Form 26

One of the things that is especially limiting for users with many inspections, is the ability to classify the inspections in accordance with the way they work. The existing “status” (current and complete) is very inflexible and offers little in the way of inspection management.

This new version (V2.2) seeks to address this issue and introduces a new facility that allows you to define your own inspection categories and assign them to your inspections. The My Inspections window will now display your inspections grouped according to your new classifications and allows you to show/hide each group.

The categories are set up in the My Profile page and you’ll specify a category name and the order in which you want it to be listed. There is also an Initial Display field that allows you to predetermine whether a category is hidden/shown when you first open up the My Inspections page.

Here some category examples that you might use: -

• Booked
• Inspected
• Form26 Issued
• Form 23 Issued

Or

• Golf Coast
• Brisbane
• Ipswich
• Sunshine Coast

Or

• September 2011
• August 2011
• July 2011
• 2011
• 2010

Or

• To do
• Done
• Archived

Anyway, you get the idea … the choice is yours. There is also a Search function that allows you to search your inspections by address, suburb or owner name.

One of the challenges faced with this feature was how to move from the old way (with two static categories) to this more flexible method without “losing” inspections or hell otherwise breaking loose. This has been overcome this to a large extent - but you need to be aware of what’s going on behind the scenes.

When you visit the My Inspections page without having created any categories of your own, everything will look and behave the same. Even when you have created a few new categories, there will be no apparent change to the My Inspections list yet, as none of your new categories have been assigned to anything. What you will notice, however, is that when you go into an existing inspection, the old Status field (now renamed Category) will show as “Uncategorised”, indicating that it doesn’t yet fall in to your new category regime.

You can leave it that way, if you’d prefer. It will still appear under the old category type (current or complete) and nothing need change, however, if you intend to use the facility, that would somewhat defeat the purpose.

It may be a bit of a task for some of you, but the idea is that you re-classify your old inspections in to your new set of categories and once they are all done, the old categories will disappear and you’ll be fully cutover. If it is too much of a mission or the facility doesn’t appeal, then the new section on the My Profile page can simply be ignored.

Comments, suggestions and reports of miscreant behaviours are encouraged.