Ristken Software Smart Agent 4.4.2 Does Not Conform to The Software Design Requirements

Set Forth in The Microsoft Windows XP Application Specification

 

As a result of not conforming to proper software standards, Ristken Software Smart Agent 4.4.2 Does Not Properly Function In a Secure Active Directory Environment.

 

It violates section 3.2 and 3.4 of the Microsoft Windows XP Application Specification Development Standards.

Update 03/24/2008 - Ristken Software has created a new application which specifically addresses the issues listed above regarding compliance to the Microsoft Application Specification.

 

An updated application has been provided to Tom Masano, Inc's F&I department to test and debug in attempt to verify that changes to the application to bring it in live with the application specification indeed resolves the issue.

 

Once Tom Masano, Inc verifies the operability of the new software, it will be pushed down to all Ristken Software enabled vehicle dealerships across the United States.

 

See additional details on the specific technical nature of the original problem below.

From: James M. Aloye 
Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2008 5:11 PM
To: Wendy Brewer; Ristken Support; Lori Turnam
Cc: Jim Aloye
Subject: RE: Directory Path

 

Wendy,

 

Did the previous version of the active-x control save deal.rec and dealw.rec files to the “C:\Windows\Downloaded Program Files” folder?

 

Is there any way you can change the active-x control to save the deal.rec and dealw.rec files to a standard NTFS or FAT32 type folder like “C:\Program Files\Ristken Software Inc\DMS Smart Agent\Data” or something outside of the Windows specialty folder of “C:\Windows\Downloaded Program Files” ?

 

In Windows XP, the “C:\Windows\Downloaded Program Files” is not handled by the Operating System in the same way a regular folder is, making it an extremely big problem for non administrative users to save any files to the C:\Windows\Downloaded Program Files” folder that are not actual .OCX files (also known as active-x controls).

 

Because Windows handles this folder differently than normal NTFS or FAT32 folders like “C:\Program Files\Ristken Software Inc\DMS Smart Agent\Data” It is not possible to adjust permissions on the “C:\Windows\Downloaded Program Files” folder the same way that permissions would get adjusted on a regular NTFS folder.

 

This appears to be why your active-x control is saving the file deal.rec as DownloadedProgramFilesdeal.rec in the “C:\Windows” windows folder instead of in the “C:\Windows\Downloaded Program Files”. Please see figure 0.1 below for details.

 

FIGURE 0.1

 

Ristken Active-X Glitch

 

Also, the screen shots below show the differences between the Windows Specialty folder of “C:\Windows\Downloaded Program Files” in figure 1.1 compared to “C:\Program Files\Ristken Software Inc\DMS Smart Agent\” in figure 1.2

 

FIGURE 1.1

Ristken Active-X Glitch

 

 

FIGURE 1.2

 

Ristken Active-X Glitch

 

Since the changes Ristken Software recently made to its active-x control is what caused this problem, I am hoping that you can get this issue fixed up as soon as possible.

 

Sincerely,

Jim Aloye

Tom Masano, Inc - IT Dept

Ph: (484) 332-4460

Email: Jim.Aloye@Masano.com

Web: www.tommasano.com

 

From: Wendy Brewer 
Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2008 1:54 PM
To: Jim Aloye
Subject: Directory Path

 

The active X control writes the deal information to the same directory.  C:\windows\Downloaded Program files.  The control writes out either deal.rec or dealw.rec depending on find or save. 

 

Let me know if this corrects the problem.

 

Thanks,

Wendy Brewer

 

 

Wendy Brewer

Ristken Software Services