ECMPS Support

As has been mentioned in Stakeholder meetings, ECMPS will continue to have quarterly updates of the Client Tool for the foreseeable future. These updates are essential for a number of reasons, including correcting bugs, adding enhancements, and improving performance.

The September release is scheduled to be available sometime on Wednesday, September 16th. All current users of the Client Tool will be required to update to the new version. Users will be prompted to update their Client Tool after they attempt to log in to the EPA Host after the update is made available. For more information on updating the Client Tool view the tutorial on this topic.

Any new users will be able to download an installation which will allow the users to install the latest version.

All shared database users should coordinate with their database administrators because the update will include changes to the shared database, and the database administrators will need to run a script in order to update the shared database. The script for updating the shared database will be made available on September 16th.

In order to complete the release of the Client Tool and to continue loading of historical emissions data, access to the EPA Host System will be unavailable from September 8th until the release of the new version on September 16th.

Labels: Release Schedule Information

ECMPS Technical Support is excited to announce that the enhancements to the ECMPS Support Web site have been rolled out.

The most obvious difference from the old Web site is the look-and-feel. The changes were made to make navigation of the site much easier and to organize the information around several categories, namely ECMPS News, Software Downloads, Learn about ECMPS, and Help. To view the overall organization, you should click on the Site Map link which is available on every page in the upper right-hand side.

All of the information which was previously available is still on the new Web site. In addition, a number of new features were added, including changes to the Help section to help you more easily find answers to your technical support questions.

For a more detailed description of the changes to the Web site, you should read the FAQ entitled, "Why does the site look different?" We invite you to take a look at the site to become more familiar with its layout, and we also invite you to give us your feedback.

Labels: Technical Support

As was noted in an earlier post, Data and Maps, is the Web site on which ECMPS data can be accessed after the data have been submitted to the EPA Host System. In the early hours of each morning, a database process is run which copies data from the EPA Host System to the Data and Maps database. After this process is complete, all of the data which were submitted the previous day have been copied from the EPA Host System to the Data and Maps.

Previously this was a manual process that occurred a few weeks after the end of a submission period. Now this process is automated, and it the process is run every day of the year in order to capture each submission from the previous day.

That means that the Data and Maps data are always up-to-data as of yesterday's submissions. The amount of emissions data which have been copied from the EPA Host System are indicated by the progress bar. The progress bar indicates the percentage of emissions data which have been received relative to the amount expected. Until all emissions data for a submission period have been submitted via ECMPS, the progress bar will not reach one hundred percent.

Labels: Data and Maps

ECMPS Technical Support is excited about the imminent launch of a project which has been in the works for a while. Early next week, an enhanced ECMPS Support Web site will be launched.

The new Web site is an overhaul of the current ECMPS Support Web site. All of the same features and information that users have come to expect are still on the new Web site including FAQs, tutorials, reporting documentation, known issues, site-wide search, installation downloads, and the latest news.

However, the navigation and layout of the Web site have been enhanced to make finding the information users need even easier. In addition, the site has also been made fully Section 508 compliant in order to provide greater access to all users. We certainly hope that users find this site more intuitive and easier to use in order to help them find the answers to their reporting questions.

Next week, after the new Web site has been launched, an announcement will be made in ECMPS News. After you have an opportunity to view the site, let us know what you think of the changes.

In order to focus on the release of the next version of the ECMPS Client Tool, which is scheduled for September 16th, technical support will be limited from now until the release of the next version.

Any questions submitted will be maintained in the technical support queue, but, depending on the number of requests coming in, it may take somewhat longer than usual for users to receive a response from technical support.

The problem which prevented users from logging into the EPA Host System has
been corrected.

Labels: Technical Support

There is a known outage at this time. EPA computing personnel are
working to correct the problem. We will post a notification when the problem
has been resolved.

Labels: Technical Support