We recommend that our customers use the Mozilla Firefox Extended Support Release version (Firefox ESR). Firefox ESR is intended for groups who deploy and maintain the desktop environment in large organizations.

Resolution

Go to the Firefox ESR page on the Mozilla site Firefox ESR

Got the the section of the page labelled Step 2 and click on the link labelled Review our handy FAQ

Scroll to the bottom of the page you are redirected to the section labelled Where can I download Mozilla Firefox ESR? Beneath the label there is a link to the download page. Select the correct version for your language and operating system requirements and then follow the installation instructions.

So when reviewing the site I was not surprised to find that I had not posted a blog since last November, not good but understandable!

So as you can see I am rectifying the situation, when thinking about what to put in this blog, I was surprised how much had been achieved in the last four months besides the sales achieved.

We have released a new version of Qualoupe our LIMS product, which the following are the major new functionalities

Multi Group Capability

Stability Trials

Consumable Stock Control

We have also been fine tuning our internal practices and procedures to ensure that they are in alignment with the way the business is developing.

So lots achieved!

Clive Collier

The simple to use Consumable Stock Control LIMS software has been specifically developed by Two Fold Software’s team of skilled programmers to ensure that laboratory users do not require any additional effort to keep control of their constantly changing stocks of consumables. The software has been tailored to enable users to avoid the stress associated with discovering they do not have a suitable consumable when processing a vital sample.

“Many test methods and analysis procedures performed on samples in a laboratory depend on the use of consumables to complete the task. For example, even a simple microbiology test often requires consumable items or materials such as a petri dish, a quantity of culture medium such as agar plus the necessary reagents,” explained Clive Collier, Two Fold Software’s Managing Director. Using Qualoupe’s new Consumable Stock Control LIMS software all the consumables used within the laboratory can be defined and a record created for each associated consumable. The record contains all the consumable’s details such as name, code, supplier, cost, shelf life and such like”.

“The Consumable Stock Control LIMS software has been skillfully optimized to make maximum use of Qualoupe’s intuitive user interface. The superb interface works hand in hand with the software making it simple for a user to associate any consumables that they are using when performing a specific test method and automatically record how much is consumed when using that method. As a result when a sample is processed using a specific test method the LIMS can automatically deduct from stock the amount of each consumable used. We have turned what is a potentially complex task into an elegant solution that is easy to understand and manage.”

The Consumable Stock Control software is one of a trio of new modules now available as part of Qualoupe’s new Version 1.1 LIMS software release. The other modules provide enhanced solutions for managing Stability Trials as well as providing a Multi-Group capability that offers complete data management flexibility for organizations and companies that not only have multiple sites but also include multiple laboratories within each site.

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The new Stability Trials software has been specially tailored for organisations that need to run stability trials over any given period of time and different storage conditions. Using the software the user can create protocols for parameters such as sampling regimes, detailing storage conditions, sampling frequency and time units. When running a trial the user can select the protocol which would then create the scheduled samples for the trial. The material being trialled would associate the methods to be performed on the samples. Trials can be associated with studies and projects. The Stability Trials software also enables the LIMS to provide prompts for sample pull schedules and the storage location.

“Qualoupe’s Stability Trials software module is much easier to use than having to rely on desktop PC tools such as Excel or using a paper based system,” explained Clive Collier, Two Fold Software’s Managing Director. “A key benefit is that by using the Stability Trials software you can’t forget to perform the testing of samples on the allocated day. The software helps to collate the sample data of all samples tested through the trial. Seeing as some trials can continue for years the new software offers significant time savings and quick access to the data as well as providing a detailed reporting capability”.

The Stability Trial software is one of a trio of new modules now available as part of Qualoupe’s new Version 1.1 LIMS software release. The other modules provide enhanced solutions for managing consumable stock control automatically as well as providing a Multi-Group capability that offers complete data management flexibility for organizations and companies that not only have multiple sites but also include multiple laboratories within each site.

Summary

Qualoupe LIMS contains a number of inbuilt calculations, AVG, SUM etc. these are implemented using .Net framework code which is integrated into the Qualoupe database. The common language runtime (CLR) is the heart of the Microsoft .NET Framework and provides the execution environment for all .NET Framework code. Code that runs within the CLR is referred to as managed code. The CLR provides various functions and services required for program execution, including just-in-time (JIT) compilation, allocating and managing memory, enforcing type safety, exception handling, thread management, and security. With the CLR hosted in Microsoft SQL Server (called CLR integration), you can author stored procedures, triggers, user-defined functions, user-defined types, and user-defined aggregates in managed code.

Symptoms

When you attempt to use one of the inbuilt functions, AVG, SUM, etc. in a Qualoupe calculation you receive an error. The error will be reported when you try to test the calculation, or in the results entry programs when you try to enter results for samples which carry the calculation on one of their parameters. In the Windows application event log on the web server hosting the Qualoupe LIMS system you will see an error.

Execution of user code in the .NET Framework is disabled. Enable clr enabled configuration option.

Cause

The common language runtime (CLR) integration feature in Sql Server is off by default, and must be enabled in order to use objects that are implemented using CLR integration.

Resolution

To enable CLR integration, you need to execute a sql command in Sql Server Management Studio against the database instance which is hosting the Qualoupe LIMS system database. To do this use the clr enabled option of the sp_configure stored procedure:

sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1;
GO
RECONFIGURE;
GO
sp_configure 'clr enabled', 1;
GO
RECONFIGURE;
GO

To enable CLR integration, you must have ALTER SETTINGS server level permission, which is implicitly held by members of the sysadmin and serveradmin fixed server roles.

References

Enabling CLR Integration

Summary

When you run the Qualoupe LIMS system you receive an error page before any Qualoupe application pages are displayed.

Symptoms

When you run the Qualoupe LIMS system you are presented with a screen displaying a Security Exception.

System.Security.SecurityException: Request for the permission of type 'System.Web.AspNetHostingPermission, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' failed.

An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.

AspNetHostingPermission Error

Cause

This issue happens when you download a file from the Internet or a Network Location. Windows preserves the zone information for file(s), this identifies where the file came from. When you copy a zip file from a network location or the Internet and extract the same, all the files contained in the zip file also get this attribute set.

Windows adds an additional NTFS Stream with a Zone.Identifier record that tells Windows that the file came from the Internet or a Network Location. If you look at the properties of the file, you see a message: “This file came from another computer and might be blocked to help protect this computer.” and there’s an Unblock button you can push that is supposed to remove the Zone.Identifier, but doesn’t always. As Qualoupe has a large number of files, even if this solution works it would be very time consuming to follow those steps on a large number of files.

Resolution

Download the Microsoft SysInternals tool Streams.exe to remove the streams.

Once you have the tool downloaded run the following command from command line:

“streams -s -d directory”

Replacing ‘directory’ with the Qualoupe folder name, the -s switch tells the streams tool to do all the files in the Qualoupe folder and its sub-directories.

You have to be running the command prompt as administrator or you’ll get an Access is Denied error message.

Once the command has been run you should recycle the application pool in which Qualoupe is running until this is done the application will still fail to run.

References

NTFS Streams (ADS)
Streams.exe

Summary

When you select a batch or sample in the batch or sample manager applications in Qualoupe you can then click on the label printing button which is available if you have configured a label report to run from the application. The action of clicking the label button causes a Crystal Report which has been configured as your label report to be run on the web server, and printed on the printer specified as the default label printer in Qualoupe, or the specific label printer associated with your workstation in Qualoupe if the system has been setup in this way. Please see the Qualoupe manuals for details of configuring your system for label printing.

Symptoms

When you click on the label print button no label is printed from the specified printer and you see the following error in the Application Event Log on the web server which is hosting Qualoupe.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Two Fold Software Report Portal
Event Category: None
Event ID: 0
Date: 30/11/2011
Time: 14:59:11
User: N/A
Computer: MACHINE-NAME
Description:

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.


Cause

The new advanced multi-group software module has been developed by Two Fold’s software programmers to enable all data within Qualoupe’s LIMS to be grouped together to tailor information workflow management to an organization’s specific needs across the world.

The multi-group functionality, which is now featured in Qualoupe’s new Version 1.1 software release, ensures complete flexibility when setting up and implementing a LIMS Multi-Groups capability.

“Although most laboratories can typically use their LIMS software to group samples, batches, methods, materials, suppliers, customers, and projects within a building, a multi-group capability can make global reporting a great deal easier for multinational based organizations and businesses,” explained Clive Collier, Two Fold Software’s Managing Director. “Large amounts of money can be saved using a centralised LIMS system featuring multi-group functionality which links together all sites and laboratories. The combination of multi-group LIMS software tightly integrated with Qualoupe’s intuitive interface can offer massive benefits to global organizations and companies”.

“In modern multi-site, multi-lab scenarios it is often a requirement to segregate LIMS data by each laboratory and site. The result is that each user only sees the data relating to his or her site and/or laboratory but by employing the new multi-group software the user can also work in another site or laboratory and be given permission to view data across more sites or laboratories. Especially attractive is the fact that quality managers or senior project personnel can quickly use the multi-group capability to access and view data across all of sites and laboratories,” continued Collier.

“Many LIMS suppliers tend to restrict the functionality of their multi-group software to specific data types relating to samples, batches, methods, materials (specifications) and projects. We have made sure that Qualoupe’s V1.1 multi-group software can be applied to all data types. This means that suppliers, customers, carriers and such like can be grouped together to show only those that are relevant to each group.”

One of the drawbacks of conventional multi-group LIMS software is that it is often very complex for users to implement quickly. To meet this challenge Two Fold Software has optimised the performance of Qualoupe’s multi-group capability by carefully tailoring the intuitive aspects of Qualoup’s breakthrough user interface to greatly simplify the user experience and make the multi-group data readily understandable for all users.

A key feature of Qualoupe’s configurable user interface is its capability to create roles and to assign the tools needed to perform a specific role. A user assigned a role by Qualoupe will only see their available tools.

Summary

We advise users of the Qualoupe LIMS system who use Firefox to run the application, to disable automatic updates. The reason for this advice is to stop any unexpected system errors. While we do run internally against the latest Firefox versions including those on Beta Test we cannot guarantee a system will run without performing specific tests. We do keep a a knowledge base article updated with the currently supported Firefox version. (KB0003: Supported Firefox Versions)

Resolution

In Firefox click on Tools > Options to open the following window.

Select the Update tab and choose the “Ask me what I want to do” option.

Now when an update of Firefox is available you will have the option to reject the update until such time as you are satisfied that your version of Qualoupe is compatible with the version of Firefox being offered.

The UK economy grew by 0.5% in the third quarter of 2011, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

UK retail sales rose by 0.6% in September, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

If you look for good things in the media they are there, even if not on the front page -  it is not all doom and gloom!

Unfortunately the worlds media machine prefers to bombard us with bad news, and if we are not careful it is easy to fall into the trap of self prophesying doom!

We at Two Fold are experiencing an increase in sales both in the UK and Overseas, largely due to highly structured marketing, lots of effort, and our innovative Rental Scheme.

We have found the leads we are generating are generally of a high quality and where there are real projects, to either replace or buy a new LIMS, we are getting the business.  Qualoupe with its totally unique user interface stands out from the crowd of grey, boring lacklustre LIMS products, and this in conjunction with our ethos of providing well made, fit for purpose affordable products is winning the game.

There are businesses out there prepared to spend money, they are just more difficult to find;  those of you who read this and have your own business, should just think positive, work harder and smarter!

And above all ignore the negative rubbish from the media.

P.S. Do not mention Greece or Italy to me,-  it drives me MENTAL!

Regards to you all.

Clive Collier