FlockFiler Lite Version History

Version 2.0.3, July 19, 2010

Fixed a bug (a typo in this case) in the new license code system that would prevent some of the newly issued codes from working.

Version 2.0.2, July 12, 2010

Revised license code system to accommodate minor variations in typing user name and organization such as being case-insensitive.
Added ability to read in and convert FlockFiler Lite data earlier than version 1.7.
Fixed a bug in New Offspring guided interface so that the dam's log entry is now properly created.
Fixed a bug in New Offspring guided interface so that the specific location and the general location is now properly assigned to each offspring record.
Relaxed selection criteria for Select Dam/Select Sire pop-up window. The sex of the selected sheep may now be blank.
Added a check for duplicate internal record IDs on launch.
Fixed a bug that prevented checkbox values from being imported correctly from FlockFiler Lite 1.x data files.
When pushed from a non-Form sheep screen, the Find button now navigates to the Basic Form instead of the last Form screen visited.
Find button on sheep screen now puts focus on the "ID and/or Name" field instead of the "Tag(s)" field.
Removed Cancel button from printable reports to avoid the potential for users to be stranded on an unfamiliar screen.
Further improved user interface behavior of the Registration page.
Minor cosmetic changes.

Version 2.0.1, March 1, 2010

Fixed a bug in the "Show Backups folder" button so that it works under Windows XP also.
Added check on launch to test if the database files are read-only.
Improved the auto-fill aspects of the Create Offspring guided interface.
Modified the default settings in the Select Sheep dialog to speed up the user's workflow.
Improved user interface behavior of the Registration page.
Minor cosmetic changes.

Version 2.0, February 1, 2010

First release of version 2.

Version 1.7.2, January 23, 2009

Fixed a bug in the "Change Many..." feature where the Removal Reason wasn't being changed.
Added a new "Check" button onto the Home screen to make it simpler to check for updates online.
Minor cosmetic changes

Version 1.7.1, October 28, 2008

On the "Create New Lambs" guided task
- The breed for the lambs is now automatically filled in from the parents' breed (if provided).
- The birthtype for the lambs is now properly copied over to the record of each lamb.
- All of the info for a birthtype of single is now filled in properly.
- The "Is Breeder?" checkbox is now unchecked for each lamb created regardless of the default value specified for new records in general.
- A Log Entry for the dam is not created if the Description field consists only of whitespace (i.e., only spaces and/or carriage returns) and no real content.
On the "Remove Sheep" guided task
- Additional on-screen guidance is provided to clarify that the sheep are not being deleted, but their records are being modified to designate that they are no longer part of the active flock.
- A Log Entry for the sheep is not created if the Description field consists only of whitespace (i.e., only spaces and/or carriage returns) and no real content.
- The "Is Breeder?" checkbox is now unchecked for each sheep removed using this guided task.
The default value for "Is Breeder?" is now filled in only after the Sex is specified. "Is Breeder?" is always unselected for wethers.
The default value for the Alternate ID will now only use the first line of the ID specified if multiple text lines are present.
The group average value for the 60-day adjusted weight no longer averages in zero values from the records where no weight is present.
When present, weights measured after the lamb is 165 days old are no longer considered when calculating the 60-day, 90-day, or 120-day estimates of weight.
The wool yield is now displayed as a percentage instead of a decimal value.
The calculated ID/Name value appearing at the top of each form screen is now more robust against blank lines or other whitespace in the data entry of the Name and ID fields.
In the shorthand numeric notation for "born as/raised as", stillborn lambs and lambs that die within the first day are now designated with 0 for the "raised as" code (e.g. a stillborn lamb from a set of twins will have code 2/0 with its living sibling having a value of 2/1).
The code for reading in the version 1.7.0 data now works to read in correct file name.
The "Admin. Area" screen has been renamed to "Customize" and redesigned for better ease of use. The buttons to facilitate updating have been moved to the Data Management section of the Advanced screen.
Some cosmetic changes.

Version 1.7.0, September 9, 2008

Added calculation of 60-day adjusted weight.
Removed the optional and now obsolete, faster-displaying Basic screen introduced in v1.6.5.
Added installation-specific information to the About screen.
Added a place on the Register screen for the user to customize the Home screen with a text label.
Added "Weaning" and "Death" as category choices for Log Entries.
Added the ability to locate and display the dams or the sires of the sheep you are currently browsing.
Added a guided task for weaning lambs that not only fills in the required info on every lamb record, but also (optionally) creates a log entry for the dams of those lambs.
Added a guided task for removing sheep from your flock (e.g. selling a group of lambs).
Added "Removal Reason" for the user to document why a sheep was removed from the flock.
Added a new screen to provide assistance and tools for using the Photo field.
Replaced the old "Status" data entry field with a new "Record Status" field which is automatically calculated. The user can override the auto-calculated value if necessary.
When first run, it now automatically scales the screen larger (150%, 200%, 300%, or 400%) to better fit the user's display. It uses the user's preferred size settings thereafter.
Added new sorting Tasks to quickly sort by Tag ID, Registry ID, Scrapie Tag ID, or Alternate ID.
Changed names of backup files from "SheepData.FFR" and "LogEntryData.FFR" to "SheepData170.FFR" and "LogEntryData170.FFR".
Added the ability to save a pair of backup files in the format of the previous version (v1.6.5).
Added the ability to save all data (except Photos) to two ASCII text files in comma-separated value format in one step with one button push.
To provide alternatives to the primary Sire or Dam menus on the Basic screen, this version has two new methods to make it even easier and faster to specify the Sire or Dam when the regular menus are very long.
Added new List formats
- Tag/Name, Sex, and the sheep's appearance or breed
- Tag/Name, Sex, and Breeder Checkbox (editable)
- Sheep, Sire, and Dam along with Alternate IDs (providing a method to type in the sire and dam directly in a list format)
- Lambing worksheet for data collection in the field
Added new canned query to find current yearlings.
Added Alternate ID field to facilitate direct data entry of the Sire or Dam. This field can be automatically filled in as a copy of one of the existing sheep IDs.
Changed the Codon 171 value of "RQ" to "QR" and the Codon 136 value of "VA" to "AV".
Breed fractions are now specified with fractions such as 1/2 or 1/4 instead of decimal values (percentage) 0.5 or 0.25.
The way the breed description is stored is optimized for speedy display and fast searches.
The way the Birth Type is stored is optimized for speedy display and fast searches.
The "Add Offspring" guided task is significantly enhanced. It now lets you enter a lot of information about the lambing on one screen: individual lamb tags, sexes, and birthweights plus the text for a log entry for the dam for any notes about the lambing. FlockFiler Lite will create the multiple records needed all at once with one button push.
Added a new feature to the Log Entry form that will let you take a log entry that applies to many sheep simultaneously and split it into independent log entries for each sheep.
Added reporting tools to facilitate participation in the USDA voluntary scrapie program. These include separate printouts for sheep removed, current sheep, and sheep acquired.
Breed description now displays the breed fractions in order from largest to smallest.
Each time FlockFiler Lite is launched it will now check to see if the database file is greater than 1GB and recommend ways to keep it slim. (The maximum size allowed is 2GB.)
Renamed many of the obscure database fields so that they appear at the end of the list of fields in the sort dialog and the potentially useful fields appear ahead of them.
Now calculates the ages of a sheep's dam and sire at the time the sheep was born.
The internally-assigned Log Entry ID is now displayed on the Log Entry form.
Many cosmetic changes.

Version 1.6.5, December 18, 2006

Created an optional, faster-displaying Basic screen.
Added the choice of "Bottle Fed" to the "Raised As" menu.
This version contains a workaround for a bug in Apple's Rosetta software on Intel Macs that prevented purchasers from registering FlockFiler Lite on those new machines.

Version 1.6.4, December 6, 2006

Added "Raised As" on the Advanced screen to let the user specify if the lamb was raised as a single, twin, or triplet independent of the birth type.
Added "Birth Type Code" calculation to display the Born Birth Type and the Raised As Birth Type in an abbreviated notation composed of the number in the birth litter, a slash, and the number in the raised litter. Thus "2/1" means born as a twin and raised as a single.
Fixed a user interface bug in the "Summary of Records Being Browsed" report so that only one page is printed instead of one per record.
Added a "First Run" dialog to assist users who are updating from an earlier version.
Altered the behavior of the sample records to be a little more user friendly.

Version 1.6.3, September 5, 2006

Fixed a bug in the "Complete Log Entry History" report that prevented printing all of the intended Log Entries.

Version 1.6.2, August 28, 2006

New feature: You can now paste in a list of sheep from another source such as a spreadsheet and FlockFiler Lite can use that to find the records for all of the sheep listed.
Fixed a bug that caused default values to be filled in for some blank fields when loading in data from the backup file such as when updating to a newer version.
Fixed a bug that caused sheep to be misidentified as being littermates when the birthdate was the same and the dam was unspecified or the dam was specified and the birthdate blank.
Fixed a bug that prevented reading in the sheep breeds when updating from an old version when the first breed was blank.
In the Log Entry category field changed "Birth (own)" to "Birth" and "Birth (to other)" to "Lambing".
Made minor cosmetic changes.

Version 1.6.1, May 12, 2006

Fixed a bug in the way the custom list display feature handled custom defined fields.
Added 2 column and 4 column lists to allow for twice and four times as many sheep to be listed on a printed page.
Added report that summarizes the number sheep being browsed by age class and breeder status.
Added the number of sheep listed to the bottom of the first page of every list report.
Now you can use the keyboard to navigate between the most commonly used screens. The navigation tasks and the keyboard shortcuts are listed in the Tasks menu.
Made minor cosmetic changes.

Version 1.6.0, April 20, 2006

Changed internal storage format for breed specification. Now you can more easily import and export breed information. Doing queries on breed information is now more powerful.
The "List" button now brings you to the most recent List view you selected on the Reports screen. Use the Alt or Option key when clicking the List button to return to the default list.
Changed the way the create-your-own-list view is done. Viewing these designer lists is now as fast as a built-in list. To allow for this performance increase, you have to take time to set up the list before viewing it the first time.
You can now filter the type of Log Entries that are displayed on the Log Entries aspect of the sheep's form. This makes browsing many log entries much more productive.
International users will find that on the first run after installation, FlockFiler Lite asks if you want to use your local date format instead of the United States date formatting convention. This permits users in Europe and elsewhere to view and enter dates they way they like.
Lists and reports are formatted to accommodate both Letter and A4 paper sizes.
More space is allotted for the sheep's tag and name on screens and reports to accommodate very lengthy tag IDs and/or names.
Importing Log Entries from spreadsheets or other data sources is now much easier since FlockFiler Lite can now convert foreign keys (sheep identifiers) to the ones used internally.
Users can now specify the default value for the Location (General) field.

Version 1.5.4, March 18, 2006

Added Measurement Date for scores on the Measurement screen.
Added Wool Measurement Date for wool evaluations values on the Measurement screen.
Added Average Daily Gain calculation (Birth weight to weaning weight)
Fixed minor bugs and added more fields to the custom display menus for custom reporting
Fixed a bug in displaying the titles to custom display lists when custom fields were selected
Minor cosmetic changes

Version 1.5.3, February 23, 2006

Added "Clean Weight" wool measurement.
Changed "Yield" wool measurement to be a calculation from Clean Weight and Grease Weight. Yield was previously a data entry field.
Added "Color Pattern" wool measurement.
Fixed bugs in age calculations
Changed "Tag Type" to be a pop-up list instead of a fixed menu to give the user more flexibility.
Fixed bug in calculation of primary tag that inhibited user's use of spaces or punctuation in the "Tag(s)" field.
Added item to the Tasks menu to let the user more easily find and open the Exports folder.
FlockFiler Lite no longer asks to save a backup copy of its data if it thinks you haven't begun entering records.
Added Average Daily Gain calculation using birth weight and weaning weight.
Added an option in the Delete dialog to display dependent, cross-referenced records
Added "Default Value for Breeder?" onto the Admin. Area screen to let the user specify the default value for new records.
Minor cosmetic changes.

Version 1.5.2, August 21, 2005

Fixed bug in the "More Info" aspect of the Genealogy screen where some choices of the user-selected field could have been selected from the menu but were not displayed. This bug only affected the new menu selections added in version 1.5.1.

Version 1.5.1, July 12, 2005

Added two user-defined numeric custom fields onto the Measuring screen
Added Grease Weight to the wool measurements
Added a List displaying registry IDs of sheep, dam, and sire
Added a List providing generous space for handwritten notes on the printout
Improved compatibility with FileMaker Pro 5
Improved compatibility for client/server use with FileMaker Pro (v5, v5.5, or v6)
Added "Unknown" as a Birth Type selection
Added more Sire and Dam fields to the custom display lists
Fixed a bug in the display of the custom field #4 on the custom display lists
Assorted cosmetic changes

Version 1.5.0, June 21, 2005

Added dictionary files to allow the spell checking feature to work. You can now check the spelling of your text selection, all fields on the record, or all the records at once.
Added more Record Quality checks.
Added "Owned by Other" to the Status menu.
FlockFiler Lite now prohibits you from deleting a sheep that is being referenced as the dam or sire of another sheep to prevent breaking crossreferences. (This feature was described in the documentation of older versions but was not previously enabled.)
Added a new list report containing extended information on the scrapie tags. This report is intended to make it easy to provide information about your flock to third parties.
Added features to make it easier to enter the Registration Code information after you purchase a license.
You can now mark any Log Entry as "private" so that it won't appear in the standard printed report.
Relabled measurement fields "Fiber Diameter" and "Fiber Count" to be "Micron Count" and "Spinning Count".
Fixed bug where Micron Count was not properly displayed on a printed report.
Fixed bug in Age Class calculation for sheep who were "Never on Farm".
Fixed bug in age calculation for sheep age 0 years.
Cosmetic changes.
Fixed bug in remembering which Form screen you were browsing after using one of the "Add Offspring" buttons.

Version 1.4.0, May 16, 2005

Added a new "Add Multiple Offspring" button onto the "Sibs./Offspring" screen to make it easier to record lambings.
Added a user-selectable field for display on the genealogy form when the "Show More Info" button is pushed. Because the display of the field slows down the performance of that screen, this is an optional feature that can be turned off with "Hide More Info". When displayed, it also shows up on the Sheep Info printouts.
Added Weaning Date.
Added Weaning Weight and fields for six additional weight measurements along with the dates of these measurements. Sheep age is automatically calculated for the dates of measurement.
Added calculations for 60-day, 90-day, and 120-day weight.
Removed the old fixed-age weight measurement fields since they were not very useful and are now obsolete by the new weight measurement fields.
Added list screens to allow weight measurements to be entered on many sheep easily.
Added Weaning Date to the "Change Many" screen.
Added a Summary of the sheep being browsed onto the "Calculations" screen. This summarizes the count of rams, ewes, wethers, and breeding/non-breeding sheep.
Added a watermark to the printouts of the demonstration version.
Enabled the table view of most List screens to allow the advanced users to more easily reorder, resize, and sort columns.
The Activity Log report layout now can be selected by the user to allow for custom selection of which log entries will be printed.
Added more Record Quality checks.
Added "Sext" to the Birth Type list for the rare sextuplets.
Increased the number of siblings displayed on the Sibs./Offspring screen to be six.
Added Birth Type to Sibs./Offspring screen.
Fixed a bug in the calculation of Number of Offspring. Previously it had omitted counting sheep that had no tag or other identifier.
Fixed a bug in the age display. Previously the Age in Years was displayed when it shouldn't have been when Date Acquired was empty.
Many cosmetic changes.

Version 1.3.2, February 16, 2005

Added Default Horn Status and Custom Field Display choice to backup save file. These selections should have been backed up too so that the user wouldn't have to reselect these in the general settings.
Added "Sex" and "Year" to the top of every form.
Fixed a bug where the starter information field could be edited on the Advanced form.
Altered list of Offspring to color code offspring born in the same year with the same shade of gray. This makes it easier to spot sets of twins/triplets.
Fixed the Sex field in the Offspring list to be unchangable in the Offspring list. Previously you could change it to a different letter (potentially not one of R, E, or W) right on the box in the list. Now you can fill it in in Find Mode to do searches but not in Browse Mode.
Some minor cosmetic changes.
Added "Isolate Log Entry" to the Tasks menu on the Log Entries form.
Removed "Brand" from choice of "Tag Type". Added "RFID" as a new choice.

Version 1.3.1, February 2, 2004

Relabeled Recover button to "Recover FlockFiler Lite" without including the version number on the button's label. This is a cosmetic change only.
Added the feature that finds backup files saved from old versions of FlockFiler Lite for users of previous Windows Installers. This was needed because the previous Windows Installers were installing FlockFiler Lite in a non-optimum location.

Version 1.3.0, February 1, 2004

Added a safety feature for Dam and Sire selection to avoid an infinite calculation loop when the user erroneously selects a sheep as its own parent. In these cases the data entry validation dialog now comes up immediately instead of after a long pause.
Excluded many internal global fields from the save backup file.
Many cosmetic changes to various screens.
Added Horn Status field.
Added the Spider Gene field.
Added new "Import_" fields to be used for importing lineage information from other sources. These automatically handle the reassignments of the RecordID values using the foreign keys. This makes it easy to import spreadsheets containing three columns like "Sheep ID", "Sire ID", "Dam ID".
Fixed the "tab order" on the fields on the "Measurements" screen.
Fixed the warning about failing to save the LogEntry data when there was no LogEntry data to save.
Disabled the "Toolbars" on the Recover FlockFiler Lite file to give more screen real estate to Windows users.
Fixed a bug in the Record Quality message regarding the Codon fields. It had incorrectly reported an inconsistency when checking an offspring's genetic code compared to the dam's and sire's.
Added more quality checks to the data entry.

Version 1.2.0, January 4, 2004

Changed the Dam and Sire menus to be "menus" instead of pop-up lists.
Disabled "Toolbars" in the LogEntries database too in order to ensure all of the form screen can be viewed on smaller displays under Windows.
Opening up the LogEntries database file will now trigger upening up the main FlockFiler_Lite file too. This is to avoid confusion for users who double click the wrong project file by accident.
Improved the appearance of the LogEntries form to prevent flickering screen effects when the screen is redrawn when navigating between records.
Added more Record Quality messages that analyze the offspring relationships. Wethers can't have offspring. Sire's should be Rams, and Dams should be Ewes.
Improved the behavior of the "Erase and Use Backup Copy" button when one or both the backup files are missing from the Exports directory. Also added the feature to automatically convert old menu selections to the new format where needed. (In this release, conversions in Status and Log Entry Category were needed.)
Improved the error handling when saving a backup copy.
Minor improvements to appearance of fields on screen.
Added Codon 136 and Codon 154. Added code "H" to Codon 171.
Improved Sheep Info printout appearance.
Improved the behavior of the demo countdown.
Now the Del button on the sheep record deletes the corresponding log entries too.
Changed the "Given Away Live" Status entry to "Given Away".
Reordered the Status menu.
Altered the list of Breeds to include 279 different breeds of sheep in alphabetical order.
Changed Log Entry Form to permit multiple categories on the same Log Entry. Now the Category is a series of checkboxes for the user to check all that apply.

Version 1.1.1, November 2, 2004

Widened the score fields on the Measuring screen to permit longer decimal numbers. Specified that the average scores should be displayed with two digits after the decimal.
Altered the "tab order" on the Form screens.
Added some helpful on-screen messages for brand new users.

Version 1.1.0, November 1, 2004

Added "Memorize Records" and "Display Memorized Records" to the Tasks menu.
Changed the name of the "Use Old Data" to "Erase and Use Backup Copy" and hard coded the import/export filepath to avoid the unnecessary and potentially confusing open dialog when using this feature.
Removed the "Prepare to Upgrade" button from the Admin. Area screen. This is now obsolete since this function is performed when you exit the database.
An optional backup copy of the database records is saved each time the program is shut down. This has 3 purposes. (1) Upgrading is easier since you don't have to export and then import. You can installl the new version and import the old data with one button push. (2) You have a backup copy of the data in case your normal working copy gets damaged. (3) You can use this extra copy to "undo" large-scale data entry mistakes. Just revert back to using the data from the previous session.
Rearranged the Reports screen to be easier to specify and display the custom display fields.
Added two more list screens to show Custom Fields #3 and #4.
Altered Custom Field Lists to show Custom Fields #1 through #4 in white to make it clearer that these can be edited in these list views.
Added 3x5 card report for one sheep's record.
Added 3x5 card list to display many sheep and dams.
Changed the color of all of the report buttons to be gray to improve the aesthetics.
Consolidated many list-search buttons into one button plus a menu on the Reports screen.
Changed Import/Export file to end with .FFR instead of .fp5 to match the other database files in the project. This makes Windows happier since it defaults to *.ffr in the open file dialog.
Improved input validation on the dam and sire field to prohibit entering a sheep as its own mother or father. Previously this was permitted but discouraged.
Fixed navigation button on Genealogy screen for Dam's Dam to allow use of the Previous button like the others.
Added "Edit Many" to the Advanced screen to make it easier to change many fields at once on many records at once. This is useful, for example, to record the sales of many sheep.
Changed log entry fields to make searchable but not editable to avoid data entry mistakes when viewing from the Sheep's record.
Improved the behavior of the Return To Sheep button on the Log Entries form.
Fixed the bug of "Fiber Diameter" and "Staple Length" being the same field with different labels. Now they are separate fields.
Modified main Logo image on Home screen to display with correct font.
Improved full-page printouts to better fit onto a page by creating 0.5 inch margins on all sides.

Version 1.0.0, October 1, 2004

Initial Release.

FlockFiler Lite and FlockFiler Pro are products of Cosmic Consulting.
info@flockfiler.com (540) 888-0008

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