Welcome to the Atrex 13 beta.  Please take a few minutes to read through all the way through this document BEFORE installing the beta version, as it will help answer some of the questions that you have with regards to the beta.

The purpose of this beta is to flush out any bugs or program anomalies that were not caught during the initial development of the package.  While suggestions are always welcome, please be aware that Atrex 13 is in the final stages of development and any suggestions made at this point in the development cycle will simply be logged for consideration for version 14.

Program Changes and New Features:

The changes between latest versions of Atrex from the following links.

• Version 13: http://www.atrex.com/13new.asp
• Version 12: http://www.atrex.com/12new.asp
• Version 11: http://www.atrex.com/11new.asp
• Version 10: http://www.atrex.com/10new.asp
• Version 9: http://www.atrex.com/9new.asp
• Version 8: http://www.atrex.com/8new.asp
• Version 7: http://www.atrex.com/7new.asp

Instructions for Installing the Atrex 13.00 Beta

The version 13 beta can be used side-by-side with earlier versions of Atrex without any interaction or impact. Your existing data will remain untouched unless you intentionally point version 13 to your existing Atrex database or install over top of an older Atrex installation. By default, the version 13 beta will be installed into "C:\Program Files\Atrex Beta" and an empty set of data files will be installed in a data subdirectory below this. Please note that side-by-side does NOT indicate that both Atrex 13 and older versions of Atrex can be run simultaneously.

1. Read the important beta notes as they contain important information about the beta and how to use it correctly.
2. First things first.  Make at least two reliable backups of your existing data prior to installing the beta. While the beta is a side by side installation, it's a good idea to have a couple of backups of your existing data for whatever reason might require a restore.
3. Download and unzip the Atrex 13 beta via the beta downloads page.
4. If you did not choose to run the installation Start the installation of the Atrex 13 beta by locating and double clicking on the AtrexInstall.exe that you downloaded in step 2.
5. Follow the instructions included in the installation program.

Converting Older Atrex Data

Unless you intentionally install the Atrex beta over top of your existing Atrex installation, version 13 will have only an empty data set. If you wish to test version 13 with a copy of your existing data, the process for doing so is as follows:

1. Close the Atrex beta if it is currently open.
2. Open windows Explorer and navigate to the data directory that the beta is pointing to.
3. Delete all of the *.EDBtbl, *.EDBblb, and *.EDBidx files from that folder.
4. With Windows Explorer, navigate to the data folder that your older version of Atrex is currently using.
5. COPY all of the data filesfrom your current Atrex data directory into the data directory of the beta.
6. Restart version 13 and it will detect the older data and convert it over to the new database format.

Important Notes: (Please read all of the notes)

• Registration: The initial version 13 beta will operate as if it were a registered copy, so no registration key is needed to test this version at this point. This may change as the beta progresses, but the initial beta will be a fully functional version.
• Beta Expirations: All beta versions will have built in expiration dates. The life span of each build will be between 3 and 5 weeks, but will usually be 30 days from the build date. This is done to ensure that all beta users are working with current versions at the end of the expiration dates. Updates with new expiration dates will generally be available several days before the next expiration date.
• Beta Updates: Beta updates will be posted periodically as needed.  Updates will be more frequent during the initial beta period and get longer between updates as the beta progresses.
• Documentation: The Atrex help has not been updated for version 13. We will be working on updating the documentation over the next couple of weeks as well as the report writer documentation. The users guide has not been updated for the beta and will most likely not be updated prior to the full release of Atrex 13.
• C/S Engine: Atrex 13 uses a different database engine than Atrex 11 and 12 and can be installed side-by-side with the database server engine from the older versions without any impact to your existing data.
• Exception Reports: The beta version has a build in exception report utility. If the beta version encounters a problem that results in a memory access violation or a memory leak, you will be prompted to send the exception report to our development team through your normal email software. The information included in this exception report will help us identify the specific line of code within the application that failed. If you wish to view the information being sent, click on the details button of the exception message before sending.
• Custom Reports:  Version 13 can use almost any report created in Atrex 11 or 12, but once a report is modified in version 13 it is no longer backwards compatible with older versions of Atrex.  So please be careful about which version of Atrex you load custom reports into.
• Table Changes: There will be a few changes in the first few weeks of the beta that will require the addition of a few new fields in several of the tables.  Please run the Batch Processing with the "Verify Table Structures" option selected after each beta update. Please be aware that the table restuctures in the initial beta releases are full database rebuilds which drop and rebuild all indexes as part of the process. This can take an extended period of time.
• eCommerce Utility: Due to the change in the database engine, a different version of the import/export utility is required for use with Atrex 13. The Atrex 13 version specific build is available from the beta downloads page.
• Atrex 5 & 6: If you are working with data from Atrex 5.x or 6.x, the default tax settings from your prior versions will not be converted.  To get your default tax rate set up, you will need to select ‘Options – Customization – Tax Categories’.  Click on the + button to add a new category.  I would suggest using either the name of your tax region or the word LOCAL for the category.  Click on the check button to save the changes.  Then update the customization information with to select the default tax category.
  
  

Beta Support and Bug Reports:

Support for the beta can be obtained via the following:

• Direct Email: support@atrex.com
• Bug Submissions: bugreport.asp
• Newsgroups:
    Via Newsreader: Atrex 13 Beta Newsgroup
    Via Web Browser: Atrex 13 Beta Newsgroup

Standard telephone support is NOT available for beta versions and we ask that you report all issues regarding the beta via email or the submission page. Phone calls for support regarding version 13 not involving a critical issue will simply be redirected to the email address provided above unless you have been specifically directed to contact us by phone.

When reporting a bug, please be as specific as to where you were in the program and try to provide as much detail as possible on how to reproduce the problem.  Insufficient information may result in the bug not being corrected for the final release.

The minimum information that we need is:

• The build number and build date of your Atrex.  (Options – System Information)
• What area in the program that you are experiencing the problem.
• Detailed steps to reproduce the problem
• Operating System, if the issue appears to be related to the OS .

In some instances, we will request that you send us your data in order to attempt correction of the problem.