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Looking for some help and advice please. I have several engineers with various problems using the mobile application since we have upgraded to 15.10 .

Firstly, each time I clock in the previous mileage is set to 0 so it looks as if I’m doing 50,000 miles a day, also sometimes it takes 3 or 4 times to clock in before it will stay clocked in.

Secondly, every day I use the app it takes me to a downloading screen to update which takes around 2-3 minutes each time but I’ve already uninstalled and reinstalled the app so I know it’s up to date.

Thirdly, whenever I close a job down it doesn’t allow me to go to the final page to close it, instead I get a pop up message telling me I haven’t filled in every field and have to go through 4 pages again where the info is already populated before I can then close the job down.

I now have a 4th issue. I cannot accept a receiving order as it tells me I do not have the permissions to do this in admin mode.

Engineers are using the following

ASTEA mobile edge 15.3.2 on iPad mini 4 iOS 14.8.1. I have deleted and reinstalled ASTEA, and restarted iPad etc.

 

Hi Lisa,

Are you able to confirm the engineers are entering their mileage when they first clock in to the mobile application?

Otherwise, I believe there is a default value of 0 if they do not enter anything or choose to bypass it.  The system does not ‘remember’ the last odometer reading you inserted so it always will revert back to zero initially upon clock-in is my understanding.

 

For the clock-in needing to be done several times - please note the status of the connection.  It could be it is queued waiting for a connection to transmit, etc.

 


Hi Lisa,

On the second issue about always downloading each time, please confirm whether they are using the IOS native app or Chrome?

I am thinking that something is clearing their cache when they exit the application but not sure what they are using for the client software itself, native app or Chrome.  If Chrome, make sure that it is not configured to clear cache upon each exit as I believe that will cause this issue for example.

 


Hi Lisa,

The other two issues (3 and 4), we need more details… can you log a ticket in our system with information such as who the field engineer is, what receiving document, which service order, etc.? 

Based on your post, it sounds to me like this is one specific user so more details would be helpful.

Kind regards,

Phil

 


For the second issue, is your environment load-balanced?  Try synchronizing the manifest files to see if it resolves it, details from the installation guide are as follows:

Synchronizing a Load-Balanced Environment
If you have the Alliance Mobile Edge application installed in a load-balanced environment, then there are two more additional steps you must perform after the installation process has been completed:
1. You must synchronize the File Manifest files across each of the servers so that the time stamps are identical.
2. If you are using the Mobile Customizer application (or plan to do so in the near future), you must synchronize the Machine Keys on each server in the IIS Web Farm.
Synchronizing the File Manifest files
When you login to the mobile application we check the “Date Modified” value on the file manifest that is affiliated with the particular operating system (this is different for iOS, Android and Windows). If the date modified value of this file on the mobile server is different than the last time the technician logged in, our application will automatically download the updated client files. If you have the same file manifest on each of two/more load balanced servers BUT THE TIMESTAMPS ARE DIFFERENT on these files, then every time the technician logs in and gets directed to a different server our application thinks it has to download the files all over again. In order to synchronize the File Manifests you will need to do a copy/paste of the following three files from one mobile server to each of the other servers in your load-balanced environment:
\Program Files\Alliance Mobile Edge\AsteaMobileEdge\AndroidFileManifest.xml
\Program Files\Alliance Mobile Edge\AsteaMobileEdge\iOSFileManifest.xml
\Program Files\Alliance Mobile Edge\AsteaMobileEdge\WpFileManifest.xml
1. Open up File Explorer on the first mobile server and go to the \Program Files\Alliance Mobile Edge\AsteaMobileEdge folder.
2. Select each of the three files specified above (hold down the CTRL key while clicking on each one).
3. Right-click the mouse and select Copy (or do a CTRL-C):
Installation Guide for Alliance Mobile Edge and Customer Portal 15.4
4. Switch to one of the other load balanced mobile servers.
5. Open up File Explorer and go to the \Program Files\Alliance Mobile Edge\AsteaMobileEdge folder.
6. Right-click the mouse and select “Paste” (or do a CTRL-V) to paste the files onto this server.
7. After you do the paste please do a quick comparison between the “Date Modified” values on these files on each of the servers to confirm that they are now showing the same date/time stamp as they are on the server you copied them from.
Installation Guide for Alliance Mobile Edge and Customer Portal 15.4
8. Repeat this Paste process on each of the other load balanced mobile servers in your environment (and confirm that the Date Modified time stamp is the same).


I use a PowerShell script to synchronize the manifest files across my three Mobile servers. After mobile shipment(s) are installed on  all mobile servers,  I run it off the first mobile server to be updated.

#If you have the Alliance Mobile Universal application installed in a load-balanced environment, 
#then there is one more additional step you must perform after the installation process has been completed: 
#You must synchronize the File Manifest files across each of the servers so that the time stamps are identical.

cp "C:\Program Files\Alliance Mobile Edge\AsteaMobileEdge\AndroidFileManifest.xml" -Destination "\\YourMobileServer02\C$\Program Files\Alliance Mobile Edge\AsteaMobileEdge\AndroidFileManifest.xml" -Recurse
cp "C:\Program Files\Alliance Mobile Edge\AsteaMobileEdge\iOSFileManifest.xml" -Destination "\\YourMobileServer02\C$\Program Files\Alliance Mobile Edge\AsteaMobileEdge\iOSFileManifest.xml" -Recurse
cp "C:\Program Files\Alliance Mobile Edge\AsteaMobileEdge\WpFileManifest.xml" -Destination "\\YourMobileServer02\C$\Program Files\Alliance Mobile Edge\AsteaMobileEdge\WpFileManifest.xml" -Recurse

cp "C:\Program Files\Alliance Mobile Edge\AsteaMobileEdge\AndroidFileManifest.xml" -Destination "\\YourMobileServer03\C$\Program Files\Alliance Mobile Edge\AsteaMobileEdge\AndroidFileManifest.xml" -Recurse
cp "C:\Program Files\Alliance Mobile Edge\AsteaMobileEdge\iOSFileManifest.xml" -Destination "\\YourMobileServer03\C$\Program Files\Alliance Mobile Edge\AsteaMobileEdge\iOSFileManifest.xml" -Recurse
cp "C:\Program Files\Alliance Mobile Edge\AsteaMobileEdge\WpFileManifest.xml" -Destination "\\YourMobileServer03\C$\Program Files\Alliance Mobile Edge\AsteaMobileEdge\WpFileManifest.xml" -Recurse


Regarding the 2nd issue with the Mobile app always downloading, we posted a solution in this topic:

Mobile Edge always download again when brought to foreground | IFS Community


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