Estimated Time To Read This: 1 – 2 minutes       For several years now, our base development platform has been based on PHP version 5.2.  PHP 5.2 will run under Windows NT/2000/2003 with very few problems.  Of course, during this same time period, the environment has changed. The recommended version of PHP for production use is now 5.3.  5.4alpha1 was released on Jun 28, 2011 and promises to have improved memory usage and performance.  PHP 5.2, the version that we are currently using is no longer supported ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 3 minutes       We’ve all been there at one time or another.  With confidence we go and make a change and voila, it looks beautiful.  After we celebrate our prowless, a few days later we go over what we did and notice that something just isn’t right.  Why are all my people at the wrong location?  Why are they assigned to the wrong school? At times like these, the existence of a good backup and recovery strategy is paramount.  In the case above, the creation of a ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 minutes       Have you ever been in that most undesirable situation where you want to do something, know it’s possible, but have no idea on how to proceed? Fear not, both ContinuED and PDPlace have an extensive help system that will show you the path you need to take to accomplish your goal.   In PDPlace, the help system can be accessed by using the rightmost tab in the upper left navigation bar.   In ContinuED, it is the second last tab, again in the upper left navigation ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 minutes       (Source: formrouter.com) Happy New Year!  I hope everyone had a very relaxing and fun-filled holiday. The time off was certainly welcome as it gave me time to think about many of the everyday items that we use; items, for some, that haven’t changed for many years. The thing that came to the forefront for me was the use of traditional paper-based forms. Paper-based forms, originally designed by hand and now commonly designed in many popular software applications ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 minutes       As the season slowly starts to change, so does ContinuED®. Officially released on August 16th, 2010, ContinuED 2.3.0 offers many significant improvement to many areas. The first area of improvement you’ll notice right away is the new and improved user interface. The revamped interface makes it easier for you to find the class you desire with much less effort. This “stepped” interface allows you to progress one step at a time to filter out the undesired ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 minutes       Each of the products we develop at CoreSolutions Software is feature rich, including our software package, ContinuED®. Many of these features are hidden in plain sight but are readily accessible to you. Recently, a client contacted us and asked if there was a way to reduce the number of emails being sent to students. A certain preference had been enabled and was sending an email to students when changes were made to a class. Turns out, the option to override the default ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 3 minutes       Going to school, no matter what your age, isn’t easy; but imagine deciding, as a mature student, that you want to go back and finish what you started or learn entirely new skills. That is one impressive challenge. Many people made a move into the workforce at an early age, some having dropped out of school prior to actually getting their high school diploma, believing that the companies they’d work for offered long-standing and secure jobs. Times are ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 minutes       ContinuED has been steadily evolving since last summer – Version 2.3 is in its final development stages and will be released this summer. In the meantime, I’ve been steadily going through 2.2.2 and polishing up some of the existing features. One of the requests that I’ve worked on recently involves the attendance registers. For those of you who don’t know, ContinuED can create several different types of attendance or self-study registers. In ContinuED 2.1, ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 3 minutes       I recently found my old high school yearbooks. The year that left the biggest impression on me was the 11th grade, so I took a peek at that yearbook first. It was a real flashback with memories flooding my mind as I gazed at pictures of me with huge red rimmed glasses, sporting a very short haircut and rat’s tail, wearing an old man’s tweed overcoat and trying my hardest to look the part. This was also the year I failed my very first, and last, class! Grade ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 1 – 2 minutes       With each new version of ContinuED®, many new and exciting features are added. These features range from minor adjustments to large scale changes. How does the ContinuED® team determine what new features are added? When the ContinuED® team receives a new feature request, the request is recorded in a list of changes. This list of changes is reviewed by the ContinuED® team between releases. If the request is a feature that many clients will find useful, the ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 3 minutes       Ok, I’ll admit it. I’m a big believer in product training. Why? I will never forget sitting by myself at table in university, pondering the mystery of abstract algebra. Several cups of coffee later, I was dazed, confused, and not much farther ahead in my pursuit of…wait, what was I pursuing again? I didn’t even have the answer to that question. It was not until I met with my professor and several other classmates that I could put the pieces together. Why? ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 3 minutes       It’s Spring! The time when CoreSolutions holds our regularly scheduled user group sessions for PD Place™ and ContinuED®. What better way is there for a company to grow? We sow our seeds, tend to the garden, work out the bugs and in the end we have a product that has been tended to since creation and all with valued input from those who use the software regularly. I like to think of our user groups as a community garden. Wikipedia states that community ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 4 minutes       Hello world! Welcome to my first blog entry on the CoreProducts blog. My name is Mark Phipps. I’m the lead developer of our continuing education management product called ContinuED®. I have a background of over 10 years in software development and systems administration. As part of the process of implementing ContinuED®, I had heard many of the same questions over and over again. One question that every client asks is: How can I verify who is using ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: < 1 minute       Do you have a question or concern, or do you need to send us feedback? All of our PD Place™ and ContinuED® customers have direct access to IssueTracker, our feedback reporting system. This simple tool allows you to report any changes that you would like to see in our products, or to voice your concerns. As a QA Analyst at CoreSolutions, I spend each and every day utilizing this system to ensure that your needs for high quality software are being met. Now, it is ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 3 minutes       ContinuED Version 2.2.1 was officially released on the March 15, 2010. A list of the new features and issues addressed can be found in the “release notes” document. ContinuED version 2.2.1 Release Notes Remember that upgrades are included in your support agreement. We encourage everyone to upgrade to version 2.2.1 if it contains fixes to issues that are critical to you or if you see enhancements that will be useful to ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 minutes       Welcome to the first of many entries on ContinuED®. The newly released version of ContinuED® 2.2.1 contains many goodies and requested enhancements that many of you will find quite useful in setting up classes for the upcoming ConEd terms. Some of these goodies include: - New student fields for Driver’s License Number and Citizenship/Immigration Number - Registers now support 45 sessions instead of the original 32. - Visual improvements to the attendance entry ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 minutes       CoreSolutions Software has been developing custom software solutions for over 20 years and have developed two great software solutions that we now offer as packaged software products: PD Place is a complete professional development, training and certification management and tracking system that is used by school districts, colleges and Children’s Aid Societies across Canada and the US. ContinuED® is a management system for Continuing and Adult Education programs that is ... Read More