Dear All,
To take advantage of the recent updates in AllTalk Server and Client, it is all of our interests to begin a campaign of updating the clients to the most recent version and to begin ensuring that the clients fill in the Provider details.
The new features are :
1. Notify the server that files have been imported into the practice software (ie have disappeared from the download folder)
2. More easily return HL7 Acknowledgements to the Server
3. Be able to receive from any Alltalk client on any AllTalk server.
4. Notify the server of the current version of AllTalk being used.
The Provider details as we have mentioned on a number of occasions allows sites to add the Doctors at the practice to the AllTalk address book and more importantly, now the inter-server relay services are being rolled out, allows AllTalk to delivery PIT and HL7 messages to the clients by just using the Provider number. As always and Opt in list like this perpetuates apathy - if they dont need to do it, they wont. Whenever installing, we encourage you to ask the practice manager to take ownership of this list and manage it accordingly. They are likely to be only ones who really know whats going on.
Performing the Updates
For versions after 1.1.1.89 there is a simple update method from the AllTalk Menu Bar. Click Help--> Update AllTalk and follow the instructions on the web page. This requires the end user to be involved but is a generally safe and reliable update method. All that happens really is a new install is performed after making sure the user has closed AllTalk and AVP to ensure that no critical files are locked. This works automatically for clients that were installed into the c:\alltalk directory. For clients installed using the SVHM installer or the older Barwon EQuery version this will only work if the client uses Scheduled mode - where the new profile editor will detect the presence of the older installation. The Profiles are copied from the old location into the c:\AllTalk folder and AllTalk will restart with the copied profiles.
Updating via download method.
AllTalk has had since the very early versions (and even in EQuery) the ability to update automatically when the Manager user delivers an updated AllTalk Exe via the normal AllTalk download process.
IE to update the site ABC123 to the latest version of AllTalk exe:
1. using an AllTalk profile configured with the Manager users account, simply place a copy of the new exe called "abc123_AllTalk.exe" into the outbound folder.
2. The transmitting account will pick up the file and transmit it to the ABC123 client.
3. The AllTalk client at the other end will automatically detect the updated executable, and place it into the c:\alltalk\update folder.
4. At the end of the download process, AllTalk will fire the Message Viewer (even if Popups are not turned on).
5. The Message Viewer updater will close AllTalk and apply the update if it is newer, and then restart it.
The same goes for all of the other components in the suite including ATMessageViewer.exe, ProfileEdit.exe, (and atPKI.dll, and the ZIP dlls after 1.1.1.94). AVP updates can also be delivered this way.
There are two problems however. In quite a few cases, the older versions of AllTalk, while the update is sucessfull, the client does not always restart and the user is required to restart manually. Second, when there is more than 1 file to update, it requires that you first update the site to the Lastest AllTalk client, then after that is completed, update the other components.
So we have developed a new auto Update method based on the older one. An AllTalk Self extractor program has been created which will be delivered as "pracName_AllTalk.exe". It will replace the existing AllTalk.exe and be executed by the old update process. It will then self extract a complete new version (no prompts) and restart with the new full version. This technique should allow you to remote update any client without them needing to do anything.
In the next few days, we will be posting in this thread:
a) Detailed examples and Instructions for performing the update.
b) the link to the self extractor
c) Suggestions on how to go about distributing the update.
Glen.
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