Version 8.0 brings major improvements in user experience and database security to Elliott. At the same time, however, it remains database-compatible and feature-compatible with Elliott V7.5. In fact, an organization can run both V7.5 and V8.0 at the same time. Individual users can switch back and forth between versions for different tasks, or even run both versions on their desktops at the same time. Because of this database-compatibility and feature-compatibility, upgrading to Elliott V8.0 is a low-risk opportunity.
There are many new features and enhancements in this release:
Elliott V8.0 will require the Pervasive® PSQL 11 or PSQL 12 database engine to run. You may obtain a copy of PSQL 11 or 12 from your Elliott reseller, if you do not already own a copy. For the best performance, we recommend the 64-bit version of PSQL 12. The 64-bit PSQL 11 and 12 database engines require a 64-bit server (e.g., Windows 2008 R2 or Windows 2012). Since Elliott itself is a 32-bit application, we will continue to support 32-bit operating systems like Windows XP through Windows 8.
Elliott V8.0 will run on the following client operating systems:
Windows XP (all versions)
Windows Vista (all versions)
Windows 7 (all versions)
Windows 8 (all versions except Windows RT)
Windows 10
Elliott V8.0 will run on the following server operating systems:
Windows 2003 Server (32- or 64-bit)
Windows 2008 Server (32- or 64-bit)
Windows 2012 Server (64-bit)
This version of Elliott requires Microsoft.NET Framework V3.5. If it is not already installed on your computer, you may download it from www.microsoft.com . All new PCs come with Microsoft.NET Framework V4.5 or 4.6 preinstalled. However, .Net 4.5 or 4.6 is not 100% backward compatible with .Net 3.5. Therefore, if your PC does not have .Net 3.5 installed, we suggest you manually download .Net 3.5 from the Microsoft website.
To assist you in determining if Elliott 8.0 will work in your environment, we are listing the requirements of .Net & PSQL by operating system as follows:
Operating System | .NET Framework 3.5 | PSQL Version Supported |
Windows XP | Not included on OS, but installable | PSQL 11 |
Windows Vista | Not included on OS, but installable | PSQL 11 & 12 |
Windows 7 | Included on OS | PSQL 11 & 12 |
Windows 8 | Included on OS, but require enabling | PSQL 11 & 12 |
Windows 8.1 | Included on OS, but require enabling | PSQL 11 & 12 |
Windows 10 | Included on OS | PSQL 11 & 12 |
Windows 2003 | Not included on OS, but installable | PSQL 11 |
Windows 2008 SP2 | Not included on OS, but installable | PSQL 11 & 12 |
Windows 2008 R2 SP1 | Included on OS | PSQL 11 & 12 |
Windows 2012 | Not included on OS, but installable | PSQL 11 & 12 |
Windows 2012 R2 | Not included on OS, but installable | PSQL 11 & 12 |
Typically, Elliott is installed on a central server shared folder where all users map a remote drive to that shared folder. If you previously used Elliott 7.x, then chances are you already have a mapped drive and folder like the following:
M:\Elliott7
You may not be using the same drive letter M: or same \Elliott7 directory. But all your users in the local area network need to map the same drive letter and path in order to use Elliott. The same principle stays true for Elliott 8.0.
In Elliott 7.x, some programs are stored in the Elliott root directory (e.g., M:\Elliott7), and some programs are stored in Elliott Programs subdirectory (e.g., M:\Elliott7\Programs). On the other hand, in Elliott 8.0 all executables, DLLs, and program libraries are stored in a central subfolder of the Elliott directory. By default, this subfolder is the “Bin” folder (e.g., M:\Elliott7\Bin). This eliminates the need to give users read and execute rights to the Elliott root directory, and makes securing Elliott directories a lot easier to manage. With Elliott 8.0, only the “Traverse and List Folder” rights are needed for the Elliott root directory.
If you are already running Elliott 7.x and want to upgrade to Elliott 8.0, then you may use the ELLIOTT8.EXE installation package, which will create the BIN subdirectory in your existing Elliott root directory and copy all the program files to that directory.
If you are installing Elliott 8.x from scratch, then you may use the ELLIOTT8.EXE installation package for the installation. By default, “C:\Elliott8” will be used for installing, but you may install to any network drive and path. The whole Elliott folder and subfolders like “Bin” and others will be created.
Elliott installation utilities are intended for setting up or updating the shared folder on a remote network drive only. There is no separate Elliott client installation utility to install on each workstation. In order to run Elliott 8.0 from the workstation, you will need to go to each workstation and make sure you have the remote drive mapped and can access the Elliott 8.0 folder like M:\Elliott7 or M:\Elliott8.
Throughout this document, when we mention <root>, it means the root directory for your Elliott installation. This can be, for example, “M:\Elliott7” or “F:\Elliott8.” Whenever, we mention the <root>, replace it with the actual drive letter and path where your Elliott is installed.
To allow a workstation to run Elliott 8.0, go to the <root>\Bin directory and run CreateElliott8Shortcuts.exe.
This program will allow you to choose which desktop icons you would like to create. There are several options available. The program will pre-select the Elliott 8 shortcut. At your discretion, there are several other EXEs in the same <root>\Bin folder you can set up on user’s workstation as well:
EL800CF.EXE Elliott V8 Configuration Utility
EL800DP.EXE Elliott V8 Defer Processing
EL800GE.EXE Elliott V8 eContacts
EL800ME.EXE Elliott V8 Mass Email
EL800ME.EXE –E Elliott V8 Export Processor
EL800TK.EXE Elliott V8 Tickler
If a workstation has never run Elliott before, then chances are you will need to install Pervasive PSQL Client V11 or V12.
After installing Elliott V8.0, you need to make some configuration changes. If this is the first time you have started Elliott, the system will detect that the EL800.CFG file does not exist in your startup <root>\Bin directory (e.g., M:\Elliott7\Bin). Therefore, the ElliottV8.0 System Configuration utility will start up automatically. You can also use EL800CF.EXE in the Bin folder (<root>\Bin) to set up Elliott Configuration first.
The following form will be displayed:
Descriptions of the configuration entries follow:
This is to specify the default LPT port for the “Raw Data Pass Through” feature. You should leave it at “LPT1” unless you have a special reason to change it.
The Canadian version is different from the US version. Make sure you are using the right version for your country.
These email settings describe the primary way in which your installation will be sending email. These settings can be individually overridden by any user by using the Misc. tab in the Setup process on the Control Center Toolbar.
If you specify SMTP, you will have the following options in the SMTP Settings group:
Because no legitimate SMTP server can be an open relay server due to spamming issues, chances are that you will need to provide authentication information if your mail server is hosted outside of your company. If you have an internal SMTP server (like Exchange), you could skip the verification since you can configure your internal mail server to relay emails from the internal IP addresses in your company.
Here you specify how your users, by default, will interact with the Notes, eContacts and Attributes lists. When you check an option here, whenever you select a Note from the list of Notes, etc., it will appear in a separate process, independent of the process you are on. This allows you to view multiple Notes at the same time.
However, it takes longer to launch a separate process than to simply display the screen in the same process, and it takes more memory. If the majority of your users have workstations that are slow or have minimum memory, you should not check these options. Each user can override these system-wide defaults in the User Preferences screen.
Check any of these options to alter the appearance of printed reports in Elliott.
· Require DDFs to create non-work files: Checking this box will cause a message box to be displayed whenever any non-work file is created without a matching DDF definition. This alerts the user that a file has been created that may not be SQL compliant and ODBC compatible and may prevent you from using tools like Crystal Reports to access the file.
When such a message box is displayed, make note of the file name. If SQL compliance is desired for that file, you need to obtain a DDF for it and run DDF2BTR.Exe against that file to bring its SQL definition up-to-date. SQL compliance is often desirable if you need to access the table through Report Writer or if another application depends on ODBC or ADO.NET integration.
· Use V7 DDFs for backward compatibility: If you are still running Elliott V7, you should select this option. It will make sure that any newly-created non-work files will use V7 DDFs. V8 DDFs have some structural differences, including single-column account numbers, which could conflict with Crystal Reports programs that use V7 DDFs.
When you no longer are running Elliott V7, you need to unselect this option and run DDF2BTR.Exe on all your database files. That will make sure your database files match the V8 DDFs. You should also test and correct any external code (e.g., programs developed in Crystal Reports) -- there could be mismatched column names for account numbers.
There are a few additional configuration options that most users will not need. If you want to specify any of the following options, use a text editor to modify EL800.CFG in the <root>\Bin directory. In the [Configuration] section, you can add the following options:
The Email Settings you specified previously will be used as the system default email settings. However, at each individual desktop level, you may override the default Email Settings. To override the settings, go to Setup/Preference -> Misc. tab -> Email Settings button. See sample screen below.
Whenever you change the entries in this section, you can press the Test email… button to verify your new settings.