FF! 8+ Development Notes

Build 361 is no longer available. Download build 362 instead: http://www.foxfirereporting.com/livedesign/ff80362.zip

The major changes are in the Output tab. Foxfire! now has built-in support for Word and RTF output and more improved Excel options. Try it out and give me your views on the new layout options interface. We'll be publicizing more of the features in the next few posts.

Here's what's changed:

Modified Output screen to show newer options better.

Note: When you choose a format of Data File - Excel but then specify you want a Formatted request, it displays a message with some details about what will be changed and then changes the request to an Excel Spreadsheet with Formatted output.

Created separate output UIs for Text files, Data and XML to more accurately show the options available

Added support for new Excel Charting functions. Users can now specify if a legend should or should not appear; extra category titles and other plotting options.

Updated layout to show Form layouts better. When you switch to a Report-Form layout, it actually re-formats the preview area to show the fields in "form" layout mode.

Updated Previewer so that if you are using the Master/Detail layout, you can actually see what it will look like. Master/detail reports by page actually reverse the Groups and Page Headers so the Group details appear before the Column Headings.

Both Master/Detail reports only ever show ONE group summary as well. This is now properly depicted in the preview.

This is being released primarily for the Southwest Conference demo so we can see the functionality of the new output layouts.

Note that the zip file includes several BMPS so be sure to unzip it with Folders intact.

VFP 9 support for templates. When you modify a layout using VFP 9, it will show the Data Item names instead of the expressions. (this requires the full rebuild)
Added LastRun and LastRuntime to oRequest in object model
Added Last Run times and stats to General page
Fixed Drag and Drop of multiple items from Workbench onto preview area
Fixed problem when selecting new data group from list and getting invalid array dimension
Made Roll-up and docking behavior more consistent.
If you close the Workbench by clicking the "X", it automatically rolls up with workbench on the preview area.
If you have rolled up the workbench in the Preview area AND undock it, the undocked work bench will roll-down.
If you subsequently re-dock it, it will still appear rolled up.
Rolling up the work bench only applies to the current session. When you re-open the request, it will be rolled down.
Made the tabs more consistent.
Whenever you click on a tab (even the active page), it will automatically expand so you can see the content.
Updates to the Expression Builder to work properly with date functions and clear up expressions.
Fixed problem in aarCombo where the controlsource was not being updated properly.
Ensured that Filter Data Item combo refills when new data items are added
Automatically switching to Preview when moving from a file output (graph, excel, etc) back to a report.
Fixed Resize of the Chart output option
Nightly build with fixes for filters and layout resizing