Category: News

Dedicated sub domains for cloud-hosted customers

We are delighted to announce the completion of our roll out of dedicated sub-domains for all our cloud hosted customers!

This follows a desire expressed by a few of our customers to be able to have their cloud-hosted MIDAS systems accessible via a dedicated sub domain.

The makeup of a URL containing a subdomain
The makeup of a URL containing a subdomain

What is a subdomain?

A subdomain is a part of a website’s domain name that comes before the main domain name, separated by a dot.

It functions as a separate website, but still shares the same primary domain name.

Think of it like an apartment within a larger building: it has its own address and entrance, but it’s still part of the overall structure.

Here’s an example:
Main domain: mid.as
Subdomain: demo.mid.as

Subdomains for new hosted customers

At the start of this year (2016) we began providing this to all new customers who chose a cloud hosted edition of MIDAS.

Let’s assume that your company was called “My Organization”. If you subscribed to a cloud-hosted edition of MIDAS in 2016, you would have been able to choose the dedicated MIDAS subdomain https://my-organization.mid.as for your hosted booking system.

However, if you purchased a cloud-hosted MIDAS system prior to 2016, you’d instead have been accessing your system via https://mid.as/my-organization.

This was before dedicated mid.as subdomains were available.

Subdomains for all hosted customers

The good news is that from today, we’ve now rolled out dedicated mid.as subdomains to all our hosted customers who purchased prior to 2016 as well!

So, if you previously accessed your hosted MIDAS system via https://mid.as/my-organization, you’ll now have the dedicated subdomain https://my-organization.mid.as. Old mid.as/my-organization URL’s will continue to work and redirect to my-organization.mid.as for some time.

If you purchased a cloud-hosted MIDAS system prior to 2016, we’d like to encourage you to update your bookmarks and links. Going forward, they should now point to your new dedicated mid.as subdomain!

There are a few things to note when updating your bookmarks/links:

  1. If your hosted MIDAS URL previously contained underscores (_), you’ll need to change these to hyphens () when updating your bookmarks and links.
    For example:
    https://mid.as/my_organization would now become https://my-organization.mid.as
  2. If your hosted MIDAS URL previously contained a domain name (other than mid.as) i.e. .co.uk, .com, etc, you’ll need to remove the end part when updating your bookmarks and links.
    For example:
    https://mid.as/myorganization.com would now become https://myorganization.mid.as
  3. If your hosted MIDAS URL previously contained any period characters (.) (other than the initial period in the primary “mid.as” domain), you’ll need to remove these when updating your bookmarks and links.
    For example:
    https://mid.as/my.organization would now become https://myorganization.mid.as

If you have any questions, or aren’t sure what the new dedicated subdomain for your hosted MIDAS system is, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Our team will be more than happy to help!


Firefox: The last browser to drop Windows XP/Vista support

Firefox on Windows XP/VistaIf you’re still accessing your MIDAS room booking system via a Windows XP or Windows Vista machine, you’ll want to read this!

As you should be aware, Windows XP and Vista are now considered obsolete operating systems. They are no longer supported or maintained by Microsoft.

As a result, over the past few years major browser vendors have been slowly dropping support and updates for their products in these operating systems.

For instance, the most “recent” version of Internet Explorer that can be run on Windows XP is IE8 (MIDAS requires at least IE9). For a while this wasn’t a major issue as XP/Vista users could simply switch to either Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox instead. Both of which were still being actively updated by the respective vendors on these operating systems.

However, Google announced back in November 2015 that Chrome would no longer be supported or receive updates on Windows XP or Windows Vista after April 2016.

Since then, Firefox has been the only major browser to continue supporting and providing updates on Windows XP and Vista.

This week, Mozilla have now announced that Firefox 52 (due for release in March 2017) will be the last version of their browser to receive updates on Windows XP and Vista.

Whilst Firefox 52 will still work on XP/Vista after March 2017, it will no longer receive updates. At this point, none of the modern major web browsers that are supported in MIDAS will continue to be updated on these operating systems.

We are therefore advising any MIDAS users who still access their scheduling systems via Windows XP or Vista to upgrade their operating systems as soon as possible. This will ensure their web browser(s) are kept up-to-date and they’re able to continue using MIDAS in the future.


MIDAS v4.13 Out Now!

This year we’re celebrating our 10th year developing MIDAS, our Web Based Room Booking and Resource Scheduling Software!

With exciting new and improved features being added to MIDAS several times each year, we’re pleased to tell you about our latest update – v4.13 – which has just been released!

New & Improved in 4.13:

How To Get MIDAS v4.13…

New To MIDAS?

We are committed to keeping our pricing fair and accessible to organizations of all sizes and budgets. Unlike many of our competitors who don’t publish their prices, we’re totally upfront and transparent about our pricing structure. We clearly display prices on our website.

You can view pricing, find out more, and purchase MIDAS securely at https://mid.as/pricing

Existing “Self Hosted” Customer?

Self-Hosted customers with ongoing Annual Support Subscriptions may update to v4.13 right now! It only takes a couple of clicks – simply log in to your MIDAS system and go to MIDAS Admin Options → Manage MIDAS → Update

Existing “Cloud Hosted” Customer?

Cloud-Hosted customers don’t need to do anything! – All our active Cloud-Hosted MIDAS customers will be automatically updated this weekend to the latest version of MIDAS!

Help Improve MIDAS!

We’re able to bring you exciting updates like v4.13 thanks in part to our Beta Testers – many of whom are just every day MIDAS users!

Our Beta Testers get early-access to upcoming releases to explore and provide feedback on. This allows us to make changes and address potential issues before each new version is publicly released.

We also reward Testers for their contributions with discounts against the cost of purchasing MIDAS, or which can be used against upgrades & renewals for an existing MIDAS system!

We’re always on the lookout for additional testers to help shape future versions of MIDAS. It’s free to get involved and you don’t need any previous experience.

Find out more, apply now, and help shape future MIDAS releases


If you have any questions about MIDAS, why not drop us an email, or reach out to us through social media – We’d love to hear from you!



Brexit: It’s business as usual!

BrexitAs you’ll probably be aware, the UK voted on Thursday to leave the European Union. This process is expected to take a number of years to complete. As we are a UK-based business we wanted to take this opportunity to reassure our customers about our position and the impact on MIDAS during this transition.

The first thing to note is that all our administrative operations are based here in the UK. (For reference, our primary server infrastructure residing in the United States, with backup systems in the UK). We have no staffing or offices in other EU countries, and therefore the UK’s decision to leave the EU will have no effect on the day-to-day running of our operations.

Over 90% of our customers will reside in non-EU countries once the UK leaves the EU. As such, any subsequent financial volatility from other EU member states will have a negligible impact on our own financial position.

We continue to acquire customers from across the globe. This includes from other EU member states. Our EU customers are no less valued or important than any of our other global customers.

Will there be any impact on the price of MIDAS?

Our base pricing for MIDAS remains the same. We’ve not raised our prices as a result of the UK’s decision to leave the EU.

However, we do offer payment for MIDAS in a number of currencies, including Euros. Our prices automatically update daily based on the latest global exchange rates. As such, there may be some fluctuation in the price of MIDAS in the short term.

But that’s not necessarily a bad thing! In fact at time of writing, if you’re a non-UK customer, you may be able to grab a bargain if you’re quick!

Right now, the price of MIDAS today is approximately 10% lower than it was on Thursday for non-Sterling customers! We expect this initial volatility in global exchange rates to only be a short term “blip”.

So, the message is; we’re hopeful and excited about our country’s future, and it’s business as usual at MIDAS HQ!