There is this annoying bug in Leopard’s iCal called the “calendar cache” bug or the “stuck” bug. It’s an issue with iCalendar feeds. Sometimes when an event is edited or modified in an iCalendar feed, Apple iCal doesn’t properly update the event.

This is a problem for many web based applications (like Heap CRM) that provide iCalendar feeds. The reason this is sometimes called the “calendar cache” bug is because this problem is all about the “calendar cache.” Apple iCal has cached the event, it just doesn’t think there is any reason to look to see if it has been updated. By simply deleting the calendar calendar cache, it forces iCal to update the event.

Obviously, to delete the calendar cache on a regular schedule by hand makes no practical sense. So I wrote what I have to assume is simplest Automator script ever written.

I also have this saved as an application, so that I can run it in the background. What I personally do is have the application run every time I login. So at least once a day the iCal feeds are forced to update. You can run it as many times as you like, or assign it to a schedule.

iCal Fix (Application)
iCal Fix (Automator Workflow)

Ever want to put all of your search results in a category; now you can with save search to category.

Here’s how it works. When you search people or leads, opportunities, customers and archives just click on the “save to category” button and all of your search results will be added to that category. You can even create a new category right there on the fly.

If you are searching messages or events, when you click one of the “save search to category” buttons, all of people associated with your search results will be added to that category.

With this tool you can now create temporary (or permanent) categories very quickly.

Heap CRM »

Ever needed to take a note when you only had a phone? Now you can with Jott. Jott is a service that converts voice messages to text and either sends them in e-mail or forwards them to a web 2.0 application (like Heap).

Here’s how you set it up.

1) Sign-up for a Jott account at Jott.com (it’s free)
2) Go to the tab labeled “Jott Links”
3) Click on the “Add it Here” button on the right
4) OK, fill out this form like so:

Setup URL:http://www.wbpsystems.com/jott/login.php
Link URL: http://www.wbpsystems.com/jott/api.php

5) Enter your e-mail password to your Heap CRM Account.

6) Select your account

That’s it! Now you can send messages to Heap directly from your phone.

Next time you have an address in an e-mail, message, comment, etc. you might notice a small globe similar to this.

This is a data detector (Heap’s newest) and if you click on it, it takes you to the location on Google Maps straight away.

Text fields in Heap are extremely smart. They of course detect things like e-mails and websites, but they also detect more exotic items such as UPS numbers and chat clients.

Ever want to create a to-do list within a message? Sure you could use follow-up events, but that’s probably an overkill for something like a shopping list. Instead let’s use this little trick.

Here’s my shopping list:

Ok, one of these I need to draw attention to (with @highlight), because we are completely out and one I already purchased, so I can mark that off (with @done).

Heap CRM >

We’ve just added goals in Heap CRM. Take a look the reports page.

OK, enter some goals

Alright, now there is an indicator displaying which goals are complete and which goals need some attention. You can apply goals based on category, user, month whatever.

You’ve requested the ability to pay with PayPal. You’ve requested to pay in advance. We just released both in one simple feature.

Go under “Settings” then “Account”

Click the “Pre-Pay with PayPal”

Select one of the suggested amounts to pay (there is also an “other” option to allow you to enter any number you like)

Log into PayPal

Once logged in you can select any funding source you like (so yes that means you can pay with eCheck, Credit Card, etc.)

Confirm

Look at your new account balance

We have an exciting new feature in Heap CRM: E-Mail alerts. What this allows you to do is get a summery of overdue events, today’s events or both. To get started just go to your calendar and click on “E-Mail Alerts.”

Now, you can do this for any or all of your calendars, so you can be very specific on which events you will be alerted for.

Migration update

Some of you may know that a migration is in progress for Heap and all other WBP SYSTEMS assets. I’m pleased to tell you that the first, and most significant step, is complete. Over that last couple of weeks you should have noticed marked improvement in speed and performance.

We’ve just enhanced the reports in Heap CRM. Reports have always been simple in Heap, but there was never a way to see the data used to generate the report item; now there is. Next to each item in the report there is a person icon.

Clicking on the icon will reveal the leads, opportunities or customers that contributed to that number on the report.

You can also export this data as a CSV (for use in Numbers, Google Docs, OpenOffice or Excel).

Also, we have added an extremely minor (but often requested) feature worth mentioning: Import Undo. This is probably of little use to our existing users, however for new users learning to use our import system, we hope this will save you some time.

Forwarding e-mail to Heap CRM is really easy (and really powerful). But sometimes you just want to do a couple of things at once. The advanced e-mail features are here to do just that. Now, don’t worry, nothing here can’t be done within Heap itself (and a lot easier). If you just want to see the basics of Heap’s e-mail features, you might start here.

Override Auto Association

Probably the most important “advanced” feature is our oldest. You can override the auto association. On a typical message Heap takes a look at the “to” and “from” addresses and automatically associates the message with the appropriate lead, opportunity, customer or archive. But, let’s say you are communicating with a supplier who you need information from, but isn’t actually the lead, opportunity, customer or archive. You probably want to associate that message to someone who isn’t actually involved in the e-mail conversation, this is how:

Name_of_Prospect+SUBDOMAIN@crmondemand.biz

So instead of “message” you put in the name of the prospect replacing spaces with underscores (”_”). You don’t actually have to put in the person’s entire name, any part of it will do.

Categorization

You can also put any message, person, lead, opportunity, customer or archive in a category automatically. Just put the following somewhere in the body of the message:

[category: Name of Category]

It doesn’t matter where in the message body you place this info, but it must be on its own line.

Creating Follow-Up Events for a Message

Let’s say you want to create a follow-up event(s) to the e-mail. Just put the following somewhere in the body of the message:

[event:Date:Name of Event->Name of Calendar]

For instance if I wanted to create a follow-up event on December 1st at noon, it might look something like this:

[event:12/1/2007:Lunch with John at 12pm->Meetings]

You can have as many follow-up events as you want (and they can be anywhere in the body), but they each must be on their own line.

Placing Events on a Calendar

When creating an event by e-mail Heap defaults to putting the event on “My Calendar”. However, if you put:

[calendar:Name of Calendar]

somewhere in the body of the message, it will be placed on that calendar. It doesn’t matter where in the message body you place this info, but it must be on its own line.

Specifying Additional Contact Detail

When you want to specify additional contact detail when creating a person, lead, opportunity, customer or archive by e-mail, you can use the following fields:

[title: Title of the Person]
[phone: Phone Number(s - separated by commas)]
[mobile: Mobile Number(s - separated by commas)]
[fax: Fax Number(s - separated by commas)]
[email: E-Mail(s - separated by commas)]
[website: WebSite(s - separated by commas)]

Again, it doesn’t matter where in the message body you place this info, but each must be on its own line.