ComputerGeek

UPDATE

Don't know when or how it happened... noticed my firewall has two rules for HomeManage. One was set to Block. I changed it to Allow and restarted.

Tried opening HM again but same activation loop. Just tried again several hours later and it now opens and works again! Computers. Go figure 😖

I haven't used Home Manage for a while (at least 6+ months). 

1. Click HM in taskbar and open it. I exit the program. Shortly after open it again.
2. This time, I get "Activate Purchased License Code" screen. I click the Activate button
3. I get "Activation Successful" screen. I click Finish and program closes
4. I try reopening the program. Activate Purchase screen opens and I'm in a Step 2 and 3 loop.

Oddly, when I try again next morning it program opens normally again (Step 1). This time I try the upgrade button and download an upgrade file. After Upgrade and reboot, it's back to Step 2 and 3 loop.

I uninstalled HM and reinstalled the upgrade file. Same problem. Step 2 and 3 loop.

HELP please

In follow-up, if I could make a suggestion? Use the windows format to indicate the input order: m/d/yyyy vs yyyy/m/d indicates user entry order: month-day-year vs year-month-day but don't restrict month or day to one digit, in any case, so we enter any date in a year. Thanks

On 5/20/2022 at 11:50 PM, dealio said:

That has been my experience as well. I think something is wrong in the application because the system date format M/D/YYYY doesn't break 2-digit months and days in any other application I use. I have a couple user-defined date fields which will not accept a second digit for either the month or the day. I don't think the developers understand the problem as I got the same response. But even if the app is using the system date format as he states, and that format is set to M/D/YYYY, date fields should still accept 2-digit months and 2-digit days. Microsoft's formatting string 'M/D/YYYY'--which is used in Windows and many MS apps, like MS Access--means display 2 digits only when the month/day is 2 digits--otherwise use 1 digit. In other words, don't pad the day and month with zeros. HomeManage uses Microsoft Access as its database. So the underlying database  understands how to interpret the M/D/YYYY formatting string and will use it properly without the need to change the system date format.

+1

Absolutely!! I also reported this back in Feb but have too busy to use the app and follow-up since.

@admin The Windows date/time in Control Panel indicates a DISPLAY format. M/D/YYYY simply means Windows should suppress leading zeros when displaying the date. 

Does it make any sense for Windows to offer the option of a date format that precludes the user from entering dates for more than two-thirds of the year? (No dates 11 to 31 in ANY month and forget about all of Oct, Nov and December) Does that make any sense?  Could this bug please be addressed please? Thanks

Follow up from the prior thread

1. You were right. I was using the Date Sold and Sold To fields for something else. So, the item was appearing as a Disposed Asset
2. I tried clearing the fields but the item remained listed in Disposed Asset.
3. I figured I'll just delete it. But I can't. Each time I delete it, it reappears after restarting the program. I included a video.

If truly a bug, I'd call it low priority as it doesn't affect main functionality. But, separate issue, it would be helpful if a user defined date field worked correctly (described in Jan 8 post). Thanks for your attention and the help!

Download Link:      https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OXbsx5IWJQ3D1X0c6aG_ivkg8oMePk2o/view?usp=sharing

/* EDIT */

I found if I delete a Disposed Item and then empty the trash before restarting  the program, the Disposed Item stays deleted. It doesn't reappear after restart. But I would think simply deleting from Disposed Item should be sufficient?

Gotcha. That makes sense. I was using Date sold and Sold To for other reasons. (A Date and text field were conveniently located next to each other for what I wanted.) I'll change field usage and try again. Thanks. You can mark this one closed.

Speaking of date: did you see my other post. A user define defined date field won't accept a 2 digit month or 2 digit day. was part of the reason i reused something else

I have a video showing the problem. It's too large to attach. Here's a download link. (View the download file. Playing it from cloud may be blurry)  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GQj5e4_2Rb0i9KKtfUg5CQVcSPEhAku1/view?usp=sharing

How does an item become a Disposed Asset? I'm not sure why, but some items appear as a Disposed Asset. I can correct an item to put it back under Main Residence but when I exit and restart the program, the item is back under Disposed Asset again. fyi.. in the video you'll see I renamed Department to Room

1. Notice the first item in the Disposed Asset display. It's a Foot Controlled Dimmer. Note the line item under Disposed Assets shows its Room is Living Room
2. I open the item. Item properties show both Location and Room fields are blank. (I don't know they became blank but watch what happens when I try to fix it)
3. I update Location and Room, click OK and the item is moved to Main Residence/Living Room. It's removed from Disposed Assets. All looks OK now.
4. I exit and restart the program
5. But now the Foot Dimmer is back in Disposed Asset again. I didn't capture it in the video but when I open the item to see Properties, its Location and Room and blank fields again!

🤔 Hmm... I just went back to check. And can't replicate it myself now. Thank you but nothing more for you to do for now. Will post again if i can replicate it again over a span of a few days. Thanks!!

When I add an attachment, I see it adds the full path to the file. Makes sense. But if I should edit the file, the attachment file path gets deleted from the item record. Why?? Is that intentional or a bug?

That's very user unfriendly. Here's why: It's quite unmanageable trying to track 100's of different receipts, one per file. Instead I aggregate them. e.g I keep an Amazon.pdf, BestBuy.pdf, Furniture.pdf etc. Much easier to organize and find things that way using a drastically reduced number of receipt files. Why should modifying a target file (I happen to use pdf) cause the path to get removed from the item record??? 

I created a user defined date field. I can't enter 1/28/2022. As you can see in the screen recorded attachment file, it seems to literally want m/d/yyyy format (i.e It appears to ONLY accept a single digit for both month and day. NOT a 2 digit month or day.). Can I enter a date?

In video I cursor to the start and enter digits 12820200. Date appears as 1/2/8020. I tried a 2 digit month too, entering 0128 didn't work either. It shows as 0/1/28. Typing a backward slash between month and day doesn't have any effect either.

Video_2022-01-28_112500.wmv

In tab Item Properties->General, I have field Total Cost. When I export to Excel it's called Amount Paid. Personally I like Amount Paid  but in any case names should be consistent to avoid confusion (and user not need verify they're one and the same)

ALSO  Under General tab, field name Manufacturer in the GUI gets exported to Excel as CompanyName

/* EDIT */

Another issue: In tab Item Properties->General is field Dealer.  When I customize Tool->Preferences->Column it's called Vendor

I'll be importing my inventory item data to HomeManage. Is there a way to include the file path attachment for each item as part of the import? I plan on using a .csv file. (in my case all attachments are .pdf files)