Here’s what new and improved in v4.38…

Authenticator App Support

Since 2015, all MIDAS room booking systems have included optional two-factor authentication (2FA). If enabled, this adds an additional layer of account security to our software.

With Two-Factor Authentication enabled, each time a user logins in, a code is sent to their email inbox. The user must then enter this code into MIDAS in order to complete their log in.

MIDAS v4.38 now additionally supports TOTP authenticator apps – including Google Authenticator and Microsoft Authenticator – as an alternative 2FA login option – Read more…

2FA Per User Account

In addition to supporting authenticator apps, we’ve also made two-factor authentication a ‘per user’ setting, rather than a ‘global’ setting.

This allows administrators to set 2FA methods for each individual user account.

Reinstall Current Version

For self-hosted customers, we’ve improved the MIDAS installer to allow re-installing your current software version without affecting your existing data/settings.

So if you accidentally delete a core file within your MIDAS installation on your web server, you can re-install MIDAS without loosing any data!

Improved Security Audit

All MIDAS systems come with a built in ‘Security Audit’ tool to assess the security of your booking system. This tool may either be run on-demand or regularly scheduled.

For MIDAS v4.38 we’ve included a new check as part of these ‘Security Audits’. This new check will alert you if there are any ‘obsolete’ user accounts within your MIDAS system. An ‘obsolete’ user account is considered to be any user account which has not been logged into for at least 6 months.

Improved Booking Grid performance

The ‘Booking Grid’ is the main area where your bookings are visually presented within MIDAS.

We’ve made some improvements to the performance of the booking grid in v4.38 by reducing the amount of data that’s initially loaded when viewing bookings for any given date.

For busy organizations with hundreds of bookings across their venues in any given day, the amount of data being loaded in the booking grid was significant, and could lead to sluggish loading.

We’ve significantly improved this for v4.38, meaning that large quantities of bookings now load and display faster than ever!

Other Improvements

This latest version of MIDAS also includes stability and performance improvements and fixes for several issues that have been detected or reported since the previous release (v4.37) – View the complete v4.38 changelog….

How To Get MIDAS v4.38…

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Here’s what new and improved in v4.37…

Quickly Process Multiple Booking Requests

Until now, booking requests could only be approved one by one, or every request could be “bulk” approved at once. For v4.37, we’ve introduced selective approval which saves time by allowing multiple booking requests to be approved in a single one action – Read more…

Custom Field Improvements

Custom “Text Areas” can now have a height set, and be set to be resizable too. Additionally, custom file upload fields can be configured to either view or save/download attached files – Read more…

Invoicing Improvements

Updating an invoice’s internal notes is now recorded in the Recent Activity audit log. Also, manual quotation payments for tentative bookings can now also update the booking’s type – Read more…

Better Support for “Shared” email addresses

If you have individuals using the public booking/request features of your MIDAS system, and they’re making bookings/requests on behalf of multiple organizations but using their personal email address for each, then v4.37 has improved support for such “shared” email addresses – Read more…

Day Notes can now appear on booking printouts

Notes that are attached to specific calendar dates in your booking system can now be set to be included on booking printouts – Read more…

Deprecating some outdated settings

We’ve removed the “SSL Access” setting, and changed the “Allowed IP Range” setting to now only be available in cloud-hosted edition – Read more…

Other Improvements

This latest version of MIDAS also includes stability and performance improvements, theme/UI updates, and fixes for several issues that have been detected or reported since the previous release (v4.36) – View the complete v4.37 changelog….

How To Get MIDAS v4.37…

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For this latest update we made a host of improvements to the user interface, including most notably a new “Default” theme.

The New Default Theme

MIDAS includes a number of pre-built visual themes, which an administrator can select for use throughout the software. Additionally, an administrator may optionally allow users to select their preferred theme upon login.

Our recent research showed that around 72% of MIDAS systems are set to use the “Default” theme. Surprisingly though, the second most popular theme is the “HiContrast” theme. Whilst the design intent behind the “HiContrast” theme was to provide greater accessibility to those with additional visual need, we know many customers actually choose this theme as they find the default theme “too blue”!

We’ve listened, and as such, for v4.36 we’ve developed a new toned-down “Default” theme that’s a lot less “intense” blue than before:

We feel this new “Default” theme is easier on the eye and looks more professional. It provides a new alternative to those using the “HiContrast” primarily for a more simple/basic “look” to their MIDAS system.

You can view this new “Default” theme (or any of the other included themes) right now over in our public demo!

If you still like the previous “Default” blue-themed theme better, don’t worry! It’s still available in v4.36, but is now called “MIDAS (Blue)”.

We’ve also made a numerous other improvements to the user interface across all included themes. Some text and headings are now larger than before, dialogs are clearer, there’s increased spacing between certain elements, and some interactive buttons are now larger and more prominent too.

Other notable improvements in v4.36:

Receive Watch notifications on invoice payments

You can now setup a Watch notification to be alerted whenever customers pay their MIDAS generated invoices – Read more…

One-Stop Database Cleanup tool

MIDAS includes a number of “Database Tools” to help you remove obsolete data and keep your database running efficiently.

For v4.36, we’ve added a new “One-Stop Cleanup” tool which collectively runs several database tools. Performing a “One-Stop Cleanup” will:

• Remove bookings that occurred more 5 years ago
• Remove invoices that were paid more than 5 years ago
• Remove clients with no bookings in the past 2 years
• Remove users who have not logged in for more than 1 year
• Optimize the database

Improved Device Detection

For increased security, whenever you login from a new or unfamiliar device, MIDAS can send you an email alert with details of the browser, device, and location (with our optional Geolocation addon) that’s just logged in.

Until now, MIDAS has been unable to distinguish between certain operating system versions. For example, Windows 10 and Windows 11, or MacOS Ventura and Sonoma. This is due to recent privacy changes in browsers, which no longer natively report the specific version of the operating system they’re running on.

We’ve made improvements to device detection for MIDAS v4.36, so unfamiliar login notifications (if enabled) will now provide more accurate information as to the operating system of the new device which has logged into your account.

Improved Filtering

We’ve added additional “does not start/end with” advanced filtering options when printing in v4.36.

You can now also apply apply filters when exporting bookings.

The new version of MIDAS also includes stability and performance improvements, and fixes for several issues that have been detected or reported since the release of v4.35. View the v4.36 changelog.

How To Get MIDAS v4.36…

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Many of the new and improved features we add to our software come as a direct result of customer feedback, so please read on to find out what’s new in this feature-rich update, and how you can obtain it…

Highlights of MIDAS v4.30 include:

• New: Review previously sent internal messages
• New: Option to prompt for detailed client entry when adding bookings for new clients
• New: Option to export invoices to Zoho Invoice
• New: Email compatibility mode setting for improved rendering of invoices on older email clients
• New: Option to auto-approve booking requests based upon their booking type
• New: “Unfinalize” Invoices tool
• New: Remove Obsolete Invoices tool
• New: Maximum bookings allowed per user per calendar month/year options
• New: “Default Time Interval” option of 60 minutes to only allow booking to the nearest hour
• Improved: A third field can now be set to show on taller booking blocks (when the venue height setting is at least 40 pixels)
• Improved: Expiration of tentative bookings is now recorded in the Recent Activity Log
• Improved: A date range can now be specified when exporting invoices
• Improved: Resource Popularity report can now be filtered by resource category
• Improved: Manually creating a new invoice defaults to the globally defined tax rate
• Optimization: Code optimization
• Optimization: Database query optimization
• Fixed: Cumulative roll-up of various fixes for issues discovered since v4.29

How To Get MIDAS v4.30…

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Over the festive period, we released a new update to MIDAS, which we’re pleased to share details of with you here on our blog.

Highlights of MIDAS v4.29 include:

• New: Two additional “Can Make Bookings” user permission options to restrict the user to only be able to book/request for themselves
• New: “Mark as read” option for messages, reminders, and watch notifications in the Notification Center
• New: Support for specifying a Reply-To email header
• Improved: Additional Date Format settings to include named day of the week
• Improved: Additional logout inactivity settings (5, 15, and 20 minute options)
• Improved: Quickly reply to internal messages
• Improved: Printing a monthly calendar no longer displays scrollbars in date cells
• Improved: Display of multiple lengthy resource category names
• Improved: Loading indicator shown during more navigation actions
• Improved: Warning if trying to create an additional database with the same name as an existing database
• Improved: Auto approved booking requests now logged in Recent Activity Log
• Optimization: Code optimization
• Optimization: Database query optimization
• Fixed: Cumulative roll-up of various fixes for issues discovered since v4.28

How To Get MIDAS v4.29…

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To that end, we’re now excited to share with you our latest update – MIDAS v4.28 – in this our 15th Anniversary year.

Highlights of MIDAS v4.28 include:

• New: Notification Center (formally “My Messages”)
• New: Watch for venue availability
• New: Ability to reset invoice counters.
• New: Support for Custom Branding / White Labeling via optional addon
• Improved: Recent Activity Log display performance
• Improved: SMTP Test now performs an SPF record check
• Improved: Database Backups are now encrypted at rest (Requires OpenSSL 1.1.1+)
• Change: Some template placeholder variables have been renamed
• Fixed: Cumulative roll-up of various fixes for issues discovered since v4.27
• Security enhancements
• Optimization: Code optimization

New & Improved Addons

Our range of optional addons extend the capabilities of your MIDAS system. To coincide with the release of MIDAS v4.28 we’re launching two brand new addons, as well making improvements to some existing addons too.

New Addons:

Custom Branding With this new addon, you can completely remove visible traces of “MIDAS” and the MIDAS logo from your booking system, and instead replace them with your own name and logo! Read more…

Domain Alias With this new addon, you can make your cloud-hosted MIDAS system appear as though it’s running on your own domain instead of your marko.mid.as domain! This makes it an ideal companion addon with our new Custom Branding addon. Read more…

Improved Addons:

API We’ve added a couple of new API calls, allowed bespoke styling to be included in emails sent via the API, and also added support for returning more appropriate http status codes with API responses. Read more…

Web Calendars Our improved Web Calendars addon now allows you to embed bookings for individual dates, as well as allowing your visitors to request/book directly from the calendar! Read more…

How To Get MIDAS v4.28…

How to get addons…

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This allows you to re-brand (white label) a MIDAS booking system, removing any references to “MIDAS” and replacing them with your own name and logo.

The “Custom Branding” addon is available to both self-hosted and cloud-hosted customers.

Now, for cloud-hosted customers, if you want to remove references to “MIDAS” from your booking system, you’ll still have the “mid.as” reference in the actual URL for your MIDAS system (i.e. “example.mid.as”).

Our new companion “Domain Alias” addon solves this issue!

It allows you to setup access to cloud hosted MIDAS system via another domain instead. – for instance a sub-domain of your organization’s own website domain.

So for example, if your hosted MIDAS domain was “example.mid.as”, and your organization’s own domain was “example.com”, you could use the optional Domain Alias addon and set say “bookings.example.com” to use as the URL for your hosted MIDAS system instead.

Setting up a domain alias is a simple 3-step process:

1. Enter the domain/sub-domain you wish to “alias” to your hosted MIDAS system.
2. Make a small DNS change on your organization’s domain using the information provided in the addon
3. Confirm that you’ve made your DNS change

Once your changes become active, you’ll be able to access your hosted MIDAS system via your chosen domain alias.

For more information about this optional addon for cloud-hosted customers, please visit: https://mid.as/domain-alias

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Our new optional “Custom Branding” addon can completely re-brand our software. This allows you to create a “white-label” software edition in which you can apply your own branding.

Visible traces of the word “MIDAS” can be removed, along with the MIDAS logo, links to the MIDAS website, and more. In their place, you can give the booking software your own bespoke name, logo, and icon.

An extensive range of customization options are available through the Custom Branding addon. These provide extended control over your booking system’s appearance:

The new Custom Branding addon also allows easy modification of any of the included “language packs” in MIDAS too. This means that you can completely customize all the wording and phrasing used throughout the software.

Moreover, the Custom Branding addon is available for both self-hosted and cloud-hosted editions of MIDAS.

For more information on this exciting addon, please see our new Custom Branding addon pages.

If you’re a cloud-hosted MIDAS customer, you may also be interested in our new “Domain Alias” addon. This addon compliments our “Custom Branding” addon. The Domain Alias addon allows you to make it appear that your hosted MIDAS system is in fact running on your own domain!

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The first public version of our versatile room booking & resource scheduling system, MIDAS v1.00 was first unveiled to the world on 11th March 2006.

15 years on, and MIDAS is still going strong. To coincide with our anniversary, today we’re releasing the latest update to software, MIDAS v4.27.

Highlights of MIDAS v4.27 include:

• New: Print individual bookings direct from the Booking Information Panel
• New: Booking Requests can be auto-approved for certain email addresses / domains
• New: Predefined date ranges for Advanced Print Settings, Statistics, and Search date filters
• New: Search results can now be easily printed
• New: Recent Activity audit log can now be exported to Excel
• New: Exported client data now includes client’s current credit and tax exempt status
• Improved: Support for importing bookings with dates in the formats DD-Mon-YY/YYYY
• Improved: Advanced Filter Invoice Generating options now allow using a blank search term
• Improved: Advanced Filter Print options now allow using a blank search term
• Improved: Advanced Filter Print options now allow filtering by invoice
• Fixed: Cumulative roll-up of various fixes for issues discovered since v4.26

How To Get MIDAS v4.27…

15% OFF for our 15th Anniversary!

To celebrate our 15th year in business, all this week we’re offering 15% OFF NEW PURCHASES OF MIDAS.

We believe in giving customers maximum choice. That’s why we offer MIDAS in both a cloud-hosted edition (with monthly and annual subscription options), as well as a self-hosted (on-premises) edition for a one-time cost (with an optional subscription)

With this generous 15% discount, your organization can start scheduling with MIDAS for less than $30!

To get 15% off your initial purchase of MIDAS, simply head over to our secure checkout, and use the Promo Code MIDAS15.

You’ll need to hurry though! – This limited time offer expires on 14th March 2021

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One of our main focuses for v4.26 has been on replacing the aging calendar (date picker) “widget” that we’ve been using in our software since its inception. This 3rd party component hasn’t been developed or maintained by its original author for many years now. Whilst it has served us well since our very first release, in more recent years its limitations have become more apparent.

One of its limitations has been in relation to selecting multiple dates from the calendar when adding bookings. Traditionally, this involved holding down the Ctrl/Cmnd key on your keyboard whilst picking dates. This obviously put users without keyboards – those using smartphones and tablets – at a disadvantage!

For this, and other reasons we’re now switching to a more modern calendar “widget” for date selection in MIDAS.

Highlights of MIDAS v4.26 include:

• New: Calendar widget
• New: Export Users
• New: Entering a new password now optionally blocks it if it appears in any known global data breaches
• Improved: Exporting clients can now optionally only include clients with bookings over a given date range
• Improved: Invoice statistics can now be filtered by booking type
• Improved: Support for smaller screens
• Improved: Selecting multiple calendar dates on touch devices
• Improved: Contextual help
• Improved: Invoice rendering

How To Get MIDAS v4.26…

COVID-19 Support

If your business operations continue to be impacted by COVID-19, we’re here to support you!

If your business remains temporarily closed, please see this post for ways in which we can help your business through these challenging times.

Alternatively, if your business is now tentatively restarting its operations, here are 6 ways MIDAS can help your business adjust to COVID-19.

Thank you for your continued support of our software during this unprecedented time in global history! …and remember our friendly support team continue to be here if ever you need us!

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