In order to address a few bugs that are in the Client Tool, a service pack will be released next week. The service pack is tentatively scheduled to be released either on March 30th or March 31st. After the update, the Client Tool will be on version 2009Q1 SP1.

Users who already have the 2009Q1 version of the Client Tool will be prompted to update to 2009Q1 SP1. The Update Service will guide these users to complete the update.

User who have never installed the Client Tool or who are installing it on a new machine will be able to download the full installation of the 2009Q1 SP1 version.

All users who are working with a shared, network database will need to update both the individual Client Tool installations via the Update Service and the database. These users should contact their database administrator (DBA) in order to for the DBA to run a script which will update the shared, network database.

The details of what bugs were fixed will be included in the updated version of the Release Notes.

If you have any questions about how the Update Service works, we would suggest watching the recently released Update tutorial.

Labels: Release Schedule Information

Limited Technical Support Until the Next Release

In order to focus on the release of the next version of the ECMPS Client Tool which is scheduled for March 17th, technical support will be limited from now until the release of the next version. If possible, hold your questions until after the release.

Any questions submitted will be maintained in the technical support queue, but it is unlikely that a question submitted during this time period will be addressed until after the release.

As a reminder, the EPA Host System (the production system) will not be available beginning on Monday, March 9th. That means that production users will not be able to log in to the EPA Host System, sync data from the EPA Host System, retrieve data from the EPA Host System, or submit data to the EPA Host System.

Also, for those who are using the ECMPS Client Tool Preview (CTP), technical support for CTP will end on Friday, March 13th. At that time, access to the Test EPA Host System will also be ended. All CTP users should then plan on switching to using the production version of the Client Tool.

Labels: Release Schedule Information, Technical Support, Transition to ECMPS

There are a number of odds and ends that need to be mentioned.

1. As has been previously reported, the access to the production EPA Host System will be unavailable from March 9th until March 17th when the next version of the Client Tool software is scheduled to be released. (By the way, as of now, everything seems to be on schedule to release the software on March 17th.)
   
   Sources who have been working with technical support in order to submit 2008Q4 data have been informed about the fact that, in some cases, they will need to wait until the release of the next version of the software to complete their submission.


2. Second, ECMPS Client Tool Preview (CTP) is ending on March 13th. Everyone who has been working with the CTP and has not installed the production version, should plan on switching to the production version once it becomes available. Note, you cannot upgrade from the CTP to the production version. You must install the production version. If you want you can uninstall the CTP, but it is not necessary.
   
   Under ECMPS, it is no longer necessary to have a test environment such as was found in ETS-FTP. In ECMPS, all of your data are evaluated before you submit your data to the EPA. In other words, because the evaluation of the data takes place in the Client Tool, there is no need to submit your data to a test environment. All data which are submitted to the EPA from the Client Tool have already been fully evaluated. (There is an option to submit data with critical errors, but this should only be used in order to submit data to meet the submission deadline, and the data submitted with critical errors must be resubmitted without critical errors as soon as possible.)


3. The support Web site is undergoing some work to improve the delivery of information. In conjunction with the switch to mandatory reporting under ECMPS, the ECMPS Support Web site will be updated to reflect that change. References to testing and the CTP will be removed, and the Web site will have a cleaner, easier-to-use interface to allow stakeholders faster access to support information. The improvements to the Web site can already be seen in the enhanced search functionality. Perhaps, you have used the Web site search previously and did not find it very useful. The search is much more powerful and comprehensive in its indexing of all of the information which is found on the Web site. Look for the complete Web site change to take place around the time of the release of the new version.


4. The next version of the Client Tool which will be released on or about March 17th will be available for 64-bit versions of Windows XP and Windows Vista. The version which will be available for download from the ECMPS Support Web site and the EPA Web site will be 32-bit versions. Users who need 64-bit versions should contact Technical Support.
   
   We are not putting both versions on the Web sites in order to limit confusion in this first mandatory reporting time frame. Most users are still working with 32-bit versions of the Microsoft operating systems. As time goes on, newer machines will have the 64-bit version, and that version will be made available from the ECMPS Support and EPA Web sites.


5. Finally, a reminder about keeping up-to-date with ECMPS. Currently, there are several ways including simply viewing the Web site. The site includes FAQs, information about Known Issues and EPA Host System access status in addition to all of the documentation and other information available to assist you in reporting data and using the Client Tool. For the latest updates that affect your reporting of data, you can sign up to receive emails the day after a post is added to the Support Blog. Finally, for even quicker information, we have recently added Twitter. This is a microblog which will send you information shortly after it is posted. And, you can have Twitter send that information to your cell phone if that is the best way for you to get that information. All of these ways of communication will only become more important in the next several weeks as we move into the 2009Q1 reporting month.

Labels: Release Schedule Information, Scheduled Outage, Technical Support

The countdown to April 1 continues

As the clock keeps ticking toward the first mandatory reporting period under ECMPS which will begin on Wednesday, April 1, 2009, there is even a shorter time line related to the release of the next version of the Client Tool and the ending of the testing period.

Here are the relevant dates over the next few weeks:

• March 6th  ECMPS Users will begin to be able to use the CAMD Business System to set up their challenge questions. These challenge questions are part of CROMERR, and they must be set up before ECMPS users will be able to submit any data through the Client Tool under the next version. This is earlier than was originally scheduled. Users should be sure to set this up in advance of using the next version of the Client Tool.


• March 9th:  The EPA Host System is closed down in order to begin preparations and data loading for the next release of the Client Tool. The EPA Host System will remain offline until March 17th.


• March 13th:  The ECMPS Client Tool Preview (CTP) ends. The Test EPA Host System will be permanently shut down. All users should begin to use the production version of the Client Tool beginning with its release.


• March 17th:  The next version of the production version of the Client Tool is scheduled to be released on or about March 17th. All existing production users will be required to upgrade to the new version. All new production users will need to download and install the latest version which will be available from the ECMPS Support Web site.

Labels: Preparing for ECMPS, Release Schedule Information

The ECMPS Client Tool version 4 for both production and the ECMPS Client Tool Preview (CTP) has been released.

Instructions for Production Users

All current production users will be required to update their version of the Client Tool. They will be prompted to perform the update the next time that they attempt to connect to the EPA Host System. Steps for performing the update are available through the link which was provided in the email which you should have been sent or should have been forwarded to you.

New production users should have received an email or been forwarded an email which includes the link for getting started with the ECMPS Client Tool production version.

Any questions about installing or upgrading the production version of the Client Tool should be sent to ecmps-support@camdsupport.com.

Instructions for CTP Users

All current CTP users will be required to update their version of the Client Tool. They will be prompted to perform the update the next time that they attempt to connect to the EPA Host System. Steps for performing the update are shown here.

New CTP users will need to download the installation and run it on their computer. Instructions for installing the CTP for the first time can be found here.

Questions about installing or upgrading the CTP should be sent to ecmps-testing@camdsupport.com.

Technical Support Reminder

Technical Support will be closed on December 25, 2008 and January 1, 2009. On all of the other days from December 22nd through January 2nd, technical support will continue to be available. However, over those two weeks many of the technical support staff will be taking time off for vacation. Please be patient when waiting for responses to your questions as there will not be our usual full team of technical support staff available to help. By January 5th, when the new reporting period has begun, we will have our entire technical support staff back in the office.

Factoid About Release 4

For internal development and testing, all releases of the Client Tool are assigned a Greek letter name. This naming convention is based on the usual Greek letter naming scheme used for software development which begins with Alpha and then moves on to Beta.

As development continued, this naming convention was continued beyond these first two letters of the Greek alphabet. This last version--Version 4--was named for the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet which is Eta. (For more about the Greek alphabet, click here.)

Labels: Industry Testing, Release Schedule Information

Following the release of version 3 of the Client Tool (both the production and the CTP versions), we have found a number of issues that need to be addressed prior to the end of the 2008Q3 submission period.

In order to address these issues, a update to version 3 of the Client Tool needs to be made. We are scheduling this update to be released on Tuesday, October 7th.

The update will address the known issues which have been identified with version 3. For the most part, many of the known issues only address a relatively small number of sources who are submitting official data through ECMPS.

However, one of the issues to be addressed will affect a majority of the sources who have switched to using ECMPS for official data submissions. In many cases, the Emissions Recording Begin Date (ERBD) for a unit needs to be corrected. The ERBD affects the begin dates for methods and systems.

After the corrections to the dates have been made through the update, the evaluation of monitoring plan data may include METHOD-14, PROGRAM-2, PROGRAM-3, PROGRAM-4, or PROGRAM-5 evaluation check errors. Note, that this will affect monitoring plan data which have been previously submitted with no critical errors. In addition, because the ERBD is fundamental to the monitoring plan, the monitoring plan data will need to be evaluated after the update. These evaluation errors can be corrected by adjusting the method and system begin dates.

Much more detailed information about the impact of this date correction will be posted prior to the release of the update. This information will include details about how to correct the evaluation errors that will occur.

In the meantime, if production users are receiving any of the evaluation errors listed above, it is probably best to wait until the update has been released before proceeding to attempt to correct these errors.

The update for CTP3 will be identical to the update for production. This will continue our practice of keeping the CTP in sync with the production version of the Client Tool.

Labels: Industry Testing, Release Schedule Information

The ECMPS Client Tool version 3 for both production and the ECMPS Client Tool Preview (CTP) has been released.

Instructions for Production Users

All current production users will be required to update their version of the Client Tool. They will be prompted to perform the update the next time that they attempt to connect to the EPA Host System. Steps for performing the update are available through the link which was provided in the email which you should have been sent or should have been forwarded to you.

New production users should have received an email or been forwarded an email which includes the link for getting started with the ECMPS Client Tool production version.

Any questions about installing or upgrading the production version of the Client Tool should be sent to ecmps-support@camdsupport.com.

Instructions for CTP Users

All current CTP users will be required to update their version of the Client Tool. They will be prompted to perform the update the next time that they attempt to connect to the EPA Host System. Steps for performing the update are shown here.

New CTP users will need to download the installation and run it on their computer. Instructions for installing the CTP for the first time can be found here.

Questions about installing or upgrading the CTP should be sent to ecmps-testing@camdsupport.com.

Technical Support Reminder

Technical support for both production and the CTP will be unavailable from September 19 through September 22 due to PQA moving its offices.

Labels: Industry Testing, Release Schedule Information

The release schedule for version 3 of the ECMPS Client Tool has been set. Unlike in previous releases, both the production and CTP versions will be released on the same date which is scheduled to be September 16, 2008. At that time, users of both the production and the Client Tool Preview (CTP) versions of the Client Tool will be forced to update to version 3 when they attempt to log in to the EPA Host System. In addition, all stakeholders who are working with sources who will be first reporting in ECMPS with 2008Q3 data will be able to access the data for facilities which have switched to report via ECMPS.

Related to this release, there are a few dates which need to be kept in mind.

• September 16, 2008: Version 3 for both the production version of the Client Tool and the Client Tool Preview (CTP) is schedule to be released on the same day--Tuesday, September 16th.


• September 8 - 16, 2008: In order to facilitate the release of version 3, including the loading of data for the sources who have opted to begin using ECMPS for official submissions beginning with 2008Q3 data, the EPA Host System will be unavailable for all ECMPS users from September 8 until the release on September 16. Users will only be able to work offline during this time.


• September 1 - 5, 2008: During the week of September 1 - 5, there will be limited technical support. On Monday, September 1, technical support will not be available because of the Labor Day Holiday. The rest of the week will be limited technical support in order to help facilitate the roll out of version 3.

If you have any questions about this schedule, please send an email to technical support.

Labels: Release Schedule Information