More descriptive error message when export fails. The default case status is now ’open’ (not ’draft’). It is now possible to create a new organisation directly from the ’new case’ form. The term ’case alleged crime’ changed to ’case problem’. The management of contacts was much improved to be more flexible on which fields are mandatory and which are recommended. New ’date of birth’ field for clients, and many many bugs fixed. This release also includes a new German and Italian translation, and the French translation was updated.

Warning: development release! Before upgrading, make sure that you have a backup of your database. This release is rather stable, but it has not extensively been tested. Use at your own risk.

Your feedback is appreciated: please send us a short report of your experience using LCM: good and bad points, features you like or dislike, etc. Send your report to legalcase-devel@lists.sf.net (public list) or to legalcase-core@lists.sf.net (a private list which includes only the core team members).

 See also: Freshmeat announcement

Installation

The software can be freely downloaded from our Source Forge project page:

 Development version (0.7.2)
 Stable version (0.6.4c)

For more information, consult the quickstart notes.

Upgrading

To upgrade from a previous version, overwrite the files then login as administrator. This will trigger the upgrade of the database structure (if necessary).

About LCM

Background: The Legal Case Management system is a free software initiative of the Internet Rights Bulgaria Foundation (IRBF). The project was initiated on August 1st 2004 in collaboration of several Bulgarian not-for-profit organisations. Today, with the help of user contributions, the software is available in seven languages and continues to be actively developed. We also offer commercial support, trainings. For more information: legalcase-core@lists.sf.net

Release ChangeLog

 Core: The search case/client/org box in "edit case" (which uses ajax) now displays a wait indicator. (ML)
 Upgrade: Upgrade was not converting "contact types" correctly. Affects users who have upgraded from any version to LCM 0.7.1. (ML)
 Core: Added more descriptive solution for when File_priv is missing for database export. (ML)
 Trad-DE: New german translations (Kilian Huber and André Grötschel)
 Trad-IT: New italian translation (Rodolfo Cappa)
 Core: The "custom" directory has been moved to "inc/config/custom/" so that it does not cause problems with multiple sites using the same installation. Simply move the directory, backwards-compatibility was not kept as very few users use it. (ML)
 Core: New cases are now suggest by default to set "status = open" (instead of "draft"), since few users use the draft mode anyway. My be reverted by setting $GLOBALS['case_default_status'] = 'draft' in my_options.php (ML)
 Import/export: fixed path problem, which was not relative. It was causing problems when exporting archives to another server with a different hierarchy. (ML)
 Interface: It’s now possible to search/create an organisation while creating a new case, similarly to search/create client. Default off, must be activated from site configuration. (ML)
 Core: Organisation forms were transformed into an object (similar to client and case). Application and validation of keywords and contacts was also reworked, they were sometimes absent. (ML)
 Interface: Term "alleged crime" changed to "problem"; term "legal reason" changed to "justification" — by the way, it is easy to override these labels using perso.php. (ML)
 Interface: Term "keywords" changed to "custom fields". (ML)
 Core: The management of contacts has completely changed. It is now possible to say whether a contact is mandatory, suggested or optional, and which contacts should be shown in a form (instead of just "phone, e-mail and other"). Migration is made automatically. (ML)
 Interface: Date of last modification is added to contacts and shown in the interface. This is useful to know, for example, whether the address of a client should be double-checked because it is old. (ML)
 Interface: List of attached files to a case or client has been improved. See screenshot. (ML)
 Core: Files to customise the translation (perso.php and perso_XX.php) must now be located in the "inc/config/" directory. This facilitates installations where there are many LCM sites used by only one installation, such as with the Debian package. Also simplifies backups, since "inc/config/" only has files specific to the local installation. (ML)
 Interface: When changing the font size (using one of the three icons), the font size is automatically saved in the user’s preferences. (ML)
 Interface: Fixed display of time fields in "new followup" under MS Internet Explorer. (B#1385219, Reported by KC, fixed by ML)
 Core: Added "data of birth" field. (ML)
 Core: Fixed bug in conditional statements whether to show "alleged crime" and "legal reason" fields." (ML)
 Core: Fixed bug in "add/view permissions" of a user in case details. (ML)
 Core: Fixed syntax bug in "edit permissions" (edit_auth.php) of a user for a given case. (ML)
 Upgrade: Before launching upgrade of DB structure, check whether file permissions are ok, otherwise there may be strange bugs. (In response to bug report by MH, fixed by ML)
 Keywords: Editing an existing keyword group would not select the correct "applies to" value. (ML)