Stonefield Query SDK version 4.2

We are pleased to announce the immediate release of Stonefield Query SDK version 4.2. There are lots of new and improved features in version 4.2.

Report Designer

• You can now edit formulas from Step 2 in the report wizards. When a formula is selected, click the Edit Formula button to edit it. Otherwise, that button appears as "New Formula", so clicking it creates a new formula.
• Formulas now appear in report wizards with "[Formula]" after the name so you can distinguish them from real fields.
• You can now specify the order that a formula appears in its table when fields are displayed in table order. This is useful if you want a formula to appear somewhere other than at the end of the list of fields.
• You can now specify the number of rows a dashboard has. For example, if there are four charts in a dashboard and you specify two rows, the dashboard will have two rows of two charts each.
• Two new templates are available:
  • Modern: this template has alternating light and dark rounded rectangles in the detail band and a blue rounded rectangle for column headers.
  • Modern with Title: this template is similar to Modern but with a title page showing the report name, comment, user, date, and filter.

  To add these to the list of available templates, choose Template Editor from the Tools menu, click Import, and select these templates from the Sample Templates folder.

• Objects in templates have a new Center option, which is useful for images such as logos that you want to be centered horizontally on the page.
• Stonefield Query can now automatically sum numeric fields when you add them to a report. Turn on the Automatically sum numeric fields setting in the Options dialog to use this feature.
• The Format page of the Field Properties dialog of the Advanced Report Designer now has a Display date only setting that works like the same setting in the Properties dialog of the report wizards: turn this setting on to display the date only or turn it off to display the date and time.
• You can now specify whether missing date values are included in a chart when a date field is used in as the category (X-axis) field.
• The License Manager now includes a Copy button to copy the selected serial number to the Clipboard. This makes it easier to specify your serial number when requesting technical support.
• You now get a warning if you try to schedule a report that has ask-at-runtime filter conditions, since that prevents a scheduled report from running.
• Because exclude filter conditions are often erroneously used in place of a normal "not equals" filter (for example, you want a list of customers who aren't in Germany and use an exclude condition of Country equals Germany rather than the correct way, with a normal filter condition of Country does not equal Germany), you now get a warning if you try to create an exclude condition of this type, although that doesn't prevent you from using it.
• Most cross-tab reports run faster now.
• You can now output cross-tab reports that have Show Change or Show % Change turned on to Microsoft Excel, CVS, or PivotTable files even when the report can't be previewed or printed because it has too many columns.
• Stonefield Query starts up faster than before.
• The setting of the "display only directly related tables"  button is no longer remembered because it was easy to miss that this option was turned on and then wonder why all of the tables weren't displayed.
• Turning on Use same options next time report is run on the Output page of the Reports Explorer now saves the selected printer if it isn't the default printer. This allows you to always print the report to the same printer, such as sending mailing labels to a label printer.
• You can now specify the name of a report to edit or that a report should be created with the New Report Wizard with command-line parameters.

Stonefield Query Studio

• It's now much easier to create a relationship between tables that matches more than one field from each table: rather than typing the join expression, you can use field drop-down lists to choose up to five fields from each table.
• The Import Data Dictionary function can now add tables and fields to the data dictionary, and supports the data type, size, decimals, and picture for fields. It also now supports subtables and application views.
• Stonefield Query can now accept XML created by the WriteXML method of an ADO.Net DataTable from the Select script for a table.
• The Report object has a new Template property that allows you to programmatically determine or change the template used for a report.
• The description applied to SFQuery.EXE by the Change SFQuery.exe Description function in the File menu is no longer padded with spaces and terminated with periods.
• You can now specify the order of a field in the table. This is useful if you want some calculated fields to appear somewhere other than at the end of the list of fields when fields are displayed in database order.
• If you specify a value for the new URL for Knowledgebase configuration setting, the Stonefield Query Help menu has a Knowledgebase function that navigates the user's browser to that URL.
• If the new Application.SubmitTicket script has any code, that script is executed when an error occurs and the user clicks the Send button in the error dialog. This script can be used to automatically create support tickets in your support system if you have such a system and it has an API or some other automated mechanism for creating tickets.
• The new DataEngine.SetOperatorList script allows you to customize the list of filter operators available for a specific field or data type.
• Stonefield Query now correctly handles fields defined with more than 18 decimal places.
• The About dialog, available in the Help menu, now displays the serial number.
• You no longer need to create a GetDataSources script for a database that has its connection type set to "None". In that case, you will need Select scripts for all of the tables since Stonefield Query doesn't connect to any database.
• Turning off the Reportable property for a field no longer disables the Filterable and Allow Values properties. This allows you to turn these properties on, meaning a user can't report on the field but can filter on it.

Stonefield Query for Sage Pro ERP version 4.1.4246

We have released version 4.1.4246 of Stonefield Query for Sage Pro ERP. This is mostly a maintenance release but does have one new feature: The new Value on Hand field in the Inventory Master File (ICITEM) displays the total on hand value for the inventory item.

Stonefield Query for Sage Accpac ERP version 4.1.4246

We have released version 4.1.4246 of Stonefield Query for Sage Accpac ERP. This release has several new features:

• You can now report on Orion Point of Sale (POS) data (http://www.odiglobal.com).
• You can now define security for individual databases in the Maintain Users and Groups dialog so only certain users can access certain databases.
• A new AR Combined Documents & Adjustments table combines records from AR Documents (AROBL) and Receipts and Adjustments (ARTCR), making it easy to create a listing of all AR transactions for a customer.
• A new Earning/Deduction YTD Amount field is now available in the Canadian Payroll Cheque Details (CPCHKD.YTDAMT) table. New YTD Earnings, YTD Net Pay, Current Earnings, Current Deductions, Current Taxes, and Spelled Out Amount fields are now available in the Cheque Header table. These fields were also added to the U.S. Payroll Check Details and Check Header tables. These fields make it easy to create a payroll advise report (see the next point).
• New Cheque Advice (Canadian Payroll) and Check Advice (U.S. Payroll) sample reports make it easy to email payroll advices for a specific pay period to employees. These reports require Sage Accpac ERP version 5.5 or later.
• New Total for Year calculated fields, such as Total Quantity for Year and Total Cost for Year, were added to the Project Costing Budget Detail (PMBUDD) table because the existing Accpac totals fields are always zero.
• New Unisales Combined Invoices & Credit/Debit Notes (UXINVHCRDH) and Combined Invoice & Credit/Debit Note Details (UXINVDCRDD) tables are available, making it easier to show invoices, credit notes, and debit notes from Unisales on one report.
• Lot tracking tables are no longer available if you're using Accpac 5.6 or later since Sage removed those tables. Unfortunately, that means that reports using those tables have to be recreated from new lot tracking tables in Inventory Control.
• A new Certified Payroll Report Jobs (UPCPRJ) table is now available in U.S. Payroll.
• Performance was improved for some types of calculated fields.
• You can now turn on the "Suppress repeating values" setting for the last row field in a cross-tab report if desired.
• You can now specify CC and BCC email addresses when emailing different pages in a report to separate addresses (which you do by turning on "Output each group as a separate file" and setting "Get email address from" to a field).
• Date/time fields with the "Display date only" setting turned off can now be used in the row of cross-tab reports.

If you are using an earlier version 4.1 build, you can install the update using the Check for Updates function in the Tools menu of the Report Designer.

Stonefield Query SDK version 4.1.4246

We have released version 4.1.4246 of the Stonefield Query SDK. This is a maintenance release fixing minor or obscure bugs. If you are using an earlier version 4.1 build, you can install the update using the Check for Updates function in the Tools menu of the Report Designer.

Stonefield Query SDK Version 4.1.4171

Version 4.1.4171 is mostly a maintenance release but there are some new features.

Report Designer

• You can now turn on the "Suppress repeating values" setting for the last row field in a cross-tab report if desired.
• You can now define security for individual databases in the Maintain Users and Groups dialog so only certain users can access certain databases.
• You can now specify CC and BCC email addresses when emailing different pages in a report to separate addresses (which you do by turning on "Output each group as a separate file" and setting "Get email address from" to a field).
• Date/time fields with the "Display date only" setting turned off can now be used in the row of cross-tab reports.
• You can now pass default values to the GetValueForParameter and GetValueForField functions.
  

SDK

• A sample ASP.Net web application is now available.
• You can now check for updates in Stonefield Query Studio using the Check for Updates function in the Help Menu.
• Stonefield Query Studio's title bar now shows the version number.
• An option defined in an Options.Settings script can now have the "restart" attribute even if no "key" attribute is provided.
• The new Application.SetupMenu script allows you to customize the Stonefield Query menus.
• The new OutputOptions.Settings script allows you to define custom file output types.
• The Table and Field drop-down lists for Display Field from Related Table now display table and field captions.
• If you have certain tables you want ignored when you refresh a database, add a [NoRefresh] section to SFQuery.INI.
• Stonefield Query Studio now automatically delimits table and field names that have mixed case in Firebird databases because Firebird requires it.
• You can now specify that Stonefield Query uses case-insensitive joins when it performs joins by adding CaseInsensitiveJoins=Y to an [Options] section in SFQuery.INI.
  

Stonefield Query for Sage BusinessVision Version 4.1

We are pleased to announce the immediate release of Stonefield Query for Sage BusinessVision version 4.1. There are lots of new and improved features in version 4.1.

New Features

• You can now define dashboards using the new Dashboard Wizard. A dashboard is a set of chart reports that displays on your desktop in its own window. These charts automatically refresh at an interval you specify so you can always see the most current data.
• Stonefield Query now supports Windows 7:
  • When you run a report, the taskbar button shows a moving green bar indicating something is happening.
  • You can now right-click a report and choose Pin to Taskbar to pin it to the taskbar; choosing that item in the taskbar launches Stonefield Query and previews that report (this obviously works best when Stonefield Query itself is pinned to the taskbar).
  • Stonefield Query report files, which have an SFX extension, now display a nice report icon in Windows Explorer. Double-clicking an SFX file launches Stonefield Query and previews that report.
• You can now create a desktop shortcut for a report. Right-click any report in the Reports Explorer and choose Create Desktop Shortcut. This will create a shortcut on your desktop with the same name as the report. Double-clicking this shortcut previews the report without opening Stonefield Query, which is handy if you just want to run one report without having to find it in the Reports Explorer.
• Usage statistics are now maintained for reports, and the new Usage Reporting function in the Tools menu allows you to report on these statistics. This allows you to determine which reports are actually being used, how often, and by whom.
• A new type of display for date fields is now available in the Field Properties dialog: "Month/Year". This displays the month and year part of the date, which the "Month" option formerly did. "Month" now outputs only the month part of the date, which is handy, for example, in cross-tab reports where you want to show the date in the rows and the year in the columns to compare sales by month and year. Reports you created prior to version 4.1 using "Month" are automatically changed to use "Month/Year" so they work as they did before.
• You can now configure how much memory Stonefield Query reserves for itself at startup. This is especially useful in Windows Terminal Server environments where multiple users run Stonefield Query on the same server at the same time.
• The new built-in GoMonthDay function makes calculating dynamic dates, such as the first day of the previous month, much easier.

Charts

• Multi-page charts are now supported. In the new Size/Paging page of the Chart Wizard, turn on Paging and set the number of points you want on each page.
• Linking, such as drilldowns, from charts is now supported. The Properties dialog for the Category (X-axis) field has a Link page that works the same as other report types. This allows you, for example, to display a chart showing sales by salesperson and click a certain salesperson to drill down to a report showing individual sales for that salesperson. Linking even works in charts displayed in a dashboard. To support this feature, a different preview window is used for charts. It has the same features as the preview window used for other report types but cannot used tabbed pages showing other report types, only other charts.
• Charts now use the Segoe UI font for text in Windows Vista or later because it looks better, especially when rotated.

Cross-Tab Reports

• Cross-tab reports now support displaying the amount and/or percentage change between columns. The Display page of the Properties dialog for a data field has new "Show difference from previous column" and "Show percentage change" options. You can turn on one or both of these.
• You can now specify whether cross-tab reports include row and column totals using new options in Step 5.
• The Select only top option in a cross-tab report now applies to the totals for the first row field rather than the row field itself. For example, setting "Select only top" to 10 now displays the top 10 values rather than the top 10 alphabetically.

Other Features

• Emailing now supports SSL/TSL for SMTP, which means you can now email using Gmail or Hotmail accounts or other SMTP servers that require SSL/TSL. Also, emailing using MAPI with Microsoft Outlook as your email program no longer displays the dreaded Outlook security dialog.
• Certain characters that weren't allowed in the name of a report, such as a period, comma, question mark, slash, and so on, are now allowed. The only character you can't use is a backslash ("\").
• Certain characters that weren't supported in the body or subject of an email, such as "&" or ">", are now allowed.
• You no longer have to contact us if you have to activate the program on a different computer than it was originally activated on. Online activation will automatically activate this computer and deactivate the license on the other one.
• Output to text, comma-separated (CSV), table, and XML files is now faster.
• Exclusion conditions now work faster than before.
• The Preview window now remembers the setting of the zoom option. If you run a report and change the zoom to 200%, the next time you preview a report, it'll be at 200%.
• The Ask At Runtime filter and report progress dialogs now always appear on top of any other windows so they can't get lost behind something else if you click on a different window.
• The Setup dialog has a new page (page 2) for contact information.
• The activation process is now simpler. Clicking the Click here to activate the program now link in the Welcome dialog (displayed when you're running an unactivated version) now displays the License Manager dialog where you can add as many licenses as you need rather than bringing up a Registration dialog that only allows one license to be activated.
• New templates are automatically imported when you run Stonefield Query.
• The OnSelect script for a report can now access the report using the Report object. This is useful if, for example, you want to change the default filter for a report when it's selected.
• You can now use the built-in RunSQL function in formulas.
• It's easier to work with the Dynamics tab in the properties dialog for Pictures and Rectangles in the Advanced Report Designer. You no longer have to enter values in 960th's of a inch; instead, you can enter value in inches or centimeters, depending on how your system is configured.
• File dialogs, such as those displayed when you output to file or export a report, now support Windows Vista and later features, such as search and recent places.
• The ask-at-runtime filter dialog now appears on top of the report progress window so it doesn't get hidden behind other windows.
• The new GetValueForParameter function is like the existing GetValueForField but allows you to specify the caption, data type, and size of the parameter being requested from the user.
• You can now filter on the Source Database field. This allows a report to drill down based on a data source. For example, suppose you have a cross-tab report that retrieves data from multiple data sources and it has Source Database as the column field. Clicking a specific data source should drilldown and run a detail report for that data source only, so the linked report has a filter on Source Database.
• The progress dialog that appears when running a report that retrieves data from multiple databases now shows the name of the database the data is currently being retrieved from and the number of records retrieved.

Lost in Translation

Here is a recent press release we sent out about the latest version of Stonefield Query.This one is the same press release that was obviously translated to another language and then back to English, I suspect by an automated rather than human translator. The translated version is hilarious. Here are some of my favorite quotes:

“Stonefield Software today declared the stylish promulgation of its database news code tool, Stonefield Query 4.1”

“The newborn edition includes over 30 newborn enhancements – the most momentous existence the Dashboard Wizard”

“As a result, they never intend the flooded benefits of what Goldmine CRM crapper do for them and their business.” (Um, we didn’t really call GoldMine “crapper”. It looks like “can” became “crapper” in the re-translation.)

“They woman opportunities and that effectuation forfeited sales.” (“Miss” became “woman”.)

“The stylish edition provides an ad hoc news resolution that crapper be utilised direct by modify users as substantially as IT staff.” There’s that word “crapper” again.

Stonefield Query for Sage Pro ERP Version 4.1 Released

We are pleased to announce the immediate release of the Stonefield Query for Sage Pro ERP version 4.1. There are lots of new and improved features in version 4.1.

New Features

• You can now define dashboards using the new Dashboard Wizard. A dashboard is a set of chart reports that displays on your desktop in its own window. These charts automatically refresh at an interval you specify so you can always see the most current data.
• Stonefield Query now supports Windows 7:
  • When you run a report, the taskbar button shows a moving green bar indicating something is happening.
  • You can now right-click a report and choose Pin to Taskbar to pin it to the taskbar; choosing that item in the taskbar launches Stonefield Query and previews that report (this obviously works best when Stonefield Query itself is pinned to the taskbar).
  • Stonefield Query report files, which have an SFX extension, now display a nice report icon in Windows Explorer. Double-clicking an SFX file launches Stonefield Query and previews that report.
• You can now create a desktop shortcut for a report. Right-click any report in the Reports Explorer and choose Create Desktop Shortcut. This will create a shortcut on your desktop with the same name as the report. Double-clicking this shortcut previews the report without opening Stonefield Query, which is handy if you just want to run one report without having to find it in the Reports Explorer.
• Usage statistics are now maintained for reports, and the new Usage Reporting function in the Tools menu allows you to report on these statistics. This allows you to determine which reports are actually being used, how often, and by whom.
• A new type of display for date fields is now available in the Field Properties dialog: "Month/Year". This displays the month and year part of the date, which the "Month" option formerly did. "Month" now outputs only the month part of the date, which is handy, for example, in cross-tab reports where you want to show the date in the rows and the year in the columns to compare sales by month and year. Reports you created prior to version 4.1 using "Month" are automatically changed to use "Month/Year" so they work as they did before.
• When you install a new version of Stonefield Query over an existing one, if there are any new or modified sample reports, a dialog appears telling you that and allowing you to select which of those to import. You can also choose the Check New or Updated Sample Reports function in the Tools menu.
• You can now configure how much memory Stonefield Query reserves for itself at startup. This is especially useful in Windows Terminal Server environments where multiple users run Stonefield Query on the same server at the same time.

Charts

• Multi-page charts are now supported. In the new Size/Paging page of the Chart Wizard, turn on Paging and set the number of points you want on each page.
• Linking, such as drilldowns, from charts is now supported. The Properties dialog for the Category (X-axis) field has a Link page that works the same as other report types. This allows you, for example, to display a chart showing sales by salesperson and click a certain salesperson to drill down to a report showing individual sales for that salesperson. Linking even works in charts displayed in a dashboard. To support this feature, a different preview window is used for charts. It has the same features as the preview window used for other report types but cannot used tabbed pages showing other report types, only other charts.
• Charts now use the Segoe UI font for text in Windows Vista or later because it looks better, especially when rotated.

Cross-Tab Reports

• Cross-tab reports now support displaying the amount and/or percentage change between columns. The Display page of the Properties dialog for a data field has new "Show difference from previous column" and "Show percentage change" options. You can turn on one or both of these.
• You can now specify whether cross-tab reports include row and column totals using new options in Step 5.
• The Select only top option in a cross-tab report now applies to the totals for the first row field rather than the row field itself. For example, setting "Select only top" to 10 now displays the top 10 values rather than the top 10 alphabetically.

Other Features

• Stonefield Query now works with Sage Pro 2011.
• The new Sales Order Commission Header Current + History table combines current and history sales order commission records.
• Many date fields are now available as "YM" (year and month) versions. For example, the Check Date YM field in the Accounts Payable Master File displays the year and month of the check date. In addition, numerous other calculated fields and more relationships between tables were generously provided by Philip Borkholder of Automation Plus Inc.
• The new Always Union Current and History Tables Before Join option in the Options dialog allows you to decide when multiple "current + history" tables are used in a report whether it should do individual queries on the separate tables (which is slower) or queries with set of current tables and the set of history tables (which is faster but may not have matches).
• The IC Items and Item at Location tables now also appear in the Order Entry module.
• Emailing now supports SSL/TSL for SMTP, which means you can now email using Gmail or Hotmail accounts or other SMTP servers that require SSL/TSL. Also, emailing using MAPI with Microsoft Outlook as your email program no longer displays the dreaded Outlook security dialog.
• Certain characters that weren't allowed in the name of a report, such as a period, comma, question mark, slash, and so on, are now allowed. The only character you can't use is a backslash ("\").
• Certain characters that weren't supported in the body or subject of an email, such as "&" or ">", are now allowed.
• You no longer have to contact us if you have to activate the program on a different computer than it was originally activated on. Online activation will automatically activate this computer and deactivate the license on the other one.
• There's better support for adding images stored in your database to reports.
• Output to text, comma-separated (CSV), table, and XML files is now faster.
• Exclusion conditions now work faster than before.
• The Preview window now remembers the setting of the zoom option. If you run a report and change the zoom to 200%, the next time you preview a report, it'll be at 200%.
• The Ask At Runtime filter and report progress dialogs now always appear on top of any other windows so they can't get lost behind something else if you click on a different window.
• The Setup dialog has a new page (page 2) for contact information.
• The activation process is now simpler. Clicking the Click here to activate the program now link in the Welcome dialog (displayed when you're running an unactivated version) now displays the License Manager dialog where you can add as many licenses as you need rather than bringing up a Registration dialog that only allows one license to be activated.
• New templates are automatically imported when you run Stonefield Query.
• The OnSelect script for a report can now access the report using the Report object. This is useful if, for example, you want to change the default filter for a report when it's selected.
• You can now use the built-in RunSQL function in formulas.
• It's easier to work with the Dynamics tab in the properties dialog for Pictures and Rectangles in the Advanced Report Designer. You no longer have to enter values in 960th's of a inch; instead, you can enter value in inches or centimeters, depending on how your system is configured.
• File dialogs, such as those displayed when you output to file or export a report, now support Windows Vista and later features, such as search and recent places.
• The ask-at-runtime filter dialog now appears on top of the report progress window so it doesn't get hidden behind other windows.
• The new GetValueForParameter function is like the existing GetValueForField but allows you to specify the caption, data type, and size of the parameter being requested from the user.
• You can now filter on the Source Database field. This allows a report to drill down based on a data source. For example, suppose you have a cross-tab report that retrieves data from multiple data sources and it has Source Database as the column field. Clicking a specific data source should drilldown and run a detail report for that data source only, so the linked report has a filter on Source Database.
• The progress dialog that appears when running a report that retrieves data from multiple databases now shows the name of the database the data is currently being retrieved from and the number of records retrieved.

Stonefield Query for GoldMine 4.1

We are pleased to announce the immediate release of Stonefield Query for GoldMine version 4.1. There are lots of new and improved features in version 4.1.

New Features

• You can now define dashboards using the new Dashboard Wizard. A dashboard is a set of chart reports that displays on your desktop in its own window. These charts automatically refresh at an interval you specify so you can always see the most current data.
• Stonefield Query now supports Windows 7:
  • When you run a report, the taskbar button shows a moving green bar indicating something is happening.
  • You can now right-click a report and choose Pin to Taskbar to pin it to the taskbar; choosing that item in the taskbar launches Stonefield Query and previews that report (this obviously works best when Stonefield Query itself is pinned to the taskbar).
  • Stonefield Query report files, which have an SFX extension, now display a nice report icon in Windows Explorer. Double-clicking an SFX file launches Stonefield Query and previews that report.
• You can now create a desktop shortcut for a report. Right-click any report in the Reports Explorer and choose Create Desktop Shortcut. This will create a shortcut on your desktop with the same name as the report. Double-clicking this shortcut previews the report without opening Stonefield Query, which is handy if you just want to run one report without having to find it in the Reports Explorer.
• Usage statistics are now maintained for reports, and the new Usage Reporting function in the Tools menu allows you to report on these statistics. This allows you to determine which reports are actually being used, how often, and by whom.
• A new type of display for date fields is now available in the Field Properties dialog: "Month/Year". This displays the month and year part of the date, which the "Month" option formerly did. "Month" now outputs only the month part of the date, which is handy, for example, in cross-tab reports where you want to show the date in the rows and the year in the columns to compare sales by month and year. Reports you created prior to version 4.1 using "Month" are automatically changed to use "Month/Year" so they work as they did before.
• You can now configure how much memory Stonefield Query reserves for itself at startup. This is especially useful in Windows Terminal Server environments where multiple users run Stonefield Query on the same server at the same time.
• The new built-in GoMonthDay function makes calculating dynamic dates, such as the first day of the previous month, much easier.

Charts

• Multi-page charts are now supported. In the new Size/Paging page of the Chart Wizard, turn on Paging and set the number of points you want on each page.
• Linking, such as drilldowns, from charts is now supported. The Properties dialog for the Category (X-axis) field has a Link page that works the same as other report types. This allows you, for example, to display a chart showing sales by salesperson and click a certain salesperson to drill down to a report showing individual sales for that salesperson. Linking even works in charts displayed in a dashboard. To support this feature, a different preview window is used for charts. It has the same features as the preview window used for other report types but cannot used tabbed pages showing other report types, only other charts.
• Charts now use the Segoe UI font for text in Windows Vista or later because it looks better, especially when rotated.

Cross-Tab Reports

• Cross-tab reports now support displaying the amount and/or percentage change between columns. The Display page of the Properties dialog for a data field has new "Show difference from previous column" and "Show percentage change" options. You can turn on one or both of these.
• You can now specify whether cross-tab reports include row and column totals using new options in Step 5.
• The Select only top option in a cross-tab report now applies to the totals for the first row field rather than the row field itself. For example, setting "Select only top" to 10 now displays the top 10 values rather than the top 10 alphabetically.

Other Features

• Emailing now supports SSL/TSL for SMTP, which means you can now email using Gmail or Hotmail accounts or other SMTP servers that require SSL/TSL. Also, emailing using MAPI with Microsoft Outlook as your email program no longer displays the dreaded Outlook security dialog.
• Certain characters that weren't allowed in the name of a report, such as a period, comma, question mark, slash, and so on, are now allowed. The only character you can't use is a backslash ("\").
• Certain characters that weren't supported in the body or subject of an email, such as "&" or ">", are now allowed.
• You no longer have to contact us if you have to activate the program on a different computer than it was originally activated on. Online activation will automatically activate this computer and deactivate the license on the other one.
• Output to text, comma-separated (CSV), table, and XML files is now faster.
• Exclusion conditions now work faster than before.
• The Preview window now remembers the setting of the zoom option. If you run a report and change the zoom to 200%, the next time you preview a report, it'll be at 200%.
• The Ask At Runtime filter and report progress dialogs now always appear on top of any other windows so they can't get lost behind something else if you click on a different window.
• The Setup dialog has a new page (page 2) for contact information.
• The activation process is now simpler. Clicking the Click here to activate the program now link in the Welcome dialog (displayed when you're running an unactivated version) now displays the License Manager dialog where you can add as many licenses as you need rather than bringing up a Registration dialog that only allows one license to be activated.
• New templates are automatically imported when you run Stonefield Query.
• The OnSelect script for a report can now access the report using the Report object. This is useful if, for example, you want to change the default filter for a report when it's selected.
• You can now use the built-in RunSQL function in formulas.
• It's easier to work with the Dynamics tab in the properties dialog for Pictures and Rectangles in the Advanced Report Designer. You no longer have to enter values in 960th's of a inch; instead, you can enter value in inches or centimeters, depending on how your system is configured.
• File dialogs, such as those displayed when you output to file or export a report, now support Windows Vista and later features, such as search and recent places.
• The ask-at-runtime filter dialog now appears on top of the report progress window so it doesn't get hidden behind other windows.
• The new GetValueForParameter function is like the existing GetValueForField but allows you to specify the caption, data type, and size of the parameter being requested from the user.
• You can now filter on the Source Database field. This allows a report to drill down based on a data source. For example, suppose you have a cross-tab report that retrieves data from multiple data sources and it has Source Database as the column field. Clicking a specific data source should drilldown and run a detail report for that data source only, so the linked report has a filter on Source Database.
• The progress dialog that appears when running a report that retrieves data from multiple databases now shows the name of the database the data is currently being retrieved from and the number of records retrieved.
• Stonefield Query is now smarter about locating the GoldMine database information for GoldMine versions 7.0 and later, when installed on Windows Vista or later.
• In the case where Query has no GoldMine databases available for reporting, it now gives an informative message about this, with instructions for resolving the problem.

Stonefield Query for ACT! 4.1

We are pleased to announce the immediate release of Stonefield Query for ACT! version 4.1. There are lots of new and improved features in version 4.1.

New Features

• You can now define dashboards using the new Dashboard Wizard. A dashboard is a set of chart reports that displays on your desktop in its own window. These charts automatically refresh at an interval you specify so you can always see the most current data.
• Stonefield Query now supports Windows 7:
  • When you run a report, the taskbar button shows a moving green bar indicating something is happening.
  • You can now right-click a report and choose Pin to Taskbar to pin it to the taskbar; choosing that item in the taskbar launches Stonefield Query and previews that report (this obviously works best when Stonefield Query itself is pinned to the taskbar).
  • Stonefield Query report files, which have an SFX extension, now display a nice report icon in Windows Explorer. Double-clicking an SFX file launches Stonefield Query and previews that report.
• You can now create a desktop shortcut for a report. Right-click any report in the Reports Explorer and choose Create Desktop Shortcut. This will create a shortcut on your desktop with the same name as the report. Double-clicking this shortcut previews the report without opening Stonefield Query, which is handy if you just want to run one report without having to find it in the Reports Explorer.
• Usage statistics are now maintained for reports, and the new Usage Reporting function in the Tools menu allows you to report on these statistics. This allows you to determine which reports are actually being used, how often, and by whom.
• A new type of display for date fields is now available in the Field Properties dialog: "Month/Year". This displays the month and year part of the date, which the "Month" option formerly did. "Month" now outputs only the month part of the date, which is handy, for example, in cross-tab reports where you want to show the date in the rows and the year in the columns to compare sales by month and year. Reports you created prior to version 4.1 using "Month" are automatically changed to use "Month/Year" so they work as they did before.
• You can now configure how much memory Stonefield Query reserves for itself at startup. This is especially useful in Windows Terminal Server environments where multiple users run Stonefield Query on the same server at the same time.
• The new built-in GoMonthDay function makes calculating dynamic dates, such as the first day of the previous month, much easier.

Charts

• Multi-page charts are now supported. In the new Size/Paging page of the Chart Wizard, turn on Paging and set the number of points you want on each page.
• Linking, such as drilldowns, from charts is now supported. The Properties dialog for the Category (X-axis) field has a Link page that works the same as other report types. This allows you, for example, to display a chart showing sales by salesperson and click a certain salesperson to drill down to a report showing individual sales for that salesperson. Linking even works in charts displayed in a dashboard. To support this feature, a different preview window is used for charts. It has the same features as the preview window used for other report types but cannot used tabbed pages showing other report types, only other charts.
• Charts now use the Segoe UI font for text in Windows Vista or later because it looks better, especially when rotated.

Cross-Tab Reports

• Cross-tab reports now support displaying the amount and/or percentage change between columns. The Display page of the Properties dialog for a data field has new "Show difference from previous column" and "Show percentage change" options. You can turn on one or both of these.
• You can now specify whether cross-tab reports include row and column totals using new options in Step 5.
• The Select only top option in a cross-tab report now applies to the totals for the first row field rather than the row field itself. For example, setting "Select only top" to 10 now displays the top 10 values rather than the top 10 alphabetically.

Other Features

• Emailing now supports SSL/TSL for SMTP, which means you can now email using Gmail or Hotmail accounts or other SMTP servers that require SSL/TSL. Also, emailing using MAPI with Microsoft Outlook as your email program no longer displays the dreaded Outlook security dialog.
• Certain characters that weren't allowed in the name of a report, such as a period, comma, question mark, slash, and so on, are now allowed. The only character you can't use is a backslash ("\").
• Certain characters that weren't supported in the body or subject of an email, such as "&" or ">", are now allowed.
• You no longer have to contact us if you have to activate the program on a different computer than it was originally activated on. Online activation will automatically activate this computer and deactivate the license on the other one.
• Output to text, comma-separated (CSV), table, and XML files is now faster.
• Exclusion conditions now work faster than before.
• The Preview window now remembers the setting of the zoom option. If you run a report and change the zoom to 200%, the next time you preview a report, it'll be at 200%.
• The Ask At Runtime filter and report progress dialogs now always appear on top of any other windows so they can't get lost behind something else if you click on a different window.
• The Setup dialog has a new page (page 2) for contact information.
• The activation process is now simpler. Clicking the Click here to activate the program now link in the Welcome dialog (displayed when you're running an unactivated version) now displays the License Manager dialog where you can add as many licenses as you need rather than bringing up a Registration dialog that only allows one license to be activated.
• New templates are automatically imported when you run Stonefield Query.
• The OnSelect script for a report can now access the report using the Report object. This is useful if, for example, you want to change the default filter for a report when it's selected.
• You can now use the built-in RunSQL function in formulas.
• It's easier to work with the Dynamics tab in the properties dialog for Pictures and Rectangles in the Advanced Report Designer. You no longer have to enter values in 960th's of a inch; instead, you can enter value in inches or centimeters, depending on how your system is configured.
• File dialogs, such as those displayed when you output to file or export a report, now support Windows Vista and later features, such as search and recent places.
• The ask-at-runtime filter dialog now appears on top of the report progress window so it doesn't get hidden behind other windows.
• The new GetValueForParameter function is like the existing GetValueForField but allows you to specify the caption, data type, and size of the parameter being requested from the user.
• The "Add Report to ACT! Menu" screen now includes an option to output to the Stonefield Query preview window.