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Version 6.9001: Released November 21, 2015
Key Features
Visual CUT 11 can now delegate exporting/bursting to DataLink Viewer 2011 in order
to support Crystal 2008/2011/2013 features: a) mixed portrait & landscape sections,
b) Dissociate Formatting Page Size and Printer Paper Size, c) Auto-Arrange option for chart
layouts, d) 'New Page After N Visible Groups', e) Calculated CrossTab members, and
f) embedded Flash objects. See 'Delegating Exporting/Bursting to DataLink Viewer 2011' and
this
demo image
.
Added XLS_Range_Insert_File command line argument to insert Excel (Data Only) exports
into pre-formatted excel templates. This allows inserting larger data sets (compared to
XLS_Range_Insert, which uses values in Crystal formulas). It also supports appending data
and cloning template formulas, conditional formats, and sparklines. See 'Inserting File
Exports into Excel Templates.' See
demo image.
Added After_Success_HTTP command line argument. This allows triggering calls to web
services such as sending SMS to mobile phones. See 'Call a Web Service after Success
(After_Success_HTTP)' and 'Sending SMS Messages'.
XLS_Save_As can now convert pivot table to HTML . This allows embedding Pivot
Tables (generated via XLS_Pivot_Table) inside auto-refreshing web dashboards and
inside email message bodies. See 'Embedding Pivot Tables in Email Message Body' and
this
demo image
.
Parameter fields are now listed in the fields/formulas area for dragging into processing
options. For example, if the first parameter in the main report is called {?Year} it would be
listed as
{?01?Year}
. The 01 indicates the position of the parameter in the list of
parameters. This avoids the need to create formulas for referencing parameter values in
processing options. It also makes it easy to know what parameter is referenced by
command line arguments such as "Parm1:…"
See
demo image
.
Added PDF_Export_Options command line argument and a global option to use MS Word
as the pdf export engine to overcome font problems and support PDF/A output. The global
behavior is set via the Options dialog:
An ellipsis button to the right of the PDF export format choice launches a PDF Export
Options window (see image) allowing you to see the global setting, and generate a command
line argument to override it for a specific report. See 'Export to PDF via MS WORD.'
Visual CUT now checks email addresses for valid structure before interactive start of
processing. The validation process takes into account the dynamic values that would be
populated into email addresses during actual processing and bursting (field/formula
references, file references to text distribution lists, ODBC queries for email distribution lists).
Detected problems are presented to the user with an option to continue or abort processing.
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This is particularly useful when bursting emails to many recipients because it allows users to
catch problems before the process runs. The Options dialog (Email 2 tab) provides a checkbox
allowing users to turn off this option.
Added Before_Report_Run_SQL command line argument to update a database before
Visual CUT runs the report (but just after any Email Capture processes).
Added options to set date parameters to the first Day of Week before/after a date
constant. For example, the first Monday of the previous month. See 'Adjusting Data
Constants for Day of Week.'
Added Word_Print_WaterMark command line argument, allowing printing of exported Word
files with dynamic watermarks for each printed copy (e.g. "Copy 1 of 4"). See sample image.
If the report uses an ODBC DSN (including cases where that DSN was specified via a
command line argument or via the DSN choice user interface), an {[ODBC_DSN:]} object is
added to the fields/formulas area for dragging into processing options. This allows emails and
other processing options to reflect the actual data source name used by the report. See image.
The Search & Replace dialog for report paths is now expanded to allow targeting of five other
categories of saved settings. See 'Changing Login, Report Paths & Other Settings without
Previewing' and this image. This is useful when you need to globally change saved settings
for emails, export files, attachments, arguments, or parameters. You may block some or
all of these categories (see 'Disabling Find & Replace Categories').
Temp files
(~*.tmp, *}.rpt)
older than 7 days are now deleted upon exiting Visual CUT.
Added TXT_Split_Tags command line argument allowing fast splitting of a single text file
into multiple files based on tags embedded within the text file.
Excel Features
Added XLS_Refresh command line argument to refresh external data used by Excel queries
and pivot tables.
Added XLS_Split_Tabs command line argument to generate a separate PDF or Excel file
from each excel tab.
When using XLS_AutoFilter to freeze panes in a location deep into an excel worksheet, top
rows and left columns no longer become hidden.
You can now specify the excel file for XLS_AutoFilter processing (in the past, only the
exported file could be targeted for auto-filter and/or freeze panes options).
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XLS_Save_As can now save to CSV format. This is useful for reports that contain
subreport because such scenarios don't export well directly to CSV.
XLS_Pivot_Table operations now handle cases where wrong number of arguments were
provided as a failure rather than as a warning. This ensures the user is aware of the problem.
Visual CUT can now handle multiple XLS_Pivot_Table arguments. This means that a
single excel data export can automatically generate multiple pivot tables.
PDF Features
Tag formulas for PDF_Bookmark_Tags now support an optional argument to control the
vertical margin above the location of the tag used as the bookmark page location target.
This allows you to override the default of 20 millimeters vertical margin.
Added PDF_Flatten command line argument. This allows flattening all form fields and
annotations in a list (wild cards are supported) of pdf files.
PDF_Link_Tags can now handle any type of link such as 'https://' and 'Tel:' links.
Email Features
When an email failure occurs, a 1-sentence diagnostic is now added to a) the progress
window, b) email log, and c) email failure alert. For example, "Unable to establish a TCP
or TLS connection to the SMTP server." This facilitates troubleshooting by avoiding the need
to review the verbose email log.
Email queuing is now faster and avoids creating/renaming/moving a temp .eml file.
Preview mode in email message HTML editor now displays dynamically referenced
images.
Added a user manual section on "Embedding Report as Image in Email Message Body".
See image.
Fixed image file embedding inside an email message when the path contains spaces.
Added group number to the end of .eml file names.
The Email_Failure_Notices_From option can now be set through the Log/Alert tab of the
Options dialog. This is useful when the target address is not allowed as a sending address.
When VC_Skip_Email is used, the test for missing attachments is now also skipped.
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Added a Disable_Email_Statusbar_GUI option (for Master_DataLink_Viewer.ini) to hide
the email queue panels in the status bar.
Added a Disable_Email_Log_Activity_GUI option (for Master_DataLink_Viewer.ini) to
disable the 'Log Email Activity' checkbox and hide the Notepad button to open the log file.
Other Features
Auto-conversion from mapped to UNC path now also applies when the user select multiple
reports loading into the report grid and when copying .rpt file/settings.
When saving command lines to a batch file via the scheduling string dialog, Visual CUT now
auto-detects cases where a conversion is needed to the local character set. This is needed
because, for example, a European PC using code page 480 encodes ü differently than an
American PC using code page 437.
Also, for cases where you need to force the use of a specific code page (consultant working
for a foreign customer), added a Batch_File_Save_CharSet option to DataLink_Viewer.ini.
Note: this makes a difference only when a command line contain special characters.
When the Visual CUT database is redirected via a connection string, the Version Info window
now reflects that info. For example: VC Database via Connection String
[Server=Serv1\sql2].
A new Encrypted_Password_Set_Entry command line argument allows administrators to
automate the saving of Encrypted Passwords to targeted ini files. For detail, see 'Setting
Encrypted Password Entries.'
Fixes
Fixed handling of application load failure scenario that could cause a hanging process.
Fixed FTP_Upload issue caused by trying to create target folders when they already exist.
Fixed interactive use scenario when a parameter is removed from a previously saved report.
Added skip logic for folder testing when Printer (Specified) export uses a printer name that
starts with '\' character.
Fixed a bug in After_Success_Batch processing with Burst option. Also, added a description
to the user manual of how After_Success_Batch can be used to log processing to a text file.
Fixed a problem caused by exporting and then navigating to Preview tab and back again.
Fixed [VC_NULL] handling for subreport parameters.
Fixed duplicate processing of some command line arguments in cases where multiple export
file names are specified (for example, "c:\temp\Sales.xlsx;c:\temp\Sales.pdf").
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Version 6.8001: Released November 16, 2014
Web Dashboard and FTP/SFTP Features
When exporting to HTML 40, the options button launches a Web Dashboard Expert
window allowing you to set various options such as a) adding an auto-refresh behavior, b)
Setting hyperlinks to launch to new tabs, c) Specifying tab titles and icons, d) Removing
GUIDs from referenced.png image files, and e) SFTP Uploading HTML and Other files to the
web server. For detail, see Web Dashboard Expert
A web dashboard using that approach is available at:
http://academicweb.psu-erie.bd.psu.edu/laboccupancy/Labuse.html
FTP_Upload connection failure messages now include more detail.
FTP_Upload and SFTP_Upload can now handle file names containing commas.
FTP_Upload and SFTP_Upload now create missing target folder levels if the target directory
doesn’t exist on the server.
Added FTP_Download command line argument.
Relaxed timeout limits for SFTP_Upload in order to handle slow or very busy servers.
PDF Features
Added a PDF_Insert_Pages_Tags command line argument allowing Crystal formulas acting
as invisible tags to specify image files for insertion as pages following the location of the tag.
This is useful in cases where related scans or other images need to be inserted in the middle of
PDF exports. For detail, see: Importing Image Files as New Pages (Tag Approach).
PDF_Form argument can now use Crystal formula values to fill not only AcroForm fields
but also Adobe LiveCycle forms fields.
PDF_Save_As can now save also to EMF+, HTML5, and G4 TIFF formats.
The ini entries used to control the layout of the Table of Contents generated using PDF_TOC
can now refer to report field/formulas. This allows, for example, a different image to be used
for the header depending on data in the report.
When embedding files inside PDF files using PDF_Link_Tags2, you can now ignore (skip)
missing files by using a lower case "embed" argument in the tag formula.
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Added an optional Owner_Password optional argument for PDF_Merge. This is useful in
cases where one or more of the source files is password protected. All the encryption settings
(owner and user passwords, and protection settings) of the last protected file in the list of
source files would be applied to the resulting merged document. This allows Visual CUT to
add new information to existing but protected pdf files.
Updated PDF_Linearize logic.
Added PDF_Print_Mode command line argument to set printing quality/speed.
Excel Features
Special Excel Tab processing (Tab!, TabInOldFile!, TabInOldFile_Replace!, and
TabInNewFile!) can now be used for any of the export files when specifying multiple
export files (separated by semi-colon).
Fixed XLS_Pivot_Table compatibility issue with Excel 2013.
XLS_Pivot_Table now accepts an optional Range Name argument.
XLS_Pivot_Table now supports an additional Options argument. This optional argument
may support multiple directives in the future but is currently limited to
Report_Layout=Compact, Report_Layout=Outline, or Report_Layout=Tabular. Tabular
uses field names instead of generic ‘
Row Labels
’
and
‘Column L
abels
.’
XLS_Pivot_Table can now target an existing worksheet and cell for the PivotTable
insertion.
XLS_Run_Macro now avoids saving the source workbook after the process runs if the
Target Workbook argument is left blank.
XLS_Range_Insert can now insert Crystal formula values into hidden Excel tabs.
Added XLS_Replace command line argument. The user manual explains how this can be
used to export formula expressions and activate them in the exported workbook.
Email Features
Added an option (Email 2 tab in Options dialog) to check email addresses and trigger a
detailed failure message when malformed addresses are detected.
Fixed a problem caused by thousands of eml files found in the Outgoing or Undeliverable
folders and a scheduled process that completes very quickly. This might cause a "hanging"
Visual CUT process.
Documents you may be interested
Documents you may be interested
