V1.5

Release NotesContents::
Target audience: Mifos specialists.

These release notes contain important information about Mifos version 1.5 (code name: Gazelle C) and higher. Mifos version 1.5 is a release that includes currency denominated loan products, shutdown management and user administration, performance and functional enhancements, and bug fixes. In addition to an overview of the major changes since the previous major release known issues and other information are addressed here. Please read this document before you begin using Mifos.

Requirements

Hardware

See MifosSystemRecommendations for hardware requirements.

Software

Software requirements are described in the INSTALL file that downloads with the Mifos version 1.5.x release package.

Configuration

See Configuring Mifos for details on how to set up Mifos

Browser

Mifos recommends using Firefox with this release. Mifos 1.5 supports the following browsers

Firefox

  • Firefox 3.0 and above.

Internet Explorer

  • IE 6.0 SP1
  • IE 7.0

New Features and Enhancements

  • Currency Denominated Loan Products
  • Ability to search by client government ID
  • Shutdown Mechanism and User Administration
  • Improvements to customer_schedules and customer_fee_schedules batch jobs
  • Performance improvements in Collection sheet entry
  • Major fixes to changing meetings and centers of clients

Upgrade and Important Notes

If you are upgrading from a previous version of Mifos, please see Mifos 1.5 Upgrade Instructions for important information that might impact your upgrade.

Other Known Issues

Deployment Isolation

There have been unconfirmed reports that deploying multiple instances of Mifos inside the same Tomcat installation may cause problems. We advise isolating deployments by only deploying a single instance of Mifos inside a single installation of Tomcat until further notice.

Configuration Settings

  • Configuration of Process flow properties: Mifos doesn't start when a process flow property (such as ClientPendingApprovalStateEnabled) has been set to a non-default value. The workaround is to manually update these settings in the database. See the `Process section in Configuring Mifos Mifos <http://mifos.org/developers/wiki/Configuring Mifos#process>`_ for how to work around this problem. Issue 2252.
  • Client Family Details - if you are upgrading from a previous version of Mifos and decide to turn on this feature, you will not be able to update existing clients information. Issue 2879.

Loans

  • Issue 2903
  • Loan Product Definition ranges are not enforced when a loan account is created:
    • You can still create a loan account with a grace period even if "Grace type" is specified as "None" in the Loan Product Definition. Issue 1662.
    • The number of installments for grace period on loan accounts can be greater than what's defined in the Loan Product Definition for number of grace periods. Issue 1663.
    • When you edit a loan account, the interest rate is not validated against the allowable range, as defined in the Loan Product Definition. Issue 1882.
  • Loan disbursal: You cannot disburse two loans for the same loan product to the same client or group. To work around this problem, create multiple products with the same product settings. Issue 2006.
  • Rounding issues when fees are removed from active loans: You may experience problems related to rounding when you remove fees from active loans. Issue 1934.
  • Minimum/Maximum days between disbursal and first repayment: These settings are not optional. Use the default values (1 for Minimum and 365 for Maximum) as a workaround. Issue 2005.

Memory and Performance

  • Additional permanent generation space may be needed: The Mifos web application may require more permanent generation space than the default. See PermGenOutOfMemory for details.

Other

  • Savings Product Definition: "Minimum balance required for interest" is not working. Issue 1542.
  • Holidays are not changeable: Once you add a new holiday to Mifos, it cannot be edited or deleted. Use caution with this feature. Issue 1398.
  • If your database is different than the default, you need to change your standard Mifos reports for them to connect to the right database. See Issue 2840 for more information.

`Current list of known bugs. <http://mifosforge.jira.com/secure/IssueNavigator.jspa?mode=hide&requestId=10044>`_

Fixed Issues

Use the following links to see which issues were fixed in Mifos version 1.5.0 and above:

Acknowledgements

The project owners would like to thank those who have been actively involved in the Mifos community. Your code contributions, ideas, documentation assistance and testing have been extremely helpful in moving the project forward.

A big thanks to the entire Mifos community!