FTP, ZIP, files and image viewer, file conversion, slideshows and more. Other features include; user-definable file display views, built in FTP and ZIP support, file synchronization, duplicate file finder, advanced search and rename function, and runs from USB.

You Shouldn’t Need to “Sync” Your Smartphone

Written by Steve Stockstill

There was a time (as recently as version 8) that the Time Matters development team would hold a release of Time Matters to ensure that our wired synchronizations were working with the latest Palm, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry devices. The times, they are a' changin', Time Matters 10 recently shipped without support for the latest wave of smartphone devices.

Lack of support for these new devices and platforms has initially applied pressure on firms using Time Matters to use a multi-step process to accomplish synchronizations. The current work-around is to use Outlook or Exchange as an intermediary synchronization solution. Unfortunately, Time Matters does not support round-trip synchronization from the smartphone back to Time Matters. So in essence, users are limited to a “push” solution as opposed to a bi-directional sync.

State of the sync…

The explosion of the smartphone market has created innovation but also fragmented the market with new platforms. Software vendors, like Time Matters, who focus on device specific solutions now find themselves facing a plethora of platforms to support (or not). In the U.S. legal community our smartphone market primarily consists of:

Apple iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm WebOS, Google Android and Windows Mobile

The dominate devices are iPhone and BlackBerry with the new Palm WebOS devices starting to make dramatic inroads. Again, referring to the legal sector, devices like Android are more appealing to the techie crowd and Windows Mobile appears to have become a non-player.

Looking to the future….

Should smartphone data be securely ubiquitous or tethered by a cable? Palm and Google think yes (as do I). In fact, Palm’s new Synergy platform makes the historic “synchronization” process feel archaic. Synergy seamlessly combines data from several online (and Exchange Server) accounts into a single entity on the Palm device. Data stays updated and normalized in the background. Read more about Palm Synergy here: http://www.palm.com/us/support/downloads/pre/migration/index.html . Google Android works in a similar way but uses a more limited set of sources of data.

Bringing it home…

So what does this mean to Time Matters users today, how do we reliably provide users with access to Time Matters information on their smartphones? (shameless plug begins) I’d like to say “just go buy MobileTM”. It works with all smartphone devices and has no physical data limitations. We’re also launching a new Google Calendar and Contact sync for Time Matters. The two of these products will accommodate users’ needs in terms of ubiquitous synchronization. (shameless plug ends) Otherwise the answer dictates only one solution; Exchange Server.

Time Matters needs to continue to improve their Exchange Synchronization. As a community we might consider encouraging the LexisNexis team in the following ways:

Support round-trip data synchronization from the smartphone back to Time Matters.
Stay proactive by supporting the current version of Exchange.
Broaden the documentation to cover more details.
Improve the “usability” of managing the ongoing synchronization process (better user interface options for logging and troubleshooting, moving synchronizations between databases and/or servers, upgrading between versions of Time Matters and/or Exchange)