If you frequent our website, blog, or social media channels, you’ll likely already be aware of some of the exciting improvements we’ve been busy working on for this update, but we’re now excited to announce the release of MIDAS v4.16!

Here’s What’s New & Improved in v4.16:

• New: Optional Quick Tour of the user interface upon each user’s first login
• New: Advanced Print Filter
• New: Advanced Invoice Generation Filter
• New: “Can Manage Addons” user permission
• New: Option to honor user’s Do Not Track browser preference
• New: Support for importing bookings containing resources
• New: Merge Venues tool
• New: Custom “Range” (slider) booking field
• New: Option to automatically combine similar emails to reduce outgoing email volume
• Improved: Filter invoices to show those more than 7, 14, or 30 days overdue
• Improved: CSV import support
• Improved: MIDAS now indicates if you’ve been automatically logged out due to your IP address changing
• Improved: Now possible to limit resource category when printing bookings with resources in “grid” layout
• Improved: “My Messages” notifications received from other users can now be clicked to compose quicker replies
• Improved: Search results display when searching documentation
• Improved: Recent Activity Log now records changes to Day Notes
• Improved: LDAP logging
• Optimization: Performance improvements and code optimization
• Fixed: Cumulative roll-up of various fixes for issues discovered since v4.15

How To Get MIDAS v4.16…

We love hearing from our customers, so let us know what features you’d like to see in future updates to our software by voting on our feature request page!

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“Do-Not-Track” – or DNT – is a setting present in most modern web browsers. If enabled, it instructs the web servers not to track you. This can mean not to track your visit, or not to tailor advertising based on your browsing habits, etc.

More and more websites are increasingly respecting this user privacy preference – but it’s fair to say that the vast majority still don’t.

As DNT is a voluntary standard, not all websites or online services have agreed to honor it. Even among those that have, not all have implemented the standard in the same way. Therefore, the effectiveness of DNT can vary depending on the website or service you are visiting.

Now, Ordinarily, the “Recent Activity” log in MIDAS – which records all user activity taking place in your scheduling system – also logs each user’s IP address.

For v4.16 we’re introducing a new “Honor user’s Do Not Track preference?” setting.

If enabled by an administrator, MIDAS won’t log user’s IP addresses in its Recent Activity log if the user has also enabled the “Do-Not-Track” setting in their browser.

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This includes complete both online help documentation and downlodable and printable manuals (in PDF format). We also have a host of easy to follow, step-by-step video tutorials. Furthermore, we’ve complied an extensive Knowledge Base containing answers to many common questions.

In the addition to this wealth of self-help resources, for the forthcoming release of MIDAS v4.16, we’re also adding an optional “Quick Tour” of the user interface within MIDAS itself:

Upon the very first login by a user to MIDAS, they’ll be presented with an option to take a quick tour.

The Quick Tour will outline all the key elements to their MIDAS screen, which they can step through at their own pace.

The tour will also describe the function of each toolbar icon that’s available to the user.

The Quick Tour can be closed at any point, and won’t be shown again the next time the user logs in.

Initially, the Quick Tour will only be available to new users running MIDAS under one of the English language variations. It will also only be shown on Tablet, Laptop, or Desktop devices. It won’t currently be shown on very small mobile device screens.

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1) Faster importing of CSV data

We’ve managed to significantly improve the import speed of CSV data, which in previous versions could become very slow/sluggish depending upon a combination of settings in MIDAS and the amount of data being imported

2) Improved CSV support

MIDAS v4.16 now better handles instances where CSV data fields themselves contained a record delimiting character.

For example, take the following CSV (Comma Separated Values) line:

Item 1,Item 2,Item 3,"Item 4a, Item 4b",Item 5

Previously MIDAS would incorrectly analyze the 4th item as being two separate data items, “Item 4a” and “Item 4b”, instead of a single data record.

This behavior is now corrected when importing data into MIDAS v4.16.

3) Support for importing bookings with resources

Until now, whilst you could import bookings into MIDAS, it was not possible to “map” data – including resources – to the resources database within MIDAS.

We’ve addressed this for v4.16 and you can import resources along within your booking data.

To be able to import resources along with your bookings, you’ll need to ensure that your resource data falls within a single “column” in your CSV data file. MIDAS will then parse this data and attempt to determine the applicable resource and quantity.

For example, if you wish to import a booking which has two laptops and one data projector assigned to it, your CSV data field for this should be in one of the following supported formats:

• “2 Laptop, 1 Projector”
• “2 Laptop; 1 Projector”
• “x2 Laptop, x1 Projector”
• “x2 Laptop; x1 Projector”
• “2x Laptop, 1x Projector”
• “2x Laptop; 1x Projector”
• “2No. Laptop, 1No. Projector”
• “2No. Laptop; 1No. Projector”

Click here to continue reading about some of the other new & improved features coming in MIDAS v4.16!

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We’re also adding a similar filter when it comes to generating invoices from your bookings:

This provides additional flexibility to allow you to only generate invoices which include bookings that match specific filter criteria.

For example, as per the screenshot above, you can generate invoices only for bookings which have more than ten attendees.

The advanced filter allows you to choose a booking field (including any custom booking fields you’ve set up), select a match type, and enter a match string.

Match types available include:

• Equals – Will include bookings where the selected booking field’s value exactly matches the string you enter.
• Does Not Equal – Will include bookings where the selected booking field’s value doesn’t exactly match the string you enter.
• Contains – Will include bookings where the selected booking field’s value contains an occurrence of the string you enter.
• Does Not Contain – Will include bookings where the selected booking field’s value contains no occurrences of the string you enter.
• Begins With – Will include bookings where the selected booking field’s value begins with the string you enter.
• Ends With – Will include bookings where the selected booking field’s value ends with the string you enter.
• Is Greater Than – Will include bookings where the selected booking field’s numeric value is higher than the value you enter.
• Is Less Than – Will include bookings where the selected booking field’s numeric value is higher than the value you enter.

These powerful new filter options for both printout and invoice generation offer a whole new level of flexibility to your MIDAS system, and we’re sure they’ll be put to great use by our customers!

Click here to continue reading about some of the other new & improved features coming in MIDAS v4.16!

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New Advanced Print Filter

MIDAS already features a wealth of advanced print options. These may be accessed by right/long clicking the “Print” toolbar icon. They include the ability to print bookings over a custom date range and limit printouts of bookings to only include those taking place in certain venues or which are of specific booking types.

For v4.16, we’re adding an additional “Advanced Filter”:

This will allow you to only include bookings within your printout that match (or not) the value of certain fields. You can also match against any custom booking fields you’ve set up. You’ll be able to select a booking field from a drop-down list, select a match type, and a match string.

Match types available include:

• Equals – Will include bookings where the selected booking field’s value exactly matches the string you enter
• Does Not Equal – Will include bookings where the selected booking field’s value doesn’t exactly matches the string you enter
• Contains – Will include bookings where the selected booking field’s value contains an occurrence of the string you enter
• Does Not Contain – Will include bookings where the selected booking field’s value contains no occurrences of the string you enter
• Begins With – Will include bookings where the selected booking field’s value begins with the string you enter
• Ends With – Will include bookings where the selected booking field’s value ends with the string you enter
• Is Greater Than – Will include bookings where the selected booking field’s numeric value is higher than the value you enter
• Is Less Than – Will include bookings where the selected booking field’s numeric value is higher than the value you enter

So, for example, you could generate a printout which only includes booking where there are more than 10 people attending. Or you could generate a printout which excludes any bookings that have “exclude from printing” in their booking notes, etc.

A “Case Sensitive” option is also available allowing you to optionally make string matches case-sensitive.

But that’s not all….

Limit Resource Category When Printing Bookings With Resources In “Grid” Layouts

The Advanced Print settings window in MIDAS allows you to choose between two different print layouts – a “table” layout and a “grid” layout.

If “grid” layout is selected, bookings are printed in a “grid”, with venues listed vertically, and each date shown across the horizontal axis. You can further specify a field you’d like to be shown within each grid cell. For instance, selecting “Booking Types” would create a printout indicating the types of bookings taking place in your venues over the selected date range.

The ability to select “Resources” as the field to show on these printouts has long been available. However, for v4.16 we’ve also introduced “Resources (Equipment)”, “Resources (Consumables)” and “Resources (Staffing)” options, allowing you to further drill-down the resources on your print-outs.

These new options provide a some great new possibilities! For example, selecting a “Resources (Staffing)” grid printout, will generate a printout of which venues, dates, and times your staff are assigned to.

Click here to continue reading about some of the other new & improved features coming in MIDAS v4.16!

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Booking fields can be re-ordered as well as made optional or required. They can also be selectively hidden from certain users.

Furthermore, MIDAS gives you even more flexible control by allowing you to add your own “custom” booking fields as well!

A variety of different custom booking field types may be added to MIDAS, including:

• Single-line text Field
• Multi-line text Field
• Number Field
• List Field
• URL Field
• File Upload Field (Self-Hosted Editions Only)

Expanding the ‘range’ of custom field types

MIDAS v4.16 expands upon this range with the inclusion of a new “Range” (or “slider”) custom booking field type:

When adding a new “Range” custom booking field to MIDAS, you’ll be able to configure the minimum and maximum limits of the “slider”. You can also control the number of increments (or “steps”), as well as specify a default value for the slider.

Then when users add or modify bookings, they’ll be able to adjust the slider to the desired value. That value will then be saved along with the booking.

We’re sure that the addition of the new “Range” custom booking field will find a variety of applications within customer’s MIDAS systems.

For example, a “Range” slider could be used to record the desired room temperature for each booking, which your site’s caretaker/facilities manager could use to program heating/cooling/HVAC systems accordingly.

Furthermore, our optional API could even be used to interface MIDAS directly with your building’s environmental control systems – meaning users could set room temperatures directly from within MIDAS itself! – There are so many possibilities!

Click here to continue reading about some of the other new & improved features coming in MIDAS v4.16!

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