# CHANGES FROM AYANOVA VERSION 7

## Overview

Starting with version 8, AyaNova was completely re-written.
Our goals in this were to make AyaNova easier to use, modernize aging code, take advantage of the latest technologies and move to a modern run on any device approach.

This page documents the changes most relevant to everyday users of AyaNova however there were also many other technical changes of interest to system administrators and installers which are documented in our [Technical changes from v7](ops-technical-changes-from-v7.md) page of this documentation.

## User interface changes from v7
AyaNova 7 had several different user interfaces: the main interface was a Windows desktop application and as optional add-on products we had several different web browser interfaces for varying levels of devices.  Each web interface had a limited sub-set of the full features in the Windows application and required separate installation and configuration procedures.

AyaNova 8 has one "progressive" web application based interface only that adapts itself automatically to the device format.  Any device on any platform with a modern web browser from a smart phone to a full sized desktop computer can use all features of AyaNova equally.  This means you can use AyaNova on an iPhone, Android, Windows desktop, Mac, Linux etc.

Having one web application interface means there is nothing to install or update on all user devices and ensures that we will always have all features available to all users.

In order to support the front end "client" devices using AyaNova, there is now a back end self contained [AyaNova server](ops-intro.md) that handles all requests and can be hosted on Linux, Windows, Mac either onsite or with a web hosting provider. 

## Existing feature changes
One of our main goals with AyaNova 8 was to make AyaNova easier to use and add many new features and improvements based on feedback from our customers.
In order to support this some major areas of AyaNova have been changed:

### Clients renamed
Clients have been renamed to Customers

### Localized text renamed
Localized text has been renamed to Translation


### Security groups -> Authorization Roles
Security groups have been replaced by a **role** based authorization system.
In v7 you would select a security group for a user to restrict their access to objects in AyaNova.
In v8 a user is now assigned one or more Authorization Roles which controls their access.  Roles are pre-defined and pertain to the type of user for example there are roles for Inventory, Accounting, Business administration, Technician, Subcontractor etc.  Whichever roles you assign to a user give them access to those areas of AyaNova. 

Importing Users from AyaNova 7 will automatically set imported Users to have no role in order to protect information security; the business administrator will need to set each user to the most appropriate new roles after import is completed.  For more about importing from a business administration standpoint see the [business administration import guide](ay-biz-admin-import-v7.md) and for more about the techncial aspects of the import process see the [technical import guide](ops-import-v7.md).

For details see the [Authorization roles](ay-biz-admin-roles.md) guide for more information.

### Record history
In AyaNova 7 there was a Record history feature which would show who created an object and when it was created and who last edited an object and when.  No intermediate changes were tracked, in other words you couldn't see any history of changes, only the most recent.
In v8 we have expanded this feature into a full log and renamed it the [Event log](ay-start-event-log.md).  Now, (for all major objects) AyaNova will keep a log of every time an object was created, retrieved, updated and deleted and which user did it a log format so you can see a history of who made changes and when.


### Tags
[Tags](ay-start-form-tags.md) are a new feature for AyaNova 8 that replace and improve upon several different categorization features in v7.

The following objects from v7 have been replaced by tags in v8:
* User certification
* User skill
* Client group
* Dispatch zone
* Part category
* Regions
* Scheduleable user group
* Unit service type
* Unit model category
* Work order category 
* Work order item type

[Importing from v7](ops-import-v7.md) will automatically create tags for these objects and will then tag the corresponding objects that were set to these category items with the new tags created.

In addition, all objects imported from v7 will be tagged with "v7-import".

### Reports
todo: reports, major differences from v7 here

### Wiki
The [Wiki](ay-start-form-wiki.md) feature has been changed substantially based on user feedback.



##### Editor
Previously there was a hybrid Wiki system, remote users (WBI) would interact with an HTML editor and HTML representation of the wiki document and windows AyaNova users would interact with a "rich text" editor similar to Wordpad.  This required behind the scenes translations between Rich text format and HTML format and the results were not always compatible.  In addition, it would have been very difficult to edit Wiki pages on small screen devices. 

Now, a Wiki document is edited using [Markdown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown) a simple plain text formatting language.  This allows us to provide an efficient and easy to use editor for Wiki pages that will work on any AyaNova supported device.

##### Embedded files 
Previously users were able to embed files into a Wiki document which was in turn stored directly in the AyaNova database which could cause issues and lead to longer backup and restore times.
Now, we have expanded this feature into it's own separate [Attachments](ay-start-form-attachments.md) feature

### Documents / Wiki Embedded files -> Attachments
All attached and embedded file features have been consolidated in v8 into a new [Attachments](ay-start-form-attachments.md) feature.

* Attachment storage 
    * in v7 embedded wiki files were stored *inside* the database, now Attachments are stored in a special folder in the file system to avoid bloating the database.
    * In v7 Documents were simply links to existing files visible to the workstations / server; file attachments are stored in a special folder managed by the AyaNova server making it easier to backup and restore and ensure all data is consolidated in one folder.
* Rename - can now rename an attached file
* Notes - there is now a notes field 


## New features in AyaNova 8.0
todo: new features here


