If you do not have admin access to the system (try to login as "admin", password "tissi" if it has not been changed) and your e-mail connection isn't setup correctly, you would have to reset the admin password. For this you have to enter a known encrypted password directly into the Track+ database like this:

Firebird

1. Execute "C:\Program Files\Firebird\Firebird_2_1\bin\isql.exe" (or a similar location where the Firebird database was installed to)
2. You are now inside ISQL. Here enter "connect C:\Program Files\Track+\Database\TRACK.GDB user friedj password tissi;"
3. Again inside ISQL enter "UPDATE TPERSON SET PASSWD = '-45-58-8050-1e5a36-1954-27-2459-6dd104c-68-24521d' where PKEY=1 ;"
4. Inside ISQL enter "commit;" 
5. Quit ISQL by typing "exit;"
   

The admin password is now set back to "tissi".

MySQL

In MySQL you either use phpMyAdmin or the mysql client. After you have logged in, enter the SQL command

UPDATE TPERSON SET PASSWD = '-45-58-8050-1e5a36-1954-27-2459-6dd104c-68-24521d' where PKEY=1 ;  

This sets the password for the "admin" user to "tissi".

Other Database Systems

Follow the instructions as shown for MySQL, but with the respective database client (e.g. SQLPlus for Oracle).

General Memory Problems

In case your Trackplus runs slow or even blocks some time after you started using it, or in case there are memory problem messages in your Apache Tomcat log files, you can be sure that the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) in which Tomcat runs does not have sufficient memory.

The memory required depends on the number of users you want to concurrently serve. You can use this formula:

Heap memory required (Xmx) = 100 MByte + 4 MByte * no. of concurrent users

Assuming you have 500 users, and 50 of them are logged in concurrently, you need 100 Mbyte + 4*50 Mbyte = 300 MByte heap memory (Xmx) for Trackplus. Additionally you need another 150 MByte for the Trackplus byte code, plus another 70 MByte for the JVM and Apache Tomcat.

Fixing Memory Problems on Linux Servers

On Linux systems, you can control the amount of memory available to the JVM in which Tomcat runs via the JAVA_OPTS variable in the Tomcat startup script (/etc/init.d/tomcat6 on Debian/Ubuntu):

JAVA_OPTS=“-XX:PermSize=128M -XX:MaxPermSize=196M -Xms256M -Xmx512M -Xss64K“

Fixing Memory Problems on Windows Servers

In case you start Apache Tomcat on your server via a startup script (startup.bat), you need to modify the memory settings in file "catalina.bat" in the Tomcat bin directory. On our machines this file is located at "C:\Programme\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 6.0\bin". It looks approximately like this:

@echo off
rem @echo on
if "%OS%" == "Windows_NT" setlocal 
........
rem $Id: catalina.bat 537517 2011-09-12 21:11:17Z markt $
rem ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
set JAVA_OPTS= -XX:PermSize=256M -XX:MaxPermSize=256M -Xms384M -Xmx512M -Xss64K
........

In case Tomcat is started as a service, just as it is being installed by the Trackplus installer, enter the Windows Start menu and look for "Configure Tomcat". Go to tab "Java" and configure the memory settings below the text area:

- Initial memory pool (to 512 MByte)
- Maximum memory pool (to 512 MByte)

Moreover you should check that the PermSize (byte code memory) is sufficient. To this end you add some text at the bottom of the text area "JavaOptions":

-XX:PermSize=256M 
-XX:MaxPermSize=256M

Make sure that each entry is placed on its own line, and that there are no extra spaces at the ends of the lines or elsewhere.

Database Index Problems

Another case for slow Trackplus installations can be corrupted database indexes. This cause can also appear as if issues or other entries like users were missing (don't dispair, they are still there, they just don't show in the index).

For Oracle databases there is a little script in the database package of Trackplus that rebuilds all indexes. It is recommended to run this script every time the database structure had to be updated due to a new Trackplus release. This is typically the case when the release number switches from x.y to y.z.

For a Firebird database it suffices to create a database backup using the utility gbak, and thereafter to restore the database again using gbak.

Once in a while it seems to be difficult to get the database connection to work, because of firewalls, JDBC driver problems, or other configuration problems. Here is a little class that should give you quick feedback of what is wrong.

If it is not already included in your Track+ installation, download the JdbcTester class and drop it into your track WEB-INF/classes directory.

Run it from that directory like this:

java -cp "../lib/mysql-connector-java-3.1.8-bin.jar;." JdbcTester mysql

and see what happens.

Of course, instead of MySQL you can also debug MS SQLServer (mssql), Oracle (oracle), DB2 (db2app), Postgres (postgres), and Firebird (firebird). You have to use the respective JDBC driver JAR file instead of the MySQL JAR file.

In some installations Track+ does not start properly after a system restart. This is most likely due to the fact that the Apache Tomcat server starts before the database server is ready. To make sure the database service is started, on Windows systems you can create a service dependency.

Caution: this requires editing the registry, which can mess things up quite a bit if you don't know what you are doing.

1. Open the registry using regedit (Program - execute - regedit).
2. Go to entry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tomcat6 (or similar Tomcat5).
3. Right mouse click - New - Value with datatype REG_MULTI_SZ, value name "DependOnService" (without quotation marks).
4. Double click on the value name. Enter "Firebird - DefaultInstance" as a value (or the name of your database service, try "net start" in a command box to find out).

That should be it.

To move a Track+ installation to a new machine, follow these steps (make sure you have administrator rights on both machines and the Firebird bin directory is in your path):

1. Upgrade to the newest version on the OLD machine. Follow the instructions in the Release Notes, which describe how to do this.

2. Make a backup of your database. When you are on a Windows machine and you use the Firebird database, use the gbak utility for this. The gbak utility comes with the Firebird database server. You can find it in C:\Program Files\Firebird\bin, or where ever else you have directed the installer to install the database software. The syntax for the backup is as follows:

   gbak -v -user trackp -pas tissi C:\Program Files\Track+\database\track.gdb C:\Program Files\Track+\database\track.gbk

   It could be that the user has been changed to "friedj". Try this if the above does not work. If you are using MySQL, use the mysqldump utility which comes with a MySQL database server.

3. Install the newest version of Track+ on the NEW machine, following the standard installation procedure. For example, just run the Windows installer.
4. Copy the database backup file from the OLD machine (e.g. C:\Program Files\Track+\database\track.gbk) to the NEW machine (e.g. to C:\Program Files\Track+\database\track.gbk on the NEW machine).

5. Remove the database file on the NEW machine, and replace it with the restored database file from the OLD machine. If you are just using the Windows installer with a Firebird database, you can again use the gbak utility for this:

   gbak -v -REP -user trackp -pas tissi C:\Program Files\Track+\database\track.gbk C:\Program Files\Track+\database\track.gdb
6. You now have to move the attachments from the OLD to the NEW machine. To find out where the attachments have been stored on the OLD machine, log in as admin user. Go to menu Administration > Manage server > Server configuration. Select tab "Other". Write down the parameter "Attachment root directory";. This is the directory you need to copy including all of its subdirectories to the NEW machine. If you like to place it into a different directory on the NEW machine, you have to configure this parameter to the new location on the NEW machine.
7. Restart the Apache Tomcat server (use the utility from the Windows Start > Programs > Apache Tomcat > Configure menu, when you are on Windows, or use "/etc/init.d/tomcat6 restart" on Unix)

If you are using the Track+ Windows Installer (and implicitly the Firebird database) there is one more aspect to be aware of. Newer versions of Track+ Installer (beginning with 3.7.1) create a database with UTF8 character set while older ones a database with character set NONE. That is mirrored also in the connection string in Torque.properties (typically at c:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat x.x\webapps\track\WEB-INF\Torque.properties)

By installing a newer version of Track+ over an old version (prior to 3.7.1) the database is preserved as the Torque.properties file also. The old connection string looks like:

torque.dsfactory.track.connection.url = jdbc:firebirdsql://localhost/C:/Program Files/Track+/Database/track.gdb

By installing a newer version of Track+ (3.7.1 upward) when no previous Track+ was installed then the new database created uses UTF8 character set and the connection string looks like:

torque.dsfactory.track.connection.url = jdbc:firebirdsql://localhost/C:/Program Files/Track+/Database/track.gdb?charSet=UTF-8

So if you want to migrate an older version of Track+ to a new machine and at the same time you want to upgrade the Track+ version also, then be aware that you might have a database with character set NONE, while the new installation of Track+ created an empty database with Character set UTF8, which is mirrored also in the connection string.
As part of the migration process you should replace the empty database of the new installation with the production database from the old machine. But you should avoid accessing a database with character set NONE with a connection string containing ?charSet=UTF-8.

You have two possibilities to avoid this:

1. Manually remove the ?charSet=UTF-8 from the connection string on the new machine, because your old/new database has character set NONE.
2. Convert your Firebird database to UTF8 (see http://www.trackplus.com/forum/posts/list/847.page#3374) and then you should leave ?charSet=UTF-8 as it is on the new machine

When you use Internet Explorer and you have an underscore in your URL (domain name, or server name) you will be kicked out of Track+ after login. There is no problem with other browsers.

This is due to the fact that IE cannot handle cookies correctly from URLs containing underscores. This is not a Track+ specific problem. Only known remedy: don't user server or domain names with underscores.

You can use Track+ with LDAP and Microsoft Active Directory. However, there are some things to consider, since Track+ uses anonymous binding.

There is a good article on why anonymous bind is disabled in Windows 2003 Server, and how to enable it:

http://www.petri.co.il/anonymous_ldap_operations_in_windows_2003_ad.htm

After this step, we could access the server and actually see the directory structure. To explore the AD structure and set permissions there we used the tool ADSI Edit, which comes with Windows 2003 Server, but which isn't usually installed:

http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/w2k3/utilities/adsi_edit.htm

Then you need to add "ANONYMOUS LOGON" in the security property dialog of the object, where you store your users, equivalent to the procedure outlined in the first link, and give this user read permissions on this object (the user folder) and all objects below.

The bind attribute on Windows is usually called "sAMAccountName". The base DN you get when exploring your directory, it depends on your specific configuration. In our default installation it looks like "CN=Users,DC=trackplus,DC=com".

To explore your directory you can use the wonderful Apache Directory Studio software.

Hopefully this helps you to get Track+ connected to your AD server.

To render the workflow graphs, you need to have the Graphviz package of ATT installed on your server. Track+ generates intermediate files, which then are processed to render GIF files for display. The standard Graphviz installations on many Linux distributions do not support the generation of GIF files from dot files, an additional package is required.

The packages required must contain the "gd" generic device driver. Example packages as of today (two packages each):

Fedora:
graphviz-2.26.3-1.fc13.i686.rpm
graphviz-gd-2.26.3-1.fc13.i686.rpm

Redhat:
graphviz-2.26.3-1.el5.i386.rpm
graphviz-gd-2.26.3-1.el5.i386.rpm

Ubuntu (Debian):
graphviz_2.26.3-1_i386.deb
graphviz-dev_2.26.3-1_all.deb

and so on.