What s New in Ad Hoc 10.3?

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1 Page 1 What s New in Ad Hoc 10.3? There are three features of Ad Hoc 10.3 that deserve special attention; Backup/Restore, Publishing and Database Filters. Backup/Restore is a new feature to Ad Hoc. Publishing and Database Filters have fundamentally changed in version 10.3 from prior versions of Ad Hoc. There are other changes in Version 10.3, however, they are adequately covered in the Release Notes and related documentation. Backup/Restore Two new utilities have been added to the Management Console functionality; Backup Instance and Restore Instance. These actions are part of the Manage an Instance action group in the Management Console. As the name implies, the Backup Instance utility will create a file containing the instance configuration, metadata, reports, schedules, archives and event logging as of a snapshot in time. The Restore Instance utility will create and configure a wholly new instance, replicating the original source instance. The Backup/Restore functionality is well suited to replicating an existing instance in a different location. Note: The Restore Instance function is not intended to repair an existing instance. Note: The Restore Instance function must be invoked using the same version of the Management Console that was used to create the backup file. For detailed instructions and details of the Backup Instance and Restore Instance functions consult the Management Console Usage Guide for Version This guide is distributed with the Management Console and may be found in the Ad Hoc documentation on DevNet under the General topic.

2 Page 2 Backup Instance The following dialog is presented when the Manage an Instance / Backup Instance action is invoked in the Management Console: The key piece of information to be provided by the System Administrator is the identification of a path/file for the backup. Click on the Create button to backup the active instance (the instance identified in the target panel of the Management Console).

3 Restore Instance The following initial dialog is presented when the Manage an Instance / Restore Instance action is invoked in the Management Console. Page 3 The Restore Instance process is presented in a wizard form. There may be numerous dialogs presented to assist the restoration process with the configuration of the new instance. The key pieces of information in this initial dialog are the path and name of the Backup File, the new physical Restore Location, and the new Virtual Directory Name. Click on the Next button to continue the Restore Instance wizard dialogs.

4 Publishing Publishing is the process of making Logi Info reports available in an Ad Hoc instance. Although this feature has been around quite a while, its core implementation has changed with version In prior versions, the publishing effort was largely manual. The System Administrator would copy the report definitions from an Info application to the _Definitions/_Reports folder as well as any support files to their respective locations. The initial Publisher Wizard dialog appeared as: Page 4 Logi Analyticswas formerly known as LogiXML As the instructions in the dialog indicate, once the manual copy and positioning of files and <Connection> elements was completed then the Publisher Wizard would make the entries in metadata of the target Ad Hoc instance that allowed the reports to be launched.

5 Page 5 With Version 10.3, the Publisher Wizard simplifies the process and virtually eliminates the manual effort involved. In addition, the utility examines the report definitions and identifies most of the dependencies. The utility gives the System Administrator more control over the publishing process by identifying the dependencies, identifying existing files that may need to be overwritten, and mapping the Info <Connection> elements to their Ad Hoc equivalents. The new initial Publisher Wizard dialog appears as follows: The key piece of information for the Publisher Wizard is identifying the source Info application location. In subsequent dialogs the System Administrator will select the appropriate reports to be published, map the related <Connection> elements, and manage the support files required for the selected reports. The new Publisher Wizard is fully documented in the Management Console Usage Guide for version 10.3 of Ad Hoc. This guide is distributed with the Management Console and may be found in the Ad Hoc documentation on DevNet under the General topic.

6 Page 6 Database Filter If a user has permission to report from two or more reporting databases, prior versions of Ad Hoc would display a Database dropdown list in the menu bar of the Ad Hoc application. For example: The selected database would have application scope meaning that virtually all Ad Hoc functions would be based on that database. All report lists, data objects, relationships, etc. were based on the selected database. This also acted as a filter on the data objects presented to the end user during the creation of reports (Modify Data Source dialog). With version 10.3 of Ad Hoc, the Database filter has been relocated and its scope is more restricted to the functional area where it is found. Along with this change, the requirement that all data objects used in a report must come from the same database has been lifted. Note: This does not imply that data objects from different reporting databases can be related. It means that each display element in a report may be based on data objects from separate reporting databases. There is also a configuration attribute that affects the behavior of the Database filter. In the Management Console, the Instance Configuration / Application Settings / Reporting Features tab has a Multiple Connections attribute. This attribute determines whether the Database filter has an All option. If the all option is selected in the Database dropdown, this essentially disables the filter. Since the Database filter has been relocated from a prominent location in the menu to more localized areas, there are various configuration pages that have a Database Connection label annotating which reporting database the object is related to. The Database filter change is pervasive, meaning that this change impacted the Management Console, the Report Builder interface and the Ad Hoc Configuration interface. The impact is documented in the Management Console Usage Guide, the Report Design Guide and the System Administration Guide for Ad Hoc. These guides are distributed with the Management Console and may be found in the Ad Hoc documentation on DevNet under the General and Advanced topics. Following are few examples of the Ad Hoc interface changes related to the functional changes in the Database filter.

7 Page 7 On the Reports List page: The Database filter in this context will restrict the reports to those based on the selected Database. The All option will show all reports, effectively disabling the filter.

8 Page 8 On the Modify Data Source dialog: The Database filter in this context will restrict the data objects to those based on the selected Database. The All option will show all data objects, effectively disabling the filter. Note: In this example the end user may select an initial data object from any of the permitted reporting databases.

9 Page 9 On the Configuration / Data Object Configuration / Relationships page: The Database filter in this context will restrict the list of relationships to those based on the selected Database. The All option will not be shown. On the Configuration / Data Object Configuration / Relationship page: Note: The Database Connection attribute identifies the reporting database that the relationship is based upon.