Tuesday, December 23, 2008

AccountMate SQL 7.5 and AccountMate LAN 7.1 Now Supported

A small update of Stonefield Query for AccountMate SQL is now available that supports the new versions that were recently released by AccountMate. This includes AccountMate 7.5 for SQL and AccountMate 7.5 for Express. As long as your Stonefield Query subscription is current, you can get this new version from here.

Also, a small update of Stonefield Query for AccountMate LAN is now available that supports the new version, 7.1, that was recently released by AccountMate. You can get this new version from here.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Stonefield Software is Sage Gold Development Partner and Sage Certified

Stonefield Software was recently awarded Gold Development Partner status with Sage (formerly known as Sage Software). Also, our Stonefield Query versions for Sage products, such as Stonefield Query for Sage Accpac ERP, Stonefield Query for Sage Pro ERP, and Stonefield Query for ACT!, were recently certified by Sage.
partner_devPartner_GOLD
partner_EndorsedSolution

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Stonefield Query Version 3.2 Build 3253

We posted updated versions of the Stonefield Query SDK, Stonefield Query for Sage Accpac ERP, and Stonefield Query for Sage Pro ERP today with the following changes.

All Versions

  • Fields with commas in the captions no longer cause a problem when used in cross-tabulation reports.
  • Under some conditions, previewing a report, then editing the report and closing the report wizard, then opening another data source and running a report used data from the previously open data source. This has been fixed.
  • Stonefield Query now gives a warning when you run a report that includes a memo field in a group header.
  • You can now use the SUM() function in a custom SQL statement.
  • Some dialogs were adjusted so things fit better when Spanish and Dutch are used. Also, the Find dialog displayed in the preview window is now properly localized.
  • Some labels didn’t have a sufficient left margin. This was fixed.
  • Filter conditions are now displayed properly when something other than a period is used as the decimal place character.
  • Clearing the filter for a report (that is, clicking the Clear button in the Filter dialog) no longer clears the exclude conditions for the report.
  • Exclusion filters weren't working under some conditions. That's been fixed.
  • Filter conditions are now displayed correctly if you change the language or date format Stonefield Query uses after creating the filter.
  • The currency symbol now appears correctly in a report if you use something other than the dollar sign ($) and specify a dynamic color or style expression for the field.
  • Linked fields, such as email or Web linked fields, now work properly in a PDF file; that is, you can click the linked value in the PDF reader to navigate to the Web site or bring up your email program.

SDK

  • The FilterCondition object now accepts the "is yes" and "is no" operators.
  • Adding multiple conditions to the FilterConditions collection now works.
  • Custom icons are now used properly when they exist in a directory other than the project

Sage Accpac ERP

  • Stonefield Query for Sage Accpac ERP now supports multiple languages. Currently, English, Spanish, German, and Dutch are supported.
  • All quantity fields now default to no decimal places. You can, of course, choose the number of decimals you want to use in the Field Properties dialog for a field in a particular report.
  • New Margin and Profit fields are available in Sales History Details in Order Entry.
  • Reports using Sales History Details from Order Entry and Customers from Accounts Receivable now work better.
  • Hours and Overtime House in Payroll Check Details are now formatted properly.
  • The new Amount field in Payroll Check Details displays negative values for deductions, so summing works as you'd expect in reports.
  • Filtering on Document Date (and some other fields) in the Combined Invoices & Credit Notes and Combined Invoice & Credit Note Details tables in Order Entry now works properly.
  • New Quantity (Stock U/M) fields in Invoice Details, Credit Note Details, Order Details, and Combined Invoice & Credit Note Details displays quantity amounts into the same unit of measure so they can be added up correctly. For example, if you enter one invoice of a desk lamp of a quantity of 5 with a UOM (unit of measure) of "each" and another of 10 with a UOM of "dozen", this field will give you a total quantity 125 as opposed to the incorrect 15 when these two records are added.

Sage Pro ERP

  • The Salesperson File in Order Entry now also appears in the Accounts Receivable module. Also, a new Full Name field in that table makes reports easier to read.
  • Scheduled reports now run properly.
  • You can now sort and group on the Email Address and Web Site fields in the Customers, Vendors, National Accounts Master, and Customer Connect Company Files.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Stonefield Query Version 3.2 Build 3226

We posted updated versions of the Stonefield Query SDK, Stonefield Query for Sage Accpac ERP, and Stonefield Query for Sage Pro ERP today with the following changes.

All Versions

  • Stonefield Query is now available in Spanish thanks to Juan Antonio Santana.
  • Stonefield Query now supports linked reports that pass a value to a report with an "is between" ask-at-runtime condition by using the same value for both the starting and ending values.
  • Multiple text lines (for example, in a memo field) are put into the same cell in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet rather than separate cells.
  • An issue where the dollar sign is cut off for currency values or the value shows as **** when the largest-width item in the column is a negative value was fixed.
  • The correct currency symbol now displays in charts.
  • You can now call the built-in GetConditionValue function from an expression in the Advanced Report Designer.
  • Using a currency field in the data area of a cross-tabulation report but formatting it as "Count" no longer displays the currency symbol.
  • Cross-tab data columns are now sized properly in the unusual case where all row totals are zero (that is, individual columns have a mixture of positive and negative values so that the row total is zero and all rows have this condition).
  • You no longer get an error if you edit a group in the Maintain Users and Groups dialog, select the Users tab and when asked to save, choose No, and then change the license type.

SDK

  • Joins involving fields with the same name as the tables they are in (such as "Category.Category") are now handled properly.
  • You can now access the FilterConditions object in DataEngine.FinalizeSQLStatement scripts.
  • Anonymized projects no longer give an error looking for SQOUTPUT.EXE when you print a report.
  • Running a report with ask-at-runtime filter conditions and a custom SQL statement from SQProxy no longer displays the ask-at-runtime dialog if you specify that the conditions should be ignored by passing blanks for their values.

Sage Accpac ERP

  • New Combined Invoices & Credit Notes and Combined Invoice & Credit Note Details tables in Order Entry make it easy to report on both invoices and credit notes on the same report.
  • You can call new built-in GetStartingBalance and GetStartingBalanceFYPeriod functions in an advanced layout report to display the starting balance for the specified account in the specified fiscal year and period.
  • There's a new Quantity on Hand (Current) field in Inventory Control Location Details table. By default, Sage Accpac does not store the quantity on hand but calculates it. When day end is run, all pending transactions are applied and the Quantity on Hand (Last Day End) field is updated to the true quantity on hand. The Quantity on Hand (Current) field allows you to see what is on hand without running day end. It is calculated as Quantity on Hand (Last Day End) + Quantity Received Not Costed - Quantity Shipped Not Costed + Quantity Adjusted Not Costed.
  • The built-in functions for date expressions, such as "Today's Date", now work properly for Sage Accpac dates.
  • For optional fields that have descriptive as well as code values, a new "Optional field Description" field is available to display the descriptive value.
  • There are several new fields in the General Ledger Posted Transactions table which you can use to create more compact transaction listings: Batch-Entry, which combines the batch and entry numbers, Source, which combines the Source Ledger and Source Type values, and Fiscal Year-Period, which combines the Fiscal Year and Period.
  • Stonefield Query no longer permits a relationship between Accounts Receivable Customers and Project and Job Costing Projects unless you are using Sage Accpac 5.5 or later.
  • The Purchase Order and Account Sets tables are now included in the Order Entry module.
  • Since the Salesperson table was removed from Order Entry in Sage Accpac 5.5, all relationships to it now work with the Accounts Receivable Salesperson table.
  • The Account Segment Code fields in the General Ledger Accounts table now display the segment code rather than its descriptive name. However, new Account Segment Description fields were added to display the descriptive names. This gives you the best of both worlds: you can display either the code or descriptive name or both.

Sage Pro ERP

  • Stonefield Query now displays the proper values for the Transaction Type field in the Inventory Transaction table for issues and receipts.
  • All fields in "current + history" tables now have same data type and size as those in the current tables.
  • Stonefield Query now properly handles fields that were renamed in Sage Pro version 7.0 so you can use Stonefield Query with Sage Pro version 6.5 and earlier.
  • The MACODE field in the Order Entry Transaction table is no longer available since it's obsolete.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Doug Hennig receives 14th Microsoft MVP Award

Doug Hennig, Stonefield's CTO, was awarded a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for the fourteenth consecutive year.

The Microsoft MVP Award recognizes outstanding members of a technical community for their participation and willingness to help others. The MVP Award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who foster the free and objective exchange of knowledge by actively sharing their real-world expertise with technology users.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Email Back Up

Our email server had problems yesterday; it bounced back everything sent to it. Fortunately, it's working again, so please resend any email you tried to send.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Stonefield Query Version 3.2 Build 3169

We posted updated versions of the Stonefield Query SDK, Stonefield Query for Sage Accpac ERP, and Stonefield Query for Sage Pro ERP today with the following changes.

All Versions

  • The performance of many types of reports was improved.
  • Stonefield Query now supports previewing when called from the command line (we had removed that capability but have added it back).
  • You no longer get an error running a report from another application or running a scheduled report if Stonefield Query is already open.
  • You can now specify AllowDialogs on the command line to tell Stonefield Query to display the ask-at-runtime dialog if there are any ask-at-runtime conditions rather than having the program terminate with error -13. It will still terminate with that error code if the user clicks Cancel in the ask-at-runtime dialog so your application can tell whether the report ran to completion or not.
  • Specifying DBF for the file type and not specifying NOSHOW (that is, you want to display the contents of the resulting DBF file) when calling Stonefield Query from the command line now properly displays the file.
  • The Maintain Users and Groups dialog no longer allows you to remove the Administrators group from the last user in that group; otherwise, no one would be able to access this dialog.
  • Subqueries in custom SQL statements are now handled better.
  • Stonefield Query now supports exclusion filters for tables that have complex joins between them (that is, more than one field matching another).
  • Typos in the Dutch versions of some messages were corrected.
  • The demo welcome dialog no longer mentions Webinars, since they aren't available for all versions.
  • The locations of some runtime files were moved to more logical locations.
  • A bug that caused the Table dropdown list to revert to the default table when you select a different table, turn on Show Only Favorites, and click the Values button was fixed.
  • If you are editing a report in a report wizard, then activate the Reports Explorer and close it or choose Exit, the report wizard window now comes to the top before asking if you want to cancel the report; this makes it more obvious which report it refers to.
  • Stonefield Query now correctly handles a filter value that contains " select" in it.
  • Source Database fields are no longer removed from the Available Fields list in Step 2 of the report wizards when you turn on the Show Only Favorites option.
  • A bug that prevented changes to the SQL statement for a report from being saved after clicking the Reset button in the Customize Report Wizard was fixed.
  • You no longer get an error if you have a report with more than one grouped field, have Show Count in Group Footer turned off for the last grouped field, have Summary Report turned on, and output the report to Microsoft Excel - Data Only.
  • Fields that have a different data type displayed in Stonefield Query than are actually stored in the database (for example, date values stored as character strings in the database but displayed as true date values in Stonefield Query) no longer cause an error when output to Web Page - Table format.
  • The Edit button is now disabled if you select a report that contains tables or fields you don't have access to. Previously, the button was enabled but brought up the Edit Folder dialog if you clicked it.
  • You can now pass a numeric value as the second parameter to the GetConditionValue function to return the filter value for the Nth condition. For example, if there are two conditions for Customers.CompanyName, use GetFilterCondition('Customer.CompanyName', 2) to get the value of the second condition.
  • Previously, the page header of a report called from a linked report showed an incorrect filter value for certain types of linking fields (although the data in the report was correct). This was fixed.
  • Certain types of character fields weren't output with quotes surrounding them when outputting to a comma-delimited (CSV) file. This was fixed.
  • Longer SQL statements are now allowed.
  • Filter expressions using Stonefield Query objects (such as comparing Salesperson to oUser.cUserName) now work properly.
  • Stonefield Query now properly handles fields containing ")", "(", and " FROM ".
  • Previously, if FieldA appears before FieldB in the report, FieldB is grouped, and FieldA appears in the group header band for FieldB, FieldA was covered with template objects such as the grey bar in the Elegant template. This was fixed.
  • A bug that didn't properly set up the groupings in a report if you grouped on FieldA, then added FieldB, moved it above FieldA, grouped on it, and moved the grouping above FieldA was fixed.
  • A bug that misaligned a field's heading in the second row of column headings when the first row has a multi-line heading was fixed.
  • A bug that caused an error if you included a date field in the series of a chart, didn't change the field properties to be displayed as something other than date, and have your Windows configured to display dates using month and day parts of less than two digits (such as M/D/YYYY) was fixed.

SDK

  • The Heading property for fields is no longer updated when you refresh the data dictionary. It should either be the same as the caption (internally, it's blank, meaning the use the caption as the heading) or a custom value, so in either case, it shouldn't be changed when refreshing.
  • The Resource Editor is now resizable.
  • The Values dialog no longer gives an error when you've defined a field as Character or Varchar with less than 254 characters but it actually has more than that.
  • A bug that causes an error if you follow the "Joins Between Different Databases" tutorial in the help file but use the Visual FoxPro Northwind database rather than the Access or SQL Server version was fixed.
  • You no longer get a warning that you're not eligible to use this version of the Stonefield Query Configuration Utility if your software maintenance expires.

Sage Accpac ERP

  • Optional fields are no longer removed from the Available Fields list in Step 2 of the report wizards when you turn on the Show Only Favorites option.
  • The Salesperson tables in Accounts Receivable and Order Entry now have "(AR)" and "(OE)" in their descriptions so you can distinguish them.
  • There are several new Extended Price fields in the Order Entry Order Details table that display the extended price based on various quantities, such as quantity ordered, quantity backorder, quantity shipped, and so forth.

Sage Pro ERP

  • Stonefield Query no longer gives an error if it encounters a blank record in the system company table.
  • The relationships for several tables between Sales Orders and Accounts Receivable were changed so reports showing fields from both modules work better.
  • The table you would most likely report on is now automatically selected in Step 2 of the report wizards rather than the first table in alphabetical order.
  • The MACODE field, which displayed as "Obsolete Field", was removed from the SOTRAN, SOTRN, and SOYTRN tables.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Web-Based Technical Support

Due to an excessive amount of spam (as much as 2500 per day), we're no longer using support@stonefieldquery.com for technical support.

Instead, we now offer Web-based technical support to all of our customers. This service is included with your Software Maintenance and will allow us to track and respond to your Stonefield Query issues in a timely and efficient manner.

You can submit a Technical Support Ticket at our Online Support Center (http://www.stonefieldquery.com/Support). Alternatively, you can post messages in our Support Forums(http://www.stonefieldquery.com/Support/SupportForums.aspx).

Please note that you must register on our site (registration is free) in order to submit or review your technical support issues. If you are already a member of our site, please sign-in to submit a support ticket.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Video on Creating a Customized Version of Stonefield Query

We created a short (6 minutes) video on how to create a customized version of Stonefield Query to work with any application's database. As this video shows, setting up the data dictionary for your database is mostly automated, with you doing additional customization work as necessary.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Stonefield Query for SalesLogix 3.2 Released

Stonefield Software Inc. is pleased to announce the release of version 3.2 of Stonefield Query for SalesLogix.

Stonefield Query is a user-friendly report writing, business intelligence, query, and data mining tool. With its intuitive wizard driven design, Stonefield Query makes report writing a snap for even the most novice user. Elegant and persuasive reports can be created in minutes with little or no technical knowledge required.

Some of the new features in this release are:

  • If it is installed, Stonefield Query will use the SalesLogix OLE/DB provider for reporting. This means that Stonefield Query now adheres to SalesLogix record based security (you only see those records that your SalesLogix username is allowed to see) and all date/time fields will automatically be converted to your local time zone. If the OLE/DB provider is not available then Stonefield Query will connect via ODBC.
  • When using the OLE/DB provider, Stonefield Query automatically retrieves a list of the SalesLogix datasources that have been defined on your computer by your SalesLogix administrator.
  • Exclusion filters: this allows you to query on the absence of data, such as "give me a list of customers I didn't contact last year" or "give me a list of everyone who did not buy product X". Behind the scenes, Stonefield Query generates a NOT IN subquery, but from the end-user's perspective, it's just as easy as creating a normal filter.
  • Modeless report wizards: the report wizards are no longer modal, so you can modify more than one report at a time.
    Single ask-at-runtime dialog: all ask-at-runtime filter conditions now appear in a single, wizard-like dialog rather than one dialog per condition.
  • Workstation installer: Stonefield Query now has a separate WSSetup.EXE installer, installed by Setup.EXE, that does workstation installations with the minimum of user interaction.
  • More grouping options: you can now specify that a non-grouped field should be included in the group header for another field, you can have all fields in the group header on a single line rather than stacked on separate lines, and all fields in the group header now appear in summary reports.
  • Multi-line headings: many fields now have multi-line headings so they don't take up as much room in a report, and you can change field headings to use multiple lines.
  • Customize Report Wizard for all report types: all report wizards now have an Advanced button, allowing access to TOP N, custom SQL statements, and other features.
There are dozens of other new features and bug fixes. For more information about version 3.2, please see the What's New in This Version topic in the online documentation.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Antivirus Software Causing Errors in Stonefield Query

We've received several error reports from customers over the past couple of days about errors when running reports in Stonefield Query. The most common error is "Cannot load XFRXLIB.FLL". It turns out that a recent change in the definition files for the Trend Micro anti-virus software was erroneously flagging one of our DLLs, HNDLIB.DLL, as a suspect file and quarantining it. Since XFRXLIB.FLL relies on that DLL, it fails to load so Stonefield Query can't run reports.

Apparently Trend Micro has fixed the problem, so updating to the latest definition files should resolve the problem, although you'll have to manually remove HNDLIB.DLL from quarantine.

Even if you're not using Trend Micro, it's likely a good idea to configure your anti-virus software to not scan the Stonefield Query program folder.

Update: see http://esupport.trendmicro.com/support/viewxml.do?ContentID=EN-1036613&id=EN-1036613 for instructions on configuring Trend Micro to allow or block specific programs.

Blog Moved

We've moved our blog from http://stonefieldquery.blogspot.com to http://blog.stonefieldquery.com. The old URL automatically redirects to the new one.

Friday, July 4, 2008

Calling Stonefield Query from .Net Applications

As described in our online documentation, Stonefield Query includes a lightweight COM object called SQProxy. This allows other applications to run reports, get the names of folders and the reports in them, and so on. Even though SQProxy is a COM object, it can be used in .Net applications such as ASP.Net.

You can easily add a reference to the SQProxy Type Library to a .Net project and use the interop class Visual Studio creates for you in your application. Simply right-click references in the Solution Explorer, choose Add Reference, select the COM page, and choose the SQProxy Type Library.

addref

However, there's a complication: object members of SQProxy, such as SQApplication, aren't included in the type library so they don't have the proper type information that .Net needs. As a result, these members are cast as Object and you therefore cannot access their properties or call their methods.

To get around this, use reflection. This demo class has two helper methods, GetProperty and CallMethod, that get the value of a property or call the method of a Stonefield Query object. Thanks to C# MVP Rick Strahl for providing this technique and code.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using sqproxy;
using System.Reflection;
 
namespace SQProxyTest
 
{
  class SQProxyTest
  {
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
      SQProxyTest loTest = new SQProxyTest();
      loTest.TestSQProxy();
    }
 
    private void TestSQProxy()
    {
 
      //Create the SQProxy object.
      sqproxyClass SQP = 
        new sqproxy.sqproxyClass();
 
      //Load a project.
      SQP.LoadProject("C:\\Test", "admin",
"admin", "Northwind");
 
      if (SQP.ProjectLoaded)
      {
        System.Console.WriteLine("Project Loaded");
 
        //Get references to some objects.
        object loApp = 
          this.GetProperty(SQP, "SQApplication");
        object loRE = 
          this.GetProperty(loApp, "ReportEngine");
 
        //Find out how many folders there are.
        object loFolders = 
          this.CallMethod(loRE, "GetFolders");
        int lnFolders = (int)
this.GetProperty(loFolders, "Count");
        System.Console.WriteLine("There are " +
lnFolders.ToString() + " folders");
 
        //Display the folder names.
        for (int i = 1; i <= lnFolders; i++)
        {
          object loFolder = 
            this.CallMethod(loFolders, "Item",
new object[] { i });
          string lcFolder = (string)
This.GetProperty(loFolder,
"FolderName");
          System.Console.WriteLine
(lcFolder.ToString());
        }
 
        //Run a report.
        bool llOK =
(bool) this.CallMethod(loRE,
"RunReportToFile", new object[]
{"Customers", "C:\\Temp\\Test.pdf"} );
        if (llOK)
            System.Console.WriteLine
("The Customers report was output " +
to PDF."
);
        else
            System.Console.WriteLine
("The Customers report was not " +
              run successfully.");
        System.Console.ReadLine();
        }
 
      }
 
    //This method uses reflection on the specified
//object to call the desired method,
passing
//it any necessary parameters.
    private object CallMethod(object toObject,
string tcMethod, params object[] toParams)
    {
      return toObject.GetType().InvokeMember(
tcMethod, BindingFlags.InvokeMethod,
null, toObject, toParams);
    }
 
    //This method uses reflection on the specified
//object to read the value of a property.
    private object GetProperty(object toObject,
string tcProperty)
    {
      return toObject.GetType().InvokeMember(
tcProperty, BindingFlags.GetProperty,
null, toObject, null);
    }
 
  }
}

Updating the Stonefield Query for Sage Pro ERP Data Dictionary

Stonefield Query knows all about your Sage Pro ERP database because it has a data dictionary. A data dictionary defines the fields and tables in a database, providing features such as descriptive names so you don't have to know the real names, how tables are connected, or joined, together, and calculated values such as extended price that aren't normally stored in the database.

However, if you've added custom fields or tables to the Sage Pro database, you'll want to refresh the Stonefield Query data dictionary so you can query on those new fields or tables. This is easily done using the Stonefield Query Software Development Kit (SDK). You may also want to use the SDK if you want to report on other databases you have linked to your Sage Pro system.

The Customizing the Stonefield Query Data Dictionary topic in the Stonefield Query for Sage Pro ERP help file has complete information on how to refresh the data dictionary. However, one important thing to note is that if you're using a SQL Server database, you have to tell Stonefield Query which database to read the data structure from. You can't use the DSN that Sage Pro automatically creates because that DSN sets the default database to the Sage Pro system database, which doesn't contain the tables you're interested in. Instead, create a DSN that sets the default database to the Sage Pro data database.

Alternatively, you can change the connection type to "ODBC - Connection String" and enter a connection string similar to the following:

driver=SQL Server; server=ServerName; database=DatabaseName

where ServerName is the name of the server and DatabaseName is the name of the Sage Pro database.

You can then click the Refresh button in the toolbar to refresh the entire data dictionary or right-click a table and choose Refresh Table from the shortcut menu to refresh just that table.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Stonefield Query Version 3.2 Build 3105

We posted updated versions of the Stonefield Query SDK, Stonefield Query for Sage Accpac ERP, and Stonefield Query for Sage Pro ERP today with the following changes.

All Versions

  • A bug that causes a problem with filtering on the second of two fields with the same name was fixed.
  • A bug that resulted in a bogus "The exclusion filter involves tables that appear in the report" warning when creating an exclusion filter was corrected.
  • Row fields in cross-tabulation report now respect the bold setting for the fields.
  • Field and expression filters now work properly with the "contains" operator.
  • Typos in some Dutch translations were fixed.

SDK

  • Refreshing the data dictionary no longer converts fields you've change to Logical back to the Integer data type they're actually stored as. The same is true for Date fields no longer being converted back to DateTime fields.
  • A bug that prevented Setup.Changed from being called when the Setup dialog is closed was fixed.
  • The Data Groups dropdown in the table properties page now drops down as expected. Previously, under some conditions, it failed to do so.

Sage Accpac ERP

  • Sage Accpac ERP version 5.5 is now supported.
  • Accpac databases are now shown as the company name rather than the data source name in the Open Database dialog and the status bar of the Reports Explorer.
  • The descriptive names of many tables now matches those in the Accpac documentation.
  • A bug causing the wrong company name to appear in the header of reports was corrected.
  • Most modules now have a default table. For example, if you select Accounts Receivable when creating a quick report, the Customers table is selected by default

Sage Pro ERP

  • Sage Pro ERP version 7.5 is now supported.
  • Relationships between a number of tables have been improved. For example, ARMAST is now a preferred over ARCUST as a relation to ARTRAN, ARYTRN, ARTRN, ARCASH, ARYCSH, and ARCSH when all three used.
  • Relationships were added  for SOHSHP-SODSHP, SOHSP-SODSP, SOYSHP-SOYDSP, SODSHP-SOTRAN, SOYDSP-SOYTRN, and SODSP-SOTRN. Relationships for SODSHP-SOMAST, SODSHP-SOMST, SODSP-SOMST, and SOYDSP-SOMAST were removed; these relations should go through SOHSHP instead.
  • Refreshing the data dictionary from the Sage Pro system database in the SDK Configuration Utility no longer adds system tables to the Stonefield Query data dictionary.
  • Selecting an invalid directory for the Sage Pro folder in the Locations page of the Options dialog now displays the correct directory name in the error message that appears.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Using Stonefield Query on 64-bit Windows

Although it's a 32-bit application, Stonefield Query works just fine on 64-bit versions of Windows, including Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2008.

One known issue with Windows, however, is that 32-bit applications can access 32-bit system DSNs, 32-bit user DSNs, and 64-bit user DSNs, but not 64-bit system DSNs. Since the default ODBC Administrator is the 64-bit version (you can run the 32-bit version from the SysWoW64 subdirectory of the Windows folder if necessary), any system DSNs you create aren't visible to Stonefield Query. So, either create user DSNs rather than system DSNs or use the 32-bit ODBC Administrator to create your DSNs.

This impacts any version of Stonefield Query that uses ODBC DSNs rather than connection strings, including:

  • Stonefield Query SDK (if you turn on the User Can Manage Data Sources configuration setting)
  • Stonefield Query for GoldMine
  • Stonefield Query for HEAT
  • Stonefield Query for MAS 90 and 200
  • Stonefield Query for Sage Accpac ERP
  • Stonefield Query for Sage BusinessVision
  • Stonefield Query for Sage Pro ERP (SQL version)

Monday, June 16, 2008

Stonefield Query for Sage Accpac ERP Video Available

We've posted a video providing an overview of Stonefield Query for Sage Accpac ERP. It's about 16 minutes long and goes over the various features of Stonefield Query, including: how to create quick reports, labels, cross-tab reports, and charts; how to schedule reports; and how to output reports to various kinds of files, such as Microsoft Excel or PDF. It also discusses how easy Stonefield Query makes it to report on optional fields in Sage Accpac ERP, something that's very difficult to do using other reporting solutions.

We'll do one for Sage Pro ERP in the near future.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Stonefield Query Version 3.2 Build 3082

We posted updated versions of the Stonefield Query SDK, Stonefield Query for Sage Accpac ERP, and Stonefield Query for Sage Pro ERP today with the following changes.

All Versions

  • You no longer get an error in the Registration dialog if you renamed the ADMIN user.
  • The size of Avery 5266 labels was fixed so they now print properly (the sizing information provided to us by Avery was incorrect).
  • You can no longer drag a report or folder to a blank portion of the reports list; previously, this caused the report or folder to disappear.
  • The titles for the Dynamic Color and Dynamic Font Style dialogs are now localizable.
  • The Dynamic Color and Dynamic Font Style dialogs and all dialogs in the Advanced Report Designer now use the same icon as the rest of the Stonefield Query dialogs.
  • Certain types of fields that gave an error when used in a filter condition that compares another field to them no longer do so.
  • Fields that use a drop down list of values in the ask-at-runtime Filter Condition dialog now display the same value as the last time when you run a report several times.
  • Filtering on some types of calculated fields when those fields aren't included in the report no longer causes an error.
  • Stonefield Query is no longer sensitive to the date format for dates passed as parameters to linked reports.
  • Running a report that contains links no longer loses the list of databases the second time you run it. Also, the filter conditions in the FilterConditions object are now valid between runs of linked reports. Also, the header for the parent report is no longer changed to that of the child report.
  • Issues previewing reports when Windows is set to Chinese (PRC) have been corrected.
  • Turning off the Display Date Only option in the Field Properties dialog for a datetime field resulted in that field being displayed as MM/DD/YYYY rather than the correct Windows setting when used as a filter condition. This was corrected.

SDK

  • Errors that occurred when generating help files when Windows is set to Chinese (PRC) no longer occur.
  • The Generate Setup function now include the logo image file in the generated ISS script file.
  • You can now specify a custom control class to appear in the Setup dialog using the Setup.Settings script.
  • An error that occurred when you selected a data group or user group in the Configuration Utility when you have multiple data dictionaries and the second data dictionary contains the same tables as the first one but in different data groups was fixed.
  • Setup scripts generated from the Configuration Utility now put the runtime files in the Stonefield Query program folder.
  • Although this situation doesn't make sense, Stonefield Query no longer gives an error if you use the Display Field From Related Table option on a foreign key field and the field you choose to display is the primary key from the related table and these fields have the same name.

Sage Accpac ERP

  • Application startup performance was improved.

Sage Pro ERP

  • We've added support for Return Merchandise Authorization (RM) tables.
  • The Detail Line Explanation field in the GL Posted Transaction Details File (GLDENT.GLTDES) now displays the actual description rather than XML.
  • Some missing enumeration values were added, including "C" (for "Credit Card") to the PPRIORITY field in APMAST, APMST, and APYMST and "D" (for "Drop Shipment") to the SOTYPE field in SOYTRN and SOTRN.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Stonefield Query Version 3.2 Build 3062

We posted updated versions of the Stonefield Query SDK, Stonefield Query for Sage Accpac ERP, and Stonefield Query for Sage Pro ERP today with the following changes.

All Versions

  • An advanced layout report with a link on a field no longer gives an error when you click the linked field in the Preview window.
  • Using the RunSQL function in an advanced layout report no longer gives an error if the SQL statement passed to the function includes a table that isn't in the data dictionary.
  • Converting reports from version 2.4 or earlier now properly handles corrupted reports.
  • A bug which s0metimes caused the totals column in cross-tabulation reports to show the wrong totals when output to HTML Table Format was fixed.
  • A custom SQL statement containing an aggregate function such as COUNT(SomeField) AS SomeField is now handled properly.
  • Linking on a date field no longer gives an error.
  • An error that sometimes occurred when perf0rming a multi-database query was fixed.
  • A bug that caused an error message with an older license file was fixed.
  • You no longer get an error when previewing a report called from another application.
  • A bug in the Schedule Report Wizard using a weekly schedule on Windows XP was fixed. Also, the scheduler will no longer give an error if the time for the schedule is between 12:00 AM and 12:59 AM or 12:00 PM and 12:59 PM
  • You no longer get an error if the Source Database field is the first one in a report.
  • Stonefield Query now correctly handles a couple of obscure cases. The first is where a field delimited because its name contains illegal characters (such as [ID-TEST]) that exists in more than one table is involved in the output expression of calculated fields in those tables and both calculated fields are included in the same report; in that case, the SQL statement was erroneously determined as Table1."ID-TEST" AS ID_TEST, Table2."ID-TEST" AS "ID-TEST"_A. The second is when a report has at least two tables and one of the table names starts with a digit (for example, [1099Categories]) and Stonefield Query is configured to perform joins; this case formerly gave an "alias not found" error.
  • The Test button in the Manage Databases dialog no longer crashes if a DSN for a different application was chosen but instead gives a warning message.
  • The Import Report function no longer gives an "invalid import file" error with older import files.
  • An advanced layout report that's linked to another report no longer gives an error when you click the link after importing both reports.
  • Stonefield Query now passes the correct value to a grandchild report that's linked to a child report that's passed the value of a filter condition from a parent report.
  • A field name that's a reserved word (such as [LINENO]) no longer causes an error when it's used in the output expression of a calculated field.
  • The Value to Pass column in the grid in the Link step of the Field Properties dialog now shows the field caption rather than its heading, so it no longer displays "<BR>" in fields that have multi-line headings.

Sage Pro ERP

  • A bug that gave an error the first time you connect to a Pro SQL Server database was fixed.
  • Stonefield Query now supports companies with only a single Pro module installed.
  • Clicking the Values button for the Record Type field in a current + history table now properly displays "Current" and "History" in the list.
  • The caption for ARCSUM was changed from Customer History File to Customer Sales History because another table has Customer History File as its caption.
  • Clicking the Values button for a field in a SQL Server database now works correctly.
  • "Drop Shipment" is now available as one of the values for SOTRAN.SOTYPE.
  • All YEARPRD fields now display the full seven digits.
  • VFP runtime files are now placed in the Stonefield Query program folder to prevent an issue with different service pack releases of these files.
  • Clicking the Close box for the Advanced Report Designer no longer gives a warning that you must close the Advanced Report Designer but instead actually closes the Advanced Report Designer.

Sage Accpac ERP

  • The Accounts table now only appears once in the General Ledger module and also appears in all other modules when "All" is selected.
  • Stonefield Query now properly handles optional fields for record that have quotes in their key fields (for example, "DOUG'S" in the Customer ID field of the Customers table).
  • The captions of several fields were made more understandable.
  • Optional fields in CPCHKD and UPCHKD are now handled properly.

SDK

  • The installer now installs the version 3.2 SFQUERY.PDF rather than the 3.1 version.
  • Adding a new empty database no longer makes it the main database unless it's the first database added.
  • You no longer get an error in the Configuration Utility when you select an empty database.

Localization

  • Typos in some Dutch translations were fixed.
  • The title for the Reports Explorer window and the "Available to" setting on the Information page are now localizable.
  • The Advanced button in the report wizards now sizes itself properly when localized.

AccountMate 7.4 Now Supported

A small update of Stonefield Query for AccountMate SQL is now available that supports both new versions that were recently released by AccountMate. This includes AccountMate 7.4 for SQL and AccountMate 7.4 for Express. As long as your Stonefield Query subscription is current, you can get this new version from here.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Stonefield Query for AccountMate 3.2 Released

Stonefield Software Inc. is pleased to announce the release of version 3.2 of Stonefield Query for AccountMate SQL and Stonefield Query for AccountMate LAN.

Stonefield Query is a user-friendly report writing, business intelligence, query, and data mining tool. With its intuitive wizard driven design, Stonefield Query makes report writing a snap for even the most novice user. Elegant and persuasive reports can be created in minutes with little or no technical knowledge required.

Some of the new features in this release are:

  • Authentication: Domain Authentication mode is now supported.
  • Display encrypted fields: Stonefield Query for AccountMate now supports displaying fields that are stored in encrypted format in the database (Credit Card and Social Security Numbers).
  • New command line option: A new command line parameter, action=resetdbconnection, will clear the registry and cause Stonefield Query to re-discover the connection information.
  • Exclusion filters: this allows you to query on the absence of data, such as "give me a list of customers I didn't contact last year" or "give me a list of everyone who did not buy product X". Behind the scenes, Stonefield Query generates a NOT IN subquery, but from the end-user's perspective, it's just as easy as creating a normal filter.
  • Modeless report wizards: the report wizards are no longer modal, so you can modify more than one report at a time.
  • Single ask-at-runtime dialog: all ask-at-runtime filter conditions now appear in a single, wizard-like dialog rather than one dialog per condition.
  • Workstation installer: Stonefield Query now has a separate WSSetup.EXE installer, installed by Setup.EXE, that does workstation installations with the minimum of user interaction.
  • More grouping options: you can now specify that a non-grouped field should be included in the group header for another field, you can have all fields in the group header on a single line rather than stacked on separate lines, and all fields in the group header now appear in summary reports.
  • Multi-line headings: many fields now have multi-line headings so they don't take up as much room in a report, and you can change field headings to use multiple lines.
  • Customize Report Wizard for all report types: all report wizards now have an Advanced button, allowing access to TOP N, custom SQL statements, and other features.
There are dozens of other new features and bug fixes. For more information about version 3.2, please see the What's New in This Version topic in the online documentation.

Friday, May 2, 2008

Stonefield Query for QuoteWerks 3.2 Released

Stonefield Software Inc. is pleased to announce the release of version 3.2 of Stonefield Query for QuoteWerks.

Stonefield Query is a user-friendly report writing, business intelligence, query, and data mining tool. With its intuitive wizard driven design, Stonefield Query makes report writing a snap for even the most novice user. Elegant and persuasive reports can be created in minutes with little or no technical knowledge required.

Some of the new features in this release are:

  • Google Maps: Stonefield Query now supports linking reports to Google Maps.
  • Exclusion filters: this allows you to query on the absence of data, such as "give me a list of customers I didn't contact last year" or "give me a list of everyone who did not buy product X". Behind the scenes, Stonefield Query generates a NOT IN subquery, but from the end-user's perspective, it's just as easy as creating a normal filter.
  • Modeless report wizards: the report wizards are no longer modal, so you can modify more than one report at a time.
  • Single ask-at-runtime dialog: all ask-at-runtime filter conditions now appear in a single, wizard-like dialog rather than one dialog per condition.
  • Workstation installer: Stonefield Query now has a separate WSSetup.EXE installer, installed by Setup.EXE, that does workstation installations with the minimum of user interaction.
  • More grouping options: you can now specify that a non-grouped field should be included in the group header for another field, you can have all fields in the group header on a single line rather than stacked on separate lines, and all fields in the group header now appear in summary reports.
  • Multi-line headings: many fields now have multi-line headings so they don't take up as much room in a report, and you can change field headings to use multiple lines.
  • Customize Report Wizard for all report types: all report wizards now have an Advanced button, allowing access to TOP N, custom SQL statements, and other features.
  • New sample reports: more than 10 new reports have been added to the sample reports packaged with Stonefield Query for QuoteWerks.

    There are dozens of other new features and bug fixes. For more information about version 3.2, please see the What's New in This Version topic in the online documentation.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Stonefield Query for Sage Timberline Office 3.2 Released

Stonefield Software Inc. is pleased to announce the release of version 3.2 of Stonefield Query for Sage Timberline Office.

Stonefield Query is a user-friendly report writing, business intelligence, query, and data mining tool. With its intuitive wizard driven design, Stonefield Query makes report writing a snap for even the most novice user. Elegant and persuasive reports can be created in minutes with little or no technical knowledge required.

Some of the new features in this release are:

  • New field: Transaction Amount, is available in the GL Transaction table. This field contains the amount of both debit and credit transactions in the same column.
  • New function: GetAgingDate(), is now available. This function helps make creating an aging report easier, by prompting the report user for a date, and then evaluating to that date for the report run. The function can be used in expressions in the advanced report designer to set up the various aging columns.
  • New options: The tools->options dialog has several new options. You can now decide whether or not you want to be prompted for which field you want to join to the GL Account table on, in cases where fields from GL Account are involved in the report. Additionally, you can now decide whether you want to see Account Numbers instead of Account Descriptions.
  • New relationships: Several new cross-module relationships are now available, which include AR Customer to Billing Invoice, and Job Cost Job to Project Manangement Job.
  • Exclusion filters: this allows you to query on the absence of data, such as "give me a list of customers I didn't contact last year" or "give me a list of everyone who did not buy product X". Behind the scenes, Stonefield Query generates a NOT IN subquery, but from the end-user's perspective, it's just as easy as creating a normal filter.
  • Modeless report wizards: the report wizards are no longer modal, so you can modify more than one report at a time.
    Single ask-at-runtime dialog: all ask-at-runtime filter conditions now appear in a single, wizard-like dialog rather than one dialog per condition.
  • Workstation installer: Stonefield Query now has a separate WSSetup.EXE installer, installed by Setup.EXE, that does workstation installations with the minimum of user interaction.
  • More grouping options: you can now specify that a non-grouped field should be included in the group header for another field, you can have all fields in the group header on a single line rather than stacked on separate lines, and all fields in the group header now appear in summary reports.
  • Multi-line headings: many fields now have multi-line headings so they don't take up as much room in a report, and you can change field headings to use multiple lines.
  • Customize Report Wizard for all report types: all report wizards now have an Advanced button, allowing access to TOP N, custom SQL statements, and other features.
There are dozens of other new features and bug fixes. For more information about version 3.2, please see the What's New in This Version topic in the online documentation.

Stonefield Query for ACT! 3.2 Released

Stonefield Software Inc. is pleased to announce the release of version 3.2 of Stonefield Query for ACT!.

Stonefield Query is a user-friendly report writing, business intelligence, query, and data mining tool. With its intuitive wizard driven design, Stonefield Query makes report writing a snap for even the most novice user. Elegant and persuasive reports can be created in minutes with little or no technical knowledge required.

Some of the new features in this release are:
  • Swiftpage support: Stonefield Query now has specific support for reporting on Swiftpage data stored in an ACT! database.
  • Navigate ACT! from Query reports: Stonefield Query reports now support links to navigate the ACT! interface. With these links in a report, clicking a contact, company, or group in a report will display that item in ACT! itself.
  • Custom subentities support: Support has been added for ACT!'s new custom subentities feature, which was added in ACT! version 10.02.
  • New tables: The new tables Opportunity History and Logon History have been added, for ACT! databases supporting these items.
  • Stonefield Query items in ACT! menus: Stonefield Query is now able to add menu items to ACT!'s interface. Menu items can be added to launch Query, or to run specific Query reports.
  • Import ACT! Advanced Queries: Advanced Queries from ACT! 2005 and later can now be imported as Stonefield Query reports.
  • New sample reports: More than 20 new sample reports have been added, bringing the total number to over 160.
  • Exclusion filters: this allows you to query on the absence of data, such as "give me a list of customers I didn't contact last year" or "give me a list of everyone who did not buy product X". Behind the scenes, Stonefield Query generates a NOT IN subquery, but from the end-user's perspective, it's just as easy as creating a normal filter.
  • Modeless report wizards: the report wizards are no longer modal, so you can modify more than one report at a time.
  • Single ask-at-runtime dialog: all ask-at-runtime filter conditions now appear in a single, wizard-like dialog rather than one dialog per condition.
  • Workstation installer: Stonefield Query now has a separate WSSetup.EXE installer, installed by Setup.EXE, that does workstation installations with the minimum of user interaction.
  • More grouping options: you can now specify that a non-grouped field should be included in the group header for another field, you can have all fields in the group header on a single line rather than stacked on separate lines, and all fields in the group header now appear in summary reports.
  • Multi-line headings: many fields now have multi-line headings so they don't take up as much room in a report, and you can change field headings to use multiple lines.
  • Customize Report Wizard for all report types: all report wizards now have an Advanced button, allowing access to TOP N, custom SQL statements, and other features.
There are dozens of other new features and bug fixes. For more information about version 3.2, please see the What's New in This Version topic in the online documentation.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Stonefield Query Version 3.2 Update

We posted updated versions of the Stonefield Query SDK, Stonefield Query for Sage Accpac ERP, Stonefield Query for Sage Pro ERP, Stonefield Query for GoldMine, and Stonefield Query for HEAT today with the following changes.

All Versions

  • Thanks to Boudewijn Lutgerink, the Dutch version of Stonefield Query is now current with version 3.2.
  • An error that occurred if you ran a report that uses the RunSQL function in the Advanced Report Designer was fixed. Also, editing a field using that function no longer executes the function.
  • A bug that caused an error if you created a new report then right-clicked in the Reports Explorer on a folder was fixed.
  • A bug that caused the Favorites folder to appear as "Favorites" in some dialogs rather than the localized equivalent when the language is set to something other than English was fixed.
  • Stonefield Query now has consistent behavior if you try closing it by clicking the Close button, right-clicking and choosing Exit, or choosing Exit from the File menu when a report wizard is open.
  • You no longer get an error if you press Esc during the "processing records" step when running a long report.

Sage Pro

  • The Analyze Database function now works correctly with Sage Pro databases.
  • The Pay Priority field in the Accounts Payable Master File in the Sage Pro version now supports a value of 0 for Payment Hold.
  • Stonefield Query now supports the case where you've customized the SQL statement for a report and used code that includes multiple SQL statements.
  • It now does a better job when updating from an older ACCPAC Query version.

Sage Accpac

  • Date fields in the Sage Accpac version now display as true date values rather than numeric values.
  • Some joins were optimized in the Sage Accpac data dictionary, making some reports (especially those involving Accounts Receivable Items) faster.
  • A bug that prevented reports involving Order Entry Invoices and Invoice Details from working correctly when you have more than one data dictionary was fixed.
  • It now does a better job when updating from an older ACCPAC Query version.

SDK

  • A bug that gave an error when creating help files for a project when you're running the Configuration Utility on Windows Vista or Windows XP using a limited user account was fixed. Also, it now gives a warning rather than an unexpected error if the folder for the help files is read-only.
  • The update process now displays the correct name of the updater application if you've changed it when the user runs the Check for Updates function and an update is available on a Windows Vista system.
  • Stonefield Query now supports updating project components, such as the data dictionary files.

Monday, April 7, 2008

Stonefield Query for HEAT 3.2 Released

Stonefield Software Inc. is pleased to announce the release of version 3.2 of Stonefield Query for HEAT.

Stonefield Query is a user-friendly report writing, business intelligence, query, and data mining tool. With its intuitive wizard driven design, Stonefield Query makes report writing a snap for even the most novice user. Elegant and persuasive reports can be created in minutes with little or no technical knowledge required.

Some of the new features in this release are:

  • The performance of queries involving a filter on a date field is now dramatically faster than before. However, this will require you to change any dynamic Date expression filters to use the new built-in HEATDate function.
  • New Elapsed Hours (Based on Help Desk Hours) and Elapsed Days/Hours (Based on Help Desk Hours) fields in the Call Logging and Call Assignments tables show the elapsed hours for a call taking the hours of operation of your Helpdesk (rather than total elapsed time) into account.
  • You now have the option of choosing a calendar type in the Tools=>Options menu if you have multiple "Help Desk Hours of Operation" calendars created for your HEAT database. This data is used when calculating the Elapsed Hours (Based on Help Desk Hours) and Elapsed Days/Hours (Based on Help Desk Hours) fields in the Call Logging and Call Assignments tables.
  • Exclusion filters: this allows you to query on the absence of data, such as "give me a list of customers I didn't contact last year" or "give me a list of everyone who did not buy product X". Behind the scenes, Stonefield Query generates a NOT IN subquery, but from the end-user's perspective, it's just as easy as creating a normal filter.
  • Modeless report wizards: the report wizards are no longer modal, so you can modify more than one report at a time.
  • Single ask-at-runtime dialog: all ask-at-runtime filter conditions now appear in a single, wizard-like dialog rather than one dialog per condition.
  • Workstation installer: Stonefield Query now has a separate WSSetup.EXE installer, installed by Setup.EXE, that does workstation installations with the minimum of user interaction.
  • More grouping options: you can now specify that a non-grouped field should be included in the group header for another field, you can have all fields in the group header on a single line rather than stacked on separate lines, and all fields in the group header now appear in summary reports.
  • Multi-line headings: many fields now have multi-line headings so they don't take up as much room in a report, and you can change field headings to use multiple lines.
  • Customize Report Wizard for all report types: all report wizards now have an Advanced button, allowing access to TOP N, custom SQL statements, and other features.

There are dozens of other new features and bug fixes. For more information about version 3.2, please see the What's New in This Version topic in the online documentation.

Friday, April 4, 2008

Stonefield Query for GoldMine 3.2 Released

Stonefield Software Inc. is pleased to announce the release of version 3.2 of Stonefield Query for GoldMine.

Stonefield Query is a user-friendly report writing, business intelligence, query, and data mining tool. With its intuitive wizard driven design, Stonefield Query makes report writing a snap for even the most novice user. Elegant and persuasive reports can be created in minutes with little or no technical knowledge required.

Some of the new features in this release are:

  • Exclusion filters: this allows you to query on the absence of data, such as "give me a list of customers I didn't contact last year" or "give me a list of everyone who did not buy product X". Behind the scenes, Stonefield Query generates a NOT IN subquery, but from the end-user's perspective, it's just as easy as creating a normal filter.
  • Modeless report wizards: the report wizards are no longer modal, so you can modify more than one report at a time.
  • Single ask-at-runtime dialog: all ask-at-runtime filter conditions now appear in a single, wizard-like dialog rather than one dialog per condition.
  • Workstation installer: Stonefield Query now has a separate WSSetup.EXE installer, installed by Setup.EXE, that does workstation installations with the minimum of user interaction.
  • More grouping options: you can now specify that a non-grouped field should be included in the group header for another field, you can have all fields in the group header on a single line rather than stacked on separate lines, and all fields in the group header now appear in summary reports.
  • Multi-line headings: many fields now have multi-line headings so they don't take up as much room in a report, and you can change field headings to use multiple lines.
  • Customize Report Wizard for all report types: all report wizards now have an Advanced button, allowing access to TOP N, custom SQL statements, and other features.

There are dozens of other new features and bug fixes. For more information about version 3.2, please see the What's New in This Version  topic in the online documentation.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Stonefield Query for Sage Pro ERP Version 3.2 Released

Stonefield Software Inc. is pleased to announce the release of version 3.2 of Stonefield Query for Sage Pro ERP.

Stonefield Query is a user-friendly report writing, business intelligence, query, and data mining tool. With its intuitive wizard driven design, Stonefield Query makes report writing a snap for even the most novice user. Elegant and persuasive reports can be created in minutes with little or no technical knowledge required.

Stonefield Query for Sage Pro ERP was formerly available from Sage Software as ACCPAC Query. Since ACCPAC Query was returned to us, we've rebranded it as Stonefield Query and synchronized the version number with our other customized versions.

Some of the new features in this release are:

  • Charting: you can now quickly create charts and graphs such as these sales by salesperson charts in just a few mouse clicks:

 piechart

saleschart

  • Drilldowns: you can, for example, create a report that when you click on the customer name drills down to show the orders for that customer.
  • Exclusion filters: this allows you to query on the absence of data, such as "give me a list of customers I didn't contact last year" or "give me a list of everyone who did not buy product X". Behind the scenes, Stonefield Query generates a NOT IN subquery, but from the end-user's perspective, it's just as easy as creating a normal filter.
  • Modeless report wizards: the report wizards are no longer modal, so you can modify more than one report at a time.
  • Single ask-at-runtime dialog: all ask-at-runtime filter conditions now appear in a single, wizard-like dialog rather than one dialog per condition.
  • Workstation installer: Stonefield Query now has a separate WSSetup.EXE installer, installed by Setup.EXE, that does workstation installations with the minimum of user interaction.
  • More grouping options: you can now specify that a non-grouped field should be included in the group header for another field, you can have all fields in the group header on a single line rather than stacked on separate lines, and all fields in the group header now appear in summary reports.
  • Multi-line headings: many fields now have multi-line headings so they don't take up as much room in a report, and you can change field headings to use multiple lines.
  • Eliminate tables and fields you don't use: unless you use every single feature in Accpac (and who does?), you see a lot of tables and fields in Stonefield Query that don't contain meaningful data. Use the Analyze Database function to hide things you don't care about.
  • Customize Report Wizard for all report types: all report wizards now have an Advanced button, allowing access to TOP N, custom SQL statements, and other features.

There are dozens of other new features and bug fixes. For more information about version 3.2, please see the What's New in This Version topic in the online documentation.

Stonefield Query for Sage Accpac ERP Version 3.2 Released

Stonefield Software Inc. is pleased to announce the release of version 3.2 of Stonefield Query for Sage Accpac ERP.

Stonefield Query is a user-friendly report writing, business intelligence, query, and data mining tool. With its intuitive wizard driven design, Stonefield Query makes report writing a snap for even the most novice user. Elegant and persuasive reports can be created in minutes with little or no technical knowledge required.

Stonefield Query for Sage Accpac ERP was formerly available from Sage Software as ACCPAC Query. Since ACCPAC Query was returned to us, we've rebranded it as Stonefield Query and synchronized the version number with our other customized versions.

Some of the new features in this release are:

  • Charting: you can now quickly create charts and graphs such as these sales by salesperson charts in just a few mouse clicks:

piechart

saleschart

  • Drilldowns: you can, for example, create a report that when you click on the customer name drills down to show the orders for that customer.
  • Exclusion filters: this allows you to query on the absence of data, such as "give me a list of customers I didn't contact last year" or "give me a list of everyone who did not buy product X". Behind the scenes, Stonefield Query generates a NOT IN subquery, but from the end-user's perspective, it's just as easy as creating a normal filter.
  • Modeless report wizards: the report wizards are no longer modal, so you can modify more than one report at a time.
  • Single ask-at-runtime dialog: all ask-at-runtime filter conditions now appear in a single, wizard-like dialog rather than one dialog per condition.
  • Workstation installer: Stonefield Query now has a separate WSSetup.EXE installer, installed by Setup.EXE, that does workstation installations with the minimum of user interaction.
  • More grouping options: you can now specify that a non-grouped field should be included in the group header for another field, you can have all fields in the group header on a single line rather than stacked on separate lines, and all fields in the group header now appear in summary reports.
  • Multi-line headings: many fields now have multi-line headings so they don't take up as much room in a report, and you can change field headings to use multiple lines.
  • Eliminate tables and fields you don't use: unless you use every single feature in Accpac (and who does?), you see a lot of tables and fields in Stonefield Query that don't contain meaningful data. Use the Analyze Database function to hide things you don't care about.
  • Customize Report Wizard for all report types: all report wizards now have an Advanced button, allowing access to TOP N, custom SQL statements, and other features.

There are dozens of other new features and bug fixes. For more information about version 3.2, please see the What's New in This Version topic in the online documentation.

Stonefield Query SDK Version 3.2 Released

Stonefield Software Inc. is pleased to announce the release of version 3.2 of the Stonefield Query SDK.

Stonefield Query is a user-friendly report writing, business intelligence, query, and data mining tool. With its intuitive wizard driven design, Stonefield Query makes report writing a snap for even the most novice user. Elegant and persuasive reports can be created in minutes with little or no technical knowledge required.

You can use the Stonefield Query SDK to create your own custom reporting solutions for nearly any type of data. Stonefield Query supports Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, DB2, Sybase, Pervasive, Access, FoxPro, and Progress just to name a few!

Some of the new features in this release are:

  • Exclusion filters: this allows you to query on the absence of data, such as "give me a list of customers I didn't contact last year" or "give me a list of everyone who did not buy product X". Behind the scenes, Stonefield Query generates a NOT IN subquery, but from the end-user's perspective, it's just as easy as creating a normal filter.
  • Stand-alone windows: Stonefield Query no longer has a "background" window. Instead, each window appears directly on the user's Windows desktop. This makes it easier to have Stonefield Query appear to be integrated with your application.
  • Modeless report wizards: the report wizards are no longer modal, so you can modify more than one report at a time.
  • Single ask-at-runtime dialog: all ask-at-runtime filter conditions now appear in a single, wizard-like dialog rather than one dialog per condition.
  • Workstation installer: Stonefield Query now has a separate WSSetup.EXE installer, installed by Setup.EXE, that does workstation installations with the minimum of user interaction.
  • More grouping options: you can now specify that a non-grouped field should be included in the group header for another field, you can have all fields in the group header on a single line rather than stacked on separate lines, and all fields in the group header now appear in summary reports.
  • Multi-line headings: you can define multiple line headings for fields in the Configuration Utility and the user can change field headings to use multiple lines.
  • Customize Report Wizard for all report types: all report wizards now have an Advanced button, allowing access to TOP N, custom SQL statements, and other features.

There are dozens of other new features and bug fixes. For more information about version 3.2, please see the What's New in This Version  topic in the online SDK documentation for changes in the Configuration Utility and the What's New in This Version topic in the online end-user documentation for changes in the Report Designer.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Stonefield Query Version 3.2 Release Candidate 2

Stonefield Query Version 3.2 Release Candidate 2 is now available. It has the following changes over Release Candidate 1:

  • The report wizards now open more quickly when there are a lot of folders. Part of the change involves adding a new index to the reports table.
  • The Template Editor now uses the first template as the template's template rather than giving an error when creating a new template in the rare case of the default template missing.
  • In Step 2 of the report wizards, selecting a table that isn't a favorite and then turning on the Show Only Favorites option no longer shows blank in the Tables dropdown list.
  • You no longer get an error when creating an exclusion filter on the only table in a query. In fact, you now get a warning if you create an exclusion condition on any table that's already in the query, since that generally doesn't make sense (you can use a normal filter instead).
  • The Analyze Database function now properly handles the SOURCEDATABASE field.
  • You no longer get an error when running Stonefield Query with an encrypted project.
  • You no longer get an error when querying on a table with a field named LCALL.
  • The preview window now displays properly when the "Use old engine" option is turned on in Step 5 of the Quick Report Wizard.
  • Closing the Quick Report Wizard and answering No to the "do you want to lose your changes" prompt no longer closes the dialog anyway.
  • An error in the Schedule Report Wizard that occurs when trying to report another error to you was fixed.
  • The Create Help Files function in the Configuration Utility now uses the Logo Image property for the image in the first help topic.
  • Clicking the builder button for the "Use dynamic expression for color" option in the Field Properties dialog now brings up the correct dialog instead of doing nothing.
  • Changing the name of a new report now properly updates the heading for that report.
  • Closing the report wizards when you started to but didn't complete entering a report name no longer displays "<Insert1>" in the warning dialog.
  • A bug that caused an error when dragging a folder to another folder in the Reports Explorer was fixed.
  • The Field Properties dialog for a field in a report created in version 3.1 that links to another report now displays the correct link parameter settings. Also, the reports list now shows reports inside folders that have subfolders.
  • The Count button is no longer available in the Exclude dialog.
  • Temporary files created when an error dialog is displayed are now deleted once you close the dialog.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Stonefield Query Wins Another Award

At the 2008 AccountMate Synergy conference earlier this month, Stonefield Query won the Vertical Solution Partner Award for Innovative Integration. We are honored to receive this award and thank AccountMate Corp. for being an outstanding business partner.


Wednesday, March 12, 2008

A Few More Changes

Last week, we blogged about the "last changes" in version 3.2. We actually did a few more in the past week: one new feature and the rest fixes for bugs found in beta testing.

  • A new workstation installer, WSSETUP.EXE, is included in the application folder. This allows the user to install Stonefield Query on their system, then run WSSETUP.EXE from the server on each workstation to install just the runtime files required. This makes it easier for users to do workstation installs; some users found running the same SETUP.EXE for both server and workstation to be confusing, plus there are very few prompts in the workstation installer. It also installs the help file on the local drive to eliminate the security issue with CHM files on network drives.
  • Stonefield Query now handles the TOP N clause in MySQL by changing it to a LIMIT N clause.
  • If you have multiple action scripts, they're now shown in alphabetical order in the Link page of the Field Properties dialog. Also, a bug that prevented link actions from being saved when the link action script returns only a single field name was fixed.
  • A bug that causes an error when you click the Values button in the Exclusion Condition dialog was fixed.
  • A bug that caused an error when returning a cursor with no records from a Table.Select script was fixed.
  • The OK button in the Locate dialog, which only appears if the TargetApp entry in DATA.INI points to an invalid folder, is now enabled after selecting a valid folder.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Improvements in Stonefield Query for GoldMine

In addition to all the new features and bug fixes in Stonefield Query (and if you've been following this blog, you know there are a lot of them), we made the following improvements in Stonefield Query for GoldMine:

  • There are new Read, In History, and Attachments fields in the Mailbox table.
  • The Key1 through 5 fields in the upper quadrant in GoldMine are now available in the Combined Main and Other Contacts table.
  • You can now report on both the History and Mailbox tables at the same time. Also, if you filter on the History Date but don't filter on the Mailbox Date, the History Date is automatically used for Mailbox to prevent a lot of records from being retrieved and slowing down performance.
  • The Create Group in GoldMine function now displays a progress bar, which is handy if there are lots of members.
  • It better handles the GoldMine DBALIAS.INI file in different locations.
  • An issue with filtering on the various Opportunity and Project tables using OR conditions with dBase tables was resolved.
  • A bug that gave an error when converting from Stonefield Query version 2.4 or earlier was fixed.
  • A bug that prevented custom fields in GoldMine from showing up in Stonefield Query if you upgraded GoldMine from version 4 at some point was fixed.
  • The proper captions for fields in the Combined Main and Other Contacts table are now displayed.
  • A bug that caused only the first 35 characters of the Web site to be displayed was fixed.

These improvements will be in version 3.2, due for release later this month.

Improvements in Stonefield Query for HEAT

In addition to all the new features and bug fixes in Stonefield Query (and if you've been following this blog, you know there are a lot of them), we made the following improvements in Stonefield Query for HEAT:

  • The performance of queries involving a filter on a date field is now dramatically faster than before.
  • New Elapsed Hours (Based on Help Desk Hours) and Elapsed Days/Hours (Based on Help Desk Hours) fields in the Calling Logging and Assignments tables show the elapsed hours for a call taking the hour of operation (rather than total elapsed time) into account.
  • We eliminated the cause of duplicate fields in the Profile table.

These improvements will be in version 3.2, due for release later this month.

The Last of the 3.2 Changes

Release Candidate 1 of the Stonefield Query SDK is now available. It has quite a few changes since the previous blog post.

New/Updated Features

  • Improvements were made in how link action scripts are handled, making it easier to do things such as link to Google Maps.
  • The new Analyze Database function in the Tools menu (also available in the Setup dialog) goes through your database and marks only those tables and fields that contain meaningful data as "favorites". Step 2 of the report wizards will then have a new Show only favorites option. Turn this option on to show only those tables and fields marked as "favorites". Turn it off again to show all tables and fields. This feature is only available if you turn on the new Enable Table/Field Favorites configuration setting, and is particularly useful for large (hundreds of tables) data dictionary in which not all tables and fields may contain meaningful data.
  • You can now drag a Stonefield Query import file (an SFX file) from Windows Explorer to the Reports Explorer to import that report. You can also drag an FRX file from Windows Explorer to the Reports Explorer to bring up the External Report Wizard for that report.
  • The Field Properties dialog for the Label Wizard has a new Display this field in the report setting. Turn this setting off if you want the field included in query (for example, you want to sort on it) but not display it in the report.
  • Step 3 of the Chart Wizard now displays the axis (X or Y) in the caption for the appropriate boxes, making it clear where a field will be graphed.
  • The Reports Explorer and Help menu now have a Manual function that displays the content of a PDF with the same name as the executable (SFQUERY.EXE by default). These functions are only visible if that file exists.
  • The close box on the Report Wizards is now functional.
  • The report wizards and Template Editor now appear in the Windows Task Bar when they're open so they're easy to locate when you have a lot of windows open.
  • You can now have multiple code zoom windows (right-click on the code box when a script is selected and choose Zoom) open in the Configuration Utility.
  • A new Application.ReportsExplorerReady script is available.
  • The new Execute method of the SQApplication object can be used to launch an application.
  • The Template Editor now has a shortcut menu.

Bug Fixes

  • Improvements were made in all dialogs so keyboard-only users (including disabled users) can move from one control to the next correctly.
  • A bug in how the project list in the Configuration Utility (displayed by clicking the arrow beside the Open Project button in the toolbar) is filled when opening projects was fixed.
  • The size and position of the Reports Explorer are now saved when you choose Exit from the File menu.
  • A bug that prevented a report from being exported properly immediately after renaming it in the Reports Explorer was fixed.
  • A grey box that appears when you clicked the Available To list in the Information page of the Reports Explorer no longer appears.
  • Closing Stonefield Query while multiple report wizards are open now works correctly, including the case where, when prompted if you want to cancel a report, you choose No. Also, the "cancel this report" dialog that appears now displays the name of the report so you can tell which report is being closed when multiple report wizards are open.
  • You no longer get a warning that a report has no filter if it has no filter but does have an exclusion filter or a TOP N clause.
  • Stonefield Query no longer stubbornly insists on downloading an update if you choose No in the Download Update dialog.
  • The Prompt for Subtable option no longer appears in the Add Database dialog when you choose to create an empty database.
  • A difficult-to-reproduce bug that caused an error immediately after adding a calculated field or virtual table in the Configuration Utility was fixed.
  • The Test button on the properties page for relations in the Configuration Utility is now disabled if the relationship information isn't complete.
  • A bug that caused an error if you try to sort on a calculated field that derives its value from a memo field was fixed.
  • A bug that caused an incorrect warning that a filter condition contains fields that aren't in the query when you have a custom SQL statement involving a subtable (got all that?) was fixed.
  • Ctrl+O is no longer the hotkey for the New Folder function in the File menu since that hotkey is usually reserved for an Open function in most applications.
  • A bug that prevented the code zoom window from being restored to the correct location if you had two monitors and the window was previously open on the second one but you only have one now was fixed. (Ok, that one was really obscure!)
  • If it exists, the value of the Desktop Image configuration setting is now moved to the Logo Image setting if that setting is blank.
  • Changing the value of the Advanced User setting for yourself in the Maintain Users and Groups dialog now takes effect immediately rather than after restarting Stonefield Query.
  • Downloading individual files during a product update now works correctly.
  • A bug that cut off the link status display in the preview window was fixed.
  • A bug that caused the Show All Fields option in the Filter Condition dialog to disappear after clearing the filter was fixed.
  • A bug that allowed you to click the OK button in the Login dialog a second time after the DataEngine.GetCustomMetaData script returned .F. (meaning Stonefield Query should terminate) and continue using the application was fixed.
  • A bug that prevented a field containing characters requiring it to be delimited (for example, a field named [Some-Field]) from being displayed correctly when defined as an enumerated field was fixed.
  • The Include this field in the group header for option in the Grouping page of the Field Properties dialog is no longer enabled if there are no groups.