7.11.15 Release Notes

These Release Notes are for Firehouse® release 7.11.15, and provide a listing of the defects resolved and the enhancements implemented during this release. The changes listed in the Release Notes apply to both FH® Standard and Enterprise editions.

Note: For optimum results, Firehouse recommends that FH Enterprise client computers and FH Standard computers be updated to .NET Framework 3.5.

The following issues were successfully resolved this release.

The user creates and exports a sketch, and then imports the sketch into FH Sketch, saves it, and then exits FH Sketch. When the user returns to FH Sketch and tries to open the sketch, a blank screen appeared instead of the expected sketch.

In certain workstation environments, when a user tried to launch FH Sketch, a 1426 Catastrophic Failure error appeared.

If a person in a user group with view-only rights to account records accessed the Occupancy dialog box, clicked the Owners & Contacts tab, selected an account record in the Account(s) Responsible for Payment section, and then clicked Open, they could edit and delete payment responsibility items.

When you create a new toolbar that includes the Exit icon, then clicks that icon in the new toolbar to exit FH, an error referencing the selected toolbar appeared.

When you create a user account and make the user a member of a user group, then later reopen the user account and click Save, the following behavior can occur:

  • If you change the rights of the user group the user belongs to, those changes are not reflected in the properties of that user account.
  • If you access the properties of the user account, clear the account's group memberships, and reset base security settings, the changes do not save.

In the NFIRS Incident Report dialog box, on the Property & Involvement tab, you can select and open a record under Persons/Entities Involved. In the Involvement dialog box that appears, under Primary Involvement Type, Insurance and Vehicle Info were not displayed in red if these reports are required.

When opening an attachment, if a file with the same name as the attachment's target file name already exists in the temporary directory, the old file was used instead of the current file from the database.

If multiple attachments have the same file name for the same record, they were all updated on the close of the attachment list screen.

The following enhancements were implemented this release.

FH Sketch can now import AutoCAD.DWG files and work with them in FH Sketch.

In occupancies, you can now convert CADZone-compatible attachments into files that can be read and edited within FH Sketch. This conversion can be done manually, or as a batch process.

In occupancies, you can now convert CADZone-compatible attachments into files that can be read and edited within FH Sketch. This conversion can be done manually, or as a batch process.

  1. In the main FH toolbar, click Occup.

    The Occupancy dialog box appears.

  2. Open an occupancy record containing a CADZone-compatible attachment.

  3. Click the FH Sketch tab.

    Note: This tab is active only if you have an FH Sketch license.

  4. In the lower right corner of the tab, click Convert from Attachments.

  5. The Convert Attachment to FH Sketch dialog box appears, containing a list of files that are convertible and their status.

    Unconverted items are selected by default.

  6. Click Convert.

    As the attachments are converted, the changing status of the attachments appears in the dialog box.

  7. Click Close.

  1. Choose File → Occupancy Management → Batch Convert Attachment to Sketches.

    The Batch Convert Attachment to Sketch dialog box appears.

  2. Click Convert.

    Unconverted attachments are converted.

  3. Click Close.

FH Users and Security settings now integrate with Microsoft Active Directory (AD), letting you handle all the account management of your FH user and security groups through AD. In addition, FH users can then use their Windows network login credentials for FH, instead of remembering a separate username and password.

Note: You must set up user groups in AD that mirror the user and security groups in FH, so that you can later map the FH groups to AD groups. Information on setting up groups in AD is available in your AD documentation.

To find and use the new integration feature, do the following.

  1. Log into FH as an administrator.

  2. Choose Administration → Users and Security.

    The Users and Security dialog box appears.

  3. Click the Active Directory tab.

  4. Select Integrate Active Directory with FIREHOUSE Users and Security to override the original FH users and security groups control with control from Active Directory.

    Options related to AD activate on the tab in this dialog box.

    Note: In the Administrative Options dialog box, on the General tab, under Network, Multi-User, & Internal Messaging, Attempt login from network identy is automatically selected and disabled so that you must change the login settings in the Users and Security dialog box.

  5. Select or clear Automatically Create new FIREHOUSE Users from AD to create FH user accounts from AD if the account has not been created in FH and if the account is part of the mapped FH groups.
  6. Select or clear Autolink Pre-existing FIREHOUSE Users with Active Directory User if ID's match to indicate whether accounts are linked if there is an FH account user login that matches an AD account login in the AD user groups mapped to FH user groups.

  7. In Active Directory Server, type the domain name the AD server resides in.

  8. Under Active Directory to FIREHOUSE Group Mapping, for each FH group name on the left, click the lookup button on the right and use the dialog box that appears to select an AD group name to map the FH group to.

    Caution: An AD group can only be mapped to one FH group.

FH Mapping now integrates with Google Maps and Google Earth. This new map support is free to all users.

Both Google Maps and Google Earth provide satellite imagery to share geographical information, such as the location of a building or driving directions. Google Maps does not require additional software to be installed and can display information in a browser window. Google Earth requires a software download, but provides a more powerful, interactive user experience and offers more tools for learning about a location. Google Earth also lets you measure distances and areas, draw lines and shapes, and import your own data.

Note: The free Google Earth download is available at http://www.google.com/earth/download/ge/. This free version is restricted to 2,500 geo codes mapping per machine per day.

You can specify location latitude and longitude for Google Maps and Google Earth in the following dialog boxes in FH: 

  • Incident module, using the Supplemental Address dialog box
  • Incident module, using the Wildland Fire Report dialog box
  • EMS module, using the Supplemental Address dialog box
  • Occupancy module, using the Supplemental Address dialog box
  • Hydrant module, using the Supplemental Address dialog box
  • Fire station lookups, using the Code for Stations dialog box

The new Google Earth and Google Maps features appear among the workstation options and in the Map Designer in FH.

To find and use the new mapping features in the Workstation Options dialog box, do the following.

  1. Choose Tools → Workstation Options.

    The Workstation Options dialog box appears.

  2. Click the Mapping tab.

    The Google Maps, Google Earth, and Chicago Maps tabs appear, and the Default Provider menu appears.

  3. From Default Provider, select either Google Maps or Google Earth, to indicate which one you want to use with FH.

    Your selection is automatically propagated to the Map Designer dialog box for any maps you create in the future--it does not override the map provider for existing maps. Other settings in the Map Designer dialog box are also automatically updated to reflect your selection from Default Provider.

  4. Click the tab that corresponds to the mapping provider you selected.

  5. (Google Maps) In Default Icon URL, type a URL to an image that you want use on the map instead of the default "push-pin" style markers .

    Example: http://www.firehousesoftware.com/images/logo.jpg

    Caution: This image must be available in a location on the Internet, and must be 64 x 64 pixels in size.

  6. Click OK.

To find and use the new mapping features in the Map Designer dialog box, do the following.

  1. Choose Maps → map type option.

    Example: Maps → Occupancy Management Maps

    The Maps dialog box appears, with the type of map you selected expanded.

  2. Select a map, and then click Properties.

    The Map Designer dialog box appears.

    Note: If Map Provider displays Google Maps or Google Earth, then Show map scale is disabled.

  3. On the right side of the dialog box, click Details.

    The Google Map Query dialog box appears. Information configured in this dialog box is displayed for each mapped point on a map.

    Note: Information retrieved by the query defined in Create expression to display for Title for each mapped point and Create expression to display for Description for each mapped point are displayed only on Google Earth mapped points.

  4. Select Don't requiry if alias name is already in use to prevent a query from being run again if it appears multiple times in a nested queries.

    Selecting this option may improve performance with nested queries.

  5. (Google Earth only) For Create expression to display for Title for each mapped point and Create expression to display for Description for each mapped point, click the respective lookup button.

    The Google Map Query Expression Builder dialog box appears.

  6. Use this dialog box as normal to build expressions to determine the title and description of each mapped point on a map.
  7. Click OK.

  8. In the Map Designer dialog box, click View Map.

    The query runs and finds the location point, then Google Earth displays a map with all the points you defined.

The following NEMSIS files have been updated on the FH installation CD and download, in the State directory:

  • NemsisVA.FHz
  • NemsisVA2.FHz
  • NemsisGA.FHz
  • NemsisGA2.FHz