TranslateSpiceworks 5.0 Beta 4 Review
Last night Nic announced 5.0 Beta IV Build Now Available (5.0.55210)
The fourth build of the Spiceworks 5.0 beta is now available for you to try out. Testing and feedback from you is an integral part of every release cycle and we appreciate the time and effort you put into giving us the feedback. In addition, you’ll be sure that the final release is a seamless upgrade for you.
This build has some major and exciting changes and throughout this article I will walk you though as many of them as possible (some of them need Rackspace services in which I do not currently have).
Interface
The first thing that will hit you when you open up this build of Spiceworks is the new interface, it has been near completely redesigned (it’s still being worked on and could change again). This new layout is designed to make Spiceworks easier to navigate as well as making it easier to view your data.
Rather than the navigation being down the side it’s now at the top in drop down style menus. These seem to work really fast and with the performance fixes in this new GUI clicking from page to page is a lot quicker even compared to the earlier beta.
Once past the initial looks you will notice at the moment at least most of the views look the same, the helpdesk, reports and dashboard. The biggest change is the network map, with the new layout there is a HUGE amount of room for the map. Allowing you to quickly view all your devices and troubleshoot bottlenecks and problems.
You may also notice the new plugins notification button on the toolbar at the bottom of the screen this now shows you featured plugins as well as ones requiring updates.
Rackspace Stuff
Rackspace services have long been integrated with Spiceworks now and with 5.0 that integration gets even tighter.
In the people view you can now import user’s from a Rackspace IT Service, there is a new tab that has been added to the user’s lower panel. This is so that when navigating your user’s you can see there mailbox status at the same time.
Rackspace users with Reseller accounts will only see the main reseller customer account imported into People View. All additional customer accounts will not be imported.
The last bit of new integration is the ability to view your distribution groups and who is in them from within the Rackspace IT Service area.
All very exciting stuff if you have Rackspace hosted email, hopefully in the future we will also see some integration like this from other suppliers.
Helpdesk
When you are using remote collectors as remote helpdesk’s there is/was an issue about what to do when the connection to the central server was lost. Spiceworks have started to work on ways around this issue by adding in support for the remote helpdesks to be self-sufficient when the connection is lost. At the moment it just displays a customizable error message on the user portal but in the near future it will also hold the emails until the connection is restored to then send them on.
This is still being worked on and not all of it is fully working, but in the next beta we should have most of they should have most of this working.
Purchasing
The purchasing area of Spiceworks has been re-implemented in this beta, it has a new view and looks very smart.
You can quickly add things you need to buy to tickets and then check them out in the new purchasing view and follow them through the process of Approval, Purchasing and receiving.
It’s very easy to edit the details, add a vendor, code / area and price.
If you are trying to find the right product you can use the click links to search the community, compare prices on pgpartner or jump into the CDW shop.
Community
To help make things smoother between Spiceworks and the community also to encourage more people to take part the method to connect between the two has been changed. This is designed to help make sure you stay logged in between the two easier.
The biggest thing about this change is that you are now able to connect more than one install to a single community account. This is really useful for people with lots of remote sites or clients they need to help manage.
Another thing this has allowed is for you to do is to change your community email address yourself.
Note: that this email change is not a test, and will actually change your community email account. If you are changing your email address as a test, remember to change it back again using the same procedure.
People View
I held onto this one till last, mainly as it didn’t appear to want to work first time, and well it’s still not working. I don’t get if Nic’s comment means it should or shouldn’t be working for AD
Import users that have email addresses from Active Directory. There is a new Active Directory Configuration page under Settings to manage Active Directory. You’ll see a check box for syncing changes from Spiceworks back to Active Directory, but this function is not yet enabled. It will be enabled in a future Beta build.
So for now I’ll refer you to my last review and promise when I get it working ill review the new and exciting active directory integration.
Update: The people view review is up for you to checkout.
Links
So that’s all for now, keep an eye out for when I get active directory people view working and here are some helpful links.
Hmm ok appears I read nic's comment in the wrong way.
People view and AD wont work till the next beta it appears
I got a little excited too quick.
August 26th, 2010 at 9:40 amMy people viewer seems to work? THe fields are populated with department, contact numbers and email addresses. All I need to do is edit the supervisor and device fields.
August 26th, 2010 at 10:41 amFrom active directory?
might just be my install / me, ill leave it over night and check it tomorrow / see if anyone says anything on the community about it.
August 26th, 2010 at 10:51 amTwitter Trackbacks…
…
August 26th, 2010 at 2:58 pmOk so i have this working now
Watch out for the review tonight or tomorrow!!!!
August 26th, 2010 at 4:22 pmLoving beta 4, particularly the removal of the left nav bar and introduction of the menus at the top of the page instead. UI seems faster to load pages too. The purchasing UI is very nice too, looks very swish. But the AD stuff in people doesn't seem to work exactly as I was expecting. Existing users seem to get some population of records, but not newly posting users or manually added users.
August 26th, 2010 at 4:27 pmWas waiting to see if it was just us, but maybe it is not complete and some functionality is yet to be added.
All in all it seems great
[...] Home About UsContact UsRecent PostsSpiceworks 5.0 Beta IV – People View with AD – Review5.0 Beta IV ReviewIn-depth guide to using Spiceworks by Nitish Kumar’sGet Spiceworks now and set IT free. [...]
August 27th, 2010 at 8:01 amAnd comus the people view review http://www.unofficialspiceworks.com/2010/08/spice…
August 27th, 2010 at 8:04 amThat's a very nice review Andy! Cheers.
One more thing to notice is that the "per-event" mail templates are going away in the next release. So working on migration to HTML templates right now is wise.
My review review of beta IV can be found here: http://www.spiceworkslounge.com/2010/08/26/spicew…
August 27th, 2010 at 2:58 pmYe true, will mention that in the next review
Cheers for the link.
August 27th, 2010 at 3:03 pmWhat i do not realize is actually how you’re not actually much more well-liked than you might be right now. You’re so intelligent. You realize thus significantly relating to this subject, produced me personally consider it from a lot of varied angles. Its like women and men aren’t fascinated unless it’s one thing to accomplish with Lady gaga! Your own stuffs great. Always maintain it up!
February 23rd, 2011 at 11:10 pmThere are some attention-grabbing deadlines on this article but I don’t know if I see all of them center to heart. There is some validity however I’ll take hold opinion until I look into it further. Good article , thanks and we wish extra! Added to FeedBurner as well
February 24th, 2011 at 1:41 pmSuper news it is without doubt. We have been looking for this update
February 28th, 2011 at 8:33 pmThanks a lot for sharing this with all of us you really know what you’re talking about! Bookmarked. Kindly also visit my site =). We could have a link exchange agreement between us!
March 1st, 2011 at 8:23 pmOutstanding news it is definitely. My teacher has been waiting for this content
March 2nd, 2011 at 11:03 pmIs that true? I’ll spread this information. Anyway, nice article
March 2nd, 2011 at 11:30 pmNice post. I learn one thing more challenging on completely different blogs everyday. It should always be stimulating to read content from other writers and apply a little bit one thing from their store. I’d favor to make use of some with the content material on my blog whether you don’t mind. Natually I’ll provide you with a hyperlink on your internet blog. Thanks for sharing.
March 3rd, 2011 at 2:38 amI wanted to say thanks to you for this great read!! I’ve got you bookmarked to see new stuff you post.
March 3rd, 2011 at 7:39 amHi buddy, your blog’s design is simple and clean and i like it. Your blog posts are superb. Please keep them coming. Greets!!!
March 3rd, 2011 at 8:58 amIf you don’t mind my asking, do you make good money from this blog?
March 3rd, 2011 at 10:04 amThis is really nice idea dude.iam really proud of you . Do u have twitter?? i want to follow you .thx
March 4th, 2011 at 4:20 amHi! I imagined your post was trendy and will visit generally.
March 4th, 2011 at 4:25 amThere is a vast amount of information on the blog you’ve started. Thanks.
March 4th, 2011 at 8:03 amI’d like to write like this too
March 4th, 2011 at 8:08 amThank you for another magnificent post. Where else could anyone get that type of information in such a perfect way of writing? I have a presentation next week, and I am on the look for such information.
March 4th, 2011 at 4:11 pmBetween me and my husband we’ve bougt more ceiling fans over the years than I can count, including hampton bay, hunter, ge, contemproray, etc. But, the last few years I’ve settled down to just hampton bay line of fans. Why? Because I was happy to discover how well-designed and sturdy the hampton bay fans are.
March 4th, 2011 at 4:40 pmI very much enjoy your blog here, thank you so much you have helped me out greatly Smile spread the love.
March 4th, 2011 at 8:27 pmThere’s a vast quantity of facts on the web site you’ve began. With thanks.
March 4th, 2011 at 8:32 pm