If you use RB products & services, you are a member of Team RB
This is your exclusive area for:
- RB news of particular interest to RB users
- Downloadable RB manuals
- Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about RB
- Free RB training: RBU (ReporterBase University)
- Downloadable free marketing materials to help you sell your RB services
- Links to other sites of interest to RB users
Team RB News
DIY custom reports from the cloud
August 23, 2018: If you wanted to create your own custom reports, you haven’t been able to in RB8 Cloud due to security reasons. OMTI has developed a plug-in for RB8 Cloud users who want to create their own custom reports using their MR data in 3rd-party applications. The Data Reader plug-in provides a dedicated connection from a company’s registered device(s) to their RB database in the cloud so they can use their RB information in their own custom reports or other applications. Visit the RB plug-in page for more information.
RB9 is coming in 2018
Janaury 2018: The wait for the next generation of your business management software is almost over. OMTI is pleased to announce that RB9, the next major upgrade of ReporterBase, will be available Summer 2018. This new version has been completely redesigned with new features and other improvements that incorporate your suggestions from the Idea Collaborator.
For details and news about RB9, look for your monthly Idea Salad newsletter from OMTI or visit the RB9 section of this website. If you are not receiving the Idea Salad newsletter, please contact RB Support.
What to do now that free StartSSL digital signatures for RB-PDF transcripts are being discontinued
December 2017: In August 2016, we announced that RB-PDF transcripts could be signed for free on reporterbase.com. You and your reporters could use any digital signature you prefer, free or paid, but we recommended StartSSL, due to their zero cost, ease of installation, and multiple-browser application.
However, we have recently learned that StartCom, the Certification Authority (CA) that issues StartSSL’s free digital IDs, has been “de-certified” by the majority of browser makers. StartCom has been unable to regain the trust of these browser makers, so they decided to no longer issue digital IDs after December 31, 2017. They will provide validation services for two years from January 1, 2018, but starting 2020, all remaining valid certificates will be revoked.
In addition, we have learned that Google Chrome plans to distrust Symantec, GeoTrust, and Thawte security certificates.
These changes are the result of ever-improving security standards, which require CAs to evolve or stop offering security certificates. StartSSL decided on the latter.
How this affects you & your reporters
Fortunately, all existing digital IDs issued by StartCom will be valid for 2 years from date of issuance. However, new IDs will not be issued as of January 1, 2018.
If you or your reporters do not have a digital ID after the end of this year, you will need to get one from a different source, either free or paid.
We recommend Comodo Secure Email Certificates. The only problem we have with this solution is that they only work with IE and Firefox browsers. When we find a better long-term solution, we will let you know.
We have updated the RB Digital Signature Proxy Guide for Reporters. Please share with your reporters.
Upgrade your RB Web & experience zero downtime
7/13/2016: If you subscribe to RB Web, you know you get free upgrades. But we are announcing this free upgrade specifically because — while it's still technically RB Web 8 — we have made a big internal change that requires action on your part to take advantage of the benefits of this upgrade.
This new version doesn't add any new functions to RB Web or take any away. Instead, we have set up RB Web in what we call High Availability Disaster Recovery (HADR) architecture: This version of RB Web resides on multiple servers, and the multiple versions are redundant.
These means 2 things:
- Your RB Web service will never go down — even when Microsoft does maintenance on the Azure platform (whether planned or unplanned). Instead, a different server will become the active server without skipping a beat.
- HADR intelligently disperses web server traffic, so if you have heavy traffic on your site, performance won't take such a hit as with your current single dedicated server.
To get this free upgrade, you must do 3 things 1st:
- Open the same three ports from your firewall or router, 443, 1433, and 5011, that you opened for RBWeb8 to another IP address: 13.88.20.159.
- Keep existing IP 23.100.34.52 open during the transition period.
- Update your RB Web to the latest version.
When you are ready, contact RB Support to complete the upgrade.
On RB8 Cloud?
No need to do anything: We will automatically upgrade your RB Web to HADR.
Download mini-guide of 2015 updates
Only includes the latest & improved features in RB8 and RB Web
If you want to quickly know what’s in the latest RB8 and RB Web updates, we have prepared a new mini-guide to the new and updated features in RB8 and RB Web. All the updates are listed, and new functions, such as printing FedEx and UPS shippping labels from RB8, are explained in step-by-step instructions.
Download updated user guides
Get complete instructions for using RB8 and RB Web
With the Fall/Winter 2015 update to RB8 and RB Web, you can now print FedEx and UPS shippping labels from RB8 and link exhibits to RB-PDF transcripts easier. We have updated the RB8 and RB Web user guides to cover these new and improved features. We have also updated the RB Web user guide for Attorneys to include instructions for the new Request Confirm button and security password reset.
2015 user conference led by OMTI’s next generation
Watch the videos here
If you were not able to attend the conference or just want to see it again, we are posting videos here:
Get your feature requests in the next RB update
Idea Collaborator in our customer portal gives you a forum
Idea Collaborator is the way to get your ideas for improving OMTI products, like RB8 and RB Web, implemented in future versions. It replaces our existing feedback system with an online forum where everyone who uses the same products as you do can post suggestions and vote for those they would like to see in an upcoming version.
Ideas that are most popular with our clients will be priorities for our development team. You no longer have to wonder if we are paying attention to your idea, and we no longer have to wonder if a requested feature is useful to enough users to be worth the time, effort and expense of developing it.
Idea Collaborator is available to our clients through our portal site. Sign in with your user name and password, post a request and vote on existing feature requests you’d like to use too. The more votes an individual feature gets, the more likely you will see it in our products.
Like an ongoing focus group, online places like Idea Collaborator are widely used in the software industry to gather ideas from client bases. Since we are software developers, not industry experts like our clients, we don’t know if a new feature makes sense. We will be relying on you and your peers to guide our future development.
To enhance the possibility that your requests are popular with the group, please write your requests using the following guidelines:
Idea Collaborator Guidelines
- Include only one idea per request. If you have multiple suggestions, make separate requests for each. This will make it easier for other users to vote for ideas they want to see too.
- Make the Idea Title descriptive of your idea. Requests will be listed by their titles, so a descriptive title makes your idea easier to find when someone scrolls through the list. For example, instead of titling an idea “RB8 Billing,” which is too generic, write “RB8 payments by credit card” to title a request to add a credit card payment option in RB Billing.
- Explain the idea in depth in the Description field. The more detailed your feature description, the better. Also include some background on the issue(s) the feature would address, and why you want/need it.
