Stonefield Query SDK Version 8.0

We are pleased to announce the release of version 8.0 of the Stonefield Query SDK. Here are the new features.

Report Designer

• You can now choose to display a Microsoft Office-like ribbon rather than a toolbar and menu at the top of the Reports Explorer.

• The Microsoft Excel - Data Only and Microsoft Excel - Data-Only (Fast) output types were replaced with a single Microsoft Excel - Data Format output type. Any reports or scheduled tasks using Microsoft Excel - Data Only or Microsoft Excel - Data Only (Fast) now automatically use Microsoft Excel - Data Format instead.

• You can now specify that a field should be output as a bar code in quick and label reports.

• You can now use multiple page columns in a quick report. This is useful for reports that don't have many fields: rather than having the right side of the page empty, another column of records can be output there.

• A new date format is available: Abbrev. Month/Year. This displays a three-letter abbreviation for a month, such as "Jan 2021" for "January", which allows columns in a report, especially a cross-tab report, to be narrower.

• You can now use a dynamic expression for both the foreground (text) and background colors of a field in a report. Also, dynamic colors and font styles are now supported when you output to Microsoft Excel - Data Format.

• You can now specify an email address to be notified when a scheduled report fails due to an error.

• The Scheduled Tasks dialog has three new features: you can stop a running task, you can disable a task without deleting it, and you can select multiple tasks and delete or disable/re-enable them.

• The Preview window has some new features:

  • The new left panel, which can be expanded or collapsed, contains bookmarks, page thumbnails, and search results.
  • The mouse wheel move to the next or previous page when zoom is set to 100% or less, or scrolls within the page when it's more than 100%.
  • There are more choices for Pages to Display: all the way up to 11x5.
  • You can now zoom a report up to 6,000%.

• You can now get the CC email address to use for a report from a field.

• Fields in the group header of a quick report are now left-aligned with each other if they appear on separate lines.

• Turning on the Auto-Fit to Page setting for a cross-tab report now causes the font to be reduced automatically if it can fit all of the columns on one page.

• The GetValueForParameter function now accepts a format parameter.

• Hovering your mouse over the file name in the Output page of the Reports Explorer now shows the type of output as a tooltip. This is helpful because, for example, several output types use XLSX as a file extension.

• The SQL statement generated for a report can now be up to 16,000 characters; previously, the limit was 8,000.

Stonefield Query Studio

• A new file has to be distributed with Stonefield Query: VFPAR.dll. Be sure to update or regenerate your installer script.

• The new GetSQL script for a table returns the SQL statement to use for the table rather than a simple SELECT SomeFields FROM TableName. The benefit of this is that if a virtual table simply needs a single SQL statement, such as a UNION between two real tables, you can avoid creating a Select script for the table. Select scripts cause a query to be split into individual tables when a report is run, which can make a report run slower, especially with tables with a lot of records. A GetSQL script can potentially be significantly faster since the query isn't split in that case but instead the returned SQL statement is used as a subquery for the main SQL statement for the report.

• You can customize the ribbon displayed in the Reports Explorer in the Application.ReportsExplorerReady script.

• A new Build button appears when you choose Connection String for an ODBC connection to a database. Clicking this button displays the Connection String Builder which makes it easier to enter a connection string.

• Online help generated by Stonefield Query Studio has much better searching so there's no need for Google Custom Search. As a result, the Google Custom Search ID configuration setting was removed.

• The Application object has a new RibbonVisible property.

• The Report object has a new CCEMailField property.

• The DataEngine object has a new GetWhereFromSQLStatement method.

• The GetValueForParameter function now accepts a format parameter.