What s New in Jet Reports 2010 R2

Transcription

1 What s New in Jet Reports 2010 R2 The purpose of this document is to describe the new features and requirements of Jet Reports 2010 R2. Contents Before You Install... 3 Requirements... 3 Who should install Jet Reports 2010 R2?... 3 Licensing... 4 Installing Jet Reports 2010 R Silent Installation... 4 Silently installing Jet Reports 2010 R Custom Installation Options... 6 Upgrading Microsoft Dynamics NAV Executables... 6 Why isn t Jet Reports 2010 R2 compatible with earlier version of Dynamics NAV?... 6 How do I find out Microsoft Dynamics NAV executable version?... 6 What does it take to upgrade to a compatible version?... 6 Features... 7 Snippets Improvements and Enhancements... 7 New Features and Changes in Snippets... 7 Performance Improvements in NF Functions... 7 Centralized Settings... 8 Requirements... 8 IT Setup... 8 User Setup... 8 What s New in Jet Reports 2010 R2 Page 1

2 Shared Settings vs. User Settings... 9 Jet Data Warehouse Data Source... 9 Overview... 9 Configuration... 9 Additional Options Jet Data Cube Data Source Overview Configuration Caption Editor About Table and Field Captions and Friendly Names About Value Captions Choosing a Data Source and Language Creating/Editing Table and Field Captions Creating/Editing Value Captions Saving Changes Importing/Exporting Captions What s New in Jet Reports 2010 R2 Page 2

3 Before You Install Requirements Component Requirement Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Microsoft Windows Vista Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Microsoft Windows 7 Microsoft Office Microsoft Office 2003 Microsoft Office 2007 Microsoft Office 2010 (32 or 64-bit) Database Microsoft Dynamics NAV 4.0 SP1 or later or Microsoft Dynamics GP 9 or later or Oracle or later or Microsoft SQL Server 2000 or later or An OLE or ODBC compliant database Prerequisite Microsoft.NET Framework 4.0 NOTE: For Microsoft Dynamics NAV users, the executables need to be version 4.0 SP1 or later. Any version of the business objects may be used. Additional information can be found in the Upgrading Microsoft Dynamics Executables section of this document. Who should install Jet Reports 2010 R2? There are a few things to keep in mind before upgrading. Dynamics NAV users do need to be on 4.0 SP1 executables or later, so if you are using Dynamics NAV connectors, and are not sure about this, you should read the topic in this document on Upgrading Microsoft Dynamics Executables. Jet Reports 2010 R2 is fully compatible with reports written in earlier versions of Jet Reports. However, reports created or saved with Jet Reports 2010 R2 contain new features and functionality and may not be compatible with earlier versions. For this reason we strongly recommend that users who share reports upgrade to Jet Reports 2010 R2 at the same time. What s New in Jet Reports 2010 R2 Page 3

4 Licensing Jet Reports 2010 R2 is fully compatible with licenses generated for any Jet Reports version. As long as the license allows updates through the release date, it is not necessary to upgrade the license prior to installation. Installing Jet Reports 2010 R2 To install, run the Jet Reports Setup executable file, which can be downloaded from the Jet Reports 2010 R2 Beta forum of the Jet Reports Community website. NOTE: A system reboot may be required after installing the Microsoft.NET Framework 4.0 prerequisite. Silent Installation Silent installation is a feature that installs Jet Reports with no user interaction at all. This feature is primarily useful when creating automated installation scripts. Silently installing Jet Reports 2010 R2 Use the following command line options to install Jet Reports 2010 R2 silently. /S : SILENT MODE "Jet Reports Setup.exe" /s runs the installation in silent mode based on the responses contained in a response file called Setup.iss in the same directory. By default the Setup.iss file must be named Setup.iss and be located in the same directory as the Jet Reports Setup executable. To specify an alternative response file name or location, use the /f1 option, as described below. (Setup.iss, also called response files, are created by running Setup.exe with the /r option.) /R : RECORD MODE In order to run the Jet Reports Setup in silent mode, you must first run it with the /r option to generate a response file. Response files store the options and responses to the installer dialog boxes. These responses and options will be used when running the Jet Reports Setup with the /s option (silent mode). By default, the /r option names the response file Setup.iss and saves it to your system s Windows folder (C:\ Windows). To specify an alternative response file name and location, use the /f1 option. /F1 : SPECIFY ALTERNATIVE RESPONSE FILE NAME AND PATH Using the /f1 option enables you to specify an alternate response file name and location. The following example creates a response file named MySetup.iss in C:\Temp: What s New in Jet Reports 2010 R2 Page 4

5 Setup.exe /r /f1 C:\Temp\MySetup.iss Always specify an absolute path; using a relative path gives unpredictable results. The /f1 option can be used both when creating a response file (with the /r option) and when using a response file (with the /s option). /L: SETUP LANGUAGE To specify the language used by the Jet Reports installation program use the /L option followed by the language ID. Specifying the setup language will run the Jet Reports installation program in the setup language and install any language specific files that Jet Reports requires. The following example runs the Jet Reports installation with German dialogs and installs the localized German help files: Jet Reports Setup.exe /L103 LANGUAGE CODES Language Language Code Danish 1030 Dutch 1043 English (United States) 1033 French (France) 1036 German 1031 Japanese 1041 Korean 1042 Polish 1045 Portuguese 2070 Slovenian 1060 Spanish 1034 Swedish 1053 Turkish 1055 What s New in Jet Reports 2010 R2 Page 5

6 Custom Installation Options The installation of Jet Reports 2010 R2 includes a Custom option which will allow you to install optional administrative tools for Jet Reports. The Typical installation option does not install these tools by default, while a Complete installation does. These tools include the Database Caption Editor, the Data View Creator, and the GP Update Utility. Upgrading Microsoft Dynamics NAV Executables Why isn t Jet Reports 2010 R2 compatible with earlier version of Dynamics NAV? Jet Reports 2010 R2 is based on.net technology and uses C/Front for Microsoft Dynamics NAV Connectors. The first available C/Front driver for Microsoft Dynamics NAV appeared in version 4.0 SP1. How do I find out Microsoft Dynamics NAV executable version? Microsoft Dynamics NAV has a separate version for business objects and for executables. Both are available from any Microsoft Dynamics NAV client in the Help, About Microsoft Dynamics NAV window. Jet 2009 is compatible with any version of business objects for all countries, but requires 4.0 SP1 executables or later. To see the executables version that you are running, check the version within the parenthesis. Here is an example: Version WW Dynamics NAV 2.6 (4.0 SP1) What does it take to upgrade to a compatible version? You can upgrade your Microsoft Dynamics NAV executables through a simple installation process on your Dynamics NAV server and clients. This is generally a short installation process, but some care does need to be taken so this should be performed by an experienced individual. For questions regarding this process, you should contact your Dynamics NAV solution partner. As long as you are current on your maintenance agreement with Microsoft, there is no cost to you for this upgrade. For more information, contact your Dynamics NAV solution partner. What s New in Jet Reports 2010 R2 Page 6

7 Features Snippets Improvements and Enhancements The Snippets feature, introduced with the release of Jet Reports 2010, has been enhanced to include new enhancements to make them more useful and easier to use. New Features and Changes in Snippets Snippets can now be organized into folders with an intuitive breadcrumb interface that supports drag and drop and cut/copy/paste operations. SNIPPET FOLDERS Folders can now be used to organize your Snippets. A new folder can be created with the New Folder button on the Snippets toolbar. You can navigate to a folder by double-clicking it, and you can go back by using the breadcrumb navigation bar at the top of the Snippets window. An existing snippet or folder can be dragged and dropped into another folder in order to move it. SNIPPET CONTENT REPLACEMENT You can use the Replace button to replace the contents of an existing snippet with the contents of the currently selected cell(s) in Excel. REMOVAL OF EDIT MODE Edit mode has been removed within the Snippets window. The currently selected snippet or folder can now be deleted via the delete button in the toolbar or by pressing the Delete key on the keyboard. Snippets can be renamed or have their descriptions modified by right-clicking a snippet and selecting Rename or pressing the F2 key. CUT, COPY, AND PASTE Snippets and folders can now be cut, copied, and pasted between folders in the Snippets window. This can be done with the toolbar buttons or by right-clicking the snippet. Performance Improvements in NF Functions Jet Reports users who have reports replicating large numbers of NF functions should see significant performance improvements in Jet Reports 2010 R2. What s New in Jet Reports 2010 R2 Page 7

8 Centralized Settings The addition of the centralized settings feature allows multiple Jet Reports users to use centralized data sources, licenses, and metadata via a SQL Server, enabling users in an enterprise environment to more easily configure Jet Reports. It also allows all Jet Reports users within an organization to share reports more easily since data source names are guaranteed to be the same when data sources are centralized. Requirements In order to use centralized settings, Jet Reports users must have access to the Microsoft SQL Server that stores the centralized Jet Reports settings. IT Setup Before settings can be centralized, someone with administrative rights on the SQL Server must create a database for Jet Reports settings and then run the provided database installation SQL script, JetReportsSettings.sql, on this database. After running the script, the administrator must give all Jet Reports users appropriate read/write permissions to this database. This process can be made much simpler by running an additional script that is also provided, JetReportsSettingsRoles.sql. These scripts along with a description of the database and roles are available in the Jet Reports 2010 R2 Beta forum on the Jet Reports Community website. User Setup In order to begin using centralized settings, you must open your Jet Reports Application Settings window and navigate to the Settings Location page. Then choose "Centralized settings database." Next, you should specify the SQL Server, the Jet Reports settings database, and your authentication information for this database and click OK. When centralized settings are used, Jet Reports no longer uses license files stored on the file system. Instead, Jet Reports uses the license files stored in the settings database. To import a Jet Reports license to the settings database, select the Licensing tab in the Application Settings window and click the Import button located directly below the list of licenses. Once a license has been imported, it will appear in the list of licenses. The license number, type, updates thru date, and status are displayed for each license stored in the database. From the Licensing tab, licenses can also be viewed, deleted, and exported. If no licenses are currently in the centralized settings database and you attempt to close the Application Settings window, you will be prompted to import a Jet Reports license. Jet Reports will not function if centralized settings are used and there are no licenses in the centralized settings database, so it is recommended that you import a valid license before exiting the Application Settings window. Expired or invalid licenses cannot be imported. Next, open the Jet Reports Data Source Settings. If a different user has already setup centralized data sources in the settings database, you will see these data sources listed. From here, you can configure or import your own data sources which will be shared with all other users connecting to the same SQL Server database for centralized settings. What s New in Jet Reports 2010 R2 Page 8

9 Please note that centralized data sources are completely separate from local data sources. If you return to the Jet Reports Application Settings and choose "Local user profile on the Settings Location page, Jet Reports will go back to using your local data source settings. You can see this change by returning to the Data Source Settings and you will see all your local data sources, which may be different from those stored in the centralized settings database. Changes to local data sources do not affect centralized data sources and vice versa. Shared Settings vs. User Settings Not every setting is shared. For example, user authentication information for a given data source is different for each user and thus is not shared. Each user who connects to the centralized data sources must configure their own authentication before the data sources will be usable. Some other settings are also considered user preferences and are not shared, such as the Default Company in Navision and Great Plains data sources. Most settings that are not shared are still stored in the centralized settings database, but they are stored separately for each user. Application settings are never shared; each user has their own copy of their own application settings. Application settings are stored in the local user profile on the system in which Jet Reports is installed. Other metadata used by Jet Reports is also sometimes shared and sometimes stored by user. For example, favorite tables and fields are stored separately for each user. Navision drilldown forms, however, are shared for all users of a particular data source. Jet Data Warehouse Data Source If you are a Jet Enterprise user, you can easily create Jet Reports data sources to your Jet Data Manager warehouses, allowing you to use the full functionality of Jet Reports to retrieve data directly from your warehouses. This type of data source requires a Universal Jet Reports license. Overview The Jet Data Warehouse data source can be used for all reporting purposes throughout Jet Reports to read from any data warehouse created using the Jet Data Manager. Tools such as the Browser, Report Wizard, Jfx, and the Report Builder can be used against this type of data source. When writing Jet Reports formulas against a Jet Data Warehouse data source, it is important to note that you will automatically be directed to use the appropriate tables within the database and the names of those tables will be formatted to make them easier to read. Configuration To configure a Jet Data Warehouse data source, open the Jet Data Source Settings and select the File ribbon tab and click "Add... Type a name for the new data source, and select the "Jet Data Warehouse" type from the drop down list. Click OK and the new data source will be created. What s New in Jet Reports 2010 R2 Page 9

10 On the Authentication page, select the type of authentication that you will use to connect to the data warehouse on the SQL server. Next, move to the Connection page to specify the name of the SQL server that hosts the Jet Data Warehouse database. Finally, select the name of the warehouse from the Database dropdown. Ensure that the data source is configured correctly by clicking the "Test Connection" button on the Data Sources ribbon along the top of the form. Additional Options The Display and Advanced pages provide the additional configuration options that are available to most OLE/ODBC compliant data sources. Please see the Jet Reports Help for more information on these topics. Jet Data Cube Data Source Jet Enterprise users can create an Excel data source to a Jet Data Cube. The Jet Data Cube data source allows a seamless integration between Excel and a user's data by providing a single location to create Jet Reports data sources and Jet Data Cube data sources. Creation of Excel data sources via Jet Reports requires a Universal Jet Reports license. Overview The Jet Data Cube data source can be used to create Excel pivot tables and charts. It is not a Jet Reports data source and cannot be used with Jet Reports functions. It will not be available in any of the Jet Reports UI elements except for the Data Source Settings. Configuration To configure a Jet Data Cube data source, open the Jet Data Source Settings, select the File ribbon tab and click "Add...". Type a name for the new data source, and select the "Jet Data Cube" type from the drop down list. Click OK and the new data source will be created. Next, move to the connection page to specify the name of the SQL server that hosts the Jet Data Cube database. Finally, select the name of the cube from the "Database" drop down. Ensure that the data source is configured correctly by clicking the "Test Connection" button on the Data Sources ribbon along the top of the form. Caption Editor Users of most Universal data sources can use the Jet Reports Caption Editor to add language captions to their databases, allowing Jet Reports users to report on tables, fields, and option values in their own languages. What s New in Jet Reports 2010 R2 Page 10

11 About Table and Field Captions and Friendly Names Table and field captions, which are known as friendly names in Great Plains, are captions that can be used in place of the actual table or field names. For example, a table may be named "Customers," but Spanish Jet Reports users want to see that table as "Clientes." In this case, a caption of "Clientes" could be added for the "Customers" table for the Spanish language. Then if a user sets their "Language caption group" in the Jet Data Source Settings to Spanish, they will see "Clientes" instead of "Customers" in the Jet Reports user interface and can also use the captions in Jet Reports functions. About Value Captions Value captions can be used in Jet Reports to give captions to certain integer values in a table. For example, suppose a field named "Document Type" contained the values 1 or 2, with a value of 1 indicating that the record is a purchase order, and a value of 2 indicating that the record is a credit memo. You may want to display the text "Credit Memo" when the user returns the Document Type field or allow the user to filter for a field value of "Credit Memo," rather than forcing the user to know that a value of 2 indicates a credit memo. In this case, you can add value captions of 1 for "Purchase Order" and 2 for "Credit Memo" to the "Document Type" field for the English language. Choosing a Data Source and Language After opening the caption editor, you can select the Jet Reports data source for which to edit language captions with the dropdown list at the top of the window. Below the data source dropdown, if you are editing friendly names in a Great Plains data source, you can select the company. Below the data source and company dropdowns, there is another dropdown list which allows you to select the language or friendly name group for which you want to add captions. Creating/Editing Table and Field Captions After selecting a data source and language, you should see the list of tables from that data source populate the grid on the far left side of the Caption Editor window. You can create language captions for your chosen language for each table by clicking in the cell next to the table name and typing the caption you want to appear for that table. When you select a table, you should see a list of fields for that table in the grid immediately to the right of the table grid. You can create language captions for field names by clicking the cell next to the field name and typing the caption you want to appear for that field in the chosen language. Creating/Editing Value Captions When you select an integer type field within the Caption Editor, you will see a list of value captions for that field in the grid to the right of the field grid. You can edit an existing value caption by double-clicking the value or caption cell. You can create a new value caption by clicking in the empty row at the bottom of the grid and typing an integer value or by selecting a value from the drop-down list and then typing the language caption that should What s New in Jet Reports 2010 R2 Page 11

12 appear for that value. Value captions must all be unique for any one field. You can delete a value caption by clicking the row containing the caption and pressing the delete key. Saving Changes When you have finished editing captions, click the Save button, which will write the captions to the database. Because the captions are stored in the database, any Jet user who uses this database will have access to the captions. Importing/Exporting Captions To export captions for the current data source, company, and language, click the "Export..." button. If changes to the captions have been made the captions will be saved prior to performing the export operation. You will be prompted to choose a file to which to save the captions. Captions can be imported and exported in either XML or binary format. It is recommended that unless you need the exported file to be readable from a text editor, you should export in binary format since the exported file will be much smaller. You can import the captions from a file by clicking the "Import..." button and browsing to the exported file. After importing captions, you must click the "Save" button to save the imported captions to the database. What s New in Jet Reports 2010 R2 Page 12