As more organizations start using GiftWorks, the need for additional functionality will grow also.  As a smaller company, we will not be able to deliver customized solutions for all the customers that need it, but it is important to us that users are able to add functionality as they need it.

Over the next few days, we will be launching our laboratory site which will be a great resource for users and developers who wish to add cool and useful functionality to GiftWorks.  Coming soon.

The mailing section of GiftWorks is certainly a popular feature that gets used by many GiftWorks users to produce printed letters, labels, and envelopes.  Recently a number of users have been complaining that their mailing process is "freezing-up" or moving extremely slow.  While there are many possible causes for this undesireable behavior, I think there are two main causes for these issues.

A lot of recipients

When you produce a mailing, all the recipients that are included in the mailing need to be processed to determine the proper addressing, collect the necessary information for the mailing, and to perform the correct sorting, etc.  If you have a large number of recipients, then the data collection process may take some time (> 1000 recipients).  The speed of your computer and the location of your GiftWorks database (network folder or on the user's machine) will affect the speed at which mailings are produced.  You may need to demonstrate and greater amount of patience if their list of recipients is large.  In a future release, we will work on improving your experience by showing the progress of the mailing process in greater detail.

(A lot of recipients)

The Big Picture

When you create a letter in the Manage Letter Library, you can insert pictures into the letter by clicking on the Insert Picture icon:

You may be tempted to pick any picture that you can find on your computer and simply insert it into your letter.  It is easy to insert a picture, but you need to be aware of the size of the image.  One of the biggest misconceptions that exists is that if you resize the picture in the letter by grabbing the picture handles and making it visibly smaller that it makes the picture a smaller size.  The reality is that it makes it visibly smaller but it doesn't make the picture smaller in terms of how much storage is needed to hold the picture.  If you insert a 1 megabyte picture into a letter and resize the picture to be 1 inch by 1 inch big in the letter, the picture itself still requires 1 megabyte to store.

When GiftWorks attempts to produce all the letters for a mailing, it will be drastically affected (negatively) if you have inserted large images in your letter.

If you insert pictures into a letter, you should try to keep the images at about 100k or less in size.  When you insert your image, you can view the size of the picture by viewing the details in the file-open window (you may need to change your view to the "Details" view in the view menu):

If you have an image that is greater than 100k in size and you want to use it in your letter, you can reduce the size of your images using a program like Adobe Photoshop or even Microsoft Paint (which comes with most versions of Windows).  There are a few other tricks to shrink pictures to be able to use them in your letters.  Microsoft even has an image resizer in their Power Toys pack that they'll give you for free.  Download it here

I can't image everyone isn't getting tired of me railing against Norton Anything.  I promise I'll lay off...soon...be here is another gem I discovered while working with a customer.

A has a customer who could not email from GiftWorks.  Every time they tried to use the emailing function within GiftWorks, they got the message, "You must have Microsoft Outlook installed to use this feature" even though they had Microsoft Outlook 2003 installed and seemingly working fine.

I created a quick .vbs file and tried to simply create an instance of the Outlook.Application object.

Dim oOutlook

Set oOutlook = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")

Set oOutlook = Nothing

Run-time error '-2147024770 (8007007e)':

Automation error
The specified module could not be found.

GiftWorks could not use the Microsoft Outlook features because there was something preventing it from being used.  The customer used to have Norton Antivirus installed but had removed it weeks ago.  The problem was that before they uninstalled it, Script Blocking was enabled and unfortunately when Norton is uninstalled, it DOES NOT remove all of it's Script Blocking code, registry entries, etc.

If you have Norton Antivirus installed and want to remove it, be sure you disable Script Blocking before uninstalling Norton Antivirus.  If you have already uninstalled it, you can look for scrblock.dll in your registry to see what it is affecting (be careful in your registry...you can really do some damage if you're not careful).

If you need to know how to fix it, leave a comment.

Earlier this year, we added Jonathan Leaman as a senior developer to the development team here at Mission Research.  I worked with with Jonathan at RR Donnelley and couldn't wait to bring him here to Mission Research.

Jonathan just got his blog setup and I'm sure it will be a good read.  Check him out.

When creating software for the desktop, there are a lot of moving parts.  As we develop GiftWorks we are constantly on the lookout for changes that might affect its performance.  These changes may be in the Windows operating system, Internet Explorer, or other 3rd party controls.  Recently we discovered a security change in Windows XP (and other Microsoft operating systems) that can adversely affect GiftWorks.

Windows XP Service Pack 2 introduced a new security feature called Data Execution Prevention (DEP).

This excerpt comes from Microsoft:

Data Execution Prevention (DEP) is a set of hardware and software technologies that perform additional checks on memory to help protect against malicious code exploits.

Hardware-enforced DEP marks all memory locations in a process as non-executable unless the location explicitly contains executable code. One kind of malicious code attacks tries to insert and run code from non-executable memory locations. DEP helps prevent these attacks by intercepting them and raising an exception.

This technology increases security but has also been causing problems for users running GiftWorks.  Over the past few weeks, we have had a number of users who have experienced crashes while using Giftworks.

There are two settings for DEP which can be found by:

1. Open the Control Panel
2. Double click the System icon
3. Click on the Advanced tab
4. In the Performance section, click the Settings button
5. Click on the Data Execution Prevention tab

DEP is always turned on, the difference is whether or not DEP is applied to Windows programs and services only OR whether it applies to all programs and services that are run on your machine.  By default, DEP is only turned on for essential Windows programs and services.

Upon investigation, we have discovered that users who have had problems had the DEP setting "Turn on DEP for all programs...".

Honestly, I do not know what is turning the setting on for all programs.  It is possible that users manually turn on DEP for all programs.  It is also possible that new machines are being shipped with DEP turned on for all programs and services.

The good news is that it is possible to have DEP turned on for all programs and services and still run GiftWorks.  DEP has an "Opt-out" feature that allows you to designate programs that should not be included in the DEP protection.  This can be accomplished by adding GiftWorks to the list of exceptions for DEP.  The GiftWorks program file can typically be found in your \program files\mission research\giftworks\system\ folder.  Add the giftwks.exe file to the list of exceptions.

In a future release, we will look into allowing GiftWorks to run with DEP...for now, the opt-out method will allow GiftWorks to be used without incident.

It is no secret that I am not a big fan of Norton Antivirus.  The huge resource drain and the invasive "protection" it offers has never appealed to me.  Well, my dislike grew even more on Friday night.

The Case
This past Friday at 5:00pm I was thinking about the weekend activities, getting together with friends, time with the kids, etc. when I got an IM from Lisa in the support department who had a GiftWorks user on the line that was experiencing an error that peaked my curiosity.  The nature of the error message, "Stack Overflow", did not give me good feelings so I thought I should follow this up quickly.

The Culprit
Maggie uses a product called Norton Antispam.  This product tries to protect users from pop-ups and the effects of spam.  To accomplish this, it employs an approach that I had not heard of previously.  Whenever Maggie would download a webpage (something.htm) Norton Antispam would inject code into the page in an attempt to protect her from errors. 

The Code
If you are not aware, we use HTML give GiftWorks a rich look and feel.  As I looked through the GiftWorks HTML pages on Maggie's machine, you can probably understand my concern when I discovered the following code (which is not our code):

   1:  function SymError(){return true;}

   2:   

   3:  window.onerror = SymError;

   4:   

   5:  var SymRealWinOpen = window.open;

   6:   

   7:  function SymWinOpen(url, name, attributes) {return (new Object());}

   8:   

   9:  window.open = SymWinOpen;

  10:   

  11:  var SymRealOnLoad;

  12:  var SymRealOnUnload;

  13:   

  14:  function SymOnUnload()

  15:  {

  16:  window.open = SymWinOpen;

  17:  if(SymRealOnUnload != null)

  18:  SymRealOnUnload();

  19:  }

  20:   

  21:  function SymOnLoad()

  22:  {

  23:  if(SymRealOnLoad != null)

  24:  SymRealOnLoad();

  25:  window.open = SymRealWinOpen;

  26:  SymRealOnUnload = window.onunload;

  27:  window.onunload = SymOnUnload;

  28:  }

  29:   

  30:  SymRealOnLoad = window.onload;

  31:  window.onload = SymOnLoad;

  32:  </script>

The Cause
I soon put 2 and 2 together.  The pages that were "corrupted" on Maggie's machine were pages that we had updated remotely through our Content Update mechanism.  Whenever a user starts GiftWorks, we instruct GiftWorks to go to a remote server and determine if any minor updates are available.  These minor updates are bug fixes, content corrections, or small enhancements that we can transparently push down to the user.  In the process of downloading these updates, Norton Antispam injected their code into our pages which eventually caused Maggie to get the errors that she did.

The Cure
I made some changes to our Content Updater to bypass the Norton Antispam effects and was able to get Maggie up and running again.

A couple hours later that night, I felt much better that Maggie was working and I learned something new and hopefully GiftWorks and our customers will benefit.

I still got together with friends that night.

GiftWorks' mailing center seems to be helpful to our users.  It is easy to use, simple to understand, and has enough features to do the job.  About a year ago, we added the ability to send a mailing out through email (if you have Microsoft Outlook installed).  In the most recent update, we included a new feature that may help user who want to do a just a little more.

Attach a file with every email that goes out

When you start a mailing process and choose the Send Email option, you will see a new Attachment section...

By clicking the Browse button, you can select the file you would like to be sent out with your emails.

Some examples of how this may be used...

Sample #1 - your organization requires a disclaimer message to be sent with each email.  You can attach the text file so that every email sent through GiftWorks to your donors will contain a standard disclaimer notice.

Sample #2 - your organization sends out a monthly newsletter as a PDF file.  You send it to all your donorss with a small introduction in the body of the email.

Now every email you send out can have an attached file.

A number of GiftWorks users have asked if GiftWorks can run as a Windows XP Limited User.   The Limited User was created to allow a computer administrator to prevent other users from doing potentially dangerous and destructive things (purposefully or accidentally) to the computer.  More information about the Limited User can be found here.  A more comprehensive look at Windows XP accounts and security principles can be found here.

GiftWorks relies on a number of permissions being set properly to function properly.  If these permissions are not set properly or the user does does have right to do certain tasks, GiftWorks may experience errors while trying to do a variety of tasks.  By design, a Limited User does not have sufficient rights to install GiftWorks.

I have spoke with a number of users who have tried to install GiftWorks using an administrative account (like Administrator) and then run GiftWorks using a Limited User account.  The results from this approach seem to be mixed.

The most reliable method to run GiftWorks as a Limited User is to:

1. Use an administrator account to change the role of the Limited user account to an Administrator account.  In the Control Panel, the User Accounts option will alow you to access the user list.  In this example, the Limited user account "Steve" is being changed to a Computer administrator account type.
   
   
2. After changing the account type to Computer administrator, log out of the administrator account and log in to the "Steve" account.  After logging into the "Steve" account, verify the account is a computer administrator.  Be sure to log out and log in...do not just "switch users".
3. Install GiftWorks using the "Steve" account.
4. Verify that GiftWorks functions properly by signing in and performing some basic functions.
5. After verifying that GiftWorks is working properly, log out of the "Steve" account, log into an Administrator account, and change the "Steve" account type back to a Limited user account type.
6. Log back into the "Steve" account and re-verify that GiftWorks is functioning properly.
   
   

Note:  For Windows XP Home or Pro users, these instructions should work well.  If you are a Windows XP Pro user on a domain, these instructions may need to be modified.  Remember that a Limited Account type is the same as the Users group.  This may help when trying to set the role type properly.

This should allow you to run GiftWorks as a Limited User.  If you have any problems, get in contact GiftWorks Support at support@missionresearch.com.

Most Windows users are familiar with Microsoft's Automatic Updates functionality which alerts the user that updates are available from Microsoft.  Depending on the setup of Automatic Updates, it may actually download the update and install it without any interaction from the user.  Microsoft recommends that a user setup their Automatic Updates to keep this feature activated so that the users computer is kept up to date with all tha latest software.

We notice that a number of GiftWorks users are not up to the latest version of our software.  This may be due to the fact that they have not enabled the Automatic Update feature within GiftWorks and they are not aware that a new version of GiftWorks is available.

Here's how you check if the Automatic Update feature within GiftWorks is enabled:

Click the Internet Updates link and choose Customize Updates
 

On the Customize Updates screen, be sure the Auto Check

When you startup GiftWorks, it will go and check to see if any updates are available (as long as you are connected to the Internet).

Stay updated...

Last week, Microsoft released the latest version of Internet Explorer 7.    The new browser has a new look and a lot of new features which makes the browsing experience more enjoyable.  Security has also been improved in the latest version of Internet Explorer.  These improvements are good for the user, but offer challenges to us as we develop GiftWorks.

The construction of GiftWorks consists of a number of different development tools, languages, etc. which makes the look and feel of GiftWorks unique to other non-profit software solutions.  A key component to GiftWorks is the use of controls that are provided by Internet Explorer.  Some of the latest changes to Internet Explorer were not compatible with GiftWorks and prompted us to develop an update to GiftWorks to correct these incompatibilities.  Fortunaltely, the changes were minimal and an update to GiftWorks is scheduled to be released sometime during the week of November 6th.

I want to thank Roland, Bruce, and Travis at Microsoft for their help in understanding all the changes to Internet Explorer so that we could quickly resolve the issues with GiftWorks.

Happy browsing...